Shadow For Hire: Books 1-4 (A LitRPG Series)

by Adam Drake

I saw the briefest image: Amara bringing her sword down upon me, eyes wild with rage. And towering behind Amara was Grax, the ogre's clothes and hair aflame. He, too, was swinging his flaming log-club downward, but at Amara's head.

  Then my view-screen went black, and a message appeared.

  You have been slain in battle!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  My heart was racing and sweat cloyed at my skin beneath my simulation suit.

  I felt jubilation at recovering my banner having no clue what had been required to do so. This only strengthened my resolve to play Battle Fields more often and perhaps study guides on military strategy.

  Now I can see why Thorm became so addicted to them. Those last few moments fighting at the platform were some of the most intense I'd experienced playing this game in years. There were previous tough encounters, but not quite like that.

  And I hoped there would be many more.

  My thoughts went to Amara. She'd used that flaky hologram trick as a weak ploy to buy her time while she fetched the Flame Treant champion. And it worked, too.

  Was Grax okay? Before dying, I didn't get the chance to see if more enemy units were racing toward the platform. As far as I knew, he was the only one left standing after all that fighting.

  But as the blackness of my screen brightened to reveal me laying in the crypt, my attention shifted from my wounded champion to my wounded Keep.

  The map revealed that the enemy troll grunts, backed by archers, had attacked the base. The Keep was damaged to just under half its hit points.

  Thankfully, both the footmen and archers I set to training had emerged to stop the assault.

  Now, both forces were entangled in a ferocious fight. Even down in the crypt I could hear the clashing of weapons and screams of the dying.

  Amara Frostwalker has been reborn to the world. Let the Battle continue!

  I felt a little sense of victory knowing Amara had been squashed like a bug by Grax. But when I looked at my combat log, I'd only received 100 Battle Points for her death, while she got 1,000 for mine.

  It had to be because I wasn't the one who killed her. Whatever. I'll take it for now and hope to come across another champion to spend it on.

  I leapt from the slab and raced up the stairs. Emerging from the floor of the Keep revealed the damage which had already been done. Huge cracks webbed the walls and black smoke filled the upper ceiling.

  But even through this I saw the Lookout wave down at me, then disappear.

  Not wasting another moment, I raced outside.

  Troll grunts lunged at footmen who parried and countered. My human archers had taken up position to one side of the archery range and fired volleys at the troll archers standing a short distance to the north.

  I judged the strength of both forces to be about even. But now I joined the fray.

  Striking out at the nearest troll, I dodged a spear jab by rolling to the ground. Standing, I thrust my sword up through the jaw of another troll.

  A flashing icon on the map drew my eyes. It was Grax asking for new orders.

  What was I doing? Other things needed my immediate attention right now. Fighting would come second. My men could handle this for a few more moments.

  I ran through the fight to stand in the doorway of the Keep, mindful of arrant arrows and spears.

  Grax appeared severely injured, but alive.

  “I need more trolls to crush,” he told me from the chat view. His hair and eyebrows were all gone, burnt away. Wisps of smoke curled up from his blackened flesh.

  With a laugh, I said, “Don't worry, there will be more trolls. I promise.”

  He peered about, somewhat disappointed. “Now what shall I do?”

  Good question. Bringing him south to the base would be helpful. He could help guard while I repaired the buildings and built up another army.

  But that would leave the platform undefended. Right now, with Grax there, it was in my control. Even if Amara managed to sneak down here and snatch the banner away again, she'd have a burnt, angry Grax to contend with when she reached the middle.

  Also, without a scout or other unit in the vicinity, Grax could see what was coming from the north. And maybe keep them from moving further south just by his presence.

  It wouldn't last long. He was injured and alone now. But as a temporary stopgap it'd have to do.

  “Guard the platform. If a solo unit is dumb enough to try to cross it take them out. But if there is more than you can handle, fall back, and come to the base.”

  Grax frowned. “I can handle all units. No problem. I hope I don't have to wait too long.”

  I hoped we got to wait a long time and closed the chat. Time was needed now to get things in order.

  The sound of the surrounding battle brought my thoughts back to the immediate situation. I went into the command menu and put another footmen and archer unit into training. Thankfully, my workers had been diligently mining away this entire time so gold was not an issue. But it soon would be.

  With a final check of the map, I then launched into the fray, sword swinging.

  In less than a minute, I helped my footmen eliminate the last of the grunts. Then we ran at the archers who managed a single volley before my forces cut into them.

