The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  Standing at the edge of the destruction, the remaining players struggled to their feet as I stood behind them. Turning to face me, they hesitated as my eyes continued to burn a dull red in the distance. Then the turned to the forest and found my NPCs staring back.

  They were trapped and severely outnumbered.

  This wasn’t the entire guild… they were missing a lot of players.

  Dropping their weapons on the ground, the twelve remaining players surrendered as I looked on with head tilted to the side. Compassion pleading with me on one side to let them go as anger and rage told me to kill them all. Taking a deep breath as I tried to regain my senses, I let the [Enraged State] pass as my eyes returned to their normal color.

  No longer glowing in the darkness of the night, the soft light from the moon served to barely illuminate the field as the remaining white snow barely glistened. Completely surrounded, the players turned to me as they sat down and waited for my decision. Some were more eager than the others… one in particular, was scared beyond belief.

  Examining the kid that was practically crying with snot pouring down his face, he had stumbled backwards from his knees and onto his ass as he tried to distance himself from me. He hardly looked twelve… there was an age limit of eighteen for the game but one could bypass it if the proper consent was given… yet clearly, he was too young.

  These kids couldn’t enter brothels and the game was slightly censored but still… he was far too young to be playing in this game. I would have slit his throat or beheaded him in actual combat, regardless of his perceived age. Of course this did assume his appearance was similar to his real one but judging from his current state, it seemed likely.

  “I-I-I’m sor-r-ry,” he stuttered as he covered his face in fear.

  “Are you hurt child?” I asked while kneeling down with knife tucked safely away.

  “N-no,” he whimpered as he peaked through his fingers.

  “Son, how old are you?” I questioned calmly.

  “El-l-leven,” he replied as he began to cry.

  “Go on and log out son, you don’t want to be on for this,” I said with some remorse and sadness in my voice.

  Watching him do as I asked, he ran off into the distance and exited the combat area then logged out. As his body disappeared from sight, I turned to look at the rest of the supposed adults remaining nearby.

  I was angry now, more so than before that they involved a child in their affairs and let him run amuck. They brought a child into this war and now I had likely traumatized him. He ran forth in excitement thinking he was one of the big boys, then found himself on the receiving end of arrows, spells, and other such sights as people died all around him.

  “Who’s the kid?” I asked angrily at the remaining survivors as they all kept silent. “Alright, don’t want to talk? You get to die then.”

  Extending my hand and shooting out an [Arc Lightning], the electric tether quickly drained the closest man of his remaining life as he struggled and squirmed in place before falling onto his back, now a fresh corpse.

  “Who’s the kid!?” I asked again with an even angrier voice, practically shouting.

  Silence filled the air for another moment as my face began to twitch and I raised my hand, intending to cast another [Lightning Strike] down on them. Realizing that my mana was too low, I lowered my hands as one person spoke up, afraid of what would come next.

  “He’s… the son of a guild member,” mumbled a person in the back.

  “And you let him come out here, to fight?” I said with disgust as I spat on the ground.

  “You attacked us,” shot out another guild member. “You’ve been terrorizing us for weeks now, you’re the monster don’t try to put the blame on us!”

  “I attacked you?” I repeated as I held my ground and let my rage flow through me. Eyes turning to a bright flashing red as my body began to shake, I wanted to rip them into pieces with my bare hands. “I ATTACKED YOU!?”

  “I-I think he uh, meant… that you attacked this time,” one man clarified as I tried to regain my composure. “We aren’t uh… saying, you like started this… we’re guilty too.”

  Calming down as he was technically correct, my eyes returned to a dull red as I began to pace back and forth. I was tired of this war and wanted to wash my hands of it. This would be the last discussion… I would end it here with these people as witness.

  “You started this war and I intend to finish it,” I said loudly for all of them to hear. “Look at your village now, as you abandoned it in order to meet me on the field of battle.”

  Pointing towards the village behind us, my second longship was visible in the distance as the entire player village had been engulfed in flame. A giant ball of fire in the distance, filling the night sky with smoke that obscured the stars.

  “I had ZERO interest in your affairs until you launched your surprise attack on my village,” I said through clenched teeth.

  “Hey get real,” said a middle-aged man as he stood up and faced me. “Everyone knows you were planning to attack us from the get go and we just struck first, stop playing the victim you asshole. You won the battle, now fuck off.”

  “Where the fuck did you hear that?” I spat back as I wanted to deck the guy in the face. “I couldn’t give two shits about you or your three letter acronym of a guild. I don’t even know who or where you came from. The fuck are you on about.”

  “Everyone knows man, stop pretending,” said another guy with a deep voice.

  “Yeah, everyone that goes to the AnB meetings knows about it,” followed up a third.

  “And who told you this?” I asked while trying to calm myself down once more. Silence had filled the air again as well as no one bothered or couldn’t reply. “Really, you’re going to pretend I didn’t just ask you a logical question?”

