The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (44 page)

Stripping off the clothes that only served to create drag, I tied them around my chest with the sword and jewelry secured in the middle. Beginning to swim with one leg dangling behind, the fast moving current helped carry me down as I alternated from sidestroke to backstroke to eventually no stroke.

Strength long gone and stamina barely there, the forty mile journey between Cleftside and Wesstown had nearly been completed after eight hours. After the first two hours my strength had waned, by the fourth hour I was nearly exhausted and then by the sixth hour I could barely move. Floating down the river on my back with head facing the sky, the last two hours of the trip were left to the river.

Due to the melting snow that filled the river and increased the flow, the fast moving water aided me the entire way as I had traversed the distance in an otherwise impossible time. Leg broken for a few days at the least, even the game’s advanced regeneration wouldn’t heal me that quickly. I needed a priest if I were to regain functionality.

Though the river did flow freely, it was also incredibly cold as the hours in the water left me with a severe case of hypothermia. As I was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness while nearly at my destination, I was forced to attempt to exit the water less I pass out and drown.

Wading to the shore, my movements were sloppy and dulled as I slipped and fell, only to feel as if my good leg and arms were no longer working. Hampered by my lack of motor function and an actual broken leg, I crawled up the riverbank while trying to think of my next step.

“Ah tha shwore,” I slurred as I tried to make my way up the riverbank.

Finally making it to a dry spot, I immediately lit a fire with a few branches at arm’s reach. Grabbing a few large stones next, I placed them around the edge of the small fire. As the stones began to heat up, I pulled them out and hugged them as they weren’t yet hot enough to burn me but were warm enough to heat my core.

Warming by the fire proved too slow though as I continued to shiver and struggled to acquire enough firewood to keep me warm. With plenty of mana and no other ideas, I decided to cast a [Lightning Strike] on the nearest tree and crawled underneath.

As the strike hit, the residual heat of the strike was instantly felt as the tree burst into flames and the scorched earth aided in my recovery. The entire tree now on fire as I fell asleep underneath it, I was at least beginning to warm up.

Nearly an hour later I woke up and found myself hugging a pair of cold rocks as the smoldering tree behind me had turned black and gray as it continued to pump out small amounts of heat. Rolling closer to the burnt out tree, I stayed there for another hour as my body functions had nearly returned to normal.

Checking the time as I tried to shake myself awake, the thought of logging out to escape the symptoms crossed my mind but the realization that Wesstown would soon be under siege forced me to stand up and continue my journey. The next stage of the war had been announced hours prior, right before I made my decision to carry out the mission.

Opening the history of the Call to Arms, the details that were provided painted a much better picture of the functionality of the system. The actions of the large guilds made more sense now and I understood why a guild like
Triumvirate
would put so much effort into a war.

The Call to Arms had updated with the following:

[The Field of Battle has shifted! Due to the success of the troops under the banner of the House of Woodfall and the House of Blacktomb, the supporters of the Harmonts have been forced to retreat!]

[As the frontlines shift, the new Field of Battle will take place at the capital of the Harmonts, Wesstown at 4:00 PM Game Time as the staging camps are moved forward and the armies traverse the distance.]

[The Defending Harmont Faction will have to successfully repel the Attacking Blacktomb and Woodfall Factions in order to force a stalemate. If the Attacking Forces are successful in taking over the capital or are able to force a treaty, then the Call to Arms: Wesstown vs. Cleftside will end.]

[After the Call to Arms has ended, the victorious Houses will be able to allot additional rewards to the region’s greatest supporters. Those that have collectively supported a House can be rewarded with control of the conquered Settlement if it still stands. If the Settlement is razed, territory can be assigned instead as a reward for participation.]

[Control of a Settlement does not confer complete ownership and is restricted by the terms of the governing Houses.]

[All other rewards will be doled out in stages over the following week.]

It was 11:35 AM and the next battle was to begin at 4:00 PM.

The town was only a quarter of a mile away from me now and the staging ground for the defense of the castle-town was immediately behind the walls. If I could make it there, everything would be fine. We weren’t adequately prepared for a siege… and there was little way for us to win it if the enemy had remained at full strength but I had hope.

