The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (34 page)

Thwack
.

As another entered up through a chin.

And then as the third
thwack
sounded out, the arrow missed a vital and hit the female in her shoulder as faces turned towards me. Unable to retaliate against the casters and archers hiding behind the walls and towers, the fifty remaining players charged at me as they sought blood.

“TRAP DOOR,” I shouted.

And in an instant the entryway had been blocked as ropes were pulled and logs collapsed over the gateway. Crushing a body as they fell, the players were now trapped like rats and the only way out was over a wall or through these piled logs.

Walking along the edge of the moat as I finished off wounded players impaled on stakes and unable to free themselves, the sounds of the battle continued for another minute and then silence returned. My ears were still ringing but the shouts and screams had all ceased.

The whizzing of arrows had stopped.

Pops, whistles, crackles, and growls all gone, the battle had ended as quickly as it started as the unexperienced and overeager crowd charged blindly into an open trap and found themselves slaughtered with ease. Removing the logs that blocked entry, I walked over the field and stared at the bodies of the fallen.

Nearly forty were lost to the moats as they jumped into the water without a second thought, thirty to the dire wolves, and at least twenty had been killed by the lightning strikes. That left a hundred and ten players standing still inside the shooting gallery for nearly fifty troops to fire at them in concentrated bursts and from near complete safety.

These tricks wouldn’t work a second time.

But it worked today.

Chapter 107: Aftermath of Failure

(Wednesday, February 2nd Game Day / Saturday, May 15th Real Day)

Saturday ticked over without a care to the current situation and with it came a handful of golden beams and fresh faces. NPCs brought into this world in the aftermath of a battle, with corpses as fresh as their arrival. The sole loss on our side was one young warrior who lost his footing and slipped into the pit of the wolves. Killed by our own trap as he lacked the awareness to mind his surroundings.

A warrior with a paltry potential rating of 2.7/10, he wasn’t much of a loss… but he was still a loss. One artificial soul lost to the flames of war. The enemy, they were as green as they come. Inexperienced players that believed in their numbers and broke ranks as soon as the fighting began. The ones in command showed tactics early in the battle but the untrained volunteers lacked discipline and panicked inside the trap.

The strategy wasn’t too complicated.

As groups jumped into the dark waters of the moat in an attempt to scale the walls, only to find themselves impaled and left helpless it left them at an immediate disadvantage. The logical step being to take the half open gate that had yet to be closed, they rushed through thinking they could disperse once inside the town and finish us off.

They outnumbered us four to one.

Yet the result was a simple one, as the wolves did their part to instill fear and sow confusion and the might of our combined ranged assault did the rest. We never left the town.

They never left either.

“Ah! It’s this late already?!” shouted Emily as she was walking around looking at all of the bodies. “Shit I’ve got work in the morning!”

“On Saturday?” I asked, a little curious. “And it’s only one in the morning… how early do you have to work?”

“Second Saturday, the meeting!” she said as she started to jog towards the inn. “You should go! See you later!”

Glancing over at Valerie, she started to walk off without saying anything as I let out a singular hushed laugh. “Hey Valerie, thanks for the help today.”

“You’re welcome, though you didn’t require any,” she said without any emotion, as she turned back for a second before resuming her walk towards the inn. After a minute had passed, the two ladies had disappeared from sight as they entered the inn to presumably log off.

They weren’t on my friends list and I didn’t expect them to add me either. They had helped, even if it was minor… so for that, I was thankful for them and appreciated what they had done here. It was the sentiment that counted.

“They’re gone?” asked Kate as she appeared from the shadows.

“Yeah,” I replied with a turn of my head. “Where’ve you been?”

“…around,” she replied cryptically.

Ignoring the odd behavior of my companion, I decided to return to the cleaning of the town as the sun was nearing midday. The sun had been busy shining brightly on this peaceful day and it wouldn’t do to waste its hard work. After the duties are taken care of, it would be bed time for me as well.

Chapter 108: New Information

(Friday, February 4th Game Day / Saturday, May 15th Real Day)

Not more than a day had passed us by as news spread across the game’s main forum that FWB had officially disbanded. Embarrassed by their last attempt at revenge the guild leaders and officers disappeared into the night and avoided replying to anyone who tried to pester them about the details. There was no reason to question them though, even if the details of the siege were largely kept under wraps.

