The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame by Brent Roth

the combat swimmer stroke offered an excellent combination of speed and stealth in addition to being less taxing on the body in terms of distance and effort.
    Using a breaststroke to cross the two mile distance was out of the question, seeing how it involved much larger muscle groups in both the chest and back. The amount of energy that stroke required was probably at least double that of the CSS. Freestyle on the other hand was faster but was hardly stealthy with all of the splashing and that was the last thing that I needed.
    My objective was to reach the edge of the village undetected in the middle of the day with the sun shining directly above. The center of the river was relatively deep and dark at around eight feet and allowed me an opportunity to dive if by chance an enemy combatant happened to wander nearby.
    Roughly twenty feet across at its widest, this river was actually of fairly good size as well. That meant the logs blocking our path would most likely be full-sized trees, possibly cut down to size but probably not.
    Gliding through the water on rough four-counts with the current aiding me the entire way, the nearly two-mile swim took less than thirty minutes as I began to slow my pace. Having neared the village sooner than expected, I kept my body underwater while risking a peek at the surrounding players.
    Thirty feet out from the village walls, two players or NPCs were fishing along the shore while the rest of the roamers had stayed by the outskirts, assembling what looked to be a tower. Without a shadow to hide under, the only option going forward was to dive to the murkier bottom and hope that the fishermen weren’t staring directly at my path.
    Taking a deep breath and diving towards the bottom, I turned face-up as my back gently brushed against the relatively smooth rocks that littered the riverbed. Eyes blurred by the water and the refracting sunlight that lightly pierced through it, I remained still as the current pushed me along.
    Watching for the shadows of the two men, a fishing hook brushed against my shoulder as the current pushed me downstream and away from the danger. Ten feet past the fishermen, I slowly ascended to the surface to take a breath and began to survey the location once more.
    Fifteen feet away sat a pile of logs, easily thirty feet across with an end on either end of the riverbank. It was a simple structure of round logs laid down on top of another as a way to bar entry. A literal bar across the water’s surface, as the underside was left unobstructed. The river passed freely beneath the logs and only boats were denied.
    Voices could be heard all around me as I quietly inspected the logs to try and figure out the best way to disable or remove them. Then the thought occurred to me that the best way would be the natural way. Far too many in number to pick up individually and carry without being noticed, all one had to do was shift them slightly and wait for them to fall into the river. If rolled properly, they would simply float downstream.
    We used this method to move logs in the North, as they do in real life much the same. A simple method that could be carried out by one superhuman individual.
    That was the plan for now, at least for the eastern wall.
    Ducking under the logs and moving inside the village while staying as low as I possibly could, I swam along the bottom of the river to the other side and began to inspect the ocean wall that they had assembled.
    This one was far larger but had been constructed in the same fashion with little holding it together except for two logs angled sideways as a brace, letting the weight of the logs that had been piled on top of each other in a pyramid fashion take care of the rest.
    Resting with my body concealed underneath the log structure and head hiding behind the cracks, I watched as a few players and NPCs walked by. Conversations about their days reached my ears. They talked of their hunting plans, their dungeon plans, and even about