That Wasn't the Plan

by Jason Cheek

  As the monstrous wolf reared up in its death throes, I saw Werewolves hanging onto the Elite Earth Shock Wolf’s back fighting for their lives. At the same time, Ulia and Rayne joined Neristhana in hammering into the mob’s flanks. With a jerk of its barrel-shaped head, it threw the Werebear’s bleeding body away as its hit points plummeted to zero. With a final whining groan, the level 65 wolf collapsed into a heap graveyard dead.

  Scrabbling to me feet, I slid my shield off my back and drew the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden just as I caught sight of an Elite Molten Flow Strider staggering towards us. Half of its face was eaten away from the Dark magic damage it had taken during its charge. It was an impressive monster with glowing lines of red fire covering its charcoal black scales in a complex network. Coming to a stop before us, it let out a strangled cry and drew its head back as I shouted for everyone to take cover.

  Hunching down behind my shield, I pulled Helgath’s leather-clad body tight to my chest as a wave of flame washed over us a second later. Screams rang out from the players to either side of us as the green glow of multiple Healing Breezes began lighting up the air around us. With a thought, I began spamming my own Healing Breeze spell as fast as possible as the air became too hot to breath.

  If not for the high elemental magic resistance of my gear and the constant healing, I would have been screaming along with everyone else. As the wave of fire came to a stop, I surged to my feet dragging Helgath along with me. Letting her go, I spun around towards my shield side and sprinted for the monster.

  Before the Elite Molten Flow Strider could follow up its special attack, I leaped up at the creature’s toothy maw and slammed my dark blade to the hilt into its muscular neck. Using the weight of my entire body, I ripped the magically enhanced blade through the damaged scales, opening the monster’s neck from chin to breastbone in one go as shimmering blasts of Homing Zap slammed into its head from multiple attackers.

  The combined damage was too much. With a last agonized hiss, the oversized lizard collapsed to the ground as I was covered in a spray of blood and gore. Wiping my face clean with the back of a forearm, I looked around for a new target only to see that the battle was over. As my eyes met the stunned faces around me, I stabbed the Dark Blade of Lord Kayden into the air and gave a victorious shout. Within seconds, the entire raid had joined me as we cheered at being alive.

  Yeah, I know how ridiculous it was going to look to anyone watching my Twitch Channel. But, in that moment, I didn’t fucking care. Until you’d gone through a crazy battle like this with oversized monsters, you just wouldn’t understand, I silently thought, as Helgath gave me a hug of thanks. Pushing her away, I nodded for her to give me a hand as we began helping the people around us to their feet.

  Chapter One.Twenty-Eight

  (Thursday, May 8th / Day 18 of The World.)

  The clean-up was easy enough. With all the group heals being cast, no one had lost their lives or were left with serious injuries that needed to be taken care of. It was definitely a change than what I was normally used to. After making sure my companions were doing alright, I squatted down next to the Elite Molten Flow Strider that we’d taken down.

  Even dead, I could feel the intense heat coming from the fiery gaps in the creature’s incredibly tough fine scales. My mind was taking in the mass of material just laying around after this cluster fuck as I took a moment to gather the creature’s soul stone. Pocketing the purple gem into the sack at my waist, I dexterously made my way over the mounds of dead bodies to Dmitry, Krishna, and Angie who were talking to each other like old friends.

  I couldn’t help the wry grin that came to my lips. There was nothing like going through an intense fight to bring people together. Getting a warm greeting from my new friends, I commended them for a job well done as I clapped Krishna and Dmitry on the shoulders while we listened to Angie’s excited story about fighting off an Elite Earth Shock Wolf face-to-face. We were just clapping the massive Werebear on her thick biceps, when my friends, Assault Leader Dell, and the Aussie Officers came walking up. Before anyone could greet us, I heard Kenzie’s voice ring out in annoyance.

