Dawn was not happy. She was staring daggers across the campfire at her sister. That damned toad Al had actually dared to ally with her sister as well. Even though she had made it quite clear she was not working together with Aoife. Al had allied with her anyway and said that if Dawn was unhappy with that, she could just cancel the alliance and the funds would stop.

There was no way she would give up on the funding as long as Aoife got it. The competition was all too important. Even more so after the Challenges had been announced. However, working with her sister was unquestionable. It irked her. She would never allow her to inherit the family fortune.

While Al seemed to be in charge, Dawn had sussed out that it was actually the two merchants that bankrolled everything. Even if the Dusts were part of Al’s guild, they seemed to regard him with a bit of disdain. Dawn had always been good at reading body language. What she could not figure out was why they were bankrolling a man they did not like.

When Al had declared war and she had gotten the prompt, she had been surprised to see Dawnguard on the list of allies. After thinking about it for a moment, she realized that the funding had to come from Dawnguard through the Dusts. Which meant they were actually members of Dawnguard, and Al was just a tool for them to use against Blue Lotus.

What Dawn could not figure out was what a small guild like Blue Lotus had actually done to piss off the biggest guild in the world. It could surely not be the fact that they had been the first to be recognized as a guild in the game? So far, she had observed the Dusts pouring hundreds of platinums into trying to hamper Blue Lotus.

Sure, the guild leader of Blue Lotus was a prick. A condescending asshole who had been very rude to her, when she tried to reach out to him. He even ran around dressed in starter clothes. A true loser. Fat, old, and rather plain-looking. And he had the audacity to look down on her. She was mainly here for the funding, but she would not mind paying him back for the insult he had paid her.

Most of the Dead Lotus Alliance were newbies, so they still hunted around Blackport. One of them had fucked royally up. Some mopes that called themselves The Highlander Gang. Idiots got themselves punished by the town guard, making them almost useless. Al had been fuming about them and refused to pay the fine they had been saddled with.

The rest of them, which was mostly the Dusts, Al’s guild, The A-Team, Team Asura, her and her sister and their guildies, were camped at the castle ruins. Earlier in the day, they had gotten word that almost all of Blue Lotus was heading towards the castle ruins.

Doom Jesters and The Highlander Gang were tailing them, and together they would attack them and make them hurt badly. Though there were 44 of them, fourteen of them were dragging carts, meaning they were non-combatants. And most of the guild had started only a few days ago, meaning they were only around level 6 or 7, not even having a class.

“We’re moving out in five minutes,” Al said loudly. “It’ll take us forty minutes to get to the ambush site. They should be there in less than an hour.”

One of Al’s people, or more precisely one of the Dusts’ people, named Lan chuckled. “This time they won’t have a fucking traitor to tip them off.”

Dawn had heard rumours about how Lan’s group had been fucked over by a traitor in their midst. Actually, they thought they had turned one of the Lotus people, but it turned out to be a double-cross. For some reason, all of the Lotus people had been immune to bribery. Even the new members. They had laughed her right in the face when she approached some of them.

“Are we certain we got enough people to handle them?” her sister asked, with worry in her voice.

Dawn scoffed and immediately said, her voice filled with scorn, “Of course we do. We’ve sixty-two players who’ve been playing almost since the beginning. We joined shortly after. That’s another seventeen between the two of us. The newbs numbers sixty-three. Oh and we also got five non-combatants here.”

“I know the numbers,” Aoife replied with a huff. “I’m just saying. I’ve heard stories about how they’ve turned impossible situations around. And don’t forget that some of those that have been playing from the start have been handicapped by that ninja chick, because they’ve been acting like assholes.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” Lan growled. Dawn sent him a scathing look. She might dislike her sister, but no one called her a bitch, except for her. She would make sure not to support the disrespecting asshole when it came to the fight.

Aoife gave Lan a withering look. “What about the fact that several of their people are level thirty or above? Meanwhile, the highest level we have is twenty-nine.”

“That fucking ninja chick is hacking somehow, getting us penalized when she kills us,” Red Asura, the leader of Team Asura complained.

“Yes, they’ve turned many situations around, but with one hundred and forty-two against thirty-five fighters, many of them newbies, we can’t possibly lose. Not even if they’ve higher levelled people than us,” Al said placatingly, putting a hand on Aoife’s shoulder. “They don’t have a traitor in our midst. The magical contracts have taken care of that. And they don’t have an army of bunnies to come to their rescue.”

The last bit elicited laughter from the group around them. Dawn frowned at the mention of the contract. She was not happy about it, but luckily, Al was not as sharp as he thought, and she had managed to slip in some wording that might be to her benefit.

“Shouldn’t we wait until they’re camped?” Dawn suggested. “If they put up a camp, they’ll probably empty their inventories a bit as well, meaning more loot. We might even catch them while split up.”

