I turned my attention back to the red guardian and hit the behemoth with every spell I had. I lit the ground on fire beneath his feet with Scorched Earth, zapped him with Arcane Lightning, and unleashed a barrage of flaming meteors. Tweak kept up his attack but was soon overwhelmed by two enemies who cut him down as he released one final spell. When he died, his purple monkeys went with him. Anna fell next, ambushed by an assassin.
Cecilia and Stormy leapt from beyond the shimmering veil and entered the battle with a vengeance. Together they danced through their opponents and unleashed a devastating series of strikes as our healers turned their attention on the two warriors. Nanaya suddenly burst from the murky depths and chomped down on an orc healer’s head, then pulled him into the water where she proceeded to spin and thrash, tearing the orc to pieces.
The Harvesters of Sorrow had opted to attack us on our own turf, which left their replacements two hundred yards away on the other side of the swamp. I had hoped that the swamp would slow them down a bit, but one of the replacements was a mage, and they used their power to freeze the swamp, allowing their teammates to easily run straight across it.
The battle played out for nearly a half hour, but we had gotten the jump on the red guardian and managed to kill it before the other guild could burn ours down.
“Holy shit that one was rough,” said Anna as we all gathered around the remnants of the red guardian.
“It’s only going to get tougher,” I said, and glanced at the game master. “Again!”
We spent the entire day practicing against the programmed guild, and we only lost three of the twelve battles. By the time we left, we were all exhausted, so we headed back to Cecilia’s place to get some rest and plan for the next day.
Soon we would have to face the real Harvesters of Sorrow, and I had a feeling it was going to be much harder.
Chapter 10
I woke up feeling good about the upcoming battle, and after a quick breakfast with my guild mates I went to the mage trainer to spend my new attribute points. After having him put them all in Spirit, I headed back toward the pub to meet back up with the rest of the guild.
“There he is!” I heard a very familiar voice call out, and I turned slowly in the middle of the street to find my mother and father running toward me.
“Mom? Dad? What are you doing here? And why do you both look 20 years younger?”
“We wanted to offer our support in your upcoming competition,” said my father.
“And we look younger, because why not?” said my mother. She did a little twirl, and her priestess robes flared out.
My father laughed, and I couldn’t help but gawk. He wore shiny silver warrior armor and carried a longsword. It looked like he had dropped about 30 pounds.
“You guys look great,” I said as my mother hugged me.
“Show us around the place,” she said as she glanced around in wonderment.
“Got anywhere good to eat around here?” My father asked. “I know none of this is real, but the hunger sure feels like it.”
“Sure, I was just about to meet up with the rest of my guild mates,” I told them both. “Come on. They’ll be excited to see you.”
My guild was waiting for me at our usual booth, and when they saw my mother and father, conversation quickly died down.
“Hey guys, look who it is,” I said as we approached.
“You find two more guild mates?” Stormy asked.
“No, these are my parents.”
“Oh, well then, hello,” said the dwarf.
“Hello good dwarf,” said my father. He grinned happily, no doubt thinking that he was pretty cool for speaking like a character from the Lord of the Rings.
“Why aren’t there more men in your guild?” My mother asked with a quick glance at Tweak. “Is it just you and the purple monkey?”
“He’s an ape,” I said. “And yeah, it’s just us right now.”
“He prefers woman,” said Kit happily. “Since, you know, he’s got the magic sti—”
“So!” I blurted. “You guys said you were hungry. Cecilia, can you have a waitress bring some menus?”
“Sure thing.” Cecilia tapped on her interface, and a few seconds later a cute white cat furry walked up to our table.
“We’ve got to get to the stadium and prepare for the competition,” I told my parents. “You guys have a good lunch and maybe I’ll see you in the stands.”
“Oh, you will,” my mother told me. “Doctor Marks got us great seats. Right behind your booth he said.”
“Alright, great, see you then.” I kissed my mother on the cheek, gave my father a hug, and turned to lead my guild mates to the coliseum. But then I stopped an turned back to my folks. “Thanks for coming. It means a lot to me.”
My mother’s eyes teared up, and my father smiled proudly.
“Kick their asses,” my mother told me.
A half hour later my guild mates and I sat in our booth and listened to Doctor Marks and the wizard go over the day’s line-up. The looking glasses all around the coliseum showed the current bracket.