  “Look man, I don’t know okay?” answered the man with a deep voice. “All I know, is everyone knows. Whoever started it, don’t know, don’t care. Get over it.”

  “Seriously, you think we like you?” asked the middle-aged man. “Just because you beat us here, you think we’re going to be nice to you all of a sudden?”

  At the last reply, I started laughing out loud as their faces showed their confusion. They believed themselves the victims… even though they were the aggressors. The loser of the fight became the victim, despite the loser being the one who started it.

  Classic.

  The whole scene reminded me of burglars suing the homeowner for injuries received during the break-in. The worst part of that was they sometimes won in court. They often won in this home State of mine. Whatever, the damage was done.

  Their village had been destroyed and their players killed.

  Walking through the crowd, I picked up the dropped coins and made my way into the forest with one thought on my mind. I decided, I would give one last reply. This one wasn’t a vocal one but… well, maybe it was. It was certainly an audible one. A bright one, filled with excitement. Hell, I’ll even explain it to them too.

  “I’ll give you one last warning,” I began to explain as I remained concealed behind a tree. “Come seek revenge and I will destroy everything you hold dear.”

  Five seconds after finishing my parting phrase, a lightning strike hit the ground where the remaining players had been sitting. The raid was over and as far as I was concerned, FWB was taken care of. I was no longer interested in revenge.

  “Katherine,” I messaged with the Soul Link as I continued to walk towards the ship. “Continue with phase two, meet me at Bergenheim. Tell the crew they were perfect. And you too, you were great.”

  Staring up at the moon and its little satellite, I couldn’t help but feel relieved that FWB had been reduced to nothingness. There was nothing left there and if they attempted to rebuild once more, I would be shocked beyond belief. They had been raided three times with the third a successful siege. Their forests weren’t safe for them to hunt and discord was already visible within the ranks.


  The only thing that bothered me was the accusation that everyone knew that I was targeting them. I didn’t know what was said in those meetings as I had stopped going but I knew that Emily had been providing information as part of her job as the host. Somewhere in between, someone believed I was a hostile force. Was this an innocent misunderstanding… or was something else going on?

  I didn’t know the answer to that yet.

  Chapter 97: A Moment’s Rest

  (Thursday, January 13th Game Day / Saturday, May 8th Real Day)

  Logging into the game after finishing my breakfast in the real world, I found myself lying in a bed that wasn’t mine while staring at the pale brown ceiling. The untreated lumber that was used wasn’t unlike my cabin’s ceiling but the bed was certainly different.

  Even if it was an inn with relatively comfortable rooms for the North it wasn’t quite the same. Stiff and rough, the furs that made up the bedding were old and well-worn while the bedframe itself was no more than four logs rolled up next to each other and shaved down to at least provide a flat surface.

  Back home in Dragon’s Breach the bed that I shared with Kate was one of a semi-modern design, with numerous slats spread out and nailed down into the log frame and a very thick bundling of furs and leather that provided a moderate amount of cushioning. The pillows were fur hides as well, stuffed with feathers from the processed chickens that Kaia was also in charge of.

  The chickens had been delivered ages ago with the barley, oat, and bean seeds for the farm but the small population didn’t allow for much in the way of harvesting. If I really wanted to expand my agriculture and livestock industry, then more animals would need to be purchased. It was a never ending laundry list of things to do.

  Closing my eyes as I tried to relax, a yawn escaped me and woke the sleeping beauty next to me. Staying still so as not to encourage her to get up, she placed her head on my chest and went back to sleep without a fuss.

  A small comfort for the both of us.

  There wasn’t a whole lot on the agenda for the day… and a part of me wanted to simply lie back and relax. Days of hard work had put a strain on me and I believed a break was finally in order, the major problem that bothered me for the past month had now been taken care of. There was little reason to believe that FWB would be able to retaliate.

  Well, there was one thing.

  Opening the in-game browser and relocating the window so it would float slightly off to the top right side of my visual field, the almost holographic-like projection began to play popular footage of the game from the day before.

  Whatever was hot and trending was showcased as part of a daily online series revolving around The Dragon’s Wrath. If there was a situation worth hearing about, it was on the stream, though most of the content was user-submitted. Along those same lines, none of my prior activities made it onto the stream but curiously or maybe surprisingly, the beginning of the show started with a clip of the raid from the night before.

  A heavily edited clip of a man killing people in an open snowy field, with axe and knife and lightning galore. Then the footage cut to a crying child as the same man with red glowing eyes approached in the distance, only the red of his eyes visible in the darkness. A few seconds passed as the child continued to cry, then a flash of lightning landing in the center of where the child was a few frames before ended the scene.

  The scene was… surprising, and the music that accompanied it elicited feelings of anger towards the man being showcased. This series didn’t have commentary or gameplay sounds and was rather quiet in nature compared to the more popular ones. Instead there was epic music playing along with the scenes that helped set the theme and mood for the viewer. It was a deviation from the norm but one that proved popular as people were able to connect with the footage in a different way.

