“Hey, that item is mine!”

“No, it is mine. I saw it first!”

“Screw you, f*cktard!” The language censor really worked very well in Ages Online, muting vulgarities on a very precise timing. Beast wondered how they managed to implement it.

“Well, screw you too!”

By then, the two squabbling players had already drawn their weapons. One was a swordsman with his iron longsword, and the other a rogue wielding a dirk. Their object of contention – a mithril short sword dropped in the most recent battle. Both of them seemed low-leveled, but they were ready to fight to death for their prize, at least until a dwarf went up to them to stop the disaster.

“Stop acting like kids or I will kill you myself!” Arctarus the Axemaster bellowed in their faces, making them cower in fear. “The commander already declared that these will all be redistributed to those who can use them the most, not toys for kids to play with or sell!”

Somehow, one of them managed to gather enough courage to retort. “W-who are you old man? I don’t take shit from anybody!”

It was a mistake, because the rude player was immediately knocked flat on the ground by the angry Axemaster.

“It is Vice-commander Arctarus for you, brat! I am the one in charge of here while Commander Lifey is thinking over the recent battle and planning our future tactics back in the headquarters!” Of course, Arctarus dared not say that Lifey had left for her tent with a weird expression on her face, like she had eaten something bitter.

Beast chuckled at the scene. It was natural that there would be scavengers and subsequent in-fighting for the spoils of war, and Arctarus had to break up a number of similar fights before this already. However the one who had the last laugh was Beast. Those idiots only bothered with looting valuable equipment dropped by dead players and NPCs from the battle so that they could profit off them after the war. They overlooked the far more inconspicuous items – Bear hides, wild mushrooms, iron ore, sheep wool. These were all items he could use for his crafting. Because they were not equipment, they were also not appropriated by the Joint Operation to be redistributed for the survivors and Beast could take them unhindered.

After a few rounds around the compound, Beast’s bag slots were teeming with loot.

He even found five bars of mithril ingots lying in a corner that nobody bothered to pick up.

-149HP!

You are under the effects of Taerra’s Perseverance

-214 HP!

Your skill Chi has increased to Basic 8!

-277 HP!

Your Bare Hand Mastery has increased to Intermediate 4!

Taerra’s Perseverance had expired!

Beast quickly dismissed all the notification windows that have stacked up during the fight via a swiping motion as he walked around picking items, having no desire to check them in-depth. The only important one he cared about was all the way below the stack.

Defend Loyderidge - Quest Update!

Under the cover of the night, the Hondurian army had launched a siege on three fronts. Fortunately, they were repelled successfully through the bravery of the Loyderidge defenders.

For this battle you have earned:

955pts

• 95 for defeating 19 skeletons

• 40 for defeating 4 soldiers

• 20 for defeating 1 knight

• 100 for defeating 1 fusion mage

• 500 for securing the West Gate

• 200 for securing the South Gate

Total contribution: 1104pts

He had gained eight hundred points in a single battle, bringing his current contribution to a little more than a thousand and one hundred points, although he noted that a bulk of the points came from participating in the battles at the gates. This meant that those who had participated and survived would have received the same as well, making the only real difference to be the points gained via their kills and assists.

Beast noticed an anomaly on the window, that killing Fyrzen was marked on the quest update and also gave a hefty 100 points for his death. It was weird considering how the Qqers were said to have mobilized without the King’s sanction and were thus not supposed to be part of the event. A hundred points was nice and all to have but the more he thought about it, the more strange it seemed.

It was as though the current Joint Operation was not giving away everything that was happening, both on the surface and beneath it. It was the same kind of feeling he had gotten when he had read about the world’s politics back in Rydelin.

“Hey Sebast!”

A hand slapped his back, making Beast nearly jump out of his skin. The sudden action made him close the window accidentally and interrupted whatever thoughts he had. Battle stance at the ready, he turned to face his attacker, only to meet face to face with one grinning archer called EmiyaX.

“Never thought I did see you here! I thought you said you are occupied somewhere else?”

