The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

Chapter 45: Pugs

(Saturday, May 29th Game Day / Friday, February 19th Real Day)

I found myself standing in front of the dungeon entrance once more, checking out the groups of players assembled just a few feet from the portal. They wore gear similar to mine, leather and furs with some light cloth here and there, with an assortment of weapons from spears, bows, to staves. It was just another typical scene of mismatched riffraff standing around waiting for something to happen.

Well, I wasn't much better.

Two of the three groups were already full going by body count, so I made my way towards the only one left that appeared to have four members lined up. There was a good chance I could fill whatever void they were missing, so long as they didn't need a healer. The only thing really bothering me was if they were experienced enough to get through the first and second floors. A first time group grinding out the first floor at a slow plod would be hard to bear… but, everyone had a first time, at some point.

There was little reason to be elitist this early in the game, anyways.

"Hey are you guys looking for a fifth?" I asked the group, directing my question at no one in particular. All four of the males turned their heads to eye my gear as I approached, while I returned the same gaze. They weren't equipped with anything special, though the archer did appear to have a decent bow slightly better than my own.

Otherwise, it was a standard group.

"Can you tank?" asked the archer bluntly.

"Yeah, I can tank."

As I said that, I pulled out my one-handed axe and rotated the shield off my back. Raising it in front of the man so he could see it clearly, I nodded at him as he turned around and started to walk away. "What floor are you guys on?" I followed up, hoping to gain some sort of information before committing.

"Let's go, I'm tired of waiting," said the archer as he looked at the healer. "Invite him, lets hurry this up. We're running out of time."

Without bothering to answer my question, the archer walked through the portal and disappeared as he was transported into the dungeon. Not more than a second later, I received an invite from the healer of the group as the other two mages continued to talk amongst themselves. I looked at the healer to see if he would respond to my query, but he simply turned around and entered the dungeon as well and then, so too did the two casters.

"Right," I muttered to myself while letting out a sigh. "Social group of kids I got here." Before accepting the invite, I looked around once more to see if another group happened to be approaching on the horizon.

To my dismay there was no such luck.

I was stuck with this pick-up group if I wanted to enter.

Oh well, have to roll the dice sometimes.

Accepting the invite, I shook my head and sighed once more before stepping forth into the cold muddiness of the portal that transported me from the pleasant outdoors to the stifling, dreary and dank interior of the mining complex.

The home of the Outcast Goblins… a joyous adventure, filled with all the rancid odors one could think of along with all the ash one could choke on.

A lovely place, this dungeon was.

The only thing better, was this lovely party of mine.

Well, maybe that was too harsh.

They were simply anti-social and lacked etiquette, which wasn't too unusual seeing as they all looked to be in their late teens to early twenties, at least as far as their character appearance went. I didn't really have much to go on but, there were trends with player behavior online and within games, to the point where it was rather predictable after a while. Yeah, as long as we could clear the first floor at a reasonable pace, I wouldn't have any real complaints.

Everyone had their moody days anyhow.

But as soon as I caught up with the party of four that had positioned just slightly out of range of the first group of goblins, the archer drew his bow and fired off a shot. Without even taking a pause to see if I was ready, or to consult or discuss group strategy, he pulled and stood there waiting for me to take aggro off of him.

This stupid son of a bitch, I thought to myself as I hurriedly dashed in front of the group and began to cast a [Chain Lightning]. With only seconds to spare I rushed the cast and skipped the chanted verse, drastically lowering the amount of damage of the spell and in turn, lowering my ability to maintain threat in the long run.

As the five goblins continued their charge with swords waving in the air and high-pitched screams accompanying them, they were hit with my lightning and immediately went silent. Momentarily frozen in place, as if they had run into a wall, the disoriented goblins pulled themselves together as I grabbed my one-handed axe from its sling on my waist. Raising my shield and axe to meet their charge, I swung down at the first goblin in an attempt to catch it off-guard.

The swing was a miss as the reach was so much shorter than I was used to, and just as I tried to bring the axe back, a sword slash came down across my face, nearly slicing my nose in two. Reactively jerking my head back and lifting my shield in-turn, the second slash of another goblin was easily deflected.

But before I could even prepare for a counter attack, two [Fireballs] exploded in my vicinity as the first goblin took minor damage and flames licked my face. My eyebrows singed, I pulled back and attempted to turn the goblins to the side so I would be out of the firing line, yet before I could even gain position, an arrow found itself lodged into the back of my shoulder.

Wincing from the pain I grit my teeth, trying my best to contain my rage.

