by Jason Cheek
‘That’s the War Leader of the Vanguard,’ Helgath sent to me as her back noticeably stiffened in fear. Knowing the information that I was interested in, she dutifully continued as I studied the Orc Leader who seemed to be glaring directly at me across the gap, ‘I would expect that he’s in the Level 80 range, having beaten out every other War Leader underneath his command to have earned the title.’
‘Good to know,’ I sent back as I unflinchingly met the monstrous demi-humans hate-filled gaze from across the sea of dead. The Orc was most definitely pissed the fuck off at me, aka Raid Leader me, as he tried to figure out a way to deal with this new factor.
‘It’s hard to know,’ Helgath said as I felt the awe inside of her at what she was witnessing, ‘Never before has a vanguard been brought to a standstill like this,’ her dark green lips curled back from her pointed teeth, ‘which will call into question his leadership amongst the horde.’
‘So, we’re on new tactical ground,’ I sent back thoughtfully feeling an opportunity to cause some additional havoc within the horde’s ranks. The question was how, ‘which means he’ll have to make sure his response doesn’t result in another massive defeat.’ I felt my own lips pull back in a savage grin. ‘Any idea how we might help that dissent along or what the fucktard’s response to this setback might be?’
‘I’ve heard of these things from past assaults,’ Helgath sent, as images of Orc Shamans and Mages filled my mind. Some of what the Earth mages were capable of accomplishing was terrifying as hell. The question, it seemed, was if there were any of the higher-level Shamans nearby or not. While it created a lot more questions than it answered, at the same time, it gave me a better understanding of what we needed to be prepared for.
Lucky for us, it seemed like the War Leader was hesitant to lose any more of his Shamans or authority, which made me wonder if the two were somehow linked. I guess it was a good thing that we’d been targeting as many of them as possible throughout the day whenever the opportunity presented itself. Aggressively spinning around, the War Leader began stalking back down the slope bellowing guttural orders as Orcs began scrambling to carry out whatever commands he was giving. It was disconcerting to say the least. As I watched the majority of the Orcs start preparing for some unsavory surprise on our doorstep, a nasty idea came to me.
“If you think you’re going to keep us on edge while you guys send a force to backdoor us, you’ve got another thing coming,” I muttered under my breath loud enough that my friends standing around heard as I switched over to raid chat. “General Dell, advance the Dragoons fifty yards forward and clear the hump of the enemy.”
“As you command, milord,” General Dell approvingly said, offering me a fist salute. As he began issuing orders for the Dragoons to advance, I looked over at Angie and Krishna who seemed to be busy spending their new attribute points as Lyeneru and Gaelin came walking up.
“Hey guys, do you mind having the Uten Syn guild keep a watch over my people while they push these fuckers back down the trail,” I asked as I swear Angie’s Werebear form grew another six inches taller and wider before my eyes.
“You mean that you’d like my Druids to keep a watch over your Dragoons,” Angie growled in her overly deep voice as her furry head swiveled in my direction.
“Yeah, basically,” I said, giving her a shit-eating grin as I once again wished that I could’ve gotten the Druid’s magic tree. With a nod, she headed off with Lyeneru at her side as I watched both women go. Werebear form was just too freaking cool.
“Dude, really,” Krishna said, looking all put out as he glanced at Gaelin in annoyance.
“Partially,” I said, giving him an apologetic shrug, but having your Guardian group heals in case the Orcs try something would be appreciated too. Rolling his eyes, he gave Gaelin a nod as the men followed after their women.
As General Dell gave the order to advance, the Dragoons started forward at a steady walk. They cleared the ditch on the opposite side of the defensive wall and began making their way across the top of the carpet of corpses when a curious thing happened. The Orcs that had been running around preparing the War Leader’s surprise began excitedly shouting out as the entire Orc command group whirled around in complete shock. I could almost read the infuriated Orc’s beady-red eyes as he came storming back to see what was going on now.
“Let’s see how you respond to a threat,” I muttered to myself as my friends stopped talking and joined me in watching the unfolding train wreck.
“Do you really think you should be egging them on like this,” Jill dubiously asked, as the brutal looking Orc began bellowing at me in Orcish, “you know, after they nearly wiped us out.”
While none of us could make out what the asshole was saying at this distance, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he was pissed as hell. What was curious, I silently thought, was the Helm of Inaxidor seemed to have a range limitation. Catching the random thought, Helgath shook her head no, as if to say she couldn’t understand the bastard either.
Just to make sure that the War Leader of the Vanguard fully understood what I thought of whatever it was that he was saying, I did my best to half-stand up on Neysa’s back and exaggeratedly grabbed my cock through my armor while doing a few deep pelvis thrusts. You know, just to make sure the ignorant fuck didn’t miss the message I was trying to convey. The look of absolute shock that came to Helgath’s face as she looked back at me to see what I was doing let me know that I was on the right track, especially when she approvingly busted out in raucous laughter. Well, that, and the explosive bellow erupting from the other side of the killing field. Obviously, whatever it was that I’d just communicated must have been a terrible insult in Orcish, because I swear, the massive Orc went into an apoplectic rage as the eyes of the all the Orcs around him widened in utter shock.
