The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

by Brent Roth

Listening to the soft sounds of rushing water all around, the creeks weren’t such fast movers to be loud. If one walked hurriedly, they would miss out on the soothing, ambient music of nature itself. A gentle mountain breeze, kept one cool under the shade of a tree, while the sounds of nature relaxed one's mind. The lack of outside influence, allowed one to let go of his or her inhibitions as well.

  And at that moment, I almost kissed Katherine.

  She had woken up and turned her eyes up towards mine, with lips slightly apart, while breathing lightly on my neck. Those tri-colored eyes of hers, with an inner deep green ring blended with an outer light blue ring, split across by a soft dark gray that spread out with a light splatter… they were captivating.

  A mixture of colors that a description couldn't do justice, green and blue from a distance, yet with the intermixed grays up close… a spectacular arrangement of color.

  When Katherine wanted to be seductive… well, no one held a candle to her.

  Even with Selene asleep under my left arm, I wanted Katherine.

  That was wrong.

  Quickly kissing Kate on the forehead to dispel my thoughts, I then hugged her tightly and turned to stare at the sun directly above. It was partially blocked by the canopy of the trees, but it gave me something else to look at.

  Kate buried her head into my chest, possibly blushing or potentially harboring her own desires. I didn't know which it was nor did I dare to check. She was far too tempting, and that was a risky proposition.

  I needed to get up, before the situation devolved any further.

  Nudging Selene awake was my first step. I then slowly stood up as the girls got back to their feet and gathered their belongings, none the wiser to my internal plight.

  "Ah, now that we're rested," I started to explain, while not risking making eye contact with either female. "Shall we give that dungeon a go? Revenge for their sneak attack last night, and to instill a little fear into those mutated things?"

  Nothing quite like a dungeon grind to distract one's inner thoughts.

  "No?" I asked, while looking at the girls that were standing idly by.

  They seemed bothered by the previous night's events, and stayed silent.

  "Alright, we're going in," I declared with some conviction. "You two stay behind me, as long as I'm in front and we're fighting in narrow rooms, you two will be safe."

  "Do you mean to fight, those things?" asked Katherine with a slight frown.

  "They're weak, I'll show you," I stated, hoping to convince them with little effort.

  Selene had yet to say anything, which was unusual for her as she often interrupted to throw out some witty or sarcastic line of some sort. Her silence, was uncharacteristic of her. She must be afraid of failing again… I, could understand that.

  As someone who fails far too often, I understood where she was coming from.

  Because of that, I also knew that the best remedy was to move forward.

  "I trust you Sir Sigurd but… it was, dangerous, last time," Kate uttered hesitantly.

  "They caught us by surprise with no visibility, it won't be difficult this time."

  No longer wanting to discuss the same topic over and over, I grabbed Kate's arm and wrapped my other arm around Selene's waist as I dragged them both with me. Selene was in a poor mood, but we would fix that with some confidence-boosting action in this Open Dungeon.

  Stepping through the cave entrance, there was no portal here that separated the two worlds like the Static Dungeon where the Outcast Goblins were located. That was an "instanced" dungeon, something that never changed and was always there, simply requiring a reset related to a timer. These Open Dungeons, were free and randomly populated by the creatures that existed within the game.

  After clearing an Open Dungeon, there was no telling what would show up next.

  It very well could repopulate with the exact same creatures, but that wasn't a guarantee. Also, as far as the information from the Alpha and Beta phases of the game went, it could take a few days for an Open Dungeon to fill up compared to the one-hour hard reset after all players had left a Static Dungeon.

  The first thing I noticed when stepping into the cave, was the smell.

  It didn't smell like puke and urine… though, it still smelled like urine.

  Rat piss, is what it reminded me of.

  "Eh, wonderful," I muttered, as I flared my nostrils and blew out a puff of air somewhat noisily. "You girls brought your scarfs right? I suggest wearing them now."