Ignoring the arrow, I deflected the other three goblin attacks with ease as the five had nearly surrounded me. They weren't as skilled as the latter floors and the [Minor Goblins] were almost inconsequential, so I felt confident going forward. That was until [Fireballs] started to randomly pelt different goblins every one and a half seconds.

With the unfocused attacks of the three damage dealers, threat management was proving nearly impossible for me as I had to quickly attack one goblin then rotate to the next. Switching through my targets when they looked as if they were about to be peeled off of me, I barely maintained some semblance of control.

I didn't have the Area of Effect taunt that Barik or other shield bearers had, since I was new to tanking with a shield, so I couldn't force the mobs to focus me. In order to maintain hate, I needed to deal enough damage to them to remain high on their threat priority. Switching back and forth between goblins, was not the way to do that.

And then it happened.

Another wayward arrow hit me in the ribs, and the sudden pain deep in the center of my midsection distracted me as a goblin landed a sword thrust into my thigh. Thinking that was the worst of it, I was quickly disappointed as two of the five remaining goblins took off and started to beeline towards the casters. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the archer managed to hit one of them in the chest with an arrow, causing the goblin to chase him instead.

And that's when the fight devolved into chaos.

The archer took off running in one direction as he attempted to kite the goblin that was chasing him, shooting off arrows as rapidly as he could without concern to accuracy. Arrows were flying left and right as they bounced off the walls and stuck to my shield.

I had actually turned to face my party with my back against the wall in order to defend myself from my own party member's friendly fire.

Though to make matters worse, the other goblin chased one of the casters as he ran around in circles as well, with random instant cast flames being shot out as he scurried about. The flames flew all over as the healer was forced to run to the side and the other caster started to run to the dungeon portal, completely ceasing his attacks.

I had three goblins on me and ignored the chaotic scene in front of me as I attempted to single-handedly kill them all. No longer receiving any heals, I was essentially left to fend for myself as the rest of the group did their own thing.

Deflecting an oncoming blow, I was barely able to land a counter attack on the wrist of a goblin as its sword fell to the ground. With its hand dangling loosely by a few non-severed ligaments, the goblin shrieked in pain as its eyes bulged in shock. Ignoring it, I turned my focus to the other two goblins and bashed my shield into one, knocking it flat on its back as it flung its arms up in desperation.

Without any hesitation, I lifted my good leg and stomped down on the goblin's face and crushed it beneath my boot as a sword found itself three-inches into my right pectoral. Dropping my axe, I grabbed the goblin's forearm and pulled the creature in closer as it tried to remove its sword.

Utilizing the momentum of my yank, I swung my shield out edge-first and connected with the throat of the goblin as the impact sent a shudder through my elbow. The goblin collapsed to the floor grasping its throat, while I quickly raised the shield with both hands and used the edge to smash into its head.

Turning around, I picked up my axe and threw it into the chest of the gimp minor goblin that was still clutching its partially-severed hand. Watching it collapse to the ground before me, I didn't have any time to waste as I dropped my shield and began to gather electricity in my hands. Focusing my eyes on the goblin that was chasing the mage, I built up a chanted verse as I charted out the path the caster was taking.

He continued to run in circles, zigzagging here and there, but I only needed to lead the goblin by a quarter of a second. That was all the time and space I needed to hit a running goblin that was changing its path every other second.

Once my cast was complete, I let it fly.

Just as the goblin changed its course in relation to the mage, lightning surged and cut through the air as the bolt of raw energy traveled in a straight-line. The goblin managed another step as it was hit in the side and came crashing down into the dark damp dirt floor of the dungeon, its full sprint interrupted immediately by the paralyzing effect of the lightning.

As it lay on the floor twitching, I had already drawn my bow and placed a single-shot up through its chin, ceasing all of its movements. Now all that was left was the archer, as I turned my bow and let a few arrows loose.

And then, it was over.

Silence had returned as I looked at the group standing doe-eyed a little ways away.

One caster had been lingering by the dungeon portal entrance, ready to exit at any given moment and with nearly a full bar of mana. He didn't participate at all once the fight got hectic. He was ready to bail and simply watched the scene unfold.

The healer on the other hand only bothered to heal the archer, and still had plenty of mana while refusing to top me or the other caster off, for whatever reason.

Then there was the caster that was being chased, who had taken a few hits too, but he was largely alright. He missed almost all of his [Fire Blasts] though.

That archer, well, he was at full health thanks to his friend.

