Death... and me

Well, what happened from that point onward wasn't even a match. It was basically an adult spanking a newborn child. The other side had absolutely no way of defending himself. Not only that, the moment the terrain was generated, Roan knew what the rigged part of the board meant for Olly's strategy. For Roan, Olly was basically telling him exactly what he intended to do.

"This..." Olly looked at the outcome of the game with his eyes wide open. He hadn't lost yet, but he couldn't see a way out at all. "How can that be?" His 'king' or the piece with the same level of power was completely surrounded. The funny part was that Roan purposely left that piece alive on the board as he focused on wiping out all the rest.

What did Roan want to show with that? Well, everyone could tell. He simply wanted to show the difference between Olly and himself. "That's about it. I can finish it, or you can surrender. Which one do you want?"

Olly's expression went dark as he looked back at Roan. "Shut up! You must have cheated! There's no way you could get such an advantage."

"Is that so?" Roan asked back. "It's not like I didn't expect you to refuse to admit defeat. Very well. If you want, we can start a new game. How about that? This time, I won't hold back, though."

Olly felt like he was pardoned. After all, Olly could feel the eyes of everyone else behind him. Wasn't he supposed to win this match very easily? Obviously, he could imagine how angry the others were. "Hmph! We'll see about that!"

The game was quickly reset as a completely different field appeared. Once again, there was a well-hidden connection that was supposed to give Olly the advantage. However...

"Alright, you're planning to take the back valley, which is open and surrounded by the poison mist. You will use only a fourth or a third of the troops that can deal with the poison fog, trying to divert my attention from the mountain range. Am I correct? However, the real plan comes from the river and the narrow path on its south side. Well, if we look from your side of the board, it's the north side, right?" Roan asked Olly.

Olly couldn't help but sweat a little when he heard that. This was one of the strategies he had developed in his rigged board. He had several other strategies that the board would generate and could make use of. Yet, this one was already out of the question as Roan saw straight through it. In fact, if Roan hadn't opened his mouth, Olly would have done exactly what Roan said. "Hmph! What are you trying to do? Scare me or something? You're wrong! Or perhaps you aren't. After all, it's not like I'll tell you my strategy."

Without much choice, Olly saw himself forced to take a new path. One mustn't have the wrong idea, though. Olly was indeed very good at this board game. It's just that he chose the wrong opponent.

"You will use the swamp and 400 to 500 soldiers and two commanders to form a pincer attack at the entrance. At the same time, another 700 to 800 troops will charge at my group of tamed demon beast riders from the outside, trying to disrupt my defense." Roan said all of that with a bored expression.

Olly began to wonder whether Roan could read his mind or anything. Even the most unconventional ideas he had were seen through straight away. Worst of all, Roan was speaking out loud, making Olly feel even worse.

"Not a bad decision. Retreating your troops to the entrance of the right castle and holding your position was the optimal choice."

Olly hadn't even done that before Roan's words came out.

"I wouldn't use the archers to rain down arrows on my riders. Can't you see? If I..."

Sometime later...

"You have lost."

Olly's confidence was getting hurt after that. However, he still asked to play again, which Roan accepted.

"Wrong once again. You lost half of your infantry from the exact same strategy in the last game? What are you thinking? Could it be that you expect me to think that you wouldn't use the same method again? How naive can you be?"

"You have lost again."

Another game.

"You're going to use your riders to pass through my infantry instead of my own riders. No one would expect that in this situation, so I'll praise you for coming up with that," said Roan before Olly even made a move again.

"You have lost."

"Now the catapults..."

"You have lost."

"You have lost."

"How stupid can you be? Can't you tell that I can see through the rigged board? It's the same as telling me exactly what you intend to do. You have lost even worse this time."

The disciples who put their trust in Olly were angry at first. However, they soon began to feel respect for the older black-haired man in front of Olly. Some of them knew the game well. They knew that Olly's plays... or what he intended to do before Roan opened his mouth, were indeed very good. If they were in Roan's place, they would have lost many times already. Yet, Roan used every single decision Olly made to strike hard on his weaknesses. Let alone Olly, everyone watching the games understood that they wouldn't fare any better in front of Roan."

"Sigh... this is getting boring," Roan eventually shook his head. "Rean, wanna try? He has lost twenty-seven times already. Even if you lose, he will need to win twenty-eight times to catch up to me."

Rean laughed in response. "Hey, weren't you the one who didn't want to waste time? How come you accepted to play it twenty-six times?"

Roan disagreed, clarifying, "This was not a waste of time. I only wanted to show the difference between them and me. Then again, you should have no problem against him either, so it will be good if you solidify your position as well."