Gentleman's Wars: The Rules of Engagement: A Tower Defense LitRPG Series (The Great Game Book 1)

by Andrew Karevik

  Chapter 9

  I quickly scanned the battlefield of the Burning Barrows, trying to figure out what I could do as the clock began to count down. I had only a short window to make changes, but what changes was I allowed to make?

  First, I noticed that the building and golem tabs came back. I could buy a new building, sell off buildings that weren’t working as well for half the price I purchased them, or even get new golems. There were two more waves coming up and I saw the next wave would have 20 enemies coming my way. I had to make a choice. Commit to my current strategy or tweak it.

  The Lady Efera had only sent a handful of troops, basic Stone Golems. Why? Was she expecting this to be a cakewalk? No. That couldn’t possibly be it. Logic dictated that there was a reason she didn’t send her best units out first. Scouting? Most likely. She didn’t seem to know about the construction and shape of my maze until after the first conflict. So, she probably sent out affordable losses early on, just to get a feel for my defenses. This meant the next wave coming would probably be more specialized and able to handle the troubles ahead. I had to adapt.

  Gritting my teeth, I made one more purchase. A Phlogiston Cannon. I sold off one of the barricades near the front, where the enemy would first come into range of all four of my Karrack Towers. Placing the flame cannon there would not only boost my early damage significantly, but it would also slow down the movement of whoever was coming in. 250 silver gone. I couldn’t spend any more, lest I bankrupt myself on this single endeavor.

  With a few minutes remaining, I decided to take 2 of the central Stone Golems and move them to the entrance as well, placing them a square behind the flame cannon. These golems would stop any stupid creature from advancing, giving the Karrack Towers more time to inflict damage. And when their health dropped low, I’d simply blow these golems up with my detonate ability, inflicting damage to the horde. A bold strategy. But one that I had a great deal of faith in.

  There was a button to state that I was ready. It indicated that the Lady had already completed whatever changes she was going to make to her roster. I suppose that at some point, I should invade someone, not to take their land, but merely to see what the interface looked like on the invaders end. I readied up and watched as the Judge flipped the X to the O. It was time to begin the next wave.

  Wave 2/3 has begun. Enemies Remaining: 20 appeared as I watched the battle begin. A large swarm did not come pouring out, as I expected. Rather, a single Shield Golem wandered into the battlefield. It lumbered slowly towards the objective, but upon reaching the area where all four Karrack Towers could strike, it simply sat down. My towers all fired up at once, pouring a great deal of damage onto the Shield Golem, but the damned thing had such high resistances, I could barely see its health bar move.

  This was an obvious exploit of my strategy. Immediately, the remaining wave appeared at the entrance. There were 13 Stone Golems, 5 Karrack Golems and 2 massive Siege Golems, moving forward in perfect formation. The Stone Golems brought up the front ranks, the Siege Golems were in the center and the Karrack Golems, with their crackling energy beams, were in the back where they could strike my own troops with ease.

  At once, I felt overwhelmed. How could I stop a force this strong? Especially when that Shield Golem was soaking up the onslaught of the Karrack Towers. The urge to panic was strong. Should I just give up now and save the resources? No, no, I couldn’t. I had to take a breath and think. Alchemical substances! I was an alchemist by trade and education. I should activate the Alchemical Bombardment to see what options I had. Perhaps there was something in there that could disrupt the Shield Golem…

  Sensing my command, the Alchemical Bombardment ability activated instantly, showing a list of substances I could choose from. There was no description of what these substances did, but that wasn’t a problem. I had more than enough training to know what material did what…

  Quicksilver was on the list! Of course! One of the most volatile of the classical alchemical elements, quicksilver had a great hatred for mana derived sources. If as much as a single spark of mystic energy touched the stuff, a reaction would occur that could only be described as “catastrophic.” So dangerous was this element that I had never actually handled any of it. No one at my college had, for magic was everywhere and even residual energy from a spell could cause a reaction!

