The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Already, I could see Thomas, Sarka and Phoenix at the head of their respective groups about a hundred and fifty yards behind us. With everyone’s Orc zombies falling in around their respective groups, it looked like a massive force moving out all at once down the pier. Once again, I was glad I’d chosen Assault Leader Dell for the leadership position, since the man quickly gotten everyone divided up and moving in the right direction within minutes.

  Still, even with all the various troops I’d managed to gather under my banner on my way over to the Kingdom of Kader, it was nothing in comparison to the actual force the Dread Pack had to call upon, let alone the entire Chaos Strom guild and their alliance as a whole. I crossed my fingers just hoping that we’d be able to get Domenic out of this disaster without losing my own people in the mess. My focus was pulled away from my brooding thoughts as we approached the end of the pier only to see a group of twenty Royal Knights scurrying forward to block our path. Feeling my ire rising at the confrontational reaction to our approach, I caught Scout Captain Dherler and Zocuth’s eyes.

  “If anyone draws a weapon on us, drop them,” I said simply, receiving serious nods from both Dark Elves. Instantly, their hands began weaving in intricate patterns as the entire squad of Shadow Scouts suddenly unlimbered their bows and nocked arrows as a group. Behind me, Fylreh drew her scimitar and shield as Helgath and Neysa closed in behind me nearly to the point of walking on my heels, while Ayda began playing on her lute.

  Seeing the aggressive response from the approaching formation of Dark Elves, an uneasy ripple went through the Royal Knights’ lines as I slowed down to a fast walk ten yards out from their line. Within the time it took me to close the distance to the knights, my HUD began listing a spell I hadn’t seen before called, Song of Suggestion. A quick glance at its specifics made it sound like a weak charm. One that didn’t directly dominate the listener or let them know they were being influenced. Once again, I shook my head at the bard’s amazing skill set, before focusing on the men before me.

  “Stand down and prepare to move out,” I commanded in my Raid Leader voice. Thomas had once confided in me that the tone I used to call out commands would have made a drill sergeant proud, while I didn’t know about all of that, I could see the slight stiffening of the Royal Knights’ spines at my bellow. The lead Royal Knight’s information flashed above his head, Sir Terrance Anon level 40 Royal Knight Squad Leader, as he held a palm out for us to stop.

  “By order of Princess Isolde, no one is allowed beyond this point.” The young man stuttered out as the Royal Knights behind him nervously gripped the hilts of their sheathed swords eyeing the Shadow Scouts warily. Unconcerned, my eyes took in the scene before me.

  There was a large stone structure at the end of the pier. It was obviously the guard tower that Amron had come from upon our arrival. Although, calling it a Guard tower was probably the wrong term to use for the structure. It was more like a Roundel Bastion type of fortification that was part of the harbor’s defenses and probably used as the port official’s office. Stationed out front was a group of thirty something Royal Knights and approximately sixteen hundred Royal Navy sailors with light armor and swords lounging around the central square. Further back, there was another two groups of twenty Royal Knights guarding each end of the boardwalk.

  “All Royal Knights,” my voice boomed out across the end of the plaza as all eyes turned towards me. “By command of your liege lord, you will form up in the central square and prepare to move out for battle.” There was an unsure rustling from the various men as they stood up and gathered their gear or looked around at each other unsure of what to do, while the Royal Navy sailors stood up beside them. Catching the two Dark Elves eyes, I ordered them to stay in place, before pushing past Sir Anon as I strode into the plaza bellowing at the top of my lungs.

  “You swore your oath of fealty to me when you were naked and helpless in the slave holds of the Sea Orc biremes. Now, you stand armed and armored as free men to fight the evil that is taking over your lands. So tell me,” my voice bounced back from the stone buildings surrounding the plaza. “Was I right in accepting your oaths as honorable men?”

  In the silence that followed my echoing words, I saw the Royal Knights slowly begin leaving their assigned positions to form up in the center of plaza as a group. Giving me an apologetic fist-salute, Sir Anon and his men hurried past me to join the other Royal Knights. Just as I was calling my people over to me, I saw Sir Degarre step out of the Roundel Bastion’s iron-reinforced doors. Seeing what was going on in the plaza, I heard him urgently calling for Sir Hemmet. A second later, the old Guardian Knight hurriedly exited the building.