I looked down at myself only to realize my health was quite low; that I had five arrows sticking out of me and two burn spots on my body. There was an arrow in the back of my shoulder, my right rib, my neck, my lower back, and one in my right thigh. Sword wounds to my right pectoral, my left thigh, and a few minor cuts here and there.

A strange thing, seeing as the goblins didn't have bows and arrows.

In fact only one person had a bow.

I was angry at them, for being such idiots… for not waiting to consult or communicate, and for not understanding basic dungeon mechanics. They were obviously beginners, but that didn't make it easier to deal with. Not when they had bad attitudes about it.

Yeah, I was mad.

Yet, now that the fight was over, the party returned to normal and sat down, largely ignoring me as I quietly stared at them. They were clearly inexperienced and unskilled, but that wasn't what bothered me. What bothered me, was the lack of teamwork, the inherent selfishness, and the fact that they refused to communicate.

I could tolerate bad players, since not everyone was going to be great.

I could not, however, tolerate bad players who purposefully made the situation worse due to whatever menial reason they had constructed in their minds. Whatever false narrative they were using to convince themselves that what they were doing was proper, I wanted no part of it. If you couldn't even communicate, you didn't deserve to be in a party. These kinds of players pissed me off.

Yeah, I was ready to ditch this party.

But before I could do that, the players had started running their mouths. Enjoying the comedy show, I sat down and started to munch on some jerky to try and recover. My wounds would heal slowly without any healing magic, so I wouldn't get back to full strength, but I didn't need to be one-hundred percent.

"Hey kick this shitty tank, he fucking sucks," said the archer to the healer.

"I know, we always get stuck with the freaking noobs," he replied. "Ugh but we only have two hours to play, let's just carry this piece of trash."

Carry me, they say.

Hah, I couldn't help but smile and laugh at it all, while the two of them continued to insult me, standing a mere ten feet away. I had half a mind to kill them where they stood, but a few random insults weren't enough to make me mad. I was more angry with their behavior during the fight, than what they were saying afterwards.

Five minutes had passed as they continued to insult me, raging on and on how I was a "shitty ass noob tank," among other things. I didn't have much interest in listening to them to begin with, and the comedic part of it had long since vanished.

Honestly, I had heard of enough.

They could think of me as a "dumbass" as much as they wanted, seeing as I had yet to reply. The opinion of others really had little bearing on me.

But then, they poked once more.

"You ready this time you shitty noob?" said the archer. "I'm going to pull, pay attention this time you idiot, and tank the mobs properly so we can carry your pathetic ass through the first floor."

"Nah, I've got no interest in tanking any further, so I'll be seeing myself out," I replied nonchalantly. "Good luck finding a new tank."

Standing up, I had started to walk towards the exit as one of the two casters started to speak up. It was the one that retreated during the middle of the fight, and didn't contribute at all… the selfish coward.

"Are you serious?!" the caster nearly shouted at me. "We're already locked into this instance and have been waiting for like an hour, and you're just going to leave? Don't be an asshole, we can't even join other groups for like an hour now."

It was ironic really, that I was somehow responsible for their inability to find a group, and was now a jerk for not wanting to participate with a group that only cared about their own self-interests while spouting out insults. The archer and priest had been insulting me for a good five minutes now, while the two casters sat silently watching and listening. Not once did they say anything, to try and diffuse the situation.

They watched and listened, and pretended to have no part in it.

Now that I was leaving and their interests were affected, I was the bad guy.

I started to laugh a little, that the dungeon was now locked to our party meant that no one could leave and join a new party mid-way through. It was a feature that was meant to keep people from powering through dungeons over and over, so once you killed the first goblin, it was locked to your character for an hour. That duration was extended every time you killed another mob, so on and so on. The feature was fairly standard in MMORPGs, and was nothing new really.

And thus, I laughed.

They were stuck together, and without a tank they would be hard-pressed to find a replacement willing to join a group that already started clearing. The fact they lost their tank was a pretty bad sign, regardless of who was right or wrong. It meant that the party failed in some aspect, and no one wanted to take those kinds of risks going forward.

Especially not tanks, not when they were valued commodities.

Healers and tanks were always few in number compared to the damage dealing classes, so we always had more control when it came to choosing parties. We were in demand, damage dealers weren't… it was simple economics.

"Let me get this straight," I said after some time. "I'm the asshole for wanting to leave a party that's been insulting and raging at me almost non-stop?"

"Yeah," the caster shot back immediately. "You're screwing me over by leaving."

"And I should care about you… why?" I asked playfully.

"See this guy's just a douchebag," chimed in the archer.

