The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  “I find your lack of faith,” I stated slowly, pausing for a few seconds for the ultimate kicker. “Disturbing.”

  “Hah OKAY after you give me shit!” she shot back immediately, as her penchant for movie quotes was bordering on the obsessive. “You have learned much, young one.”

  Letting the moment pass as I looked at the old man’s cart, he had a spare cloak lying there as he appeared to have given up on retreating before the battle would start. Realizing that a disguise would help immensely, I wanted to buy it off the NPC before leaving the town’s walls.

  “So can you do it? If not, I’m still going to do my part,” I said clearly to Claire as I waited by the old man, who was now staring at me oddly. “Eh, I’ve got to go, message me if you’re out there and ready.”

  Pointing at the cloak, I got the old man’s attention as I began to explain my interest, “Are you interested in selling that cloak, I’m in need of one.”

  “Oh it’s not for sale sonny,” he replied while patting it.

  “I’ll give you two silver,” I said quickly.

  “I won’t part with it for less than five,” he shot back.

  “Five? That’s highway robbery old man, I’ll give you two-fifty and not a copper more,” I said with a shake of my head and a slight lean.

  “Oh it’s worth five silvers…” he mumbled while picking it up.

  “Not to me it’s not,” I said as I began to slowly turn away.

  “Wait wait, three silvers and it’s yours,” he stated.

  “Two-fifty, not paying any more. You can get one of the same quality for a silver, I’m being generous because I don’t feel like grabbing my own on the other side of town. Take it or leave it.”

  “Fine but not a copper less!” he shouted at me while acting as if he were upset and wronged by the transaction. As soon as the money hit his hands though his face was all smiles and grins as he knew he made a killing.

  Tossing the cloak over my shoulders and head, I made my way out into the forest and tucked my blue armband away out of sight. Pulling out the purple armband that had been picked up and sliding it up my arm, my allegiance to the Blacktombs was now on display.

  Continuing to sneak through the forest until the enemy force came within view, scouts were seen hiding in the distance. Surveying the scene one last time before revealing myself, it appeared all was clear. As the scouts became alerted to my presence, I waved at them and ran over with weapons still sheathed. Showing my armband to the NPC scouts, they waved me through as they questioned why I was coming from the town’s direction.

  “What were you doing?” rudely asked the nearest scout.

  “Scouting,” I replied with a grin and a wink.

  Running past them and towards the main force of the Blacktomb faction and the three-hundred or so members of the guild aRIOT, I kept my calm as I came within fifty yards and slowed my jog. Walking in at a casual pace as the clock had now hit 4:45 PM and the masses were growing impatient, I nodded at a few players who turned my way and entered the crowd, mixing in with the masses without issue.

  “Those Triumvirate backstabbing assholes,” I mumbled as I pushed through the players in my way. “They’re trying to cheat us of what’s rightfully ours. They should pay for what they did.”

  Repeating iterations of the phrases the entire way, at least a quarter of the player force had heard me as murmurs began to reach my ears. Making my way to the edge of the force where we stood directly opposite of the Woodfall’s army and Mr. Sardonic’s guild, I relaxed and engaged in small talk with the surrounding players.

  “How long you figure we wait?” I asked the man next to me.

  “The NPCs won’t move until they get word from the head of the house,” he replied rather sensibly. “Could be hours honestly… I’m thinking of logging out, I’ve already got my kills and the win is guaranteed.”

  “We should just kill those traitors,” I stated after.

  “You’re convinced huh,” he said.

  “The pieces add up,” I explained as a few had turned to listen. “A suspicious guy with a yellow armband, an awkward limp, and a sword that resembled the one stolen from the manor was giving out information that it was some player from Wesstown? Load of bullshit, all misdirection and deception. They’re as treacherous as they come.”

  Spitting on the ground for dramatic effect, I clenched my fist as my face contorted with anger. Playing up my emotional response, I started to actually feel angered but restrained it slightly so as not to enter an enraged state.

