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.

Trying not to get too annoyed with my noob status, I set up a queue that prioritized cavalry training, followed by footmen, then archers. As the required resources became available, the next unit in the queue would be trained. Each unit would then move quickly to the middle area.

Now I placed all ten of my worker units at the gold mine. Without needing to construct more buildings or upgrade the keep, the need for stone was nil. And I had more than enough wood stockpiled for now.

It was all about the gold, and how fast I could get it.

With that taken care of, my attention could be moved to leading an army, rather than building one.

As if on cue, enemy units started to move. All four cavalry units were withdrawing and moving back northwards.

What the heck? There was nowhere else to go but back to their base, and the middle was where the fight was going to be.

Regardless, I had to get up there. With a final look around my base to ensure the lone footman and archer units still guarded my banner's altar, I summoned Smoke and headed out.

Speeding north, my attention remained glued to the map.

Now all four enemy cavalry units stopped a short distance from the rear of the formations. The two to the northwest then turned around, facing southward, one lined up behind the other. The cavalry units in the northeast did the same.

As I passed the halfway point to the middle, four more enemy cavalry units appeared. Two for each approach. These lined up behind the others.

Now there were two lines of four cavalry units all facing the middle.

This could not be good.

Coming around the final bend to the middle, I passed several of my own units, en route. But I didn't give them any mind, so focused on the strange behavior of the enemy cavalry.

What was Amara up to? And was she commanding her units from her base? Her icon was nowhere on the map and my scout in the northeast was not in any position yet to see her.

I arrived at the platform, a little relieved that nothing else had changed since the strange enemy movements. My gut instinct told me I needed to do something with my formation now while I still had a chance.

Whether this would be a mistake or not, only time would tell.

Quickly, I moved my units forward. By splitting them in two, one group to face each enemy formation, I hoped to counter being hit by one massive army.

I set my footmen in the front, three units side by side, followed by archers and cavalry to the northwest. A similar group went northeast.

The idea was not to engage the enemy, but block them from joining up with the other group.

Thankfully, (or maybe worriedly) none of the enemy units reacted to this sudden shift of my forces. Either Amara wasn't paying attention, or she was laughing at my folly.

Regardless, in less than a minute I now had both approaches blocked with footmen units spread out from the river all the way to the trees to the north.

In the small space between these blocking formations I placed most of my remaining units. I still had more coming from the base, and a grumbling Grax standing next to the altar.

Not quite certain what to do at this point, I let Amara make the next move.

She did not disappoint.

As one, both enemy formations suddenly moved. But instead of forward, they shifted to the sides, forming a large gap down their middle. At the back end of this gap was the first unit of each cavalry line.

Uh-oh, I thought.

The cavalry from both approaches launched into a charge and moved as a line down the gap between units, straight at my waiting defensive wall of footmen.

I reacted the only way I could, by ordering all archer units to fire at will.

By the time they let loose their volley, the first enemy cavalry unit had already raced past their forward line, and into the space which separated the armies.

Arrows found their marks, sending trolls and horses spilling to the ground. But this did not blunt their charge one iota.

On both sides, the cavalry slammed into my waiting footmen units. As each cavalry unit emerged from their army's gap, they altered their trajectory slightly to pass the engaged cavalry to slam into the next unit of footmen.

It took less than tens seconds for all this to transpire, and now each enemy cavalry unit was stomping and fighting their way through my forward lines.

The footmen to the northwest started to buckle under the assault.

Enemy archers moved forward and began firing volley's in the rear of the footmen's formations.

In turn, my own archers fired back and soon the sky was filled with zinging clouds of arrows flying back and forth.

I looked from the frontlines to my assembled forces around the platform. There were so many now, they practically filled the space south of the platform down to the trees. More were arriving every few minutes and even started to form a line from either approach.

As both sides took losses, they would be replaced. Back and forth it would go, for how long was anyone's guess. Maybe Amara would finally gain control of the platform, but I'd fight to get it back.

This entire situation was one big meat grinder, and Amara and I were simply feeding into it.

I shook my head. With so many units at our disposal and the gold flowing continuously, this fight could go on forever.

Something was needed to tip the balance.

Suddenly, there was a deafening shriek from above.

I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sunlight.

High above was a bird, flying from the north over the trees. And it wasn't any old bird, it was huge.

Atop the bird sat a rider, and her gray garb with blue highlights made her identifiable even from such a height.

Amara.

She was coming to attack the platform.

I pulled up the giant bird's stats.

Name: Yuinnick Race: Great Eagle Rank: Champion Hit Points: 500 Speed: 60 (flight) Y'godda's Aerial mount.

This was not good. Amara had used the Battle points she gained from killing me to hire that thing.

Why can't I have a dang aerial mount?

Getting over my initial surprise, I shouted orders for the units at the platform to tighten up and for the archers to be ready.

If Amara wanted to make a suicidal run at the platform, I'd be happy to oblige her.

But instead of descending, the bird kept flying, its massive shadow passing over me.

As it kept going, a cold realization grabbed me.

She wasn't coming to the platform at all. She was flying south.

To my banner.