The dragon sat on top of the cliff, quietly resting as he slowly recovered his mana. His head was turned towards the destroyed smouldering forest under him. Thick clouds of smoke were rising up from the black burned remnants of trees. The smell of ozone and burned wood was still perpetuating through the air.
Figures in black were walking around in small groups, their weapons glittering under the omnipresent red light. The occasional sound of a fight coming from the forest.
Suddenly commotion erupted, the masked figures quickly heading in one direction. The dragon’s head immediately sprung up, ‘Something must have happened!’
“Your draconic highness, my friends, has arrived!” a lonely masked minion stood under the cliff, shouting towards the sprawling clouds of smoke on top of the cliff. The dragon immediately recognised him as the spy.
Vesuvius breathed out in relief as he was only with very little mana left, limiting his fighting capacity by a large margin, ‘Finally, some good news. I started to feel like I had run out of my luck. These reinforcements are exactly what I needed.’
At first, he tough that just a small organisation was enough to achieve his goals, but as time went on, he started to realise that he needed much more manpower.
‘The prospect of a small and hidden organisation is attractive for players and easy to control, but I need lots more manpower.’
The dragon couldn’t but sight at how naive he was before, thinking that just a small group was enough.
‘Maybe I could make another parallel organisation with the old one operating in the shadows and with stricter entry requirements. The new one would be more open, with the anyone can join policy. With my control over the barony, I should be able to raise my army largely unnoticed, masking it as an official barony army.’
The dragon couldn’t but nod internally at the new direction he came with, feeling like it would be a good compromise between large and small organisations without any serious setbacks.
‘But it all depends if my minion really betrayed me or not.’
Coming back from his thought, Vesuvius looked at the minion, who shrunk under his gaze, his body sweating, “Well done, my minion. Let me see if your promises were true or just empty words.”
The dragon jumped from the cliff, spreading his wings as he drifted toward where all his minions went.
POV ???:
A group of fifty people marched through the forest in tight formation, the heavy smell of burning lingering in the air around them, making them nauseous. Each of them had a piece of cloth wrapped around their mouth to prevent the clouds of ash drifting through the air from entering their lungs. Tiny polished copper broses glittered on their chests under the dim red light passing through the thick green branches of trees as if they weren’t even there.
“Let’s go. There is some event going on here. This can be our way to quickly rise in levels and ranks!” a tall blonde-haired man with blue eyes, wearing stupendously bulky armour made of dark steel, rose his two halberds that were easily taller than an adult man. The huge pauldrons on his shoulder clanged as they hit against the polished chest plate.
,m Above his head was a brightly glowing string of letters: GlowingZeus.
Excited shouts came from the group as they raised up their speed, leaving clouds of dust behind them.
“I just hope you are right in thinking this faction has a future… You know, we can easily lose lots of time here for nothing.” the much shorter girl next to him with long blonde hair falling all the way to her waist, with bright blue eyes, looked at the tall player with worry.
The letters levitating above her head formed a nametag: ShiningHera
“Haha, sister, don’t be so pessimistic. You have seen the huge lightning attack that swept through the forest. If the faction boss can cast such a spell while still being in the beginner zone, then there is no way that it would fail!”
Thinking about the massive wave of lightning that shook the whole forest and disintegrated the innumerable swarm of demons, she couldn’t but feel excited as her brother, ‘He is probably right. I need to stop worrying about everything. We are already too late to arrive into this game…’
Suddenly the ash spread through the forest whirled as a large armoured beast with front wings merged together with large clawed hands descended from the red sky, its reverse-slitted eyes locked upon the formation. The heat radiating out of the cracks filled with magma in its black stone-like armour caused the air around it to shiver.
‘Ohh, it looks like it was true. They are some weird, unique mounts. It looks so cool, even better than wyverns of wyverns riders!’
Immediately the whole group moved, quickly arranging themself into a circular formation, multiple glowing staffs pointed at the beast.
A male voice came from the beast’s back, “I will smash you!..” followed by a loud thud, “Ouchh, Lilli, that hurt!”
“So stop spitting out such cringy words, and let me speak! They are likely just going to fight demons! … What were you even thinking about attacking such a large group.”
“Alright, alright, calm down, Lili!”
The female voice came once again, this time focused on them, “Ehmm, who are you and what is your intent on entering this territory!”
Zeus looked at his sister, but she crossed her arms with no intention of speaking, so he just sighed and spoke instead, “We are here to join his draconic Highness Vesuvius. We are expected here!”
“Haha, anyone can say that.” the annoying male voice came again, and Zeus felt his pressure rise in irritation.
Hera saw her brother tightly gripping his halberds, feeling the crushing force of his grip rising as the metallic handles menacingly creaked like a submarine deep under the sea, and she could fully understand it, ‘They are so arrogant…’
Suddenly everyone went quiet as a large shadow covered them all. Everyone immediately looked up, seeing a colossal wyrm hovering in the red sky. Thick clouds were spread in all directions as the wyrm flapped their enormous wings covered in fiery veins, a powerful aura descending on them as if someone had put heavy bags filled with rocks on their backs.