Shadow Wars: LitRPG (Shadow For Hire) Read online

  Another status line update.

  Gold x 2,000 – Stone x 450 – Wood x 500

  Now we're in business. Flush with gold and resources I brought up the command menu and selected the Build Keep option. An information screen floated before me.

  Keep:

  The key building of your base, it is required to construct other buildings. It is also required for hiring Worker Units. Worker Units can construct buildings.

  Cost: 1,000 Gold + 300 Stone + 150 Wood.

  Do you wish to purchase this building? Yes/No?

  But what if I didn't have any workers to build the keep in the first place? The chicken before the egg syndrome.

  Only one way to find out, I thought, with a shrug and selected Yes.

  A clattering of bones gave me a start.

  From the banner's base, a tall skeleton emerged from the ground and stood before me. Cupped in its hands, causing it to stoop with its weight, was a large block of stone.

  I blinked in surprise at this new arrival. Very cool, if not a bit creepy.

  The skeleton's jaw worked open and closed. A voice slithered in my ear.

  Where?

  I repressed the urge to tell it to put the block anywhere just to get rid of the undead thing. But a strategic spot needed to be found. Everything I built should also be placed to impede an attacking force from getting to the banner.

  I walked fifteen paces directly north of the banner's altar, then pointed at the spot between my feet. To the skeleton, I said, “Here, please.”

  The thing moved to the indicated spot, waddling under the weight of the block. As it approached, I took a few steps backward.

  The skeleton stopped right on the spot and froze. It turned its skull to face in my direction.

  The voice returned to squirm in my ear.

  Back.

  Not wanting to hear it speak again, I moved all the way back to the altar.

  Once I was clear, the skeleton dropped the block to the ground with a dull thud. Then the bones of the undead apparition became unhinged and fell apart into a heap. The bones crumbled away into dust.

  The upright stone block shimmered, then began to grow bigger and bigger. As it ballooned in size, a progress meter appeared next to it. 15%. 22%. 35%.

  As it got larger, so did the number on the progress meter. The block began to change shape, forming a squat tower.

  At 100% the tower stopped growing and a system message appeared.

  Keep construction completed.

  I marveled at this new structure. It was about three stories high and about ten paces in diameter. Stone battlements ringed its crown and arrow slits dotted its surface at different levels.

  And it was mine!

  A large wooden door was at its base, facing south.

  Maybe I'll go inside and look around my new keep, I thought.

  But before I even moved, the door flew open and people spilled out of it. So surprised, I jumped back, sword in hand.

  As the last person exited the Keep, the door slammed shut.

  Twelve men stood before me in two neat rows of six. Each were identical to the others, with a mat of dark hair and a mustache. They also wore a pair of dirty overalls with a red shirt underneath – my banner color. Some held hammers, others axes or hand saws. A single name card appeared above the group. Worker Unit.

  They all looked expectantly at me.

  “Uh, hello,” I said for lack of anything else to say.

  One of the workers stepped forward, and a small flowing red banner appeared above his head. The unit's leader.

  “Whatcha want us to build, boss?” the leader asked.

  Good question. Now that I had workers it was time to put them to constructing the next building.

  Making the Keep took nearly all my gold and resources, but was a necessity. So I pointed at the line of trees to the south and said, “Cut those down and get me more wood.”

  The unit leader scratched his head. “Gonna need a woodyard first, boss. Can't do much without one, afraid to say.”

  Right. Woodyard. I selected it from my command menu.

  Woodyard:

  Required to receive and process chopped wood into building materials and for other usable products like weapons.

  Cost: 200 gold + 100 wood.

  Do you wish to purchase this building? Yes/No?

  I selected Yes.

  The worker leader perked up. “Right on, boss! Where do you want it?”

  I pointed at a spot about ten paces from the southern tree line. As I did so an outline of a red square appeared on the ground. When I moved my finger, the outline skipped along with it. I settled the outline onto the spot I wanted and said, “Build it there.”

  The outline froze into place, and I lowered my hand.

  “Let's do this, men!” shouted the unit leader, and the workers rushed over to the woodyard outline. They spaced themselves around the outline's perimeter and began to hammer and saw at it. The noise of their tools echoed off the trees.

  From the ground a small log warehouse began to slowly emerge from the ground. Its progress indicator increased rapidly and in moments it was at 100%.

  Woodyard completed.

  The workers let out a brief cheer and wiped sweat from their brows. Then the unit leader pointed at the trees. “Time to chop wood!” he shouted. The tools in their hands changed to axes, and they each attacked a tree with gusto.

  I caught myself grinning at them. Despite my initial trepidation I thought this was actually kind of fun.

  With a little time to get the hang of things, I could get my base built, raise an army, and get Amara's banner.

  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!”