  They must have been marking their territory, with how odorous it was.

  The cave system was quite different thankfully, as it appeared to have small cracks and open spots in the ceiling that allowed sunlight to directly shine through. It wasn't much really, and it didn't have the same ambiance as a bunch of scattered torches, but it was nice in its own little way.

  My shadow stayed put behind me, rather than leaving me to dance awkwardly along the domed ceiling like the previous dungeon. There was a fresh breeze as well, that carried cooler air through the cave and aided in drying the place out. The cave, so far at least, was far from damp and dank.

  All pluses, in my mind.

  Continuing into the cave system, the passageways weren't uniform and resembled large cracks in the mountainside, which was most likely the actual case. Gray slabs of massive rocks that formed the base of the mountain, split here and there in such a way as to provide a natural cave. This was far from a man-made structure.

  It was actually, kind of neat.

  The further we traveled, the darker it became but it was never too dark to see.

  With my halberd lowered and ready for a quick thrust, I kept my pace as I turned each and every corner. Slowing and shortening my steps, I walked as quietly as I could, while listening intently to the sounds of rats echoing in the distance.

  We were coming upon them, and they would be in range, at any moment.

  I was eager for my revenge.

  Stopping for a split-second to gather myself before turning the last corner, the mutated rats could be heard on the other side chattering away with their odd language. I raised my halberd above my head, utilizing it like an axe and stepped forward.

  Turning the corner with an inhale, I held my breath as I prepared to swing down on some pitiful creature when a frost bolt hit me dead center in the chest. Staggered from the sudden blow, another frost bolt flew towards my face as I batted it away with a quick swing. The frost exploded in a mist and distorted my vision for a millisecond, as the rats in the distance turned tail and retreated back down into the darkness of the cave.

  "What the," I whispered to myself, unsure if my eyes were playing tricks.

  They retreated… after launching a surprise counter attack?

  "Save your mana Kate, heal me when I'm low," I said to the girl whose hands had started to glow. There was no reason for her to waste mana now, with a frost bolt only damaging me by about five-percent of my total health.

  They were weak casts and weren't something to worry about in single digits… in waves though, they were frightening. The slowing effect had spread through my chest and into my shoulders as I stretched and attempted to warm up.

  A few solid hits and I would nearly be frozen over, restricted in my movements to a pathetic degree. Frost or Ice magic, was primarily a crowd control school of spells. They outlasted you, stopped you in your tracks, and controlled the tempo of a fight.

  That's how they won.

  Yeah, ranged crowd control was the bane of physical melee players everywhere.

  "Alright, let's follow them."

  "Um, are you sure… that we should chase them?" asked Kate, clearly out of hope that I would change my mind once questioned.

  Ignoring her, I made my way down into the darkness.

  Inching forward one step at a time, the rats had gone silent with only the lingering smell of their dirty fur left as a clue to their location. The pungent odor hung in the air, disgustingly so, to the point where I let my nose
lead. With my mask around my neck, I attempted to shift my senses. Eyes shut in the darkness, the loud echoes of our steps distracted slightly but the smell guided me as my outstretched arms ran along the edges of the interior walls.

  A split in the rocks led to two distinct pathways, both heading downwards and into an abyss. All I knew, all I could know, was that the left path smelt slightly worse… and seemed, to contain a fresher odor. Taking the left path, the three of us continued down until we reached a large opening, a gigantic cavern of sorts.

  Sunlight shone down through a large gaping hole in the ceiling as the large cavity that spanned an easy hundred yards in each direction was littered with smaller crags and boulders. Behind those smaller rocks that were at least ten to thirty feet tall, were the beady eyes of my prey. Peering at us from behind the safety of their rocks while hiding in the dim light of the cavern, they watched our every move.

  And then, something I never expected, happened.

