The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 198

Part 27

"Your leadership was unshakably positive and optimistic, you endeared yourselves to the people of every race to a surprising degree, and you inspired them. Unsurprisingly, the youth of Kellaran were your strongest supporters.

"Your command was characterized by very quick and inventive thinking, wise delegation of duties, and one of the most aggressive military strategies of any team.

"You attacked almost immediately with gods and Strike Wizards. You correctly evaluated the enemy's strength within a few hours, and knew that a quick and sudden victory was not in the offering. By carefully and gradually deploying, you fought a tenacious and continuous battle with the demons almost all the way to Kellaran. Doing so denied your people as much time to develop their capabilities as they had under some of the more patient teams, but that was balanced because you fought an effective war of attrition, and by the time the demons were close enough to attack Kellaran, there were fewer of them than in any other team's scenario. Another fact is worth noting; until the demons reached the inner worlds and you attacked them with the warships of Kellaran and the Triax, not one single life was lost among our alliance. He went on to outline their war in greater detail as the Revealing above displayed it, then concluded their presentation.

"Know that the placing of the final teams was largely decided by how many of our people were killed, how much of Kellaran's surface and oceans were destroyed, and how much destruction of The Triax's major vessels occurred.

"All of the top five teams, including yours, had very similar results. All of you lost less than one in two thousand persons in achieving victory. The differences in the second through fifth placed teams' results were so slight that they might justifiably be attributed to random chance.

"You came very, very close to achieving outright victory in this tournament. The teams who placed ahead of you include many members of long-lived races with many millennia of experience, and you have almost matched them.

"You should take great pride in your achievement, for it is incredible in the estimation of any thinking being."

"Thank you." Six said for his team, and they were given an enthusiastic ovation by everyone there as they bowed first to Pakdag, and then to the gathering.

Fourth place was won by the team led by Prince Jaromer of Thon and composed of the elite of the elven race, along with select members from other races. Third place was taken by a team led by Tithian and others of the Senate of The People of Morning, and included the elite of the other Xervian races from The Grand Council of Xervia, and a few from other races. Second place went to the team of Somonik and some of The Ninety-Nine, with a few members from every other race.

Despite their diversity, each of those teams was dominated by the character of their leader, and of their leader's race. All three enjoyed strong support and good morale. All three of their races were well-known to be devastating in warfare, which helped their popularity. The elves and the unicorns were also globally popular and trusted due to their consistent records of just behavior and non-intervention with other races. While dragons weren't nearly as well-liked as those two races, Somonik's personal appeal as a great leader with a record of many millions of years of just behavior, self-sacrifice, and wise decision- making overcame his team's lesser overall popularity.

The close similarity in those three teams' results were unsurprising once it was realized that they had played with very similar tactics and strategies. All three had been among the most conservative and least aggressive teams, patiently building their capabilities and biding their time until the most opportune moments to strike. In point of fact, they had all used the same strategy that The Kellaran-Triax Alliance actually planned to use against the demons in reality. The differences in their command styles and abilities, and the differences in peoples' response to them, were not great enough to make a significant difference to the outcome.

"Now, regarding the winning team; I do believe that a bit of suspense is in order." Pakdag finally said with an uncharacteristically mischievous little chuckle as the great Revealing began diagramming and showing highlights of the best performance.

"The victory was convincing, comprehensive, and decisive. Almost every criteria by which such a competition may be judged was swept by the winning team.

"As I've said; compared to all the rest of the teams, the best five were distinct in having much lower totals of friendly casualties and damage. But even among the best five, the winning team stands out by having allowed only three-fifths of the casualties suffered under the second place team, which was led by Somonik.

"The morale and spirit of our militaries and civilian populations were significantly better under the winning team than under any other leadership.

"The effectiveness of all our fighters and the productivity of our civilians were better under the victorious team than under any other.

"Your tournament champion's performance allowed the least damage to our infrastructure and homes, and more was built during the performance than was destroyed, so we ended with more than we began with.

"Similarly, our champion allowed the

least damage to the wilderness and waters of Kellaran, and more natural life was planted and sown by us in previously devastated or desert area than was destroyed by the demons over the same time. Some of what the demons did destroy was already fully reclaimed even before they were defeated. By this process of constant reclamation, our champion was prepared to deal with a lengthy demon-war on Kellaran while reducing the chance that the life of our world would be killed off around us by the demons before we finished fighting them. Our victory in the winning scenario was swift enough that this precaution was unnecessary, but the point is still worth noting.

"That was one of the more common and surprising downfalls among the teams who suffered defeat, by the way; they allowed so much of the life of Kellaran to be killed off and poisoned while they were fighting the demons that our world became unsurvivable. More of our mortal populations then died from poisoning or thirst or starvation than were killed by the demons.

"But during the finest of today's performances our population actually grew, for more were born than were killed.

"The tournament-winning strategy

was both cautious and aggressive,

and involved waiting until the

demons showed the first signs of readying to attack us. Every possible moment was used to improve

forces before we acted, trustin

that

we were always improving our military capabilities more quickly than the demons were, and therefore every moment of delay before attacking them improved the

probability that we would be

victorious. That was the cautious part.

"When our champion's observers finally reported the first signs of the demons' engagement preparations, the enemy were only some three million kilometers from Kellaran. That is only twice as far as Elbin, our furthest moon. At that point we were led against the demons in an all-out attack of absolute dedication and commitment. All of our gods, all of the gods of The Triax, all of our vessels, all of The Triax vessels, all of our mortals, all of our power. All were deployed against the demons in a simultaneous attack that was both the largest single deployment executed in the tournament, and one of the most well-coordinated. Nothing was held in reserve, absolutely nothing. And that is aggressive indeed. The demons were destroyed to the last within a month, three-quarters of them on the first day of hostilities, and only a meager portion of them ever made it to Kellaran.

"My fine fellow citizens of The Kellaran-Triax Alliance, I proudly give you the champion of The Tournament of Governors, commander of the winning team, Kellaran's greatest Leader; Prince Mark of Hilia!" Mark found himself letting out a huge sigh of relief, and chuckled at himself a bit upon realizing that he'd been holding his breath from the suspense for many minutes without discomfort.

The huge room erupted in cheering and applause as every one of Mark's family and friends who were present tried to hug him and congratulate him at once, and succeeded to one extent or another. After about nine seconds of that Alilia laughed and loudly commanded the rest; "Enough! Let the man claim his due before we smother him!"

They let him go, but he held onto Talia and Alilia. "You two are coming with me." he declared with a grin, and carried them to the center of the stage as the ovation continued all around them.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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