The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  ‘You’re late.’ The Silver Dire Wolf stated with a mental sniff, as she dropped the bone back on my chest. ‘All the other newfar have already logged in.’

  ‘Not by choice.’ I said, running a hand through the coarse fur of her neck, before giving her a hard pat as her golden eyes studied me intently. ‘I missed you too.’

  ‘You’ve got company.’ she said with a flick of her head, before pushing herself up off my chest as I grunted from the increased weight that momentarily squashed me. There was no hiding the doggy … I mean … wolfy smile that came to her black lips as she snatched up the bone and happily trotted over to lay down next to Helgath.

  Stifling a yawn, I swung my feet off the stone bench I’d used as a bed the night before and sat up, only to see my command staff and friends sitting around me in a loose half-circle. Hell, even Krishna and Lyeneru were there. Only my vassals looked relaxed, everybody else was glaring at me at varying levels of annoyance. Arching an eyebrow at me and acting like she was checking the time, Sarka spoke up first.

  “I thought we all agreed to meet online at seven o'clock eastern time this morning?” Sarka snapped irritably. “You know, you’re not the only one that could have used an extra hour of beauty sleep this morning.”

  “An extra hour?” Kenzie growled from where she sat. “The rest of us had to wake up at five in the morning.”

  “Two A.M. here.” Krishna grumped as everyone glanced at him in surprise. “Pacific time zone,” he explained with an embarrassed wave.

  “I didn’t sleep in.” I tiredly said, accepting a cup of hot tea from Thomas as he hid a smile. “I got pulled into a major discussion with Kyarina and Orion about the status of BrokenFang Hold’s defenses and how they might slow down the invasion force headed their way.” That bit of information seemed to settle everyone down as I continued with a frown.

  “Also, I’ve been dealing with a bunch of nasty online attacks from The Syndicate and their fans.” I paused for a moment as I thought about the relationship between The Syndicate and the Chaos Storm Guilds. More and more, it looked like they were really just one and the same. “Come to find out, one of those asshats was our very own Mr. Bungholio.”

  “You mean the scumbag we captured on the docks?” Phoenix asked in shock.

  “The one who boasted about enslaving the town?” Sara asked incredulously.

  “Yep, the one and the same,” I said. “The asshole tried to get my Twitch channel shut down for breaking his kneecaps and,” I did air quotes, “torturing him online.”

  “Even with all that video we have of what they did to the civilians in Darom?” Unalia asked, speaking up in surprise.

  “What a dumb ass.” Sarka said, shaking her head unbelievably. “I mean, he knew you’d be posting the videos of the atrocities they’d carried out against the people here, right?”

  “Meh, assholes never judge their own actions.” Kenzie said dismissively, smiling for the first time this morning. “I bet that went over like a bombshell.”

  “Yep, the shit cleared up pretty quickly after those videos came to light.” I agreed, accepting two meat kabobs from a smiling Helgath who was silently listening in on the discussion. “I think he thought the accusation alone would be all it took to find me guilty in the public’s eyes. Now his podcast account has been disabled and his blog taken down.”

  “That was a nice fuck-you-very-much.” Thomas said, giving me a salute with his mug, before sitting forward expectantly. “So then, what’s the plan for today?”

  Looking around the circle, I noticed everyone had perked up at Thomas’ words. The people of The World had the gleam of vengeance in their eyes, while my newfar friends were outwardly excited about the coming adventure. I couldn’t help the smirk that came to my lips at the suppressed eagerness radiating from Sarka and Unalia. “So how are you guys liking PVP?”

  “God, it’s some of the best times I’ve had in the game so far,” Sarka gushed, giving me a blood-thirsty grin.

  “Taking out the PKers felt surprisingly satisfactory,” Unalia agreed in a soft voice, almost as if she was embarrassed to admit her feelings on the subject. There was more than one smirk amongst the rest of my friends at the women’s words. “Is it always like that?”

