The Bathrobe Knight (13 page)

"Damn her," Maddock growled. "Let’s go! Move! Sword!" he shouted, taking on the voice of a commander leading a battle he was sure would come now. A burly Minotaur quickly passed him a massive Two-Handed Sword and then then charged off down the street with the others quickly following. Ahead of him, he could see the Minotaur unstrap his own Double-Bladed War Axe from his back as he charged towards the town square. Above him, he could see the fiery dragon turn upon itself for the final time and begin plummeting towards the ground at a frightening speed.

"Brace!" Maddock shouted. The group unanimously slid to a halt and threw up arms to cover their eyes and noses. The dragon crashed into the bindstone, sending barrels of flame pouring down the adjacent side streets. Rivers of ash flurried in the flames’ wake, driven by the tremendous wind generated from the spell.

Standing up and moving into the square he could see Elaine's small form crouched over the charred form of a dead player, looting its corpse. She was quickly joined by the rest of the group who made quick work of relieving the dead of their goods. A fountain nearby hissed steam upwards into the night, its waters completely evaporated in the aftermath of the massive fire spell. Small fires still burned in various places throughout the area, and he was sure at least one building would soon catch fire as well. The walls of all the structures facing the square were charred black beyond recognition.

"Seriously, Elaine?" he asked as he trotted by her.

"They should have been wearing fire resist!" She giggled in response.

"Xane! Bear!" Maddock shouted, turning towards the two towering Minotaurs who had just finished looting the last of the dozen corpses that lay littered about the space. "You two stay here and camp the bindstone. Don't let anyone who respawns make it out. The last thing I want is a bunch of newbies bind rushing us over and over. Everyone else with me!"

He turned and ran into the merchant's’ quarters with the rest of the group following closely behind. "Elaine, which Blacksmith's shop did you purchase those Axes at?" he asked as he ran down the street.

She quickly veered off from the group and stopped in front of the door to a shop. Placing the head of her Staff against the door, he could hear her mutter a few words of power, and the door flew backwards off its hinges. She took a step back and bowed slightly with a wave of her arm gesturing inwards.

"This girl and her theatrics,"
he thought as he stepped into the shop. The rest of the group continued on outside, and he soon heard the battering of other doors as they went to work looting the rest of the shops.

Stepping into the shop, Maddock was surprised to find a burly Blacksmith staring at a smoldering door which had come to rest behind his counter. The artisan's look quickly changed from one of shock to anger as he saw the man forcibly entering his workplace.

"I've no idea what yer playin’ at, comin' into mah shop in the wee hours of the morning like this, but I won't be havin’ it!" He grabbed a large Hammer from where it sat nearby on an anvil.  It was clear from the size of the Blacksmith's arms and chest he had spent many long hours pounding away with that tool fashioning weapons.

With a yell the Blacksmith rushed forward swinging at Maddocks head. Not quite expecting this sudden turn of events he was forced to duck under the other man's swing and side step further into the shop. The area was too small to properly wield his massive Two-Handed Sword, so he was forced to drive it tip first down into the floorboards and draw a Long-Knife from his belt instead.

The blacksmith turned and swung wildly, catching Maddock on his opposite shoulder with what felt like a crushing blow. He hadn't heard any bones break but that didn't mean much. The resulting force from the blow drove him back a step until his back was pressed up against the counter.

He quickly ducked down under the Blacksmith's next swing and stabbed at the area above the man's knee. The knife easily cut through muscle and tendons, severing the man's ligaments. The Blacksmith roared in pain as he wrapped his massive arms around Maddock's body from above, clearly intent on crushing the life out of him if he couldn't first beat it out.

Maddock struggled against his grip but it was no use. The Blacksmith had spent too many hours pounding away at his forge, and his grip was too strong. Getting his feet back under him, Maddock suddenly shoved forward and threw their combined weight against the Blacksmith's bad knee. The two went over backwards into a heap and Maddock rolled free towards the door to the shop, quickly coming up into a crouch with his Knife in hand.

The Blacksmith lay dead, still clutching his Hammer. His head had been split open as he fell by the blade of the Sword Maddock had left planted in the floor. Maddock walked over and wiped off the blade of his Knife on the dead body before returning it to his belt. Planting his foot on the face of the dead Blacksmith, he gave a quick tug and pulled his Sword free to a sick sucking sound.
"Consequences."

Glancing around the shop, it was easy to spy out the shop's Coin box. He quickly gathered all the Coin from it and began the process of looting all the weapons and materials he thought would be useful from around the shop as well. Outside, he could finally hear the sound of fighting now.
"The town must finally be waking up."

Walking back into the street and turning towards the center of town he was greeted with a grisly sight. It looked like most of the town’s inhabitants hadn't been as prepared as the Blacksmith was. Bodies littered the street. Most of them were half clothed, and few of them looked like they had even tried to put up a fight. Piles of charred remains gave him a good indication that Elaine had taken out more than a few of them. Up and down the street, buildings were starting to give up to her unholy fires. Flames were starting to burn on several roof tops and smoke was beginning to billow out from the doors and windows of several others. It probably wouldn't do enough damage to raze the buildings entirely, but it was definitely going to cause a mess.  

Maddock couldn't help but smile to himself as he walked back into the center of the town. The area around the bindstone had become a kill zone that no one was going to make it out of alive. The charred black ground was a desolate backdrop to a blood stained patchwork of blood, bodies, and discarded weapons. Flames from the burning buildings cast an eerie flickering glow that bathed the area in a Hellish light.

The two massive Minotaurs, Xane and Bear, had clearly been proficient at camping the bind point. The pair was now happily dancing around the broken bodies of players who had yet to wait out their respawn timer, taunting them as they did so. Off to the side of the square closest to where they had originally entered, several others of his small cadre had were quickly piling looted goods into the bed of a wooden wagon.

