by Jason Cheek
“Because I’m not,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s just part of who you are, man.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Hefe asked, somewhat offended.
“Nothing …” I said, dragging out the sound like Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes. Not catching the reference to the old TV show I used to watch reruns of as a kid, Hefe and Bonnie walked away with their new pets, when Krishna turned to give me a cocky smirk. “And you were giving me all that shit about pulling my “man card” for using the names Squirrely and Wolfy.”
“Of course I did,” I replied without hesitation. “What are you, still living at home in your parent’s basement?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Krishna asked, acting all put out. “Besides, I don’t see you giving Hefe that kind of shit for naming his pet Webby.”
“Oh that?” I asked, finally understanding what he was getting at. “We pulled Hefe’s man card years ago. Besides, he does still live with his parents, which is half the reason we give him so much shit in the first place.”
“I’ll be at the front of the formation if anyone needs me.” I said, ignoring the fish out of water act Krishna was doing. Giving him a hard pat on the back, I headed off at a jog, ignoring the “You’re such an asshole!” comment from the Uten Syn guild leader as I chuckled to myself. ‘Yeah, sometimes I was an asshole.’
Chapter One.Ten
(Wednesday, May 7th / Day 17 of The World.)
It was a little bit after eight by the time everyone else joined me at the front of the formation with their new pets on their shoulders. They all looked similar but different. Well, everyone’s but Hefe’s, which clung to his back like a growth. The people of The World had more of the bright reds, vibrant greens, yellows, and light browns colors, while the players had the darker, stealthier colors of gray, black, and the darker browns. Though, as we got closer to our destination, the little flying squirrels began to tire out as they began to settle down in the hoods of their owners’ cloaks.
Taking the lead, Krishna led us to the base of a rocky cliff. It was only thirty to fifty feet up, but had a fat face on this side that looked nearly impossible to climb without some serious gear. The spot that the Moon Elf brought us to looked like a small alcove from a distance. It was only visible if you were directly on top of it.
Although it looked like a dead end as we approached the rough face of the cliff, we quickly discovered that the back wall was an optical illusion as the Uten Syn guild leader guided us in. He explained that the hidden-entrance was actually a passageway that went completely through the ridge to the valley he was from, and was just wide enough for four people to travel abreast. Its smooth walls and winding track which was open to the sky reminded me of Antelope Canyon in Arizona.
It was perfectly designed for holding off invaders. Just place a small barricade in the middle of the passage with a few melee classes and ranged defenders on the top of the ridge and you could hold out against an invasion force indefinitely. Glancing over at Krishna’s hard face, I could see the anger in his eyes as he gripped Lyeneru‘s hand tightly. With his new perspective on The World, I could tell he was berating himself for being a fool. None of the Uten Syn guild had considered they might need to have such defenses in place.
Wordlessly, I gripped the other man’s shoulder as I silently commiserated with him. At first, I could tell Krishna wanted to push my hand away, like he’d done the first time we’d met in Darom. After a second, the tension disappeared as he got a grip on his conflicting emotions. Giving me a firm nod back, he adjusted his shield and loosened the grip on his sword, before continuing on resolutely. At the same time, Assault Leader Dell had our planned quick assault groups take the lead.
Seeing Ayda’s haggard face as she followed the teams out, I pulled Dell to the side and reminded him to keep the bard out of the fight so she could conserve her strength. It wasn’t like we needed every hand for this fight. Besides, once this was over, we’d need her magic to keep everyone going into the night. Seeing his nod of agreement, I went back to overseeing the operation.
Thankfully, the valley’s newest defenders hadn’t put any guards in place. Otherwise, they would have picked us off easily, like shooting fish in a barrel. Nonetheless, everyone was ready to blast anyone who peeked their head over the top of the cliff. It took about two finger-biting minutes to traverse the passageway, before it dumped us out on the rocky slope of a hidden valley.