Aoife quickly jumped in with an opinion. “And skulk around like cowards in the dark? No, we’ll face them in battle. We might outnumber them, but we won’t be known as craven lurkers.”

“While loot might be a good thing,” Lord Dust said slowly. Everyone stopped their mumbling conversations to listen to him speak. Not even Al got that kind of respect. Further showing that it was the Dusts and not Al that was in charge. “We need to give them a public humiliation. One that they won’t soon forget.

“Also, we know they deal a lot with the Knights of the Squirrel who’s just on the other side of the ruins. They’re most likely heading in that direction. While they’re not allied, they might just join that camp, not put up their own. Since the camp is owned by a non-participant in the guild war, we can’t attack them there.”

“Good point,” Al said loudly, trying to take an air of command. “Wise council as always, Lord Dust.”

“You’re very welcome, guild leader,” was the reply. Lord Dust’s voice held a bit of venom when uttering the title.

“How do we know where they’ll be though?” Aoife asked, raising a very good point. One Dawn had been about to raise as well. She felt irritated that her twin and competitor had managed to ask it before her.

“One of the Jesters just logged off and told Lady Dust, who logged in ten minutes ago,” Lord Dust answered. “We know their general heading and goal. Our ambush site will be a bit looser than we’d like, but it should still be doable.”

Al nodded. “Okay, lighten your inventories. Only bring what is necessary to kill those pukes. We’ll leave in two minutes.”

‘A bit looser,’ Dawn thought derisively. The force was spread out in clumps over a three hundred metre line. Dawn was standing beside a tree, twirling her daggers, waiting for the battle to start. She and her men were at the left-most flank. It had been over an hour since they left camp. No sign of the enemy yet.

She hoped the Lotus people would arrive at the other end, she was not much of a melee combatant. She had her daggers, but her real power lay in her class. She had been lucky enough to gain a secret class, called Mother’s Ire.

At first, she had been baffled by the weird name, but it seemed to be a reference to the Goddess of Luck who was called Mother. As far as she could tell from the prompts, she had been given a class that was associated with the Fae race. She had been using her magic, mostly curses and debuffs stealthily to cause mischief and it was how she had earned the title.

With the essence crystals and shards, she had even managed to take the first step towards changing her race to that of the Fae. She had selected the option to enhance the effect of all of her spells by 10%, unfortunately, it came with a minus 20% to all physical attacks. That was okay, she was mostly using debuffs and terrain alteration to fight anyway.

“Nervous, Miss?” her bodyguard Patrick asked.

“Why would you ask that?”

“You’re playing with your knives,” he pointed out. He was the oldest of her bodyguards. Been with her for all her life. More of a father to her than her own father. He was the one that taught her how to ride a bicycle and a horse.

She was also hopelessly in love with him. However, he was a stubborn old goat. Had turned her down. Told her as long as he was protecting her, it could not happen. She could not fire him, and her father refused to fire him when she had asked. She had only been thirteen at the time, but her hormones wanted the grizzled protector more than anything. She had resigned herself to it never happening, but she kept flaunting her body and sexuality in his face, hoping his will would be crumpled.

“Focus, Dawn,” he said in a toneless whisper.

“What?” she snapped.

“I know what you’re thinking when you got that faraway dreamy look. It can’t happen, you know that.”

“Ugh, I was not thinking about you,” she lied.

“Okay, what were you thinking about then?”

She quickly spat out the first thing that came to her mind. “I can’t help but feel this will go badly. Keep the men hanging back. We might need to rethink our alliance with these people. He did bring in my sister, making it valid for me to cancel the contract.”

“Consider it done, Miss,” he replied with a gruff nod.

The way he answered, she knew that he had already thought to do that. “You’re thinking the same thing?”

“I have seen some of those people training. They might only have thirty combatants, but they’re all playing in free mode. Most of the older players are using assisted mode. Even some of the new players. Except for guards you and your sister have, none of the others are trained in combat,” he said in a low voice. Careful not to let anyone nearby hear him.

“Are they that good?”

“I looked up the ninja chick as you called her. Had to rely on my drawing skills to get a usable image of her face,” he said. “Perennial’s privacy setting for obscuring faces in pictures and videos are irritating.”

“Why would they use their own faces? It’s not like they’re celebrities.”

“Some of them are even using their own name,” he replied. “Remember when the guild leader was arrested? I managed to find some footage of it. Same face as in-game.”

“Is it the same for all of them?” she asked, a bit confused. She understood why she was using her normal appearance and name, but she was a minor celebrity.

“I don’t know, but I managed to find her. Her name really is Kira, and she was a formidable martial artist in the real world.”

Dawn narrowed her eyes. “Was?”

“Her parents were killed in a hovercar accident. She was in it as well and lost her legs, however, she’s the one training them. Even the newbies are learning how to fight from a girl who has the black belt in several martial arts,” he finished reporting.

