Some competitors decided to band together and eliminate the golems first. Someone will take the crown and taunt the golems with it. The rest will kill the golems and they will compete for the crown after the golems have been eliminated. They faced the first problem immediately. Who will hold the crown while they eliminate the golems?
Who will be the person to hold the crown? Can that person be trusted not to try and use the golems to eliminate the others? Can they be trusted not to run away with the crown? Who is ready to hold the crown knowing full well that they are next to be vanquished after the golems have been destroyed? Even if all these questions are answered and a solution is found, the next problem comes along quickly after that.
The person that grabbed the crown in this particular group is a lady. They were quick to find a solution because they swore oaths. Oaths are a good foundation for cooperation. You might not trust the person, but you can trust that they will fulfill their oaths as long as they don't want to harm themselves critically.
The lady picked the crown and escaped the boundary of the pyramid with it. The golems formed up and gave chase. The group began fighting the golems as soon as they transformed. That was a bad idea. The golems have low levels of intelligence but they are not stupid. They know how to prioritize well enough.
The crown is very important but it is not as important as the obstacles blocking their path to the crown. The golems understood that they need to clear the obstacles if they want to get the crown. The assailants are the obstacles so the golems turned on their assailants and began eliminating them quickly. They ignored the crown thief no matter what she did. No amount of flaunting or taunts turned their attention from destroying the obstacles.
Some groups faltered at this point. They expected the golems to be drones with a single-minded focus on regaining the crown. They were shown the errors of their ways by being quickly overwhelmed and defeated. Watching their mates being cut down easily and in large quantities made their morale plummet. So they gave up and ran away. They scattered with the golems cutting more of them down with arrows and such.
It was only after the crowd of competitors had dispersed that the golems turned their attention to the crown thief and began hounding them. Their plan to cooperate failed spectacularly because the golems are not fools.
Fortunately for other more fortunate groups, they are large in number. They were not prepared for the intelligence that the golems showed but they met the challenge with equal power nonetheless. They fought the golems and destroyed some of them. Some of them gained weapons which made fighting the golems easier. The second problem reared its ugly head soon after. They were betrayed.
The betrayal came in different forms to the different groups who were able to reach this stage. For some, it turned out that their solution was in fact wrong. The crown thief ran away with the crown. Nothing in the path said that the crown thief had to stop when running away. The oath only said that the crown thief has to give up the crown once the golems have been eliminated.
The crown thief ran away from the golems and continued to run while the others fought the golems. If the crown thief isn't here, then they wouldn't be able to ask it to give up the crown for fair competition. In such situations, the people left behind have to choose between continuing fighting or chasing after the crown. Most people actually want to continue killing the golems. They know their worth and don't think themselves worthy of having a crown.
The problem comes with the ones that believe they should have the crown. These groups of people are few in number and it shouldn't be a problem if they leave. The issue is that some of these people are smart enough to realize that even if they get the crown, they need a group to defend it from others. Or they will be submerged by enemies from every side. So these people take their group with them and break up the fighting force. Their corporation failed at this point as the golems overwhelm the rest. Then the golems began chasing after the crown thief.
In other situations, the betrayal is not from the crown thief. Most people selected to be crown thieves are weak or without allegiance to groups. It is a precaution in case the crown thieves betray the rest. They will be easy to subdue.
It easy to overwhelm weak crown thieves. It also makes it easy for the crown thief to be overwhelmed by a few people who are not part of their cooperation while the others are busy with the golems. So they were attacked by opportunists and the crown was stolen while most of them are busy with golems. Then the decision to give chase or stay put is put forth again.
Even if betrayal doesn't take place because of the cohesion, oaths, and coordination of the group, it doesn't stop another group from lying in wait. These opportunists will wait for the first group to fight the golems. Then they will pounce when they are weakened. It is a pretty common occurrence in the Arena.
Two things soon became clear as people fought against themselves and against the golems. It is that a group is needed and that a powerful being is also needed. If a crown is to be secured, there is a need for strong cooperative strength and powerful individual strength.
The perfect group must have large numbers of foot soldiers and a very powerful person as the leader. Having numbers is obvious. The more people are in your group, the more powerful it is. But that alone is not enough to secure a crown. A group needs someone very powerful to keep the crown secure.
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