Heavy Metal Thunder
The Orc Chieftains
Heavy Metal Thunder
The Grinders
Harvesters of Sorrow
Harvesters of Sorrow
Tinkers and Thinkers
Champions of the Dragon
Champions of the Dragon
Double Fisted
The Warlords
The Warlords
Soldiers of Fortune
Blunt Instruments
Blunt Instruments
Hacksaw
Dragons of Fury
Dragons of Fury
The Gilded Shield
The Order of Marduk
The Gilded Shield
Fate's Revenge
Fate's Revenge
The Keepers of the Blade
Lords of the Bling
Girls Only
Girls Only
The Purrrrsian Empire
The Purrrrsian Empire
The Children of Light
Brothers of Ruin
The Way of the Wizard
Brothers of Ruin
Baal's Revenge
Dungeon Raiders
Dungeon Raiders
The Wyverns
The Gilded Mages
The Gilded Mages
The Order of Merlin
The Elves of Starlight
The Elves of Starlight
The Bards of Calimdor
The Crimson Dragons
The Crimson Dragons
Axe and Shield
Warsaw
Warsaw
The Hate Mongers
Doom Lords
Doom Lords
The Tokyo Kids
The Tokyo Kids
The Manchurian Meddlers
A Fist Full of Fire
Donkey Punch Posse
Donkey Punch Posse
The Hung Hipsters
IPA is King
IPA is King
The One True Guild
The Skull thumpers
The One True Guild
Go Hard or Go Home
Go Hard or Go Home
The Panthers
Pirate's Booty
The Marauders
Pirate's Booty
Hell's Bar Tab
Hell's Bar Tab
The Hand of God
The Howling
The Brits
The Howling
Norsemen
Norsemen
Momma Said
The Seers
Luke's Eyeliner
Luke's Eyeliner
Rich Kidz
Harbingers of Ale
Harbingers of Ale
The Purple People Eaters
Mondays Suck
Mondays Suck
The Shitkickers
Vishnu Lives
Vishnu Lives
Lion Zion
Hiro Quest
Hiro Quest
Average Joes
Average Joes
Desecrated Cemetery
“Of the original 64 guilds, we are now down to 32,” said the Doctor, and he proceeded to name every guild alphabetically.
“That’s a hell of a list, Doc,” said the wizard. Then he turned to the camera and grinned. “But after today it will be smaller, won’t it! Hah!”
“Yes it will,” said Doctor Marks. “Our first battle will be randomly generated. Good wizard, would you do the honors?”
“Of course, of course,” said the wizard. He cracked his knuckles, waggled his fingers, and tapped on the crystal sitting on the table.
The names of all the guilds flashed on the looking glasses, and when they finally settled on two guilds, the wizard clapped happily. “Excellent first battle. Please take your places on the sand, Girls Only, and Purrrrsian Empire.” The wizard laughed and turned to the doctor. “I love saying that. Purrrrsian Empire. Haha!”
“So does every furry I know,” the Doctor said with a laugh.
“I love saying Purrrrsian Empire too,” said Kit as she clung to my right arm.
“You’re such a flake,” said Trinity on my left.
“Go Purrrrsian Empire!” My mother screamed behind us.
I turned to find her in full Heavy Metal Thunder regalia. My dad also held a giant foam shield and sword emblazoned with my guild’s name on them.
The two guilds moved to their respective sides of the sand, and the wizard initiated the random battlefield generator. The crowd gasped when the two guilds were completely encapsulated in water. A lake had been formed in front of us, and by some magic it was contained within a bowl-shaped force field.
“No fair!” Kit protested. “Everyone knows that cats hate water!”
Many of the people in the crowd seemed to share her sentiment, but the booing did nothing to stop the battle from moving forward.
The Purrrrsian Empire didn’t seem to mind being wet as much as Kit had insinuated, and the two teams struggled equally to maneuver and fight in the water. Girls Only went on the offensive, bombarding the Purrrrsian Empire’s guardian with spells that streaked across the top of the water like missiles. But the guardian turned out to be a good swimmer, and soon the battle went underwater. Luckily, Frisco and his band of furries had spells or devises that allowed them to breathe underwater, and they soon took the lead against the all-girl guild.
When all was said and done, the Purrrrsian Empire won by a landslide. We watched five more battles before our guild was called on to fight the Harvesters of Sorrow, and as we made our way out of our booth and down to the sand, my father called down to me, “Go get ‘em son!”
“Are you nervous Big Daddy?” Kit asked as we walked through the tunnel leading to the sand. “I mean with your parents watching and all.”
“Maybe a little,” I admitted. “But we’ve trained our asses off. I think we’ve got a hell of a chance.”
We walked out onto the sand to the roaring applause of thousands of players sitting on the ascending rows. Some chanted for my guild, and others cheered for the Harvesters of Sorrow, but the loudest people in the crowd turned out to be my parents, who sat behind us just above our booth.
“Heavy Metal Thunder, are you ready?” the wizard asked.