  Filing out in a line from every single rock in the vicinity, a hundred rats had lined up with their hands held at their chests. Mouths began to move, as hands began to glow. A cold blue, whitish light had formed between their palms as frost collected and coalesced into the shape of a small ball. A hundred balls of frost, all at knee-height, in a singular line scattered across the entire cavern.

  I didn't have the words.

  Turning back and wrapping both Selene and Kate in an arm each, I looked ahead and thought of the two magic words that would save our hides, Flash Step. Only, nothing happened, and as I realized the issue I could hear the end coming.

  I could hear the hundred-plus frost bolts being released as they cut through the air, and I knew what would happen if even a quarter of them hit. Without the time to even utter a word, I grabbed both women with all of my strength and threw them forward and onto the ground as I dove on top of them.

  A blinding white explosion of frost soon covered us in our entireties. The impacts of numerous spells colliding and smashing into my body made me recoil and grimace as the pain shot through me. Heat dissipated entirely as the area around us began to freeze over. Only a second had passed, and I looked down at the two women beneath me as they appeared chilly but safe, then turned my head back to look at the rats once again.

  Their hands were aglow, once more.

  Nearly immobile from being hit countless times, I picked the girls up and trudged forward before the familiar noise hit my ears again. Repeating the process, I dropped to the ground as frost bolts impacted the walls around us and a few found their mark. The rats couldn't see the moment of impact, what with all of the explosions of ice.

  That saved us.

  They didn't know we were evading some of their spells.

  My health though, was evidence that we didn't dodge them all.

  "Run," I mumbled with what little strength I had left.

  Kate turned and hesitated, not wanting to leave me as Selene got back up and began to sprint. I nodded once at Kate, and she understood. As both girls ran down the pass, I tilted my head back in order to see the wave of frost bolts coming.

  It was glorious.

  A dazzling array of blue and white.

  Fluttering ice trails left behind in their wake, as the frost bolts traveled along the waves of the air. Simultaneous frost bolts, too numerous to count.

  All headed my way.

  Standing up with arms wide open, I embraced them.

  All of them.

  And then the world turned white, cold… and I struggled to breathe, but only for a split second. The pain disappeared and the white world turned black. The world before me morphed, twisted and shaped into one of odd grays and blues, hazy and wavy, blurry, amongst other things.

  Yet again, I had died.

  Another resounding success.

  Staring at the sky, the river was moving east as I tried to make out the area I was in.

  Graveyards in The Dragon's Wrath were generally limited to villages, towns, and cities. Out in the wilderness, that meant a death could lead to a corpse run of multiple hours. I didn't have multiple hours, and like I thought, I was back home.

  Accepting the resurrection penalty, I resurrected in Dragon's Breach.

  I was hours away from Kate and Selene now.

  "Selene, did you two make it out?" I asked telepathically with the Soul Link.

  "Yes we're outside now, are you still in there Sigurd?" she replied immediately.

  "No, I'm back in Dragon's Breach," I stated somewhat angrily.

  "What, how?" she questioned, reasonably. "You were behind us… how?"

  Shaking my head, I quickly changed my gear at the cabin and went with the lightest outfit I could manage, only taking the small one-handed axe and a dagger for weapons.

  Leaving the rest behind, I started to run.

  "Take the creek back, I'll meet you soon."

  "We will be fine, take your time," replied Selene after a slight hesitation.

  It would be dark in two hours, and even though they would most likely be safe by themselves, I felt guilty. I was overconfident and figured we could take a few dirty rats, little did I know that they were far more intelligent than goblins.

  They played me, like a fool.

  Baited me and trapped me with my arrogance.

  They weren't just rats after all, they had a name.

  Rattanorv.

  Chapter 57: The Trade Voyage

  (Monday, August 9th Game Day / Monday, March 15th Real Day)

  "Eindride, have you seen Roald anywhere?" I yelled out from the edge of the dock, having reached the end of my patience when it came to looking for the aloof trade master. Eindride was one of the two sailors that doubled as fishermen and had been prepping the ship for our first voyage along with a handful of others.