The end result was obvious from the start, they no longer had a territory, their buildings had been destroyed twice-over, and their attempts at propaganda only carried their movement so far. They had been defeated on every front and their last-ditch effort resulted in the deaths of over a hundred inexperienced players and one NPC.

Complete failures in every respect, there was no need to question them anymore.  There were no streams this time around either as the coalition had been formed of supporters that knew the drill. They didn’t want to provide any footage of their pathetic loss and I didn’t care to share any of my successful strategies and secrets.

That combination left the curious without a shred of information to go off of, except for the main fact that a guild had collapsed. The complete destruction of a guild… it wasn’t the first time for me but it left a bitter taste in my mouth this time.

I didn’t really hate them as a whole, as there were plenty of casual players that took no part in the fighting and they had suffered due to the actions of a few. I sympathized with their plight, it was an unfortunate situation for them.

In the end though, the blame was with the mastermind.

The one who pulled the strings and manipulated those around him, turning rumors into motivation and eventually, into action. He was the one that was at fault and he had yet to suffer. I wanted to wash my hands of it all, to return to my game… but Emily was right, the one that needed to suffer had yet to lose a single thing. It was time to shift my focus.

“Okay!” Emily exclaimed with enthusiasm as she slapped the table where Valerie and I had been sitting. “The meeting for the Alliance has begun!”

“Eh… what’s this, we’ve got a name now?” I questioned openly with disgust, largely due to my dislike for silly names.

“You don’t like it?” she quickly replied with a frown.

“I have no complaints,” stated Valerie, as calm as ever.

“Whatever,” I mumbled while shaking my head.

Emily and Valerie both logged on at the same time as they had returned from the Alpha and Beta meeting with some new information, at least new according to them. Due to that knowledge, I had been sitting at a table on the first floor of the inn, waiting in the relatively empty restaurant for the news.

It seemed like a waste of my time.

“So I gathered some intel while on my downtime at work,” Emily began to explain with an excitement in her voice I hadn’t heard before. “Get this, the guy was part of a medium-sized guild on the eastern side of the continent right? Well they were falling behind in the power rankings pretty badly, like really badly, so they allied with some other guilds that they knew from the beta, old friends right?

“Only the alliance itself didn’t help them as much as they wanted, so in the end they merged the three guilds and created the guild
Triumvirate
. With the added numbers and centralized leadership, they’re now a fairly large guild in the middle of the continent and they’ve been pushing hard to gain some control in the region.”

Having finished her history lesson on Mr. Sardonic’s activities, it was obvious that a large guild pushing for control in a region would be involved in some sort of activities, whether it be trade involving resources or territorial expansion. A large guild needed land… and they needed a base to operate from. Money was always necessary. As a large guild they would be powerful and would definitely have an influence on those around them but it also served as a larger target.

That made things easier for me.

“So they’ve got ongoing operations, anything you’re aware of that we can sabotage?” I questioned as I leaned back in my chair with the intent of speeding up the conversation.

“Yep,” she said with a giant grin that crossed from ear to ear. “This is a known secret to all the staff members and close friends, so I’ll go ahead and let you in on it now that you’re a member of our Alliance. There’s a bunch of different Call to Arms coming up in a few days, all of them in the Central Kingdoms.

“They’ll all involve two or more large NPC factions that have been fighting for some time now. No specific date as requirements are based on the players but they’re really close. Those players have been fighting for almost two months and the NPCs are being dragged into it. It’s really cool actually. The system is adjusting and creating content based on player actions, cutting edge stuff yeah?”

“And my guess is he’s involved with one of the sides involved somewhere out there?” I asked, wanting to clarify, while trying to cut to the chase. The nature of her job was to discuss details endlessly… if I let her go, she would talk for hours. I didn’t have hours to waste anymore. My money was limited and on the decline so if something was to be done, it would have to be done soon. There was far too much work piling up now.

“Exactly!” she exclaimed with a jump for joy. “If we can somehow change the tides of the war as they’re the more powerful faction right now… if we can help the other side win? Oh would they be pissed! Hah! Genius!”

“Sounds fun,” I said with a carefree laugh as my mind started to think in more diabolical terms. He had already started a cold war, if it was indeed him that pulled the strings. A cold war would see a lot of strings pulled… where a shadow war was one that didn’t exist. I wanted the direct action, without the noise of the public. The public didn’t need to know about this.

“Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun…” I mumbled.