My hope was that things had changed, that the situation was different from before. It had been almost twelve hours since my actions took place and the enemy army would have arrived at Wesstown by now.

Their camp should have been setup nearby and if my understanding remained correct, they would start the battle in roughly four more hours… I needed to return to town in time to prepare.

And to find out what exactly had happened.

“Someone has to sacrifice,” I muttered to myself while staring at the setting sun, eyes partially shielded by my hand. “For the greater good, it had to be done.”

As I continued my trek to the town, my mind had started to wander and was attempting to relive the events. Shaking my head to dispel those thoughts, whatever memory I had of this day was not to be thought of again. There was no reason to remember this day or the actions taken.

The truth of the events that had transpired would never leave my lips so long as I was still playing this game. No one would know of my involvement and no one would hear a word of what happened from me. The guys or the girls could never be told, not so long as we played. The repercussions that would befall me if word ever slipped out would be disastrous. No one needed to know. Political assassinations were exactly that, secrets.

This was my shadow war and by extension it didn’t exist.

Yeah, none of this existed.

They were only codes.

They weren’t real.

Chapter 116: The Odds of Turmoil

(Sunday, February 27th Game Day / Sunday, May 23rd Real Day)

Standing a ways from the locked gate as a few NPCs stood by, the western gate was hardly defended as most of the troops had been amassed on the eastern side. One large, fresh stab wound through my broken leg and numerous slashes to my thighs, torso, and arms left me a mangled mess as I crawled up to the gate with deception on my mind. Immediately received by the guards and taken to an NPC priest that could heal my wounds, I begun to spin my tale and alibis.

“Ah, I c-can’t believe it,” I stuttered as the NPC began to heal my serious wounds first. “C-can’t believe they got the jump on me.”

“You’re lucky to be alive Adventurer,” the priest said clearly as he set the broken bones and began to close up the minor wounds. “These are serious wounds… how did you manage to escape, if they wounded you so?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled as I closed my eyes and pretended to be in pain. “It… it was all a blur, it happened so fast. I, I just ran and by the time I made it to the walls, they were no longer behind me, they must have been bandits. I didn’t have anything on me.”

“Blessed by the Gods you are son,” said the priest as he finished his treatment and patted me on the shoulder.

“Thank you, for your help,” I said sincerely as the wounds and injuries had all been healed. “I must return to the fight, we will need every soul.”

Leaving the man behind, my story was now complete.

My broken leg disguised as a wound encountered with bandits while not being recognized by the priest or any other players on the far side of the castle-town was a major success. Now there was nothing connecting me to the assassinations except for the misdirection that I gave to the enemy guards. My shadow operation was complete.

Looking around, the flashing red sign at the bottom of the screen told me that my real body was suffering, much as my virtual body had been moments before. Nearly a real day had passed while I was inside the game and dehydration was a real issue. It was time to log out, if only for a short while.

Logging back into the game after a quick break to take care of my bodily functions and with plenty of liquids and solids taken in, the time was now 3:30 PM and there was only thirty minutes left until the siege would begin. Unable to search or do any research on the situation while I was busy eating and using the restroom in real life, I immediately opened my friends list and found Emily, Claire, and Jeane the only ones online. Valerie had yet to be added to my friends list and Barik and Ethan were asleep… as they couldn’t participate even if they wanted to.

Returning my Status to [Visible] as it had been set to [Invisible] since the end of the last battle, I decided to message Emily first to find out what was going on. Having left her in the dark without an inkling of a clue, she was probably curious as to my whereabouts.

“Hey Emily, where’s everyone meeting at?” I messaged.

“Oh My God where have you been,” she immediately replied while opening a video call. Accepting the call, she burst out into conversation before I could even say a word. “Have you heard the news?! Someone killed the leaders of the Blacktombs and they think it was someone from the Woodfalls! This is what we needed!

“The whole place is in an uproar it’s totally crazy, accusations are flying everywhere, no one knows who to believe, and the armies are currently standing down as word was delivered to the frontlines… they’re waiting to hear back from the current head of the Blacktombs. Everyone thinks they’re going to turn on each other at any moment! Oh man, how do you not know of this?! Where have you been!?”

