The steel-clad, black-scaled dragon flapped its wings to boost its glide high above the archipelago. On its back, holding a gilded, ornate rein and whistling a pop melody was its rider, Anika, from the Starfall Organization.
The wind blew softly on her face, waving her golden, lush hair unencumbered by the masterfully crafted, winged tiara resting under her arms.
She took that brief moment of peace to gaze at the scenic view slowly passing by under her dragon’s wings.
To her, that was a brilliant, half-manmade set of islands, and it was unconquered for a reason: Dante had spent a gargantuan amount of gold and manpower to artificially surround the indigenous islands with many smaller ones. Such a bold and risky plan was only doable given how shallow the ocean was there.
But Dante was no more. Only two players remained from the Big Three, and they were to fight each other for that place.
Whoever ended up claiming the archipelago would get a stronghold for life, or until he or she ended up punching the president of the company in the face.
“In my case, that would be the equivalent of me punching myself in the face,” Anika wondered aloud, and that thought made her laugh at herself.
Smokey turned its head, grinned as much as a dragon could, and puffed a ball of smoke.
“You liked my joke too,” she said, petting her dragon-friend on its lower neck.
Anika couldn’t describe how much she loved her scaly, winged, and intimidating lizard companion. If she had to choose between her husband and Smokey, she would think about it for at least a second.
But it was no longer time to digress and indulge in her achievements. Her fleet was finally approaching the first set of islands.
In the meantime, the three islands chosen to be conquered first were being harassed by a thousand players attacking from the back of their flying mounts. They were the Winged Divisions of Starfall, an elite unit of highly skilled players specialized in quick, deadly airborne strikes.
And they were killing it. The garrison on those fortresses was so busy fending off the Winged Divisions that dozens of Starfall’s large ships were able to dock safely. An avalanche of players jumped ship and swam, flew away on their mounts, or used some item to surf the waves or glide toward the shores.
“Down, Smokey,” Anika ordered with a soft pull of the rein.
The dragon puffed a breath of black smoke, its signal of acknowledgment. It soon lowered its head and adjusted its wings to decrease altitude, but also gained speed during a short dive.
Without a word from its master, Smokey began to slow the dive to maintain the previous speed set by Anika. They were getting close to the main forces on the shores of the W1 island (the codename Starfall was using for the westernmost island of the archipelago).
Anika raised her spear as soon as she and Smokey got close to the main army. Her arrival was received with claps, whistles, and shouts from her subordinates.
The dragon’s talons sank deep on the bright and warm sand of the beach. Hundreds of players gathered around her, all carrying the same confident expression. The others, on the other hand, stayed close, watching the surroundings for any sign of danger.
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Then a loud screech preceded the arrival of another high-level, steel-clad warrior. A huge, four-winged gray lion landed on her left, and its rider dismounted in a jump.
His name was Trigo, and his armor was so heavy that his greaves sank eight centimeters into the sand. But they were soon lifted with an effortless motion, as Trigo walked off the beach, toward the firm ground close to the trail leading to the W1 fortress.
Still on her mount, Anika joined him and stood by his side as he said, “The first part of our plan was a success all thanks to our Winged Division. They all followed their orders to a tee. So you can’t depend on them for anything else from now on. They’ll keep doing their job during this assault. But now it’s your turn to fulfill your roles in this epic invasion.” Trigo took a brief pause before continuing. “Now, to our leader.” He ended with a sly wink.
Everyone’s attention turned to the legendary dragonrider.
“Thank you, love,” Anika said to her husband. “We’ve been here before many times. So I want you all to remember the pain we had to endure because of those failures. But this time, we’ll use all that experience and pain to finally take all these goddamn islands. Dante is no more, and so is Juliet. There is no Dark Age, only us. There may be some Red Crows in our way, but we’ll smash them to pieces just like the Starfall we are.”
To Anika’s surprise, cheers and applause began to reverberate, spreading from the edges to the center of the crowd. Even Trigo was clapping and whistling. And when all that commotion subsided, she was lost for words. The speech she had rehearsed was gone from her memory without even saying goodbye.
“All right. You know what to do. Let’s go, go, go!” was all she had to say after blanking out.
***
Starfall’s arrival was the natural outcome of Crown’s worst fears. They took so long to capture the first islands that his enemies had time to claim the western portion of the archipelago. That way, they could turtle themselves inside those walls to drag this conflict into a long, unpredictable stalemate.
Since the encounter with Anika, the Red Crows had captured a total of eight fortresses out of the fifty spread throughout the Storm Islands. Brazil’s number one summoner still wondered what would happen if they attacked her back then.
But it was obvious. He would have tarnished his name, his legacy. Crown would be the one who killed a rival after reaching a consensus on how the game would be played. Violating fair play was a big deal in the big leagues.
Leaving that thought behind, Crown reached the stairway of A4 fortress and climbed it by skipping one or two steps with each pace. Using his mount was a possibility, but the peaceful moment was an opportunity to leave it resting.
Atop the fortress, near the battlements facing westward, he met with ten of his generals and a few other important players. Crown then opened the holographic map of the region and shared it with all of his colleagues.
“We were able to secure the main fortress of the eastern quadrant and all its adjacent strongholds. That means we are safe for a while. I highly doubt that Anika would risk an early assault. If I know that pretentious poser as much as I think I do, she’s just doing this to annoy me. She wants to make this as hard for me as she can.”
“That can’t be right, can it?” Gust said, raising an eyebrow.
“She can be quite stubborn when she wants to,” Revel said, standing at Crown’s right. He was the main swordsman on Red Crow’s professional team.
“He’s right,” Crown emphasized before continuing, “In summary, we’re now in a stalemate. We did the smart thing in taking this region. Now all our forces are sheltered from any incoming assault. We have to stay here for a while, otherwise we would be exposing ourselves too much. So, my friends, hold your fortress and keep an eye out for any sign of danger.”
They all agreed, called their mounts and made their way toward their respective strongholds.
“Now, we wait,” Crown said, resting his hands on a section of the battlements. Gust did the same, while Revel leaned back and gazed at the clouds.
A message popped up, and Crown opened it in a hurry when he saw it was from one of his scouts.
“They’re rushing.” Those words summarized the content of the message, but his two colleagues were occupied reading the report posted on the guild chat.
Crown gazed at the gorgeous landscape before him, then said, “Getting a little anxious, Anika?”
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