by Jason Cheek
Vaguely D’Poke was aware of the chained women and children pummeling his friend with cobblestones that they’d pried up out of the road as he stumbled forward feeling more pain then he’d ever experienced before in his life. He knew he was running out of time as he stared into the woman’s hate-filled eyes. He kicked aside the NPCs that tried to clutch at his legs as the Ranger woman slapped another five arrows into her bow hand.
If he could just get to her first, he’d shove that bow up her ass! Kit Kat silently swore as he worriedly looked at his health. There was no way he could take another fifteen arrows without dying. Before he could close the final distance between them, twin blades erupted from the front of his chest as his Hit Points shot to zero in the blink of any eye. Just before he died, he heard a voice growl in his ear.
“Game over, motherfucker!”
As Tinyr took out the warrior that was trying to ram his sword down her throat, Unalia targeted the screaming pokemon wannabe that had started the whole mess. Another arrow blast silenced the cruel bastard as the rogue’s screams ended in a hurgle-gurgle sound. With a satisfied grunt, she slammed another five arrows into her bow hand as she turned to her husband’s target only to see the nasty warrior’s lifeless body crumple to the ground.
Still, the battle wasn’t over as the remaining rogue named PokeU Pettman fought against the angry horde of townspeople that were crawling over him. The player was swearing up a storm about how he was going to kill every last one of them as mothers and daughters held him down while they slowly pummeled him to death with cobblestones. While Unalia wanted to end his shrill screams, there was no way for her to target the player without hitting the surviving townspeople. Normally, this type of mob violence would have shocked her to no end, but, after seeing the casual atrocities these players had been committing against the people of the city, she had no problem watching the player being slowly stoned to death.
The violence made Unalia think back to some of the arguments she had with her husband about the violence on some of their favorite TV series. Tinyr, err Kevin, she laughed mentally correcting herself at using his in-game name. He could always watch the bad guys being tortured or hurt without a problem, while the reverse made him hide his face from the violence. She’d never understood why that was okay for him, until now, as she watched PokeU’s Hit Points hit zero without batting an eye or looking away. Kevin was just giving her that ‘I told you so’ look, when the last two rogues that had been looting the man’s apartment came bursting out the door in a rush.
“What the hell is going on here?” Cadwell Jake, another level 32 Rogue, demanded as he came to a stop looking around at his teammate’s corpses in shock. His buddy, Khul Kusmar, who staggered out after him with his arms full of loot, was still trying to figure out what was going on, when their eyes both came to rest on Unalia and Tinyr. Dropping the loot at his feet, Khul contemptuously smirked at them both.
“Oh, it looks like we have some rats sneaking around our city, Cadwell.”
“Oh these poor suckers don’t know just how bad they just fucked up,” the rogue chortled as he strode out into the middle of the NPCs with his arms slightly spread. “Flame on!” he shouted out like a wannabe super hero as a flaming aura suddenly appeared around his body.
Immediately, the NPCs began screaming and skittering away from his fiery body as their skin began to burn and peel from the close proximity to the flames. Even five yards away, the heat was palpable in its intensity as the entire street suddenly felt like an oven. Seeing Unalia and Tinyr’s shocked looks, he sneered triumphantly.
“Pretty freaking cool, huh?” Not waiting for an answer, Khul strode up next to his friend with a brutal look on his face as he spoke in a harsh voice.
“Flame on!” As soon as the words left his lips, a fiery aura appeared around him too as he laughed cruelly. “You guys are so fucked and you don’t even know it.” Before either one of the Dread Pack could attack, Cadwell staggered forward in obvious agony as his flaming aura suddenly blinked out and his Hit Points noticeably dropped.
“What the fuck?” the man began to say just as he caught himself from pitching forward, when Khul experienced the same odd phenomenon. Khul was just looking behind him in confusion while Cadwell was lifting a hand to his bloody neck, when Neristhana’s two-handed strike hammered at the other side of his neck as she triggered her Backstab attack.
