The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (41 page)

I wanted to fight her if I could.

“I’m heading off,” said Valerie rather politely, interrupting my train of thought as she surprised me. “See you in a bit.”

“Okay,” I answered quickly as she was beginning the log off sequence. “Take it easy
Honey Badger
, I’ll be here when you get back.”

Her face twisted slightly as she didn’t understand my words but the blue circles of the logout sequence had already started and she disappeared without being able to utter a reply. It was worth a laugh.

“Heh.”

Not long after Valerie had logged off, I had started to wonder if there was anything that could be done to help win the following battle. It wasn’t that I was a sore loser, it was more that I simply hated to lose. You win and… you win, there was no room for failure. If a loss came, it came because I couldn’t give it anymore of an effort. Half-assed effort was not welcome.

We needed to win, defeat was unacceptable.

And then as my thoughts had drifted away, a voice brought me back.

“Excuse me, are you him?” asked a man I had never seen before.

“Depends, who is
him?
” I replied with a smile while looking at him, head tilted to the side as I was still lying down with arms behind my head.

“The one at the top of the leaderboards,” he said.

“Ah, yeah, I guess I am that
him
, why what’s up?”

“I’m from the guild
Accipe Hoc
if you’ve heard of us,” explained the young male as he sat down next to me. “We’d like to talk to you about coordinating our offenses for the coming battle… if you’re interested.”

“Ah yeah, Jeane is in your guild,” I said nonchalantly as I was reminded of the redhead from the bar. “What do you have in mind?”

Taking his time to reply, his expression told me that he was familiar with the redhead and was having mixed reactions to hearing her name. She was either known as a frequent patron of the bars or she had a reputation that preceded her… neither of which bothered me in the least. People were free to do what they wanted behind closed doors.

I wasn’t one to judge.

“It would be best if you discussed it with our officers, they are meeting nearby” he finally stated after calming his mind, much to my amusement. “And yes, Jeane is… in our guild.”

“Why you say that as if she’s not welcome,” I teased.

“No, no don’t get me wrong, we love Jeane,” he blurted out in his defense as his face became flushed. “Um it’s that, everyone knows Jeane….”

“She’s a popular one then! Hah!” I said with a laugh.

The young man’s facial expression made me burst into even more laughter as I patted his shoulder and reassured him that everything was all right. Not wanting to pick on the youth for much longer, I got up and grabbed my gear with the intent to meet these officers from the largest guild backing Wesstown and the House of Harmont.

They wanted an audience, I could give them much that.

Chapter 114: Clarity in the Fog

(Friday, February 25th Game Day / Saturday, May 22nd Real Day)

Far off in the distance, men and women pounded on drums made of animal skins and other materials I was entirely unfamiliar with. Only now were the approaching sounds reaching my ears as I continued to lie in the melting snow a couple of hundred yards away from the fighting. The fighting… thousands of remaining bodies, clashing against each other in an effort to thin the herd. They were cattle on a field, waiting to be slaughtered.

This wasn’t a player war, no not at all.

The reality had settled in long before but the acceptance had taken some time. This was nothing more than an open instance, a battleground event held by NPCs so players could enjoy simulated warfare in a contained environment. It was obvious with the penalties and the rewards that this wasn’t something that could be sustained or carried out often. The goal was to get random players involved in something that felt meaningful.

An NPC war where player interaction could move the balance, tip the scale, sway the tide, or even altogether abandon it. The choice was up to those involved and the results would mar the land, if one wanted to. Choice of course, belonged to the masses and not the individual. What I wanted was of no importance, what mattered was what the crowds wanted. These crowds wanted PvP and money, they cared little if one town or another was destroyed. The ones who did care were the ones who invested in the town.

The
Triumvirate
for instance, was heavily invested in the success of this war. They needed Cleftside to prevail and they needed the House of Woodfall to come out on top. My goal was to somehow prevent that from occurring. So far, my efforts had stalled a guaranteed defeat to the point where the numbers were now small enough that a large swing in momentum could lead to our victory. It was premature to think so but victory was possible.

One big swing is what we needed.

If every player managed to kill one other player, that would leave well over a thousand for me. If I could kill a hundred, if the rest of my crew could manage another hundred… we would still be outnumbered and outmatched.

Yet if a shift in momentum provided a spark where one of ours went down for every two of theirs, all of a sudden, the numbers became reasonable. Victory would not only be possible but potentially attainable. And so, we waited for that moment. As the bodies clashed in the distance, I waited.

