Is this really a Game?!

Reign had to admit that the little talk he had with Lios did make him feel a bit better. He didn’t mind acting as bait in this kind of a situation as he had hidden a good part of his strength during the banquet, of course, the enemy would probably already have expected that but they had no idea just how much power he hid. Reign was confident of taking down a couple of top combatants from the coalition by himself. Even if there were multiple of them similar in power to Lico, he was still certain that he could escape them after going all out.

Being told by Lios about what exactly the kingdom was planning to do made him feel a bit better about the whole thing, however. Being used by someone and being told that they planned on making him bait were two completely different things, Reign didn’t know if they had planned on doing this from the start or if this was something that Lios did by himself without talking with the king, the first possibility was a bit higher, however.

Reign made his way up to the top of the castle where 4 people were currently discussing what they would do against the attackers who were a couple of hours away from arriving at the fortifications. Just to get to the wall would take the army some time since they had fortified not only the walls of the gorge but the ground as well. Multiple spiked walls could be seen outside the gigantic wall that blocked the way, the tough gate in the center of the wall was made from steel and it was about 3 meters thick, simply opening the gate took a long time, and destroying it was harder than destroying the wall.

The ground in front of the wall was also filled with many magic traps and arrays, the attacking army would have to either try to find and destroy the traps or somehow defuse them since they would lose most of their numbers by simply marching through the field.

Three people sat in the top office while one was currently standing looking over the map that was shown on the giant stone table in the middle of the office. The map was similar to the one that Eldar had once shown to Reign and the others, it looked like a hologram that was showing the real-time situation at the fortification and the surrounding area. The attacking army wasn’t shown there as they were still too far away to get into contact with the observation array that was installed in the fortification and was responsible for showing all the data on the map.

Of course, there were a couple of ways one could block the observation so no kingdom trusted it wholeheartedly and they always had a couple of scouts that would follow the attacking army just in case something was wrong. Only a couple of kingdoms and empires on the planet had incredibly powerful observation arrays from which nothing could be hidden.

“I hear the otherworlder has arrived.” One of the three people suddenly speaks out, he was a man that looked like he was in his early forties, his face had a couple of scars on it, he had a thick, bushy beard that was about 6cm long while the top his head was devoid of any hair.

He was the commander of the fortification army and he was responsible for all of the troops, generally, the commander would also be in charge of everything else in the fortification but he had actually given that power to someone else since he was only good when it came to fighting.

“Yes, he should be here any minute, I heard he made a big splash a couple of days ago during the welcoming banquet, they say his strength is comparable to sir Lico.” Another man says. He was wearing a dark robe and his face was almost fully covered by a cloth that was wrapped around his head, only his two sharp green eyes were visible. He was called Ilas and he was in charge of the spy network in this area of the kingdom, he was a direct subordinate of Lios and naturally knew how powerful Reign was since he had been informed about everything that happened 2 days ago.

“If that is true then he will be of great help, of course, it could be something that his majesty and the others simply claimed in order to boost the morale of everyone.” The third person says. Long black hair that came down to her back, a pair of beautiful purple eyes that shone splendidly, and a beautiful face, she was a beautiful woman and it was hard to imagine that she was a part of the army. Of course, for all that knew her it was a given, the brutality this woman would show during battle was incredibly high. Blood, guts, brain matter, she would be completely covered in all of that after a battle since her great hammer would smash any enemy in front of her. Nicknamed “The Angel of Death”, she was one of the most powerful people in the kingdom and her power was only second to Lico and the other top combatants in the kingdom.

For the last couple of months these three had been in charge of different parts of the fortification, the commander, Dain, would command the troops during attacks, and Ilas would make sure that they knew everything that was happening in the kingdom and the coalition and would usually have information about any army that was approaching them while Lieara was responsible for charging out with the elite troops of the fortification in order to lay waste to their enemies.

“Let us wait and find out then.” The final person spoke, he was a young man that looked like he was in his early twenties. He had long silver hair and a baby face, not even one ounce of authority could be felt from him, his thin and sickly-looking body seemed like it would get blown away by a strong wind and amongst the whole kingdom barely anybody knew of him.

He was actually the nephew of the king, the oldest son of Lios, and the person that was considered to be the black sheep of the family until the war started, the “Shadowless” Raigon. Not only did he manage to create a completely separate squad of high-level assassins and spies, but he was also able to spread his forces through the whole area, and in all of the kingdoms that were present, half of the information that the kingdom received was actually not from Lios’s men, but from his.

He was born frail and sick, even his sensitivity to mana and how to control it was below average, thanks to that he could never follow after the other noble kids and was always alone. What he did have however was an exceptional brain. His intelligence is considered to be the highest in the kingdom and many considered him to be the smartest person in Riplas.

Of course that all was revealed when the war started, not only was he suddenly sent to this fortification, but it was during the time when it was under attack by a huge army that had more than 100 000 soldiers. Upon arriving everybody thought that the king and Lios were going crazy, to let such a young man that was completely devoid of any achievements take control of the fortification was beyond being called stupid.

Of course, after learning about his personal forces and that he was the one that actually made most of the strategies that the kingdom had used during the initial attack of the coalition, everybody was stunned, if not for Ilas who confirmed the story for them they would have never believed it.

Upon taking control of the fortification Raigon immediately made some changes, the soldiers were given orders to fight in a completely different manner compared to before, multiple weapons and gadgets were created by the blacksmiths and craftsmen that stayed in the castle, and in a matter of days, the battle was won. The attacking army was thoroughly beaten and they had lost more than 50% of their troops while they had only lost a mere 20% even when they were outnumbered 6:1.

The whole kingdom was shocked to hear such news and quickly the name Raigon spread like wildfire to not only the kingdom but the whole area.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Footsteps could suddenly be heard from behind the large door of the office, since they were only expecting one person the four people in the office already knew who it was that was coming, there was, of course, the possibility that something had happened and that a soldier was coming to inform them, but the footsteps would have been much louder and faster in that case. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

The door slowly opens as Reign enters the office, the four looked at him as Raigon smiled brightly, “Welcome sir Reign, we were just talking about you.”