  “Level 36! How the hell did you gain another level?” More than one Devil Dog stifled a laugh as she whined to Jill. “This is fucking bullshit! I’ve been working my ass off for three days trying to catch up to him and this asshole goes out for two hours and gains another whole level!”

  I didn’t bother to respond to any of the comments the two were making to each other. Instead, I ignored their obnoxious banter about the unfairness of it all as Dmitry made an offhanded comment to Krishna and Angie about rude people not saying “thank you” when being rescued. As the group came to a stop, Assault Leader Dell stepped forward smartly.

  “My lord,” he said, thumping a fist to his breast plate. “It is good that you came when you did. The battle had just turned for the worse. Luckily, there were no deaths during the fight. Already, the remaining injured are being healed up and should be ready to move out by the time the loot parties return.”

  “Excellent news, Assault Leader,” I said, returning the veteran swordsman’s salute while trying to keep the anger I felt out of my voice. Once this was all over, I was going to have to set up a true chain of command and return his General rank. The man was a life saver in getting everyone organized and trained up. The only problem he was facing now was not being sure of his place and authority when it came to other newfar.

  In all honestly, I was extremely upset at the mess we’d run into upon our return. If we’d been a minute later, things could have gotten really ugly. Ugly enough, that without the Uten Syn ability for massive group heals, the whole raid might have wiped. But, seeing the uncomfortable look on Assault Leader’s Dell face, I had a good idea of what had more than likely occurred. As Dell stepped back, I shook Thomas’ and Dangas’ hands.

  “It’s nice to see everyone could make it to the party,” I said, nodding to the rest of the Aussies.

  “This group of NPCs you have are beauts!” Dangas excitedly exclaimed, as the rest of his officers nodded in agreement. “They took down a shit-ton of level 65 mobs like it was nothing.”

  “That wasn’t exactly what we were hoping would happen,” Thomas said, shifting on his feet uncomfortably as he eyed Kenzie who just gave him an exasperated look.

  “What? How the hell were we supposed to know the entire plain was going to aggro?” She spat, glaring at us both angrily. “I haven’t seen anything like that before. We dealt with the problem … end of story.”

  “Yeah, aggro can work like that once you’re dealing with such high level mobs,” I said, trying to calm my friends down while keeping my temper in check. “Why were you messing around with the mobs in the first place? I thought we were only killing what we needed to pass through the area safely.”

  “Are you kidding me, Jay? You guys nearly wiped out everything between here and the hidden valley.” Jill exclaimed incredulously. “You’re the last person who should be bitching about something like that.”

  “Whoa there, we only slaughtered the mobs that aggro’d,” I said defensively, as I hurriedly tried to explain what happened. “The lower-level players in our group drew aggro from the higher-level mobs in the zone. The only way we could get through was by slaughtering everything that came at us.”

  I thought it was pretty straight forward, but the look I got from Krystal, Jill, and Kenzie said otherwise. Even Dangas and Thomas were looking at me like I should just leave things well enough alone. Grinding my teeth in silent frustration, I jerked my chin at the empty plain around us, trying to understand what had happened.

  “Where you guys trying to clear the entire zone?” I said, emphasizing the word “trying” as Kenzie rolled her eyes at the question.

  “Yeah, that was the plan,” Thomas said, cutting Kenzie off before she could say something nasty. “If not for Jill’s fluke pull, we’d have been fine.”

  “Look, we thought that if the next respawn of mobs were in the eighty-fi
ve to ninety level range that it would block any late additions from coming to the party.” Thomas looked around as if to include my friends, his guildmates, and the Aussies. “The last thing any of us wanted was to get ambushed from behind while we were sneaking up on the siege.”

  “It’s cool, guys,” I said, holding up my hands to stop any more arguing. “It was a decent plan.”

