On top of the highest hill in the vast grassland of the Sulla field, the ancient black dragon Goroda watched silently as the massive army of the Divine Sword Guild marched across the muddy ground. Each one of the 5000 guild members and the 2000 allied players was ready to do battle with the legendary beast.
Goroda roared his outrage as this puny group of mortals dared to stand up in front of him, and for a moment, the mix races of men, elves, and dwarves all wondered if they will come out alive in this once in a lifetime epic battle.
SilverVan's elven ear twitches as he raised his holy sword "Blue Star," shouting back his challenge and defiance back to the dragon. He looks magnificent in his all-white heavy armor, and the army took heart from his action. As the guild leader and the true architect of this mission, he was the natural choice as the overall raid master of this expedition.
He and his three other companions have been playing the game of "Peasant Road" since the days of Beta testing. Together they explored the dungeons, the cemeteries, the underground caves, the floating cities, demon fortresses and the simple rural towns of the game and merely enjoying themselves thru adventures in the virtual world. So it is not surprising that each one of them is at the pinnacle of their respective classes.
That is why all of them are saddened when Donkey Corp, the maker of the game, announced during the 27th patch update, that after six years the company is officially closing the game in 3 weeks times. Of course, the lot of them plus other known player were dismayed and petitioned the company to keep the game despite the declining sales. Naturally, companies will always be a company, and profit always comes first. They already have another game that they purchased from another company and will be maintaining that game instead, and although they are sorry that they cannot continue "Peasant Road" they promised that they will give them a 30% discount as a loyalty perk for staying with them if they purchase the new game in the near future.
Tha is why SilverVan organized this one final hurrah. The boss monster, Black Dragon Goroda, is the strongest monster in the game and for the six years that the game is up, no guild or much less an individual player, was able to slay the beast, not even once. So the guild mobilized its members and convinced them to prepare for one final epic battle. Only Barnes, the Ranger, find the entire task tedious. But hey, this is a typical reaction to him, so no one really minded. The rest were excited about the upcoming adventure since it is a way for them to leave their mark in the game they love.
"SilverVan," Brixon, the human barbarian, messaged the paladin using the guild chat window. "My warriors are ready to move. Just say the word."
SilverVan, who sat in his magnificent Red Rhino, turned to his left. The left wing of his army consisted of a thousand barbarian and warriors, plus a mix of bards, clerics, rogues and lower mages, totaling another 800 players. Behind them is the reserve force of 600 rangers under Barnes' direct command.
"How about Barne's rangers?"
There was a slight delay in chat. "Yeah, maybe. I believe so," Brixon said uncertainly.
"I'm ready as well, you asshole!" Barne's voice chimed in suddenly. "Let's do this."
SilverVan smiled quietly. "Alright,... execute the plan!" He said in a controlled voice.
Brixon and his warriors immediately broke formation and rode their horses in a headlong charge towards the Dragon.
The dragon immediately noticed the movement and growled. When the leading barbarian elements reach less than a hundred meters, the dragon prepared to fire his deadly breath of fire. But even before he can do so, thousands of arrows pelted him from the sky.
Barnes grinned evilly when his timed attack together with his Rangers, succeeded perfectly to disrupt the dragon's own AOE attack.
Barnes avatar resembles a handsome middle age elf with silky blond hair and a well-trimmed beard and mustache. His long elven ear is twitching in the wind with his rye amusement. His character is not clean shaven and is, in fact, sporting a black eye patch that made him more of a rogue rather than a noble elf lord.
His ranger force is made up mostly of elves, but a few dozen or so are humans. Their average level is 120, including a core group of elite rangers who are in the level 200 and beyond. Being the highest level ranger in the entire game at level 292, Barnes is, of course, the designated leader.
The dragon roared in pain and surprise as a massive amount of arrows hit him like pinpricks, rained down upon him. Watching the dragon wearily as the Rangers swerved to the other direction, Barnes shouted. "Elite Barne's guard, fire explosive arrows!"
"Who you calling a guard, you idiot!" Grumbled one female ranger.
"Wanna die?!" cursed another to Barne's left.
Despite their grumblings, 50 high-end explosives arrows were fired towards the target, and the dragon was temporarily engulfed in massive flames. Again the ancient beast roared in anger and flapped its powerful wings, and the flames died out. Normally the fire should grow from the generated wind and air, but the wings also consisted of magic nullifier and the fire artificially died down. The dragon roared once more and this time successfully fired his breath of superheated flame.
Many of Brixon's heavy cavalry successfully passed the giant lizards flame attack, but the rear end of his forces still got caught. Almost 50 players turned gray and blinked out of existence.