The soul-wrenching cry of agony that left the PKer’s lips as he sprawled out into the cobblestones did bring a grim smile to Unalia’s lips as she drew back her bow. Before the rogue could recover, she released another one of her arrow-burst attacks directly into his back, killing him instantly. Khul only lasted a few seconds longer as Kenzie’s blades pierced his neck once again from behind, inflicting her own brand of punishment as the PKer fell to his knees coughing up blood.
There was a slight tussle as he lurched back to his feet with a wild look in his eyes. Turning around to face his attacker, he caught a blinding slash across the eyes before Kenzie buried her blades back into the sides of his neck in another dual-wielding special combo. Before the Dread Pack rogue could even think of retaliating, Tinyr lunged forward with his own blades in an eviscerating attack that opened up the man’s entire back. As the PKer howled in agony, Kenzie ended the man’s life with another dual-Backstab, before his body could even hit the ground.
For a long second, no one said a word as the four of them looked back and forth between each other in shocked silence from the sudden violence. Well, shock for Unalia at least, since no one else seemed to have batted an eye at the excruciating deaths of the PKers. The townsfolk did, on the other hand, look just as stunned as she felt. Nervously, they looked at each other, their questionable saviors, and the barely identifiable human corpse within their midst.
“Wow, now that was unexpected,” Unalia said shaking her head. “So, what do we do now?” As if her words had broken the spell holding them all, Kenzie looked around scowling.
“Well, we thoroughly screwed the pooch this time around,” she said with a sigh. Eyeing the fearful townsfolk, she took command of the situation. “Unalia and Neristhana, get the townspeople unchained and moving towards the docks. Tinyr, keep an eye out for company while I contact our fearless leaders to let them know that the stealth operation is a bust.”
***
“What the hell happened?” I asked looking at Thomas in shock. Seeing the Devil Dog Guild Leader taking a deep breath to explain, I waved him off realizing the futility of what I’d just asked. Instead, I joined the raid’s sub-channel for Kenzie’s group as I held up a hand to the rest of the people around us to pause the conversation.
There was no need to throw around blame, shit happens and you just have to deal with it the best you could, especially when you were dealing with combat situations. That’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. While Thomas was trying to get me to delegate better by using the chain of command, I needed to know what was happening as soon as possible so I could pick up the pieces.
“What’s the situation, Kenzie?” I asked, as soon as the channel switched.
“We took out a collection team that discovered us, but they’re sure to be reporting our group and location in even as we speak,” she reported without hesitation. “We’re unchaining the civilians now and planning to move them towards the docks, unless you want us to hold up here in one of the apartment buildings for now?“
‘Unchaining the civilians?’ I silently thought forcing myself to not open that can of worms until later. Things were sounding as ugly as I worried they might be when I saw the barren streets. I felt my mind switch gears into overdrive as I began going through all of the different ways this could go down.
While I did that, Kenzie continued giving me a thorough report of everything that went down during the fight. She explained about the weird ‘fire shield’ ability that two of the players had and commented on the unusual ease they had with taking the entire team down. Almost as if they weren’t exactly used to a
ctual combat. Hell, did they even have Nightmare stats? She was going on about how they were calling out their abilities by saying “flame on” like a bunch of losers, when I cut her off.
“Hey Kenzie, try slowing down your withdrawal long enough to suck their response group around the corner of that main intersection,” I said hurriedly.
“What’s the play?” Kenzie asked suddenly focused once again.
“We’re going to have a surprise waiting for them if Thomas can get there in time.” I couldn’t hold back the savage grin that came to my lips. “Then, we’re going to take it to them balls to the wall!” I said excitedly. “You in?”
“You bet your ass I’m in!” Kenzie said, as her voice took on a silken edge.
“Alright, good luck, I’m going back to main raid chat,” I said, signing off with her. Focusing back on all the faces of my friends and vassals staring back at me in concern, my Raid Leader persona took over as a plan began taking shape in my mind.