  Running a frustrated hand through my hair, I pulled up my map of the training area and tried to get a feeling for the area and what having this pass blocked might mean. That’s what upset me the most about what they’d done. While their plan sounded like a good idea, the main problem was that no one considered how much we’d be fucked if we ran right smack dab into the massed formation of several thousand Chaos Storm Alliance players without having a path open to retreat through.

  A frown came to my lips as I studied the vague information on the map. Since I hadn’t actually physically been there before, the detail was very generic, albeit better than anything outside the training zone that just showed fog of war. While this wasn’t the only way to get into Domenic’s area, it was basically the only pass I could see on the map from the Telrain side of the mountain range. It was doubtful that this was the only pass, but it must have been the easiest one to find. Hence why the Chaos Storm Alliance was using it to get their people into position.

  It looked like you might be able to make your way along the coast line, but it would be hard going, since there wasn’t any clear cut paths on the map. The side facing the Isolde Line was more or less free, but you’d want to be heading towards Palnisdale to use that direction and supposedly there was a massive Orc invasion force heading this way somewhere in that direction. Closing the in-game map, I let out a heavy sigh. Let’s just hope we don’t find ourselves cut off and needing to head back through this pass. Not that there was much of anything we could do about it now.

  “Not to change the subject, but your friends said there wouldn’t be any problems getting our hands on some of those flying squirrels as long as we talked to Krishna about them.” Dangas said, hesitantly he glanced over at Jill and Krystal before turning back to me. “If you could point him out that would be great?”

  “Really Jill?” I asked, rolling my eyes as Jill studiously ignored me while Kenzie flipped me off without looking up from their talk. Holding my forehead as if I had a migraine, I expelled a heavy breath to calm my nerves.

  I guess this really shouldn’t have been a surprise. Anyone who saw the flying squirrels in action would want one in a game like this. Besides, there was no way we were going to keep their abilities hidden while working so closely with these other guilds. Before Dmitry could cut in about getting his people the “free flying squirrels,” I turned back to Dangas as his people glanced at each other uncomfortably at the look on my face.

  “Now about those flying squirrels…” Quickly, I explained to both groups that it was a part of the Uten Syn guild’s Nature magic. In no uncertain terms, I explained that we were only making this available along with the undead pets to those guilds who agreed to become our permanent allies.

  Krishna and Angie silently agreed with what I said with a look as I worked my magic. I didn’t need chumps who talked big but didn’t back up what they said with actions. And yes, I know they’d met us all the way out here to give us a hand in pulling Dom out of the mess he was in against the proverbial bad boys and girls of the server. While I appreciated that level of commitment, what I really needed to know was if they were going to stick around for the long haul. If they were, I needed them in BrokenFang Hold to help us fight off the Hobgoblin army and any other comers that were headed our way.

  Making their way over to our lands would entail a serious commitment from both guilds. It would also prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were serious about joining us. The good thing about doing it now was that we could travel back together if they agreed. With that in mind, I didn’t hold anything back. I explained about the coming Hobgoblin invasion, the land I’d managed to grab, the defenses that were being put into place, and the guilds that were already helping to build up our lands.

  This was all new information to Krishna and Angie. While they were excited about the coming invasion on one level, I could tell they were nervous about it on another, since there was a chance they could lose their new home. Hurriedly, I explained about the Orc invasion that was going to be hitting this side of the map and that, unlike my territory, there were almost no defenses left in place to ward off such a massive force in the Kingdom of Kader. The only exception was Palnisdale which I was working directly with the royal family and the remaining royal forces to create a defensive stronghold that would hopefully stand against the coming storm.

  That discussion created a shit-ton of more questions about everything that had went down in Telrain. Due to the disinformation that Julie was spreading on the forums, there was a lot of questions about what really happened. Once I explained the basics of what had happened and that we now had the Prince and Princess on our side along with a quest to save the kingdom, everyone was excited about joining our ranks.