  “There are few things better than griefing real scumbags,” I said, flashing them both one of my own savage smiles. Some might accuse me of enjoying smacking down bullies and assholes a little too much, but I could live with that. It was definitely my thing.

  Looking around, I caught Assault Leader Dell’s eyes. “How long do you think it will take for your troops to be ready to move out?” As soon as the words left my lips, I saw Lornila’s two-handed bastard sword bob on her back as she leaned forward. Before she could speak up, the veteran swordsman nodded towards the attractive Gnomeling.

  “I can have everyone ready to move in thirty minutes, my lord. Just let me know ahead of time whose going and whose staying.” Assault Leader Dell paused to nod at the female Gnomeling. “Although, you might want to speak to Sub-Captain Windcoat first, before making any plans.” Seeing my questioning look, Lornila rose to her feet to speak.

  “My lord, I’d suggest taking the time to raise the dead Royal Navy officers and Gnomeling Traders before heading out.” She stated in no uncertain terms. ”No one thought to bring them to the arena, since they weren’t actually in the city.” She explained with an apologetic shrug. “Like their men, I expect they’ll all wish to swear allegiance to the House of Kayden, especially once they hear about your argument with Princess Reeva and the stories about what we did to save everyone.” She continued as I nodded in agreement.

  “While I can only speak from my own experience, I believe if you raise the fallen Gnomelings that were cut down on their ships, I have no doubt they’ll choose to serve you faithfully.” Her dark-brown eyes softened as she continued. “Besides, with so many ships missing experienced sailors, we could use the extra hands.”

  “What ships are missing sailors?” I asked, somewhat confused. “I mean, besides the Gnomeling Trader ships.”

  “Only eight of the twenty-four human biremes were manned.” She explained, as her face took on its typical no-nonsense expression. “None of the eight are at full strength. They only have a crew of about two hundred sailors each, instead of a normal complement of six hundred. Out of those, none of the command staff survived the Dread Pack’s purge.”

  “How many dead are we talking about?” I asked, trying to understand how long all of this was going to take.

  “Fifty Royal Navy and forty Gnomeling Traders.” She reported without hesitation. “Although, I’m unsure of how many can be raised. Many of the bodies were hacked apart after they fell and are severely damaged.”

  “So we’re talking about a minimum of two hours of hard casting. Make it three once we explain to everyone what’s going on and get moving.” I said, talking out loud to myself.

  “That should cover their oath-taking too.” Sub-Captain Windcoat agreed, with a firm nod of her head.

  “Well, fuck a duck!” I swore under my breath as my friends’ faces darkened upon hearing the news. There was no way they’d be willing to hang out while I did the healing thing again.

  “You guys want to go ahead and head out with the troopers while I take care of this?” I asked, glancing around at everyone’s faces. “I should be able to catch up in two or three hours once I’m done.”

  “Might be best,” Thomas agreed, as everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not like I blamed them. Even Thompson and Yun didn’t look too thrilled to stay back and heal.

  “No might about it,” Kenzie snapped irritably. “None of us got up early just to watch Star wave his hands above corpses for two hours straight.”

  “As long as you don’t think the Dread Pack will try to chase you down,” Sarka said, torn between wanting to head out now and wanting me to make sure I was safe.

  “We’ll be fine. I imagine they’re still licking their wounds afte
r having their asses handed to them.” I said unconcerned. “Besides, at their current levels, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

  With that out of the way, we got quickly moving. I let Assault Leader Dell know that I wanted a hundred of the new Royal Army troopers that had joined us in Darom added to our existing forces, while the remaining two hundred and seventy ex-Royal Army troopers were to be combined with the six hundred guards to protect the city. Thomas once again took the lead, since he was used to working with the veteran swordsman and combat situations.

  We also talked about Telrain, the princess, and my concerns about leaving the Chaos Storm guild in control of the Kingdom of Kader. Thomas promised that he’d have the situation scouted about before I arrived, acting as if I’d get into trouble and end up being late. It was just some shit-talking between friends who liked to one-up each other. Clasping fists, we gave each other a shoulder bump before heading out. As Thomas got everyone moving, I followed Captain Lightouch, Sub-Captain Windcoat, Sub-Leader Butcher, and Old Man Fortner to the docks with Helgath and Neysa at my side.

