“The early days of guilds battling for dominance were messy. The ones that suffered the most were the independent players. They were slaughtered ruthlessly for their gear and sometimes just for fun.”

  Taken from “Guilds, What Are They Good For?”

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 27, 00:15

  Torgon swore as the alerts went off showing attacks on multiple guild holdings. He fired off commands over the guild channels requesting scouts at each location. Over a hundred guild members gathered at the portals waiting on the reports to filter back. Torgon’s expression grew grimmer as each scout reported in.

  He looked up at the assembled players, ready for action. “Form up in groups of 10, we’re going through in every location at once. It looks like a probing or spoiling attack. The scouts are pushing out and looking for any signs of a trap, but we should be able to pull back easily if there is one.”

  Torgon led his group through the portal and moved to the edge of the village. Maybe 20 enemy players were taking pot shots at the automatons guarding the base and they lacked the numbers to make a serious push. He dropped into stealth and moved to engage the first target. A double-shot dropped the wounded man and his team pushed out to chase down their foes. Torgon wasn’t happy with the harassment. The Young Master’s Alliance was obviously sneaking cannon fodder out to make them defend the outposts.

  All four attacks were dealt with in under 15 minutes and the groups pulled back to the guild base to discuss what happened. Hyperia crossed her arms and eyed Torgon, “This has the Midnight Maiden’s fingerprints all over it. They aren’t bothering to deal with us directly yet, but they plan on it. They’re going to keep pinging small groups off our holdings as “tests” for them while making us jump to their tune.”

  Torgon shrugged, “If it gets too annoying, we’ll just abandon them. We’re not short on resources and we’ll be securing higher tier nodes in the Broken Hills and the capital zones beyond. Plus, they’re going to be defending far more than we are. Get your teams together and head out to fight the undead. It won’t hurt to practice night fighting. We’ll add a 50 man quick response force that will craft until needed here. It’s time to take the fight to the Young Master’s and see how well they like their members dying mysteriously in the night.”

  The groups formed and began taking the teleports to their destinations. Three hundred guild members headed to the Broken Hills to start farming undead. Not everyone had low-light vision, but they would all be training the skill as soon as they possibly could. Stabitha volunteered to run the quick response force and that left Torgon free to head towards Carter’s Bluff with his team.

  The five groups traveled together through the darkness pushing their stealth and running skills to the limit. Despite benefitting from the low-light vision skill, they often stumbled on roots or ran into tree branches traveling through the dense forest at speed. It took only an hour for the groups to push into the edge of Carter’s Bluff territory. They spread apart, taking off in different directions to maximize the damage each team could inflict.

  It didn’t take long for Torgon and his group to find their first customers. A party of five players from a minor guild tied to the Young Master’s Alliance were hunting wolves in the dark. They were being very careful, and it was obvious that they couldn’t see that well in the dark. Torgon whispered, “Kill the tank when he pulls, then pick the rest off when they panic. When they’re down, we’ll finish the wolves off, loot everything and move on.”

  The tank for the enemy group pulled three wolves and then found himself at respawn with ten arrows hitting him all at once. Predictably, the other players tried to run when their tank died immediately. They had no idea what happened and now the wolves were among them. Soon they all sprouted feathers from the arrows that killed them. Allestor and Steve moved out, searching for their next targets as the others quickly looted the scene.

  This continued for nearly two hours, and they accounted for more than twenty small parties. Mark sent word that a group of 50 hostile players went into the woods and suggested that they all meet up to deal with them. Torgon gave the order and soon all five teams converged on where the group of Red Hat Raiders were advancing on the location where Mark’s people had previously ambushed a hunting party.

  Each group picked targets, planning out their primary, secondary and tertiary targets so that no arrows would be wasted. The Raiders examined the area, acting like they were trying to pick up a trail. Torgon knew that it was unlikely they had anyone specialized in tracking and even more unlikely that a tracker could break through their stealth. It almost looked like they were imitating what they had seen in vids, just hoping to get lucky.

  He sent the command to start the attack and arrows flew. The Raiders spun around, trying to locate the attackers and in a few short seconds they were down to just 35 members. They panicked and charged towards the city and the presumption of safety. Allestor pushed forward with about twenty players to form a line and bottle them up. Arrows kept raining on their rear and the superior melee skills of the Risk of Injury players dispatched them quickly. They looted the bodies and faded away into the night.

  The groups split apart, hunting the small parties and single gatherers from the Young Master’s Alliance. Torgon wanted to show them that the night belonged to Risk of Injury. Between the teams, hundreds of players that supported their enemies lost their lives and gear. As dawn neared the pickings became very slim.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Kate called the team over to a ridge and motioned for everyone to lay low and observe. They peered over the rise and saw around thirty figures sneaking carefully towards the direction of Miller’s Crossing. Curiously, none of these players were flagged as members of a guild. Torgon messaged the other groups to move closer but not to engage. The players were doing their best to use stealth, but it seemed to Torgon that either they weren’t actually trained in the skill, or it wasn’t leveled at all.

  Behind the sneaking independent players, a group of nearly 100 heavily armed players from the Heirs of Destiny, the lead guild in the Young Master’s Alliance, appeared. They were moving quickly and searching the area. They hadn’t spotted the independent players, but it was just a matter of time.