“That’s disconcerting,” Dawn said with a thoughtful frown. Maybe she would need to activate one of the clauses in the magical contract and get her out of the war. A bit of rustling behind the line had her looking over, but it was just one of the forest mobs. A bear of level twenty-two. It looked at the group and lumbered away for a bit, then came back. If it had been a wolf or boar, they would have attacked, but they usually travelled in packs. The bears were a bit smarter and usually did not attack stronger groups. If it wanted to hang out, she was not going to start a fight and give away their position.

“Where are they? They should have been here by now,” Slayer complained five minutes later. He was one of the two players she had deigned worthy enough to recruit. Even if he had a very stupid name. xXxS14y3rxXx. It was considerably amusing when the NPCs said his name.

While she was impatient as well, she did not answer him. Instead, her eyes flickered from the bear who loitered around to the group twenty-five metres away. It was a group of four, but they were arguably the best fighters, except for the bodyguards provided by her father to her and her sister. The infuriating Lan was the leader of the group.

Her brows furrowed, because she saw five people over there, one of them casually approaching the four others. It took her a moment to realize that the fifth person was Patrick. She glanced to her side where Patrick was still standing. Suddenly scared, she asked with a weak voice, “Patrick? What’s the name of my first pet?”

He looked at her weirdly, but provided the answer nonetheless, “Goldie the Goldfish.”

Relief flooded through her, instead of saying anything she just pointed towards his doppelganger. His brow furrowed, as he muttered, “What the fuck?”

“Finally!” Slayer exclaimed. “They’re here, but why are there only twenty of them?”

Dawn looked at where he pointed and saw around twenty people walking there, most of them dragging a wagon. She frowned, something was amiss, but more important was the doppelganger. She turned her head back towards Lan’s group.

“Do we attack?” Slayer asked.

“No, we’re going to—” she started to respond absentmindedly when suddenly a lot happened at once. The doppelganger shimmered, turning into someone else attacking Lan’s group.

Beyond Lan’s group was Al and most of his men, they were being attacked by a couple of elementals. The two earth elementals rushed into the middle of the group and detonated in large explosions.

Further down she saw a large number of offensive spells hammer into her allies, but her attention was drawn to her own group when suddenly the bear roared and charged them. A few fireballs launched in their direction as well.

She chose to invoke the clause immediately to leave the alliance. They had been outmanoeuvred and were about to die.

You are trying to leave your alliance in an active War Situation, which is not allowed.

If you wish to go through with it, shout the words “We surrender” and your guild will be placed in a protective bubble, where the victor of the Situation can deal with you as they please.

“We surrender,” she shouted without hesitation, a second after the fireballs hit her people. Patrick had stepped in front of her, tanking two of the fireballs aimed at her. As soon as she had said the words, a golden bubble sprang up around them. The bear rammed into it, but the bubble did not move an iota. Slayer tried to move back and out of the bubble, but he could not.

“They’ve surrendered, go help the others!” she heard someone shout from behind her. From the direction of the group with all the carts. The bear and players that had been attacking them started running towards the other groups of Dawn’s former allies.

“What the fuck is this?” Slayer demanded.

“Shut up,” Patrick growled at him.

“What gives, boss?” Viceman asked. He was the other player she had recruited. Both of them were shady people, but Patrick said they had potential in combat, so she had recruited them.

“Seemed like a good time to leave the alliance,” Dawn said with a shrug. “Just look at us, we’re being massacred. Where are the lowbies? They should attack from behind. They’ve most certainly been killed already.”

Slayer looked doubtful. “I don’t like this.”

They looked towards the other members of their former alliance. Lan was the only one still standing of the four. He was facing up against a man with a flowing black leather duster, a white mask, wielding a large dagger.

Lan’s opponent grabbed Lan’s wrist, and sparks of yellow energy could be seen. Lan seemed to seize up, while his opponent repeatedly stabbed him in the throat. Soon Lan turned into motes of light, leaving behind some loot. His opponent sprinted towards the rest of the fighting.

Al’s group had been decimated by repeated golems blowing themselves up, only Al was still up, fighting against the ninja chick, Kira. He was horribly outmatched. He was still using Combat Instincts. The guy who had killed Lan completely ignored Al as he ran past him.

Even further down the line, she could hear explosions like the ones from the elementals that had attacked Al’s group. She looked at Slayer pointing to where Al was being beaten to death by a couple of sticks. “That’s why we surrendered. We would most likely have been torn apart as well.”

“That’s a very likely scenario, Miss Airgead,” she heard a voice behind her. She spun around and saw to her annoyance, the rude guild leader of the Blue Lotus. He was standing there with the rest of the group and their carts. Most of them had put them down and formed a protective line in the direction of the battle.