“Yea I did…” Beast looked away. He was this close to unloading his whole mana pool worth of Chi into the archer’s face. Thankfully he did not, because the archer himself seemed to have been roughed up by the recent fight.

“Well it doesn’t matter I guess. I am glad you are here now. Have you registered with the Joint Operation Army yet? If you don’t you won’t get contribution.”

Some things just do not change no matter in real life or the virtual world, things like personality or the way this person like to infringe on the personal space of others and grate on their nerves. Beast inwardly sighed. He should have stopped looting and gotten away from the vicinity of the South Gate as soon as he could.

“Actually I am with the City Militia.”

“Ah… I see. The battle was hard eh? Although I don’t really get why they fled after the militia came, but I guess I should still thank you guys for the aid.”

Beast could guess why the Hondurian army retreated however. Scrublord must have been wary when they arrived, especially since he of all people would have known that Fyrzen died in the clash with the supposedly low-leveled militia. Thus, a retreat would have been a wiser choice in the face of this unknown variable. Once Scrublord and his guild retreated, the combined might of the cavalry, militia and south gate defenders would naturally be able to overwhelm the invading enemy more easily.

“It is not a problem.” It was not like he planned for it. It just worked out this way.

Emiya then pointed to the long lines queueing up before the erected triage tents, which Beast only just noticed. It seemed that his ‘walk’ had brought him to the triage line. “So are you waiting for your turn to heal as well?”

“Nope.” Once the battle ended, Beast had been replenished to maximum health by the courtesy of a certain someone. The rest of the militia had retreated back to the camp as well, having suffered minimal damage from the participation of the south gate battle which was easily remedied by the militia’s healers.

“I am waiting for her.”

At where Beast pointed, that certain someone worked furiously, moving from injured to injured with her healings hands. Even as she treated the wounded without rest, Naomi still managed to find time to heal the occasional player that approached asking for a mend. It was her working mode and nothing Beast said would dissuade her from helping out despite having nothing to gain from doing so. Therefore, he was stuck having to wait.

A sly smile came over Emiya. “Girlfriend?”

“Nope.” Beast immediately replied. Any weird ideas the annoying archer might be getting needed to be crushed immediately.

A player started demanding for Naomi to heal him, which led to shouting which in turn earned him a punch to the solar plexus and a ticket to the still muddy ground.

“Violent huh?” Emiya commented, to which Beast sagely nodded in agreement. It was a wonder that the system did not flag Naomi as chaotic on the spot. That probably had something to do with the player’s intentions while performing the action, but it was an issue for another time.

A loud boom sounded from behind them, destroying the wall arch above the south gate and forming an impromptu stone blockage with its debris at where the broken old gate was. Cheers rang out from the demolition team as they gave thumbs up from atop the wall to someone he could not see, but Beast would not be as happy as they were if he were them.

The militia had done the same thing to the West Gate. While they had managed to plug up two gaping holes in their defenses, they also successfully obstructed their two of their four ways out of the city which severely limited their tactical options to basically turtling inside the city and waiting for either victory or death.

Victory or death, the chances for the former seemed slim.

Wait a second.

“Emiya.”

“Hmm? Yes?”

“Show me.” Beast gulped. If he was right, it would mean everything. ”Show me your joint operation quest.”

The archer was surprised by the sudden seriousness from Beast. “Why?” His question was answered by a somber look from Beast. “Hey, relax. I will show it to you so chill out.”

“Joint Operation quest window.”

Displaying current Joint Operation –

Defend Loyderidge

Trigent of Caerheim has beseeched the Guardian, Lifey, with the task of defending Loyderidge from the Hondurian invaders. Acknowledging her past achievements for the country, he lends her the kingdom’s soldiers for the duration of this battle. Resolve the conflict via any means.

Difficulty: B

Failure Conditions:

Loyderidge falls.

Trigent dies.

Note:

Contribution points are earned for every effort put into the defense of the city and rewards will be distributed according to their earned proportions.

