It was like watching the cavalry unit attack, but in reverse. The Keep’s hit points began to slowly climb up.
“Commander, what should we do with these?” asked a footman. He held one of the cavalry horses by the bridle. I looked around and saw at least eight or nine more of the animals wandering about.
“Can you ride them?” I asked.
“Yes,” the footman said. “If you are willing to pay for the training.” A tile appeared next to the man’s head.
Upgrade this footmen unit to cavalry unit.
Cost 200 gold. Yes/No?
My gold counter was at zero and the moment any was added it vanished. I realized that the repair work to the Keep was taking it all.
I selected No.
“Going to have to wait on the upgrade for a little while,” I told the footman. “Until then, corral these horses together and place them in the barracks.”
The footman saluted and the men set about capturing the horses.
Well, at least I’d get a cavalry unit out of this mess, I thought.
Then I noticed a message appear in my combat log, with a bunch of previous ones I hadn’t noticed in the heat of battle.
Footmen Unit Eliminated.
Oh, shoot. I looked to my map just in time to see the last unit icon of my forces fighting on the plains blink out.
All three footmen units and the lone archer unit were no longer present on the map.
My army had been destroyed.
I cursed. Could this situation possible get any worse?
You Banner Has Been Taken!
What?!
My head snapped around to the altar.
There, clutching the red banner in her hands was Amara. She must have snuck in under Shadow Form during the fighting.
Before I could react, she summoned her mount and jumped into the saddle with a single leap. Then she charged off.
“Eat FILTERED, ya FILTERED!” She screamed.
By the Gaming Gods.
Amara had my banner!
CHAPTER NINE
Recovering from my shock, I leapt onto Smoke and gave chase.
Amara’s white horse was frighteningly fast, and I hoped Smoke could catch up with it. She headed to the northeast curve of the lower circle. I figured she didn’t want to risk running into any potential elements of my now defeated army on the western curve.
Regardless, her destination was clear: The central platform. There, once the banner was placed and held for five minutes, she would win.
Grass blurred underneath me, and trees whipped by. My eyes were locked onto her back. Although out of range for the moment, I switched to my bow and summoned a magma arrow. If it killed her before, it could do it again.
I should have suspected the cavalry attack was meant to cause a distraction while she got close to the banner in Shadow Form.
Had I kept a footman unit on the altar, this probably wouldn’t have happened. But, admittedly, I was having a difficult time managing everything that was going on.
My newbie-ness to the Battle Field would now cost me the Lost War Banner of Y’godda, and beyond that, mess up my chance at returning it for the quest reward.
I hated failing at quests. Sure, it happened once in a while. But this time I’d fail because another player took it from me.
Anger blossomed in my chest, and I kicked at Smoke unnecessarily to close the gap.
As our chase rounded the curve, an enemy unit appeared. Grunts. Then, behind them, a unit of archers.
Amara was racing directly toward them.
I didn’t have much time, so I nocked the magma arrow. The speed we were travelling coupled with Smoke’s galloping motion messed with my aim, but I only had one chance to take her out.
I fired.
The arrow flew right at her. But, instead of striking her in the back and giving me the glorious show of watching her bubble away into a puddle of lava, the arrow zinged past her head.
Quickly, I summoned a full quiver of normal arrows and shot at her. It would be awhile before I could use another magma arrow.
One struck her steed in the rump, but the rest missed completely.
Ahead, the troll grunts broke from their square formation and spread out into a single line, spears at the ready.
I already knew I wouldn’t catch up with her but that didn’t cause me to slow down. She had the banner.
The grunts made a space in the middle of their protective line, and Amara charged through it. Then the archers fired a volley.
This made me pull up short, yanking hard on Smoke’s reins. As I tried to turn us away, I knew I’d screwed up again.
Arrows fell around me. One pierced my thigh, and two others struck Smoke’s side.
Smoke reared in pain, and I desperately tried to keep control of him.
The archers brought out new arrows. Behind them was the retreating form of Amara, my red banner flapping wildly in the wind.
The grunts moved forward at a run and the archers fired, again.
“Go!” I shouted. Poor Smoke nickered and bucked and I thought I’d be thrown to the ground.
Thankfully, he let me turn him south and he bolted into a full run.
Arrows thudded around us.
After we had run several hundred paces, I stopped and looked back.
Amara’s distant form vanished around the bend, and with it, my hope of catching her.
What could I do? Soon she would be at the platform.
My mind raced.
There was only one thing I could do, even if the outcome would be the same.
I kicked Smoke into a run. As we headed south, I looked at my poor beleaguered base on the map.
My one footman unit stood near the Keep. Then I remembered the horses. The cavalry upgrade.
But my gold was near zero. The repairs to the Keep were still ongoing and sucking up what gold was being actively mined.
With frustration growing, I pulled the worker unit off the Keep and sent them back to the gold mine.
The gold level started to rise, but not fast enough for my liking.
We reached the base, but I continued on past it toward the western curve. The footmen waved. There was no time to do anything here. Not even to stop and heal in the Keep.
I sent a command to the footmen’s leader to upgrade to cavalry once 200 gold had been collected. Then, he was to take his unit directly to the central platform via the western curve.
In my heart I knew it would not be enough, but since the game was close to ending, I felt like I needed to at least try.
If I was going to fail, I’d fail while using everything available to me.
The base passed from view as I rounded the western bend and headed north. I saw past the trees the beam of light in the sky which indicated the location of my banner.
Had she reached the platform?
Red Banner Placed. Five minute countdown begins.
Yup.
A timer appeared at the top right of my vision and started counting down.
As I continued north, I passed the location of the battle. There were no bodies or discarded weapons as the game cleaned them up after a short time.
I almost expected to run into any remaining elements of the troll units, but it appeared whoever survived had been pulled back.
Approaching the final bend that lead to the middle section and the platform, I felt my heart sink. I’d really messed this whole thing up, right from the beginning.
Having avoided playing on Battle Fields all these years was now going to cost me. At that moment, I resolved to actively try them after this. If my future questing even had a slight chance of ending up on a Battle Field, I wanted to be ready.
But first, I had to suffer the agony of defeat.