  Without a second thought, I selected the area for the Quicksilver Bombardment, targeting the spot where the Shield Golem was sitting, ignoring attacks from everyone and everything. At once, a flood of silvery substance splashed across the golem and then…well, a reaction occurred. To say the least.

  Even though I was watching from above, I was forced to avert my eyes for a second, as the blast was so bright I feared it could blind me. The ground beneath me rumbled and I felt my manservant grab hold of me to keep me standing upright as the explosion rocked the world around us.

  When the smoke and flames finally vanished, I could see that the Shield Golem was gone, as was the barricades surrounding it, my own Stone Golems in the area and my Phlogiston Cannon. Well, the cannon was still there, but it was a pile of rubble now.

  “Yikes…” I muttered, surveying the damage done. Thankfully the maze was enclosed due to the large assortment of barricades. Even though I had created an opening by destroying all surrounding barricades, the open area only led to two of my Karrack Towers. If the enemy wanted to get to the Mana Sphere, they’d still have to follow the maze’s outline.

  I gritted my teeth as the enemy foot soldiers, the Stone Golems, moved past the opening. They would undoubtedly make short work of the Karrack Towers, but thankfully they kept going. Their goal was to reach the Mana Sphere and they were too unintelligent to stop and take down a target of opportunity. My towers began firing upon the frontrunner golem and once again, my strategy began working.

  I realized that in all of this chaos, the enemy Siege Golems and the Karrack Golems had not started moving just yet. That’s right, Siege Golems required two minutes to warm up. And the Karracks were not going to leave them unattended. With Lady Efera’s Shield Golem strategy having failed, her plan was falling apart. The Stone Golems were vulnerable right now. If I could destroy them before they reached the central checkpoint of the maze, my Stone Golems could destroy the enemy siege engines.

  I quickly selected a Karrack Tower and activated the Overdrive ability. I could only use this once per wave but doubling the damage output per second would give me the biggest bang for my buck, as it were. Indeed, as soon as the power surge started moving through the tower, golem after golem began to fall to pieces, unable to handle the amplified damage. In fact, so efficient was this amplified tower that it became like scissors cutting through a sea of paper foes with ease. One moment, there were 11 Stone Golems lumbering towards the western checkpoint, the next, they were all dead.

  If I could see my hands, I’d be taking notes right here. The effectiveness of a Karrack Tower amplified was even greater than a Ballista, for it did more damage per second. Mixed with the amplification effects of multiple towers hitting a single target…well, I learned a very valuable lesson here.

  Unfortunately, my victory was short-lived. For the Siege Golems had activated and began marching their way towards the Mana Sphere…only to become distracted by the first Karrack Tower. The turret had been exposed due to my quicksilver attack and now the two massive Siege Golems were pushing into the area. These big, bulky beasts with hammer arms began slamming into the tower with full force, smashing the Karrack Tower to bits. Before I could even check the health of my tower, it was already destroyed.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I gasped as they began lumbering towards the other exposed tower. Placing two towers near each other had seemed prudent, but now I realized the folly of my ways. With the barricades blocking them off gone, I had no other means of defending them. Within seconds, two Karrack Towers were dead and gone. How in the hell was I going to win this now?

  Chapter 10
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br />   The enormous Siege Golems had demolished two of my exposed Karrack Towers. Slowly, they were turning around, to resume their voyage through the rest of the maze. Their escort, the six Karrack Golems, remained in the back. They were taking small amounts of damage from the Ballista shots, but they had enough damage resistance to ignore the hits.

  My remaining Karrack Towers targeted the first Siege Golem, firing at full power, but it was useless. The golem had such a high amount of health that I might as well have been tickling them with feathers. Once the enemy reached the center checkpoint, I’d have to see if my stone soldiers could somehow put up a fight worthy of taking down the Siege Golems. But the enemy Karrack would probably make short work of my forces.