Dawn inspected all of them. The fifteen players in the combat line were all between level 6 and 8, while the four others were high levelled. However, the high levelled players were non-combatants. Damian was a level 26 Pacifist. A higher level than her at level 25, something that irked her. The others between level 21 and 24. There was an Artist, a Shipwright, and a Tailor.

“Huh, Mother’s Ire? I guess it fits your personality,” Damian said, having apparently inspected her.

“What do you know about my personality and my class?” she asked indignantly.

“Well, you’re not really trustworthy, you cause mischief wherever you go, and you’re really really good at finding a way to screw over those who make a deal with you,” he said, taking a chair out of the inventory, sitting down outside the bubble. “Sorry, I would offer you a chair, but I can’t give it to you. With regards to your class, I think it’s one that focuses mostly on manipulating terrain and events to your advantage, making it appear as if the other party was just very unlucky. Am I close?”

The other crafters had taken out a chair as well. Dawn could not help but feel irritated at the casual arrogance of the man, and how he characterized her. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of answering. “Aren’t you a bit overconfident? Your men might be slaughtered, and those lowbies can’t protect you.”

“If that was the likely outcome, you would not have thrown away an alliance with Dawnguard, the correct course of action. Your father will not be amused by you taking credits from a competitor,” he said with a shrug. Dawn froze at the mention of her father. It was not a secret of course, but this Damian seemed very informed. “And I got complete confidence in my men. We already dealt with the lowbies before we entered.”

“How did you know about them?” Slayer asked.

“Sixty odd people trailing you are not really inconspicuous,” the Artist said, making the Tailor giggle.

“We observed some of them logging out from time to time, so we reckoned you were setting up an ambush,” Damian said with a shrug. “When we got closer to the ruins and where we would likely meet you, we let them report in once more, and then annihilated them. We then sent most of our forces ahead of us. Turning the ambushers into the ambushed.”

“How could you find the exact spot?” Patrick asked with narrowed eyes.

Damian smiled with that infuriating arrogant smile, making Dawn angrier at the man. “There are many methods. The skill Tracking for example. You’ll be amazed by the secrets a druid can learn from the plants and animals. That’s just the obvious ones of course.”

“Do you have to be so smug?” Dawn grumbled.

Damian looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged. “Can’t be helped. I mean it’s pretty damn satisfactory hearing your enemies being killed. The best thing is all the loot.”

“Loot?” the Artist asked.

“Oh yes, since we’re in a war, there’s a fifty percent chance per item on you that it’ll drop when killed by an enemy. Fifty percent of your coins will drop, and I expect they have a camp nearby, which we can go and loot as well,” Damian explained to his subordinate.

Dawn got a thought, a way to make a deal. “We can tell you where the camp is if you just let us go.”

“And rob our players of some much needed Tracking XP?” Damian scoffed. “No thank you.”

“What do you want then?” she asked, frustrated.

“Simple really. I want you to sign a magical contract that you and your guild will not undertake any action that will harm Blue Lotus, nor will you willingly align yourself with someone that wants to do harm to Blue Lotus,” the smug bastard said.

Dawn thought about it for a moment. There was no way the man was running around with a magical contract prepared with the exact language. Nor would he be powerful enough to create a magical contract like that yet. She had read about the skill needed to do that, and even players that focused on the skill could make a contract like that.

“Deal,” she said, hiding a smile. She would easily be able to circumvent the agreement later.

To her surprise, he shook his head. “Not yet. We need to wait for the War Situation to resolve itself, before finalizing the deal.”

“Afraid you’re not going to win?” Slayer mocked from the sideline. Dawn shot him an angry glare and Patrick slapped the back of his head.

“No, not at all,” Damian replied with a shake of his head. “I’m just waiting until the system has declared us victor, so the conditions of the deal become enforced by the system. I already know she’s trying to weasel her way out of signing the contract. She’s welcome to not sign it, but no one in the guild will be able to earn XP until the conditions agreed upon have been fulfilled.”

Dawn’s mind raced. He had seen right through her. More importantly, he seemed to insinuate that the system would enforce such a contract. The deal he offered was not unreasonable, but not one she liked. If she did not agree, they could kill her and she might lose the magic necklace she had gotten from the dungeon. She looked at Patrick who nodded. He drew his sword and immediately went for a kill shot on her. 1% was better than 50%, and if she was killed by Patrick she would only lose one item. Most likely it would be a single coin.

To her surprise she was not killed, she did not even take damage even though the sword connected with her neck. She was still sent sprawling to the ground by the force of the slash, and it hurt.

Damian chuckled. “You think the system would allow you to escape? You’ve surrendered, you’ve to await the victor’s judgement.”

Dawn stared at the man. Her eyes filled with irritation and a little bit of admiration. The infuriating man seemed to know a lot about the system, and he was using it to his advantage.