SilverVan cursed silently as the deaths were registered in his raid tab. But even he accepted that the current situation was better than he had hoped for. From their earlier planning, they were prepared to lose more than half of Brixon's left wing in order to distract Goroda.
Brixon and his barbarian warriors veered left, separating from Barne's Rangers, and screaming from the top of their lungs. It was a skill of tanks to keep the attention of monsters to themselves and away from their allies. Barnes and his Rangers swung to Brixon and his forces right flank, screening them from the dragon and pouring in thousands of arrows into the dragon's hide.
"Fire arrows!"
"Exploding arrows!"
"Triple Shot!"
"Piercing arrows!"
"Poison arrows!"
Merifley, the redheaded human who is a powerful red sorceress, in charge of the right wing of the clan army, called SilverVan in the chat window. "My wizards and sorcerers are now ready! On your command, we will blast that beast out of this game!"
"Finally!" Barnes cut in. "It took you guys long enough!"
"Shut up Barnes," SilverVan said coldly. Then he turned to his right, where the sorceress Merifley rode several meters away in her majestic stag, in front of his right wing. "Execute the plan, now."
"Executing now, Oh peerless leader!"
The heavy sky went suddenly dim, before opening up. The ground misted as powerful mana was released into the air. The dragon instantly turned to his left, watching the group of wizards and sorcerers in the right flank of the army keeping a steady chant and the massive magic forming around it. But it was too late.
Before the black Dragon can react, the ground around it solidified in hard ice, trapping its feet in the dirt. Ice shards the size of a long lance dropped from the sky and skewering the reeling lizard. Simultaneously, a blizzard twice as big as the dragon begun engulfing it in ice and snow.
The dragon struggled mightily within but its movement becomes erratic and slow burdened by the ice around it. Slowly, ever so slowly, the dragon become entombed in a block of ice.
"You genius bastard!" Barnes shouted excitedly. "Your plan is actually working!"
SilverVan smiled. The plan was simple. Brixon will ride out to distract the dragon while Barnes run interference, then Meriflex and her wizards will use the distraction to prepare their complicated spells to pin the dragon to the ground, and only then can SilverVan and the main force can close in to finish the job.
"Brixon, swing wide and hit the dragon from behind. Barnes, keep firing until we arrive then switch to your melee weapons and then join us. Merifley, You and your wizards will go on standby. Everyone else, we ride now! Charge the dragon!"
A huge cheer came out from the clan army as the center charged. The very hooves of the heavy cavalry shook the very ground of the valley as they approach the helpless dragon.
"Fire another volley, my minions!" Ordered Barnes.
"Don't call me your minions, dumb ass!"
"Wanna die!?"
"Argh! My fingers are bleeding!"
"No one told you to use a crossbow, you idiot!"
"Shut up! This is far better than your slingshot!"
"You shut up! Bows are expensive!"
Paladins and knights under SilverVan's direct control run up and jump on the back of the dragon's scaled hide and started hitting him with their powerful lances and swords. Brixon and his warriors leaped out of their horses and smashed the trapped wings with their battle axes and morning stars. Merifley ordered her wizards to use debuffs, and the Bards started singing to enhance the fighting power of the army.
Then the whole field grew still for a second. With his keen elven senses, It was Barnes who first sense the disturbance in the air, but it was Merifley who reacted first for it was she who recognized the disturbance in the air.
It was Mana.
Merifley shouted the warning in the party chat. Barnes instantly veered his Rangers away from the dragon. Without hesitation, SilverVan crouched and increased his paladin's battle aura all around him in an attempt to protect as many of his men as possible. Only Brixon was caught off guard as his battle frenzy kept his attention fully off the dragon, as he hacked away its wings.
The first thing everyone noticed was the thin ray of light reaching into the sky coming from the dragon. It was powerful enough that it pierces the mist of the wizard's hail storm. Then massive fireballs the size of a minivan shriek from the sky and engulfing the entire field around them with heat and fire.
Merifley and a few of the surviving wizards instantly raised a concentrated reinforced shield around them, but the sheer size of the fireballs devastated the land. In mere moments, hell was upon them.
Smoke and dust debris rose up to almost a hundred feet into the air, and the green grassy land of Sulla was forcibly turned into a hot muddy wasteland as the powerful, devastating magic rearranged the earth around them.
The Dragon roared again in triumphed as players and NPCs winked out of existence, and SilverVan swore once more. More than 70 percent of the forces around the dragon perished without knowing how exactly did they die.
