The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame Read online

  The Dragon’s Wrath

  Shadows in the Flame

  Volume 3

  Brent Roth

  Copyrights

  The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

  Copyright © 2015 by Brent Roth

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher.

  Contents

  The Dragon’s Wrath

  Shadows in the Flame

  Copyrights

  Contents

  Chapter: Foreword

  Chapter: Notes on Format

  Chapter 74: It’s Only Virtual

  (Friday, April 16th Real Day)

  Chapter 75: Val & Em

  (Saturday, November 13th Game Day / Friday, April 16th Real Day)

  Chapter 76: More Work, My Lord?

  (Monday, November 15th Game Day / Saturday, April 17th Real Day)

  Chapter 77: Limited Potential

  (Wednesday, November 17th Game Day / Sunday, April 18th Real Day)

  Chapter 78: Hard Cap, Soft Cap

  (Tuesday, November 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, April 20th Real Day)

  Chapter 79: The Cave

  (Friday, November 26th Game Day / Wednesday, April 21th Real Day)

  Chapter 80: All Aboard

  (Wednesday, December 1st Game Day / Friday, April 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 81: Stormy Seas

  (Wednesday, December 1st Game Day / Friday, April 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 82: Bergenheim

  (Thursday, December 2nd Game Day / Friday, April 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 83: The Raid Pt. 2

  (Saturday, December 4th Game Day / Saturday, April 24th Real Day)

  Chapter 84: Return to Port

  (Sunday, December 5th Game Day / Saturday, April 24th Real Day)

  Chapter 85: Camping Corpses

  (Tuesday, December 7th Game Day / Sunday, April 25th Real Day)

  Chapter 86: Regather

  (Wednesday, December 22nd Game Day / Friday, April 30th Real Day)

  Chapter 87: Adventures of Em and Val

  (Wednesday, December 22nd Game Day / Friday, April 30th Real Day)

  Chapter 88: A Village Reborn

  (Saturday, December 25th Game Day / Saturday, May 1st Real Day)

  Chapter 89: Finances

  (Sunday, May 2nd Real Day)

  Chapter: 90 Creating an Establishment

  (Tuesday, December 28th Game Day / Sunday, May 2nd Real Day)

  Chapter 91: A Special Inn

  (Saturday, January 1st Game Day / Monday, May 3rd Real Day)

  Chapter 92: Growth

  (Monday, January 3rd Game Day / Tuesday, May 4th Real Day)

  Chapter 93: NPCs

  (Monday, January 3rd Game Day / Tuesday, May 4th Real Day)

  Chapter 94: Scenario-Based Training

  (Wednesday, January 5th Game Day / Wednesday, May 5th Real Day)

  Chapter 95: Setting Out

  (Monday, January 10th Game Day / Friday, May 7th Real Day)

  Chapter 96: The Lightning Strike

  (Tuesday, January 11th Game Day / Friday, May 7th Real Day)

  Chapter 97: A Moment’s Rest

  (Thursday, January 13th Game Day / Saturday, May 8th Real Day)

  Chapter 98: A Kraken on Record

  (Thursday, January 13th Game Day / Saturday, May 8th Real Day)

  Chapter 99: Winning the Heart

  (Friday, January 14th Game Day / Saturday, May 8th Real Day)

  Chapter 100: A Story in Minutes

  (Thursday, January 20th Game Day / Monday, May 10th Real Day)

  Chapter 101: Val & Em’s Trip

  (Thursday, January 20th Game Day / Monday, May 10th Real Day)

  Chapter 102: Confusion

  (Thursday, January 20th Game Day / Monday, May 10th Real Day)

  Chapter 103: Comparing Videos

  (Sunday, January 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, May 11th Real Day)

  Chapter 104: Mutual Understanding

  (Sunday, January 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, May 11th Real Day)

  Chapter 105: Setting a Trap

  (Tuesday, January 25th Game Day / Wednesday, May 12th Real Day)

  Chapter 106: Enemy Approaching

  (Tuesday, February 1st Game Day / Friday, May 14th Real Day)

  Chapter 107: Aftermath of Failure

  (Wednesday, February 2nd Game Day / Saturday, May 15th Real Day)

  Chapter 108: New Information

  (Friday, February 4th Game Day / Saturday, May 15th Real Day)

  Chapter 109: Preparing for a Trip

  (Sunday, February 6th Game Day / Sunday, May 16th Real Day)

  Chapter 110: Wesstown

  (Wednesday, Feb. 16th Game Day / Wednesday, May 19th Real Day)

  Chapter 111: The Dotted Line

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

  Chapter 112: The First Battleground

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

  Chapter 113: Stages of War

  (Thursday, February 24th Game Day / Saturday, May 22nd Real Day)

  Chapter 114: Clarity in the Fog

  (Friday, February 25th Game Day / Saturday, May 22nd Real Day)

  Chapter 115: Certain Measures

  (Friday, February 25th Game Day / Saturday, May 22nd Real Day)

  Chapter 116: The Odds of Turmoil

  (Sunday, February 27th Game Day / Sunday, May 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 117: Plausible Deniability

  (Sunday, February 27th Game Day / Sunday, May 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 118: Cleansing the Rout

  (Sunday, February 27th Game Day / Sunday, May 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter 119: The End of a Call

  (Thursday, March 3rd Game Day / Monday, May 23rd Real Day)

  Chapter: Afterword

  Chapter: Foreword

  The following work contains mature themes, including but not limited to detailed representations of violent combat, death, and occasional profanity that are intended for a mature audience and may not be suitable for children under the age of unknown.

