Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1)

by Adam Drake

  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.

  A sudden break in the trees to the east made me pull Smoke to a stop who nickered in protest.

  It was the path through the forest. The one that lead to Grax.

  I looked at my Battle Points counter. 1,200. The exact amount required to hire him into my service.

  A smile spread across my face.

  Leaving Smoke at the edge of the trees, I ran through the forest along the path, my heart pounding with excitement.

  When I arrived at the little clearing, Grax was waiting expectantly.

  “You are here to free me?” the ogre rumbled.

  “I free you, and you help me, agreed?” I asked.

  He regarded me for several long, agonizing moments, then nodded his huge head. “If you can afford the price, I am yours to command.”

  Inwardly, I sighed with relief. When I pulled up his information screen it asked if I wished to hire this champion for 1,200 Battle points.

  “Heck, yeah!” I said and selected Yes.

  Champion Unit hired.

  My Battle points counter dropped to zero. The manacles around Grax's wrists unlocked and fell heavily to the ground.

  The ogre grinned and slowly stood. By the Gaming Gods, he was huge! Easily two stories tall and nearly as wide as my Keep.

  Grax stretched his thick arms which resembled massive oaks. “It will be good to fight again. Who shall I crush for you first?”

  Four Minute Warning!

  “Funny you should ask that,” I said. “Let's get to the central platform, quickly.”

  “And then?” he asked.

  “Crush everything there.”

  The ogre's grin grew wider. “That is a good plan, Commander.”

  We moved down the pathway, Grax's colossal frame bumping into trees, snapping them or felling them over.

  Emerging from the tree line, I was startled to see my new cavalry unit running toward me.

  The unit leader raised a hand in greeting, but I pointed northward.

  “To the platform!” I shouted. He nodded and thundered past.

  As I leapt onto Smoke, Grax practically exploded out of the forest, sending branches and trees flying everywhere. In his hands was a large log, a makeshift club. Placing one end on his shoulder, he turned and ran north, heavy footfalls shaking the ground.

  Wow, I thought, kicking Smoke into a gallop to catch up with the sprinting ogre. The champion's size and speed was terrifying. I was just thankful he was on my side.

  We rushed northward, and I made sure that the cavalry did not get too far ahead. As fast as Grax was, he wasn't faster than a horse at full charge.

  With no clue what we were about to face, we rounded the final bend. The anticipation was high.

  The grassy plains widened and the river with the platform came into view.

  Enemy units were assembled there.

  Two grunt units stood side by side on the southern edge of the platform, in square formation. They practically bristled with spears.

  On the north side of the platform were two units of archers spread out in a double line.

  And at the altar on the platform was my red bann
er, clutched by a skeletal hand. Beside it, sitting on her horse, was Amara.

  Oh, boy, I thought taking in the army before me. Could this get any worse?

  Enemy Spotted!

  Confused, I looked to my map.

  The Lookout at the Keep had spotted enemy units incoming from the northeast. It was the grunts and archers which had stopped me from chasing Amara. Now they were marching on my base.

  With a quick check at my gold levels I assigned both a footmen unit and archer unit to training. Hopefully, they would pop out in time to save the base.

  Three Minute Warning!

  And speaking of time.

  All three of us, me, Grax, and my lone cavalry unit, continued our suicidal charge at the platform. There was nothing else I could do now.

  Ownership of the banner would be decided in the next few moments. All or nothing, here we go.

  As we closed the distance to the waiting grunt units, I pointed my sword forward and screamed the one word which would now decide me fate.

  “Attack!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  A horrific volley of arrows rained upon us, but did not affect our speed. I did not have time to check everyone's damage, but neither I nor Smoke were hit.

  Just short of the bristling spear line, I stopped, letting Grax and the cavalry charge past. Switching to my bow I fired wildly into the assembled grunts. No point getting speared to death before the fight even started. Let the heavy units take them on.

  And take them on, they did.

  The cavalry charged headlong into the first grunt unit, horses stomping over bodies, spears snapping with the impact. The riders were screaming with rage and swinging their swords.

  Grax ran straight into the other unit of grunts. But before he got within spear range, he heaved his log with both hands over one shoulder and swung it across like a bat in a wide arc.

  Grunts and spears flew everywhere. One grunt even pinwheeled over the platform to bounce into the archers.

  Figuring Grax had the advantage for the moment, I concentrated my arrow fire on the grunts engaged with the cavalry.

  I risked a glance at Amara. Bow in hand, she hadn't moved, nor made any indication she was going to join in just yet. Plastered across her face was a smug smile.

  She knew she had this.

  Getting angry, I aimed my bow in her direction. But the archers fired again.

  Since they couldn't aim at the enemy tangling with their own units, they settled on the easier target.