  “By the dark, get your asses back into position!” he roared in outrage at the shocked Knights and sailors. “You’re sworn Royal Knights to Princess Isolde, not this insolent dog!” Seeing the men hesitate in confusion, I began striding towards Sir Hemmet.

  “Is this how the Royal Knights’ give honor to their oath?” I shouted back at Sir Hemmet. “You are all sworn to me, including Princess Isolde!”

  “I won’t stand seeing the Royal House of Isolde treated like common beggars in their own kingdom!” the old man bellowed as spittle flew from his lips. “Especially by some mix-blood halfling!” By then, we’d nearly reached each other as his hard black eyes bore into me angrily.

  “You’ve ignored every order I’ve given you, treated me like an ignorant fool, and besmirched my honor. I will have satisfaction-“

  Sir Hemmet’s words suddenly cut off in a hurgle-gurgle as I shot across the last few feet between us in the blink of an eye. With one hand clamped around the older man’s throat while the other firmly captured the wrist of the hand trying to draw his blade, I lifted the Royal Knight off his feet doing a Dark Vader move. By the shocked expression on his face, I could tell this was the last thing Sir Hemmet had expected given the level difference between us. That miscalculation was probably the only thing that saved me from having the man draw his bastard sword and beat me about the head and shoulders, which he probably could have done given the skill difference between us.

  “Do you have any personal honor?” I roared back as I lost my temper completely at the arrogant asshole. “No matter what I’ve done to save everyone from the Sea Orcs, Meer-Lizards and the Sekolahians, you’ve done your best to block me and, even worse, tried to turn my allies against me.”

  There were no words now, just a constant strangling noise as the older man urgently hammered at the arm holding him by the throat. I was finished with his bullshit and unmoved by his struggles. There was no way I was going to allow a poisonous viper like this to continue backstabbing me at every turn when there was so much at stake.

  ‘If it took killing one asshole to get everyone else to fall in line, then, by the dark, I’d do it right here and now!’ I thought, ignoring the commotion around me as the rest of the princess’ guardian knights tried to come to Sir Hemmet’s aid, only to be confronted by Fylreh, Neysa, Helgath, and the Shadow Scouts. Although, I’m sure the twelve high level zombies standing motionless behind my back didn’t hurt either. As both sides stared each other down, I felt a soft hand gently grip my shoulder.

  “Please let him go,” Princess Isolde softly asked as the berserker-like rage boiling my blood instantly receded at the simple request. It wasn’t the imperious command of a princess that she’d started taking with me after rescuing Sir Hemmet and the rest of her Royal Knights, but the voice of the woman I’d saved from being brutalized by the Meer-Lizards. Shaking the red haze from my eyes, my eyes swept the fearful faces looking back at me from the rest of the Royal Knights that were anxiously watching the unfolding drama. Loosening up my hold slightly, I met Princess Isolde’s clear blue eyes.

  “I swear by the dark, I’ll kill him and raise him as a zombie to serve loyally if he ever betrays me again.” I groused angrily, before throwing the Royal Knight to the ground. As soon as he flopped onto his stomach gasping for breath, Sir Degarre was at his side helping th
e older man up. Silently sighing at my loss of control, I saw both the Princess and the Royal Knights eyeing me nervously.

  “He was justifiably angry that you didn’t let me kill that newfar after the disrespect he showed me.” Princess Isolde said semi-scolding me, doing her best to keep ahold of her temper as she tried to run interference between the two of us. “Also, instead of planning this assault alone, he thought you should be working with him. Not simply giving orders to be followed in a kingdom and city that you know nothing about.” Wordlessly, Sir Hemmet rose to his feet behind the princess as his eyes silently regarded me waiting for my reply.

  “While all of that is true to a point, unfortunately, it just shows how much of the current situation you’re ignorant about.” I said in an overtly controlled voice, doing my best not to lose my cool. “Did any of you stick around to listen in on my questioning session with Amron?”

