Blackout Series (Books 1-2)

by Adam Drake

  As I fell downward amongst the arrow cloud, I had the strange arrow-eye view of their trajectory.

  But I came up short of the platform.

  Instead, I landed right on the shoulders of a troll cavalry leader who grunted with the impact. Someone managed to slice my left thigh with a sword and nearly caused me to fall.

  Even injured, I could still use my momentum and jumped from the cavalry leader and sailed over the front lines.

  An attempt at a graceful landing was foiled by my odd angle and extensive injuries, and I tumbled across the platform to slam hard against the altar.

  For a few seconds, my avatar could only see stars.

  Arrows landed around me, and someone was screaming at me to get back. I looked up to see a footman leader trying to help me but an arrow punctured his temple and he fell from my wobbly view.

  Well, I'm here, I thought, trying to stand.

  Human cavalry and footmen created a line across the platform only a few paces from the altar. A massive crush of enemy units pressed against them.

  I'm losing the platform.

  Grax loomed over me. “You are injured.” He said, log-club on his shoulder.

  His health bar was worse than mine. “You, too,” I said.

  Suddenly, the sky darkened.

  It was Amara on Yuinnick circling overhead. She was low to the ground, and I ordered all my archers to change their targets to her.

  As arrows shot up toward her, she dived.

  “Death now,” Grax said, hefting his weapon. “It shall be glorious.”

  I blinked at the red banner in my hand. What was I just standing here for?

  Quickly, I whirled about and jammed the banner's handle into the waiting skeletal hand.

  Blue Banner has been captured! Five minute countdown begins!

  A counter appeared on my view-screen, but I didn't have time to even notice.

  Amara practically fell from the sky and slammed into me. We tumbled across the crowded platform, bouncing against the legs of horses and men.

  As I skidded to a halt, I saw Yuinnick fly straight into Grax who dropped his club at the last moment to grab the giant bird with both arms.

  With a loud thump both champions shot across the platform and vanished over the edge. A huge splash of water geysered upwards when they hit the river.

  Amara had recovered and stood with sword in one hand, and my red banner in the other.

  “Time to fail, you miserable FILTERED!” she yelled.

  Before I could retort a footman stepped out of the front line crush and stabbed her right through her abdomen, its point sticking out her back.

  Screaming in pain Amara dropped my banner where it landed in an upright position right at the edge of the platform above the river.

  Your Banner Has Been Dropped!

  Amara's health bar dropped to less than 20% and she grabbed her injured side with her free hand. With her sword she decapitated the footman.

  Stunned, I moved toward my banner. If I could just nudge it off the platform, it would be returned. Or maybe since it hadn't been placed in the altar it would be instantly returned at my touch. One way to find out.

  But as I moved, Amara staggered forward and swung her sword at me.

  Losing blood fast, I only just managed to parry it away.

  “This isn't over, FILTERED,” she yelled over the fighting around us and coughed up blood. “I still have time.”

  “You're getting your butt spanked by a noob,” I said with a bloody grin. “I'll post it on all the forums. I promise you.”

  This got her really angry, and she lunged forward.

  But as we swung at each other with weakening blows, a shadow fell over us.

  Looking up I saw two sets of massive arrow clouds falling toward us. Dozens from her side, dozens from mine.

  Then they found their mark. Arrows hit me over several places across my body.

  I heard Amara scream in pain.

  As I fell over and my vision dimmed to nothing, two messages appeared before me.

  You have been slain in battle!

  Amara Frostwalker has been slain in battle!

  Then my screen went black.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was all I could do but stare at the two death messages in amazement.

  We both died? What now? What about the banners?

  Amara's banner was still in the grip of the skeletal altar, while mine sat perched on the platform's edge. And now no one was there to return either.

  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 the
ir 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!

  I suddenly found myself pushed from behind by a horse's flank and I crashed into Amara who yelped in surprise.

  Five Second Warning!

  But the horse didn't just push me, it fell over with a horrible cry and landed right on me and Amara.

  The Blue Banner Has Been Dropped!

  Four Seconds!

  Amara and I were pinned from the waist down under the horse.

  We were right near the edge of the platform. The blue banner stood upright on the very edge, almost teetering over.

  Desperately, she stretched outward toward the banner with a painful scream, while locking swords with me via her other hand.

  Three Seconds!

  I grabbed at her outstretched arm, but the movement only served to help her touch the banner's wooden pole with the tip of her fingers.

  With my sword arm I kept it pushed up against her own.

  Two Seconds!

  Amara ignored me completely and stretched all she could. The tips of her fingers nudged the banner. The banner moved several millimeters and began to teeter.

  Frustrated, I quickly switched the sword with my bow, which remained pressed up against her weapon.

  One Second!

  I summoned my magma arrow. As it appeared in my quiver, I instantly reached back to snatch it then nocked and fired the molten projectile directly into Amara's face at point blank range.

  Then the deafening sound around me suddenly stopped.

  Everything froze, like pausing a movie. I blinked in surprise. The magma arrow, sticking out of Amara's eye, had just begun to boil its way through her skull.

  I took a screenshot.

  Then she vanished. The horse that held me down vanished. The soldiers and trolls around me vanished. And so did the rest of the world until all that remained was a white void.

  Then a message appeared, the words hanging in the empty space before me.

  Vivian Valesh is Victorious!

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  For several long moments, I stared at the floating message.

  My heart still pounded in my chest, my breath heavy and near gasping.

  I won.

  The realization didn't click in right away, but the Battle Field was gone and the fighting was over.

  I won!

  Astonished, I pushed myself up from the nonexistent ground to stand.

  I defeated Amara. Better yet, I defeated Amara in my very first Battle Field gaming session.

  Somewhere out past the white void, in the real world, the player who controlled Amara was cursing up the mother of all filtered storms.

  I laughed until tears rolled down my face and collected at the bottom of my view-screen.

  Beautiful.

  The void dissolved into a swirl of colors and I found myself standing back in the cavern chamber on its middle rise, where this mess had all started.

  As I looked around, I shouted in surprise and summoned my sword.

  All the skeletons in the chamber who had been laying on the ground, now stood facing me. Each one pointed at me with an outstretched arm.

  What was this? Another final fight?

  Rumbling laughter made me turn about.

  Y'Godda's spirit stood beside me, resplendent in his bright white armor.

  “Don't worry, adventurer. They will not harm you. They only wish to congratulate you on your victory over such a skilled opponent.”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said trying not to sound doubtful. Funny way to congratulate someone. But if they weren't going to attack, I'd take it.

  “And, I too, wish to offer my congratulations,” Y'Godda said, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It was tough, but a fun learning experience.”

  Learning experience was an understatement. Trial by fire would be a better analogy.