  This Volume is a direct continuation of The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (Volume 2) and will most likely make little sense if you're reading this first. These are not standalone books and are not meant to be read out of order. If you have yet to read the first work, I strongly advise you to do so and then return to this one at a later date.

  Other than that, hope you enjoy the read!

  Chapter: Notes on Format

  Please read the following as it’s for your sanity and ease of reading.

  There were a few number of complaints about viewpoint and narrative shifts not being easily noticeable in the first volume and due to that, I’ve tried to make it a bit more obvious this time around.

  If you happen to see three asterisks centered at the top of the page directly below the Title and Subtitle (Chapter / Dates), that indicates a narrative shift away from the current narrator. Three asterisks at the end conclude that narrative shift and indicate a return to the normal narration.

  * * *

  ^ Is what it looks like. ^

  As far as indications of time shifts or scene shifts within a chapter, paragraph breaks as seen directly above are what I use. That’s what I was taught and for my purposes I feel it should work fine. So if you happen to see a blank space between paragraphs, it’s due to either a new scene or a fast forwarding of time in the story.

  Also of note, within the alternate viewpoint chapters I do not use
American English (AmE) spelling conventions and instead use British English (BrE) as that is what the character is familiar with. These differences are subtle and only serve to remind you that the point of view is different if you by chance miss the asterisks due to Kindle formatting. I’ve seen instances where the asterisks were cut off the page in the first volume, so I felt it would help to have a redundant feature to help give away the narrative.

  That’s all the major points so, I won’t keep you any longer!

  Chapter 74: It’s Only Virtual

  (Friday, April 16th Real Day)

  The noise droned on.

  Faint whirs of a fan always on; barely loud enough to conceal the shallow breathing of a man. A man lying in the midst of the darkness of The Cube.

  That man was me.

  The room had yet to adjust as I waited with relative patience, preoccupied with thoughts on events that had recently transpired. I was stuck on the finality of the event. The event… the raid, was an astounding success.

  Yet everything seemed so distant, so disconnected that I was left wondering if everything I wanted to achieve had in fact been achieved. Vengeance was sought and had been rendered beautifully. Retribution distributed in a swift manner unseen and unheard of until now. I broke the mold of standard surprise attacks in-game.

  What few there were at least.

  The lingering doubt had little to do with the success of the mission though. What I truly questioned was my satisfaction with the result. They attacked my village, killed my men, and deleted Selene. The damage was returned twofold… and the psychological damage had been done.

  Milly stood there in front of me with legs and hands shaking as fear consumed her. I thought she practically soiled herself until I ran the scene over in my head. Then I realized the truth. She had actually pissed herself due to the mental trauma I had put her through. It was more than a little scare for her. I was a monster in her eyes.

  Maybe those white knights were right.

  Perhaps I was taking things too far but was it necessarily my fault, seeing as that was how the game worked? This was a true-to-life virtual reality with only slight modifiers on gore… we wouldn't see all of the gruesome interiors of a person ripped asunder but we would certainly see severed body parts and blood. So what, if one stabs another man in the chest? Or the neck? Or beheads him? All of that, was intended.

  This was the evolution of gaming.

  Years of progression had led to this moment where full immersion was not only plausible but possible. It was more than possible really, it was already functional. The virtual state had caught up with reality and we were now living in an age where the line between realities had been blurred.

  If the realities were blurred, was I… were we all, murderers now?

  I didn't know the answer to that question nor did I really want to know.

  Sitting up from the chair, I slowly started to take off the attachments that were still connected to my body. The room transitioned at the same time from darkness to a dim yellow as it adjusted to the outside light.

  I should say, it adjusted to the lack of light.

  Three-thirty in the morning and without anything left to do, it was about time I returned to my real bed. The one and only bed that was positioned in the center of a relatively empty room and remained free of any external presences or other occupants.

  I was home alone here.

  There was no one to talk to or to distract myself with here. All the time in the world to go over my thoughts and question my actions. I couldn't even do anything inside the game if I wanted to. The automated travel would take care of itself. NPCs there to lead the way and navigate the ship home.

  Home, yeah.

  Wasn’t I home now?

  Chapter 75: Val & Em

  (Saturday, November 13th Game Day / Friday, April 16th Real Day)

  * * *

  “What are you munching on there?” asked Emily with her head tilted slightly to the side as she waited for my mana to recover.

  “A biscuit from the pub,” I mumbled in reply. Without taking my manners into consideration, I continued to chew throughout my prior response with little care. It was rather deplorable but Emily wasn’t one to mind. “It’s not as good as the inn’s biscuits, really. The flavour is off.”

