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NaNoWriMo, Day 4


Today is Day 4 of NaNoWriMo!

Busy day today, making it hard to get in writing time, but I will make my minimum count. I'm determined.

Yesterday was a far lower day than the past two, but what I wrote struggled to come out and I'm not even sure if I like it. but that's what the redrafting process is for ;). My total for day 3 of NaNoWriMo was 2,403 words! More than the min, so that's a plus. this brings me to 14,406 words out of the 50k goal. I'm already over a 1/4 of the way done, it's it only day 4. What am I going to do with myself if I finish early? Maybe I'll tackle another book :P

All passages were in order from yesterday's post, so here's what I wrote:

Ramos went to speak but bells began to ring through the town, and not just any bells, warning bells. A town crier ran through the streets. "To the West! To the West! An army assembles to the West."

The three of us looked at each other and then grinned when an urgent quest popped up in our menus. The big aspect that set Evenstar apart from other games, was the real-time quests. There were very few that lasted forever in your questing log, and those you failed to complete after accepting them, had negative consequences, so you had to be careful which ones you picked. These real-time quests extended into world quests such as town raids or hunts, and special limited time events.

We opened the request and read the personalized letter.

Dragon Lady Rinneth,

Our bustling town of Ravenward is under attack by an army of Orcs. We do not have the required army to defend ourselves from them. Please, valiant hero, lend us your aid in defending out town. Succeed, and you will be justly rewarded.

Sincerely,

Lord Marik of Ravenward

I accepted the quest at the sight of the gold reward, along with reputation gains with several NPC guilds and merchants. It'd come in handy in a town like this.

The moment I accepted the quest I was thrown into a raid group with all those who were joining in on the defense of the town.

"Watch out guys, Dragon Lady is here to steal our thunder!" someone jested.

"Warriors better watch your back," another said.

I chuckled. "You guys can fanboy later."

"All work, no play, dear?" a woman teased.

"Killing in playtime for me."

I switched my beast tamer type from Calacour to Dragona. My armor changed from leather to scales and mail, and my claw fist weapons re-equipped to large bladed first weapons. Zaro disappeared, and in his place I summoned a wingless Dragon-like lizard creature, I named Zeus.

"Oh boy, she's running her beast tamer spec," someone said. "We might as well sit down and watch the show."

A giggle escaped my lips as Ramos, Erin, and I headed for the west side of the town. "I do know how to share. I promise I'll leave a few Orcs for you guys."

The raid chat echoed with laughter. This is what I loved about the PvE community. It took me a while to be respected, but eventually I got to that point. PvP, no matter how much I wish it were different, didn't like to relent and be okay with something new. Even if I managed to get on a team, getting respect in that community would take quite some time.

The three of us ran past NPC townspeople who were being ushered towards the harbor for safety by the few guards of the town. My heart began to race with excitement. It didn't matter how many of these I did, I got excited every time.

"Hey, does anyone think this reward is a bit extreme for protecting such a small town?" someone asked. "I mean, I know it's an important town, but c'mon."

Erin, Ramos, and I made it to the west side of time just as he was asking and I was at awe by the force moving towards us.

"By the gods…" an older gentleman said next to us. "Boy, you won't be thinking it's all that extreme once you see this army."

"There's no time to hesitated," Ramos ordered. "Traps needs to be set and ranged DPS need to get into position immediately for when they come in range."

I smiled as those he made orders for moved without question. In these situations one person took it upon themselves to take charge, and no one questioned it. Ramos was a natural born leader, making him perfect for this job.

"These Orcs are moving faster than we can get these traps up," Erin said. "We're not going to be able to rely on them."

"Do what you can and then fall back to a safer distance," Ramos ordered. "Ranged, are you ready?"

"Yes," came the unison reply.

"Melee, get into position. Minority melee classes, do your best to spread yourselves out so we don't have too many knights and warriors clustered together. We're a little heavy on them this fight."

