The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  The only thing left now, was to get this war started.

  Chapter 111: The Dotted Line

  (Tuesday, February 22nd Game Day / Friday, May 21st Real Day)

  Standing in line while Emily and Valerie were off looking for snacks, hundreds of players were ahead of me as everyone wanted to participate in the coming battle. The Regional Call to Arms had sounded off as the NPC faction inhabiting Wesstown officially declared war on the NPC factions in Cleftside. It was news to me that there were two powers inside Cleftside and it certainly explained their dominance.

  Two powerful NPC families inhabiting one territory, cooperating to overtake and remove the smaller factions around them. Cleftside and Wesstown were separated by nearly forty miles of fields and forests according to the local maps but that didn’t stop them from wanting to solidify their claim of the local region.

  The House of Blacktomb and the House of Woodfall were fairly generic and unimportant names but they were the NPC families that controlled and ruled Cleftside. Of more importance was the Triumvirate’s backing of Woodfall. There was no infighting as of yet, at least that was of public knowledge. Though the possibility of a power struggle certainly played on my mind. In a time of war, tensions were high and mistakes were made. If toes were stepped on or lines were crossed, an alliance could crumble.

  I was curious of course… but so far it was nothing more than a daydream.

  “Would you look at that,” said a familiar voice from behind as she handed me some sort of portioned out roasted animal on a stick. “Only fifty or so people ahead of us, nice!”

  Taking a bite out of what I believed was a small leg, the texture of the meat was different but not terrible. The flavor could have been better but as far as roasted meats went, it was actually somewhat decent. Though I had a sneaking suspicion that the meat belonged to a species of large rodent, based on the size and shape.

  “Hm this isn’t half bad,” I mumbled as I continued to chew on the imagined rodent drumstick. “Anyways, yeah, line is moving pretty quick actually. Shouldn’t be long before we’re up.”

  “So you enjoy the virtual version of a Eurasian Beaver,” explained Emily, after watching me take a few bites. “I stuck with the chicken myself.”

  “How kind of you,” I mumbled as I finished the snack.

  After ten minutes passed us by, we were finally at the front of the line as Emily stepped forward and was received first. One male and two female NPCs stood behind a table with sacks of magical parchment placed directly behind them, as they handed Emily the piece of paper and began to explain the basics to her.

  “Next in-line,” called out the male as I stepped forward. Taking out a single blank piece of parchment, he looked me up and down quickly and then began to explain the details in short. “Details of the contract are provided inside. After you have signed and sworn an Oath to the cause, any action taken in order to subvert the powers that be will be seen as an act of treason. If you agree to the terms listed, sign with your desired name.”

  As I quickly glanced at the blank parchment, numerous system messages appeared on the screen detailing everything that one needed to know. Too much to read all at once, I turned slightly to face Emily as she said a rather strange thing.

  “Alliance One,” she said to the female behind the table as she confirmed with a nod and a slight smile.

  “Thank you for joining the cause Alliance One, may the tides of war be in our favor,” stated the female NPC.

  Before I could say anything, the NPC in front of me tapped the parchment and asked me for my name, wanting to speed things up as hundreds of players remained waiting behind us. Ignoring the man, I decided to first ask Emily what she was thinking.

  “What the hell?” I blurted out as I stared at her. “You didn’t seriously just use that as your registered name for the battle? Alliance One? Seriously?”

  “You’ve declared and registered, what the hell, as your name,” said the male NPC as he was about to stamp my document.

  “Hey no!” I yelled as I snatched the parchment away from him. Staring at both of them as if they were tripping on some medieval drugs, I was completely baffled by their reactions as they stared at me. As if I were the one who was insane.

  “No, that’s not my name, what the hell is wrong with you people.”

  “Thank you for joining the cause Alliance Two, may the tides of war be in our favor,” stated the other female NPC.

  Turning to my right, Valerie had finished registering as well as both girls gave me a funny look. After they disparaged me with their eyes, they turned and walked away as I was left holding up the line with an angry male NPC standing in front of me.

  “Alliance Zero,” I muttered as I had been suckered into a stupid naming scheme. Handing the parchment over to the NPC, I was now stuck with it.

  “Yeah, thanks, move on now,” said the male NPC as he stamped and handed the parchment back to me. Waving at me to shoo, I ignored his deviant behavior and chased after the two girls while reading the details of the contract.

  [You have sworn an Oath to the House of Harmont for the duration of the Call to Arms. Once bound to an Oath, an Adventurer must abide by the rules of the contract or face the appropriate penalties.]

  [Switching to support of the House of Woodfall or Blacktomb, or sabotaging the efforts of the House of Harmont will be seen as act of betrayal and will result in a severe penalty to the Adventurer’s Reputation Stat, ranging from minus fifty to minus two-hundred Reputation Points depending on the severity of the crime. The actions must be witnessed in order for the penalty to come into effect.]

  [Having sworn allegiance, the Adventurer will also be known amongst Inhabitants of the World as a Traitor and will suffer in matters requiring Trust for the foreseeable future.]

