Rebirth Online 3

by Michael James Ploof

  “Wow,” was all that Ember could say.

  “Look at this stuff,” said Kit, admiring the stats of a legendary sword on display.

  Trinity scoffed. “Look at the prices!”

  I turned over the tag and swore under my breath. The dagger cost 25,000 gold.

  “You will not find better quality for a better price,” came a regal voice from behind me.

  I turned around and found a tall, skinny elf in exquisite robes staring at us as though he didn’t think we belonged there.

  “We’re looking for dragon lances, the best you’ve got,” said Cecilia.

  “Ah, Cecilia, I didn’t see you there. How is the pub business treating you?” He said pub as though it left a bad taste in his mouth.

  “Business is good. Might we see your inventory?”

  “Of course,” he said lazily and extended a long arm and boney fingers toward the back of the shop.

  We all followed Cecilia to the back, and the elf walked around us and moved to the empty wall. He glanced back at us like someone about to key their pin into an ATM, and then quickly moved his hands in an intricate pattern. With one final flick of his wrist, the wall opened, and a huge display of dragon lances came into view. There was a pulsing forcefield blocking the weapons from being tampered with, but we could read the stats hanging just above each of the lances, and I quickly found the best one that was a low enough level for us all to use.

  “Can we see that one?” I asked, pointing at the long, silver lance with a diamond crusted point.

  Silver Death

  Legendary Weapon

  Level 50

  “That is a Legendary item, and quite expensive,” said the elf.

  “Listen dude,” said Tweak. “This is Samson, as in the dude who saved the world…more than once. Ring a bell?”

  Realization suddenly flashed across the elf’s face, and he looked at me with renewed respect. “Master Samson.” He offered a small bow. “I did not mean to offend.”

  He dismissed the energy field and opened his palm. The dragon lance floated into his hands, and he carefully turned and handed it to me. The thing was only four feet long, but I knew that it extended much longer.

  “It’s light,” I said as I bounced it in my hands. There were crystals embedded in the handle, and when I pressed one with my thumb, the lance suddenly extended to twelve feet long with a pleasant metallic song.

  “How much?” Cecilia asked as she took it from me and tested its weight and balance.

  “This one costs 40,000 gold,” said the elf.

  “Forty thousand!” Trinity blurted.

  “Is there a discount if we buy nine of them?” I asked.

  The elf raised a brow and rubbed his hands together. “There are only seven in existence, and I only have three of them.”

  “Where are the other four?” Cecilia asked.

  He shrugged and said, “Private collectors, other warriors. I hear that the King of Aeorock has one.”

  “We can get the three and buy six others,” I offered, and my guild mates agreed.

  In the end we got three different kinds of lances, all legendary, and all costing way too much. Aside from the three Silver Death Lances, we picked up three called Wyrm Bane, and three called The Lance of King Merces. Trinity, Ember, and Stormy took the most powerful lances, since they were the ones who would most likely be going toe to toe with the dragons.

  With our new lances and Dragon’s Bane elixir in our inventory, we headed to the coliseum to register and watch the opening ceremonies.

  The first battle turned out to be between the Purrrrsian Empire and the Crimson Dragons. It was perhaps the most anticipated battle of the entire tournament, and the crowd was on its feet the entire time. Frisco and his furries were in rare form, and they defeated the Crimson Dragons in less than fifteen minutes.

  Kit just about blew out my eardrums as she cheered on our friends, and I was happy about their win as well, but now it meant that if we won today, we would have to face Frisco and the Purrrrsian Empire tomorrow.

  “What a battle!” yelled the elven announcer.

  The wizard was absent this time, but Doctor Marks was back.

  “The Purrrrsian Empire has now solidified their place in the top four,” he said as the day’s bracket appeared on the screen behind him. “It’s going to be interesting to see who they’ll be up against tomorrow.”

  “My money is on the Dragons of Fury to win their bracket against Heavy Metal Thunder,” said the elf. “Samson Sullivan and his mostly all-girl guild are fan favorites, I know, but I just don’t see them going the distance.”