  “It looks more like a cracker to me,” answered Emily with a slight smirk.

  “Mm and what of this one?” I asked, as I showed her another type of biscuit that had been stored away in my bum bag. “What would you make of this? Would you call it a cracker too?”

  “No… that’s a cookie,” she lightly laughed out.

  “Oh, is that right… it tastes and feels like a biscuit though,” I replied while pondering the differences between the naming scheme of those from different regions.

  “HEY, you ready yet?!” called out the tank, cutting in and fully interrupting our idle chatter with a certain brash demeanour not entirely unique.

  The man was in his mid-to-late twenties by appearance, if I had that right. Unfortunately appearances along with all the other visual cues were still quite new to me. Even after nearly a year of involvement within the Alpha and Beta programme plus the current state of the game, I was still woefully behind in my visual judgement. Though that wasn’t to say that my interactions and experiences with individuals had yet to be developed. I was only blind in real life. I was neither deaf nor dumb.

  And this gentleman, well, he was a rightful arse.

  “Yeah yeah, we’re coming,” shot back Emily as she contorted her face in a peculiar manner. She had raised both of her brows with an odd expression while drawing her lips together to one side, with cheeks slightly puffing up as well.

  It was a face she had used before, one she said was sort of a facial shrug. I didn’t really understand the point of it but supposedly it was a normal expression people used when they didn’t particularly care about something.

  Hehe, she certainly was an animated individual.

  “Yes, coming,” I replied as well.

  Though I imagine he was hardly listening.

  Dusting off my clothes and standing up, it was time for me to join the party too. My mana bar had fully recovered during the brief respite and we were now ready to continue our forward progress. Ah, but forward progress was relative. Emily and I had been casually running this dungeon every few days for nearly a month’s time. To say we were familiar with the ins and outs was an understatement.

  “Hurry it up,” grumbled the tank. “I hate this shitty place.”

  “What’s wrong with it?” I asked, genuinely interested in his take.

  “Are you for real?” he spat out with contempt. “It smells like piss, vomit, and I can only figure actual shit, I can’t see a God damned thing with all this ash, and if it weren’t for this mask I would probably be hacking my lungs out right now. So yeah, I fucking hate it, you got a problem with that?”

  Well the dungeon certainly did have its fair share of issues and one would be hard-pressed to argue otherwise. The stagnant air was bearable though and the lack of lighting wasn’t something I particularly noticed. Sure it was dim but I was used to darkness. The absence of colour and images in general were daily occurrences for me. The fact that I could now see, actually see with my mind’s eye of sorts, was all thanks to the programme.

  I had a hard time empathising with his plight.

  “Ah what atrocious conditions you’ve been exposed to,” I shot back with a playful voice. “Just dreadful what you’re being forced to experience, it’s a true shame, really.”

  I couldn’t help it.

  He wasn’t entirely wrong-minded with his complaints but we were all dealing with it much the same. His incessant whining had put everyone in a sour mood and the atmosphere was dreary enough as is. His behaviour was childish… and so too was my reply. Oh dear, my cheeky nature was being coaxed out of me.

  “Ahem, are we ready to get started?” interrupted the frost mage as he stood motionless by the edge
of the goblin’s aggression radius. “We’ve only got the boss left and then we can all be on our way.”

  “Yep, we all know our roles!” chimed in Emily as she waltzed toward the front of the group.

  The tank hurried his pace to match Emily’s as he positioned himself in front of the goblins in preparation for the pull. Not bothering to reply to my comment, I was a bit surprised by his restraint. That or he simply didn’t understand my dry sense of humour.

  Mm another time perhaps.

  The three casters including me had formed a loose semi-circle around the goblins and had a clear line of sight for the purposes of the fight. Thankfully the aggro radius for the goblins was fairly small so we had plenty of room to manoeuvre. Emily had taken up position on the right side as she planned to off-tank the two [Goblin Guards] while the main-tank held the attention of the [Goblin Chief].

  It was a simple strategy really, seeing how easy the fight itself was with our party composition. One frost mage heavy in crowd control and sustained damage coupled with a dark mage that doubled as an exceptional control-oriented caster along with my random additions of minor area of effect holy magic meant for a quick fight.

  An extremely easy fight, in actuality.

  Though to be honest, it was only easy now that they had lowered the difficulty. The last patch took away the inferior [Minor Goblins] and reduced the boss encounter to a single [Goblin Chief], two [Goblin Guards], and two [Goblin Priests]. Five total goblins instead of the more difficult fourteen. Emily and I had only managed it once before the change, now it was an almost guaranteed kill so long as you could reach the fifth floor.

  These poor, small creatures stood absolutely no chance.

  I couldn’t even take them seriously. In truth the grimy, greasy beige creatures with their pointy ears and goat-like eyes were almost comical looking compared to the rest of the monsters I had been introduced to. Emily says they’re repulsive, as too do most of the other party members that we’ve come across. It was rather unanimous.