  One archer managed to hit me in the thigh which only ticked me off. More sword swings (and a little swearing) and the archers were decimated.

  I looked around. The remaining men of my two units raised their weapons in a cheer.

  “Yay for us,” I said, but didn't feel it. There was too much to do. Right now, Amara was frantically building up an army, and I had little doubt she would make it sizable before marching south.

  I assigned the footman to the banner altar. They would not move from there ever again if I had anything to say about it.

  The archers, I sent north along the western curve to link up with Grax. I ordered the unit leader to assemble in a double line formation on the south edge of the platform. That way, they could support Grax when he engaged any approaching units.

  It wasn't much but still better than nothing.

  Then I turned my attention to my poor beleaguered Keep, which billowed smoke from every opening.

  Keep: 2,200 / 10,000 hit points.

  Those enemy units had really done a number on it, but thankfully they didn't succeed in razing it to the ground.

  For this, I pulled one unit of workers off mining duty and assigned them to Keep repairs. It would be very expensive and repairing it fully would take too long and take up too many resources. So I resolved to bring it up to 5,000 hit points, at least.

  With the workers on repairs I looked around. Other than waiting for units to finish training, and gold to be mined, there wasn't much else I could do but wait.

  So I did.

  Once the footmen and archer units emerged I sent them both north together with orders to guard the platform.

  While I controlled the middle, I didn't have to worry about enemy units suddenly appearing at the base.

  Another archer unit went into training, but instead of another footmen unit I chose a scout next, on a whim.

  When he popped out, I sent him north along the east curve (just in case an rogue enemy unit was sitting there) with orders to move past the middle section and scout the enemy base, if possible.

  At this point, the Keep repairs reached halfway. But instead of sending these workers back to the mine, I sent them to the neglected quarry.

  My intention was to upgrade the Keep, and for that I'd need a lot more stone. Once upgraded, I'd have more worker units, and thus more resources quicker.

  Unless Amara screwed things up for me, again.

  Enemy Spotted!

  My heart leapt in my chest. The map showed an enemy cavalry unit approaching the platform from the northeast.

  Grax was already moving to intercept them.

  The lone archer unit I sent earlier was now just arriving at the platform and formed a double line along its southern edge.

>   Freaking out a little, I commanded Grax to fall back to the platform. From there, he'd have the support of the archers. Running headlong into the cavalry in his injured state would be the end of him.

  Grax grumbled in protest but did as commanded. The cavalry unit drew close but stopped just past the range of the archers.

  I could sense Grax's anticipation. He really wanted to kill someone. But he needed to wait.

  We'd all have a chance to die soon enough.

  The cavalry unit then turned and casually trotted back to the northeast and vanished around the bend. I thought this was a little strange. Without a unit in plain view, Amara wouldn't be able to see the central area. Which meant she must have placed a scout nearby.

  I was also convinced that the cavalry unit had meant to draw Grax away.

  Soon the footman and archer unit arrived at the middle, much to my relief. I split the archer unit in two and had each half line up on either side of the platform along the river's edge.

  Then I set the footmen directly on the platform with orders not to move. They weren't there to protect the altar, since Amara would need the banner first for it to be of any danger, but to block anyone from trying to cross. I didn't think the river could by forded, at least not without a lot of difficulty so the platform was doubly important to control.

  The next pair of archers and footmen were sent north, too. I felt confident that the only potential attack on the base now would be a solo Amara and could be dealt with. So any more units I trained were to be sent north immediately.

  But not now. Instead, of building up my forces, I decided to wait and upgrade the Keep. I already had enough lumber, it was gold and stone that needed to accumulate.

  This seemed to take ages, but the rate of gathering was pretty much even. By the time I had enough of everything the last two units I'd sent north were in position.

  I then highlighted the Keep and purchased the upgrade option.

  The tower Keep morphed instantly into a wider version of itself. The walls became thicker and more arrows slots appeared. Not much different.

  Then I noticed not one but six Lookouts waving down at me, each armed with a crossbow. The defensive radius also expanded and easily enveloped the banner's altar.

  Nice. I pulled up the command menu and saw the option to hire more workers. Three of ten units currently active.

  Sweet! Seven more worker units, here we come!

  One hundred gold produced a new unit that stumbled out of the Keep's door. I sent them to the gold mine. Now I just had to wait for the gold to accumulate and I'd hire the other six.

  Things were looking up.

  Enemy Spotted!

  My eyes flew to the map.

  At the middle, enemy units were approaching from both northern directions. And there were a lot of them.