  “What more was there that needed to be heard?” Princess Isolde dismissively asked as Sir Hemmet folded his arms across his chest.

  “Great,” I muttered sourly. Raising my voice to be heard by all the Royal Knights and sailors, I asked a question to the crowd that I already knew the answer to. “Have any of you listened in on the important information about newfar discussions that Captain Deepwater hosted for everyone on The Doon?”

  “What does THAT have to do with anything about what’s going on now?” Princess Isolde snapped irreducibly at being asked something she thought was useless.

  “You see, that IS exactly the problem,” I nearly growled as the princess nervously backed away half a step. “I know that Sir Hemmet commanded his people to ignore the good captain’s briefing at your bidding. I mean, what could a trader possibly have to say that a Royal Knight needed to hear?” The sarcasm in my voice could almost be cut with a knife.

  “Did it ever occur to any of you that I specifically requested for Captain Deepwater to give the briefing so that you could all be brought up to speed on newfar capabilities?” Princess Isolde’s mouth snapped shut as Sir Hemmet and the rest of the guardian knights shifted guiltily behind her, while the volume of my voice grew progressively louder. “So now, instead of being able to quickly head off the enemies’ coming attack, I’m stuck rehashing basic shit with the lot of you instead!”

  “If you would have taken part in the briefing, you would have understood why we didn’t simply slaughter the newfar rogue we captured. You would have understood why it was important to get the information we needed for what we are up against or why the graveyards are so critically important to any attack against the Dread Pack guild that has taken over this city.” I shouted out, beginning to pace back and forth in my frustration at the whole situation.

  “Now,” I dragged out the ‘ow’ sound as I gazed over the murmuring Royal Knights. “It is too late to go over everything you don’t understand. There simply is no time left to hand feed you the information.” Behind me, Sarka began running past with her squad of forty ex-Royal Army soldiers and their zombies.

  “You both,” I pointed to Princess and Sir Hemmet. “Will report to Thomas Anderson and follow his orders throughout this attack-“

  “He’s not even sworn to you-“ Sir Hemmet started to say angrily as my temper spiked.

  “Shut … your … mouth!” I screamed, pronouncing each word separately as the zombies at my back seemed to come alive. Gnashing their fang-filled maws and stretching their arms out for the target of my rage, my Goblin and Orc pets’ did their best to reach Sir Hemmet, but they couldn’t move forward because their clawed feet were glued in place by my mental control. Princess Isolde shifted uncomfortably at the overt display of anger coming from me as Sir Hemmet wisely kept his mouth shut this time.

  “We will follow the Devil Dog Guild Leader’s battle orders and then we’ll talk,” the princess said, while holding her hand up to stop any dissention from her guardian knights.

  “Yes we will,” I replied, before waving Thomas over. As the Devil Dog guild leader came to a stop, I hurriedly explain the situation.

  “You’re in charge. They have no idea what they’re up against. Maybe you can bring them up to speed before the shit hits the fan, but that’s your decision. I’ve got to get moving.”

  “The princess?” he asked looking at me unsure of what to do.

  “I’m not staying out of this battle,” Princess Isolde snapped in annoyance as I gave Thomas an unconcerned shrug.

  “Your call,” I said, giving him an exasperated look.

  “Go!” Thomas said, waving for me to head out as he signaled for the princess and her guardian knights to join him. Not pausing, he called out for the rest of the Royal Knights and sailors to join his formation as he took off at a fast jog. As one force, they headed for the central avenue where he was supposed to meet up with Kenzie’s group.

  Princess Isolde was turning into a major problem but what could I do? It’s not like I could slit her throat and toss her corpse in the Strait of Icelus. Besides the instant combat that would initiate with the Royal Knights and the sailors, it wasn’t my style to simply slaughter someone for being annoying as hell. Not saying it didn’t cross my mind at times, I flippantly thought with a shake of my head. Seriously though, I hoped I could come up with something before this was over to smooth out the issues between us. And, who knows, maybe the horse will sing.