I ran with Ramos to line up in formation, Zeus taking up position between us. I crouched down in a spring ready position and waited for the advancing army. Someone took up position beside me and instantly became irritating with his constant bumping into me. Finally having enough I turned.

"Will you stop that?" I demanded. I was taken aback when my annoying line partner was a familiar Dwarf. "Thuldren?"

"Aye, lass, it be me," he greeted. "Ye rage bar looked rather low so I thought ye could use some to summon more of ye Dragona."

Just then my rage bar jumped up a bit. "Well I'll be damned. I didn't think you could annoy someone to build up their rage."

He chuckled. "I know a few things o' two about rage resource."

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I used the built rage to summon two more Dragona, Cerberus and Ryz.

"Well, as hard as it may be fer ye to believe, da team doesn't just do PvP all da time."

"I can't get rid of you guys, can I?"

"We be like a pack of bloodhounds. Hard to lose us."

I sighed. "Well, if you're useful in this fight, I'm not going to complain."

"We're out of time," Erin said. "We're falling back. We did manage to get enough traps out to slow them down in time for the ranged to get off some good attacks and allow the melee to close in the gap."

"Ranged, on the ready!" Ramos ordered. "Melee, get ready to advance."

My Dragona scratched the ground and tossed their heads in eager anticipation of battle.

Thuldren nudged me and kept his voice low. "Just between ye and me, that Dragona you have named Cerberus, that wouldn't happen to be a tamed version of da raid boss over in Marro Halls, would it?"

I chuckled. "It might be."

He whistled low. "How many deaths did that take?"

"I think it was around seventeen."

Thuldren chuckled and readied his short swords.

"What type of class you running?" I asked him.

"I be a multi-classer like ye, lass," he said. "This be my mystic rogue class."

I nodded. "I've never seen one in action. I'll be watching you closely."

He chuckled. "If ye joined da team, ye'd see it more often."

I rolled my eyes. There was that request again. I really wasn't convinced they actually wanted me on the team. Just then traps we set began to activate and the ranged DPS, damage per second, unleashed their assault. This slowed the army down, but didn't cripple them enough.

"Melee, advance!" Ramos ordered.

Our line slowly advanced into battle but it quickly turned into a charge when the Orc army pushed through the ranged attacks. I attacked every Orc in sight and soon lost both Thuldren and Ramos in the frenzy of battle. My Dragona were the only constant allies I had as the battle raged on.

A crimson knight slashed his way through the Orcs towards me. "Rinneth, duck!"

Instinctively I did and he swung his sword at an abnormally large Orc who had come up behind me. I looked at my savior to be shocked to see Vesser. "I can't get away from you, can I?"

"Oh, don't be like that." He cut down another Orc with his two swords. "It's not like we're following you. We were on our way to the area we're hosting the tournament when the quest popped up because we were flying overhead. Thuldren saw the Orc army and wanted in on the action."

"And you didn't?" I asked with skepticism.

"Well, I didn't care either way."

"Right." I maneuvered around him and took out two Orcs. Cerberus and Zeus took out two more next to me. "My answer is still no."

"Why?" he asked as he saved me yet again from an Orc coming at me from behind. "You have amazing talent. You were able to make Tyden look like an amateur when you don't have nearly as much PvP time scored up as us."

"He fought like am amateur," I countered.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You're acting like it wasn't a big deal, when it is because he wasn’t battling like some noob."

I consumed some of my built up rage and summoned several more Dragona. "You don't actually want me on your team."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because no one wants a chick on their team."

"We do. We don't discriminate like that."

"Dragons don't like females fighting."

He shut right up and I was sure I'd finally won the stupid argument. "It's a game, not real life."

I rolled my eyes. "Is that seriously your justification?"

"Yes."

"You are something else."

"We ranged DPS are running low on mana here," someone called in. If anyone has any ace in the holes, we'd be happy to have them."

"Hey, Dragon Lady," someone else yelled out to me. "Didn't they give you some special ability to go with that heroic title?"

