Data.30 – Old Bowman, The True Worth of Range

I left the defense of the fortress to the Golems and AI Buckler, as I rushed towards the western forest.
While there was a risk to doing this, I wanted to test this method with my own hands.

“The textures are quite impressive when seen up close…this triceratops.”

Of course, I had never seen a real one since they were extinct, but it looked like a perfectly believable, living and breathing triceratops.
I had a Golem standing just outside of its movement range as a marker.
And from here, I would try shooting at it.

Kiriri…shu! Clink!

The area around its head was hard, and ordinary arrows just bounced off.
Clearly this monster had very high defense ability.

However, there was nothing to fear.
The triceratops did not move even after it was attacked.
Apparently, it didn’t react to attacks that were outside of its range.

Yes, this was it.
This is what I wanted.
The feeling of finding an exploit that uses range…it’s perfect.

And so I continued to shoot arrows and carve away at its health.
As it was hard, it would take a lot of time.
It was definitely not an enemy that you were expected to fight solo.
But things always changed rapidly during this event, and so I could not take too long.

“Alright, I’ve had my fun. Now it’s time to have the AI warriors help me.”

The AI Warriors had ranged weapons as well, and so I brought them under my command and extended their range so they could attack.
The HP began to decrease faster. Now it wouldn’t take as long.

Normally, I wouldn’t be able to fight like this without any retaliation.
Both monsters and players would do anything they could to get close and kill me.
However, I couldn’t forget the strength of attacking from far away.
This fight made me remember what I had initially set out to do.

Thank you, triceratops.
Good bye, triceratops.

‘The triceratops looks like it wants to join you.’

“Ah, I knew it.”

It was clearly a special monster, and so I had thought that it was likely.
Of course, I chose ‘befriend.’

‘The triceratops has joined you! This monster has no special abilities.’

Now that was a surprise.
I suppose its hardness and charge attack were its only weapons.
Well, perhaps it was only natural that this prehistoric creature wasn’t using magic attacks and abilities.
Though, I don’t know why this was the one area where they cared about being realistic…

In any case, it had a lot of impact for a new recruit.
It didn’t need special abilities, I just needed to use it in a special way.
Like riding on it.

And so I tried climbing onto its back.
Hmm, it didn’t move in protest and was rather comfortable.
I would ride it back to the fortress then and hunt monsters on the way.

◆　◆　◆

The fortress was safe.
And there were no traces of it having been attacked.
Perhaps this place was isolated from both friends and enemies.

The fruits of our labor this time was a decent amount of points and about 20 befriended monsters.
This was mostly thanks to an encounter with a large pack of monsters on the way back.

And if I had to choose which of them was the strongest, I would choose the triceratops.
While it had no special abilities, its legs were fast and powerful, allowing it to easily carry multiple people.
I had even thought of a certain strategy that would make use of it.

Next was a few Aero Raptors.
They were the monsters I had encountered as a pack.
And while they were also based on dinosaurs, these had more fantastical designs.
I wasn’t sure why.

And they had the special ability ‘Wild Air.’
It raised the speed of everything within range, regardless of them being friend or foe.
It was a good ability for when you were moving in large numbers.

And then there was the Meganewashi.
In a way, perhaps this eagle was actually the strongest.
It showed me the field from up in the sky.
And in my case, my range allowed me to give them orders in a wider area, which meant I could send it very high into the air.

And like that, I was able to see the entire map.
First, Blue Deer had attacked Green Butterfly early on as well.
Only they succeeded, and the blue territories were encroaching into the green.

Green Butterfly was now focusing its efforts on taking back the fortress.
And Blue Deer were likely fighting back.
This resulted in an opening for Red Boar to attack from the center.

The center of the field was where the fortresses of the three sides clashed.
And here, Red Boar invaded in Blue Deer’s direction.
They had taken two fortresses already.

However, that’s as far as they went.
Currently, it looked like all three groups had gathered to the center in a deadlock.
I raised Meganewashi’s altitude a little and looked at the center of the battlefield. The scene below was insane.

There were red tyrannosauruses breathing fire, thunder magic in the shape of dragons, wind magic in the shape of tigers. They rammed into each other without restraint.
The tyrannosauruses were likely tamed monsters, and I suppose the rest were magic skills from 3rds?
Now my fight with Buckler looked very boring.
Well, it had still been quite a fight. Yes, it wasn’t boring, it was refined.

And having survived such a refined battle, I realized what I needed to do.
If they were in a stalemate and it looked to continue for a long time, I would just have to come in from the side.
The reason that my fortress was secluded was because it was located at the far edge.

And everyone was moving to the center.
If you won at the center, the enemy’s position would be unstable, and you might as well have won at that point.

And so I had to move.
From here, I would go to Blue Deer’s main base and attack.
And then the enemy would have to split up their forces in order to stop me.
That will make things easier for my friends in the center.

While it was very likely that I would fall, it would be a necessary sacrifice for our side to win.
At the very least, it would mean more than if I joined them in the center battlefield.
I was not confident that I could make any difference in all that craziness.

An Archer quietly targets his prey.
And now, I would move from defence to invasion.
I would attack their fortress with my AI warriors…!

Next Chapter

https://www.patreon.com/tigertransations

Uncategorized