  “They thought they could screw our side over, take all of the rewards for themselves,” I stated loudly while watching the scene in front of me. Then as I was about to go into a tirade, Claire messaged me in the nick of time.

  “We’re starting,” she said.

  As soon as the message was received, the entire combined enemy force in front of me began to shift as they turned their backs to us and defended themselves from the surprise attack of Accipe Hoc. As if actually yelling at them to “take that,” the mass of bodies moving in unison brought a devilish grin to my face.

  “NOW’S OUR CHANCE FOR REVENGE BOYS,” I shouted as loudly as I could, as I burst out of the crowd and ran towards the Triumvirate’s exposed backs nearly a hundred yards away. “Attack Attack ATTACK!!!! WHILE THEY’RE DISTRACTED! THE SCUM DESERVE IT!”

  Reaching the outer limit of my holy spell’s range, I immediately dropped to a knee and began to gather golden-white energy between my palms as a basketball-sized white sphere took shape and fired off after only a second. Continuing to cast again, I shot off another holy blast and then repeated and repeated until ten successive casts had been completed.

  White explosions going off in the distance, faces and bodies of the enemy turned back to face me as I waved at the stragglers that had followed me. Beckoning them to move forward and join the fight, I yelled once more.

  “FIGHT, YOU FOOLS!”

  Gathering more holy energy between my palms, I resumed my chain casts of holy blasts until my mana had all but depleted and a few others had joined in. Return fire now coming from the Triumvirate’s side, aRIOT and the pugs were forced to engage as both sides began trading ranged attacks.

  Standing up and drawing my axe, I sprinted towards the surprised line of the Woodfall’s supporters and dropped my axe with my core fully-engaged and my shoulders, back, and chest pulling in perfect synchronization. Splitting the man in front of me as liters of blood instantly oozed down and out over the wet snow, I jumped through his separating corpse and caught another man unaware.

  And then as I swung to my left and cleaved a part of a woman’s chest clean off, I witnessed multiple purple-banded players joining me from the side as swords met swords and spears were thrust into shields. Axes and poleaxes and halberds swinging in the melee, hacking and splitting whatever they contacted as war hammers smashed and crushed flesh and bone. A morning star nearly caught my eye as I leaned back and ducked behind an ally, only to see that ally fall to the floor with a crooked neck.

  Mentally opening and creating a message as I continued to fight, I muted the conversation to the outside world as I sent the signal, “Retreat.” Hit by a sword from the side, a slight burn registered as my blurred intestines poked out of my stomach. As I grabbed my lower intestine and tried to push it back in, I fell back into the swarm of purple armbands and attempted to disappear.

  Kicking backwards to create some space, I turned and rolled as a frost bolt exploded into white mist a foot away causing more of my guts to spill into my hands. Crawling between and through my temporary allies’ legs, I found myself surrounded by purple armbands as I began to shove my innards back inside, now safely shielded by a mass of bodies four or five rows thick.

  “Beyond reason, the radiance emanates throughout, embrace the light, HOLY LIGHT,” I shouted as the golden warmth engulfed me and began to close my open wound. Standing up with intestines now intact and secure, the wound was still closing as I backpedaled slightly in
order to get out of the ever shifting line of combat. Getting out of harm’s way was the first priority.

  Letting my enemies continue to fight undisturbed, I stood back and watched as I pretended to cast heals, only to cancel them at the last second as another temporary ally fell. The overly geared players with their incredible collection of offensive weapons tore into each other with ease as the majority of them fell from one single blow. The duels unfolding were dances to the death as one slip or mistake ended in a casualty.

  Bodies falling to my left, right, and center, I did my best to hide my grin as I watched the numbers on the Leaderboards slowly trickle down. The small counter in the corner of my screen had been declining slowly but steadily since the start. With my mana nearly gone except for one last cast, I continued my charade of pretending to cast holy lights until I grew bored and noticed that both forces had been reduced to nearly half.