“I also might be able to get some classified data from a friend,” she said after a few seconds of silence had passed. All the while beaming with pride over all the work she had done, I couldn’t help but want to say good job but a part of me didn’t want to congratulate her for sharing more information with someone who shouldn’t be hearing it.

Yeah… it wouldn’t do to promote more secrets being shared.

“Ah… no, stop there,” I said while raising my hand. “I know in the heat of the moment I said to use your insider knowledge to find out who was responsible… and I know this is selfish of me but I don’t want to you to do that. This might seem crazy but it’s a matter of principle and I don’t believe we should go down that road.”

“What do you mean? It’s for a good cause,” she countered.

“Yeah that’s what I mean though, it’s classified data and I don’t want you risking or abusing your authority to pull it,” I explained calmly. “I’m sure the guys who leaked my information out into the public domain from the meetings were thinking the same way. That it was for a good cause. It’s a different breach of confidentiality but it’s the idea that matters. A good cause is perspective-relative and yeah, on principle, I don’t want to put you up to it and I don’t want to use those tactics.”

“Then how are we going to find out if he’s the one?” she asked, clearly disappointed with my response.

“We’ll use regular channels and back channels if necessary,” I said with a hesitant shrug. “It’s not perfect but it will get the job done. A little old school eavesdropping. Conversations are the first place to start. Regular conversation in crowded areas. A lot of information can be gathered from listening.”

“Oh my Gawwwwd,” she said with a huge drawn-out sigh at the end. Throwing her hands up in a sign of frustration, she plopped herself down on her chair with a hard thud as she let her shoulders droop. “That’s going to take forever….”

“Leave that part to me then,” I interjected before she could continue. “You said it’ll start within a few days? Can you tell me where we’ll need to be?”

“Wesstown,” she said bluntly.

“I’ve got friends near there,” I mumbled while the corners of my mouth crept up in a devious fashion. “I’ll be leaving first thing in the morning then, at sunrise. We’ve got a few hours before the day ticks over and it’ll be a long journey. Will need to prepare.”

“Oh, you’re leaving so soon?” she asked with a strange expression.

“Why wouldn’t I? You said it yourself, it starts within a few days and it’ll take a full day or more to reach Wesstown, even by longship.”

“Ah, I guess you’re right,” she whispered.

Confused by her sudden change in demeanor, I couldn’t help but wonder if that meant she wasn’t coming along on the trip despite her enthusiasm to plan it all out. Valerie had been silent at the other end of the table and had yet to even make a single facial change. She was a stoic little stone over there… ah, these two kind of gave me a headache.

“I take it you will be staying here,” I stated clearly. “It’s my war after all, I won’t ask you to come unless you want to participate, fighting and such… it’s what I’m good at. I’ll be fine even if I’m by myself.”

Yeah this would be my shadow war, no one else needed to get involved but their assistance would always be welcome. If the war in the middle kingdoms was about to get much bigger in scale with NPC factions joining in and clashing, then my ticket to success was to sabotage the other side’s NPCs.

If one wanted to destroy Dragon’s Breach, they would need to start with the NPCs. That line of thought carried over to any NPC faction in this game. NPCs were vulnerable, they were stronger than players but they didn’t respawn. A permanent death meant they could be overwhelmed and eventually removed.

It was a weakness of the system but it was also the counterbalance to their strong growth and relative cost to acquire. If given time and with enough money, a player could amass an army so large he wouldn’t be able to be stopped. Even if the enemy players used suicide attacks to thin out the numbers if there were enough NPCs, then losses could be replaced under the right system. Everything was a gamble and a risk but it was worthwhile.

Hundreds of warriors out hunting and providing an income would produce more than enough to cover the initial cost of recruitment. The only thing I would lose was time… but eventually, the system would take care of it. In time it would be self-sustaining.

“Can you wait a day?” she asked out of the blue, as the conversation had long since died. “Sunday is my day off to play and since I work on Monday, I can’t play until late.”

“I don’t mind waiting,” I answered genuinely with a faint, warm smile. She was more than welcome to come. Outside of our small fight… we did have a friendly relationship from the past, from all of the meetings where we interacted before and after. She held less of a grudge than I did in all honesty.

She was a better person than me.

“Room for one, or for two?” I asked, following up as I looked Valerie’s way, curious if she would ever part from Emily’s side.

“Two,” she said while avoiding my gaze.

Well, that answered that.