Chapter 61 - Mind Games

"Have you decided, Governor?" shouted Tyriece, looking up to Ming while letting his horse gallantly marched as if he was in a horse show.

"I want to meet your general first," said Ming.

"You are not qualified to meet our general." And Tyriece turned his back on Ming.

This move annoyed the latter. "Don't think I don't understand your situation. If you want to settle this soon, let your general face me." Ming spoke with no room for negotiation.

Tyriece heavily cursed as he left. Then he saluted to the tallest man with a red cape riding a winged white horse. It was General Lofey. The latter let his horse fly toward the gate and bowed to Ming.

"I'm General Lofey Lethmo, Governor Lei Ming." He spoke with the utmost care and with the proper diction as if he was a Youshian. It surprised the people to hear the foreign general spoke their language with clarity. However, Ming only smiled and bowed. Then he jumped down to his horse and let it fly to meet the general.

"Let's play checkers, General. The winner will have the privilege to set the rules for the fight," Ming said as he nudged the horse to move nearer to the general.

"Interesting. As you wish, Governor."

Ming clapped and three men ran out the gate with two chairs and a table. Another followed with a draught board complete with white and black game stones. The two let their horses down and started playing. Ming's chose the black pieces while General Lofey had the white.

"General, you're first to move as the invader." Ming gestured a hand on the board.

General Lofey nodded. "I'm impressed that you have stolen our food under our noses, Governor." He moved a piece from the middle going right.

"I'm equally impressed that you found it out soon. I even thought of going back to steal everything." Ming moved one diagonally meeting the general's first piece.

"You're a clever man, governor. You even prepared this empty lot with your deadly pits but you missed the point that I don't need this space to win the battle." The general moved left his rightmost piece.

Ming moved right his leftmost piece. "It was a tactic to corner your infantrymen, making them easy prey for my archers. I think you can see that."

The general forwarded the same piece to the only space he could move. "I know but we can avoid it by directly engaging your archers from the air."

Ming moved a stone from the second row to cover the empty slot beside the moved white piece, leaving only one path for the white piece to move, in case the general will use the same stone. "I also prepared men with good arms to hit your flying mounts."

Seeing his stone was trapped, the general moved his leftmost stone to the right. "I expected that but I have more men than yours. You will lose the same."

Ming moved a piece from the third row. "True, my men are few, but desperate to win. And desperados have only one thing in mind, to protect his loved ones to the death."

The game went on swiftly with no time for each player to think longer but to keep on forwarding a piece, while they tried to outwit the other through words until Ming had no choice but to give up a piece.

"My large army will devour your untrained men, governor. It's better to give up this fight to save the people." The general's piece ate Ming's stone.

"Are you sure this is the only way for us, general?" Unexpectedly, Ming moved and ate two of the general's pieces.

"Oh, I didn't see that coming." The general chuckled watching Ming took away his stones and finally saw that his every move was now under Ming's control. He warmly smiled to the young Governor Lei Ming. "You won this game of checkers descendant of General Lei Ming but I hope to see a good fight from you in actual combat."

"I'm honored that you know my great grandfather, General. And I expect the same from your side. But since I won, my rules are simple. We will engage your best men in three bouts. Win two to determine the winner but we have to finish the three fights. And no men are allowed to fight with blue stones or any stones on their bodies because I hate those things. No one must interfere during the fight. Lastly, no killing is allowed."

The general had no say since he lost the game. Therefore, Tyriece had to remove the blue stones and ignited his anger. "We need this to win, General."

"I trust you're capable of winning even without those stones from Mafan."

"Gosh, I thought you want to win. This is war. We can use different tactics to win." Tyriece said harshly.

However, the general ignored him and gestured for the young knight to remove the stones. "We fight for honor."

Tyriece reluctantly took off the stones. "Why did you agree with his terms in the first place? We have the might to defeat them. We should be the one in control, not them." He slammed the blue stones on the table. "You're a pathetic patriot to your hero, General Lethmo."

General Lofey ignored Tyriece's tauntings. "You're right, we have the might. But this governor couldn't be taken lightly. Remember in war, no one knows who wins until the last man drops dead."

"This is so pathetic. Fine, then can I use my power?"

"No... or I'll assign someone else," said General Lofey with firmness and took away the stone.

"Damn, I should have left with General Hester than staying here with you." After speaking, Tyriece rushed out from the meeting tent in anger.

General Lofey looked at the flapped tent door and sighed. He didn't know the governor knew about the blue stone. Somehow, it didn't matter much to him for he was against his men from using the stones from the start since it caused headaches for days after a fight.

On the other hand, the general also desired to see how good was his hero's namesake.