"He seriously sucks, he's lucky we even invited him," followed up the priest.

The only one who had yet to say anything was the other caster, but he was nodding his head silently in the back. Either way, the situation was now one versus four.

"Hmm, so after running your mouths, you now expect me to tank for you?" I asked seriously. "And, let's just clear the air here while I'm at it. I'm the trashy shitty noob, pathetic dumbass asshole selfish douchebag tank, who is supposed to care about your wasted time? I mean, gee, how could I ever not want to tank for you!"

"You're seriously bad," said the priest. "You take so much damage, learn how to play kid. You can't even position properly. I've never seen someone so bad in my life."

"Ah yeah, that damage," I laughed out. "Those five arrows that struck me and those two fireballs that hit me… you know, I wonder where those came from."

"Learn to play scrub before you talk back to me," replied the priest, visibly angry.

"Yeah, you got in my way so you got hit, retard," said the archer.

I started laughing again at how ridiculous the conversation was. They were using all of the basic insults that every immature person used on the internet. The best part was that they were clearly five to ten years younger than me, and were calling me a kid.

I loved it, I really did.

The only problem… the main problem, and the reason I avoided players in the past was because I thrived in these types of situations. I loved PvP, and I absolutely loved beating sense into trash talkers. I couldn't really stand them personally, and hated being around them… but once I got going, it was a bad habit of mine.

Yeah, I was regressing already.

The whole time the conversation had been going on, I was patiently biding my time as my health and mana gradually returned… my bad habit was about to show.

It wouldn't be long, now.

As I started to circle around the party, I continued the conversation while my health slowly recovered. "You guys are just the best, really," I said sarcastically as I continued to pace around them. "Between all of those great heals I was receiving, I mean, I was just basking in that holy light you know, fucking radiating from all those heals, and the accuracy of our damage dealers, with a dozen or more arrows stuck in the wall over there and those loose fireballs… I really do need to step my game up. I'm just not up to par compared to you guys."

I was starting to have a little too much fun, and in the back of my mind I knew it was wrong but I couldn't help it. I strived to be an honest, kind person… but everyone has buttons that shouldn't be pushed. My biggest issue, was my lack of patience when it came to trash talkers, and now… I had completely regressed.

Ah, they were all going to die.

My anger had woken from its slumber and reared its head.

"Man, no wonder this kid was looking for a group, he's so toxic," said the priest.

"He's just mad because he sucks at life," chimed in the archer. "Heh-"

"Uninstall noob, get the fuck out of here," the archer continued after a slight pause.

"Self-righteous douchebag, can't handle the truth so he lashes out at us," followed up the selfish caster as he folded his arms across his chest. "Waste of space, should just kill himself."

Yeah, I didn't bother to laugh anymore. My health was nearing seventy percent and my mana had already reached max capacity, so I was itching to go at any moment. The healer would die first, then the caster. After that, the archer or the other caster would get it, if he decides to join in the fight.

"What about you, you're nodding your head back there but, where's your voice?" I asked the last member of the party, the caster who was being chased by the goblin.

"Even if they started it, you're worse than them," he replied seriously with his head held high, looking down on me as if he were some superior being.

Eh, it was a typical response.

If I was surprised by this turn of events, I wouldn't be able to call myself a gamer.

It was an unfortunate truth in the realm of online gaming.

Victim bashing was alive and well when it came to group situations where numbers ruled the day. There was little to no consequence for player actions online, so people often tend to be quite a bit braver than in normal situations. Add in a friend with them, and all of a sudden their confidence is bolstered to new heights as they are reassured by their numerical superiority, free to do or say whatever they please with little impunity.

They'll pick a scapegoat, gang up on him or her two to one to absolve themselves of any guilt they may or may not be feeling, and continue with their harassment until they're satisfied. Then the bystanders, too cowardly the majority of the time, sit quietly and pretend nothing is happening until they're negatively affected in some way. Most of the time, the bystanders are thinking to themselves, as long as it's not me.

As the victim, if you stand up for yourself, you're now evil personified.

Now, you're the bad guy.

After that, it's a numbers game. Since it started two to one, most of the time the bystanders will join up with the larger group to maintain the status quo, and by the end of it all you're arguing four to one.

You're supposed to sit there and ignore them, let them say and do whatever they want but keep quiet and let it go. The high road, some people laughably claim. Then go and give it your all to help them succeed, and reward their behavior so that they realize if they harass players, they'll get what they want.

That's the way for forward progress.

I didn't share in that particular belief.

