With the bowman dead, his body disintegrated and merged into a card. The card flew up face card aiming towards the bot and digitized. Of course, some players would buy effect packs that could modify the effects into something else. But by default, the cards display a digitizing effect.

 

Now, the cards that were digitized were gone forever. They became unusable and it’s difficult to recall them. This was the same for James’s horseman.

 

The only way for him to replenish his lost card was to buy a booster pack and hope for the best. Luckily, standard booster packs were cheap and horsemen had a high chance of appearing.

 

James glanced up and observed his opponent. The bot looked to its right at the shieldwarrior and gestured to him. The shieldwarrior bashed his shield in acknowledgement and charged towards his ‘king’.

 

With the shield slightly slanted outwards, the shieldwarrior bulldozed towards the bot. The bot charged towards the rook as well. In one powerful jump, the bot hopped on top of the shield and boosted over the shieldwarrior.

 

The shieldwarrior skidded to a stop at F1 and positioned himself defensively towards James and his black-armored warriors. Similarly, the bot landed next to the shieldwarrior and adopted a defensive position.

 

This was a classic move in chess known as ‘Castling’. But, in Battle Chess terms, this was known as ‘Guardian Stance’. The warriors standing before the ‘king’ formed a frontline barrier while the shieldwarrior acted as a bodyguard.

 

James mused over the bot’s move and wondered if it was going to play a defensive game. Since two can play that, the youngster decided to ‘Castle’ as well.

 

“Come!” He looked towards the shieldwarrior on his left and charged towards him.

 

In a matter of seconds, James arrived at G8 while the shieldwarrior skidded to a stop at F8. As soon as he ended his turn, the bot ordered one of its clubmen to march forward one block.

 

[Clubman E4 to E5, march! Prepare for an attack!]

 

The white-armored clubman raised up his club and approached James’s elite warrior from the left. The clubman looked on with conflicting expressions of fear and determination. The warrior feared the overwhelming presence of the enemy ‘queen’ but at the same time, he felt determination for success.

 

Since another white-armored clubman supported the clubman on E5 from the back, James could not send his elite warrior to attack first. Thus, he subtly ordered his elite warrior to retreat back to D8.

 

The bot paused for a bit as its computer-like brain started calculating some basic algorithms in order to determine its next move. After a few seconds, the bot decided to send its clubman on the far left up by one block to A3 to pressure James’s bowman.

 

“Bowman B4 to E7, regroup! Stand at the ready!” Since there was no need to pressure the horseman on C3 anymore, James decided to call back his bowman.

 

James did not want to risk his bowman just to intimidate a horseman for no reason all by himself. Not to mention, the horseman even had a clubman support him from behind. There was no way for James to kill off the enemy either. Since that option was out, James could only call back his ‘bishop’ and end his turn.

 

[Bowman D3 to E4, dive! Prepare for battle!]

 

James’s opponent inputted as the white-armored bowman dove forwards in front of a horseman and aimed his sights at James’s bowman some blocks away.

 

“What’s the point of putting that bowman there?” James muttered as he turned his attention towards the possible encounter. “I won’t even take the horseman since that clubman was supporting him. Is this a bait? Should I go for it?”

 

James shook his head and trashed that thought. Why would he go for it when the bot’s other horseman was within range for a counter? He didn’t feel like trading bishops. At this stage, it was pointless to do so because he had plans for his bowman.

 

Since the young man didn’t want to trade bishops, his only options left was to move his bowman out of the way or place a warrior as bait and cut off the enemy’s line of sight. However, if he was to move his bowman out of the way, his shieldwarrior would be targeted instead with no guard, support, or even a place to run.

 

“Clubman C7 to C6, march! Stand at the ready!” James signaled as the black-armored warrior eyed the opposing bowman and intercepted the enemy’s line of sight.

 

[Elite Warrior D1 to D3, march! Stand at the ready!]

 

The bot turned towards its most versatile warrior and ordered him to step up into the frontlines. Seeing the elite warrior move forward by a few blocks, James couldn’t help but wonder why the bot moved its warrior there.

 

Now, the enemy elite warrior was blocked on three sides. He couldn’t go left or right because of the two horsemen and he couldn’t move diagonally right because of the bowman. There’s even a clubman blocking his path straight ahead.

 

The only viable choice was to move it diagonally left but, even that, he could only move up one block. If he were to move up two or three blocks, he would have met with opposition from James’s clubman or bowman.

 

The bot wasn’t human so it was also possible that it had thought up a few moves ahead and moving the elite warrior there would play a crucial part sometime later. But, James did not want to wait for that to happen.

 

“Bowman B7 to A6, dive! Prepare for battle!” James ordered his bowman to bait the enemy elite warrior into either moving or attacking.

 

If the bot decided to attack James’s bowman, the young man would gladly trade his bowman with the enemy elite warrior. However, if the bot decided to move the ‘queen’ out of the way, James could also trade his ‘bishop’ with the bot’s shieldwarrior.

 

As the bot had big plans for its elite warrior, it could only move the warrior out of the way. [Elite Warrior D3 to E3, march! Stand at the ready!]

 

“Thank you very much! Bowman A6 to F1, kill!” James grinned as the bowman sprang into action.

 

With swift steps, the black-armored bowman scurried towards the enemy shieldwarrior. With each passing block, the bowman pulled out an arrow from his quiver and nocked it. Drawing his bow in mid-leap, he fired the bow at full power.

 

The enemy shieldwarrior raised his shield up to defend, but his movements were too slow. Before he could raise his shield to block, the arrow had already skimmed passed the shield and pierced through shieldwarrior’s throat.

 

The shieldwarrior dropped his shield as he staggered back in pain. He tried to close the two holes in his neck as blood flowed out continuously. His strength poured out with his blood and he collapsed on his knees.

 

The shieldwarrior looked up just in time to see the bowman point an arrow at his face. With a grimace, he ate another arrow. The shieldwarrior reverted back to a card and dissipated into 0’s and 1’s. The bowman took the shieldwarrior’s place and turned his attention at the bot.

 

For a split second, James could have sworn the bot was shifting nervously. But on a doubletake, the bot remained motionless, unaffected by the arrow pointing straight at it. It knew that, with the game rules, the bowman could never attack it from that position.

 

The bot stared down at the bowman and signaled. [Shieldwarrior A1 to F1, kill! Shield bash!]

 

The remaining shieldwarrior charged down the line and smashed the bowman into nonexistence. James couldn’t help but salute the warrior for his brave sacrifice. Trading a bowman for a shieldwarrior was well-deserved as James knew there had been more conquers with the help of ‘rooks’ than with ‘bishops’. With one enemy shieldwarrior down, James felt that his chances of winning had increased.