  Sub-Leader Butcher was still getting used to her new rank. No matter how much she might complain that she wasn’t ready for that level of responsibility, I needed someone who was familiar with the new troopers under my command and could integrate the ex-Darom guards and Royal Army units into one command. Not to mention, I’d been greatly impressed with her willingness to die for the people under her command when I’d first met her in the dungeon. It also helped that she’d been born in Darom and new many of the troopers under her command personally.

  Our discussion focused on training and integration. I wanted at least one veteran trooper in each squad. Two would have been better, but we didn’t have the numbers of ex-Royal Army troopers for that. Laurie readily agreed with the changes and even offered a few suggestions of her own. One of the best ideas she had was adding the anti-siege crossbows to the new units. She came up with that after hearing about the ranged magical train I’d integrated with the troops of BrokenFang Hold. It was a good idea and we had more than enough to go around, since the city’s armory had huge stores of the weapons available.

  That alone was probably the only reason I didn’t get any pushback on my next point, which was the creation of a militia. While the concept was foreign to them, after living through the atrocities of the Dread Pack, everyone was more than willing to give the concept a try. Although, there was more than one surprised look when I said I wanted everyone trained to help. And I did mean everyone. Young and old alike could help load or resupply the shooters.

  Captain Lightouch and Sub-Captain Windcoat were a big help in selling this idea, since that was how Gnomeling Trader families ran their ships. Their enthusiasm and support helped to get Sub-Leader Butcher and Old Man Fortner on board with the concept. Still, I couldn’t help but smile at the discussion, since it reminded me of my talk with Klaern, the House of Kayden Sergeant that had taken the lead defending the refugee camp during my first week in the game. While it might sound crazy to some to focus on the military training of civilians in our current situation, I knew we were running out of time and would need every possible edge we could get.

  Mostly though, the discussion on our way down to the docks centered on how best to evacuate the city of Darom’s survivors. Old Man Fortner was an endless source of knowledge and wisdom. In many ways, he reminded me of Lady Chiara and the more we talked the more I liked the grizzly old man. We talked about the resources currently available in BrokenFang Hold and what my general plans were for housing the townsfolk, so I asked him to take the lead on this.

  By the time we’d reached the pier where the sailors and Gnomelings had been gathered up for me to resurrect, we had the barebones of a solid plan hammered out. Mostly it centered on what to scavenge from the city to bring with us, since we had a lot of storage room available on the biremes. I wanted everything loaded up and the civilians living on the ships as soon as possible. My reasoning was simple. With two thirds of their guild rotting away in the Darom dungeon, it was only a question of when the Dread Pack was going to return.

  I’m sure no matter what atrocities the assholes did to the people of The World, I’d have the majority of the player base angry at me for allowing fellow gamers to be locked away in the dungeon. While the punishment sounded egregious on one level for playing a game, to be honest, I didn’t care. Besides, what was I going to do with a bunch of PKing assholes out for my blood? Just let them loose in the forests around Darom and give them the time they needed to level up and attack us before we had a chance to get Domenic and get the hell out of dodge? Fuck that shit! We’d let them out at the end of the week, before sailing for the Kingdom of Larethien.

  Yesterday after the battle, Assault Leader Dell had assigned a squad of fifty “Kayden Troopers” to be on watch at each graveyard and exit of the dungeon in case the Dread Pack players decided to try escaping. A handful of non-volunteers had already shown up in the graveyard as the guild officers tried to find a way to escape. You should have seen the Dread Pack members’ faces when the first handful of players were returned back to the dungeon after respawning in the nearest graveyard. From what I’d heard from the guards, the constant stream of cussing and threats of violence had been priceless.