  Four units from the northwest curve, and another four from the northeast. And that was just what my own units could see.

  Amara was coming now, and it looked like she intended on seizing the platform back.

  I found myself smiling.

  Time for war.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I glanced over my unit icons at the middle.

  Archers were positioned on the southern side of the platform and along the river. The footmen units were placed side by side on the northern edge with one standing directly on the platform. I also placed Grax next to the altar.

  For now, this was as defensive as I could get. Once battle was engaged, I could rely on their strategic positioning to hold the line and, hopefully, repel any attack.

  Or so I told myself. How the heck would I even know this would work having never even played the most basic of strategy games beyond chess?

  Anyways, with the middle firmly locked for the moment I returned my attention to my base.

  With the gold now accumulating faster, I hired another two more worker units and set one each to the woodyard and the gold mine.

  The next worker unit I set to building a cavalry grounds which I positioned next to the archery range.

  While I waited for them to build it up, I kept a tense eye on the middle.

  Amara had moved her armies close but stopped both about twenty paces away from my archer's maximum range. Both sets had two footmen at the front with two archer units at the back.

  I didn't think she'd attack with these units, yet. She'd wait until reinforcements arrived then hit with overwhelming force.

  If I attacked her now, it would only serve to drain my own strength. Had I cavalry up there, then I'd use them to attack immediately, followed up with footmen and archers. This would also allow Grax to become the wandering agent of carnage he craved to be.

  But I needed to wait. No doubt Amara was doing similar right now, building up her cavalry, the strongest unit available to us outside of champions.

  Cavalry Grounds complete.

  A long set of stalls were erected next to a wide field with a small obstacle course.

  From the command menu I selected the cavalry unit.

  Unit: Cavalry

  Race: Human

  Hit Points: 120

  Speed: 35

  Weapon: Sword

  Cost: 500 gold

  When my gold counter hit that number, I selected to train my first official cavalry unit.

  Training time: 7 minutes.

  Horses appeared within the stalls, and a rider with a mount ran through the grounds, jumping over obstacles.

  Ouch. With their expensive cost and longer training time, it would take awhile to amass a sizable group of them.

  With another glance to ensure nothing had changed at the middle, I hired the remainder of my worker units. I reassigned all units of workers to the gold mine, but kept two on lumber duties and one on the quarry.

  With the Keep upgraded, I'd now concentrate on training units as fast as possible. The plan was to build another cavalry ground and maybe second barracks, to help with output.

  Suddenly, I got a report from the scout, whom I'd completely forgotten about. He was positioned about half way up the northeast approach to Amara's base, hidden in the trees. He'd snuck past all the enemy units assembled at the middle undetected.

  “Incoming cavalry,” he said. From his view point I could see two units of trolls on horseback trotting south.

  “Okay,” I said, feeling what optimism I had deflated a little. “Keep heading north and give me a view of Amara's base.”

  “Yes, commander,” the scout said and signed off. This guy wasn't as cocky as the previous one which made conversation a little more robotic.

  There was nothing I could do right now about those cavalry units. I knew they'd be coming, and more would follow.

  As I impatiently waited for my own cavalry to finish, I selected another footmen and archer unit to train as the money became available.

  The gold was pouring in, for which I was immensely grateful.

  By now the enemy cavalry had arrived at the middle and placed themselves to one side of the main force on the northeast approach.

  Then from the northwest approach, two other cavalry units appeared.

  Okay, things were about to get real, and I'd be more help at the middle than here. Quickly, I assigned two worker units to build another cavalry grounds, which sped up its construction.

  As this finished being built the new cavalry unit appeared and formed up next to the stalls. I promptly sent them to the middle at full speed, ensuring they were set to autonomous.

  I started training another.

  At the middle, the two new enemy cavalry units positioned themselves similarly to the northwest formation. Things were getting cramped up there. Only a matter of time until something snapped.

  The second cavalry grounds finished, and I assigned the workers to another barracks. This would be it in terms of buildings for now. I'd considered trying to build barracks closer to the middle, but I just didn't have time, yet. If I survived the impending battle in the middle, a base near the platform could be
considered.

  Another archer and footmen unit popped out, and north they went.

  As I trained more, I dug into the command menu a little. Surely there was a way to get all this automated, so I didn't need to keep watching training timers.

  Then I found an option to set up a training queue that encompassed all my training buildings, not just individually. Thank the Gaming Gods. No doubt, Amara had been using this since the beginning which helped train units more efficiently, without waiting on a commander to initiate things.