The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

Chapter 65: For Far Too Many

(Monday, September 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, March 30th Real Day)

Twenty-four hours had passed by the time the funeral procession was ready.

The longship returned with goods and good tidings, only to find the village in ruins and their friends slain. That was the reality, of the actions a guild decided to take.

It wasn't long before the news hit the web, as a few guild members decided to stream the entire encounter live. They broadcasted their own demise, for thousands to see, and for hundreds of thousands to watch at a later date.

I was now a celebrity, and an infamous villain.

My brutal actions were seen as disgusting by white knights, fools to the so-called cause, rising up and clamoring for my destruction. It bothered them… that I would eke out justice indiscriminant of race or gender. How could I, brutally choke a girl?

How could I, slice one's face off?

Worse, how could I slit a throat?

Disgusting, that's what I was.

Of course, some others saw it differently.

I was the unwitting victim of an attack, a surprise attack by a cowardly guild. Onlookers and outsiders didn't even know that Milly was a spy, but they knew the rules of engagement in the game.

You declared your intent, honorably, or you didn't, dishonorably.

They chose the latter.

The fact that they lost, to what most players later realized was a troop of NPCs and one singular player, made me famous. The fact that I was utilizing lightning magic, a rarity in this game, made me special. Toss in the parts with my close-combat fighting, and utilizing a halberd in various ways along with an axe and knives, and I was the coolest kid on the block.

But what did it matter to me.

Selene was dead.

Barkley was dead.

Twenty-three warriors were dead.

My village didn't have a single building left.

All I had left were these hands of mine, the gear on my back, and my fellow NPCs, livestock, a farm, and a longship. I guess that was a long list of positives, but I would have traded them all to bring Selene back.

She… wasn't supposed to mean much.

Yet, here I was, anguishing.

I was more attached than I realized.

I was angrier than I thought I would be.

Katherine and Selene were basically my world within this world.

That wasn't right, but that's how it worked out.

Staring at the funeral pyres that had been set up, the twenty-five pyres were all in a single line along the mountain's walls. A small clearing, flat and with plenty of space, was going to be their resting place.

This was a funeral, for far too many.

The fire was lit by one of the warriors, as I stood quietly by and watched Selene's pyre start to burn. She was dressed with all of her gear, weapons, and what items survived the original cabin fire. The only thing I kept was her necklace and a ring. The necklace was for Katherine, the ring… for me.

Keepsakes, for sentimental reasons, I guess.

It wasn't long before her body was completely engulfed in the flames, as the pyre funneled oxygen in such a way to burn incredibly hot. There would be nothing left when it was all said and done, only the ashes of the fallen.

The fires would burn all night, and would be tended to in the morning.

After an hour, most of the NPCs had returned to the one building that was still serviceable. The lodge had only partially burnt down, missing a roof and parts of the second floor, but the underground section remained intact.

The NPCs stayed there for now, as the elements weren't that bad this time of the year. Some of the NPCs stayed out in the open, preferring to camp out on the grass. Others, stayed with me and Katherine, as we sat along the mountain side and watched our friends burn.

Friends, as I called them, even though they were only NPCs with Artificial Intelligences. They weren't even real. Selene… wasn't real. Yet, after months of time being spent with them on a daily basis, they were a part of my life.

Now, they were no longer there.

She was no longer around.

And I was at fault.

No.

No, I wasn't at fault here.

The ones that wronged me were Milly and her guild. They were the ones that started this. In my anger, I researched the unknown, hoping to find answers as to why they did it. Why would someone randomly attack me, all the way up north?

I had my ideas, my suspicions.

It was common to attack rival guilds, to eliminate competition; I knew that was the case. When Emily put the target on my back, I knew this day would come.

But, for a guild to travel to such great lengths to attack me… that bothered me, deep down. They were a small guild, filled with a handful of Alpha and Beta testers, some that were even from my area, which I found out, after a little internet stalking turned up some pertinent information.

Milly, was a local.

I had probably met her once or twice at the Meetings.

A small world, as they say.

They were connected with other guilds, primarily filled with players of the same ilk, and had struggled in the Central Kingdoms and thus decided to try their luck in the North. That wasn't anything new, nor was it news to me.

Their territory was actually a very small one though.

Two-hundred miles south of Andal, down near the very border of the Northern territories, and about five miles off the coast. They were situated on a river that drained out to the ocean. It was a small river at that, one only ten feet wide and two to three feet deep. They had a few buildings and a couple of NPCs too, as they were starting to build up their infrastructure.

They weren't powerful, not in the least.

Their seventy or so active guild members were of average level, in the high twenties and low thirties, with a couple in the forties. By comparison, I was in mid-fifties with boosted stats from the Ultra-Realism program.

I was basically nearing two-hundred in effective level.

As a jack of all trades, a red mage, a hybrid… my power spike was the early mid-game and the very late-game. I was in the middle of that first power trip, where skills and proficiency came easy and having two or three from different paths let me create effective combinations beyond the normal scope.

They didn't stand a chance alone… they didn't even hold a candle to me.

Yet, they picked a fight.

They had sealed their fate.

I was coming for them… and their allies too.

Their homes would burn, their NPCs would be slaughtered, and they will be hunted wherever they go. There is no place on this continent I can't reach, that I can't raid.

They would pay.

This was personal.

This was the Viking way, after all.