castle trap

They decided to arrive at K3 hours early. Vangark, Rhaena, and Fraant saw an opportunity to potentially face an opponent they could battle, but the latter two also planned to try to earn Sabrina’s medals in Lord of the Lords, which was set to begin in the middle of KvK. The three agreed to strike at both sides, but always ensuring that the kingdom they were representing would have the point advantage needed to secure the LV5 diamond mines. Their arrival was planned several days in advance. They already knew that LOL was about to begin in that kingdom, but the scout stationed there also provided valuable intelligence. No one would be stronger than Vangark, and the only potential threat fought with cavalry—something he could easily handle. If they set their minds to it, they could subdue the kingdom in that very war.

This time they didn’t join GeN, where they usually go; Vangark contacted THE WICH, and he let him join his kingdom’s alliance in K495. He feared they might already recognize him from the alliance, so he preferred to hide; he also hid his name, something he always does.

When the battle began and he saw the enemy, K75, it seemed to him that there were people he knew in those lands. He frowned; in the previous KvK, he’d already had to face off against alliance mates, and this time he didn’t want to go through the same thing, but the answer wasn’t long in coming. 

There was a group of hunters—three of them—and he was in direct contact with one. They had already crossed paths in other realms and had even shared targets with each other. Out of respect, he obviously wouldn’t attack them, and he hoped they wouldn’t attack him either. 

He recalled that on one occasion, at the tavern where they usually gathered and shared objectives, they had mentioned that this realm was populated by peaceful people and that their protective shields rarely dropped. I remember taking it bitterly; there was little chance of a fight if everything he’d heard was true. He told his companions so they wouldn’t have too many expectations, and perhaps they were in for a whole day of boredom.

In fact, absolutely nothing happened during the first hour; only the farmers from both sides began to move and started a massive harvest in the enemy kingdoms.

In K3, there wasn’t much to attack, so Fraant sent one of his vassals to capture King’s Landing as bait, to see if he could lure enemies, hoping they wouldn’t be the ones Vangark knew about, but he had to try anyway.

The bait worked, but not as they’d hoped; in K75, KL was also being captured. They immediately sent out a scout, though he knew it could be another minor vassal, and that they were only doing it to secure possession for more than twelve hours and thus retain the buffs. But he saw an army returning as the scout was heading to King’s Landing; it wasn’t very large, but everything seemed to indicate it was a Castle Trap. Judging by his attire, the lord was undoubtedly the real deal. Fraant told him he’d take him down, but he hesitated—if he did, his name would quickly appear on the elimination leaderboard, and both the enemy kingdom and K3 would know of his presence. Rhae said not right away, and Fraant dismissed the idea for the moment; he hadn’t had good experiences against archers. Vangark jumped to the other kingdom and positioned himself below the enemy. A castle like that was no problem; he had already faced larger ones, so he sent his army confidently, but at full speed.

He struck, shaking the enemy defenses. He glanced at the report out of the corner of his eye; he had lost more than he had thought, even losing some T5 troops, but his hospital wasn’t full. The report indicated that the enemy wasn’t alone—it was reinforced by two other dragons. He struck a second time, and this time the reinforcements emerged, revealing their location. After a third strike, Vangark went after one of them. He looked at the report and thought that later he would better assess whether striking as he had done was wise; confident in his strength, he had forgotten and overlooked some tactics of war. He himself had done the same, but with more dragons. If the enemy kingdom had thought to reinforce with about six more dragons, perhaps it would have secured the victory. He had experience in similar battles. But with that, he earned the points that would ultimately secure victory for the kingdom. Since there were no more opponents willing to fight afterward. Nor did those in his own kingdom risk going out to capture castles; they immediately saw they had an invader among them, so they took care to avoid attacks and focused solely on gathering resources.

Although he was quite displeased by that, he had to admit that thanks to those farmers, he had several hours of rest, since they kept racking up points for the kingdom. The ones who were completely bored, however, were his two friends, who only reinforced King’s Landing when he captured it. Rhaena managed to make it into the top three, and Fraant didn’t bother trying any harder; it was something that didn’t interest him.

Then, on Diamond Harvest Day, he did what he always does: he took over the entire northern part of the kingdom—Winterfell and Castle Black—for himself, driving away anyone who tried to go to those mines. Now he had to wait for LOL to end so he could go in search of a new kingdom and see if he’d have better luck in a future KvK.

https://youtu.be/y6ySl6pw938