  I had to think here. Was there something else I could do? Structure repair was pretty much my only option. For five Fire Spice, I could repair exactly one structure. Hmmm, perhaps I could be sneaky about this.

  I waited for the Siege Golems to resume their place on the main path. They were exhaustingly slow, but that was honestly to my benefit. I waited until these large behemoths were within range of the cannon, but slightly past it. With a simple mental command of mine, a flash of light struck the remains of the Phlogiston Flame Cannon and the structure appeared back in full working condition. The wide metal mouth of the cannon popped out of its resting crate and released a high burst of flames, washing over the Siege Golems.

  The concentrated damage was surprisingly high, much higher than I thought it would be. For the first time since they had arrived on the battlefield, I could see the Siege Golems’ health begin to drop downwards rapidly. The units both stopped in their tracks, then slowly began to turn around, but their already slow movement was exaggerated greatly from the effects of the cannon. The health continued to drop, more and more as these two giants made their way to the turret.

  My brave little cannon was no match for them, of course. A single strike from one of the Siege Golems destroyed it instantly, but much to my surprise, the cannon’s remains exploded, covering the entire area with flames once more. Of course! I had forgotten about the cannon’s supposed drawback, of blowing up when destroyed, dealing incredible damage to everyone in the immediate area.

  The explosion destroyed one of the Siege Golems instantly, causing the large colossus to fall over, shattering into a hundred pieces of stone. The other one was still alive but injured greatly. As soon as it came within range of the remaining Karrack Towers, it melted quickly under the concentrated fire.

  All that remained were the six Karrack Golems. They were powerful, sure, but had no ability to strike towers or buildings. They were not nearly as hearty as Stone Golems and one by one, they fell to pieces on the journey to the center, unable to repel the Ballista or Karrack attacks.

  The Judge flipped his sign and called for another break. I let out a deep sigh of relief. I had taken some heavy losses this round, but perhaps I could rebuild. Did I have the money for it?

  Before I could survey the battlefield and figure out what to do next, I heard the Lady’s voice speak up. “I forfeit,” she said.

  What? A forfeiture? Just like that? “Are you seriously giving up?” I asked, turning off the Grid vision, returning to see the woman in front of me. Her arms were crossed, and she looked quite unhappy.

  “I put my best units in the second wave. I’d rather not waste any more resources. You’ve got this locked down pretty tightly,” she confessed. “Will you be a gentleman and accept my forfeiture? Or will you insist that we continue, killing my units needlessly?”

  Sigmund elbowed me and leaned into my ear. “If you refuse her, we’ll get to keep whatever else we kill in the fight. Plenty of crystals to be salvaged, I’m sure of it!”

  I looked at the woman, her red lips curled downwards in a cruel displeasure. Cutting her some slack might make for a better relationship in the future. And besides, I had no guarantee that I would win the next fight. She might have just gotten overwhelmed by those losses and made a snap decision. No reason to drag this out any more than I needed to.

  “Of course I accept,” I said, bowing to her. “You put up a most excellent fight.”

  Lady Efera grumbled some things at me that I couldn’t quite understand and walked off without saying another word. She clambered into her carriage of the mostly empty caravan and drove off, leaving me to celebrate my victory.

  “I did it!” I cheered. “I actually did it!”

  “Atta boy,” Sigmund said, clapping me on the back. “You showed her what for!”

  The Judge spoke, causing us both to quiet down instantly. We turned to look up at him as he thundered these words. “Victory goes to the Blake Gentry. You are granted salvage rights of the battlefield, restitution from the aggressing party and a rank advancement.”

  With those words spoken, a bright silver flash of letters appeared in my vision Victory!

  Location: Burning Barrows

  Aggressor Defeated: The Efera Gentry

  Repair Cost: 200 Fire Spice

  Salvage: 150 Mana Crystals

  Please Select Type of Restitution:

  - Renumeration: Gain 500 silver.

  - Repair Funds: Aggressor pays the repair cost. If they do not have the resources to do so, they become indebted to you and cannot fight you again until they have repaid what they owe.