The forest that nearly filled the valley below us was green and lush, except for a few patches of cleared forest near the center that had been set aside for farming. Those cleared fields were centered on a central keep that rose up from the middle of the three mile long and one mile wide valley. The keep itself was small and basic, barely more than an extra wide tower five stories high with a low wall around its small courtyard.
Unsurprisingly enough, it wasn’t filled with troops as it had been when Krishna had escaped on that first day, while carrying Lyeneru’s broken body in his arms. It made sense. By now, I was sure Julie had sent all of her available forces after Domenic to remove him from the equation. If she could get enough troops in the area quickly enough, she could possibly catch my force in the open field and overwhelm us. While the Chaos Storm alliance members might end up losing some levels, they could easily wear down my troops from attrition alone and in the process take out my forces permanently. So, we had to play this smart and not lose our cool.
My contemplation was broken when I saw the angry looks on Lyeneru and Krishna’s faces. I understood them immediately. This was their home which had been violated. Their home that had been invaded, ransacked, and was now the living prison for their people. Even now, those same invaders were in the process of stealing their home, while they feasted on the goods of the Uten Syn members’ labors and waited for them to reroll new toons. That, in and of itself, was disturbing on many different levels.
Krishna had wanted to know why V-MMORG didn’t have a fix for situations like this. It was one of the big discussions we’d had during the last leg of the journey. With a bunch of questioning, I discovered that none of the Uten Syn members had tried to graveyard hop out of the dungeon. While that was a common advanced method that experienced players used to escape nasty PKing situations, it was a tactic that was relatively unknown to most non-PVP players and new gamers alike.
That didn’t mean Krishna was stupid. Once I explained the technique to him, he’d immediately grasped its tactical implications. For now though, he decided to hold off on sharing out that information with his people. Mainly because we were so close to releasing them. Besides, dying in game was extremely painful for Nightmare players. No need to put everyone through that kind of agony if it wasn’t necessary, especially if his guildmates didn’t have any weapons or armor on hand to use against the invaders.
I made a mental note to make sure we hid caches of weapons and armor in different locations around BrokenFang Hold. You know, just in case something like this happened to us in the future. Not that we had the extra production power to do that right now, but it was something to keep in mind. That, and to somehow find a way to make our own graveyards inside our fortifications. A tricky proposition to say the least, since we’d have to somehow secure the location from outsiders. Otherwise, our enemies could bypass our defenses and respawn directly inside our fortress.
This main attack wasn’t going to be anything complex. The plan was straightforward and simple. We would simply overwhelm and crush any defenders in a massive blitzkrieg wave. Don’t look at me like that. It worked for the Germans in World War II. Sometimes simple was best, especially in a situation where the defenses were weak and the attack was unexpected. While the keep could be filled with newfar waiting to slaughter us, the informant we had on the inside assured us that wasn’t the case. Aka Angie, you know, Krishna’s in real-life girlfriend who was imprisoned inside the keep.
Yeah, I won’t lie. The whole thing kind of weirded me out after my experiences wi
th Julie. There was a part of me that wanted to doubt every single word that came from her lips. But, after everything I’d heard about the situation going on between them back in Darom, I agreed with Krishna’s read on the situation. Similar to her boyfriend, Angie had met a Moon Elf trainer named Gaelin Caidove that she’d fallen hard for. He was a strong and handsome Warden that had charmed her from the very first day.
Unfortunately, he’d been cut down during the invasion trying to protect her. She’d died anyway, but it had been that sacrifice that had made her fall for him hard. When they were all being gathered up by the PKers like confused sheep, Angie had somehow managed to latch onto his bloody corpse and drag him into the dungeon when they were imprisoned. Like Krishna with Lyeneru, she’d been watching over his corpse ever since, doing her best to keep it safe in the hopes that she could somehow save him.
This was why I was willing to give her a chance. Why, I was willing to trust that she wasn’t going to betray us and everyone else in her guild because of her boyfriend’s infidelity. Hell, would most people even call having sex in a video game infidelity? How different was that to looking at porn and jerking off? Don’t laugh, it was a serious question. All that I could do was trust that, like the other guild members of Uten Syn, she wanted payback for what had happened to all of them. Love and revenge, they were powerful motivators.
