Thankfully, neither could any of our units. Only players could carry or return a banner.
I thought of what filtered obscenities Amara must be screaming at her screen right now and laughed. If it was any consolation, we were both on the same respawn timer and the same distance from the middle.
Whoever got there first would have the advantage.
Four Minute Warning!
I grinned at the timer message. Amara would have received it, too. I’m sure many more filtered words were being spit out by her at that moment. And there was nothing she could do about it, being dead and all.
Still, it underscored the need for me to get to the middle and fast.
After thirty seconds had counted down, I appeared in the crypt – again. This was becoming a bad habit. I jumped off the slab and raced up the narrow stone steps.
Once in the Keep, I ran out the door only offering the Lookout above an over-the-shoulder wave.
I summoned Smoke, and we took off to the western curve. Units of various types were lined up even down here, so long was the back up to fight at the middle. Many waved and cheered me on perhaps sensing something major was about to happen.
I sensed it, too. But considering how Amara had surprised me so much, I feared for an ignominious loss.
As we raced past the western curve and drove northward another message appeared.
Three Minute Warning!
My eyes locked on the map. Unit icons were on unit icons and through all that mess it looked as if possession of the platform was evenly split, for now.
Based on past runs north, I figured I’d get to the platform in a little over two minutes. But as for Amara?
Realizing something, I quickly scrolled through my combat log while Smoke charged northward.
The combat log was long. Like, really long. It detailed every attack by nearby units and then listed deaths and victories when I wasn’t in the vicinity.
I quickly scrolled back to just after I died. There I saw two messages.
Yuinnick, the Champion, has died in battle.
That meant Amara could no longer fly. Thank the Gaming Gods. Now she’d have to muck about on the ground with the rest of us mortals.
But there was another message directly below it.
Grax, the Champion, has died in battle.
That genuinely saddened me, but I was not surprised. His health was nearly gone, and he wanted to die while fighting. He got his wish and in doing so removed a vital threat from Amara’s arsenal.
As I approached the final bend toward the middle, I spotted Amara’s icon on the map heading southward from the eastern curve.
Dang, she was fast. Too fast.
I kicked at Smoke’s sides, but it didn’t increase the poor mount’s speed.
Two Minute Warning!
We rounded the bend to the middle clearing. The platform was so jammed with units, both on it and around, I couldn’t see the altar anymore. Just the twin golden beams of light projecting upwards from the banners.
Then I spotted Amara. She was trying to negotiate her white mare through the throng of trolls. Even from this distance I could tell she was yelling and screaming at everyone in her way.
I had a similar problem and kept to the furthest edge of the approach along the northern tree line, the same one I’d crossed into before heading to Amara’s base. Still, units were crowding up against the trees.
“Make way! Commander coming through!” I yelled over the din. The message was relayed along and units did their best to let me pass, but the crush of bodies and horses was incredible.
A glance told me that Amara and I were roughly the same distance from the platform.
I kicked and swore and pushed my way through the crowd. But just a dozen paces away from the platform’s southern edge Smoke could not move any further.
I contemplated dismounting but that would make my progress even worse, even impossible.
Then a gray figure caught my eye.
From the opposite side of the platform, Amara had jumped. She sailed over the crushing throng and vanished into the crowd on the platform itself.
One Minute Warning!
Fine, I thought. If it’s good for her, it’s good for me, too.
From Smoke’s back I stood and angled myself at where I wanted to land.
The Blue Banner Has Been Taken!
No!
I jumped and with my Leap ability, sailed over the crush of men and horses beneath me.
Up above, I clearly saw the altar and Amara was standing on it holding the blue banner. She needed to get it off the platform but her attention was at her feet.
Amazingly a footman had grabbed onto her leg with both hands, preventing her from moving.
Cool! I thought as I fell upon her, sword swinging.
With bizarre luck she sensed me near her and she spun about to block my attack. I collided with her and we both fell over the altar and into the mad crush around it.
Even as we landed, we still swung at each other although she was hampered by carrying her banner in one hand.
“Going somewhere?” I yelled as we both scampered to our feet.
“FILTERED!” she screamed, facing off against me. “Go return your banner! It’s over there!”
“I may be a noob, but I’m not stupid,” I said. What did I care about my banner now? Going for it would guarantee she could get her own banner off the platform. Then this mess would start all over again.
A troll rider accidentally bumped his horse up against Amara. She spun around and slashed at him causing the mount to kick and split the skull of a troll grunt.
I lunged forward and stabbed her in the shoulder. But as I did so, an arrow hit me in the stomach and pierced deeply, all the way to its fletching.
Uh-oh.
Thirty Second Warning!
My health dropped to less than half within an instant.
Amara, for her part, didn’t care. Instead, she was trying to push her way through the crowd. I realized she wanted to get to the edge of the platform over the water. Once there, her banner would be returned.
Despite my near fatal wound, I swung at her again and again. Each time she would parry while pushing her way slowly backwards through the crowd.
The noise was deafening with screams of the dying and the constant clashing of steel.
Twenty Second Warning!
So obsessed with getting the banner to the edge, Amara tried to pull away from me all together. She was scared. Not of me, but of losing.
As I attempted to step closer a troll grunt stumbled over to block me. Angered, I slashed at him, but he managed to parry the blow. Behind him Amara turned around and faced the direction of the river. She was going to try to throw the banner over!
I dodged the troll’s lunge and slashed the tip of the spear off followed by his head, for good measure.
Ten Second Warning!
Amara suddenly threw the banner. But a cluster of cavalry riders, both human and troll, were directly in her way, fighting. The banner rose up but smacked against the side of a human rider and fell to the ground, standing up.
The Blue Banner Has Been Dropped!
I swung at Amara, and this time because her attention was on her banner, she was slow to block it. A bloody gash appeared across her right shoulder.
She was shouting, but I couldn’t really hear her. It sounded like no, no, no, over and over again.
With a sword feint in my direction that I foolishly backed away from, she lunged at the banner and grabbed it again.
The Blue Banner Has Been Taken!