The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  The veteran swordsman brought me to the center of the clearing where a high, wooden platform had been set up. A hush settled over the crowd as I climbed to the top with Assault Leader Dell, Randel, and Misty at my sides, while my friends stood uncomfortably at the base of the platform, eyeing the crowd warily. I heard AJ and Hefe bitching that I hadn’t shared out the quest chain I was obviously doing, while Yun and Tinyr tried to hush them, explaining this was probably another secret quest chain. Instead of shutting everyone up, that just started another round of questions. Ignoring their antics, I stood up straight and braced myself as I looked out over the sea of fearful faces.

  The surreal feeling of the situation I found myself in washed over me as I gathered my thoughts. While I had a knack for attracting different kinds of people that had a similar outlook on life that I did, for all intents and purposes, I was still an introvert at heart. Talking in front of large groups of people wasn’t exactly my thing, even if the game constantly kept pushing me into these types of situations. Now, I somehow had to sway thousands of peasants to trust in my leadership and swear their fealty to me, a complete stranger.

  Yes, I know I’d done this once before. Twice, if you count the House of Kayden survivors I’d saved at the start of the game. Even so, each time was different. I know that Assault Leader Dell and my vassals had been hard at work to set this all up, but I had a feeling it was up to me to close the deal. Clearing my mind, I did my best to put myself in their shoes, knowing it was necessary to understand the fear and uncertainty that weighed on their souls if I was going to sway them to join my cause. As the crowd began to grow restless at my continued silence, the words that I needed to say slowly came to me. Taking a deep breath, I raised my voice to be heard.

  “My name is Lord Ironwolf of the House of Kayden. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the many rumors of my deeds, my lands, and my people. It is true that I came here to save a close friend who is currently under siege from the Chaos Storm alliance. The same enemy that, I’ve come to learn in my travels, has betrayed the Kingdom of Kader. These traitors assassinated the King Isolde, sold Princess Reeva into slavery, blackmailed Prince Lekroth by threatening death to everyone in Telrain, and destroyed the Isolde Line.”

  I had to stop my speech as the crowd around me grew restless at my words. There were many fearful questions being asked about their future, but the greater reaction was one of anger. It was the indignation at being betrayed. The outrage of having their royalty assassinated and imprisoned. The rage at having their families, homes, and way of life threatened with a fate worse than death. I waited until I felt the time was right, before raising my hands for silence. Slowly the crowd settled down as I began to speak again.

  “The time of the Great Wars are once again upon us. This is why you were evacuated from Telrain. This is why your families are being asked to fall back to my lands that are well defended, while the men and women that are warriors, healers, and crafters go to Palnisdale to fight.” I paused to take a deep breath as my voice firmed.

  “I cannot stop what is coming. I cannot stop the destruction of your homes and your way of life. What I can promise is that I will protect your families to my last dying breath. If I am cut down, I will rise up from the nearest graveyard to fight for them again and again. I will do my best to make Palnisdale unassailable. And, once the Hobgoblin invasion in my own lands has been dealt with, I will return to the Kingdom of Kader with my armies and we will wipe out the Orc invaders from these lands. On this, I swear!”

  The thousands of civilians cheered at my words as the meadow reverberated with their shouts. I waited for the noise to die down before continuing. “Princess Reeva, Prince Lekroth, Assault Leader Raventhorn, Guardsman Sub-Leader Tericius, and General Dell have sworn their allegiance to me.” Well Prince Lekroth hadn’t yet, but he would once I rescued him from my ex. “Anyone who takes refuge in my lands is required to swear fealty to me. I will not risk our lives by having someone who is not one hundred percent behind this fight holed up within my lands. If you wish to be a part of the fight or take refuge in my lands, I ask that you pledge your loyalty to me.”