  “Kayden Troopers” was now the general name for our budding forces. Don’t get me wrong, there were still subdivisions like Scout, Marine, and Rangers, but, when it came down to it, everyone was a Kayden Trooper. It was something that I’d talked about with Assault Leader Dell in-between raising the fallen late last evening. I figured it was better than the whole ex-Royal Army, Navy, Shadow Scouts or Darom Guards that had been being bandied about.

  For me, those names were the divisions of that past. I wanted my forces to have one identity. Needed it, since we had so many different races striving to work together. The troopers were still getting used to the name this morning, but, all in all, I felt like it was being well accepted. Returning the shouts from the sailors working hard to get the biremes ready to sail, I came to a stop at the end of the pier near the Wind Dancer.

  Immediately, the Kayden Troopers pulling guard duty pulled away the heavy tarp covering the bodies. At first, I didn’t understand why twenty soldiers had been assigned the duty, but the hungry squawks from the level 2 Gull Hawk birds hanging around the docks and the white cloud of feathers that rushed in for a free meal caught me up to speed in a heartbeat. While their low levels weren’t dangerous, a flock of a hundred of them were no laughing matter.

  We fought the swarm back with swords and spears. At first, I just tried to shoo them away, while my vassals did their best to kill any that came into range. In that brief time period, I quickly learned that the little bastards had two nasty attacks. One was with their beaks, while the other was with their talons. Unsurprising on a gamer level, but not like any freaking Sea Gulls I’d ever met. Neither caused any real damage at my level, but it was annoying as hell. After five minutes of continuous fighting without making a dent in the attacking flocks, I really got pissed off.

  The first Pyroblast hit with an airburst around ten yards above our head. The troopers who were doing their best to keep the nasty bastards away from the dead hit the deck with a shout as burning chunks of Gull Hawks rained down on top of us. You’d have thought the blast would have cleared the vicious fuckers out but it didn’t. More and more flocks began converging on us as I let out Pyroblast after Pyroblast. The spell had a forced three and a half second cast time, which kind of reminded me of the pause from a skeet shooting. Well, it would’ve if not for the flaming chunks of half-cooked meat and seared feathers smearing my armor and face.

  I had quite the crowd watching me after two minutes of straight casting. During that whole time, there hadn’t been a break in the incoming horde. It seemed like I’d triggered some event of unending waves. Raising my voice in-between blasts, I shouted out to Sub-Leader Butcher. “Get those bodies covered!”

  “What?” She yelled back
at me from about twenty yards away.

  “Get a tarp over those bodies now!”

  “Only if you stop with the flaming explosions!” Butcher yelled back.

  With a guttural growl, I stopped blasting Gull Hawks with my Pyroblast and hurriedly backed away from the tarp and bodies. The surviving birds of prey from the flocks I’d been blasting out of the air aggro’d me like enraged lemmings as I began swearing up a storm. The only good thing about being aggro’d was that none of the vicious scavengers were going after the corpses or my people.

  A quick cast of Regeneration cleared up the little bit of damage that I’d acquired and the Helmet of Inaxidor kept my eyes relatively safe from the creatures’ talons. Letting my vassals take care of covering the bodies, I switched tactics and spells. I didn’t dare use an area affect and my Frost attacks were too slow to hit the quick moving targets. Trust me, I tried Flame and Frost Blasts to no avail. Even my Enhanced Shadow bolt failed miserably and that was more or less my go-to spell of choice when nothing else worked. With a thought, I switched over to my newest spell, Zap.

  My next shot connected instantaneously with the darting shape diving past. The shimmering bolt of Natural magic looked something like a second-long spark of electricity from an exploding transformer. A visual effect that was truly cool as hell. The speed of the spell with its instant cast was spectacular.

  Unfortunately, the flip side of that was that the little bastard’s health only dropped down an eighth of the level 2 creature’s total health. Yeah, I know, not exactly a great surprise there. Krishna had warned me that the spell sucked balls when he gave it to me. But seriously, even as level 0 spells went, it truly sucked the big one. Basically, it was 15 points of Spell Damage, not the normal 60. Upon that realization, something inside of me snapped.