  “Well, we will know shortly,” he said as he turned to the camera. “The next matchup has been chosen. Please make your way to the stands, Heavy Metal Thunder, and Dragons of Fury!”

  The crowd had started cheering as soon as my guild’s name was called, and the doctor had to yell over them to announce the dragons.

  We moved down to the sand beneath the usual shower of rose peddles and applause from our fans. Not to be outdone, the Dragons of Fury flew out of their tunnel in dragon form and circled the stadium for the better part of a minute.

  “Look out!” I yelled when I noticed that one of the dragons had shit in mid-air.

  The giant pile of dragon crap landed on Tweak and buried him up to the knees, and the crowd howled with laughter.

  “Awe man,” said Tweak as he shook out his arms and sent dragon shit flying. “Now that’s just nasty!”

  “Oh, you poor ape,” said Kit. She cast a spell that made the crap disappear, but that didn’t stop the crowd from laughing their asses off at the replay that was playing on every single looking glass. The laughter intensified when some smart ass slowed down the replay and zoomed in on Tweak’s face moments before the dragon shit hit him.

  I was trying really hard not to laugh, but the slow motion did it, and I burst with laughter.

  “Yeah, alright,” Tweak told us all. “Laugh it up.”

  “We’re laughing with you, Tweaky,” said Kit with a delightfully cute chuckle.

  “It’s looking pretty shitty for Heavy Metal Thunder,” said the elven announcer, and that got the crowd going all over again. Doctor Marks only nodded, looking like he was trying not to laugh.

  “Alright,” he said when the crowd finally settled down. “Let’s take a look at the battlefield.”

  He tapped on the crystal on the table, and I watched with growing anticipation as the arena began to change. The sand that filled the elliptical arena turned to charred stone, and small volcanoes suddenly protruded from the ground. There were at least one-hundred in all, and they rose as high as twenty feet tall, randomly spewing their molten lava.

  “Oh goody,” said Ember with a hearty dose of sarcasm. “We get to fight fireproof dragons in a field of volcanoes.”

  “At least we know what form they’ll take on,” “I said. “And we know that they are going to take the offensive.”

  “Let them come,” said Trinity defiantly as she deftly twirled her dragon lance.

  “Man, this is some bullshit,” said Tweak as he scoured the fiery landscape.

  We could already feel the heat emanating from the volcanoes and the bubbling pools of lava fed by small rivers of the glowing red stuff. My guild mates buffed each other with blessing and armor-enhancing spells, and I cast Scorched Earth on the ground to give my guild mates a little extra protection against the heat and lava. It was true that we were now at a huge disadvantage against the Dragons of Fury, but that never stopped us before.

  “Alright crew, here’s the plan,” I said, gesturing them to bring it in. “They’re most likely going to keep their guardian at their own base with a few healers, and if we let them pin us down here at our base, we’re as good as dead. We’re going to have to bring our guardian across the volcano field and take the fight to them.”

  “That would be suicide,” said Cecilia.

  “It’s our only chance, Cece. Remember, if they choose to tak
e dragon form, then they’re not going to have any buffs or be able to cast any spells. We need to take advantage of their handicap and hit them with every debuff, curse, and DOT spell that we’ve got. Once we kill them all, we’ll pin them at their own base.”

  “Sounds good to me Big Daddy,” said Kit.

  “Let’s do this shit!” said Stormy.

  “Long live mother fucking Heavy Metal Thunder,” said Tweak with a laugh.

  “Trinity and Stormy, you’re going to be our alternates. The rest of us are going to hit them with as many spells as possible, and I want you two to cut those bastards down once we’ve burned their health bars.”

  The game master began the countdown, and Tweak, Anna, Kit, Cecilia, Ember, Nanaya, and I danced on our toes, eager for the battle to begin. The crowd was on their feet, more than ten-thousand strong. I knew that the battle was also being televised all over the world, and it only added to the excitement, not to mention the pressure.