I chuckled. "Actually, they did, and looking at my rage bar I have the power to summon it. I just need a will potion." Vesser tossed me one. "Never mind, I'm good. Hey, your holiness, you ready to pull a Dragon from under your skirt?"

The raid team laughed and Ramos signed. "I'll get you back for that."

I looked at Vesser. "Keep me protected. I need a few seconds to cast the ability."

He readied his swords. "With my life, Dragon Lady."

I couldn't help but laugh. My Dragona circled around me as I knelt down to work my summoning. I struggled to keep the summoning up as my will and rage depleted--the downside to this special summoning. Unlike normal class skills that used the resource and required no extreme effort to cast them, special event abilities like this required a great deal of concentration as a trade of for its seemingly "cheap" and "unbalanced" power.

Vesser valiantly kept the Orc army at bay. Last I knew his PvE time scored low, so the fact he was doing so well in this environment, truly impressed me.

I grinned when my summoning was ready and slammed my fists into the ground. Shortly after, a beam of light shot up into the air from where Ramos stood. Then the painstaking several second wait for the summonings to activate.

When the ground began to shake and the Orcs looked around with confusion, I grinned. The earth split and cracked all through the valley. Trees toppled over and players began to retreat in order to stay safe. At the same time the sky brew brighter until an enormous glowing dragon shot out of the atmosphere. The ground far in front of me burst and a wingless, armored Dragon raged out of the earth.

My summoned Dragon spewed hot lava from his mouth at the Orc army. The glowing Dragon Ramos summoned dove from the sky and swiped at the Orcs with its large talons and spiked tail. It picked several Orcs up and then dropped them when it reached several hundred feet up, and followed up an attack by shooting beams of light from its mouth.

The two Dragons raged and destroyed, and whatever enemy they missed, players picked off easily. Then, it was over. I sighed and relaxed where I sat, totally spent from the ordeal, while the others in the raid party cheered.

Vesser sat down a little ways off from me and sighed. "Well that was an interesting way to end a battle. You know how to keep the surprises coming."

"Don't get used to it." My messenger sounded off and I opened my menu to accept the event reward.

"C'mon, Rinneth, just give it a shot," Vesser urged.

"Why are you so insistent on me going through with this?" I asked.

He smiled. "Because I want you on my team."

"Then why not just attempt to sign me on?"

"Because a tournament is more fair to all high ranked players." He grinned. "And it means you can prove yourself to others that you're good enough."

I sighed and looked up at my summoned Dragon when he walked over. He lowered his and I touched his snout in thanks for his help. He then disappeared back into the earth.

"You have connections to a good PvP player," Vesser said. "Well, had. They haven't been active in some time."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"What would they think of you shooting down this opportunity?"

She'd think I'm being stupid… I sighed quietly and then activated my menu. "Fine, you win. I'll try out in your stupid tournament."

Vesser chuckled with triumph as I accepted the official invite and then stood up. "I'll see you in at the tournament grounds in thirty minutes."

I watched him walk off. "I can't believe I was just conned into that…"

"Did I hear that you accepted the invite?"

I looked back to see Ramos limping towards me. "Yeah. Still not sure how it happened."

Erin showed up out of nowhere, scaring me. "Sorry. Probably shouldn't have stealthed over."

"You think?" I said irritably.

"Did I hear right? You're actually going to try for the team?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Then we should get you fixed up and headed over to the tournament grounds. You don't want to be late."

I nodded and groaned as I stood up. Fighting after that battle sounded like a really stupid idea, but once healed, I'd change my mind.

Erin allowed me to lean on him and the three of us slowly made our way back into town before flying off to the tournament.

Chapter 4

(Vesser)

I looked around the tournament grounds to assess the players joining in on the tournament. Most weren't coming off as that impressive. I knew looks could be deceiving, Rinneth was a prime example of that, but I was very aware how many novice players were going to try to stake a foothold in the ranked PvP totem pole long before they're ready too.

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