“Captain Windcoat, continue on as we discussed. Please make sure to send a squad of beastkin over to pick up the captive from Helgath and Neysa at your earliest convenience. Unless you hear otherwise, tell them to send him to the graveyard in an hour. Captain Lightouch, same for you. Keep my ship safe! Scout Captain Dherler, you and you’re men are heading out with me.” As the Dark Elf began calling for his Shadow Scouts to move out, I caught Ayda’s eye. “You’ll be heading out with our group.” I said, before turning back to look the Devil Dog guild leader directly in the eyes. “Thomas, can you take the lead of the main assault?”
“Sure, no problem.” Thomas answered in a surprised tone, as his face took on a seriousness I hadn’t seen before. “I’d assumed you’d be taking the lead on the main assault.”
“Naw, that’s all you,” I said, in all sincerity, looking around at my friends. “I have a plan that I hope will hit them hard from out of left field, but I need the main assault led by people I trust. Sarka and Fylreh-.“
“I stay with you,” Fylreh said in no uncertain terms as she cut me off abruptly. Suppressing the frown that wanted to come to my lips, I rolled with the flow and focused on winning the battle.
“Okay then, Sarka you’ll take the far right street up with forty NPCs and meet up with Yun, Darkhorse, and Ulia. Phoenix will take the far left with another forty NPCs and meet up with Zhou, Keela, Ryane, and Brenna.”
“The Devil Dogs will take the middle with everyone else,” Thomas said with a grim smile. “And shove our boots so far up their asses that they taste Cuttle leather!”
“Let’s do this!” I said giving him a fist bump as the rest of the Devil Dogs shouted out a “Hoorah!” as Scout Captain Dherler signaled that his people were ready to go.
“What do we do if we reach the end of the street?” Sarka asked looking somewhat green at being thrown in a command position so suddenly. I understood her concern, since she’d always had either Yun or I to lean on whenever the shit hit the fan, but I had no doubt in my mind that she could do this.
“Then take up ambush positions and hit any groups that show up,” I said simply. “Just keep in touch with Thomas. He’ll let you know when to push out towards the graveyards or if you need to circle back to give him a hand once he has a better picture of the situation.”
Getting a nod of agreement from Thomas, Phoenix, and Sarka, I pulled Assault Leader Dell into the discussion. Quickly catching him up to speed on the changing situation, I told him to pass on the word to our graveyard assault groups to make a run for it. We’d relieve them as soon as we could, but they had to get into position now! Getting an affirmative from Dell, I turned to my friends and vassals.
“Okay people, work with Assault Leader Dell to pick up your troops and move on out!” I called out encouragingly. As Phoenix and Sarka began talking with Dell, I waved the Scout Captain over to me as Thomas pulled me aside.
“What’s up with her Royal Highness and her Knights? Shouldn’t they have been part of this meeting?” Thomas asked, keeping his voice low. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he already knew the answer before I said a word.
“None of them responded to my call to arms,” I replied as we both grimaced.
“Why the graveyards?” he asked, switching gears.
“We’ve got to keep control over all of them or we’ll be overrun with respawns,” I said grimly. “If The Dread Pack guild leader has any PVP experience at all, he’ll be planning on doing the same thing.”
“And you’ll be doing what?”
“Trying to pull a win out of my ass,” I said honestly while Thomas’ head jerked back as if he’d taken a punch to the face. Taking a deep breath, I broke the situation down for him. “Dude, it’s like this. We have a guild of nine hundred plus players that we’re up against. All, might I add, with Nightmare stats and some overpowered fire shield ability. The only way we’re going to pull this off is if they’re slow to respond and we keep ahold of the control points.”
“Control points?”
“Ugh, sorry, I keep picturing this whole scenario as a FPS game of Domination.” I said waving the question away.
“Just for the record, you suck at motivational speeches,” Thomas groused. Running a nervous hand through his hair, he glanced around to make sure no one had overheard us. This obviously wasn’t the first time he’d been given unpleasant information about the chances of success for a mission and had to keep a lid on it.
