Narissa was frantically walking around her tent while looking at the map that represented the territory the game was taking place. It took some time but she could freely come out of the game when she wanted. Not that it helped much. Just helped her take a look at how the game was going without having to read hundreds of small reports that come her way daily.
If that was the only problem she had, she wouldn’t be as worried as she was now.
Her situation was bad. Her classmates were all in the same situation as her. They were living the lives of their pieces in this game but it wasn’t just a situation where they would experience the moves that Narissa was making.No. Now they could actively move on their own, eating moves that Narissa could make.
She knew they weren’t doing that out of malice but she still didn’t like it. This game is not just a more complicated chess game. It is full blown psychological warfare.
Only 11 of Narissa’s pieces were connected to someone but all 32 of the Puddle’s pieces were connected to someone and none of them wanted to be here. They were all slaves of Puddle who had their souls put on the pieces and now had to be part of the game. Everytime one of her classmates had an encounter with an enemy that inside the game they couldn’t just capture all of them without a fight, they would have a battle with their enemies begging to be freed from their hell while crying but still fighting their damn hardest. Klaws was the only one who was not affected by it but there was a limit to how much she could do with him.
Another thing that was happening was that she and Puddle couldn’t capture an enemy piece from time to time as the battle inside the game was inconclusive so the piece would be left ‘wounded’. Narissa had the advantage of having Shishen. She could heal these wounded pieces and allow them to be used normally again. Sadly her other bishop was just a high-ranking priest inside the game that could talk people out of fighting him really well.
Katia refused to go into enemy territory in fear of the enemy queen finding her and Cassandra wouldn’t move near troops that were fighting or very close to it. Luminus and Kaki were somewhat listening to what Narissa wanted so they were at least defending a few cities by their mere presence in the area. Moon and Mathias refused to leave the south of the board. They were pretty much in front of the king on the board.
She lost half of her pawns already and barely had half of the stronger pieces to help defend against the assault that was coming her way.
Every move outside the world of the game took no more than 5 seconds but inside it has already been years. Not that she or her classmates could really feel it. Their perception of time was really strange. Sometimes it felt like she had to live every single day but suddenly she would find herself a few months into the future and not bat an eye.
The game was reaching the critical point where pieces would have to be sacrificed but she didn’t know what would happen if she had to do it with her classmates. Her only hope right now is to survive the offensive that is coming her way and rush to finish the game Klaws.
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Mathias and Moon were sitting on a few rocks in front of the castle walls that defended the king. They were using the same strange military uniform and eating some bread while talking.
“Do you think we are doing the right thing?” Moon asked.
“I can’t swing my sword at them anymore. I still hear their screams when I go to sleep. I am surprised you are holding on so well.” Mathias said as he took a bite of his food.
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“I’m not exactly sleeping.” Moon said while pointing to his eyes who clearly showed that he wasn’t sleeping much.
“How do you think they do it? How can they handle this hell?” Mathias asks, alluding to his classmates that could still somewhat function in the game.
“Klaws is the only one who is still alright. Everyone else is in the same situation as us two but in a different place.”
“Yeah…I hope to never have to kill someone innocent begging for their lives again.”
“Me too… Me too.”
—-------------------------
“Here is your food.” Cassandra said to Shishen and Katia.
“Thank you. I thought I was going to starve to death.” Katia said.
“You should have come sooner! We almost died.” Shishen said, scolding Cassandra.
“The queen was on my tail. I couldn’t just come here.”
“Narissa is defending you. Trust her a little.” Shishen said.
“Why don’t you go to the front lines and tell me how it feels?” Cassandra answered angrily.
“I am healing the troops so we don’t all die.”
“Can you two please don’t fight here? It might make this city take longer to be built if the residents see the famous healer bishop and the greatest merchant fighting over military matters.” Katia asked, clearly annoyed with more than just her classmates.
The two girls just puffed and went their ways.
—--------------------------
“Shouldn’t we move to another city?” Kaki asked Luminus who was patrolling the walls of a city near the border with him.
“Don’t you remember? If we leave this area the enemy’s queen will have a free path towards our King.” Luminus answered.
“I am losing track of time. How long have we stayed here so far? It feels like years.”
“Can’t say I don’t know how you feel. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we both alone count as one knight piece each but pawns are a small army of soldiers.”
“Or that the queen feels like destruction incarnate even when we know we can just capture her if we are at the right place.”
“I hope Mia doesn’t grow to be like that. I don’t think I could live with someone like that near me.”
“Yeah… When she grows up…”
“... Let’s continue our patrol. Maybe we get some fruit today from the farm.”
“...Let’s go.”
—------------------
“Please! Spare me! I don’t want to die!” A soldier, a pawn, screamed at Klaws as he was beaten to death by the same.
“Don’t worry. I am pretty sure I will see you on the other side soon enough so if you still have a problem with me we can resolve this later.” Klaws said as he finally killed the last enemy soldier.
Why do I feel like that? So ready to die when hours ago I would probably run from a fight that I knew would cause my death without skipping a beat? Klaws thought to himself.
Not much later a letter with instructions came. He looked south and any doubts in his mind about the strange instructions vanished. He trusted Narissa to guide him to victory and even if they lost, he could at least know that he would go down with pride.
—------------------------
“Puddle. You are a sadistic bastard that only appears once a century. I wish you could apply some of that energy in other areas of your life since that would make my life way easier.” Zignus said to himself while he looked at the game from a distance.
Puddle managed to cause more damage to the special class with psychological attacks alone than everyone that came before him could while actually fighting. The only shame was that their real target was still knocked out due to Morgana’s mistake. Or maybe not, he thought after thinking for a moment. If Mia was awake she would probably have rallied her companions and this would be just another stupid battle.
One way or another his turn was almost coming so he waited with a smile on his face as he imagined his glorious future once he finished his business on this bothersome shore.