First round of topsword.
collaboration.
“The first round assignment is a mock battle across Stellarium.”
After the usual event ceremony, it was finally time to announce the assignments.
All participants, including Noah, focused on Theodore’s words.
“All participants will be divided into siege and defense sides for a mock battle. The siege side wins if it starts outside the outer castle and reaches the imperial palace within the time limit, and the defense side wins if it blocks the siege side within the time limit.”
“In addition, if there is an injury to an opposing participant or an injury to a civilian during the match, it will be disqualified regardless of the reason.”
“You can check your team from the list below.”
It was quite unconventional.
“You mean the whole city as a stage?”
It was difficult for Noah to understand, as he was new to the Top Sword Tournament.
“Isn’t it impossible not to get into an accident if you draw your sword and fight in the city center?”
“Because Top Sword is a competition to show off your skills externally. Most of the tasks can be seen by citizens.”
“If you can’t fight with all your might, it’s hard to guarantee victory.”
Tiu explained the reason, but I still didn’t like it.
If neither side could give their best, the weaker side benefited.
And Noah thought he was a loss.
‘It seems that the number of people is randomly divided into half, but the rule is… … .’
Noah looked up at the rules and team rosters and quickly put his mind to work.
All participants of the Night Ray belonged to the Mercury side.
It wasn’t such a good thing.
“Isn’t Mercury much more disadvantageous?”
Stellarium is spacious.
Personnel is limited.
Do not break anything.
whether it is a building or a person.
Prevent the opponent’s touchdown in that situation?
No matter how you think about it, the attacking side was full of content.
“In the worst case, the game could be over without making a single defense. If you miss the sneaky guy, it’s over on the spot.”
“what. Are you scared?”
Cheer!
At Felix’s provocation, Noah glared at him.
“There must be conditions like this in order to warm up. A one-sided victory is no fun.”
“under! Am I going to win?”
“No way. I win.”
“No, it’s the same team as you guys?”
While Miho stopped the two of them, Veronica gathered the people together.
“First, let’s meet the other participants who will be Mercury together.”
* * *
before the start of round 1.
Time was given for preparation while the siege side went outside the starting point, the outer wall.
From noble mtl dot com.
Participants assigned to the Mercury side learned each other’s faces during this time, and started a meeting for defense.
Leading the meeting was, of course, Veronica, who knew the geography of Stellarium best.
There were over 200 people with different backgrounds, so it was also a task to unify their opinions.
Because of this, Veronica went ahead and took the gun.
“We don’t have much time, so let’s get straight to the point. First of all, give up the outer castle and build a defense line based on the inner wall.”
Veronica was leading the operation, but no one was vomiting. At least in public.
Noah was one step away from the conference hall where the leaders of each faction were gathered, watching them with his motives.
“It’s blatant.”
“Twu, do you think so too?”
“Veronica has no choice but to lead the situation. And all the Night Ray contestants were assigned to the Mercury side. Even if this wasn’t intentional, no one would believe it.”
“If it wasn’t clearly on purpose, it would have been ridiculous. If that’s what you meant, it’s too blatant.”
“No matter what the actual intention was, at the time this was enforced, it was virtually condoned. Now that this has happened, intentions are no longer important.”
Tiu tweaked the structure in the first round.
Giving weight to the outspoken Veronica.
It was a part that well showed that Top Sword is, after all, a war against nations.
“Of course, I don’t know what happened behind the scenes. I don’t care who gets the spotlight in the first round. Because my goal is to win.”
Felix also nodded wordlessly.
In Night Ray, participants were selected through a contest, and the winner of the contest was Veronica.
That meant that all of them were directly or indirectly broken by Veronica in the preliminary round.
Nevertheless, Thiu and Felix were full of thoughts of winning.
Of course, so did Noah.
“… … Naughty bastards.”
From Miho’s point of view, who was the only ordinary person in the group – in her opinion – it was a staggering reaction.
It wasn’t like she was discussing winning.
“It’s second to who will win. Isn’t this a crisis from the first round? The number of people in the Siege and Mercury is divided in half, so how do you cover the capital with this number?”
The battlefield was too wide for the number of participants.
In addition, the condition of not causing civilian damage was more unfavorable to the Mercury side.
“It’s a win, so you shouldn’t be avoiding being knocked out in the first round!”
“Actually, it’s not like there’s no answer.”
“Are you at such a disadvantage?”
Noah explained to Miho the advantages of Suseong’s side.
They also had their advantages.
“In the end, isn’t the imperial palace what the gong side is aiming for? As long as you know where you’re coming from, you can drastically reduce the area you need to defend. It’s worth a try if you can survive the time limit.”
He didn’t have to fight, just reached the imperial palace.
At first glance, this seems like a favorable condition for the siege, but it wasn’t just like that.
“The siege side won’t want to waste their time fighting, and we’re most wary of being attacked by surprise. Perhaps the content of the actual game will be a tag game?”
And Noah was confident when it came to playing hide and seek.
The confidence that if someone protects the base, I can catch it all by myself.
“… … So, if I do it my way, I calculate that 80 men can be enough for a defensive line. Then there are about 180 left on the Mercury side?”
Also, Veronica just happened to be thinking the same thing.