“Yeah, Jay,” AJ said as several of my friends began cursing to each other that I was going to get them all killed, “you kind of have a special kind of knack for pissing people off.”
“Any idea what a hip-thrust like that means in Orc society,” Thomas curiously asked as the underlings fearfully shrank away from the berserking War Leader.
“It’s how a male shows a female that he’s interested in mating with her in Orc society,” Helgath judiciously said as all of my friends shook their heads.
“You know,” Krystal said, silently shaking her head as she watched the temper tantrum being thrown, “you seriously have a natural gift when it comes to making people angry.”
“Whelp,” I said as the horde nervously began backing away from the advancing Dragoons. It was just that much better when the fearless War Leader of the Vanguard joined them with his small retinue. “It comes down to this. Do you want the Orcs to be in a position where they can easily charge our lines whenever they think our guard is down, or do you want to make them think twice about attacking our people throughout the night while we’re logged out?” As everyone looked at me thoughtfully, I gave them a shit-eating grin. “Besides, I want to make sure we can loot all the corpses in peace.”
“Fuck man,” AJ exclaimed as everyone traded shocked looks with one another, “that’s a literal gold mine.”
“The armor and weapons alone are worth big bucks,” Glen agreed from where he was talking with Tony and John.
“See, just like that, it’s done,” I said as the Orcs fled back the way that they’d come, “All we need to do now is get a bunch of zombies and elementals summoned to guard the hump and maybe move the defensive wall up another fifty yards,” I paused for a moment before thoughtfully adding, “That, and talk to General Dell about getting a rotation of Dragoons assigned to be on watch, before setting up camp for the night.”
“And looting the field,” Domenic said, excitedly rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
“So, while all that is being taken care of by your people,” Krystal dismissively said, waving a hand at me and Domenic like she was a princess, “I guess that means you guys are free
to make dinner tonight for the rest of us.”
“Try not to take too long cleaning up the mess,” Jill saucily added, “we don’t want to be waiting half the night for our meal.”
“I so fucking hate you guys,” Domenic jokingly said as everyone busted out laughing.
“Hey Jay,” Hefe suddenly called out, riding up to us still sitting in-between Bonnie Smash’s thighs. They both gave the horrified Rani sitting off to the side a meaningful look as they came to a stop, “I can’t believe you used that Dark Lance spell with Rani watching. We’re screwed if she gimps that spell like she did Dom’s Moonshine Elementals.”
“That’s Rani?” Domenic exclaimed as his face turned beet red, “you’re the one that gimped my creations!”
“Wha-what,” Rani said, shaking off the mental fugue of whatever she was contemplating as she angrily turned to Domenic, “Of course your Moonshine Elementals were gimped, they were a freaking cheat. You’re lucky they didn’t kick you from The World!”
“Fuck you,” Domenic roared back as he began angrily striding towards the V-MMORG Admin. Sliding off Neysa’s back, I did my best to restrain him as Tony and Glen ran over to give me a hand, “I simply used the tools within The World in a way that you didn’t intend and it’s my fault you weren’t smart enough to plan for it?”
“Dom, this isn’t going to help anything,” I hissed in his ear as he shoved me away. The fucker was a lot stronger now that he’d leveled up.
“Why the fuck is she even here spying on us, Jay,” Domenic demanded to know, angrier than I’d ever seen him. Ignoring the commotion going on around us, I tried to explain what was going on.
“Look, Dom, it was either let her ride with us, or-” That’s all I managed to get out as a scream of “Get away from me!” rang out behind me a second before a blood-curdling scream and a whinnying-shriek stopped everyone in their tracks. Letting Domenic go, I turned around to see a group of Earth and Acid Elementals pummeling Rani to death. It was actually quite impressive, I thought, as she and her horse were crushed under the Earth Elemental’s massive rock-like fists.
“Ouch,” Jill said as the Rogue’s body seemed to burst from the impacts, “that’s going to leave a mark.”
The bloody mess was suddenly covered by the Acid Elemental. Its viscous gelatinous body was more ooze-like than what I would’ve expected of a Water Elemental as it sucked the battered remains of Rani up within its depths. With a surprising celerity it melted or consumed, I’m not sure which was the better descriptor, her body and gear as a white gravestone appeared within its depths. Though, it was no surprise that it immediately turned black as Rani chose to respawn at the graveyard. I barely noticed the Earth and Acid Elementals stomp over to surround me as Domenic threateningly stepped up behind me.
“Or what,” Domenic coldly demanded.
“What do you mean, or what,” I asked, pressing my fingers against my eyelids to relieve the oncoming migraine.
“You said, I quote,” Domenic said in a threatening tone, “Look, Dom, it was either letting her ride with us or …”
“Or,” I said, letting out a heavy sigh, “she was going to hang out with Julie to get the scoop on all of us.” That announcement seemed to completely take the wind out of Domenic’s sails as our friends began complaining up a storm.
“Great fucking job Dom,” Jill sarcastically said from where she sat on her mount next to a pissed off Krystal and AJ.
