A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

And Beam began. He started lightly at first, not daring to ask too much of his leg, before speeding up some more, running back and forth along the track, turning around at each end before he disappeared from Dominus' view.

As he had thought it would, the sprinting inflicted more pain on him than the stone lifting had, and his martial training had. As he ran, the unbalance of his legs was painfully obvious and he could feel that he was far slower than he normally might be. A frustrating realization, for sure.

"That'll do," Dominus said, and Beam returned to the camp breathlessly, having worked up a sweat.

"It seems there's more danger to be had in your lack of speed now," Dominus said as Beam sat down. "That was your weapon against the Hobgoblin in your past encounter. The only attribute that you really surpassed it in, and now it's been taken from you. That's troublesome indeed."

"I'll have to think of a different approach," Beam said.

"Then you had better think quickly, boy, there isn't long at all," Dominus said with a sigh, finding it hard to believe in Beam's impossible optimism. "Mm. While we eat, I suppose we might as well give Battle a go, to see where you're at in that."

Beam nodded halfheartedly, not entirely enthusiastic about improving it, now that his master had told him it was unlikely to help him in the battle with the Hobgoblin. But he set the pieces up regardless, settling on his army of 12 spearmen and 4 cavalry units – he'd forsaken archers entirely as of late, finding it easier to secure the advantage without them.

Dominus, on the other hand, had 6 archers in his frontline, 4 cavalry units behind them and then 6 spear units beside both of those – his usual balanced combination.

Beam began subtly, sending a lone spear unit along the right-hand side of the board, away from the Dominus' bows. That was, until, Dominus shifted two of those bow units to be more in line with it, all but assuring that they'd manage to take it out.

And then Beam sent his spear unit further to the right side of the board, sending two more spear units behind it to back it up, and then a single cavalry unit behind that.

Dominus observed his manoeuvrings with a blank expression as he spooned his meal into his mouth. He moved his bow units forward a tile, before sending three more bow units to their side of the board after them and then getting two spear units to protect their flank.

As soon as they moved, Beam sent the rest of his spear units charging forward all at once, aiming entirely for the left side of Dominus' army, with his leftover three cavalry units trailing just behind, ready to respond.

Dominus eyed the bold move with a raised eyebrow, and paused to finish his mouthful of food. In the end, he decided to merely continue lining up his bow units on the right, so that they were all within firing range of Beam's approaching pieces. He rolled the dice for them, allowing them to shoot, securing a lucky roll and killing all three of the spear units that had been coming his way.

Beam continued to charge adamantly forward on the left. Dominus shifted his pieces slightly to cover his flank and give room for his cavalry units to escape and run alongside the approaching advance.

At the same time, Beam kept his remaining horseman on the right active. Whilst the bowmen were reloading, he crept tentatively forward with his piece, just as Dominus lined up his two spear units in front of the archers to protect them. But at that, Beam merely brought his cavalry unit back a pace – it allowed the archers the time they needed to reload, but he did it anyway.

On the left, the bulk of Beam's army crashed into Dominus' left flank. The dice were rolled ruthlessly, and luck was against him. He lost his first spear piece for nothing, but then three more crashed in, the dice were rolled and he secured victory twice, punching two holes in Dominus' frontline, and there were still yet more spear units rushing in behind them to secure the gaps.

Dominus sent all four of his cavalry pieces forward, running them alongside the massive charging army, looking for flanks, any spots that they might charge into.

They crept close, just about to make contact in a single turn, but that was when Beam pulled a single spear unit out of the charge, immediately annihilating the closest cavalry piece, only for it to get crushed itself as the other three surrounded it.

But now Beam's three cavalry pieces made it to Dominus' cavalry. Three cavalry units against three cavalry units, all while Beam's army rushed through, destroying Dominus' left flank piece by piece.

On the right, Dominus' 6 bow units turned to point their weapons towards the approaching attackers, ready to unleash a vicious volley. But Beam's own cavalry unit was still there, making things awkward.

Using its superior mobility, it drew the two defending spear units in, before dashing around them, towards the exposed backs of the archers. It managed to dive in, hit the archers in the back, killing two of them, before it ran out of moves.

And then a volley was unleashed, crashing mercilessly down onto Beam's attackers, ridding him of three spear units. The next turn, Beam's isolated cavalry unit was surrounded and crushed by the defending spearmen, but it had served its purpose.

The three cavalry units on either side faced off against each other. Dice were rolled. All three of Dominus' pieces were killed, whilst a single unit of Beam's survived. Beam sent it to join the attack.

Now that Beam had destroyed Dominus' left flank, he shifted his army, attempting to cover his own flanks as it turned. But his inexperience was revealed, and one of Dominus' spear units managed to sneak in unmolested, killing two units before it too was ultimately snuffed out.