“Firstly, what’s the approximate size of the demon army? Do they have any special troops, such as magic users, flying troops etc.?” Qiu Yue asked as she looked at the table and started to gauge the distance between the demon army and the town.
Believe it or not, Qiu Yue was an avid shogi and Chinese chess player though she dabbled in English chess once in a while. Not to mention, she was forced to play with Jin whenever he needed an extra pair of hands for his tactical war games. Many times when they were playing against each other, Jin would lose rather terribly, because his tactics were too predictable. Build a sufficient force and attack with overwhelming might.
It was a viable strategy but also very easy to defeat if hindered during the process of building a sufficient force. That was how Qiu Yue won by usually harassing him in the beginning until he was unable to resist the harassment and finally lost.
Moloch was pleasantly surprised that Qiu Yue did not just give a straight answer immediately and therefore decided to indulge her with some answers. “The demon army consists of a monster troop which is roughly 4000 men strong. Each demon is capable of killing 10 well-trained guards. Needless to say, a single demon could easily annihilate a village of commoners. There are no magic users, no flying demons, all ground troops.” Moloch spoke, and this caused a heated discussion among the crowd.
“There is no way an army of only 200 men, especially a simple militia group, will be able to defeat those monsters.” One of the customers shook his head, and some even affirmed that a tactical retreat out of the town would be the best strategy for this particular battle.
“What is the technological age of this town? Do they have gunpowder or are we just dealing with the demons with pitchforks and hatchets? Do I have any magical users at my disposal?” Qiu Yue asked even before Jin had the opportunity to say anything.
“Gunpowder…Hmmm. What is that?” Moloch asked with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.
“If that’s the case. With my powers, I would like to have all 200 men equipped with a reloading rifle each.” Qiu Yue made voiced her command and the table suddenly glowed. The miniature that represented Qiu Yue’s forces changed their shape. From a sword wielding knight to a rifleman with pieces of armour to protect himself from fatal flaws.
“That is your move? The Demon Army has decided to move forward with bated breath. They seem eager to taste fresh meat and have advanced twice as fast as your scouts predicted.” Moloch spoke his command for his demon army.
“Judging from the distance, you seem to have at least 3 turns left, before the demon army will come into contact with your troops,” Moloch remarked. “That is if you manage to divert or hinder my army. Else, you will only be left with one single turn before contact.”
“Guns… What a great idea! This way the army will be able to attack from a distance.” A customer said in defence of Qiu Yue.
“But numbers still play a big and important part. There is really no way she can defend the town with just 200 militia, especially considering what cow plushie guy had said, that one demon is enough to tear down the whole village.” Another customer refuted and reasoned it would be better to retreat.
“Can I join in and help Qiu Yue?” Jin could not just stand in a corner seeing how dirty the game was made by Moloch.
“Are you sure? Do you really wish to join the battle? I can allow that, but the difficulty will have to be adjusted in the following scenario and would, therefore, end up being more difficult.” Moloch warned Jin what would happen if he wanted to interfere, but Qiu Yue looked at Jin with confidence.
“It’s okay, I can defeat him I think.” Qiu Yue turned back to the map that was on the table and shouted towards Moloch.
“Raise the entire land around the town as if it was a mountainous area, if not at the very least, a hill.” Qiu Yue gave her command and surprisingly, the town map’s landscape shifted. The town broke into different parts on a mountainous area. This caused severe obstacles which would definitely hinder the movement of the demon army. Some of the crowd members wowed at the decision Qiu Yue had made and had not expected the instance to allow it to happen.
“Hmm, it will hinder the demons… Maybe just a turn or two, if they decide to rush upwards, ignoring the mountainous route. May even cause some casualties, although I doubt that it would be an issue to the hungry demon horde.” Mr Know-It-All tried to deduce Moloch’s next move, but contrary to his predictions, Moloch told the army to slow down and take the mountainous route up to the town area.
“Is Moloch giving Qiu Yue a chance?” Jin had thought up of a similar scenario as Mr Know-It-All, and even if he could think that up, surely Qiu Yue had anticipated that too. On second thought, Jin felt that since Qiu Yue had learnt that she could terraform the mountains, it would not be wise to hastily climb up the mountain.
“Before I continue, can I ask if I can keep my plan a secret? Exposing it out in the open kind of defeats the purpose of having a plan to win against you.” Qiu Yue asked before making her turn. Moloch replied by saying “If you have a plan in mind, how about you simply interject it during my command, and we will see how the instance responds to this.”
“But what if the instance find her command ridiculous and does not plan to execute it?” Jin argued back, pointing out the flaw of this method that Moloch had suggested.
“You are right… So how about this… If the interjection during my command is invalid, I shall allow you to revise that particular command. However, you are only given 15 seconds to issue a new command in case the request was deemed invalid. When the time is up, even if you have issued no new commands, I will resume command, and your plan of ambush or intervention will simply be denied. Agreeable?” Moloch slouched back upon answering Jin’s concerns.
Qiu Yue nodded her head and continued with her commanding turn. “I terraform the plot of land surrounding the town, causing a rise of a mountain which causes the town to be split into 3 tiers. With the coordination of the militiamen and the citizens, they will withdraw from the first and lowest tier of the town and evacuate to the second tier of the town.” The moment Qiu Yue gave her word, the map burst out a physical form of a mountain on the table, and the town split into three different parts.
Executing the second part of her command caused the bustling town at the base of the mountain to become quiet, and there were miniatures of riflemen and citizens climbing up the physically real mountain.
Meanwhile, everyone was still amazed by the magic of the dungeon instance and the cinematic power of the magic eye that captured whatever was happening, making it a fantastic show to watch and entertaining the masses in Auditorium Six.
“My move. Upon seeing the town, I sent a division of hunter demons to rush in and occupy the base of the mountain to check if it is worthy for the rest of the army to get some rest while scavenging for any food sources or survivors around the area. You definitely would have left something behind.” Moloch knew that Qiu Yue had a plan to evacuate the place.
However, Qiu Yue did not intervene with Moloch’s plan, and the division of hunter demons found nothing but an abundant source of leftover livestock and food. Moloch suddenly became very cautious. “Why did she not do anything when I sent the better part of my demon army into the town? Did she really just plan to evacuate the area?”
Moloch could not sense any hostility from Qiu Yue nor did the rest of the crowd including Jin. They could not figure what she was planning or if she was even planning anything at all?
However, Mr Know-It-All grinned when he thought about Qiu Yue’s actions and Moloch’s smooth takeover of the place. “This girl… Boss Jin, it would seem that you have a terribly intelligent yet crafty individual by your side…”