The ice cage around the dragon cracked from the massive strength of the dragon, then it moved, and even before anyone could shout a warning, the black dragon Goroda was free once more.
And he was angry. His black shard eyes scanned the pitiful remains of SilverVan's once proud army. He flaps his wings twice in such force that it disrupts any of the remaining players clinging to him including the raid leader SilverVan.
Merifley redirected the massive increase in the party chat as people cursed and asked what the fuck happened, by making another support line. She gave a brief description of what happened then told them that anyone who can return to used the secondary portals.
Many of the clan members will resurrect back at the clan headquarters half a continent away since there are no resurrection points near Goroda. A very expensive portal, however, is opened in Goroda's lair and powered by slightly less expensive mana pillars. So anyone who still wanted to go round two is allowed back.
The problem, however, is that depending on your character's level, there is a built-in cooling time from 5-10 minutes before you are allowed to be resurrected back and return to the game. By that point, the fight might already be over.
SilverVan flew into the air from the dragon's mighty swing of its wings, but like a cat, he twisted his body and bent a little to prepare for the impact of the ground.
He rolled into the ground but immediately stood up once more, his resolve never breaking. The dragon was about to take off, when SilverVan run up to him and jump at the last moment and cling to the clawed foot of the beast, his holy sword still blazing in his other hand.
As the dragon flew away, Brixon's massive body burst out of a nearby crater, and still holding two of his heavily wounded subordinates. Nearby was a shielded first aid shelter. For years now, SilverVan insisted until it became a standard tactic for the clan to have a nearby first aid center near the battlefield.
He dropped his men into the arms of two harassed female clerics, just as Barnes burst inside the shield with his red unicorn. He is also holding a gravely injured ranger with him and dropped it unceremoniously to the cleric. They saw each other and nodded. "SilverVan's plan is going to the gutter," Brixon said in his normal rumbling voice. "Where the hell is he anyway?"
Barnes directly pointed to the sky, and Brixon followed his finger. Up in the air, the dragon was doing some acrobatic aerial flying, but now and then, It's belly and back flashed in blue lightning from SilverVan's sword.
Brixon sneered as he followed the dragon with one hand shading his eyes. "Ever the show-off," He said in a low voice.
Barnes opened his inventory and grabbed his elven black oak composite bow. It was far slower than his original short bow named "Green Radiance" which he just lost from the massive meteor shower, but the stopping power is unequal. He should have used this bow earlier anyway, he thought angrily. He also grabbed the rare arrows he'd been hoarding for years.
"Why is Merifley not shooting fireballs at the overgrown lizard?" Barnes asked loudly to no one in particular. "Prettyboy is up there wagging his magic sword. She should be so wet right now she-"
A karate chop hit him squarely in the head, just as a floating Merifley drop two young wizards in a magical bubble in front of a waiting cleric. "I'm not shooting the beast because I barely have enough mana left, you numbskull," she said in a matter of fact voice, as she gracefully steps down to the ground.
Brixon opened his own inventory and pulled out a wickedly looking spear, crackling with dark energy. He examined his weapon for any defects while ignoring Barnes who is clutching his head and rolling around the floor as a chibi. Then he reached and grabbed a heavy fur cape in his inventory and threw it to Merifley. The Barbarian fur cape has a +40 fire resistance stat. Merifley threw it around her back as she grabbed a crooked staff in her inventory with cold bluish fire emanating around it.
"Besides," She continued as she drunk a blue greater mana potion, but her eyes never leaving the great dragon in the sky. "If you even listened for a moment during our last strategy meeting, you will know by now that Goroda has a full fire immunity."
That stop Barnes from rolling around. He sat up with a massive ugly swollen bump in his head. "Goroda has what?!"
"Fire immunity," Chorus Brixon and Merifley together. Barnes was silent for a moment while Brixon tested his spear and Merifley drank his third mana potion in a row.
"Then why the hell are we shooting fire arrows?!"
Brixon whistled, and a huge giant black boar came out of the fog and entered the shielded place. "No one else in the entire army is using fire except your Rangers,"
Brixon said as he climbed the top of his mount and charged out of the first aid station. Merifley began to float again and said, "That is because their leader is a useless moron." She flew out of the station just before she went sonic boom up into the sky toward the direction of the dragon.
The two left Barnes who remained sitting and thinking about what he just learned. An annoyed female cleric hovered behind him as she tried to shrink the massive red bump in his head with holy magic.
