Playing with Fire - Invading K451

Kingdom 96 had become my new home. I made a peace agreement with the alliance that controls that territory so I could bring my farms, recover my troops, and rest for as long as I needed. Until then, everything had been calm. It was a peaceful and silent place, perhaps too silent. And for a hunter, moments of calm are not always a good thing, but sometimes it is really needed.

After a few days, I was already starting to feel uncomfortable, as if something was missing. I kept checking the merit ranking, convincing myself that I was in a safe position and had plenty of time, but deep down I knew it was an illusion. My name was in second place, and I had become the prince #1, but right below me were two hunters earning millions of merit at a dangerous pace: Ur Candy and Ganicus. And all they needed was for me to slow down so they could overtake me. And then… I decided that it was time to stop being peaceful.

I thought I was safe. I was slowly building my troops and increasing my power, and for the first time in a long time, I considered doing nothing, only the daily tasks to help my alliance. At 1.5B power, I need to be careful if I want to invade a different kingdom. It's not a secret that I am not a super-strong player, so dropping my bubble with 16 million troops can be a little bit dangerous, right?

But yeah… besides having to rush to not lose my first position and this fancy #1 badge, I found a very interesting target.

A castle from the FuL alliance was without a bubble in Kingdom 451; he was with a good number of troops inside his castle, good enough to be worth the scroll spent. It was the perfect chance to make millions of merit without suffering heavy losses.

When I checked the kingdom and saw that it would cost me only one scroll to get there, I was surprised. But what makes this target so interesting? Huh?

Lilya F, who is currently one of the highest-ranked hunters in the game, was only a few meters away from my target. Over the last few months, Lilya climbed onto the first page of the individual merit ranking at an impressive speed, becoming a major threat to me and even surpassing me several times.

Of course, I took that as a personal challenge, and when I saw that she was in the kingdom, I became even more motivated to go there. But there was a problem... a problem that made that invasion extremely dangerous: Lilya F is a hunter specialized in spear troops, the exact weakness of my cavalry.

That invasion was going to end in one of two ways: either I would steal her target, or I would become her prey. I needed a bit of luck, because if she somehow found me, my millions of troops would turn to dust.

Was it really worth taking all that risk? Of course not. But turning a simple invasion into a major challenge filled with tension was something I enjoyed. So after getting everything organized, I invaded the kingdom and launched the first attack.

The first attack was like an earthquake. My men destroyed everything in their path. Atos defense had no synergy at all, only a weak bow formation and troops trying to do the impossible, which was holding the wall against the fury of my cavalry. My army broke through that wall as if it were cutting through a sheet of paper, and for a few seconds, I felt a sense of absolute control. Everything was working as planned and completely under control. I quickly healed the few troops in my hospital and launched another massive attack.

Before attacking again, I analyzed the map and tried to find any sign of danger coming from Lilya. But everything seemed to be normal. Even knowing that someone had relocated earlier, I saw nothing that could bring me any danger. I felt safe, and that was what convinced me to continue with the attacks.

The second attack on Atos was also devastating, eliminating his remaining troops and taking his lord as a prisoner. There was no resistance at all, only his troops being crushed without any chance of survival. Atos lost 8 million troops in just two attacks, giving me more than 15 million merit while losing almost no troops.

The two attacks were quick. My target showed no resistance, but the real danger was still lurking in the kingdom. For fifteen minutes, I changed my location relentlessly. My hands were shaking, knowing that I could be found and attacked at any moment.

I had increased the power of my account specifically to earn the Top 1 Prince badge, and I didn't want to lose it so soon, but I knew that sooner or later, I was going to get myself into trouble.

For fifteen minutes, I jumped to a new location and then checked whether Lilya was in the same place. And she was there, standing still, maybe looking for me or maybe ignoring me. But one thing is certain: I was scared.

Fifteen minutes passed, and I finally managed to activate my bubble. It seemed that this time, the Seven Gods were on my side. As soon as I opened the merit ranking, I realized that my lead over her was enormous, practically unreachable. A hunter who had managed to surpass me on a few occasions was no longer a threat to me, because our pace of hunting was completely different.

This was one of the rare times that I invaded with my castle packed full of troops, and I have to admit, it feels very different. It's a bad feeling mixed with adrenaline.

And I need to be prepared, because today I got out of there untouched, but in one of my next invasions, I'm going to get wiped off the map. It's only a matter of time.