Taming Master

Ian’s presence gradually grew on the battlefield.

The first Soldier to ever kill an Officer; a Soldier whom nobody cared about.

After raising 3 kills and being promoted to an Officer, he had become a dangerous man.

And again, as Ian’s turn came, everyone’s attention was on him.

It was because Ian’s moves always proved to be more than what they had been expecting. They were very curious.

In fact, Ian’s interest began to grow as he chose the Knight position.

An ‘advanced’ position that only a Knight could do.

Ian, who was at the starting point of the enemy camp, chose to be a Knight, and he was now willing to go further into the enemy camp.

“Kay, the super recruit’s turn will come again.”

“How will he move again?”

“How will he move, huh? He’ll move further to the side and try to catch the remaining Soldiers first. The Soldiers are the best choice, right?”

“However, even if I was in his place, I’ll target the Soldiers first. I’ll kill two more and then become a General.”

“Aye, not hard?”

“Why?”

“There is the Defense General on that side. No matter how great that guy is, he won’t try to deal with that.”

The opinion of the crowd was divided.

No matter how he moved, the situation was dangerous for Ian.

Most of the opinions came down to one though.

One of the Soldiers on the outermost side was in the Defense Generals’ range.

“Will he move there, eventually?”

“I think so. He’ll probably try to get a Soldier and then wait for the Celestial users’ support.”

But right then, when Ian’s turn came…

[The battle is over.]

[It is now the Celestial Army’s Knight user ‘Ian’s ‘ turn.]

Everyone was surprised.

“…!”

As soon as Ian’s turn came, Ian walked forward without any hesitation.

“That crazy bastard. What is he doing?”

Ian’s moves were getting closer and closer to the ‘High General’.

All the Devil users were holding onto their breath. While watching Ian’s movements, even the Celestial camp’s side became anxious.

Ian was walking forward calmly.

[Moved one space forward.]

[Attack is increased by 2% because of the ‘Knight Sprint’.]

[Move ahead one space.]

[The ‘Knight Sprint’ effect has been applied…]

Everyone on the battlefield knew what the ‘Knight Sprintt’ was.

And everyone knew that Ian had to attack the ‘Aide’, who was five squares away from him, which was the maximum spaces that he could take.

However, all of the users there knew that that would be suicide.

Ian had already fought four battles, so the others thought that going on consecutive battles might have taken a toll on him and might affect his winning chances against an Aide.

Of course, with the promotion, Ian had recovered most of the vitality he lost, and in his previous battle with Wang Choi, he didn’t even lose a speck of his vitality, but the others didn’t know that.

Ian was the only one who saw the system message saying that his vitality had been restored.

Chuk-!

While standing in front of the Medical Aide of the Devil camp, Ian pulled out his sword.

[Celestial camp, Knight ‘Ian’ attacks the Devil camp Medical Aide ‘Aremis’.]

[The battle between Ian and Aremis starts now.]

The current battle was now turning into a good turning point for the God’s Piece Board battlefield.

* * *

Most of the users would have already noticed that, but Ian had the most complicated numbers of fights.

On the surface, it might look like a simple gunfight, but Ian used his head very hard to determine his battles’ outcome.

‘In this battle, I need to win as overwhelmingly as possible.’

Ian never intended to take down the Aide.

Not only did he have a lot of hidden card up his sleeve, he also had a 25 percent attack boost due to the ‘Knight Sprint’ effect and the win buff.

Ian’s only problem was what he would do after he defeated the Aide.

Once Ian defeated the Medical Aide, he would be attacked by the High General, who was standing two spaces away from them.

Then, was Ian in the impression that he could win against a High General?

‘It isn’t going to be like that, and it is dangerous.’

Ian wasn’t ready yet to take on the High General.

No matter how many summons he brought out, it still wasn’t going to be easy to take him down even with the win buff.

Ian’s plan was to prevent the High General from ‘attacking him’.

* * *

Na Ji-chan, who was watching the battle, had his mouth hanging without even realizing it.

After he realized Ian’s plan, he was creeped out.

‘How can that crazy guy think of something like that?’

When Ian moved toward the Medical Aide, even Na Ji-chan doubted his eyes.

Of course, just like the other users, he was under the impression that Ian would be able to face the Advisor/General.

Na Ji-chan was well aware of the performance of the items that Ian was equipped with and about the power that Ian possessed.

And he guessed that it wouldn’t be hard for Ian to beat a Medical Aide.

The reason why Na Ji-chan was shocked was that he thought Ian didn’t consider the General, who was next to the Aide.

Surely the General was going to attack the next turn, and it would look like Ian made a very basic mistake.

But when he thought hard about it, it seemed like everything was going according to Ian’s calculations.

‘One, two, three… exactly ten squares. Ian might’ve realized that and moved there…!’

Behind Ian, the Assault Captain of the Celestial camp was there.

The Assault Captain wasn’t near Ian, but the Assault Captain stood exactly ten spaces diagonally away from Ian.