Blinking and pretending to be confused, I appeared shocked at the words and shook my head as if I didn’t understand what was being said. Lifting the corner of my mouth while furrowing my brow, I let my facial expressions relax and then blinked a few times as I rubbed my chin as if I was deep in thought. Satisfied with my fake confusion, it was now time for the discussion.

“Why would they… no, what does that mean for us? For the fight?” I hurriedly asked while I began to visibly ponder the outcome.

“Uh what do you think??” she blurted out.

“I... don’t know what to think? I just heard of it now.”

“Dude you can’t be serious,” she said as she began to calm down. “What were you doing, where were you that you missed all of this? It’s been like nineteen hours!”

“After we lost the last battle, I took a little time off for myself,” I stated calmly as I gave her a confused look. Not wanting to lie to her, I decided to skirt around the truth with vague replies that weren’t necessarily untruthful. It wasn’t much better but… she didn’t need to know. “Also had some… difficulties come up, wasn’t able to check the forums or anything.”

“You’re kidding me,” she said bluntly while raising a single eyebrow. “Your timing is awfully suspicious… you know, there were rumors going around. Rumors about you.”

“I don’t follow,” I stated with a shrug.

“Eh, you really don’t know anything?” she questioned as her face showed some hesitation with the way the conversation was going. “They were saying that a red-eyed man with a broken leg and an axe was reported fleeing from the Blacktomb’s manor.”

“Hm,” I mumbled while taking my time to carefully choose my next few words. Shaking my head slowly from side to side as the scenario wasn’t true, I decided to answer truthfully, at least vaguely truthfully. “Can’t say I was running around with an axe or red-eyes, so no, that’s purely rumor. Is that the official word going around?”

“So you’re saying it wasn’t you that caused all this?” she asked.

Letting a slight smile escape as I gathered myself, the truth behind the matter was slightly different. I was behind a certain part of it but I alone didn’t cause all of it. The dominoes were set by the players, I simply tipped the first one over.

“From what you’ve told me, it sounds like the Woodfall faction’s greed and lust for power was what caused this,” I explained after a few seconds had passed. “And if they’ve been arguing then clearly there must have been some level of mistrust brewing between them. If you ask me… they dug their own graves. You reap what you sow.”

A small silence passed as Emily seemed to be thinking over my words, a little skeptical over my misdirection but not wanting to argue the point. If what she had said was true, then the guards reported my fake story and it broke out as one of the lead stories. There wasn’t much information for them to go off of anyways, so it made sense.

That much was according to plan.

“Hey from the background behind you, are you by the western wall?” I asked about ten seconds later as I had been heading in that general direction believing she would be over there. “I’m close by, I think.”

“Ah… yeah… let me invite you to the party,” she replied.

Invite following after, I saw Valerie was a part of the party as well as the three of us met up along the castle-town’s walls. Browsing the forums and discussions that had been happening as I walked, everything so far had been unfolding quite nicely.

Blame was initially assigned to me but as I had been sighted within Wesstown walking and talking without a limp and with my axe hanging off my shoulder, speculation turned to how I could have possibly covered the distance if my leg was indeed broken. For now, my involvement was suspect and hardly believable. The comments proved that much.

“How could he get in undetected anyways?”

“Lol, sad excuse. One guy did that? GTFOH.”

“So no one actually saw him?”

“One guy said he saw him, that’s what the guards said.”

“Who saw him???”

“A player with a yellow armband, I was there.”

And on and on it went.

Everyone involved had an opinion and the current trend of thought hovered around how impossible it sounded that a single man could infiltrate a castle-town undetected and then escape without anyone seeing him. The whole situation seemed insane and unlikely as both of the guilds involved started pointing fingers.
Triumvirate
declared they were innocent and would never sabotage an ally but
aRIOT
didn’t believe a word of it.