“Just make it to the graveyards and hold them,” I said reassuringly, before muttering under my breath. ““Because, that’s going to be the only way we pull this freaking miracle off.” Thankfully, he didn’t catch that as he gave me a shoulder bump for luck. “Be good,” Thomas said, before heading over to Assault Leader Dell as Scout Captain Dherler stepped up giving me a fist salute. Nodding for him to follow, I called Helgath and Neysa over to me as the beastkin squad jogged past to take possession of the prisoner.
Catching their squad leader’s eye, I told him to break the rogue’s arms if he gave them any trouble but to otherwise leave him alone, except for hog-tying him and leaving the gag in place. I gave Amron a casual wave goodbye as he glared hatefully at me while the beastkin marines dragged him away. As Fylreh silently joined my soulmates, I took off down the pier heading towards the city with the Scout Captain at my side, while the rest of the Dark Elves fell in line behind us.
“Listen up, Dherler.” I said talking hurriedly. “I’m going to take twenty-five of your men, while you take command of the rest. I’ll also be sending Ayda with you. The plan is simple. We’re going to hit the newfar guarding the outer walls fast and hard. Once we meet up, we’ll circle around and hit the main Dread Pack assault from behind while they’re focused on attacking everyone else.”
“Yes, milord.” The Dark Elf replied somewhat nervously. “I just hope Ayda can keep up with us.” Giving him a grin, I clapped him reassuringly on the shoulder as I made the hand gesture for Lore Lyn to cut out this part of my stream.
“Trust me, you’ll do fine and Ayda won’t slow you down in the least. If anything, she’ll help speed you and your men up that much more. Just keep your zombies on the ground with a handful of scouts, while the rest of your force hits them on the walls and you’ll do fine.” Looking into his eyes, I could see my assurances were doing little to ease the man’s anxiety. Knowing there was no way I was going to pull this off without his full buy-in, I began walking him step-by-step through the strategy we were going to be using. Coming to the end of my spiel, I unflinchingly held his gaze.
“If you have to stop to take out your enemy, then you’re going too slow.” I said, ignoring the twitch of his eyes from my words. The strategy, I’m sure, went against everything he’d ever learned about attacking. At least, I figured it did if they had any training like our own Special Forces. Unperturbed, I continued spelling out exactly what I meant.
“This is going to be a running type of attack. When you see the enemy, take your multishot and keep moving on past. Let the rest
of the troop behind you finish off the enemy in the same way with their follow up attacks as they run past.” I finished waiting for his reaction. For a long second, the Scout Captain was silent as he tried to picture what I was describing in his mind. As I watched, I saw the moment of epiphany that suddenly lit up his eyes.
“Think your boys can handle this?” I asked giving him a savage grin.
“So long as you’re willing to resurrect any of us that fall, we’ll make it happen, milord.” He answered enthusiastically. After our battle with the Sea Orcs, they all knew that was a given.
“Excellent, just don’t forget to rotate those Shadow Scouts in the lead out as they take damage and just let Ayda do her own thing. You’ll also need to either have the gravestones collected or leave troopers behind to guard them until they turn to white stone, since we’re fighting newfar. I’ll leave that decision up to you.”
“I figured we’ll have the zombies carry them with us,” Dherler replied after taking a moment to consider the problem as he excitedly clapped me on the shoulder. With a sharp bark of command, he called another Dark Elf over to us. “This is Zocuth Eevro, milord. He’ll be directing the contingent of Shadow Scouts under your command.”
“Well met, Zocuth.” I said in greeting as the Dark Elf gave me a fist salute. Dherler and I both gave him a quick rundown of the attack plan. As we came to the end of our spiel, I was glad to see the same look of excited realization in the other man’s eyes as the concept of the strategy hit him like it had his Scout Captain.
“Get everyone up to speed on the plan. As soon as we hit the boardwalk, we’ll head south along the wall, while Dherler takes his group north.” Both Dark Elves saluted smartly and began passing out orders to the rest of the Shadow Scouts as I glanced behind us to see how everyone else was doing while once again sending the signal to Lore Lyn to enable my video stream once again.