There was no victory condition.

“Emiya, back when you did the Troll Joint Operation, what were the clearing requirements?” He had to make sure.

The archer scratched his head as he searched his memory. “Well… If I remember correctly, the quest mentioned that we have to kill five hundred trolls to drive them out? Or was it six hundred? I can’t remember… Why are you asking this though?”

Beast was thunderstruck. How could he not see it? How could anyone not see it? There was something more to this joint operation than it appeared to be and everyone had thought that Loyderidge would be saved if they were to fend off the increasingly impossible attacks until Honduria gave up. If she gave up. Even when there was no specified victory condition nobody had thought to question it.

“Don’t you think it is strange how the operation has no win condition?”

By then, Emiya was looking at Beast as though he was crazy. “How is that strange? Isn’t this a siege where we are supposed to wait it out? Hello, are you feeling okay dude?”

What the archer intoned was precisely what the masses believed in at the current moment, but they did not understand. It was exactly because it was a siege that Caerheim was denied the initiative of ending the war on their terms. So did that imply that Loyderidge was doomed to fall and that failure was the only option available?

No wait…

His own quest did not have it but the clue was in the quest description – resolve the conflict via any means. It was in innocuous sentence at the end of the paragraph but it told him all he needed to know.

There were other ways.

“Emiya. Catch.” Fishing out a bottle of , Beast tossed it over to Emiya who caught it with a confused look. “It’s a complimentary gift.”

“What for?”

The archer’s question was left answered, for Beast had already ran off from the scene. “Sheesh.” Shrugging off his bewilderment at his classmate’s enigmatic actions, Emiya uncorked the bottle and gulped it down in one sitting.

………….

Somewhere in the corner of the internet, a forum thread exploded.

The Honduria – Caerheim War Thread! (Who’s your daddy) Latest Updates!

Pg 187 of 187

Fanged

Hey, guys! The first round of siege for HC war just ended.

Anon10812

Honduria won!!!!1!

Fanged

No they didn’t. Honduria was repelled.

Bystandereffect

Are you serious? Caerheim managed to defend against Honduria AND Qqers?

3nity

Haha! Caerheim won, suckers! Who is your daddy now?

Fanged

From what I heard, Qqers sent Fyrzen to the west gate, and left Oneshotakill as bait at the east. The rest of them went to the south. Scrublord, Togepee, Chancei and Myucrel were sighted. Fyrzen died, apparently.

SkepticalFool

Don’t know if ^ is trolling or completely serious. -_-

Isolationist

Wasn’t the West Gate defended by the militia? How did they even manage to kill Fyrzen? That dude is seriously hardcore.

MiscreptMallaebility

They did regardless and yea, they defended quite well. I was watching the videos uploaded by the players after the fight. It was a win despite losing the South and West gate. You can search for the videos uploaded by Arctarus390 and adelemitty. They show a good perspective of what happened.

Uniminus

I saw the adelemitty vid too. Anyone know who that dude that punched Fyrzen is and what skill he is using? Blue glowing fist is seriously awesome.

LeCaptainFalk

FALCON PAUNCH!!!!

AdeleMittyFanboy

adelemitty

Lifeyislife

Lifey FTW! You guys should have seen how cool she was when she fought Scrublord. No Lifey no life.

Tearsfilledjar

Scrublord-sama! He was so sexy!

Deadears

There was another video by another guy at the East Gate. My god, I could not finish it because of the sound quality. Don’t know if it is my speakers or something but I thought I was going deaf. Then the npc soldiers started running for some reason. Could it be a glitch?

NeKoMiMi

Managed to survive that horrible video. More curious about the class the person playing the lute have.

Milktastic

I thought I saw the blue-fist guy back in Corelia just recently. He was pwning an ice mage in the middle of the streets like nothing. Estimated level around 90 or even over 100. How did he make it to Loyderidge in such a short time? Weird thing is he doesn’t seem to be wearing equipment.

Anon18334

Hacker?