Being the smaller guild by a hundred members,
aRIOT
felt that
Triumvirate
were trying to pull a fast one, killing off the NPC faction that opposed them so as to gain complete control of Wesstown following the nearly guaranteed victory. Even without Blacktomb’s NPC army and
aRIOT’
s help they would be able to siege the town now that the Harmont faction only had a few players left to defend.

So far, so good.

“Five minutes to start huh,” I said to Emily and Valerie as I approached them from behind. “What’s the current news, if any? I’m just getting caught up on it all right now. The comments are pretty funny actually, if you’ve seen them. Reads as if no one knows what to believe.”

“Well the surviving head of the Blacktombs is the ten year old child,” explained Emily as she turned and gave me a weird look. “Since the rest of the family was killed, he’s the only survivor… it seems the guards were discussing the details and there was some suspicious behavior by one man that gave a witness statement.”

“Yeah?” I asked, genuinely intrigued by the news.

“You sure you didn’t have anything to do with this?” she questioned again, fully believing that I was the one responsible.

Smirking in response, I didn’t reply right away as I started to wonder if the fact that she picked me as the guilty one was a good or a bad thing. In a way it was an honor that she believed me capable of pulling it off despite my attempts to dissuade her. Though on the other hand… it was a dirty business and I couldn’t help but wonder if she figured only one person was as cold and calculating. To be so emotionless to be able to murder an old couple in their sleep, to kill a husband and wife in front of their child.

I guess I did fit the bill… the red-eyed monster was a fitting name.

“Would you think less of me if it were the case?” I asked, curious as to what her opinion on the matter was and where she stood on the issue.

“No,” immediately stated Valerie as Emily was mulling her reply over. “There are far worse things in the world than an assassination of a leader of a hostile military force.”

“Hmm, it’s only a game,” said Emily after some time. “So it was you after all? I knew it… why didn’t you tell us?”

“I was just wondering what you thought of the person who did it,” I said calmly, declining to directly answer. Stretching my arms behind my head, I took a look over the wall and saw the enemy forces had parted into two distinct sides a little ways out. The battle was supposed to take place in a few minutes and the separation of the forces was a positive one, as a division between enemy ranks was always a welcome sight.

“I think we might have a chance,” I mumbled.

With all of my combat gear equipped and on my person, there was little left to prepare for as we waited for the clock to tick over. The entirely scripted event was about to begin and my hope was that a civil war of sorts would erupt in Cleftside before the battle got underway. If the troops would turn on each other, then there would be a chance.

Then as the clock struck 4:00 PM, nothing happened.

4:15 PM and hundreds of faces lining the ten-foot tall stone walls continued to stare out at the mass of troops split down the middle. Nothing had happened as the enemy army refused to move. Sensing the growing discord, a thought occurred to me that now would be the time to strike. If by some chance the two parties came to terms and agreed on a treaty, then they would resume their attack and capture the town.

While facing impossible odds, if the battle could be started with only the
Triumvirate
being targeted, there was a slight chance that
aRIOT
might get involved in order to stop them from succeeding. Then a second thought flashed before me. Friendly-fire… I needed to fake friendly-fire in order to make men and women move. Opening my [Friends List] I clicked on Claire’s name and started a conversation as her guild was necessary for this operation to be successful. I needed a force to engage the
Triumvirate
’s players.

“Hey Claire,” I said quickly, waiting for her response.

“Hey, you good?” she replied about thirty seconds later.

“Uh yeah, I’m fine,” I stated while dismissing the weird choice of words. “How many guild members do you have left, that can fight right now?”

“About eighty, why?” she asked.

“Can you mobilize and attack the Woodfall faction?” I somewhat blurted out, believing time was of the essence. “I’m of the belief that if we move now, we can get the Blacktombs to turn on them.”

“Another crazy plan…” she mumbled while trailing off, giving the appearance that she was at least contemplating the strategy.

Checking my gear once more, I hopped off the wall and began to make my way to the forest as I eyed my one last trump card that was unknown to the rest. A purple armband of the Blacktomb faction that I had found, much the same as the yellow one that had been used and burned. Abandoned by a player no longer interested in the battle, the rare find was my secret treasure as it would allow one last act of subterfuge.