  In front of me the civilians dropped to their knee to give their pledges. The movement started like a wave from the platform and moved out until the thousands of civilians had taken a knee. This time eight thousand people pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their honor as I repeated the words back to them. To say that it was emotionally overwhelming would have been a massive understatement as tears came to my eyes. Even my in real-life friends felt the weight of the moment.

  I wish I could have spent time getting to know everyone, but we’d already lost an hour taking oaths. We only had an hour left to get everyone moving. Turning to Assault Leader Dell, I nodded for him to get the ball rolling as he began calling out orders. While Assault Leader Raventhorn got her people organized, I gathered my friends together to upgrade their Dark magic spells or share out my profession for those who didn’t have it, like I did with my in real-life friends.

  Honestly, it was chaos as Sub-Leaders and Team-Leaders ran around organizing groups of troopers and civilians. Sub-Leader Tericius gathered up the five hundred troopers and non-combatants that were headed to Darom with twenty-five Priests of Light. It was a descent sized group with the twenty-one hundred and seventy-one civilians.

  All the adults carried backpacks filled with clothing, food, and whatever else they valued, looking like any other group of refugees I’d ever seen in movies or on the news. As always, the worst were the children’s fearful face as they silently clutched to their mothers or fathers. Hopefully, Sub-Captain Windcoat could find a place for everyone on the biremes we’d confiscated. Not that I had any time to worry about that, since I was doing my best to pass along my Dark magic spells to Assault Leader Raventhorn’s troops.

  At the same time, I was having my friends and companions hand out three “player” soul stones for them to raise up as undead pets. We had plenty after the battle for Darom and the initial plan needed human zombies. I had Raventhorn’s troopers raising their own zombies, helping to dress the zombies headed in with me to look like townsfolk, or getting the civilians heading to Palnisdale on the move. By the end of the hour, I’d managed to train two thousand of the troopers under Assault Leader Raventhorn.

  This was the most complicated part of the plan. I didn’t want to get into the mess of yelling and screaming that getting everything ready entailed. Nor did I want to reflect on the complaints and general disgust that everyone had about playing with zombie dolls, aka having to dress the zombies up as Humans with cloaks, pants, and tunics to make them look lifelike. AJ and Jill were the worst complainers after the Devil Dogs. I’m sure Hefe would’ve been one of them too, but, surprisingly enough, he was being unusually quiet as he worked diligently with Bonnie Smash to get the job done. Still, at the end of the hour, even my companions were bitching up a storm.

  Whatever, that was what the plan called for. Anyone who didn’t like it could open a can of some shut the hell up or join me at ground zero. I was seriously through with all the complaining. Thankfully, by the time eleven o’clock in the morning rolled around, the bitching was over and we were ready to move out. While the situation wasn’t optimum, it was the best it was going to get within the time limit we had available. In the end, we’d managed to raise three thousand and sixty-two zombies. The sixty-two included my zombies and that of all of my friends and companions’ pets. These were the undead that were in essence going to lead the various attacks around the city.

  I had everyone divide the zombies up into nine different groups. My friends’ zombies were the leaders that everyone set their zombies up to follow. The commands were somewhat tricky to get for new necromancers, but a lot of yelling and repeating myself hopefully got those issues straightened out. I mean, we’d find out soon enough if someone screwed up. The first group of six hundred and sixty-two were set to guard me as I walked into the lion’s den, while the others were the shock tro
ops for our assault. Those remaining undead were divided up into four groups of two hundred and four groups of four hundred.

  Just between me and you, the clothing wearing zombies were seriously creeping me the hell out. They didn’t have the rigid faces like the undead on the TV show The Walking Dead had. Well, at least not until they were in attack mode. Then they looked like demon possessed crazies. I’m sure none of the players who just glanced at them would see them for what they were. For all intents and purposes, they looked like peasants as long as I walked regularly. Maybe, I was just used to seeing them naked or dressed in rags.

