POV ???:
The sky turned black so suddenly that no one could tell when that happened. The massive bolts of blue and gold lightning were striking across it, accompanied by bright flashes of light and loud bangs.
“Let’s go! This is our opportunity!” A player with the TommyTopony nametag above his head ran as fast as he could, moving down the wide main street. The armored steps of guards were quickly approaching, and his breathing was turning faster in fear.𝑶𝔳𝗅xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
“Are you sure? This can end up very badly.” He ignored his cowardly friends, his heart beating in greed, ‘They are all cowards. They would rather live forever in mediocrity than grab an opportunity when it is right before their noses.’
The large and bulky silhouettes of the kobolds, fully armed, ran opposite of them, their armor and weapons loudly clanging.
He held his breath as he saw the red runes on their heavy-looking, black metal armors, and polearms glow within the darkness.
‘No, they can’t know.’ He stopped, feeling the eyes of his friends on his back.
He and his party stopped and bathed their breaths as the heavily armed kobolds in their black armor marched down the street around them. They were all large, their horned helmets screaming at them with a dominant aura.
One kobold stopped, staring straight at them with its brightly glowing, reptilian eyes. It deeply inhaled the surrounding air, its polearm slowly rising.
However, suddenly another loud bang shook the city, sending tremors through their whole bodies.
The kobold lowered its weapon and joined the rest of the kobold, quickly vanishing behind the street corner with the sound of armored greaves and the clanging of armors growing more distant with each passing second.
“Hahaha, let’s go!” Tommy waved his axe with joy towards his goal. The tall, dark citadel was already so close that they could feel the pressure of its tall, smooth walls.
Tommy and his party of four ran as fast as they could, their hearts beating with greed. The tall towers of the massive citadel built out of smooth black stone were getting closer and closer.
‘What treasures are hiding there?’
He saw the still-blazing aftermath of the explosion flickering behind his back, the shouts of the civilians and guards reverberating through the streets.
‘All guards will be gone, and I will have a chance to swoop in and steal everything! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!’
Suddenly his whole body froze, the sky even turning darker, everything getting submerged in a such deep darkness that it looked like during a night. Their bodies froze, their legs glued onto the ground as their knees trembled.
The powerful aura pushed them toward the ground. He saw his fellow party members all falling and toppling down, the air becoming so heavy that they felt like they held whole houses on their shoulders.
“Fuck!”
A bright golden and purple light blazed between the clouds, partially revealing a black silhouette hidden within them.
“It is the dragon! The dragon is back!” His friends all cried in horror and panic.
‘No, it is still not lost. We have done nothing, yet!’
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon watched the whole city from his bird-like perspective. His eyes burned in bright golden flames of anger. The whole city stopped, frozen by his sheer presence. He felt the wyrm not far away, hovering even higher above the clouds.
His domain expanded out of his body, moving and flooding everything like an unstoppable wave. He felt every single living being within the city below him.
His eyes stopped at a small group of players, the only group moving in the opposite direction. They were all loudly breathing, their pulses higher than the rest of the players.
‘They are suspicious. They are moving in the opposite direction. Also, their bodies are screaming with panic and fear, they are afraid of something.’
It was more than unusual behavior for players. Players were seeking thrill, action, and the rewards that came with them. They would never run from an explosion. Instead, they would run towards it with open arms.
Vesuvius waved his hand, and powerful winds loudly howled as they grabbed the players. Their bodies lifted from the ground, rising higher and higher as if they were made of paper.
Their heartbeats were becoming even faster than before as they flailed with their arms and legs like drowning, but it was all in vain.
The ground was growing more and more distant, the temperature of the air around them becoming hotter as they moved closer and closer towards the dragon.
They stopped deep within the black clouds.
POV The Suspected Players:
Tom was shaking, desperately looking around, but there was nothing except for the impenetrable black sea of black clouds. The air was blazing as if they stood beside an open blast furnace.
“Tell me, what was your plan?” A voice boomed out of nowhere, hitting them from all directions with incredible pressure.
Tom was in a panic, knowing there was no way for them to escape with their strength, “Ehh, we were going to hide…”
“Nonsense! Don’t lie to me, human!! Why would you want to run away? Don’t you want those sweet rewards that you immortals are always talking about?”
Tom looked at his friends, but they were as deadly pale as him, ‘This is bad, they want to blame for the explosion. But I can’t just admit that I just wanted to use the situation as a distraction for me to rob the city citadel.’
He was just hanging, high above the city, with nothing behind, above, and under him, nothing except for the black clouds, smoke, and ash.
“Damn you! You don’t want to speak? In that case, rot in jail! We will see for how long you can keep your mouth shut!”
Tom panicked, the invisible force was pushing his body down from the sky, sending him and his party straight towards the citadel. It was a nightmare.
Getting killed was nothing compared to being imprisoned for who knows how long. With the changes that happened, they couldn’t even erase their characters. All they could do was hope that someone would free them or release them.
‘At least, it gives us more time to think about some convincing lie.’