“If that dumb bitch starts hanging out with Julie,” AJ unhappily grumbled as he crossed his thick arms over his armored chest.
“We’re all fucked,” Tony finished.
“How could you, Dom,” Fluffy said, shaking her head.
“I guess I should reroll a new toon now,” John whined.
“And you know better than anyone does how Julie is with her mind games,” Krystal disappointedly said, eyeing Hefe. One thing all of us were well aware of was how good Julie was at influencing people by changing the narrative to fit her side of the story.
“Besides, it’s not like they can’t just park their invisible airship over our heads and watch everything going on,” I tiredly added as I pushed past his summoned pets and climbed back on Neysa’s back, “I figured having her here gave us a chance to argue our case to a point,” I gave Hefe an angry look, “keeping her V-MMORG Admin secret was an unspoken part of that deal.”
“Look at how good that worked out for us?” Domenic mockingly said.
“Truenuff,” I agreed, “I guess now we’ll get to see how bad it can be.” as everyone groaned.
“You could’ve told me all of this offline,” Domenic complained, trying to defend his actions.
“When Dom? it’s not like I haven’t been balls-to-the-wall busy nearly every second since we evac’d you and your people out of your valley.” I asked in exasperation, “Besides, none of that would’ve helped after your Moonshine Elementals were gimped and you know it.”
“You’ll probably get to add two more elementals to that list,” Hefe chortled as Domenic gave him a warning glare.
“If she shows up again, can you try not to kill her?” I asked as everyone gave Domenic an accusing glare.
“Fuck,” Domenic swore as I shrugged.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” I said, flashing him a grin, “I really can’t see the developers letting her get away with gimping regular spells and Elementals no matter how pissed off she might be.”
“If they do?” AJ asked as he looked out at the field of dead Orcs.
“Then, we deal with it,” I said with a shrug, “like we did with the Syndicate.”
“And we kill the bitch whenever she shows her face anywhere around us,” Jill said with her eyes blazing as Kenzie and Krystal nodded in agreement.
“Works,” Domenic said as we all laughed.
“By the way, good job on setting up all of those defenses,” I said, turning suddenly serious, “it was impressive as hell.”
The incredulous look Domenic gave me almost made me laugh out loud. All my friends thought I was some sort of tactical genius. Not that I didn’t dissuade them from thinking that way, I chuckled to myself, it was too useful in helping keep up the mystique that I was just that good. And, while I was a damn good shot and a shrewd strategist, the truth of the matter was that I pulled off most of my upsets, this one included, by doing as much legwork and preparation ahead of time as possible. That, and an indomitable spirit and belief that I would pull off a win no matter what it took.
This morning I didn’t have access to the Dark Lance spell, nor did I know that it even existed. What I did know was that I needed to come up with some sort of strategy for this evening. I asked questions, made plans, and tried to come up with as many possibilities that might work to hold these bastards at bay long enough for us to rest up and allow my people to stay ahead of them. Many of the strategies that I came up with were techniques that I’d used throughout the day in our cavalry charges to test their effectiveness.
I didn’t give up when each of them failed to give the results that I wanted, nor did I rage about the unfairness or injustice of it all. What I did do was take what worked to form new strategies that might lead to what I needed for a win. It was actually the same tactic that I’d used throughout my life. My friends always thought I pulled these strategies out of my ass or good fortune just fell in my lap, but it was actually due to a series of repeated tests enhanced by years of gaming experience and a logical mind that gave me the edge I needed to pull these wins off.
“The fuck all it did compared to your Dark Lance spell,” Domenic irritably said, “What a waste of coin.”
“Hey man, you know as well as I do that getting levels and access to new spells is the best way to even the odds in any MMO,” I said, understanding the frustration he was feeling, “Trust me, you did good. It’s the quickest that I’ve ever seen you set up a base,” Domenic flipped me off as we both laughed, “and I loved the upgrades you did to those Water Elementals. Those pit traps were
sick.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool” Domenic admitted, smiling in spite of himself, “We did kick a shit-ton of high-level Orc ass.” He shook his head as he calmed down somewhat. “You know, if we’d been the same level as you guys, I’m sure we’d have won the bet.”
“Probably,” I agreed, grinning like a fiend no matter how hard I tried not to, “I bet every magic tree has some sort of spell similar to Dark Lance.” Seeing the surprised look on Domenic’s face, I explained what I meant. “You know, some low-level AOE that could kick ass in the perfect situation.”
“Makes sense,” Domenic said, curiously pulling up his own magic tree, “I wonder if I have something like that in the new batch of spells that I got.”
“No time for that now,” AJ said with a laugh as he mockingly called out to the rest of Domenic’s team, “Come on, let’s get the camp set up, so you guys and gals can start making dinner.”
“This is such bullshit,” John irritably said as Tony flipped AJ off while Fluffy and Kitty rolled their eyes at the smack talk. As everyone began walking towards the clearing that was just before the fallback line, Glen called out to me.
“You coming Jay?”
“I’ll be there in a moment,” I said, waving him off, “I need to talk with Dell and Ulia first about the watches that need to be posted.”
“You need a hand?” Domenic asked as he came to a stop.