Free The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen by Brent Roth

nothing new really.
    And thus, I laughed.
    They were stuck together, and without a tank they would be hard-pressed to find a replacement willing to join a group that already started clearing. The fact they lost their tank was a pretty bad sign, regardless of who was right or wrong. It meant that the party failed in some aspect, and no one wanted to take those kinds of risks going forward.
    Especially not tanks, not when they were valued commodities.
    Healers and tanks were always few in number compared to the damage dealing classes, so we always had more control when it came to choosing parties. We were in demand, damage dealers weren't… it was simple economics.
    "Let me get this straight," I said after some time. "I'm the asshole for wanting to leave a party that's been insulting and raging at me almost non-stop?"
    "Yeah," the caster shot back immediately. "You're screwing me over by leaving."
    "And I should care about you… why?" I asked playfully.
    "See this guy's just a douchebag," chimed in the archer.
    "He seriously sucks, he's lucky we even invited him," followed up the priest.
    The only one who had yet to say anything was the other caster, but he was nodding his head silently in the back. Either way, the situation was now one versus four.
    "Hmm, so after running your mouths, you now expect me to tank for you?" I asked seriously. "And, let's just clear the air here while I'm at it. I'm the trashy shitty noob, pathetic dumbass asshole selfish douchebag tank, who is supposed to care about your wasted time? I mean, gee, how could I ever not want to tank for you!"
    "You're seriously bad," said the priest. "You take so much damage, learn how to play kid. You can't even position properly. I've never seen someone so bad in my life."
    "Ah yeah, that damage," I laughed out. "Those five arrows that struck me and those two fireballs that hit me… you know, I wonder where those came from."
    "Learn to play scrub before you talk back to me," replied the priest, visibly angry.
    "Yeah, you got in my way so you got hit, retard," said the archer.
    I started laughing again at how ridiculous the conversation was. They were using all of the basic insults that every immature person used on the internet. The best part was that they were clearly five to ten years younger than me, and were calling me a kid.
    I loved it, I really did.
    The only problem… the main problem, and the reason I avoided players in the past was because I thrived in these types of situations. I loved PvP, and I absolutely loved beating sense into trash talkers. I couldn't really stand them personally, and hated being around them… but once I got going, it was a bad habit of mine.
    Yeah, I was regressing already.
    The whole time the conversation had been going on, I was patiently biding my time as my health and mana gradually returned… my bad habit was about to show.
    It wouldn't be long, now.
    As I started to circle around the party, I continued the conversation while my health slowly recovered. "You guys are just the best, really," I said sarcastically as I continued to pace around them. "Between all of those great heals I was receiving, I mean, I was just basking in that holy light you know, fucking radiating from all those heals, and the accuracy of our damage dealers, with a dozen or more arrows stuck in the wall over there and those loose fireballs… I really do need to step my game up. I'm just not up to par compared to you guys."
    I was starting to have a little too much fun, and in the back of my mind I knew it was wrong but I couldn't help it. I strived to be an honest, kind person… but everyone has buttons that shouldn't be pushed. My biggest issue, was my lack of patience when it came to trash talkers, and now… I had completely regressed.
    Ah, they were all going to die.
    My anger had woken from its slumber and reared its head.
    "Man, no wonder this kid was looking for a group, he's so toxic," said the priest.
    "He's just mad because he sucks at