  Whatever, I ignored the cold shiver they gave me as everyone got moving. While Assault Leader Raventhorn led the remaining one thousand troopers I hadn’t been able to train in the direction of Palnisdale, the remaining nine hundred and seventy-five Priests of Light joined her to help keep watch over the five thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-nine civilians that were being escorted to the great fortress to help the war effort. Before they moved out, I was visited by Councilor Walt.

  “I have something to help with your coming trial.” The old man said, as his blue eyes studied my face. Reverently, he held out a closed fist to me. “Take this with the blessing of the Council of Light.”

  Doing my best not to be annoyed, I paused in my preparations to leave and respectfully held out my cupped hands to accept the gift. It wasn’t that I was trying to be disrespectful, but there was too much to do and I didn’t have a second to spare. Still, I did my best to be patient as the Priest’s aged hands gripped mine.

  “Please, do what you can to bring Councilor Fulrin and the rest of our brothers back safely.”

  “I’ll do my best.” I promised the old man. We both knew it was an impossible request, but I swore to myself that I’d do my best to save who I could. He nodded as if to reassure himself that this was the right choice, Councilor Walt pressed a heavy chain into my hand. I was a little confused as I held up the gift to inspect it.

  “Great, that’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for, a charm bracelet.” I said, unhappily looking at the thick chain in my hands as my natural sarcasm took over. “Do you have one of those newer bead style bracelets instead? Cause, you know, they look WAY more manly.”

  For a moment, I actually thought the old man was pulling my leg, because, except for being a heavier gauge of metal, the chain looked exactly like a typical woman’s charm bracelet that had been altered for a man. Councilor Walt instantly caught my drift. Grousing at me in annoyance, he chastised me for making light of his impressive gift.

  “That magic item is not for decoration, it’s a warrior’s band. How about you just inspect the item first, before judging its relevance?” With a sullen frown, I followed the Councilor’s orders. My grumbling instantly stopped as soon as I looked at the magic item’s stats.

  Fortifying Charm of the Defender

  Item Quality: Exceptional

  Item Type: Crafted

  Location: Inventory

  Durability: 250/250

  Weight: 0.2 kg

  Charges: 3

  -When triggered, the trinket stops the next incoming attack from affecting the durability of the wearer’s gear. The wearer still takes damage as normal.

  While that was super powerful on one level, it was also a very odd item. Seriously, how many times did you need an item that stopped your gear from being completely destroyed by one hit? Albeit, it went great with my talisman. Seeing the thoughtful look on my face, Councilor Walt gave me a brief run down on the history of the charm.

  Basically, the items were regularly used outside of the Nordic Region where, he explained, one attack could rob you of your life. They’d been brought back by King Isolde and had been often used to save a trooper’s equipment when they died. This was because the Priests back then had resurrected as many troopers as they could, instead of leaving their corpses to rot on the battlefield if they didn’t have the coin to pay for their services.

  While I wasn’t exactly thrilled with wearing a charm bracelet, I was willing to do it if it meant I could keep my gear intact. I just swore the old man to secrecy. Last thing I needed was any of my friends finding out about my charm bracelet or I’d never hear the end to the ribbing. I wished Councilor Walt well on his travels to Palnisdale as the old man bowed and took his leave. With that completed, I went back to my preparations.

  Both the crafters and priests had a number of full packed handcarts they’d brought along that were filled with supplies. The Crafters had things like food, leather, herbs, metal stock, and anything else needed to support a war or hold out in a siege, while the Priests had a library of old tomes and gear that they were trying to save from their fortress. It was quite the baggage train, which just made keeping everyone and their baggage guarded that much more difficult.

  That’s because the remaining two thousand troopers that were a part of their group were hanging back with my friends and companions at the edge of the forest. This was needed to keep their zombies from going feral while I led the assault. That was another tricky part of the plan, since they all had to run like hell to catch up with their people once the level 200 scroll was used. Otherwise, they could get caught in the explosion.

