Scarlet

One competitor goes after another, and each one does about the same as the first, give or take. Some last for four minutes, others for six minutes.

I’m pretty sure some of them even pretty much do just the bare minimum in defenses so that they can take with them the extra points from this competition, apparently deciding they’re going to lose before even trying. Which isn’t a bad idea for them.

After about six competitors go, Aria’s turn arrives, and I find myself smiling when I see her tower.

Aria’s tower is a very strange one. It’s almost entirely on the outside of the tower with very few parts inside of it. And all across the tower are quite a few traps meant to send the void creatures flying off of the tower and into the lava surrounding the tower. Meanwhile the strongest actual damaging traps and towers are at the bottom of the tower in the single interior floor, meant to deal a lot of damage to everything that enters inside.

A rather good setup with a good tower as well.

Void creatures enter through the first floor, taking a significant amount of damage from the towers and traps before entering the exterior parts of the tower where they are constantly being pushed off of the tower as they make their way up. Then they join the new void creatures down below that are entering the fray to get attacked by those same powerful defenses within the interior floor. Further eliminating large numbers of the creatures before the process repeats.

And while the numbers do end up building up like that, the exterior tower traps not serving to push down all of the void creatures, the ones that remain end up being stopped by the second round of powerful defenses at the top of the tower. Defenses that are more than just towers and traps this time.

She has Class III equivalent monsters stationed at the top right at the entrance to the interior, blocking it off in the process. Meanwhile quite a few towers and traps are set up at the entrance as well, meant to fire at the void creatures fighting against the monsters.

Something that is only really possible thanks to there not being any friendly fire in this competition. All towers don’t deal any damage to your own monsters.

Honestly, I can’t help but feel impressed by her tower. And I don’t send void creatures of my own at it, because I want her to succeed.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Plus I just want to focus on watching the show. Because this is more than a little fun to watch.

It’s obvious she spent some of her own points on this tower, making it as extravagant as possible.

Since defeating void creatures gives points, she’s racking in quite a bit. More so than even getting first place would give her, and probably quite a bit more than she spent on the tower in the first place.

A rather impressive return on investment.

Time passes as the little loop that is her tower defense continues. The void creatures lose quite a few of their number before passing to the exterior part with the frontrunners injured and the ones behind them fine. Then they gradually get pushed off of the tower as they climb until they’re all back at the bottom, joining with the greater numbers there to get blasted by the defenses once more, letting the process repeat itself.

The strategy of someone well trained in tower defense games.

I nod my head, proud of getting Aria just as into gaming as I am.

Which would probably have Tar saying something snarky in response, but he’s not here, so too bad for him.

The process continues repeating as the backlog of void creatures at the start grows larger and larger with all of the void creatures being sent back to the start significantly filling the tower down there. And after it reaches a certain point, it becomes too much. So much so that the void creatures – especially the flying ones – finally manage to make it past the traps on the exterior of the tower.

Then they’re held back by the monsters at the entrance to the top part of the tower, with more and more of the void creatures being sent flying down the tower thanks to the delay.

I watch the counter above the tower climb higher and higher, past all of the other competitors who have gone before now and all the way to the fifteen minute mark.

Only for the other competitors to begin sending more and more void creatures to attack her tower, apparently deciding that she’s a real threat enough that some are spending their own points.

Ah, the power of video games.

It’s wonderful.

I hear a certain Fae King pointing out the fact that I’m not sending any void creatures – something I didn’t realize he knew – but I simply ignore him.

Hmm, I wonder why I ever felt any sort of fear or mystery from that fae?

The immature Fae King aside, it takes a few minutes before the void creatures finally manage to push their way through the last of Aria’s defenses and make it to the roof of her tower, destroying her core. Which in the end leaves her lasting for about eighteen minutes and thirty-four seconds.

Over three times as long as anyone who had gone before her.

“It looks like Competitor Aria Knight has shown her true potential with this competition,” King Oberon declares, sounding interested and impressed. And the roars of approval coming from the audience appears to agree with him. “Not in direct combat, but in strategy.”

I can’t help but smirk, feeling happy for Aria’s success. Meanwhile the girl in question reappears with all of us and smiles at me with a wave.

Then everyone returns their focus to the next tower that appears. One that actually belongs to Anthony.

The void creature-human hybrid guy.

And his tower isn’t much worse than Aria’s. Now, it’s not on her level, but it’s interesting enough and much better than the demons until now.

It also takes defense in an entirely different direction from hers.