“Ready!” I yelled back, and my voice echoed through the coliseum.
“Harvesters of Sorrow, are you ready?”
The leader of the Harvesters let out a guttural roar, and the crowd went wild.
“And now for the battleground,” said the wizard. He tapped on the crystal in front of him, and the battlefield began to shimmer into existence.
The sand beneath us was replaced by hard stone, and a large pond appeared in front of us. A bridge sprang out of the ground and spread over the water, connecting our base camp with that of the Harvesters of Sorrow.
“Are those sea monsters?” Anna asked as she looked over the ledge.
I looked down at the water, which was about thirty feet below us. The water was green and choppy, but it wasn’t hard to make out the long tentacles of octopus-like creatures.
“Is that…is that the fucking Kraken?” Tweak asked in horror.
“It looks that way,” I said as I peered across the thin stone bridge connecting the two bases. “This fight is going to be pretty straight forward. I think that if we can knock their guardian off the bridge, that sea monster will make short work of it.”
“Yeah, they’re probably planning the same thing for our guardian,” said Anna.
“Then keeping our guardian safe on the bridge is the top priority,” said Cecilia.
“I agree,” I told the fox furry and turned to the tall blue crystal creature. “Guardian, I want you to stay here at our base. Keep away from the bridge at all cost.”
“Stay away from bridge,” he said in a heavy voice.
“Nanaya, I want you to take dragon form and do everything you can to knock their guardian into the water,” I instructed the beautiful succubus. “Tweak, Anna, Kit, you’re with me on the bridge. Trinity and Stormy, I want you to hang back and protect our guardian at all costs. Ember and Cecilia, you’re alternates.”
“You got it Loverboy,” said Trinity.
“Alright,” I told my guild mates. “Let’s buff up and kick some ass!”
Soon the game master was counting down, and when he got to zero, I raced from our landing and charged across the bridge with Tweak, Anna, and Kit following close behind. The Harvesters of Sorrow were known for being very aggressive, and they had opted for offense. Their guardian stomped across the bridge, shaking the stone so hard that I thought it might crumble. I glanced over the side of the 100-foot-long bridge and was surprised to see that the sea monster’s tentacles were searchingly moving up toward us.
Nanaya flew toward the opposing red guardian. She came in hard on its right side, and I called back to Kit, “Tangle up its legs!”
Kit skidded to a stop and extended her furry hands. Long vines shot out of her palms, sped across the bridge, and wrapped around the red’s thick legs. A moment later, Nanaya slammed into the guardian like a cannonball. The behemoth staggered, and Kit tightened the vines around its feet. I skidded to a stop and cast Firestorm followed by Arcane Lightning. Tweak and Anna attacked the red guardian as well, and I watched with growing excitement as the crystal creature teetered close to the brink. Nanaya was beating her wings furiously as she clawed at the guardian’s face, and I thought that any minute it would fall into the clutches of the sea monster, whose tentacles were now creeping over the side of the bridge.
Then a barrage of spells slammed into Nanaya, and she went spiraling down toward the lake beneath us, leaving behind a trail of smoke. A moment later, the guardian regained his footing, grabbed the vines around its ankles, and jerked hard. Kit screamed as she was launched toward the guardian, and I tried to distract the behemoth with a barrage of spells, but he swatted Kit out of the air like a bug and sent her spinning over the side of the bridge.
“Fuck!” I yelled as the Harvesters of Sorrow sped by their guardian and charged across the bridge.
I brought up my Fire Shield and ducked behind it as the spells slammed into Anna and Tweak’s armor. The attack didn’t kill them, but it deposited both of them on their asses about twenty feet away. I knew that I was doomed, but I wasn’t about to go out without a fight. I leapt up from behind my shield, unleashed Firestorm, and charged into the fray.
I got about four feet when a thick tentacle suddenly grabbed me by the right ankle and yanked me right off the bridge. I unsheathed my enchanted blade and tried desperately to hack the tentacle in half, but it was jerking me around so bad that I couldn’t get off a clean strike. As I fought to free myself, I looked down and groaned when I saw the gaping maw waiting for me thirty feet below. The sea monster had beady black eyes, and a mouth that opened like an umbrella. It had endless rows of razor-sharp teeth and a dozen tentacles that were impossibly long. I screamed and slashed at the one holding m
e, and when I finally connected, the monster didn’t release me like I had hoped. Instead it slammed me into the bridge like a whip, and a flash of terrible pain screamed through my body.
You Are Dead!
A heartbeat later I opened my eyes and let out a scream.
There was no more pain. I had died, and now waited behind the veil in ghost form.
Rebirth Online 3 Page 9