“Hrrrmmmmghh...” Lumpstein, the grumpy Hill Dwarf and GM of Panarena Fantasy Online, sighed to himself as he observed a certain situation unfolding in the Wildlands. Wandreada, who was on duty with him and several others at the moment, came over to see what he was grumbling about.

The Game-Masters or Game-Moderators had a private estate hidden away in the north of Kingsmark. No player, not even the deputy GMs, knew where it was.

“Ha-ha-hahh, someone ticked them off tonight!” the Mumban GM cackled as she watched a certain dragon that had been tamed by a certain guild tearing down a fortification and greedily eating the rival guild's NPC guards that had been stationed there.

“What's this now?” Wildthunder remarked as he and Forseti came over, as well as Athena.

“Oh dear.” the younger woman sighed in amusement, and Foresti snorted with laughter.

“Oh by Saint Andrew.” Wildthunder shook his head, softly chuckling.

“Still... is it fine like this? We might get complaints about it later...” Lumpstein sighed.

“It's just tit-for-tat.” Forseti shrugged. “The King-Priests used Djaziim on their allies' fortresses, after all.”

“Djaziim the Unholy doesn't eat people,” the Dwarf grumbled back.

“Pffft!” Wandreada giggled.

“Still.” Foresti shrugged back.

“This aside, who'd've expected them to find out that old Big Man had a special kind of hankering as well...” Wildthunder mused as he scratched his beard.

The giant sea-turtle that players called Skeöl or “Turt” was referred to by the GMs as such. Apparently the designers had thought it would be best if the player-residents of the world gave a name to things every now and then, and Big Man was one of them.

“Welp, there goes that one... nyeah-ha-ha-ha-hah,” Lumpstein cackled as the fortress fell.

“Weren't you just voicing a consternation about them for the dragon?” Athena smiled.

“Even so, this is still funny. That's the seventh one tonight!” the reply came.

“Ahh, no wonder he's a tad concerned about incoming complaints.” Wildthunder nodded.

“Forget the Silvernight Queens, you should see what the other two did to that harbor-town the King-Priests built up,” another GM named Rabbit called. He was exactly as his name suggested, a rabbit-being around a meter in height and wearing a casually formal attire.

“Well that much I expected.” Forseti remarked. “Kiana and Reginleif are just as decisive and efficient as Lana, after all.”

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“I'll bet the Queens get to at least Rank Seven by the end of the tournament at this rate.” Athena nodded.

“Nahh. Ten at best.” Lumpstein returned. “Guardians of the Eternal Citadel have a massive advantage in numbers over them and nearly everyone else except the Grand Consortium, the one that formed up this January from a bunch of smaller guilds.”

“Ah right.” his coworker nodded as she recalled them.

“A lot of the smaller and medium guilds have formed pacts or alliances to keep their rankings secure, haven't they?” Forseti mused as he took a look at some of the other monitors.

“Maybe we should add in an alliance scoring, just for fun.” Rabbit grinned.

“Hmm! If we calculate it from the scores of their individual guilds somehow... that could work,” Wandreada said as she thought about it.

“I agree. I'll bring it up with the boss tomorrow sometime.” Forseti said. “Though I won't expect a final decision until next Monday at best.”

“Hah, perfect. That'll give us time to decide how we should deal with alliance scoring, if it gets a favorable review,” Rabbit clapped his paws.

“Ho-boy, they're onto an eighth, huh?” Lumpstein remarked as he continued watching the monitors. “Seeing that dragon around never gets old, though... mwuah-hah-hah,” he immediately cackled.

“No, it certainly does not,” Wildthunder grinned, wondering what his son, Wildeye, was up to in Panarena that evening.

“Speaking of lunatic geniuses, aren't the Mountain Tigers a little too quiet at the moment? I thought they'd be gunning after the Ninja Bandits for sure tonight,” Athena then wondered.

“I'm not sure what he's doing, but I'm sure we'll see something before the night is out.” Wildthunder said in answer.

“You mean like that?” Lumpstein remarked in a flat tone, pointing to another monitor. There was a giant wooden cat on wheels being rolled into a Ninja Bandits fortress in the Waste.

“... Really? They're falling for that old gag?” Wandreada remarked as they observed it with nonplussed expressions.

“In their defense... that looks like a rare type of wood...” Athena said weakly.

“No--no defending it. It's a stupid trick to fall for no matter what.” Rabbit replied with a wry grin.

“Ah-heh-heh, right?” his colleague bemusedly smiled back.

“Honestly now, these guilds.” Forseti grinned with amusement.

“Never a dull moment!” Lumpstein chuckled as the gates closed. “I bet the Tigers come out in five minutes.”

“Two minutes.” Wandreada said.

“I'll say ten!” Rabbit chimed in.

“No, three-and-a-half.” Wildthunder remarked.

“Hmm... I'll say three minutes exactly.” Forseti then said.

Wildthunder was proven correct in the end; after three and a half minutes, the Mountain Tigers and some from The Lightbrook Brigade began pouring out of the “Trojan Cat” to begin capturing the enemy fortification. Wildthunder grinned as he watched his son's guild and their comrades emerge on time.

“How did you know so exactly?” Rabbit wondered.

“He did a similar thing several times in the war,” the other GM shrugged.

“Huh!” Lumpstein nodded in approval. “Wait, what?”

“Yes. That's right.” Wildthunder nodded. “Those NS dastards were also stupid enough to fall for that kind of trick, exactly nine times over.” he told them.

The others exchanged glances of amusement and befuddlement with one another. After they heaved a collective sigh, they then returned to monitoring the various battles between guilds that had now begun to start in earnest; the guild competition was heating up.