  For the Aussies and the Russians, it was basically like getting rewarded for doing what was right. For the Uten Syn guild who had been prepared to quit the game and roll new characters, it was like winning the virtual lottery and finding some good friends on top of it all. For me and my friends, having these three very different guilds join us was a great way of strengthening our position within the game.

  My suggestion to get us all on the same page was that the Uten Syn guild would teach both the Russians and the Aussies the level one spell Zap from their Nature magic tree. That would allow them to level up their Nature magic if they were seriously committed to getting their own flying squirrels. Although, I warned both groups that it was doubtful that any of them would be able to skill up the ability within the time we had before the big PVP battle.

  The next question both guilds wanted to know was about learning Dark magic. I told them that I’d be willing to teach them the two beginning spells of soul stone and raise zombie. That would double their guilds’ current combat strength. Though, just like the Nature magic tree, it would take some time for them to get skilled up for the better stuff the tree had to offer.

  This was all part of the plan I’d been formulating in my head. While I was confident that both guilds would be joining us, I’d feel better about everyone once we got Domenic out of the mess he was in and back to BrokenFang Hold. Going through the shitstorm that was before us would show the quality of both groups of players. That was important because I needed people I could rely on to be there when the going got tough.

  Yeah, I know the plan came off as being somewhat mercantile in nature, but there was no such thing as a free lunch. We needed help, they wanted access to our abilities, and we both wanted people that we could trust and grow stronger with. If this worked out, it could be a win-win situation for everyone involved.

  The gleam in Krishna and Angie’s eyes told me they understood the gist of what I was trying to do. The more we could get people dependent on learning magic from us. The more power we could bring to the table. The more our strength grew. The more we could take on the larger guilds at their own game. Let alone, what that would mean for our ability to expand further into The World itself.

  That didn’t mean I was willing to accept just anyone into our alliance. Doing that would be the quickest way to implode. Alliances like this had to be built on commonalities. Did we share a similar outlook on gaming? Aka, were they asshats or not. Did we have a similar perspective on honor? Meaning, did I trust them to do what they said they’d do and hold to their word? Were the groups relaxed or were they high-strung. All of these things came into play. Though, I had to say that so far both the Russian and Aussie guilds had made me feel like they would be a good fit.

  On top of all of that, the strength of my Kayden Troopers had immediately caught both guilds’ attention. When they were told that this was only a quar
ter of my available forces amongst the people of The World and didn’t include the players in our alliance, the reality of what I was building truly sunk in. By the time we’d finished our discussion, Thomas, Krishna, Dangas, Dmitry, and I had agreed on a general outline for the alliance with the understanding that our fifth partner, the Valkyrie guild, was part of the alliance too, when I heard Kenzie’s unhappy voice call out.

  “What is THAT creature doing here?”

  “Oh, that’s Freya,” Sarka proudly said, as she squatted down next to the spindly, lizard-like colt who’d just stepped forward to sniff a large moose-like baby that was Thomas’ pet. A quick Identify showed that it was an Elite Crown-Bladed Eurasian Elk as Sarka continued nonplussed. “She’s one of the two baby Elite Fanged Tarpan Striders that we picked up earlier.” Before Kenzie could make a comment, a second colt joined the first as Tinyr stepped up next to the warrior. The look on Kenzie’s, Jill’s, and Krystal’s faces were priceless as Sarka introduced the second baby lizard. “Oh, and that’s Arashi, Tinyr’s combat pet.”

  As soon as I saw the pets that my team were holding, I immediately understood the unhappy expressions on the other team’s faces. They’d been busy showing off their new combat pets, which were a mixture of Wildclaws and Twin-Tail Foxes, except for Thomas’ baby Elk. Only to have their bubbles burst when they found out they weren’t the only ones with combat pets to show off. Even more annoying to the impromptu competition was that my teammates had even higher-level babies, aka meaning that they came from high-level parents. That was just about the time that Unalia and Yun both pulled out their baby Elite Large Rock Wolf babies, which were quickly joined by the pets from my companions.