Though to be fair, not all bystanders were quite so bad.

Every once in a while a person comes along that is truly neutral or attempts to play peacemaker, but it was sadly a tiny minority. The largest travesty was to not pull my own weight though, I disliked bullying and I didn't particularly care for the incessant disparaging remarks, but sometimes I was in a bad enough mood that I didn't care if people were arguing with themselves. At the end of the day, it was my obligation to straighten these players out as the only sensible person here.

Sensible… well maybe not, more like angry.

"So, we done talking now?" I said bluntly, letting my voice carry throughout the dungeon. "I've just about run out of patience here, so either put up or shut up boys."

"What are you going to do about it pussy," instantly replied the healer.

"Yeah you little bitch," followed up the archer, characteristically.

The casters didn't say anything but they could tell that the situation was deteriorating, as both had taken a step slightly back. It didn't matter to me though, my health had capped out at eighty-two percent thanks to the deep wound in my chest and thigh and all the other minor wounds.

I could work with that.

Right before it started, I let one last smile creep up my face as it turned into a smirk, then it quickly disappeared as my brows narrowed and my eyes focused in on the targets in front of me. With my shield still on my arm, and my axe in its sling, I raised both hands and palmed them together. Pulling them slightly apart, I began to cast my chain lightning without a verse as electricity quickly condensed into four tiny little individual bolts.

Swirling around between my hands as they intersected and intertwined, the bolts of electricity took shape and became the four-part bolt that I was now overly familiar with. One-point-five seconds had passed, as I aimed at the healer and thrust my arms forward, expanding my hands.

At the two second mark, I yelled.

"CHAIN LIGHTNING!"

With a flash that nearly blinded and a deafening crack of thunder following, the bolt swirled through the air as it impacted directly into the center of the healer's chest with a small explosion. Nearly instantly arcing and bouncing off to the other three members immediately behind him, the three bolts found their targets as the fourth flew off and landed in the ground, discharging harmlessly into the surroundings.

All four party members started to convulse temporarily as I only had a second to capitalize on the moment. Raising my right hand I quickly created an electric tether between the healer and I, as pulsating energy was pumped out of me and into the man twenty feet from me.

He wanted to scream, to shout profanities at me, but the man convulsed as his muscles continued to spasm uncontrollably. His throat could be seen trying to vocalize sound as his eyes appeared to roll back, succumbing to my magic. Then with nothing more than the white of his eyes showing, he collapsed to the ground without so much as a sound, opening his mouth to let out a suppressed noise that never came.

His body betrayed him, and as his last bit of life drained out, two fireballs whooshed through the air directly towards me.

Dropping to a knee, I raised my shield with a ferocious urgency, barely in the nick of time as fire exploded all around me, engulfing me in flames. The impact nearly knocked me back as heat radiated outwards and before I could even lower my shield, the thud of multiple arrows hitting my shield could be felt and heard.

I had no time to hesitate, as I kicked my leg out and rolled to the side.

An arrow whizzed past my face as I repositioned, and then another two fireballs were shot in my direction as I tumbled and threw my shield up once more to block them. Fiery explosions filled my field of vision as the heat tickled my face and burned my arm.

Ignoring the pain I continued to move.

Standing up and repositioning myself, I then charged at full sprint towards the archer as his face contorted in fear.

Raising my axe as I neared within ten feet he instinctively turned and ran in the opposite direction while shooting off arrows wildly in my general vicinity. One of those wayward arrows hit a mage as he was preparing another fireball and the sudden distraction jolted him, causing a rebound as the spell exploded in his face.

Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly jumped to my left as I changed my angle of approach and swiped my axe at the fazed mage who was largely unhurt but unable to cast anything.

He raised his hands in a vain attempt to defend himself as I easily chopped through his forearms, causing him to scream in terror. The fright of pure horror displayed on his face reflected in my eyes as I readied another swing, and right as I was about to bring my axe down on his exposed neck, an instant cast flame hit me in the side of my chest causing me to jerk to the right.

"Ah fuck!" I cursed under my breath as I lost my aim on the man in front of me.

Grimacing and attempting to ignore the smell of burnt flesh, I shook my head and quickly looked to the mage I was previously attacking.

Throwing my shield out at the mage that had hit me, it knocked him back and forced him to retreat another step in fear.

The wounded mage that I had failed to kill was now running away with his severed arm lying on the floor. With his back exposed to me, I took my one-handed axe and threw it with all of my might as it flew through the air and lodged itself deeply in the man's spine. As the one-armed man collapsed on the ground, I switched my attention to the other mage that had turned tail as I stood my ground and gathered electricity in my hands once more.