In that very situation, if Ian managed to defeat the Medical Aide and the High General defeated Ian, then the General would be in the range of the Celestial camp’s Assault Captain.

Ian was going to be killed, but the General would then stand on the spot where Ian was.

In addition, the High General, who would stand there, wouldn’t have any Aide to back him up.

It was natural for Ian to kill the Medical Aide on the right, so the High General would move away from the left Aide since he would take three spaces.

If the High General decided to attack Ian, he must make sure that he would be able to win with little damage.

And if Ian didn’t suffer that much damage, then the Assault Captain of the Celestial camp would surely take advantage of that.

‘No, does this guy have an alternate brain structure? Can someone really think of such things when they’re on the battlefield?’

Na Ji-chan was sure that the High General wasn’t going to attack Ian.

Not just the High General but any other positions would be in the same situation. His move was going to be very conservative since he was the ‘High General’, and if he was defeated in the battle, it would be over for them.

Na Ji-chan could now see Ian’s next moves after he thought hard about it.

‘Ha, this crazy guy is probably thinking about taking down the Aide then warping to the other side.’

The only one close to the aide was the Defense Captain.

And Ian, who would have his turn next, was going to exit the enemy camp.

He could use the special ability of the Knight and step into the last space of the enemy camp and be warped to the Celestial camp side.

“Turned around. He really turned it around…!”

Na Ji-chan was unknowingly spitting out words.

Kim Ji-yeon, who was next to him, nodded and sympathized with him.

“Surely, Ian seems crazy.”

Listening to Kim Ji-yeon, Na Ji-chan asked, “Miss Kim, do you understand what Ian is trying to do?”

Kim Ji-yeon’s understanding of the game was the lowest in the entire planning team.

It sounded very unrealistic that she was able to understand Ian’s play.

But as soon as he heard her words, Na Ji-chan had no choice but to laugh.

“Absolutely. Do you think I’m some kind of idiot?”

“…?”

“Ian is about to kill himself along with the aide.”

“Hm…?”

“Since the Knight can only move forward, he won’t be able to run away. So he’s trying to get rid of the Aide and then die patriotically. Even with one Aide being taken down, he still has twice the power than them.”

“Ha… Haha… Kim, you have grown a lot, aren’t you?”

Kim Ji-yeon was thinking a lot of things when she expressed her thoughts so confidently.

And her predictions were plausible enough.

It surely was a high-level analysis that was beyond her usual level.

But Na Ji-chan knew that it wasn’t like Ian to do that.

Ian was never going to be the one to sacrifice himself for the victory of the army.

Na Ji-chan laughed and opened up to Kim Ji-yeon.

“Kay, Miss Kim.”

“Huh?”

“Then should we… have a bet?”

“What bet?”

“Bet? Team leader, I want to do it too!”

“Me too.”

Upon hearing Na Ji-chan spoke the word ‘bet’, all the members of the planning team gathered together.

For the planning team members who were tired of the simple labor of monitoring, the word ‘bet’ was like beer.

As the people gathered, Na Ji-chan looked at the screen and opened his mouth again.

“In this situation, what would Ian do?”

“…?”

“what?”

Na Ji-chan continued to speak as the thought of doing that bewildered the team members.

“Miss Kim over here just said that Ian would kill himself along with the Aide.”

“I heard that too. It was a bit persuasive.”

“Right.”

After a momentary silence, Na Ji-chan spoke again.

“But I on the other hand, have a different opinion.”

“…?”

The whole team became interested as to what Na Ji-chan would say.

Na Ji-chan yawned. He then smiled and said, “Ian will defeat the Aide and will come out unscathed. He will then be promoted to a General in the next turn or so.”

* * *

The field was quiet.

No, there was an overwhelmingly scary silence.

And the reason was the system messages which had popped up in front of the users’ eyes.

[The vitality of the Medical Aide of the Devil Army ‘Aremis’ has been exhausted.]

[The Knight user ‘Ian’ has won.]

[Aremis user has been summoned outside of the battlefield.]

Destroying the expectations of everyone, Ian had won.

No, it was beyond everyone’s expectations. It was a ridiculous sight to see.

“What… what just happened?”

“Is he a bug user?”

“What is this? This is scary.”

With just three minutes after the battle had begun, it took Ian just 3 minutes to kill the Asmodian user Aremis.

A duration of 3 minutes felt very short for the audience.

Hiing-!

In the deep silence, where even the sound of a needle could be heard, a creepy sound of a horse that was screaming rang throughout the battlefield.

A summon with dark wings landed lightly on the ground.

Tat-!

Someone then jumped into the air.

“Summon dismiss.”

All the shadows standing around Ian were sucked into his hand.

From a ferocious wolf to a dragon with huge wings, various summons could be seen.

When the last summon got sucked in, the battlefield became silent again.

And in that place, Ian’s voice rang.

He was talking to the High General of the Devil camp.

“Take one step forward.”

Ian wore a confident smile and said, “This game will soon come to an end.”