Chapter 312 – Tier 3 Trial Part 8.

‘So this is their leader… doesn’t look too tough.’

“Do you dare accept my…”

“Yeah, let us get this over with, get into the glowy circle Pinocchio, I don’t have the whole day.”

Roland was the one to initiate the challenge this time around in a similar fashion as the wooden commander he faced during his first trial attempt. This time around he was challenging the lord of this fort that he had bashed through the side wall. Even though this place looked a bit closer to a stone keep, it wasn’t finished. It was easy to move from one side that didn’t have as many towers and archers protecting it.

To do this he used an old siege ram design. It was a mobile frame with a reinforced wooden roof made of several layers of planks. The iron arrows were not able to pierce through it and after coating it with some special concoction, it wouldn’t catch on fire. It had three large wheels on each side and on the inside, there were several wooden soldiers pushing it. In the middle was the main piece which was a huge log with a large metallic ram head at the end.

Normally he would have given it a more basic shape but this item could be bought from the market to hasten the process of his first siege. Thanks to this faction not having a moat he could use this old tool to bust down their wall. Soon after his soldiers with him in the front were able to just push inside. He made sure to give them the order to leave the civilians alone and not chase after other soldiers that decided to flee.

This was about to become his new base of operations so he needed to keep the damages to a minimum, challenging the enemy leader to single combat was a bit part of this plan. The man in question was a high-level tier 2 wooden puppet made of pale wood. It had a special class that might have been similar to his Runesmith Lord one. This could indicate the same multiplier of two instead of the regular one that tier 2 classes had. Nevertheless, he wasn’t that fearful, he was still thirty levels over this wooden man and also had all his magical runes to help him win this.

The Lord Commander puppet was using an arming sword and shield combination. His body was covered by full-plate armor and he even had a helmet on. The only reason Roland could tell that he was a man made of wood was that his face was peeking through that helmet that lacked a visor that could be closed for some reason. It was a big weak point but with the shield in his hand, it wouldn’t be that easily pierced.

This wooden Lord Commander would have probably been able to defeat any normal tier 2 person but he was going up against a very unique opponent. Roland’s biggest strength came from his ability to make magical armor, it gave him the spells of an experienced mage that didn’t require any in-battle preparation. Within a second he could call upon blasts of fire that could take a flame mage even ten seconds to cast.

A mage’s biggest weakness was a close-range battle and this weakness was not something he had. The moment the armored puppet charged in for a shield bash his footing was broken by muddled water that then quickly turned into sharp spikes. Even though he was able to react in time to not sink in, even though the sharp spikes were deflected by the shield, the third attack that was composed of burning flames could not be evaded or protected against.

The huge ball of flames was already forming when the Lord Commander was trying to not slip into the mud. It connected with the wooden man to generate a massive explosion. Though these wooden men were not composed of blood and flesh they reacted in similar ways to heat as humans did. The metal armor that he was wearing turned red with the increase in the temperature and started cooking the owner alive. The simulated screams were quite realistic but instead of flinching Roland just increased the heat by ejecting a torrent of flames from his palm.

“Your Lord has fallen, throw away your weapons and surrender and none of you or the residents in the city will be harmed!”

As his opponent was dying he already started shouting to break up the fight. The more men he could keep alive from the opposition and his own army the better for his future plans. With the lord defeated, even the wooden captains started buckling under pressure. Just as he expected, whenever the lord of the faction was suffering a defeat the debuff taken to the morale of the troops was increased.

“What are you waiting for, surrender!”

“This place belongs to us now! Long live the Lord of the Timberlings!”

While he was making his speech one of his own commander units also started shouting out. It was his old first captain that had managed to reach level one hundred. The more the leader units leveled up the better their speech became. At the level that the commander was on now, he could articulate like a normal person. He immediately started shouting at the other soldiers while waving the flag from his side.

This was a faction banner that he actually had to unlock and design himself. Just by having them around his troops, it was possible to raise their morale further. The more of these symbols he put on their belongings the more it worked. It really showed him that belonging to a side made a big difference. Now that his enemies had nowhere that they belonged to their fate was to either fight until they all died or to become slaves.

‘What will they do? Probably depending on their loyalty to their old leader this could go both ways.’

He tried thinking back to some real-life examples of taking over strongholds and other kingdoms. If an area had a grand leader that they were all behind it was always hard to integrate such lands. The people living there would give up on the surface but behind the kingdom’s backs, they would start plotting. If a chance arose that they could take back the power, then they would. On the other hand, if the leader was a tyrant then the people living there would welcome them with open arms.

‘Hm… this one might have actually been the latter…’

“The tyrant is dead!”

“Thank the gods…”

Soon the soldiers threw away their weapons and the civilians started cheering. They repeated the same two sentences over and over again but he got the picture. When investigating this place he figured out that the leader wasn’t properly managing the region. There were a lot of residential buildings but not enough farms to produce food.