  Me.

  The sky darkened with a swarm of descending arrows.

  Crap! I yanked on Smoke's reins and moved us out of the way just in time.

  Two dozen arrows sprouted from the ground I'd just vacated.

  In response, I fired back at the archers, hitting three in quick succession. But it wouldn't be enough. If left alone, those archers would eventually kill us all.

  Taking a tremendous risk, I shouted a command at the cavalry leader.

  “Ignore the grunts! Kill the archers!”

  The cavalry leader reacted instantly. His riders immediately disengaged from the grunts, and trampling over some of them, charged across the platform.

  Before the grunts could turn to follow, I took Smoke into their ranks, switching to my sword and swinging like a lunatic.

  To my right, Grax was stomping on grunts with his huge feet, and batting others into the air with log swings. But the survivors kept fighting, jabbing with their spears into his legs.

  Focusing on my own fight, I smacked away spear thrusts while using Smoke's size to push through the grunts. One decapitation followed another.

  At the periphery, my cavalry unit, already severally depleted having started short several men, was slaughtering one of the archer units, who had now routed.

  The other archer unit fired at my cavalry with impunity while keeping their distance.

  I cursed myself for not telling the cavalry to split themselves across both archer units. Now one archer unit served as bait while the other worked on finishing their attackers off.

  But I had no time to deal with this screw up. Smoke took a hard hit with a spear into his rear left leg and stumbled. The horse had received too much damage previously, and racing headlong into this fight without time to heal had taken its toll.

  Smoke teetered over to his right side, then collapsed. Feeling this about to occur, I barely leapt from the saddle over probing spear blades, and tumbled to the ground.

  Your Mount has been slain.

  Up on my feet again, Grax's shadow passed over me. He'd crushed and stomped the entire grunt unit on his own.

  “More battle,” he said as he strode into the remaining grunts. “More blood.”

  “All yours!” I said, relieved. A glance at Amara showed her still rooted in the same spot, only this time with a sword, but the same smug look on her face. What was she doing? She could have at least assisted her men with her bow and not given up her defense of the altar.

  Confused, I was about to run over to her when I noticed the last two riders of my cavalry cut down the final archer.

  But there was still the other archer unit. They fired a volley and one of the riders went down. The lone rider still charged at them. I knew he wouldn't make it.

  And once he was dead, those archers could easily take me out with a single volley.

  Two Minute Warning!

  I gave Amara a nasty look. She just smiled at me from her mount, unmoving.

  Convinced she would not attack, at least for the moment, I shouted to Grax. “Go crush those archers!”

  Grax immediately turned and raced toward them, causing a grunt to bounce of his leg and go flying. The remaining grunts tried to follow him but he was too fast.

  The last rider fell to the archer's volley, but not before Grax stomped into them, log-club swinging.

  I turned to Amara, sword at the ready. “You and I have some unfinished business.”

  She stared at me from atop her mount, grinning like an idiot.

  Not waiting for a reply, I ran at her, then jumped. I sailed through the air, screaming like a banshee. Just before the moment of impact, I swung my sword.

  And I sailed straight through her and tumbled across the platform.

  I spun around and looked at her in confusion. She wasn't solid. Phased?

  Sensing a trap, I cautiously moved closer to her, and swung my sword at the front legs of her horse.

  The sword passed through them, like they were nothing but air.

  Annoyed, and even more confused by now, I walked forward into the ghostly image swinging my sword.

  Amara and her horse suddenly flickered then vanished.

  It was a trick. It wasn't Amara at all. She'd left this image of her as a decoy. Where was she?

  Then it hit me. If she wasn't here, then my banner was unguarded.

  I moved toward the altar to take the banner from the outstretched hand of the skeletal altar.

  Four remain grunts suddenly rushed in to block my way, forming a line with spears at the ready.

  I snorted a laugh. This wouldn't take much. A glance at Grax showed he had crushed the archer's unit down to five men. The banner was as good as mine.

  A quick swing took out the closest grunt. But as I stepped in to take out the rest, I noticed movement in the trees to the north of the platform.

  A rider, wearing mostly gray with a blue vest, emerged from the forest and I recognized it as Amara. Behind her, from within the thick forest, something huge moved. An orange light appeared there and grew brighter.

  Suddenly, a tall being stepped out into the clearing. It was a tree, in the shape of a man, with arms and legs. I'd seen similar before in my questing life and knew it to be a Treant. But this was much bigger than any I'd encountered before.

  A champion.

  And being a champion, it couldn't be any old run of the mill Treant. It was on fire. Where there should have been leaves, there were large orange flames. Huge fires burned at the ends of its ar
ms. Large cracks in its trunk formed a kind of face, with eyes and a mouth. And from within those, a fire burned.