  “Let the battle begin!” the elven announcer yelled, and my guild mates and I charged across the deadly volcano field with our guardian stomping behind us.

  Chapter 15

  As I had predicted, the Dragons of Fury took on their dragon forms, and seven of them spread out in the sky and veered our way.

  Nanaya waited to change form, and instead summoned a flock of small demon babies and sent them flying against the dragons.

  “That’s a new trick,” I noted as I sped across the landscape.

  Nanaya grinned. “I’m full of them.”

  “Tell your demons to pick up my monkeys!” said Tweak as he cast the spell and released his dozen or so monkey minions.

  Nanaya nodded, and a moment later the little demon babies veered back toward us and gave the purple hitchhikers a ride. Watching a dozen monkeys flying on the backs of baby demons was surreal, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I dodged small volcanic eruptions and leapt over flowing rivers of lava. My speed, strength, and other stats were much higher than they had been when I started the game at level 10, and now I was able to leap more than fifteen feet and run over twenty miles per hour. Of course, the increases came with problems of their own, like stopping, but I had gotten used to my new abilities, as had the rest of my guild.

  The demon babies and purple monkeys reached the dragons, ganging up on two of them and causing as much chaos as they could. The remaining five dragons swooped down toward us, their giant maws opened wide and white-hot fire glowing in their gullets.

  “Fire!” I bellowed as I unleashed Arcane Lightning, followed by well-placed Magic Bolts. A stream of spells from my guild mates zipped through the air, some found their mark, while others continued past their targets and exploded against the energy field around the arena, more than three-hundred feet above the battlefield.

  Two of the dragons spiraled out of control and crashed, but the other three got through our onslaught and bathed us all in flames. Our Dragonsbane elixirs protected us from the fire, but not the vicious maws that followed. One of the dragons chomped into Tweak and thrashed its head like a rabid dog, quickly tearing him in two.

  I hit the dragon with Magic Bolt and Arcane Lightning again, knowing that my fire spells were basically useless against the fire-proof dragons. The dragon tossed Tweak to the side, and my friend’s body disappeared. Kit tangled the dragon up in vines, and Ember came flying out of nowhere and landed on top of the beast’s head. She thrust her dragon lance right between its eyes and did a backflip off the beast as it fell dead. The other two dragons came after me, and I quickly brought up my fire shield as flames cascaded over me.

  I felt Anna’s healing spells wash over me, and I lashed out with my dragon lance blindly. The lance hit something, and a moment later I was greeted by the pain-filled cry of a dragon.

  But my victory was short lived.

  The dragon that I had hit must have grabbed ahold of the lance, because the next thing I knew, I was sailing through the air end over end. I landed in a bubbling pool of lava, but it might as well have been mud, given that the elixir was still at work.

  My guild mates took out the remaining two dragons, and Trinity ran over and pulled me out of the lava.

  “Catch up to our guardian!” I ordered the rest of the guild.

  We were about halfway to the opposing guild’s base, and although we had killed the first wave of dragons, their replacements were already in the air. The crowd cheered us on as we raced to defend our guardian, who had reached the opposing base and was under attack from all seven dragons and their guardian as well.

  I cast Arcane Lightning until my Mana was down to zero, and my guild mates bombarded the dragons with slowing spells, damage over time spells, and curses that bled them of their health. We put our lances to work, ignoring the flames that bombarded us like waves. The two guardians battled like Transformers at the enemy base, and the Dragons of Fury changed up their strategy and began spawning in their human forms.

  We held our positions, attacking the spawning guild with spells as soon as they stepped through the veil. The crowd cheered us on as spells exploded, and the small volcanos spewed their contends like geysers.

  I glanced at the two guardians’ health bars, and realized that ours was nearly at 50% health, while theirs still had over 70%.

  “Focus your attacks on the guardian!” I screamed as I exchanged spells with an enemy wizard.

  I scored a hit, and the wizard was thrown back through the air, only to be caught by our guardian and crushed in its big blue crystalline hand.