  “Sigurd where are you?!” messaged Emily out of the blue, as I caught an arrow in my shoulder and pulled it out with little care.

  “Busy, can’t talk,” I said quickly as I ducked and dived to the ground in order to dodge a fire blast with it sailing over me and impacting the woman who was behind me in a bright and fiery explosion. Lying on the ground as I watched the battle unfold, I decided to play dead as I was safely in purple territory and no longer in the path of destruction.

  “Oh actually, I can talk now. What’s up Emily?”

  As those words left my muted mouth so only Emily could hear them, a man collapsed and fell back on top of me, shielding me but blocking my view of the battle. Pushing him slightly so I could see, I then resumed my possum-play immediately after. Continuing to watch the individual duels and sporadic team fights, it appeared as if aRIOT was starting to lose ground. The superior numbers and players of the Triumvirate were winning.

  “What? Don’t give me that, where are you?! They’ve turned on each other! We should attack!” Emily shouted at me over the voice call, unaware that I was already involved in the attack.

  Switching the voice-call to video and then toggling the setting so she wouldn’t see me but would instead see from my perspective, I let her enjoy the show as I got comfortable on the ground. Lying still with a body to shield me, I was feeling rather secure in my current position.

  “Nice view don’t you think?” I asked as I let out a restrained laugh. “I can’t see from here but, have the NPCs moved at all or is it only the players?”

  “Wa-wait, WHAT!?” she screamed, bewildered by what she saw as her eyes grew wide with shock. “HOW ARE YOU THERE?!”

  At that moment Claire messaged me as well, as I opened a second video call and relayed the same video feed to both women.

  “Uh Sigurd… what am I watching?” asked Claire.

  “The current battle silly, how’d you guys make out?” I said as an arrow landed harmlessly in the dirt three inches from my face. “Oh that was a close one, three inches!”

  “Are you insane?” Claire asked as Emily had been silently ranting in the background, as I forgot to unmute her when switching calls.

  “I can’t really go anywhere though…” I said to the both of them simultaneously. “Conference call time, Claire meet Emily, good, nice. Okay, if the NPCs are fighting, mobilize and get ready to hit them hard when the battle appears over. I’ll be ready.”

  Ending both conversations as another arrow landed in my back, I decided that whoever that archer was with the piss poor accuracy, he was going to die. Pulling the arrow out and throwing it to the ground. I stayed on my knees and began to gather more holy energy with the intent to top myself off.

  Beginning a chant in order to boost the strength, I muttered under my breath, “Beyond reason, the radiance emanates throughout, embrace the light.” As soon as the three verse chant was completed, I finished the last two seconds of the cast and watched as the golden-beam of light descended on me only to disappear a moment later while taking away all of the pain and minor injuries with it.

  Health now back to one-hundred percent with roughly a fifth of my mana recovered, I decided to head back into the fight to aide my temporary allies. Getting back to my feet, I increased my pace as I timed out the movements of the battle and began to weave through traffic with the intent to capitalize on the mistakes of both temporary friend and foe.

  “I thought you were dead!” shouted a woman next to me as she followed me a few steps behind. With a quick glance out of the corner of my eye, I didn’t recognize her and shouted a reply as I took off in the other direction.

  “Was out of mana!” I yelled.

  As the sounds of battle had made it hard to hear with the clanging metal reverberating throughout the field, I didn’t know if she had responded but it made little difference either way. Picking up my pace even more as I began to push through the crowds, an opportunity presented itself as I watched an ally get stabbed through the stomach by a sword.

  Sword tip piercing straight through and out the man’s back, the swordswoman attempted to pull her sword free as I stepped forward and around the dying ally and took a low swipe at her knees.

  Cleaving through her left knee as the axe-head embedded itself into her right, the severing of a leg and the impact of the blow sent her to the ground as she was forced to release her sword. As she fumbled around in the mud while trying to reach her sword, I quickly rushed up and placed a foot on her stomach. Yanking my axe free and raising it far above my head, the disarmed woman instinctively attempted to shield herself as she failed to retrieve her weapon and couldn’t move under my weight.

