98. The Aftermath
"Men seek to be great; they would have offices, wealth, power, and fame. They think that to be great is to possess one side of nature,--the sweet, without the other side,--the bitter." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
As soon as he respawned in Charic City, the closest walled city to Ecuas Citadel, Paul met the excited and smiling faces of most of the players who had been on the rampart for their final stand.
Although they eventually lost and died, losing the citadel and the battle, few seemed sad about it. Between the two waves of enemies that had assaulted their final stand, the nearly 40 players had killed well over 100 enemies, many of whom were from a guild group.
Perhaps some people felt like they could have won the last fight before resurrecting everyone and eventually taking back the entire citadel, but that was a fantastical idea for their group.
It gave almost no credit to the enemy players, who were, on average, better than them.