  [The battlefield will be established within the next 2:37 minutes at the location provided. The first stage of the battle will occur at 12:01 AM on Wednesday, February the 23rd and will cease at sundown. The second stage will resume at sunup the following day and will continue until the war is concluded or terms are otherwise made.]

  [In the event that the Adventurer falls in combat, he or she will be removed from the field of battle and will not be allowed re-entry for twenty-four hours starting at the time of death. The Adventurer will resurrect automatically at the assigned capital, Wesstown.]

  [After the restriction has been lifted, if the battle is still on-going, the Adventurer may return to the field to once again collect and earn rewards.]

  [The current rewards available to the Adventurer are as follows: a Majority Kill confers a bonus of five silver coins, while a Majority Assist confers a bonus of two silver coins. Participation in a Kill confers a bonus of fifty copper coins. The rewards for a Kill, Assist, or Participation are doubled in the case of a downing of a Known Threat. By extension, the bonus is again doubled for the removal of a Notable Threat. Furthermore, the bonus is then tripled in the case of eliminating an Exceptional Threat.]

  [Majority Kill is assigned to an Adventurer based on Majority Percentage of Damage Done to a Target. Majority Assist is assigned based on second highest Percentage of Damage Done to a Target. Participation is granted for involvement in a Kill.]

  [Hidden Bonuses are available for the direct sabotage of the enemy’s army but is only available to those who have yet to fall in combat. In the event that all Adventurers are eliminated on one side or the other, the remaining Inhabitant-filled army will march or retreat depending on their situation.]

  [In order to reach Victory Conditions, one army must reach the capital of the enemy force and either destroy the settlement or force the faction(s) to surrender. If a capital is destroyed, the victors will receive double the payout of their rewards while the conquered will have their bonus reduced in half. If a capital is destroyed, it will no longer be an inhabitable settlement and any services provided within will be lost.]

  [Notation: A destroyed capital will not be inhabitable but the territory will remain cl
aimable and can be used for the purposes of rebuilding.]

  [Adventurers can check their standings as Named Threats on the Leaderboard, visible at any time during or after the battle through their Menu. Other details can also be viewed on the Leaderboard, such as Kills, Assists, and Participation. Individual Bounties can be issued by Adventurers with the proper Standing.]

  Stopping slightly behind the girls, my mind was attempting to run the numbers on the amount of gold that could potentially be earned in such a scenario. If my understanding was correct, a basic kill, assist, and participation credit started at five silver, two silver, and fifty copper coins respectively. Doubling that meant ten, four, and one silver if we killed or somehow removed a Known Threat. From there it went to twenty silver, eight, and two for a Notable Threat and then lastly it was sixty silver, twenty-four silver, and six silver for eliminating an Exceptional Threat.

  That was a hell of a lot of money.

  And it could be doubled if the enemy capital was razed… in addition to hidden bonuses for sabotaging the enemy army, whatever that meant. The only issue was that if you died you wouldn’t be allowed to return to the fight for twenty-four hours and seeing how each battle was approximately four-hours long with four-hour breaks in between, you could miss anywhere from four or five battles if you died early on.

  “Hey have you read the details?” I inquired as I tapped both of their shoulders from behind. “The payout is ridiculous down here for mercenaries.”

  “I know,” said Emily with a very peculiar grin. “I told you we should come. It’s been setup as a way to get players involved and reward them for the effort. These battles will take a lot of our time.”

  After hearing her comment and seeing her grin it all made sense to me. She knew ahead of time that this was coming and already knew how the details worked, the reason she went with the weird alias was because if we made it to the top of the leaderboards, we would find ourselves a target. Having our real names would defeat the purpose.

  She was a few steps ahead of me.

  “Still, what kind of naming sense is Alliance Number,” I said with a moan as it became obvious to me that she had never been included in any discussions related to deciding a name. If she had been, I pitied the results if she happened to be a senior member.

  “Shush Alliance Three,” she mocked with her tongue out.

  “That’s not my name,” I replied as fake confusion spread across my face. Quickly shifting into a Carlton dance I decided to play a little as I sang out the same phrase in repeat. “That’s not my name, that’s not my name, that’s not my name!”

  “Hah! Okay Stacey, or is it Jane?” she retorted immediately while laughing. “But you’re not quiet.”

  “But I am a riot,” I said while slowing my dance moves down, much to the amusement of the girls, mainly Emily though. “Anyways, my name isn’t Three, I decided to go with Zero.”

  “Eh why zero?” she asked with a droop. As if it was the worst number I could have picked, which made little sense to me as the original scheme was about as special as my qualifications for special needs after far too many traumatic brain injuries.

  “Zero is a nonentity, unimportant and with little to no influence,” I explained casually as I continued to dance and skip down the crowded street, oblivious to the stares as my mind was more focused on dominating the leaderboards in a couple of hours. “At least, that’s the definition in the informal sense, roughly.”

  “Why do I get the feeling your self-deprecating sense of humor is a total façade?” asked Valerie as she tilted her head slightly to the left and gave me a funny eye.

