A Carrot and A Stick

POV Minion Players:

The massive herd of animals exited out of the narrow mountain passage, entering a wide valley with an enormous lake in its middle. The heavy rain from before turned into a light one, light refracting in raindrops, forming a giant rainbow in the sky. The whole valley was filled with verdant green grass with boulders sticking from it.

Suddenly multiple dark shadows passed above them. Everyone turned their heads up as all of the animals started to panic, stomping with their hooves.

Van-sized draconic beasts with shiny grey scall flew above them, quickly vanishing on the horizon.

Suddenly a light flashed through the valley, and all of the animals immediately calmed down.

"Well done, my minions!" suddenly, the deep and familiar voice of the elder wyrm came from a distance.

Everyone immediately noticed the massive wyrm crackling with electricity and with a thick haze of smoke drifting around it, standing on top of a tall natural stone pillar.

"Now I can breed my own army of wyverns, empowering our position in this region while giving you access to flying mounts.'

Suddenly all of the players lost their focus, looking into nothingness as everyone obtained a system notification.

"Grahh!" the wyrm suddenly opened his mouth, and an earth-shattering growl passed through the valley, causing the lake's surface and grass to ripple. All the players immediately froze, their bodies shivering under the sudden aura that washed over them, causing their hair to stand up.

Three massive draconic beasts, even bigger than wyverns, appeared from behind a stone formation surrounding the valley. Two of them were covered in hard black armour made out of black stone, with the last one being covered in beautiful shiny black scales with electrical tendrils flowing along their polished surface.

All the players immediately started to bicker, looking at the majestic beasts in front of them.

"Shit, those beasts are so cool!"

"Yes, gryphons can go eat their horse bird shit!"

They all stopped when one of their leaders, Booba, rushed towards the massive beast covered in volcanic armour with electricity crackling all around it.

"Wait, for us!" the fat dwarf ran after him, wobbling on his short legs as fast as possible.

Their female friend got out of her daze seeing her friend with spear already climbing on the draconic beast. She immediately sprinted behind them.

The crowd of players behind them also looked at the beasts, their bodies trembling in excitement.

A cacophony of envious voices erupted out.

"Damn, I wish that it was my party that won such a beast!"

"Their party is so lucky!"

"Just wait; next time, I will show you who the boss is here!"

Suddenly one player ran out, and as if it was a trigger, the remaining players rushed forwards like an avalanche.

The three beasts looked at the incoming crowd. Their eyes focused on the crowd with their magical aura radiating out of them and penetrating through the incoming players. They opened their mouths, flames and lightning flickering inside, and growled like rabid dogs, their bodies tense and ready to defend themselves.

The crowd immediately stopped taking a few steps back. Normally, they would be excited to fight, but the three beasts had blue dots floating above them, marking them as ally units, and fighting with allies would bring too much trouble.

Suddenly the cold and deep voice sounded as if it came from a cave's depth and hit them with incredible force, all of the hairs on their bodies rising as the invisible magical pressure pressed against them, "Calm down, my minions and stop provoking my dracodactyls! These beasts are only for those with the greatest merits from this expedition! Don't worry. You shall gain your own mounts once the wyvern breeding program brings its fruits in the form of their rising numbers!"

The wyrm stood there tall, at the stone pillar, when the wind around him moved, revealing his terrifying black armoured head with majestic horns and gold gilding. His reptilian eyes were looking straight at the players under him with a menacing golden glint, "For these of you that are loyal to me and respect my rules, I shall be generous."

The wyrm went quiet for a few moments letting the silence descend upon the valley, and the tension built up before continuing, "I have very few rules... but for those that can't uphold them, there is no place here for you."

The wyrm suddenly turned his long neck, looking towards an unassuming stone close to the dracodactyls. Then without any warning, the wyrm opened his massive mouth, and a strong gust of wind moved out, and the air around the stones trembled like the surface of the water.

Then suddenly, three figures in black mantles and wooden masks were revealed, ducking on the ground, their eyes under their masks going wide in surprise.

Before anyone could even speak, one of them already started to defend themselves, "Your Highness, this is a misunderstanding! We weren't trying to steal your dracodactyls or anything like that."

Suddenly the massive wyrm jumped from the stone pillar it stood on, causing cracks to spread through its surface and large boulders to fall down into the lake under the pillar, creating massive splashes of water.

The wyrm moved at an unexpected speed, its massive wings sending gusts of black smoke everywhere and revealing his large armoured body. He opened his enormous mouth filled with sharp teeth diving toward the three stunned players.

One of them swung his sword at the incoming beast, its blade clanging as it harmlessly slid off on the black stone armour.

The massive mouth filled with teeth closed on him, the huge and sharp teeth piercing through his body with blood filling the wyrm's mouth. The two remaining players could only shriek in terror as the two clawed reptilian hands descended upon them, crashing their bodies into red paste.

Suddenly the crowd of players erupted with cheers watching with excitement as their former colleagues got annihilated.

POV Vesuvius:

Vesuvius closed his mouth, enjoying the taste of the fresh juicy meat while looking at the cheering players, noticing a few individuals that got nervous, their sweating intensifying and their heartbeat increasing.

'It looks like there are a few more undesirable elements...' he gulped down the content of his mouth.

'To control my minions, I can't just give them a carrot. That way, they will soon go berserk and become uncontrollable. Neither can I just give them a stick, or they will just leave my faction. I need to balance this and eliminate all of the members that are either uncontrollable, spies or other undesirable elements right at the beginning before their standing increases too much.'

Vesuvius wasn't a fool. He knew that he needed his minions to follow his instructions, or they could cause more damage than good for him. He wasn't afraid of him not having any members.

'I want my organisation to be relatively small anyway... and my rules are still lax when compared to some more strict factions. Those that are unable or refuse to play by rules must be filtered out before they get too deep into my organisation and cause trouble later in the future.'

The dragon opened his mouth for the last time, "My minions, this shall be your warning! I am the master here! Serve me, and you shall be rewarded! Go against my order, and you are out! Betray me, and I will keep hunting you down, killing you over and over!"

Vesuvius wasn't afraid to show his minions the harsh part of his personality. From the very beginning, he planned to take on the role of a fair leader who rewards loyalty and punishes disobedience. Also, he was a boss for the players and bosses needed to act strong.

The dragon finally leapt from the ground flapping his massive wings and landing back on top of his pillar to guard the remaining dracodactyls until their winners: the punk guy and his goons and the insane fire guy, came back online.

The players stopped, enviously looking at Booba and his party, checking the beast they had won.

With the situation finally calming down, Vesuvius decided to check the three system messages that he suddenly got while scaring the players.

(AN: Sorry for not posting the chapter yesterday, I made this one a little bit longer. Also, I will, from now on, release the chapter one hour later as I need to rearrange my schedule.)