  Allestor looked at Torgon and Torgon nodded to him. They both passed the word to all the groups to switch to the AoE arrows and get ready to open the ambush. The hostile players spotted the independents and started shouting. They ran forward, completely fixated on the target in front of them.

  Torgon rose up and shouted, “Fire!” The Risk of Injury players unleashed a rain of explosive arrows that lit up the scene with fire and flame. They killed over 80 of the Heirs of Destiny players with the first volley, giving them time to switch to single target arrows to finish off the survivors. The independent players were stunned and frozen, witnessing their unexpected rescue.

  Torgon waved to them, “Greetings! Anybody that’s not a friend of the Young Master’s Alliance might be a friend of ours and we won’t let potential friends suffer at the hands of definite enemies. We’re heading in the direction of Miller’s Crossing. Would you all like to join us so we can trade information?”

  After a brief discussion, one of the independents stepped forward and spoke, “I’m Klaus von Carlwitz. We’re just a bunch of players fed up with the rules in Carter’s Bluff. We’ve heard that Miller’s Crossing doesn’t have access restrictions to the auction house and players don’t have to sell all their gathered goods to the main guild at insanely low prices. Is that true?”

  Torgon scoffed and said, “It’s true. I’m Torgon. The guild leader of Risk of Injury. There are zero restrictions on trading in Miller’s Crossing and it’s a load of crap if the Younger Master’s are trying to impose them elsewhere. We’ll give you guys an escort into the city since I think we’ve worn out our welcome here.”

  They looted the field and spread their formation around the group, encouraging them to move at speed. Mark’s team dropped behind just in case, but the trip back to Miller’s Crossing was uneventful. During the run, they talked about the current conditions inside Carter’s Bluff and it was worse than they expected.

  The Young Master’s Alliance, in the name of defending the starting towns from the monster armies, imposed strict resource quotas on players. Anyone leaving the city had to pay coins or resources on their return. Smaller guilds were told to sell their gathered goods at rock bottom prices or face being killed off if they ventured outside. Anyone who didn’t comply was harassed inside the town to the extent that they could get away with. No one was allowed to run a market stall without paying protection money and lines of players prevented free access to the trading house. In short, they were stunting the development of any possible enemies and attempting to turn them all into gathering and crafting slaves.

  Klaus and his friends had become fed up and decided to try and make a break for the one starter zone inside the Kingdom of Thorn not controlled by the Young Masters. They were grateful for the save and looking forward to actually being able to do what they wanted to in game. Morale in the occupied zones, as they referred to them, was low for anyone not directly a part of the guilds in control. Those guilds quickly chewed through all but the bullies and bootlickers. People were still logging in for now, but they just stuck to their minimal personal houses or doing minor quests around the towns. All the major quests and outside hunting was ruthlessly controlled.

  Torgon processed the information then quickly filled the rest of the guild leadership in. A strong sense of outrage permeated their conversation as they discussed ways to take advantage of the situation. Torgon mulled what he knew about their foes over in his head before coming to a decision.

  Torgon began addressing each of the team in turn, “Hyperia, just how many people do you think we can support inside the guild right now before it becomes unwieldy, assuming 80% of our leadership remains the players that are permanently online.”

  She checked her notes in between undead pulls in the broken hills and came back with a number. “We can handle 5 or 6 thousand Torg. It would be a strain, particularly for the crafting end of things, but we have the capability and it would get better quickly as people adapt and increase their own skills. What sort of ridiculous scheme are you thinking of?”

  Torgon ignored her question and moved to Ovarrix. “Can we handle stripping our clear groups down to say 75 or 80 people and then powerleveling our fresh permanent residents?”

  Ovarrix responded immediately, “Yes, easily. I think we could run 50 solid fighters, 20 ok fighters and then 30 that are complete noobs or not good at combat at all. They could up their skills quickly and then bank as much of the free experience from quest turn ins as they can handle. When our top fighters grow stronger, we can peel them off and form new teams to speed it up. It should be self-sustaining.”

  “Would it still work if we put them on rotations through the roaming pvp squads?” Torgon asked.

  “Yeah Torg, it should,” Ovarrix answered. “Our people are coasting right now. We’re just grinding experience and loot. This isn’t a challenge at all.”

  “That’s welcome news,” Torgon said. “Allestor, if you put one good leader type with a squad of 9 others, how many different pvp teams do you think we can manage right now?”

  Allestor scratched his head before speaking to Torgon directly and through the group chat, “I’d vouch for ten team leaders right now assuming we don’t pull any off the farming. If they’re careful we can get a lot of the players blooded and teach them how to hunt superior numbers. If we up the team sizes we can cycle more players through, but it will increase our chances of being caught and killed if we run into large groups.”

  Dusty piped up, “Need me for anything Torg?”

  Torgon laughed, paused then spoke, “Dusty, if people join our guild in another starting zone, come to our base, then exit the base will they be in their original zone or in Miller’s Crossing?”

  “Miller’s Crossing,” she replied. “When they join a guild that has an established base, it resets their personal anchor even if they’ve never visited the city before.”

  Torgon rubbed his hands together in glee. “Perfect! I have a cunning plan.”