"Through power, darkness turns to light, render all to ash," I muttered as I traced out the path that the man was taking. He could only run so far as the room ended a few paces away. It wasn't long before he found himself stuck at the tunnel that led to the next room of goblins; they were trapped. He stopped, as the archer had stopped, when they realized that I had been standing between them and the dungeon exit.

I had all the time in the world now.

They didn't notice it before the fight, but I had circled around the party for this specific reason. When they would undoubtedly attempt to flee, they would run away from me rather than through me. Thus, I positioned myself between the exit.

While they were busy insulting me, I was carrying out my plans.

Now, they were forced to die by my hands or by the goblin's hands.

Realizing the futility of their situation, they both turned and raised their arms in one last act of defiance. The mage began to cast another fireball, while the archer drew back his bow to fire once again.

I silenced them.

"Lightning bolt," I whispered as I let the overcharged ball of electricity fly out of my hands. In the blink of an eye, it completely traversed the forty feet between us as the dazzling array of light pierced through the ashen air.

The mage couldn't even hope to dodge the lightning as it hit him, nearly too fast to track with your eyes let alone time enough to react and dodge. With a violent explosion of discharging energy and tails of electricity floating about, the man collapsed to his knees as he was paralyzed and couldn't move.

His resistance was high though, and he began to fight it and started to stand earlier than expected, but an arrow found itself lodged in the center of his forehead as he slumped to the ground. I rotated slightly and put an arrow into the other mage that was still barely alive while lying prone on the ground, with an axe sticking out of his back and his left arm missing at the elbow.

Now, there was only one man left.

I continued to pace toward the archer who was afraid for his life, panic finally settling in. He turned and ran through that narrow passageway that led to the second group of goblins, too afraid of me in the moment to realize an escape was impossible.

I took my time, picking up my shield and axe, and ensuring that the dead were in fact dead. I looted their bodies of the coin they dropped, the five-percent that was available after a player was killed by another player. It didn't amount to much, but I did get almost two silver… the healer had quite a large purse it seemed.

Keeping my shield raised, I entered that dark passageway with a loud trudge, as I did my best to torment the man on the other side.

I began to knock my axe-head against the wall, with a clink every other step.

Then, I started to tap the shield against the wall on the other side, giving off a dull thud in conjunction, and alternating with the sound of the axe.

Clink, thud, clink, thud, clink, thud.

I was drumming up noise, just for him.

And then, the end of the tunnel came and light could be seen from the other room a little ways ahead. The outline of my body slowly appearing to the man caught between a group of goblins and the axe-man out for blood. An arrow was fired, but it fell harmlessly into the rock wall. Another came, but landed in my shield.

Then, a voice followed.

"Uh-h hey, you know we were just kidding right?" said the archer. "We were just trolling you know, we didn't mean any of it, it was just for fun. Just a joke, don't take it personally."

I stopped outside of the passageway and set my shield and axe down.

"Ah you get it, yeah?" the archer said, laughing nervously.

Of course, it was all a lie.

I could see him grasping for an arrow but he had run empty.

He had shot all of his arrows during the two fights and didn't have any time to collect them since he was too busy running his mouth, now he was unarmed and helpless. Now, he wanted to buy time, maybe even lie his way out of the situation. He didn't apologize, of course, it was "just a joke."

Drawing my bow, I released a shot into his shoulder.

"AHH WHAT THE FUCK MAN!" he screamed at me.

His face told me all I needed to know; he wasn't used to pain.

I drew the string back once more, lining up my elbow and bringing my right thumb near my face. Aiming at his ribs, I inhaled and as my chest rose, I let the sinew-string slip off my finger-tips as a thwack could be heard.

A thud followed, as the man in front of me cried out and screamed profanities at me once more. The arrow lodged solidly in his ribs, and he was now grasping both spots as he hesitated to move. He was panicking, but he couldn't go anywhere.

I let another arrow fly, this time into his thigh.

He collapsed to the ground, writhing and screaming bloody murder.

Now, he tried to crawl away from me.

So, I put an arrow into his back as he yelped once more.

Well, he had hit me with his arrows, five times, in the same spots. The only thing left was the neck, which would be the finishing blow. I had no reason to go easy on the guy, but I figured I had tortured him enough. I wasn't even sure if we were allowed to do this in the game, it was possible I could be reported for slowly inflicting pain on a player.

Of course, there were pain settings though.