Usually, a monster who has full elemental immunity in one element will be extremely vulnerable to its opposite element, Barnes thought. That is why the plan relied on ice magic as our knockout punch. But it didn't work. It means Goroda also have high resistance to ice magic. Barnes mind went back to the initial phase of the plan when he and his rangers were peppering the dragon with all kinds of arrows, including fire arrows. It might just be a pinprick to the colossal lizard, but he definitely got hurt by the fire arrows as well. That means our info about the dragon was wrong. Goroda only has high resistance to fire as well. The chances are that he also has high resistance to other forms of magic. Hmmm...
It took him exactly seven seconds of complete silence, but then Barnes shouted in absolute joy, "That's it!" In his excitement, he automatically spanks the buttocks of the young female cleric that is healing him.
"Kyaaaahh!!" The female cleric screamed in total surprised and immediately karate chopped Barnes right at the exact place where his bump is located.
Another smaller bump appeared on top of his already grotesque red swollen bump. Barnes dismiss all of this as he continued his train of thought. "Even if the dragon has a fire immunity, It doesn't mean that the element of fire is his true affinity. Think! If you are a dragon, what is your natural affinity? ... It's simple. Raw magic. I've been in this game long enough to pick up a few lores, and I know that dragons are the original source of magic. Natural magic. In other words...
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"Arcane magic," Barnes whispered. He snapped his fingers so sharply that the cute Cleric girl jumped back 6 feet behind and assumed the karate kid pose, ready to defend her honor. She watched Barnes suspiciously for another minute or two before slowly using her healing skills again to fix his swollen bump.
And what is the opposite of arcane magic? Well, that should be divine magic. So all I have to do is to shoot divine magic in the dragon's ass, and everything should be alright!... right?
"Wait a minute," Barnes said to himself as he reopened his inventory and looked inside. "Now what weapon do I have that has divine magic in it..."
Barnes thought about it for a while more, and the right weapon immediately came to his mind. "Shit," he muttered, dismayed.
Barnes stood up so suddenly that the female cleric was again alarmed, somersaulted a few meters away and then created a new battle pose. "Haiii-Yah!" She screamed nervously, staring at Barnes with angry suspicion. Distracted, Barnes scratched his head as he observed the young cleric at the peripherals of his eyes. He wasn't so dense that he didn't understand the cleric's suspicion and anger towards him. But what confuses him is that the cleric's next battle pose is the Mcdonald's pose.
'That is not even a battle pose, that's a selfie pose, he thought idly. There is an awkward silence for several moments before Barnes decided to ignore the funny cleric.
Instead, he opened his inventory again, and this time, it took him a while before he found what he was looking for. He took out ten ivory white arrows in an elegant elven quiver. The arrows are called "Divine Justice," and as you might have guessed by now, the arrows are imbued with divine magic. It used to be a set of 12 arrows, but Barnes already used two of them against a very powerful demon lord last year. The arrows are given to him by SilverVan, who got the arrows as the final item in the final treasure chest of the final boss of a not so important dungeon... and in return, Barnes traded him "Blue Star."
"I know there is no more reason to horde this since the game is about to end, but still..." Barnes said bitterly. Suddenly, he gripped the arrows and started rubbing it over his cheeks over and over while he cried a river. 'My precious!!" he said.
While busy doing perverted things with the arrows, the female cleric surreptitiously sneaks out of the infirmary like a thief in the night. The thing with the arrows was the last straw. She is not staying there with the creepy ranger for another second. She'd rather face the dragon.
While pushing the arrows up and down his cheeks with blushing dorky face, Barnes accidentally poke the big swollen bump in his head, and it surprisingly pops like a balloon. Green goo dripped over the side of Barnes' head, and the cleric who witnesses all of it almost vomited right there and there. Barnes barely noticed any of it.
After a while, Barnes is able to composed himself and attached the quiver of the precious arrow parallel to his belt for easy access. The cleric was long gone by then. Barnes took a deep breath, whistled loudly in the air and the neigh of the spectacular red unicorn he called "Buu" answered. He ran into the direction of the dragon, and within seconds he was parallel to his unique mount, and he jumps easily on her. They sped faster, dirt and dust blooming around them.
He hadn't run far when a glimpse of the dragon appeared from the sky as it dived low from the heavy cloud. As an elven ranger, his eyesight is excellent and just like that of an eagle.
Apparently, he misses a lot since not only SilverVan but Brixon was on top of the widely flying dragon now, while Merifley was following grimly behind with flight magic.
She fought to remain in the nimble dragon's tail, and when they aligned for a few seconds, twenty magic missiles poured out of the sorceress and homed into the giant black flying lizard. The sparkling blue lights hit the dragon one after the other, creating a small burst of blue explosions in the wings. The dragon roared, twisted in the air and three fireballs burst out of its mouth towards Merifley.