  Dropping the axe down through both of her arms and splitting her face in two, all that remained was a blurred mess of blood and pixelated brain matter as the blonde hair began to turn brownish-red. With foe finished, I looked at my ally that was slowly dying a few feet away. Staring at me for help, pleading for a holy light to save him, I ignored him and freed my weapon while tilting my head to the side and letting out a small noise.

  “Huh,” I voiced as if a thought had occurred to me.

  Turning my back to the man, I scanned the field for my next opportunity with the only thought on my mind that of increasing my kill count. Then as a temporary ally managed to disarm and drop a foe to the ground in quick succession, successfully winning his one-on-one duel directly in front of me, I swooped in and swung my axe across the foe’s head and executed him without a hitch. Blood splashing everywhere as the angered ally cursed at me for stealing what was his, I hopped and skipped away without much care.

  Coming across another ally that was losing ground as he looked to me for help, I circled around the enemy and waited for their duel to finish. Ignoring his plight as he succumbed to a spear through the chest, I finished the spearman that stabbed him from behind with ease as both bodies collapsed on top of one another.

  Piling up the kills while not truly helping either side, if anyone had been watching the Leaderboards they would have noticed that my name was the only one currently going up in kills on the Harmont’s side. Oblivious to the score that was being kept, they continued to fight without a clue to my involvement as I wandered the battlefield in relative safety.

  Avoiding all of the dangerous clusters of fighting, I hovered around the edges and only entered when a kill was certain. Retreating as soon as danger appeared imminent, there was little reason for me to risk myself during this stage of the battle. They were both my enemies and they all needed to die.

  After thirty minutes of fighting had passed, the numbers on both sides had diminished from the thirteen-hundreds to nearly four-hundred players remaining. As both sides started to realize that they no longer had the numbers to take Wesstown, shouts were heard to cease fighting as I made my way through the crowds and zeroed in on the voices.

  Finding one man in the back firing arrows into the sky indiscriminately, I rushed over to him first and hacked his extended arm off as both his left hand and bow fell to the ground. His right hand still holding an arrow as he failed to realize what had happ
ened, I knocked him over with a quick shoulder check to his chest and grabbed the arrow out of his hand. Shoving the arrow through his eye, I pulled another arrow out of his quiver and shoved it through his throat as he began to bleed out on the snowy floor.

  Then as I turned to look towards the sounds of voices, a sword flashed by my face as I tucked and rolled. Pain flashing on the left side of my face, I grabbed my ear only to find it gone as a hole remained and blood leaked out.

  The already confusing sounds of battle became even more so in an instant as my directional hearing was severely impaired. Unable to tell where anything was coming from on the left, I retreated back into the safety of my purple-banded allies as I tried to buy time.

  Finding an empty spot clear of fighting but filled with corpses, I dove behind a large dead body and began to cast another holy light. With the golden beam shining down on me as I listened and watched the battle continue on, the wound was sealed but the ear remained missing. Still maimed and impaired, I decided to call for assistance.

  “Emily, Claire, please attack the yellow-banded players now,” I said to both of them, while scanning for an opening that could take me to the other side. The battle raging all around me, the NPCs were engaged in combat as well, as hundreds remained fighting on my left and hundreds remained on the right. The NPC army that had numbered over a thousand was being whittled away… it wouldn’t be long before victory was at hand.

  “We’ll come from the forest,” replied Claire.

  Emily didn’t bother to reply.

  “I’ll try to meet you there then,” I stated as I reentered the fight.

  While I was busy cutting a path, not more than a few minutes had passed me by when I witnessed the entire force of the Harmont faction appear out of the forest and begin their charge. The entire eight-hundred strong force of NPCs and the remaining hundred and eighty-seven players charged into the backside of the Woodfalls and the Triumvirate and immediately began laying waste to them.