JusticarVII

Probably summoned. Lifey did the same during the south gate battle didn’t she?

Lifeyislife

I know right? That scene was damn cool!!

Post Reply

The ripple effect is happening.

…………

Beast entered the militia camp, only to see Shadun the bard sitting forlornly by the entrance of the area.

“Hey! Welcome back!” Beast was elated at the sight of his bard buddy. He had been meaning to find Shadun to talk to him but had not the chance given the happenings at the South gate.

“Hey…” Shadun’s face brightened up considerably when he saw Beast. At first he had been worried sick that his failure to gather reinforcements had somehow caused the demise of the entire militia and the fact that the camp was empty when he finally made it back served to reinforce the point. It had been a pleasant surprise when Gordo led the militia back in a while later, and now Beast was alive and well before him. “Where’s Naomi?”

“I left her at the South Gate since she wants to help with healing duties.” Cupping his hands together in a pose of apology, Beast continued. “I am sorry we didn’t send someone to inform you, Shadun. Somehow we managed to defeat Fyrzen and went to the south to help after no other enemy appeared here.”

“It’s okay. I stayed at the East side for a while as well.”

That would mean he took part in the East Gate defense. Beast was curious; it never hurt to have some friendly competition.

“So how many enemies did you defeat?”

Shadun weakly raised an outstretched hand.

“Five? Well that can’t-” The bard shook his head.

“Fifty?” Beast asked, amazed. He himself had not even break thirty kills and Shadun had managed to rack up that high a score.

“Five hundred.”

“Five what?” There was a full second of stunned silence. “Wow. How did you do it? Is your contribution really high right now?”

“Not really. I friendly-fired and it took off most of the points.” Shadun sighed. Beast understood at once what transpired and he gave a silent prayer to those that had suffered. The atmosphere became a little awkward though so it was time to change the topic. “Eh… hey Shadun I am going to meet Gordo right now for something really important. I figured you will want to be there.”

He held out a hand as an offer to help the bard to his feet.

“Alright.”

Inside the commander’s tent, Gordo was by the table examining a map of what seemed to be Loyderidge. The Royal Knight was deep in thoughts, until Beast caught the NPC’s attention with a greeting.

“Knight Gordo.”

Gordo looked up, recognition showing in his eyes. “Beast. Shadun. What brought you here?”

“I would like to speak to Lord Trigent. Can it be arranged?”

Shadun stared at Beast as though he was mad, while Gordo showed an expression of mild surprise. The knight’s hand immediately went to his sword.

“What for?” The response came, a cold steely sentence that hinted that their answer would make a difference as to how the knight would treat the two of them afterwards. The Knight was fiercely loyal, Beast noted. When two nobodies suddenly requested a meeting with the most important person in this city without any prior reasons or inclination, it was through no fault of his that some caution would be raised. With the guarded response there was no doubt that Gordo was thinking the two might have less than pure intentions especially in light of the war. He would need to diffuse this situation.

“With no offence intended, I believe that the Lord knows something about this war that the masses are not being told of. We are led to believe that the siege will only be temporary, but the truth is that Honduria will continue her attack until she succeeds.” It was only a speculation but Beast knew he had hit jackpot, for colour had drained from the knight’s face. Shadun was starting to show signs of disbelief.

One final nail to drive through.

“In fact, I am inclined to think that there would be reinforcements from the central continent if the vanguard fails to achieve its original intentions soon. However, Honduria had the States of Paverun to consider who might take her moment of preoccupation to invade. Furthermore, Caerheim was a country born from Honduria. There was no reason for Honduria to conquer Caerheim when Caerheim offered no threat but plenty of trade opportunities.”

The shadows caused by the sunlight filtering through the cloth of the tent danced on Gordo’s face.

“If Honduria is this persistent to the point of risking attack and reputation, it makes me wonder what her true intentions in Caerheim are, which is why I seek to clarify this with Lord Trigent.”

