Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1)

by Adam Drake

  How hard could that really be?

  A shout pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked to the source.

  At the top of the keep, leaning over the battlements, was a soldier clad in light armor. The indicator 'Lookout' was above his head. He pointed to the northwest. “Enemy spotted!” He shouted.

  Shocked, I looked to where he pointed.

  A large group of humanoids were running across the grass plains directly at me. They were tall, green and armed with spears. Each wore basic trousers and a simple blue colored jerkin.

  Trolls.

  Behind them, mounted on a sparkling white horse, was Amara. Even from this distance I could see her grin.

  The trolls were approaching at an alarming speed, such was their racial advantage.

  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.

  But when I tried to use the Health Boost, a red system message appeared.

  Not a Battle Field item. Cannot be used.

  What the heck? I thought while dodging a spear thrust.

  I tried to use the Health Boost, again, but the same message appeared.

  A cry of anguish pulled me back into the situation.

  Amara had switched to her bow and shot the worker leader through the head as he tried running at her.

  Rage overtook me. With a determined focus, I smacked away the last troll's spear thrust and jammed my sword through its throat. It collapsed to the ground.

  +1 Battle Points.

  Amara backed her mount away a few paces from me, a victorious grin plastered across her smug face. “Got any final words, FILTERED?” she said raising her bow to aim at me.

  I'd maneuvered myself between her and the banner's altar. With one hand covering the bleeding wound in my side, I knew the writing was on the wall.

  “Yeah,” I said with a smile. “Give up now and I will show you mercy.”

  Amara cackled. “You got quite the mouth on you. Had I known you were a Battle Field noob, I would have waited a while longer before crushing you. Built a full army and then marched over the ruins of your base.”

  As she spoke, I noticed a system message at the bottom of my screen. It was marked as a non-priority. When I brought it up, it caused me to catch my breath.

  Your only Worker Unit has been eliminated. Do you wish to purchase another – Cost 100 gold? Yes/No?

  “Oh, heck, yeah!” I blurted.

  Amara's triumphant expression flickered with confusion. “What are you talking about? You want me to crush you?”

  “Yes,” I said with a widening smile.

  Worker Unit purchased.

  Suddenly, the door to the Keep flew open and a dozen new workers spilled out in a rush.

  Amara shifted her focus from me to the new arrivals and fired her bow at them. One of the workers died from the shot.

  Immediately, I pointed at Amara and shouted, “Get her!”

  The eleven remaining workers turned their heads in unison to look at Amara. Axes appeared in their hands which they raised with a cheer, then charged.

  Amara barked a laugh as she shot and killed another worker. “This is pathetic,” she said. “You are just delaying the inevitable, you stupid FILTERED.”

  She was right, I thought. But only partially.

  I summoned a Magma arrow which appeared in my quiver. At close quarters, I hadn't bothered using my bow against Amara. She was too fast, and the game penalized range attacks within a short range. But now an opportunity presented itself.

  The worker unit massed around her, commanding her attention. For whatever reason, she did not run away, or try to get distance from them. Instead, she switched to her sword and hacked at her feeble attackers.

  Ignoring various 'You are bleeding out!' health warnings, I took aim and fired.

  Amara must have sensed the attack coming. As she cut the head off of a determined worker, she looked over at me.

  The magma arrow hit her right in the sternum, piercing her chest. Instantly, she dropped her sword and her avatar screamed in pain. Her screams turned into a hellish gurgling sound.

  I knew what was about to happen and commanded the workers to fall back, which they did.

  Amara fell from her horse and spasmed on the ground. From her mouth and ears gushed hot lava. It melted her face away in an instant and soon bubbled over her entire body.

  In seconds, Amara's avatar had been rendered down to a bubbling puddle of magma. Her horse turned and ran away in fright.

  A system message appeared.

  Vivian Valesh has killed Amara Frostwalker. +1,000 Battle Points.

  The workers let out a cheer, but I wasn't feeling particularly victorious. Yes, I had killed her, but she'd be back once she resurrected at a crypt.

  The only way to win this battle field was with her banner.

  Still, at least I prevented her from stealing an early victory with a grunt rush tactic.

  I pushed these thoughts from my mind. My avatar's health dropped further and the image on my view-screen wavered.

  Crap, I thought. I can't die now. Amara would get a thousand battle points! She didn't deserve that!

  I suddenly found myself on the ground, Smoke looking down on me with equine concern.

  If I can't use my Health Boosts in the battle field, how in the heck am I expected to survive very long?

  As my screen darkened I heard the Lookout shout from high above.

  “Get the Commander inside! Quickly!”

  Hands lifted me and I could make out motion on my screen. Was I being moved?

  As I prepared for a trip to the nearest crypt, a system message appeared.

  Amara Frostwalker has been reborn to the world. The battle continues!

  Figures, I thought.

  Then the world went dark.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  You Have Been Rendered Unconscious.

  Oh great, I thought as I glared at my black screen. It would be better if my avatar died now so that I could pop up at a crypt and get back to building my base. And this time I'd get my own grunts, and fast!

  I didn't think I'd survive another grunt rush. It was hard to tell if Amara would attempt one again. She needed to call up a new unit of grunts, but I didn't know if she had the resources to do it immediately.

  It would help if I knew more about this Battle Field game. I inwardly cursed myself for never learning this aspect of the gaming universe. I'd certainly explored the rest, but war games were never of interest to me. Questing was.

  Now I had to learn, and quick. Amara could not be allowed to win and be awarded the Lost War Banner of Y'Godda. It would mess up my quest chain I'd struggled so hard through.

  And then there was the final reward for returning the banner to the quest giver.

  Frustrated waiting for my inevitable death, I pulled up my inventory again. I didn't have a proper chance to look at it more closely while fighting Amara.

  All the items my avatar carried were grayed out. I couldn't select any of them. Health Boosts. Maps. Potions. Nothing.

  The only things I could access were some skills, weapons and armor. The last was quite fortunate as it allowed me to continue to use my legendary Cloak of Shadows, but not all of its myriad of benefits. No phase, or invisibility, or teleportation. Sheesh. Why don't they just take away all the fun?

  Out of all my special gadgets and trick arrows, only the magma arrow was available.

  My view-screen began to brighten, and the darkness faded. The health indicate at the edge of my vision began to rise at a wonderfully quick rate. Was a healer attending to my wounds?

  When I could see fully again, I found myself face down on a cold stone floor. With a groan from my avatar I rolled over and sat up.

  I was in the Keep, its circular stone walls stretching above me. A narrow stone stairway spiraled up its length until it reached the wooden roof and ended at an open trap door. Through the door was a face peering down at me. The Lookout.

  There was nothing else here. No furnishings or other exits save the one wooden door.

  The worker leader knelt beside me. When I sat up his face changed from deep concern to elation.

  “Thank Y'Godda, you are okay!” he said and danced a happy jig.

  I laughed at the odd sight and got to my feet. Although my balance was a little off, it improved as my health bar increased.

  “How did you heal me?” I asked. “I was surely going to die.” I looked at my side where the spear at almost gutted me,
but there was no wound. Even my light armor had mended itself.

  The leader said, “The Commander of the Red can find a second chance here in the Keep. Y'godda has blessed it. May he be praised!”