She twisted her body to the left and her flight curved sharply to the right, while the fireballs miss her by a wide margin. Barnes is about to celebrate with a pump fist when the fireballs veered direction and kept chasing the sorceress.
"Homing fireballs," Barnes whispered as he continued to watch the aerial battle.
The dragon roared suddenly again, but this time in pain. It turned out that SilverVan had buried "Blue Star" at the back of the dragon's neck.
The paladin had been attacking the same place over and over again until the hardened dragon scale is chipped off. Only then did the player finally reached the leathery but far softer skin of the dragon.
The paladin shouted for Brixon, who at that point is stabbing the wing, to attack the same target since it was a naturally vulnerable part. The dragon must have been threatened or injured enough that it executed a surprise barrel roll that unbalanced both heroes that stubbornly held on to its hide. It was still rolling wildly when two balls of fire hit it right at its moving stomach.
Merifley appeared at the dragon's side and is already conjuring a massive spell while the dragon was still groggy from its own fireball that Merifley redirected towards him.
But Merifley was too exhausted, and her magic was building slower than she expected. The dragon recovered, saw her and one massive claw was already on its way before she could finish her incantation. Just then a silver arrow flew from the ground and hit the clawed hand of the dragon, and the dragon roared in massive pain as his clawed arm glowed in divine magic and air and mana hissed out of its scales and rough leather skin.
Both SilverVan and Merifley turned to the ground and caught the smug face of Barnes as he galloped towards the direction of the dragon.
The arrow was long enough distraction for Merifley to finished her incantation and suddenly the dragon was covered in a massive globe of silver mana and then it fell like a heavy rock in an ocean. Merifley's powerful gravity spell hit the dragon as a giant hammer smashed into it, and now it is falling uncontrollably fast towards the ground.
Brixon lost his footing and stumbled over the scaled-back of the dragon. Only SilverVan's quick thinking saved him as he reached out and grabbed the barbarian's arm. It was the only reason why he stops from falling to his death. But even then, they were not as safe as they think since the dragon continued to fall from the sky.
Goroda saw the ground coming fast, and he flops his wing more powerfully as he struggled to control his flight. It wasn't easy since suddenly it's weight was like 20 times as it was before due to Merifley's magic. At the last minute, the dragon veered away from the ground, and it flew parallel to the ground barely ten feet away from it. SilverVan and brixon both watched the ground then turned to each other. In silent agreement, both men instantly release their gripping arm, and Brixon fell from the dragon. He hit the grassy ground with a grunt, rolled to absorbed the momentum and slowly stood up. He stared up watching the dragon and the struggling paladin in his back.
A whistle behind him made him turn and saw Barnes galloping with that infernal red horse of his. The ranger leaned down and offered his hand which the barbarian took and in the next sequence, he was already behind Barnes as they rode to catch up with the deadly dragon.
Meanwhile, SilverVan slips again as he slides ever so slowly at the back of the dragon. Eventually, he reached the middle of the tail. The Dragon felt him slide down and the cunning lizard raised its tail upward as the paladin held on. Then to SilverVan's utter surprise, the dragon bend it's neck like a pretzel and finally, have a line of sight with the pesky holy warrior. Goroda smiled as his reptilian eyes met SilverVan's. He watched in fear as the dragon bent its head to perform its fire breath. Immediately he pulled out his most potent tower shield and envelope himself in holy aura just as the heat and flame hit him.
In that split second, he knew his defenses would not last from the fire onslaught and with quick thinking, he decided to let go of the tail. He also pulled out "Blue Star" once more, and as he fell, he jabbed his holy sword at the exposed neck of the dragon. Goroda howled like a wounded beast, and he lost his concentration in his flight while Merifley's magic is still upon him. The Dragon crash-landed into the grassland below.
A small hill disintegrated as the dragon fell from the sky and skidded for an entire 200 meters. SilverVan was thrown off the back of the dragon and hit the ground hard as well. He dislocated his shoulder and broke his left leg from the fall.
The dragon gave an earsplitting scream as both its leg broke from his fall and he swung his neck back and forth until its sharp eyes noticed SilverVan's prone Body on the ground. Merifley landed in front of the wounded paladin and proceeded to chant a spell as she weaves an intricate dance with her hands. Her eyes glowed golden white as she poured more mana into her spell.