  Honestly, I was gambling a lot. I didn’t want to lose any civilians to wandering monsters, but I figured that as long as Assault Leader Raventhorn kept everyone on the King’s road, that they should be relatively safe. On top of that, none of us knew the exact AOE range of the Meteor Strike scroll. The only thing we could do was have everyone take off running as soon as their undead pets got into the range of the enemy. The zombies’ feral nature would take care of everything else.

  Somehow, we got everything finished in time. At least, enough to give us a fighting chance. By the time eleven o-five rolled around, I was jogging through the tunnel under the wall with an army’s worth of undead following behind me with Neysa and Helgath at my side.

  The majority of the zombies stopped shortly after we entered the city, while the group assigned as my “peasant” guards followed me deeper into the city. The city streets were deserted as we ran by the silent stone buildings and homes. It was somewhat creepy with the horde of undead pets surrounding me. As we came to the edge of the kill zone before the gates to the keep, I hugged both of my girls and reminded them how important it was for them to follow the plan.

  Although neither one of them could be permanently killed, I didn’t want them to needlessly suffer and, in this situation, they were more important passing along the order to attack then they would be in an actual fight against players. Yes, I know that defending me and taking on dangerous missions was part of their job, but why needlessly put them through all of that? All that I needed Neysa to do was make it outside of the city so she could signal everyone to commence the attack. Even though that was all true, it didn’t stop the mental shitstorm of bitching and complaining.

  Both of my ladies repeatedly expressed their dislike for the plan. You’d have thought they would have been satisfied with telling me once, but that was never the case with any woman I’d ever known. While I understood where they were coming from, this was the only hope I had to keep our forces alive and in play. Out of all of my friends, I had the best chance of not get caught in the twenty-four hour lock-out from being killed from the spell.

  Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that doozy. Getting hit with a level 200 Meteor Strike scroll came with a twenty-four hour lock-out on respawning. I found that out later when I was researching the scroll from the in-game Wiki, which was the main reason I was doing this crazy stunt all by myself.

  Before heading out to face my fate, I packed everything into my rucksack but my armor. Pulling out some of the spare clothing I’d collected during my travels, I dressed quickly, slipping on a pair of baggy pants, coarse peasant blouse, and a dark green cloak over the top of my armor. Don’t laugh, but I had to tie a pair of pants around the wings of my Helm of Inaxidor. I got more than one odd look from Neysa and Helgath,
both of whom I promptly mentally flipped off. It’s not like I was about to give up the bonuses and defense of that baby. While I did that and got my hood in place over the mess, Helgath slipped the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter across her back, before shrugging my rucksack into place over her shoulders.

  While Neysa and she got accustomed to the extra weight, I pulled up my Nature magic spell list. The first spell I cast was Manifest Large Wolf. As the one minute cast came to an end, the mana of the spell shot ten feet away from me to create a swarm of glowing green lights. Within seconds, the cloud formed the shape of a large mastiff. There was a sudden flash of magic and suddenly a glowing green Large Wolf stood before me.

  The light wasn’t bright, per say. But you could clearly make out the glowing wolf-shape in the dark. Hopefully, the wolf could be altered for stealth as needed. As if reading my thoughts, the manifested wolf shimmered before my eyes. Within seconds, it looked like a ghostly shadow with only its green eyes visible to mark the spot where it stood. Now that will work, I thought with a smile as a system window popped open before my eyes.

  Create a name for your “Manifest Large Wolf.” This name will forever be used to identify your manifested animal companion in the future.

  With a thought, I selected “Shadow Fang” as my manifested wolf’s name. Instantly, the unknown identifier over the wolf’s head changed to reflect my choice of Shadow Fang. At the same time, a mental-like connection was formed between us. This was not the same type of connection that I shared with Neysa and Helgath. The intelligence of the manifested wolf was simpler than that. If anything, it felt more like being given a new limb that was now a physical extension of my body. As the wolf threw its head back and eerily howled into the night, a new system window appeared before my eyes.