As soon as the five advanced assault forces cleared the crevice behind Kenzie’s stealth team, Assault Leader Dell gave the signal for his assigned Sub-Leaders to move out. Immediately, Sub-Leaders Ollie, Liam, Logan, Trent, and Lyle each lead two hundred troopers down into the valley at a fast jog. Four of the groups were headed towards the graveyards that were evenly spaced around the central keep, while Lyle’s group headed to the far side of the valley. His job was to make sure our planned exit was kept clear of any ambushes.
Kenzie’s stealth mission, on the other hand, was entirely different. Her group was supposed to infiltrate the fortress ahead of the main assault to free the Uten Syn guild members from their imprisonment. Not that they were going to have much time to do this, but, if everything went according to plan, it would put a solid force behind the enemy’s lines that we could use if needed.
It was a decent back-up plan and about the only complexity I’d added to the main assault. The group consisted of Zhou, Jill, Krystal, Darkhorse, Bonnie, Sarka, Unalia, Yun, Tinyr, and Phoenix. All players that wouldn’t run the risk of dying permanently if they were overwhelmed during their mission and then killed again before their timeout was up like a person of The World.
There was some bitching about staying behind from Neristhana and a few of my other companions that had the Stealth skill, but there was no reason to risk them on a mission like this, especially when there was so much PVP set to occur in the next twenty-four hours. Instead, I asked all of my companions to head out with Lyle’s group instead. Their job was to keep a watch for stealth units trying to counter attack or escape. That request was enough to settle everyone down, since it was something that was worthy of their abilities.
All of the House of Kayden troopers heading out in the advanced groups were dressed in black Cuttle leather and had cut their teeth as a unit fighting against newfar. Not to mention, their leaders understood what was needed for covering the graveyards from their trial by fire in Darom. While those numbers probably wouldn’t be necessary here, I wasn’t about to take any chances of losing control over any of the respawn points during the assault, nor did I want to take these assholes out only to be ambushed on our way out of the valley. Besides, that still left us a thousand troopers for the main assault.
I wasn’t including the zombies. Instead of having them be part of the main attack, I had them separated into two groups. One was assigned to guard the entrance we’d just used, while the other half went with Lyle. This was done to partly confuse the enemy and to hold up any Orcs that were following us. At least, I hoped it would. The plan was for the local forces to wonder who was attacking them. I figured, at this point, any additional confusion was a good thing and one I hoped to build upon with the help of my Aussie and Russian friends.
Chapter One.Eleven
(Wednesday, May 7th / Day 17 of The World.)
When the last of the troopers cleared the passageway, Krishna gave Lyeneru a determined look, before taking off down into the valley at a run with the rest of us behind him. Low level horned hares, twin-tailed foxes, and large forest wolves scattered before our advance as we made our way through the woods like gangbusters. About halfway to the keep, Lyeneru changed places with her lover, guiding us to where the trainers had been chopping down trees when the attack had come.
Heading to the piles of stacked, de-branched trees, the troopers began lifting out the foot round trunks like a group of ants cleaning a carcass. Working together in teams of twenty, the troopers would bundle two trunks together with strips of leather created from looted Orc Scout armor. As soon as the jury-rigging was complete, the troopers would pick up the twenty yard long trunks and carry them off to their assigned assault positions.
During the organized confusion, Assault Leader Dell directed a section of two hundred troopers to surround the keep with Team Leader Nuri Haag in charge. Their job was to pick off any stragglers that were missed during the initial attack. That, and to stop any reinforcements from ambushing the main assault from behind. While Nuri held overall command, the group was broken down into eight sub-groups of twenty-five troopers, each led by their own Team Leaders: Grant, Shaw, Maxime, Erwin, Derek, Miller, Marks, and Haakon.
