I said, Worry not, Champion. Your time for killing is close at hand. I will return soon.

Before he could engage me with more of his sales pitch I waved and turned to leave.

Blood and agony! he bellowed. The symphony of battle!

Okay then, I thought and hurried back down the path.

A quick glance from the safety of the trees showed that the grassy plains were clear. I summoned Smoke and mounted up.

How many other Champions were hidden away on the map? With so much forest there could be several of them. And expensive to hire, too.

My attention went to my resource status line.

As I watched, the gold amount increased, making me smile. From my command menu I selected the Keep and bought my third unit of workers. Their icon instantly appeared by the Keep.

I then selected build Archery Range.

Build Archery Range. Cost 700 gold, 200 wood " Yes/No?

On a hunch I selected yes, and when I pointed at my map a tiny red square appeared. Perfect! I didn't have to be actually present at the base to build things. This undoubtedly was meant to free players to take to the field as opposed to staying holed up in their base mico-managing everything.

I placed the range next to the barracks and assigned the new worker unit to it.

Then, from the barracks menu, I selected to train another unit of footmen. Now all my money was gone, and I had to wait.

I called up the Keep info screen again and grimaced at its upgrade requirements. The stone needed was steep, yet, without the upgrade, I couldn't get more workers. I ordered the new worker unit to head to the quarry once the archery range was complete.

By Y'Godda, it shall be done! hollered the unit leader via chat with enthusiasm.

With my base management duties done for the moment, I turned Smoke north. We followed the curve of the plain's direction to the northeast until the trees on the northern side stopped.

Here, a wide river cut across the plains from west to east until it vanished into the forest on the opposite side.

Directly in its middle was a wide stone platform, which formed a kind of bridge across the water. An altar sat at its center.

This was where I had to bring Amara's banner.

Wary, I slowly approached. The flat ground I followed continued to the east then curved southward. On my map it looked like the southern section would make one big circle, with forest in the middle.

The scout suddenly reported in. All done, he said, expression serious.

From the map I could tell there had been nothing of note in the remainder of the forest which partially encircled the base.

Okay, go here, please. I tapped the forest line directly ahead of me, on the east side. Stay hidden and watch for approaching enemies from the north.

This river appeared to be the middle choke point between the two halves of the map. Past the river, the forest resumed. Identical looking grassy plains curved northeast and northwest. The entire map must form a figure eight, with the river and platform at its middle.

When Amara or any of her units moved south, they'd have to cross here. Having the scout placed nearby would give me fair warning of the next attack.

The scout nodded once and closed the chat window. I shook my head. Having NPCs activate, and even terminate visual chats was new for me, and I can't say I was getting use to it.

As I got closer to the altar, its details became more clear. It was nearly identical to the one at my base, entangled skeletons with the top one extending an arm, waiting to grasp a banner.

The wide platform had no defenses. Bringing the banner here, let alone keeping it safe for five minutes, seemed a near impossible task. How could you defend it?

Footmen Unit training complete.

I smiled. That would do the trick.

With just enough gold, I started another unit to training. Then, selecting the new unit, I ordered them to move north to my position and guard the altar. I'd wait here until they arrived, then...

Movement to the northwest caught my eye.

A group of trolls were approaching on foot. But these were not grunts. Workers.

As they got closer I could see they were wearing blue shirts under overalls. But their leggings only went down a little past their knees, giving them a comical look. Each held a hammer or axe.

A quick look beyond them, and to the northeast approach showed they were alone.

I laughed, and summoned my bow, waiting until they got within range.

Easy pickings, I said with a smirk.

I'll say! came a shout from behind me.

I whirled to see Amara in mid-leap from atop the altar, descending upon me.

With no time to react I could only bring up my bow in a feeble attempt to block her sword.

But she crashed into me, driving her weapon straight through my chest. The force of the sudden attack knocked me off of Smoke, and I fell to the ground.

Flat on my back, my avatar had become paralyzed. I knew what this meant.