  My victory was short-lived, however, as a pile of lava slammed me into the ground and knocked the air out of my lungs. I scrambled to get up, but a big boot kicked me back down, and an enemy warrior sunk a giant sword right through my armor, chest, and into the smoldering ground.

  Warning!

  Health 12%

  I cast Magic Bolt, but the warrior deflected it with his shield and then brought it down on my head.

  Pain surged through my face, then everything went black.

  You are dead!

  “Shit!” I yelled as I spawned in ghost form behind the veil, way back at our base.

  Nanaya appeared as a ghost next to me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Have you shifted yet?” I asked as our timers ticked down.

  “Not yet, I was saving it for the right time,” she said.

  “Well, now’s the time.”

  “I’ve got the perfect form in mind,” she said, and when Trinity and Kit appeared as ghosts, Nanaya and I raced back onto the battlefield.

  Nanaya changed form, and a moment later I was looking at a large stone rock creature that resembled a female Hulk. She was twelve feet tall and muscular, and her stone-hard skin reflected the fires burning around us.

  I leapt up onto her back and held on for dear life as she took massive, ten-foot strides across the lava strewn battlefield. We ignored the enemy players, who were locked in battle with our remaining guild mates. We opted instead to attack the red guardian. Nanaya crashed into its waist, and I hit it right in the face with a Magic Bolt followed by Arcane Lightning, Fireball, and Hellfire.

  Nanaya’s attack helped our guardian get the better of his counterpart, and he drove the red to the ground and dunked its head beneath the scorching lava. Meanwhile, Nanaya pounded her massive stone fists into the red’s back, gouging big junks of crystal from its body. I unsheathed my enchanted blade and stabbed the downed guardian repeatedly, but it didn’t take long for the Dragons of Fury to rush to the defend.

  A spell hit me in the back, knocking my armor down 20%, my health down 10%, and leaving me on my ass ten feet away. The other guild was now a mix of humans and dragons, and one of the winged beasts suddenly landed in front of me and snapped its mouth shut around my left leg.

  I cried out in pain as the teeth gnashed against the armor of my enchanted robes. It hurt like hell, and my armor would soon be down to nothing, but I managed to conjure a Magic Bolt that took the dragon in the snout and forced him to
release me. I leapt to my feet and unsheathed my enchanted sword as the dragon streaked forward to strike. My sword sang through the air as the dragon snapped at me, and I ducked below the attack and shoved my sword up through the bottom of its mouth.

  Soul Shatter Strike!

  The dragon’s eyes went wide, and a second later it exploded in a puff of smoke.

  I let out a victorious war cry and summoned Firestorm. Meteors appeared out of thin air and bombarded the enemy base. The cries of the injured left a grin on my face as I unleashed Arcane Lightning and Scorched Earth.

  Our guardian was still pounding the shit out of the enemy red, while Tweak and his monkeys had joined in to help Nanaya. I noticed that Trinity and Stormy had taken down one of the dragons with their lances, while Kit and Anna were hard at work healing our guardian.

  It seemed that we were turning the tide of the battle, but then an explosion rocked the arena, and I felt my body tear into a million pieces.

  I spawned in ghost form still screaming and noticed that my entire guild was now behind the veil.

  “What the hell was that?” Trinity said angrily.

  Cecilia tapped on her interface and frowned at what she saw. “It was a magic nuke,” she reported.

  “Fucking cheaters,” Ember spat.

  “They aren’t illegal in the tournament,” said Cecilia. “Just wicked expensive, and I mean like a million gold expensive.”

  “We’re not out of the fight yet!” I told my guild mates.

  The countdown reached zero, and I raced back onto the battlefield with the original starting lineup. The Dragons of Fury had reverted to their original attack formation, however, and seven dragons met us in the middle of the battlefield.

  We fought valiantly, but the massive explosion had been a terrible setback, and our guardian was now under attack and down to 8% health. The opposing guild’s guardian, however, was still over 20%.