I only recognized Nuri and Haakon from the group. The rest of the six new faces were all survivors of the Royal Army contingent that we’d rescued from the dungeon in Darom. Even though I didn’t know them personally, Assault Leader Dell had faith in them which was good enough for me. Saluting Assault Leader Dell, they took off through the treeline at a run with Team Leader Haag in the lead calling out orders.
While that was going on, there was a constant flurry of Flying Squirrels coming and going out as the various Team Leaders reported in their statuses. The graveyard teams quickly confirmed Angie’s intel that each location had a group of twenty-five newfar on guard to stop the Uten Syn members from trying to escape. Even Kenzie’s report was spot on about the twenty-five players guarding the outer wall and entrance into the keep. The verification helped to make me feel comfortable in believing the rest of the information she’d given to us about there being a group of fifty players inside the keep that was Global Brutality’s quick response force.
That put our current enemy at one hundred and seventy-five Advanced start players. Most of which were split up and unable to support each other even if the shit hit the fan. On top of that, the newfar were all in the level 25 to 32 ranges. Honestly, it was a situation that shouldn’t be any problem at all between our numbers, our levels, the element of surprise, and the inside intelligence we had on tap. Honestly, the whole assault should be a proverbial cakewalk.
Not that I was going to say that out loud to jinx us, I thought grimly, as my eyes studied the Moon Elf remains that were strewn about the clearing where we stood. Squatting down, I picked up a cracked skull and turned it over in my hand contemplatively as Neysa and Helgath silently slid up next me. Nearby, I could hear Krishna and Lyeneru comforting one another in strained voices as they commiserated over the deaths of their friends and comrades. Except for a few skulls and a handful of scattered bones missed by the scavengers, there was nothing that remained as proof of the slaughter that had occurred here. A whole House of people wiped out in the blink of an eye. That could easily be the fate of the House of Kayden if I wasn’t smart.
‘We won’t let that happen!’ Neysa’s thoughts echoed in my mind as she leaned up against my shoulder, while Helgath’s clawed fingers firmly gripped my shoulder. I promised myself then and there that I wouldn’t be looking at the burned out ruins of BrokenFang Hold and the remains of my people like Krishna was now. I’d do whatever it took to keep my peopl
e safe. It didn’t matter if it was the Hobgoblin army, my ex-girlfriend, or the Chaos Storm Alliance, they could all go suck a bag full of dicks. Giving Helgath’s hand a quick squeeze, I stood up and made my way over to Krishna and Lyeneru. The outrage over all that had happened here burning in my chest.
“When the assault is over, we’ll hold a ceremony and lay them to rest.” I promised softly to the grieving pair, before continuing. “For now, let’s focus on saving those that we can.”
Wiping the tears from their eyes, the two Moon Elves nodded in assent and fell in beside me as I made my way over to Assault Leader Dell, and the remaining Devil Dogs. By now, the pile of trees had been cleaned out to create nearly ten separate scaling tools that were already evenly spaced out on the south side of the keep’s outer wall at the edge of the dense forest.
“How are we looking?” I asked both Dell and Thomas who were watching the players lounging around the gate.
“We’re waiting for everyone to get into position, my lord.” Assault Leader Dell reported smartly, as Thomas caught my questioning glance.
“Kenzie already reported that her team has penetrated the outer wall.” Thomas confirmed, before turning back to watch the gate. “She says we’re facing a group of Dark Elves from Global Brutality.”
“Didn’t you run into a couple players from Global Brutality in Delonshire?” Terry asked from where she stood next to her husband, Matt. “Did they have any Nightmare profession?”
“Not that I could tell, but then again, they died pretty fast.” I said with a shrug. “Honestly though, if their main guild is on this side of the training area, it’s doubtful they’d have a chance to learn their guild’s profession.”
“So, no idea what we’re going up against, if anything.” Matt said in a disgruntled voice.
“You know the deal.” Thompson said with a grin. “Hope for the best …”
