The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (7 page)

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.