  The theme here was that of a crazed man terrorizing and killing a child, complete with background music that started off aggressive and upbeat while slowly transitioning into a sad, somber piano composition that tugged emotionally when played next to the picture of the crying child on screen. And then the sudden flash, cymbals crashing as the screen flashes white and then fades to black.

  The video was well done… even I was moved, and I was the child murderer in the video. The problem with the video though, was that I didn’t kill that child. It was a heavily edited video that had been cut in a way to convey a message. They were painting me as a terrorizer and a murderer of children.

  A man with no compassion or morals.

  I might have lacked compassion for the guilty but I did not target children. It didn’t take long for the thought to occur to me that the child was placed there on purpose. A human shield and sacrifice that would cost the attacker. This was their trump card, their response to my psychological warfare.

  It was well-played.

  Opening another window but this time on the top left side of my visual field, the forum thread that had contained discussions on the previous raids and actions was at the top of the first page. There were over a hundred pages in the thread… when two days ago there were maybe twenty pages.

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I clicked on the thread and started reading after the last post that I had read the other day. The poster had mentioned that FWB was attacked and asked if anyone had footage, then a few more posts requesting the same filled the page. Fifteen posts later, the edited footage was linked by a member of the guild.

  Dozens of posts then chimed in, obviously members of FWB.

  They all said the same thing, that I was terrorizing them and murdering their NPCs in cold blood as they were powerless to stop my advances. That I stooped so low as to mentally scar a little child with my blind aggression. Even rhetoric about how I planned to conquer the entirety of the North and intended to forcefully remove all the players there singlehandedly. They said it again, “Everyone at the AnB meetings knows of his agenda.”

  This was their war… they were fighting back with the hope of garnering public support by way of sympathy. Their entire premise was based on faulty rumors and in the case of the video and my war with them, most if not all of their stories and ideas were fabrications.

  “Sons of bitches,” I whispered so as not to wake Katherine.

  The comments that came after bothered me the most.

  Names that had been on my side before the video was released were now wavering and appeared neutral. Those that were neutral were now ranting against me. And of course, the ones who believed me to be in the wrong from the start were singing to the choir with shouts of “we knew it all along” being repeated at every opportunity.

  I was losing the propaganda war.

  Public support had shifted in an instant as I slept the early morning away… if a proper response wasn’t issued, I would be public enemy number one in the North. I could stop fifty players, maybe even a hundred, but there was little chance I could stop hundreds or thousands if they grouped together and started a war.

  My entire existence within the North was in jeopardy.

  War had definitely come to the North and before my first raid was launched, I wondered if the wars breaking out all over the continent would lead to small-scale warfare or one larger, global world war. As far as I could see, the potential for all-out war was there… it only lacked the spark to ignite it.

  A child-killer could very well be that spark.

  This was bad.

  “I’m fucked,” I mumbled as I opened my friend’s list and checked to see if anyone was on. Seeing Barik online was a relief as the man must have been getting ready for bed any minute now. Selecting his name, I immediately sent a message to ask for an opinion.

  “Hey Barik, you see the video of me uploaded by FWB yet?” I asked quickly.

  “No?” he replied succinctly.

  “Check it out and give me your thoughts if you would, I’ll send you the link.”

  Staying in bed as I tried to think things over, I waited for Barik to watch the thirty second or so cli
p and hoped it wasn’t as bad as it appeared. That the reality wasn’t as bad as I thought it was… that my imagination was running wild and the impact was nowhere near as strong as believed. That was my hope.

  “Oi, what did ye do?” he asked bluntly.

  “Burned their village to the ground and killed their players but the child wasn’t physically harmed… he was hidden amongst the crowd, brought in by their guild,” I explained as I started shaking my head. “Told the kid to log off as soon as I saw him too. Fuck it looks bad, doesn’t it?”

  “Ya… damage control mate,” said Barik. “Ye need it, spin it on ‘em.”

  “The full video won’t get views, no one cares about the truth or the full picture,” I said after giving it some thought. “They want drama, something that’s engaging and entertaining… something to rile them up one way or the other.”

  “Can ye do it?” he asked honestly with a frown. “I work construction, heavy machinery… nothin’ fancy or artistic. I can’t help ye even though I want to.”

  “No it’s fine man, I don’t want to drag anyone into this anyways,” I said with a long drawn out sigh. “Not for something small like this, I can handle it. I really just needed the second opinion, thanks for the help.”

  Some short small talk followed after until Barik logged off for the night as my morning was getting started. FWB had brought out their big guns for this and let loose with nothing else to lose. The propaganda war was being won almost single-handedly by that lone video… if I wanted to fight back, I needed a proper video that intrigued while showcasing the truth plus a little mystery. Something that could captivate the audience.

  One video to enthrall them all.

  “Damn,” I whispered as Kate wrapped her arms around me. Life seemed great ten minutes ago and now despite the creature comforts surrounding me, my mind was in a state of chaos. My life was about to get complicated again.