I found myself paralyzed with indecision. I had no soldiers or defenses and was about to be hit with what many players considered the most notorious tactic in a battle field game.
A grunt rush.
CHAPTER FOUR
Faced with little choice I decided to engage the enemy full on. Once within my base’s perimeter they would slaughter the workers and raze the Keep. And worst of all, the banner would be lost.
I had to stop them, but doing so on foot would be folly.
Summon Shadow Steed.
A magnificent black horse with full rider’s tack appeared before me. He nickered in greeting. This was my mount, Smoke.
I leapt up into his saddle and kicked him forward. As we closed the distance with the approaching trolls, I pulled up their stats.
Unit: Foot Soldiers
Battle Rank: Grunt
Hit Points: 100
Speed: 25
Main Weapon: Spear
A quick count told me that there were twelve trolls all together, with Amara as their back up. She’d pulled this tactic as a way to overrun my defenseless base and grab the banner. Never mind a long protracted battle, she was going for the quick and easy victory.
I found myself getting pretty angry and summoned my bow with a quiver of arrows. Several volleys into the grunts scored hits, but I had an accuracy penalty while riding so fast.
With neither the trolls nor I altering our course, I charged straight into them. At the last second I switched to my sword and swung at the nearest grunt. I sliced the top of his spear off and followed through to lop off his head.
A system message appeared.
You have killed a grunt. +1 Battle Points.
The status bar at the top of my view expanded to include a new indicator. Battle Points: 1.
But I barely noticed any of this, caught up in the heat of combat.
As the grunt’s corpse fell to the ground, the other trolls ran right past me, without trying to engage me at all. Their target was obvious: my workers, who blissfully chopped away at the trees.
I yanked at Smoke’s reigns to bring him around and swung at the head of the nearest troll.
You have killed a grunt. +1 Battle Points.
A sudden pain pierced my lower back, and I looked around.
Amara grinned at me as she nocked another arrow in her bow. She kept her distance to get better aim at me.
Two can play at this game, I thought. I switched to my bow and fired at her, but she easily dodged it.
“Think you got what it takes to beat me, FILTERED?” Amara shouted.
I was about to send Smoke into a full charge but pulled up short. This was what Amara wanted, to keep me busy and draw me away from my base.
Instead of taking the bait, I turned Smoke south and kicked him into a full gallop directly at the grunt unit. Behind me I heard Amara cursing, but I ignored her.
By now the trolls had entered the defensive perimeter of the keep. The Lookout was firing a bow at them but with little effect. He appeared to be the Keep’s only defender.
I shouted a warning to the workers, who all turned to gape at their inbound executioners.
The lead troll ran up to the closest worker and ran him through with a spear. The worker dropped his axe and fell over dead.
At that moment I charged into the backs of the trolls, swinging wildly. Two died in moments and were added to my Battle Points.
But my workers were dying left and right, felled by spears.
Suddenly, the trolls changed their attention from the frightened workers to target me.
Spears jabbed at Smoke’s side and I managed to batter some attacks away. The quick change caught me off guard but I recovered and pushed Smoke out of their midst.
As I lopped the head off of another troll, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.
Amara was charging past the keep, the Lookout feebly firing arrows at her. She wasn’t coming to save her grunts, or attack me.
She was going for the banner!
I tried to move to cut her off, but the grunts surrounded me again, spears jabbing. With frustration I shouted at the worker unit’s leader. “Get to the banner! Defend the banner!”
The leader blinked at me in disbelief, then held up his axe. He pointed toward the banner altar and yelled. “To the banner, boys!”
The surviving workers ran toward the altar which they were much closer to than Amara.
I knew I’d just sent them to their doom, but I needed time.
Smoke suddenly kicked backward sending a troll smashing against a tree. +1 Battle Points.
With more frantic swings of my sword, I managed to push us through the grunts. With a final decapitation, I ran at the banner’s altar.
The remaining workers, totaling six, arrived at the altar just as Amara did. They swung their axes but did almost no damage to her or her mount.
Finding them more of an annoyance, she tried to knock them aside with her horse. The workers only got in the way, slowing her down.
Close enough now to grab the banner, she reached out a hand.
My heart sank in my chest.
But the worker’s leader smacked her hand away with his axe, causing her to nearly lose her balance. She screamed with rage.
Then I slammed into her side at a full charge.
Amazingly, she recovered from this sudden assault and parried my sword swings. Her white horse kicked, and a worker pinwheeled away.
With an effort, I placed myself between her and the banner, our swords clashing. She was highly skilled with melee weapons, I gave her that, but kept up my attack.
The remaining troll grunts, three in all, joined the fray. Amara grinned, knowing I would be overwhelmed. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I now had to contend with four different attackers.
With only four workers as my defense force, I commanded them to concentrate on a single troll who’s health indicator showed to be the weakest of the three.
But the two other trolls pressed their attack, spears thrusting at me. One pierced Smoke’s side and my mount reared in pain, nearly throwing me off. But as the horse landed, he struck out with his forelegs and crushed a troll who stepped in for a killing blow.
+1 Battle Points.
As this was happening, Amara pushed in toward the altar, and this time grabbed onto the banner by its long wooden handle.
A system message practically screamed across my screen.
Your Banner Has Been Taken!
Amara yanked upward, but, dodging a spear thrust, I swung my sword around in a wide arc and connected with her shoulder.
She screamed in pain and let go of the banner.
Your Banner Has Been Returned!
The elven Shadow pulled her mount around to face off with me, sword in hand.
+1 Battle Points.
I didn’t kill anyone at that moment, and a quick glance told me that one of the trolls had been slain. But at the cost of two workers. The worker leader stood over the corpse of the troll, looking triumphant.
The last troll, taking advantage of my distraction, deeply speared my left side. My avatar gasped in pain, and blood flowed freely from the wound.
Not good, I thought with alarm as my health bar dropped almost in half.
In that instant Amara was one me. She swung her sword with an almost maniacal glee, sensing victory was at hand.
It took every thing I had to parry her blows, but my avatar was weakening from the bleeding wound.
Quickly, I opened my avatar’s inventory and selected a stack of Health Boosts to apply to my wound. These would bring up my hit points to 100% in an instant.