  - Waive Restitution: May curry favor with the aggressing party.

  I might have let her forfeit, but I wasn’t about to let her off the hook when it came to paying for her attack on my estate. 500 silver was an excellent reward for my efforts and a suitable punishment for her assault. Though I wondered if she would be back sometime soon. If so, I would be plenty ready, having learned quite a bit from my first foray into the Great Game.

  I went to thank the Judge for his work, but he and his tower were already gone. Vanished in the blink of an eye. With a shrug, I turned my attention back to the Grid, looking at the new rank section that appeared. Pressing on the tab, I was greeted by an interesting message.

  Gentry Rank 1/5 has been achieved!

  1 unit upgrade has been unlocked.

  1 building upgrade has been unlocked.

  Interesting…it seemed that there were five total ranks to my status of gentry. Winning a fight seemed to increase my rank. Would it always be like that, or would I need to win multiple fights to increase from here on out? I really needed to secure some kind of resource on how all these rules worked.

  “Well, let’s get out of this blasted heat and back into the house,” Sigmund grunted, distracting me from my reading. “I ordered the kitchen staff to make a chocolate cake, on the off chance that we won.”

  “And what would you have ordered if we lost?” I asked, turning to look at my butler. He grinned at me.

  “You’ll find two casks of brandy in your office for that purpose,” Sigmund said with a chuckle. “Though I suppose now we can crack them open with a smile!”

  Chapter 11

  The entire staff of the Manor now wore red instead of black. Deep maroon, to be precise. It was the color of sorrow. The color of mourning. Though Sigmund and I celebrated our victory in my office, enjoying cake and brandy, talking about what we had both learned from this experience, the rest of the mansion was filled with grief and pain. Lily had granted most everyone time off, save for a select few who were still required to keep things running. They would be granted time to grieve once the majority of the staff had returned from their weeklong leave.

  A funeral would be arranged as well. Well, four funerals really. I will admit that once Miss Lily began speaking of making such arrangements, I felt the joy and elation of victory begin to fade. With our mines now safe, and enough resources to secure the Manor as well, the immediate crisis facing us was over. And that meant it was time to return to reality. The cold, stark reality where the four people whom I had loved so dearly were dead and gone. It was easy to forget about them in the moment, when focusing on fighting and surviving,
but now, it was time for us all to put aside our fear and excitement, and grieve.

  I put aside my desire to study the Grid and the art of Gentlemanly War for a week, instead working to handle the affairs of my deceased family. It was not an easy time for me, nor anyone else in the household really. But the funerals were conducted. Their bodies were buried in the family mausoleum, save for my brother’s, who would be placed to rest at the Eternal Hall of Vigilance, where all knighted soldiers were buried. Tears were shed, wills and last wishes were read, and the Blake home became eerily silent and still.

  Once the week passed, the staff slowly put away their red colors, taking upon their black aprons and vests once more. The halls became filled with the sound of workers bustling, children running about and playing, and servants keeping the manor operational. Once public areas became too loud for me to focus, I knew it would be okay for me to return to my duties as Gentleman of the House. Mourning was important, but the time had now passed.

  I sat in my new office, watching as two of the servants struggled to move my uncle’s old piano out of the room. He had never actually learned to play the damned thing, but always spoke about how he would do so. Many a time, he would slam his fingers on the keys, showing me what he had learned, only to forget almost immediately. I could never tell if he were just pulling one over on me, or if he were truly so bad at playing the piano. Either way, it had no purpose in this room any longer.

  Instead, a large table with a map of the surrounding areas would be placed where the piano had collected dust over the years. I stood next to Sigmund and Lily, watching as the workers brought the large table in.

  “Things are changing around here,” I said. “I’ve been thinking, reflecting really. Blake Manor has always been content and quiet. Happy with what we have, never wanting more. And while there is virtue to contentedness, we can no longer assume that we are safe.”