The dragon ignored all this as he bent his neck for another fire breath. Merifley's spell finished as a powerful luminescing blue shield covered in intricate runes, enveloped both her and SilverVan. Again they were engulfed in the fierce fire of the dragon. Even then, the dragon's breath begun ever so slowly to overpower Merifley's shield despite its inherent strength.
Just as the shield shattered, Barnes and Brixon burst out of the billowing dust cloud with the mighty unicorn. Brixon's strong arm grabbed Merifley by the waist while Barnes scooped the prone SilverVan at the back of his armor. The red unicorn neighed its protest as it dragged all four bodies away from the dragon.
But the dragon wasn't finished yet. He opened his mouth once more, and mana enhanced flame whooshed out of him and followed the running unicorn. The fire breath was moving so fast that no one doubted that the unicorn would be overtaken in a few more seconds. Barnes made a decision and fired two of the precious silver arrow and hit the dragon squarely in his mouth and the other at his right eye. The already injured dragon roared again in pain but his flame hit the back of the unicorn, and it too screamed in agony. Then the red unicorn disintegrated into pixels, and all four teammates stumbled in the soft grassy ground.
All four of them groaned as they struggled to get up. "You guys still alive?" Brixon asked tiredly. With a mighty effort, he sat up and surveyed his surroundings.
"Barely," Croaked SilverVan to his left while Merifley just moaned in pain. Brixon eyes widened for a second as he finished looking around. "Barnes?! Damn it! I think Barnes is de-"
Something burst out of the ground and energetically started looking around the place. "Did that overgrown lizard just tap my unicorn's ass?!" Barnes shouted to no one in particular. "Bitch is dead, I tell you!"
Merifley crawled toward SilverVan and helped him pour some healing potion into his mouth, then turned to Brixon with a deadpan face. "You forgot that Barnes is a cockroach, he'll outlast us all," She said.
Without warning, Barnes turned to a surprised Brixon. "Putting that aside, I need water! Water! All that running around made my throat so parched that it feels like sandpaper is rubbing it raw. Please! give me some water!"
"All that running? you were on top of a magical horse this whole time!"
"Potatoes, potatos," Barnes said dismissively. "Give me water!"
Brixon checks his inventory for a while then shook his head in the negative. "I don't have any flask of water anymore. The marched to Sulla was long, remember?"
Barnes turned to SilverVan who is alternatingly applying healing potion to his knees and drinking it. "Silver, my man, can I just have some of your holy water instead?" Barnes pleaded. "C'mon, help a brother in need."
SilverVan stared at him with a regretful look on his handsome face. "I'm sorry, dude," He said. "But I already sold all nonessential items yesterday so I can buy those expensive runes etched in my armor. I don't have any holy water anymore."
"You always have holy water with you!" Barnes insisted, whining shamelessly.
"Not anymore, it's useless against a dragon."
Barnes' face turned forlorn. But that only lasted until he saw Merifley watching him. Before he can say anything, the female mage cut him off. "I don't know any water magic, and even if I do, I won't spend my limited mana for something so ridiculous."
"Fine!" said Barnes. "But I need you to just stare at me for a minute."
"Stare at you?" the sorceress repeated. "What the hell for?"
"Just look at me," Barnes said. And after he is sure that Merifley is looking at him (for now), he stood up in front of the sorceress and started doing the running man dance.
Everyone gawked at him but his dancing just become even more intense and to his friend's eyes, became even more grotesque and vomit-inducing.
"What in the bloody hell-" Brixon started, but Barnes whipped a finger in front of his friend's face, telling him to zip it. Barnes intense eyes never left Merifley. After half a minute, he turned his back at the girl while still looking at her. Then he started twerking in front of her.
"...."
Suddenly, Barnes' eyes turned to sharp stars from satisfaction as he leaps into the air towards Merifley. "Ah ha!" He shouted.
Merifley flinched, but Barnes went passed her and grabbed the giant sweat drop that manifested behind her head. Barnes raised the giant but cute sweatdrop and started sucking on it as if his life depended on it. The teardrop shape water became smaller and smaller as Barnes gulped it down.
"Pweh!" he said, spilling some of the content in the ground. "That shit is salty!"
"Of course it's salty, you stupid idiot! It's a sweat drop!"
The internal fight within the group stopped suddenly, when Goroda, who is about 50 meters away from them, roared his anger once more. The dragon was in a sorry state. Both his hind legs were broken, and his mouth was oozing fire, while his right eye is blind from the glittering arrow stuck in it. But despite all these injuries, the dragon still look formidable and very, very deadly.
The chat window is filled with their other clan members who died or was scattered, informing them that they are on their way.