  “I have an issue with modesty?” I replied with a shrug.

  “At least he’s honest,” chimed in Emily.

  Reading over the contents of the contract once more in case I happened to misunderstand something, I was fairly positive that the best course of action would be to farm the inexperienced players from the edge of the field. Avoiding the center of the battle if at all possible, while mainly trying to stay alive for as long as possible.

  If one could kill a single player every five minutes, after four hours of such activity he or she would have a pot of two gold and forty silver coins. If this continued for an extended amount of time… all of my NPC-Recruiter issues would be solved. The draft would be taken care of in a single day.

  “What do you guys say to farming players?” I asked honestly.

  “Why would we do that?” replied Emily. “Isn’t our goal to win this war so as to hurt Triumvirate and stall their activities in the region?”

  She was right of course but I couldn’t help but think that our efforts would be wasted by simply participating in a losing battle. The other side was far superior according to every forum thread and personal opinion found in-game. We would have to wait and see how the first battle goes but… my gut feeling was that we were in for a losing fight.

  “Well hear me out,” I said, wanting to explain my case as the realization set in. “We’re fighting on the losing side at the moment… we’re losers before we’ve even begun, it’s in the air, it’s what everyone here believes. They’ve already let that doubt cloud their mind so I’m not sure we can count on the players making a huge comeback. My bet is they turn and run at the first sign of trouble, honestly.

  “So my idea is this, we start at the edge of the field and hunt down stragglers in the forest, amass a kill total and thin down their numbers as best as we can. We keep this up for a few battles until the player numbers have been reduced and then we make bigger moves, if the war hasn’t already been lost.”

  Emily kept walking as she thought of her reply since time was of the essence. The designated battlefield was at the halfway point between the two castle-towns and occupied a rough five-mile radius. With a camp set up on either side, the organized battle would take place two hours and twenty-three minutes from now and that meant we would have to keep moving.

  We had about seventeen miles to cover in that time.

  Barik and Ethan had already signed the contract in the early hours of the morning and logged out onsite. Once it hit midnight local time, they would log on to join us. Curiously Alan hadn’t been seen since the previous month but I forgot to ask about his whereabouts.

  “I don’t mind your strategy,” replied Emily after some time had passed. “The only issue I have is that we’ll hardly make an impact on the edges. There’ll be thousands of players fighting… how can we kill enough stragglers to sway the tides?”

  Letting her statement sink in, thousands of players fighting on one field sounded insane as there would definitely be a mass exodus of player souls at the start. If I used lightning magic, I could probably kill ten or twenty clustered players with a single [Lightning Strike] and then retreat into the crowds, only to repeat that same tactic every time my mana allowed. That would be a single gold coin in one spell.

  “Okay you win,” I said as I tossed my hands up.

  “Huh, just like that?” she said quizzically as she stared me down.

  “Yup, your idea is better,” I replied with a smile.

  “I don’t believe you….”

  Stopping at the inn where we had been staying, I turned quickly through the door and went up the stairs without bothering to reply to Emily any further. The rooms here were expensive at fifty copper a night. By comparison the dungeon town only cost ten coppers a night and provided a meal. There was no meal service here.

  This was a clean inn though, in a dirty, expensive town.

  Returning to the counter with all of my belongings, I checked out of the inn as I decided to keep my coin purse with me. If left my money at the inn, the potential for it to be stolen while I was gone was high. And since there was no banking system available in these parts, it was better to risk losing five-percent to strangers in battle than to lose it all.

  Supposedly the largest of cities had banks but I had yet to personally see one. There were also rumors floating about that a quartermaster at the stagin
g camp could and would hold your belongings during the fight. It seemed risky leaving valuables behind but the game had been setup that way.

  It was probably the safest route for now.

  “Are we ready?” I asked as the girls finished checking out.

  “Ready!” exclaimed an enthusiastic Emily.

  “Mm.” sounded out Valerie as she nodded.

  Throwing my bag over my shoulder, the seventeen mile trip had now begun. Thankfully both girls were avid runners, though that threw me off at first as I had a hard time picturing Valerie as a runner. Well, I had lived in the same apartment complex as a blind girl in the past and she always used the treadmill, so it wasn’t all that strange to me.

  It was just another preconceived notion that was hard to shake.

  “Right, let’s go then yeah?” I shouted as we hit the outskirts of the town and I began to jog. Increasing my speed as the girls kept up, I continued to push the pace until they started to lag behind. Adjusting appropriately to match their preferred pace, it appeared that the trip would take less than an hour and a half. Not terrible, for in-game super humans.

  Chapter 112: The First Battleground

  (Wednesday, February 23rd Game Day / Saturday, May 22nd Real Day)

  12:01 AM.

  The battle had begun… except, it hadn’t.

  Thousands of humanoids filled the field as hundreds stood on the frontlines, ready and waiting with weapons drawn as both sides decided to let the other make the first move. Crawling out of the gate and barely moving a muscle, the hordes of adventurers and innocuous inhabitants stood and watched as nothing happened.