Mine were at the maximum allowable pain-threshold, since it was tied into the Ultra-Realism program. He probably had his somewhere around the middle, in order to brag that he was tough. It didn't really matter though, even at the lowest pain setting, it still hurt to get shot and stabbed. The whole point was to represent a virtual reality anyhow, a pain free game wouldn't make much sense.

The developers wanted people to experience reality.

Most people were somewhat oblivious to the extremes of the world, anyhow.

I nocked my final arrow and steadily drew the bow back, then released with an elegance befitting an archer. As I watched the arrow sail through the ash filled air and straight through the man's neck, a pleasure washed over me, both from the satisfaction of a well-placed arrow and the knowledge that the fight was over.

A clean hit, and the man was now in a critical state with only seven-percent of his health remaining. He would bleed out in fourteen seconds unless he was healed to over twenty-percent. There were no heals here though.

I walked over to the man and crouched down beside him, whispering to him.

"You might want to practice your archery before joining another group. Also, if I ever see you or your buddies in the North, I will kill you without a moment's hesitation. Consider yourselves lucky, I'm only going to kill you once today."

Having finished saying what I wanted, I stood up as he stared at me with rage-filled eyes. He wanted to say something, but his vocal chords were damaged by the arrow sticking through them as blood poured out of his neck.

"Enjoy the death, punk," I said as he finally died.

Grabbing the coins he dropped, my total loot amounted to nearly three silver plus the drops from the five goblins I basically killed by myself. It wasn't much, but five trash swords added up to at least fifty copper coins.

I wasn't going to argue with free money after all.

Heading out through the dungeon portal, I quickly found myself amongst a crowd of players on the other side, staring at me, eyes filled with intent. And then it clicked, my name was red. I had killed four players in PvP and was branded a player killer.

I was free game right now for all of these players to kill with impunity.

"Eh, quite the crowd today," I muttered to myself as I met the eyes of the players in the crowd. I was free experience and money, to all of these players.

I watched as a few started to grasp at their weapons, preparing to attack me.

It was a dire situation, since there was no way I could take more than a couple people out in the open… not yet, not with such limited skills and weaponry.

Like a standoff between duelists, I matched the gaze of the select few people who were preparing to attack me as the other bystanders stepped back to get out of the way. It was one versus eight in this situation and I was most definitely the prey. No one wanted to make the first move, in case they were somehow cut down which gave me a bit of time to think over a possible strategy. The only thing they knew, was that I came out of a dungeon with a red name alone, without anyone else behind me.

That meant four were potentially dead.

The lack of information played in my favor, since they didn't know how strong I was.

"Oi, what kinda hell 'ave ye gotten yerself into this time Sigurd!" yelled a man from the distance, cutting through the tension like a sharpened knife through soft flesh.

I nearly coughed as I let out a small guffaw, then chuckled at the dwarf in the distance. A familiar face appeared right when I needed one, and none other than that little dwarf Barik Grimsson.

He waved at me and came over with a bellow, "so, what did ye do this time?"

That Aussie, he had great timing.

The other players backed off slightly as if they weren't sure if they should attack or not. A fight between unknown numbers scared people, especially in a large open space. Barik walked right up to me and stood in front of me, fully aware of the eyes that were watching our every move but without a care in the world.

"Well, funny seeing you here Barik," I greeted as I shook his hand.

Letting out another laugh, I couldn't believe the turn of luck that just saved me some money and experience. An unbelievable coincidence, but I would take it. With a bit of a grin I figured it wouldn't hurt to briefly explain the situation.

"Unfortunately, I had to teach a few young upstarts a lesson in manners."

"You don't say, well good on ya," he replied with a pat on my shoulder.

"You guys hitting the fourth?" I asked seriously, and loudly enough for the others in the vicinity to hear. There were a few people still eyeing us with their weapons held loosely at their sides, so I wanted to put a little fear into them.

"Gonna give it a burl, see how far we take it," he said with a lackadaisical attitude while looking around at the strangers surrounding us. "Got five, you locked for a bit?"

"Yeah, about an hour anyways, maybe another time," I said with a shrug.

It couldn't be helped, he wasn't online when I started nearly twenty minutes ago and he was most likely with his guild. New parties were always coming and going here anyhow, so if I wanted to return with another group it wouldn't be an issue. I mainly just needed to escape unscathed while the people here were distracted.

"Oh, what do we have here, sweet child of mine," I said playfully as my ex-party members had appeared outside the portal. It had been fifteen minutes now, and they must have resurrected right after their death timer expired. The two casters saw me and one instantly sprinted off into the forest as the other threw up his hands.