"What do we do, oh fearless leader?" Brixon asked SilverVan, who is now partially recovered from his own wounds. All the goofiness around them suddenly was gone, even Barnes, and they are now suddenly a party of high-end players once more. Dangerous and awe-inspiring.
"We end this now," SilverVan said, his eyes started to glow.
"Finally," Barnes said, while Merifley just smiled mysteriously.
"Diamond formation!" Shouted SilverVan, and all four of them positioned themselves in the familiar and nostalgic formation. All four of them had a smile on their face as they remembered the first time SilverVan made up that formation that first day they met each other. They were just players of level 2-3s, all newbies, and fearfully facing the level 5 slime boss.
Brixon was in front as the tank, to his right is the Paladin SilverVan as the damage dealer, while to Brixon's left is Barnes who served as the range damage dealer and Merifley Behind them all who gives them magical support. Back then, Merifley was not yet the AOE damage dealer that she is now today, but more of a healer.
The dragon roared once more, as SilverVan eyed him intently. "Merifley! Mist!" It was a testament to their long history of group coordination that SilverVan can simply give a word and every member of the team understood his meaning. Merifley gave a short incantation while weaving her hands in the air in an intricate pattern, then the immediate area in between them and the dragon turned to dense fog, obscuring the visibility of the team, but more importantly, so did the visibility of the dragon.
"Attack!" Shouted SilverVan inside the mist just as the dragon roared his fire breath once more. It was the strongest one yet, but as the flame died out, no one was there in front of the dragon. Slightly to the dragon's left, Brixon burst out of the fog holding his awesome spear in one hand and a double edge heavy ax on the other. He screamed his barbarian warcry as he charged.
At the far edge of the magical fog came out Barnes, who is already firing his regular arrows one after the other while running away from the dragon. The arrows were just like small pinpricks for the dragon, but it was annoying and distracting him from the charging barbarian. Powerful lightning from the sky hit Goroda, and the dragon grunted in pain.
Half a dozen dark flames appeared around the dragon, and it forms a dark globe of intense dark energy. Then it started moving towards the direction of Brixon, The Barbarian dodge one of the dark orbs, and he ground his teeth when a second one hit him in the shoulder and staggered him. Four more were homing-in towards his position, but out of nowhere, SilverVan came out holding Blu star and a tower shield. He increases his holy aura and with his shield, deflecting all the incoming dark bullets intended for the barbarian. Brixon passed him before throwing the awesome spear with all his might. The dragon deflected the spear, but it turned out that it was only a distraction as the great ax embedded itself in the dragon's neck. Fountain of blood came out of the dragon's mouth, but even so, it only enrages the dragon even further.
"Brixon!" SilverVan shouted and threw his tower shield towards the giant barbarian who had put it in place just in time before the dragon's claw smashed right into him.
Despite the magical properties of the shield, the armor bent and made Brixon fly 10 feet in a different direction. SilverVan used this opportunity to run up the dragon's arm while deflecting four more of the dark energy balls coming his way.
Merifley finally emerged from the fog, one hand bursting with power at her side while the other hand is formed into a fist as another lightning from the sky smashed the dragon. The dragon's slitted and hateful eyes watched the sorceress. Even the dragon can deduce that the magic in her left arm is her final magical attack. If he can either dodge or block that, then the battle is his.
He tried to lunge forward, but a thick magical chain stopped him. He turned to his left, and he saw that the chain was held by the paladin, then a battle cry to his left made him turn, and he saw a berserking barbarian held on to his injured right claw. He turned back to the female magician as she raised her arm to her side and released the magic to her left.
The weary dragon followed the magic in confusion and saw the blue magic coalesce into a portal gate 100 meters away, wherein the ranger was charging right into.
Before the dragon can react, the ranger dived into the portal and vanished. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then a searing pain hit the dragon at the back of his neck.
The dragon turned his face up to the sky, and about 300 meters away he saw the tiny figure of the ranger falling towards him, firing away with that infernal divine arrow.
Goroda tried to jump out of the way, but the combination of the injuries he sustained and the paladin and barbarian holding him in place, he was a sitting duck from the rain of arrows coming from above.
In his final desperation, the dragon mustered the last of his powers and shot several wind blades towards the falling ranger. Barnes saw it coming and performed a series of aerial acrobatics that made him successfully avoid most of the wind blades.
Most of it.