When he was planning tonight's raid, he had never intended to let things get this far out of hand. Raiding into the heart of a player-controlled city was something no other Guild had attempted so far--at least as far as he knew. That's part of the reason he had wanted to lead the raid. The Guild was far from starved for cash or resources. He had no doubt that the small company was probably as rich as many of the larger Guilds playing the game.

The problem was that there were only so many mobs a man could kill without being bored. Who could possibly want to stray from zone to zone and camp to camp all day long killing mobs? The AI was exceptional. There was no doubt about that. No fight ever proved to be the same even against the same mob type. In the end, however, who remembered the farmers? There weren't signs erected over buildings proclaiming who donated the most to build up a town. There were no statues built to Zergling No. 132, who helped win a battle. No one ever sang the ballad of "The Man Who Spent His Time Killing Bears in the Newbie Forest" or "The Guy Who Finished His Quest First." So why bother? The way Maddock figured it, you could either spend five hours farming mobs or five minutes farming the farmers; and, so far, their farming efforts had paid off far better than anyone had expected.
"Plus this way I get to listen to them scream,"
he smiled to himself again.

A tall figure wrapped in a heavy, black cloak with the hood drawn noticed Maddock taking in the scene and quickly detached itself from the group that was loading items into the borrowed wagon. Walking towards him, the archer was careful to step around the broken remains of dead NPCs that weren't going to disappear. Coming to a stop in front of Maddock, the archer leaned casually on his inky black Bow.

"Looks like you got into a bit of a scuffle."

"Hah. Not really. Blacksmith wasn't as willing to part with his Coin as willingly as some of these others seemed to have been."

The archer laughed. "Hasn't been much of a fight, really. Most of the townsmen trickled in either one by one or in small groups and we cut them down pretty fast. None of the players have figured out yet that they can wait out their death timers and respawn at the same time, so they haven't even put up a proper bind rush yet."

"What scrubs," Maddock laughed shaking his head, "I can't believe it was this easy.  What happened to the rest of the Town Guard?"

"Oh, your favorite little pyromaniac has them trapped in the barracks. We found a couple of wagons near the tavern and used one of them to block the doors before they could ever get out. Elaine lit the building up, and we just left them there. Once we realized we might actually make it out with more loot than we could carry, we hauled the other one back here and began filling it up." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder indicating the wagon that was looking mostly full now. "We cleaned out every bit of gold, ore, or metal we could find. I doubt there's a useable scrap or decent weapon left anywhere in the town."

As he finished the report, Maddock could hear the delight in his voice. He couldn't see into the darkness behind the archer's hooded face, but he was certain the smile there matched his own.
I think he enjoys this as much as I do."

From across the square, he could see the lithe form of Elaine walking back towards them as she exited one of the adjacent side streets. She was accompanied by an enormous warrior who walked with his Two-Handed Axe propped over one shoulder and a giant Mug of what Maddock assumed was Beer in the other. Sitting atop the Axe was a Helmet, swaying slightly back and forth as the giant walked.

“It wouldn't be right to leave the bar without having a drink first!" The man called as he hoisted the Mug into the air. "Wouldn't want to be rude, now would we?" His laughter bellowed out before he took a long pull from the Mug. Beer sloshed out and ran down his face and onto his Armor as he walked.

"Looks like you've been having some fun." Maddock pointed to the Helmet riding atop the warrior's Axe.

The warrior grinned in response. "Found good ol' Captain Elmont at the tavern. We were happy to relieve him of it."

"What in the world are those two doing? Seriously?" Elaine asked, pointing to Xane and Bear, who were crouching up and down while standing over the fallen bodies of a couple of players.

"Looks like they're having some fun of their own," the archer laughed.

"Yeah, we're done here," Maddock said with a shake of his head. "Xane! Bear! Grab that wagon and let's get out of here!"

The two Minotaurs stopped their game and lumbered over to the wagon. Grabbing ahold of either side of the yoke, the pair began pulling it down the street and towards the town entrance. The archer quickly trotted out in front, assuming an easy pace to scout the way out, while rest of the small party fell in behind.

"The King's going to be pissed when he realizes he isn't getting his taxes this week," Elaine said as they walked out of the town gates.

"Or the week after," Maddock replied. "I guess he should have thought about that before pulling all the legions to the front and leaving such a small force here."
Consequences.

Qasin:

When Councilman Wilhelm entered the tiny, hole-in-the-wall room, his face went pale.
Didn’t expect me to know where your hideout was, did you? Didn’t expect me to be waiting for you, did you?

“Have you ever killed a man, Mr. Wilhelm?”

“. . .”

“Oh, don’t be shy. Councilmen are elected, and we both know what happens to saints in politics. That’s why we both know you didn't get elected without committing a few sins, right? I know you’ve taken bribes. I know you’ve given out bribes, and I know your actions have caused men to die. I’m just wondering if you’ve killed a man with your own hands. Have you tortured one? Have you committed adultery? Have you ever stolen anything?”

“What are you getting at, Qasin. I’ve done no such thing. I’ll have you kn--ahhh!!!” but before he could finish his sentence, the King had crossed the room and jammed a small Short Sword into Wilhelm’s shoulder, pinning his back against the wall.

“Do not lie to me again!” he shouted as he wrenched the Sword deeper through Wilhelm's shoulder and into the wooden wall behind him.

“You, you can’t do this. You won’t get away with this,” Wilhelm said as best he could, his face twisting in pain.
That’s right, pig. Squeel.

 “I already have. Now where were we? Oh yeah, have you ever stolen? Did you sleep with another man’s wife or did you sleep around on your wife? Have you ever actually killed a man with your own hands?”