"Don't kill me, please!" he begged shamelessly. He was the one that didn't say anything and only nodded, the one that was chased by the goblins. I found him the least bothersome, so I let him go.

"Get going then," I said plainly as I tossed my hand over my shoulder and pointed behind me with a thumb. "I've got no further business with you."

There was a hint of fear in the man's eyes, though to call him a man was somewhat misleading. They were definitely kids, late teens or early twenties at the most. Young adults, by all accounts, really. Though it was a bit strange to think about, the fear of dying to another player actually made sense in this virtual reality.

It was different than dying in a console game, where you saw the actions but it was on a screen disconnected from your body. Here everything was in first-person and was represented in a way that was hard to separate from reality.

This was, for all intents and purposes, our reality at the moment.

The player literally saw the axe flying towards his face as if it were real, then when he was hit, the pain he would experience felt nearly lifelike. Of course the pain was turned down quite a bit, but to some kids without any life experience, it was probably realistic enough.

To think that some people were legitimately scared from PvP encounters, and even some PvE encounters, was reasonable. Being attacked by two wolves in the dead of night with naught a soul nearby, illuminated only by the soft reflections of the moon, with howling and growling in the dark, glowing eyes, then a sudden leap out from the darkness only to find a wolf nearly as big as you are, snapping its jaws at your face.

I had to admit, the first time that happened I damn near had a heart attack.

Even now, I wasn't entirely used to night encounters.

Hell, even daylight encounters with wolves and bears still scared me a little.

Somehow goblins… despite being as disgusting as they were, didn't bother me as much. And fighting other players, I strangely found it rather easy. It was easier to kill a fellow player, a human being, than it was to kill a rabbit. I couldn't explain that.

Maybe it had to do with the rabbit being cute.

I didn't know, nor did I really care.

"Message me if you need a fifth later ey?" I told Barik for good measure.

"Will do, might be awhile," he replied with a nod.

With nothing else to do, I figured it was time to return to the town. My red name would fall off eventually but until then, I needed to avoid the large crowds out here. Out in the open I could be attacked at any time, but in a town with guards I was relatively safe from other players. Not entirely safe, but safe enough.

Right before I was about to leave though, my favorite duo appeared right in front of the dungeon portal. Without giving them the time to react, I pulled my axe and with one powerful blow, lodged the axe square in his face. The man dropped to the floor from one blow as I turned to the archer and put my right hand on his chest.

Electricity sparked around my hand as the archer tightened up and hunched over, squirming without a sound until he eventually fell to his knees gasping for air. I released the channel of my arc lightning and placed my hand on his shoulder instead, too physically close for others to see the tether of electricity. No one here would know my secrets, all they saw was a man falling helplessly to his knees.

"I thought I said, if I ever saw you again in the North, I would kill you," I stated clearly without much care to the surroundings. "Did you think I was bluffing?"

"You fucker, said you would only kill me once!" he barked back, clearly upset.

Well, that was true.

I did say that after all… oh well, I changed my mind.

No, that's not correct, I had already left and he came into my sight once again, it wouldn't be right if I made exceptions.

I'm a man of my word after all.

"Hmm, unfortunately for you, I saw you in the North," I said casually. "Those were the terms. My apologies, but I'm not as forgiving once I've lost my patience."

Activating the channel of [Arc Lightning] again, I kept it going until the archer curled into a ball and died in the fetal position. I couldn't help but think, what a baby.

I was nearly out of mana already from a few seconds of channeling, but I felt fairly confident. The others who were watching the scene stepped back and seemed more scared than eager to challenge me.

I dropped a player with one melee blow to the head, which as a surprise attack was considered somewhat normal… if not vicious and a bit low of character but it showed that I meant business. And then, I used a magic spell of some sort that they had never seen before to completely subdue and kill another player without taking a hit. Rather than getting angry or becoming anxious to fight, they were cautious and watched my every move.

I was a scary sight at the moment.

Then the atmosphere died instantly as Barik kicked the priest's corpse and laughed.

"Hah, these bogans," he said while chuckling.

The scene went from tense to comical in a heartbeat as the dwarf kicked the corpses a few times each while letting out a deep infectious laugh. I ended up joining him and started laughing as well, though I left the kicking to him. Meanwhile, the bystanders thought we had completely lost it and backed up even further, giving us plenty of separation and a degree of freedom to do whatever we wanted.

It wasn't a bad feeling, having the fear of the people.

That was alright with me.