The last wind blade hit him, destroying his elven bow and slicing his right arm cleanly from the elbow. Barnes could not afford even to cry out for he was falling fast. He grabbed the last two divine arrows and with his elven eyes, found the same spot SilverVan created at the back of the dragon's neck. Without any other thoughts, he stabbed both arrows in that same spot as he fell at the dragon's back. There was a magical explosion, and the dragon roared one final time before slumping to the ground, dead.
All of them knew this because multiple blue screens pop out in front of them informing them of the death of the dragon. While all the clan members scattered around the valley cheered at the announcement, the three standing teammates merely brush the messages aside and stared at the back of the dead dragon; concern etched in their faces.
"Is he dead?" Merifley said in a small voice.
Brixon and SilverVan just stared at the dragon, their jaws set.
A silhouette of a man climbed the back of the dragon and said, "Did you guys see that?! I just killed a freaking dragon! I call that move 'Barnes superduper move number 9'!" Barnes shouted, to the relief of his teammates.
Clanmates and allies finally made their way towards the final battle, and everyone was amused at Barnes doing his celebratory dance on top of the beast.
*****************************************
At that desolated grassland made of pixel and binary codes, 5,000 players watched the end of an era. And as they gave a melancholy sad smile, they remembered that day as a real memory of their experiences in life. It was not the scorched earth that they remembered or the majestic fallen dragon, or the few heroes standing nobly at the foot of the conquered beast. It was the awkward dance of the dorky ranger on top of the dragon that seared into their memory.
Nevermind the ghastly combination of the running man and the robot dance move, it was the sheer unadulterated happiness on the ranger's face that made them all smile, for they remembered that same feeling of awe, incredulousness, frustration and unbridled satisfaction when they first entered a dungeon and after a lot of hardship, emerge victorious after killing the final boss and argue about the loot.
Merifley played her last VRMMO game as she started to get serious in her job as a public attorney. Throughout the years she help prosecute and put criminals behind bars, she helped creates a revolutionary technique to find the illegal financial fraud of the biggest corrupt companies and she is there when the first AI CEO is installed by the government to run one of their national companies. She was the head of the department that installed the morality software in the AI and help it compete ruthlessly but still morally acceptable practices. She died at the age of 104 surrounded by her family and friends, and her death earned her a video clip on CNN.
Brixon is still playing MMO. Despite what he looks like in his in-game character, he was actually a 12-year-old kid and still starting at life. He became a legend in three other games as he achieved the highest ranking character and he is a skilled specialist in PvP tactics. He made a good living as a gamer that he never really stops playing, but as he reached the age of 60, he is more of a consultant to the leading gaming companies than an actual player. By then he was content just being in the background as he helps bring new games for the next generation to enjoy.
SilverVan was a 32 yr old family man and an engineer in real life and died of cancer six years later. Despite his disease, many noted his easy-going way and love of life, never once becoming bitter at what life had thrown at him. His oldest son, which we will not name, continued on and became a politician and eventually the president of the land. He always mentioned his father for his core values and the strength of his character. And the country prospered in his guidance.
And Barnes? Well, he never played another MMO ever again. He was 18 when they finished playing "Peasant Road." He completed his college, got a job like everyone else and started a family with her college sweetheart. He is becoming the typical awesome dad, wherein he became his son's best friend while not knowing what to do with her fast-growing and maturing and beautiful daughters.
"Kids, we're going now. Don't stay up too late alright?"
"Yes, Mom," Said Junior, not bothering to look up from his I-Plad. His parents left for the movies after his dad warned him not to used his Camaro for drag racing. As if, he thought rolling his eyes. He was searching the stream for new games when he came upon a new release called "Peasant Road." The description said that it was a classic. He watched from his virtual interfaced as the game downloaded and then he booted it up to start. He laughed.
His oldest sister, reading a magazine on the next sofa, eyed him suspiciously. "You better not be watching porn!" She warned.
The youngest sibling is playing with a harassed hamster on the floor, oblivious to both of them. She threw the screaming hamster out of the window and shouted, "Go Pikachu!"
Junior turned to his sister. "I'm just looking at this old-school game I just downloaded. Its resolution is only two mil by two mil, how can you see anything in that?" He chuckled.
The oldest sister raised an eyebrow. She didn't know any program is still being made at that low-grade level. "Show it to me," she said.
The boy swiped the virtual interface with two fingers and pointed at his sister. The program is shared ten seconds later. Her sister smirked when she saw that the entire program was just over 400 terabyte. What is this, an App? She thought curiously.
Both she and the boy ignored their youngest sibling when she shouted, "I wanna play Fallout 24!"
They were still playing the game 5 hours later when their parents arrive from their dinner date. And just like that, a new generation of players started playing the game.