  Roald, our trade master, was nowhere to be seen.

  "I have yet to see him," answered Eindride with a boisterous shout that echoed off the stone walls a few feet away. "He has a knack for disappearing when it comes time to do the heavy lifting… always. His most dependable trait, as you know, Sigurd."

  "Yeah," I replied quietly, with a nod for thanks.

  We were already behind schedule, what with losing almost two days with the journey to the Rattanorv cave that ended in defeat. The girls made it about a third of the way before I met up with them, and the rest of the walk back was filled with random hunting to pass the time. It was a waste of precious daylight, but, I guess there was something gained from it.

  In the end, I learned the location of a future Open Dungeon, solely for me.

  Well, not solely, but no one else was likely to find it out here.

  I mean, this was a wasteland… people didn't go on nature walks this far north.

  Thinking of Selene, I decided to open up a line of communications to aid in my search. "Hey Selene, have you seen Roald anywhere? He's shirking his duties again."

  "Ah he's by the cattle pen, talking to Kaia, I can see him," she replied.

  "Perfect, watch him for me, will you."

  The Soul Link was possibly the greatest tool ever when it came to Companions and ease of management. Without it, I'm not sure if I would ever leave their side, or let them leave mine. With it… we could live separate lives and they were only a beck and call away. The only issue thus far was that my Loyalty level with Katherine wasn't high enough to enable it. Her Trust and Affection were both quite high, but not nearly as high as Selene's.

  A shame really, one that I wanted to remedy as soon as possible… even if it meant dropping my earlier vow of monogamy. I already broke my own rule on getting attached to an NPC… which… was sad.

  Eh, who was judging anyway?

  I mean, I wasn't exactly alone in my behavior.

  Last I heard, the brothels were one of the most popular establishments in the game… my route, was a bit more pleasant. At least, that's what I told myself.

  Off in the distance I could barely make out the shape of Roald and Kaia standing near the fenced in cat
tle. The heifers were nearly mature enough to conceive and Kaia was a new recruit, brought in specifically to raise and develop the livestock.

  She was one of a handful of new recruits, actually.

  After my return from the Outcast Goblin Dungeon, I was somewhat rich and had money to throw around. Before I set out, there were forty-four combat NPCs, forty of which were warrior-types while four were of the priest-type. The rest of the village was filled up with roughly sixty-some tradesmen and their families.

  Now, the population of Dragon's Breach was at a hundred and thirty.

  Utilizing the NPC-Recruiter, I picked up Kaia as my husbandry specialist, with her proficiency in Animal Husbandry a rather fantastic 9.3/10. She actually cost me quite a bit more than the others, as another player seemed to be interested in her specific talents as well. Through the bidding process, I ended up paying out eight-hundred copper… a good six-hundred more than what I paid for the other NPCs a little while ago.

  It was expected, though.

  NPCs would continue to increase in cost, as the game went on.

  They were fundamental to the growth of a player village, town, or city, and as an essential commodity the rarity of a high quality NPC combined with a scarcity of numbers, led to an end result that was something fierce.

  I was actually poor again.

  Well, it was worth it.

  "Hey Roald, funny seeing you here," I said loudly as I pat him on the shoulder, having successfully snuck up on him. Winking at Kaia, I greeted her as well.

  "Good morning to you Kaia."

  "Good morning Sigurd! We were just talking about the health of these little girls," she replied with a beaming smile as she pointed at one of the cows grazing nearby.

  "Ah yes, I was inquiring if she needed any specific equipment… that she might have been lacking, you know," muttered Roald somewhat unconvincingly.

  "Yeah, that's great," I said with aplomb, the kind Roald was missing with his excuse. "Right, well Kaia, if you do need anything let Selene know and she will forward it to me. As for you Roald, your assistance is required aboard ship."

  "Oh, I'll be sure to head over in a minute then," he stated with a characteristic grin.