“Let’s attack. Let’s finish the game without waiting for the time limit.”
* * *
The structure of Stellarium was largely as follows.
Imperial Palace – Old Town – Inner Wall – New Town – Outer Wall – New City
As the empire grew, cities continued to grow.
Even outside the outer wall, an endless city stretched out, but in fact, that side was outside the field in this game.
“We will divide our personnel into three main categories. Imperial palace defense, old town circulation boundary, inner wall defense. Nightrays are responsible for the defense of the inner wall.”
“It’s hard to catch those hiding in the city, so they’re blocking them with the walls at the center.”
“yes. After all, you have to cross the castle wall to reach the imperial palace.”
Upon returning to the team, Veronica explained the strategy she had finalized at the meeting.
“The personnel who circulate around the old town strengthen the security net, and when the inner wall finds an opponent, it flexibly retreats and fights. Like pudding pressed against a spoon.”
“What is that strangely sweet metaphor… … .”
“hmm. Like pudding, right?”
“It’s like pudding.”
“What are you guys? Actually, was that a good metaphor? Was I weird?”
While Noah’s classmates were blinded by the analogy, Leo, a veteran, caught the weakness of the strategy.
“Is that possible? The Mercury side is those randomly gathered. It is difficult to see that organic operations will be possible.”
“I can not help it. This is because the area to be protected is too wide compared to the number of people. In order not to be penetrated by a surprise charge, it is essential that the perimeter be as far out as possible.”
“If you fight in that state, each one will be destroyed, so when you fight, you step back and join the circulation guards. The difficulty level is definitely high.”
It was a strategy in which the defense line had to make its own judgment as there was a possibility of a determined and one-point breakthrough.
It means that it is not easy to implement with the number of people gathered on the spot.
“I’ve tried to arrange them according to that as much as possible, so memorize the contents.”
The party checked and memorized the layout of the allies.
Soon it was time for the besiegers to reach the outer walls, so they too had to move to their respective positions.
While everyone was moving, Veronica held Noah aside.
“I’m just saying this just in case, but can’t you fight alone? If you find an opponent, do you have to take them out and join the allies?”
“… … Why are you holding me?”
“Because it looks like you’ll be the first to jump out!”
“no way. No matter how much I do, I don’t do that even when I undermine teamwork, right?”
Noah calmed down Veronica and headed to his location.
And exactly 10 minutes later.
“Uh, what the heck… … !”
Noah, who broke away from the defense line, jumped forward.
* * *
“Let each one act.”
Unlike the Mercury side, which succeeded in uniting even on the surface, the Siege side was divided.
It was unavoidable.
Unlike the Suseong side, which wins if you block it or I block it, it was also important for the Gongseong side to ask, ‘So who gets to the imperial palace?’
Anyway, it was a situation where the siege was advantageous.
If you’re going to win anyway, it’s only natural that you want to set a personal record.
The ambiguous advantage made the participants assigned to the siege side take personal action.
“It’s a pain in the ass.”
Ricardo wiped his forehead as he watched the participants on the siege side rushing into the new city by different routes.
“If possible, I didn’t want to face Nightray until the 5th round, but from the 1st round, the teams are divided, and the cubs who are on the same team do not listen to people.”
“Calm down, Prince.”
“Do I look real? Those bastards can’t even break through resistance and half of them fly away, I’m betting my hands and feet!”
“We’re embarrassing, so calm down, please.”
The match takes place in downtown Stellarium with minimal safety equipment and no control.
That meant that the street Ricardo was talking about was already full of onlookers.
“crying! I’m scared of you!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Ricardo wiped his forehead once more at the cry of a child who came out to watch.
“This guy’s tournament is real.”
Without restrictions on sword skills, the competition where battles take place is just held in the city.
It was an extravagant thing.
“The Empire has the potential to respond to whatever the participants do, right?”
It was the confidence that if something went wrong during a battle, they could intervene before civilian casualties were inflicted.
In fact, many executives from the Empire attended the opening ceremony.
Even the knights gathered at the ceremony had to be seen as surpassing the military power of quite a few countries.
If it was only at the level of a new knight, it would take hundreds of people to overpower it on the spot.
“okay. Calm down and think calmly. The Mercury side has the previous year’s winner, the Monster Princess, so we will unite. It should be seen that we, who went into individual play, are rather at a disadvantage.”
Ricardo quickly sorted things out.
“The biggest concern on the Mercury side is that the defense is breached by a guy who ran abruptly. In order to avoid that, it is clear that they will eventually come forward and defend instead of gathering in front of the goal post.”
If it’s Veronica, even if she’s on defense, she’ll be aggressive.
It was certain.
The problem was that there were not too many people on the siege side who would listen to Ricardo’s words in a situation where the people gathered from all over the world were roughly divided.
“Check the siege side list. We think of our allies as natural phenomena and use them.”
The genius of the century was trying to show off his resourcefulness in an absurd situation from the team formation.
But there was something that even that genius did not know,
“Ah, Your Majesty’s team put it in the wrong place. He asked me to put him on the same team as his daughter.”
Theodore, who was watching the judgment in the imperial palace, scratched his head.
“… … Aren’t you going to work hard?”