Amara bent over me, leering. Payback's a FILTERED, ain't it, honey? She wrenched the sword from my chest then turned her attention to poor Smoke.

As my screen darkened, I cursed myself for being so stupid. Then a message appeared before my vision.

You Have Been Slain in Battle!

Then my screen went black.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

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

For several moments after my avatar's death, I yelled a stream of profanities with Amara's name attached to them, until I was blue in the face.

She'd hidden near the altar, probably under the platform itself, in Shadow Form. She knew that the approaching troll workers would probably distract me enough for her to sneak attack.

That's the second time she'd caught me off guard.

A thirty second timer counted down against the blackness of my view-screen. It was all I could do but glower at it.

A new system message appeared: Your Mount has been killed.

More profanities, more glowering.

The thirty seconds felt like hours as adrenaline pulsed through my system. There was no doubt now that Amara had played a Battle Field session before. Possibly several.

And I was the Battle Field noob she got to toy with.

The counter reached zero and my screen brightened.

Vivian Valesh has been reborn to the world. Let the Battle continue!

My avatar was no longer at the middle, but was looking up at a low ceiling. I sat up to find I was on a raised stone slab in a cramped room. Fire sconces on the floor were the only source of light. Cob webs hung from the beams above and murals of battles draped across the stone walls.

A crypt.

An ascending stairway could be seen through the crypt's only door.

I stood and looked my avatar's body over. There was no sword wound in my chest and my cloak and cloth armor were undamaged. The health indicator on my screen showed my hit points at 100%. Nothing was missing from my inventory either (not that I could access it anyway).

Other than finding myself transported from the platform, there appeared to be no obvious death penalty.

Still, this beats a newbie zone, hands down.

I took the narrow stairs up to emerge from a floor into a tall round room made of stone blocks.

The Keep.

Far above, the Lookout waved through the trap door then returned to his duties.

Welcome home, I thought. Death was a quick trip back to base.

I stepped outside and squinted from the sunlight.

The archery range was complete. Several targets were lined up along the end of the range with a small stone building for housing archers at one side.

I pulled up its menu.

Train Archer Unit: Cost 300 gold " Yes/No?

Yes.

Several archers appeared on the range and shot arrows at the line of targets. Others stood to the side, fletching new arrows.

Training time: five minutes.

By now, there was enough gold for another unit of footmen so I started their training.

I frowned at my status line. Resources were not being collected even close to fast enough. If I wanted to begin an assembly line of troops, I'd need more workers and for that, a Keep upgrade.

The current bottle-neck was stone. Maybe if I took workers from...

Enemy Contact!

What?! I spun around looking for an enemy army rushing toward the base. Then my eyes were drawn to the map.

The footmen unit I'd assigned to the center altar was close to arriving at their destination. Two enemy grunt icons were now at the middle and moving to meet my lone unit.

I slapped my virtual forehead. I had completely forgotten about them, and now they were marching straight into trouble.

Panicking, I ordered the unit to stop, which they immediately did. But what to do with them? If I had them engage the enemy, they would be killed by overwhelming numbers. Plus, there were other enemy unit icons appearing from their north and heading toward the center platform.

But having them retreat wasn't an option either as they were now too close to the enemy and would be cut to pieces.

With little choice, I decided they would fight and maybe reduce the enemy's unit strength. Selecting the unit again gave me a formation menu with a little diagram beside each.

Circle Formation Staggered Formation Square Formation The square formation looked to be the most compact and gave them a small defensive boost. Or so I hoped.

Square Formation selected.

I watched, helpless, as the footmen unit assembled themselves just as the first of the two grunt units smashed into them.

Footmen Unit training Complete.

The new unit assembled outside the barracks.

Now what? I looked around at my base. There were the two footmen units here, one of which split in guard duty, with an archer unit to pop out soon.

Do I send the two footmen units out now and follow up with the archers? Or do I sit here and let my troops die because of my own stupidity?

The abandoned unit was in full engagement now. My combat log started to scroll.

1 Battle points