  Surprisingly enough, the reference to the old story of Nasrudin and the King brought a smile to my face. Putting the problem of Princess Isolde and her Royal Knights behind me for now, I headed over to Scout Captain Dherler. “This is it,” I said holding a hand out to clasp the Dark Elf’s wrist.

  “Good job in dealing with those pompous nobles,” Dherler said, clasping my wrist back and giving me a solid shake. “I owe you a mead once the battle is over for that show.” We both grinned at the mutually shared thought.

  “Take care of you and keep your men safe,” I said earnestly. “We’ll meet up on the other side of Darom.”

  “You too, milord.” the Scout Captain replied back, before looking to his second in command. “I’m counting on you to keep him alive, Zocuth.”

  “I’ll guard him with my life, Scout Captain.” The Sub-Leader said giving his superior a fist-salute. With a nod of farewell, Scout Captain Dherler took off in Sarka’s direction with his Shadow Scouts following on his heels. I heard Ayda’s tune switch to the Song of the Winding Road as I gave Zocuth a nod. Together, we formed up and headed in the opposite direction. The wide boardwalk allowed our assault group to easily travel eight abreast. That gave us a solid punch for meeting up with a large group, since I wasn’t sure what level of resistance we would be facing.

  Stretching her legs out, Neysa excitedly bounded ahead to take the lead sniffing for trouble, while Fylreh switched to her bow as she kept glued to my six. Helgath, on the other hand, never left my side as she easily kept pace with me as we ran. The Half-Orc only had two long bladed daggers and her magic to fight with. Feeling the focus of my thoughts, Helgath words fluttered through my mind. ‘What should I focus on during the fight?’

  ‘Keep them from calling for help or warning their friends like you did with the Meer-Lizard attacking the princess back on the ship.’ I thought back to her mentally picturing the black slime that the monster had been puking out. Feeling her mental affirmative, my eyes studied the empty street ahead. Well, empty except for scattered bodies of townsfolk that had been haphazardly cut down wherever they’d been during the initial invasion or assault from the Dread Pack. While it was nothing new to MMORPGs in general, knowing the people in the world like I did made this senseless atrocity just that much more evil as the rage continued to build up inside of me with every corpse we passed.

  Once we got to the end of the boardwalk, the poverty levels rose dramatically. The cobblestones were nonexistent and the homes were more rotten wood then stone. If that didn’t signify the bad part of town, then the open sewer systems that looked like mini-canals running down the hill to empty out into the bay in thi
s part of town would have removed any further doubt.

  Catching the flavor of my thoughts, Neysa’s laughter at the lack of human cleanliness echoed through my thoughts. Frowning, I quickly explained that ‘human cleanliness’ was probably just one of the ways the rich segregated the poor in this medieval society, since the smell and dirtiness wasn’t visible along the boardwalk. ‘Then they should live in the forest,’ she shot back chortling. I gave her a mental finger as I groused back at her. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be scouting?’

  ‘Already found them,’ Neysa shot back as the mental image of her tail being stuck in my face flashed through my thoughts. Rolling my eyes, I went to mentally wipe the image away when it was replaced with a mental picture of what she was seeing. Almost like a ‘shared vision’ spell you’d sometimes get as a druid in some MMO games. It was a weird feeling to have the split vision, but Helgath silently helped by sliding a hand around my bicep to guide my running steps. Reaching out through my connection with Neysa, I let my vision become one with hers.

  Immediately, a guard tower came into view. I was looking down on it from the edge of a two-storey rooftop from where Neysa was perched. The structure rose forty yards up to the top level of the defensive wall around the city and functioned as a defensible entrance to access the outer wall. A group of five Dread Pack players were standing out on the front steps complaining to each other about being forced to guard such a ridiculous position when they had guild chat anyway. From what it looked like to me, they could either fight the intruders or fall back and seal up the tower to block entrance to the upper levels.

  Following my mental nudge, Neysa studied the top of the tower were it exited out on the wall. From what she could see and smell, it was clear. Further along the wall, there were more players keeping watch another hundred yards further down.