There was no retort, no denial. Beast observed Gordo, but the man was giving nothing else away other than silence, a silence that stated nothing but implied everything.

“Is this true?” Shadun asked, a lone voice in the quietness of the tent.

The royal knight closed his eyes and took a deep breath, finally conceding with a grave nod. “As expected of the historian. You have read our history well. That analysis was almost correct, except for one thing.”

“Which is?”

“I believe it would be better if Lord Trigent were to explain it to you himself. Follow me, but make yourself discreet. There is no need to induce unnecessary commotion.”

A flutter of his cloak later, Gordo was out of the tent and walking down the dirt path. Shadun glanced over at Beast who blinked. “Yes?”

“Did you think of all that?”

“Nah, when I came here I only had a feeling. Turns out it was true.” Beast shrugged and made to follow the Royal Knight’s journey to the Central Keep of Loyderidge, closely followed behind by Shadun.

The keep itself was a mini-castle nested in the central east portion of Loyderidge. High walls surrounded the crown of Caerheim, with its only way in and out located at the central square of the city. From the castle gate to the front double barreled doors was a short pavement of gravel decorated with exquisite flowers and well-trimmed bushes, but what took the Lore Keeper’s breath away was when he entered the door into a wide-spanning chamber of lush carpets and walls of polished stone. Paintings and statues adorned the sides while a crystal chandelier hung from above.

Beast had never stepped into the keep before, and thus took in all the sights and sounds with awe.

“Gordo.” Another man who was standing guard by the entrance and wearing the exact same armour design as Knight Gordo hailed them. He must have been a Royal Knight like him. In fact, all of the knights within this keep should have been royals knights dedicated to guarding Trigent’s life.

“Riscele. I need to speak with our Lord.”

“…He is in the throne room.”

“Thank you.”

The guard went back to his post and the three of them passed straight ahead towards another double barreled door. Unlike the front door however, this door was bordered with gold, a distinct symbol of a place of importance. With a loud creak of the oak, Gordo pushed the doors open, revealing an even more posh room than the lobby with a single man seated atop the lone elevated throne in the middle of the room.

The man was cleanly shaven, though he had no crown to speak of atop his well-groomed hair. At first look, he appeared to be around mid-thirties, much younger than Gordo was.

The Lord of Caerheim, Trigent Ashwald spoke with an elegant refined voice.

“Gordo. You’ve brought visitors.”

In a blink of an eye, two daggers were at Shadun and Beast’s throats respectively, the assassins holding them literally appearing out of thin air. A Royal Knight appeared from behind a pillar and drew his blade at Gordo’s throat.

“Explain yourself for bringing foreigners into our Lord’s vicinity.”

“They seek an explanation with regards to the war.” Gordo answered without as much as flinching. Even so, there appeared to be a significant rank difference between the two of them.

“It’s fine.” A female voice reverberated, bringing everyone’s attention to a robe wearing girl who had appeared beside Trigent. Her robes were unlike an ordinary magician’s, being embroidered with gold and silver thread. Beast knew instantly she was someone of high importance. “I have checked with a Detect Invisibility and Read Intention spell. No one else is with them. They have no malicious thoughts.”

“Thank you Riwana. Stand down, Lugwen. Trisha, Tristan, please remove your daggers from our guests. I recognize one of them.”

At the lord’s command, Lugwen sheathed back his sword with a harrumph, while the two assassins disappeared back into wherever they came from, shimmering out of visible view. Beast massaged his throat tenderly where the sharp edge of the dagger touched. The feeling he had was too much like when Kiki went rogue on him that it gave him the chills.

“You are dismissed Gordo. Return to your duties.”

The commander of the City Militia gave a salute to his lord before taking his leave out of the room.

“Now,” Trigent Ashwald directed his voice unto Beast.

“What do you want to ask?”

Author's Notes:

Heya! Perspective is back to Beast proper.

Anyway, I would like a second opinion.

Would the forum thread section look better with or without lines between the posts?

Let me know so I can change it if needed.

Cheers!