Valerie, Emily, Barik, and Ethan too… they all waited with me. And that wasn’t all. We had followers this time around, fifty other players that had recognized us and wanted to fall in-line. They wanted to be a part of the action, of the real action. Word had spread through our ranks as hundreds of people gathered and discussed.

We had a plan, we had a leader.

They called that leader the
Alliance All-star
.

He thought it was a joke of a name but he wasn’t going to complain.

In our disadvantage, we found clarity. Muddied thoughts clouded by the fog of war, by far too many voices and independent thinkers, thousands of players moved with the motions of the battle and little else. There was no cohesion, no uniformity in the movements. People moved with the swaying tides and that was all.

Yet as our numbers dwindled and the loud voices thinned, the muddled thinking disappeared and with it so too did the fog. The clouds over their eyes had parted and left in its place was a singular voice that directed them into action. A voice that told them how to move, where to move, when to move… and lastly, why to move.

They listened.

Because there was no other presence on the battlefield more terrifying than the one who had slaughtered hundreds while others struggled to maim a few. Through action, my words were heard.

Through strength, my thoughts carried.

Now we would wait, wait as the true coalition of unified thinkers began to fight the battle. Tight quarters, shoulder to shoulder, a true line with tanks at the front and ranged behind, sorted and organized into true raid groups, filled with dedicated healers.

No longer would we fight with randomly assorted raid groups or no group at all. Valerie had made the point, that there were far too many player health bars on her screen to care, thousands of names to heal meant no one would get a heal. Both sides had their organized guilds but both sides had failed to control the masses.

Nothing could unify them, convince them to listen.

The
Triumvirate
had five-hundred active guild members participating in this battle and they had all remained at the rear, safely attacking and pulling back when a threat appeared. They let the pugs do their work for them. That’s all these random players were, pick-up group types… this was truly, one big instance. And then there was the other guild that fought by their side.

The guild
aRIOT
was the major force behind the Blacktombs as the
Triumvirate
backed the Woodfalls. A guild of four-hundred or so, the two combined to make a massive organized force of nearly nine-hundred players. Victory wasn’t guaranteed for us even if the cards fell in the right places.

We needed to split them… and we needed to kill them quickly.

Everyone had a part to play here, because we were still outnumbered.
Accipe Hoc
had filled the other forest with three-hundred members of their own and were waiting for the signal. This battlefield with its flanking forests provided the perfect situation for us. The position of our camps and the centerline of the battle itself only helped us even more.

Closer to the forests, we were the first to arrive and without needing to overextend, we could wait in the shadows of the trees. The main force had one role to play and it was a simple one, they had to appear small. As tight of a formation as possible while still looking disorganized, they would draw in the larger group as the numbers would give them confidence. Three to one on the field of battle, they would notice.

As long as they took that bait, believing that our side had no tactics and that only the mob existed, they would charge in. Their mob lacked distinction and they had no leader. Their largest threats were those two guilds backing different NPC factions within the same town. All we had were the three-hundred strong backing the House of Harmont and some smaller guilds that already backed out of the fight.

If this battle could be won, the next step was to sow discord through the ranks of the defenders… that was a secret plan, one that I had yet to share with anyone and would likely never admit to. My research pointed to a way but shadow wars weren’t talked about.

They didn’t exist.

On this field, I didn’t exist… only the persona of the
Alliance All-star
and now it was time to move, as the sounds of the horns calling for a retreat had been heard. The sounds were disturbing and pleasing as we had a plan.

Not bothering to look at any of the others, I began to walk towards the edge of the forest as I took a look at the field and the Leaderboard that had been constantly updating. We had lost a hundred players but so too did the enemy. That was within margin. Following the retreat, we would launch a staggered pincer attack and if successful, if three players could be killed for every one of ours in the ensuing scramble, then victory could be had. My force of volunteers would lead the charge while the guild
Accipe
Hoc
would follow after, showing themselves after the enemy commits to our attack.

“We’re starting Claire,” I messaged to the one officer that maintained contact with me from the allied guild.

Waving at the troops behind me, we filtered out and broke into a full-on sprint as we charged towards the flank of the enemy army. Dropping into another slide as I began my cast while counting on my momentum to carry me through, I jumped back to my feet and resumed my run as another cloud formed over their heads.

After multiple attempts, my practice had paid off as my stride had hardly been interrupted and I continued to lead the charge. Extending my free arm above me and then dropping it down to signal the oncoming strike, all of the men and women behind me looked down at the ground as the lightning hit.

Beautiful destruction rendered with a dazzling display of white as bodies flew up into the air with the ensuing thunder drowning out the screams and shouts of those struck. Temporarily blinded and deaf, I burst through the first line of defenders with a wide swing as I cut through three bodies.

Carrying on with the momentum of my charge, I used a heavy swing to the side again as I began to swing indiscriminately around in a circle while running straight through. Cutting a wide path as tens of players fell to the floor maimed but still alive, the ones behind me would finish the job.

But then as suddenly as the fight had started, resistance came and the fight began to turn into a bloodbath as our charge lost steam and halted.

Caught inside the mass and surrounded on three sides, our fifty players engaged with the thousand-strong on the southern side as our main body turned back from their retreat and clashed with the centerline. Waiting only for the guild members to rush out of the northern forest to finish the pincer attack, we continued to fight as the enemy force began to wrap around us.

The ever shifting line of combat moved once more as bodies began to fall to my left and right and directly in front. As I stepped back and watched Barik and the other shield-bearers form a wall for Ethan to shoot over, Valerie was seen healing in the back as Emily snuck around and finished individuals off.

The random players that joined us were wait deep in the fight as I saw an enemy axe get blocked by a shield only for a fellow ally to utilize the distraction to land his spear through the gap. Fighting with teamwork the pairs of troops began to overpower the individuals before us as the tides appeared to be moving in our favor.

Rushing back into the fight as I met a swordsman head on with my axe, his weak iron blade shattered against my axe’s blade as I brought the axe around and swung once again. Dropping it down on the man’s shoulder as he fell to the floor, I pulled the axe free and with a twist and turn, spun and swung for the fences as his head bounced and rolled on the ground.

Noticing an ally struggling, I lunged and absorbed a blow from a sword as it cut through my forearm but shrugged it off as the shallow wound had hit at a glancing angle. Shielding my ally with my body as I turned and met the sword with my axe, the man attacked with a quick thrust only to find it parried. Stepping into the attack, I closed the distance as I swept his feet and brought him to the ground.

Tearing off his yellow armband as he fell, I lifted my axe with the intention of executing him in an instant but then turned back to see that my ally had been killed by a halberd as I was forced to duck and dodge a spear. Raising my axe with yellow armband scrunched up in my hand, I attacked from a high-guard. Clanging against the heavy halberd that outranged me, we traded blows three or four times until an arrow hit him in the neck.

His movements thrown off from the sudden impact, I finished him off with ease as I looked around and saw that we had been completely surrounded. The man with the missing armband had retreated to safety and was now out of sight. Engulfed by the enemy army, I was struggling to understand why the enemy force had yet to shift or split.

Then in the corner of my eye I saw a message had arrived at some point as I retreated through the crowd and opened it quickly only to see that Claire had failed. Their force had been hit from behind by another hidden force waiting on the far side of the forest, too far out of sight to be detected.

They were forced to retreat as they were caught in a pincer as well.

The battle was lost before it even began. Completely surrounded, our small force of fifty had fallen to nearly thirty as hundreds began to close in around us. Looking at the small gap behind us that led to the southern forest, I began to cast my last lightning strike towards our rear to create room.

“RETREAT!” I shouted as soon as the cast was finished.

Turning to run with the crowd as confused faces were cut down in their moment of hesitation, I saw Barik attempting to retreat as he was hit from behind by a frost bolt and tumbled to the floor. Cutting back over to him as I tried to help him up, Ethan was hit by an arrow in the leg as he tripped and stumbled. Yelling at him to make his way to me, the second the words left my mouth a fireball exploded as it contacted him and covered him entirely in flames. Burning in place, he was still alive as he stumbled forward.

Then as I reached out to him still nearly ten feet away, a spear was thrust through his chest as he collapsed to the floor without a sound. Shaking my head as I saw Barik and Valerie running ahead of me, I sprinted towards them as Barik took another frost bolt and fell to the ground yet again. His slow speed and large body were too easy to hit as he was slowly pelted over and over, movements slowing to the point where I was forced to drag him.

Then as more spells hit the both of us he pushed me away and rolled onto the snow with face staring up at the sky, no longer able to continue as his health had depleted to critical levels. Turning my back on him as I increased my pace and ran past sluggish allies and into the forest, spells and arrows whizzed past me as the majority of them missed or hit the person next to me.