Rebirth Online 3

by Michael James Ploof

“Megulla is a sweetheart,” she said. “She would never do something like that.”

  “A sweetheart? Mom, she’s the ruler of the Underworld, Queen of Demons, The Lady of Darkness.”

  “She’s misunderstood,” my mother shot back.

  “I can’t believe this is happening.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to relax. “Listen, I think that Megulla is lying about the kids being sick. I think she’s just trying to trick me into summoning her golden demons to the surface world so that she can begin her invasion.”

  “Oh, now you’re just being paranoid,” my mother told me. “We’ve met them, Sam, your golden children, our…our grandchildren. They’re weak, Sam. They’re fading. They need the sun, and they need you to summon them or do whatever you’ve got to do to get them in the sunlight. I know you’ll do the right thing, Samson. Until then, your father and I are going to look over the children that you have abandoned.”

  “Mom…”

  Too late, the fire winked out and she disappeared.

  I let out a pent-up sigh and checked the time; 11:00. It was time to get to the coliseum for our battle against the Purrrrrsian Empire, so I tried to put aside my latest problem and made my way through the city.

  All this demon children business would have to wait. I had a kingdom to win.

  Chapter 17

  “Where’s Kit?” I asked when I arrived at the coliseum and joined my guild mates in our booth.

  “Haven’t seen her,” said Trinity with a shrug.

  “I thought she was with you,” Cecilia said.

  “She’ll be around,” said Tweak. “She wouldn’t miss a fight against her favorite guild for nothing.”

  “Well she better hurry her ass up,” Nanaya said with growing annoyance. “I didn’t give up my place in the Underworld for anything less than a kingdom.”

  “You didn’t give up your place,” Trinity reminded her. “Megulla took the throne from you.”

  Nanaya offered her a withering glance, and the warrior smiled like a bratty sister who had just gotten a jab in.

  “Try to get along ladies,” I told them both. “This is the bigtime. We win this one and we’re one victory away from being the lords of a new kingdom.”

  “Lords? I assumed that you would make yourself the king of the place,” said Tweak.

  “Well yeah,” I said with a grin. “But I’ll let you guys be my lords.”

  “You’ll let us?” Ember cocked a brow.

  “Shhh!” said Anna. “They’re about to announce the first matchup.”

  I glanced around looking for Kit. If we were called up to be the first fight, then we were going to have to start without her, and the odds weren’t that good, considering that there would only be two battles today, us and the Purrrrsian Empire, and The Doom Lords versus Hiro Quest.

  Luckily, however, the computer randomly chose the other two guilds.

  “The winner of today’s battle will face either Heavy Metal Thunder, or The Purrrrsian Empire tomorrow for the coveted new land!” the wizard Donovan reminded the crowd.

  Doctor Marks wasn’t announcing today, instead, the elven woman had returned to call the action.

  “Sorry I’m late,” said Kit.

  “Finally!” Trinity exclaimed annoyedly.

  “Hey babe,” I said as Kit came to sit next to me. She plopped her ass right between me and Ember and bumped the assassin over.

  She looked troubled, and I only had to stare at her for a few seconds to get her to spill the beans.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  She bit her lip with a long canine and glanced over at the Purrrrsian Army. Frisco nodded at me, then his gaze lingered on Kit for a few seconds before turning away.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, and half the girls leaned in to eavesdrop.

  Kit glanced at the others and let out a frustrated sigh. “Try to act a little less conspicuous!” she hissed. “Listen, Sam…Frisco tried to steal me to his side. He wants me to back stab you all. He offered me a place in the guild, and he said…” she fanned herself and breathed carefully. “He said that I would be his queen as well.”

  “Tell me that you told him you would do it,” said Ember.

  “I did, but I don’t plan on going through with it,” Kit explained. “I thought that we could fake him out somehow.”

  “Kit,” I said with a smile. “You’re a genius.”

  Her smile was adorable. “Thanks.”

  “You thought about it for real, didn’t you?” Trinity said teasingly.

  “What?” Kit was trying to act indignant.

  “Come on, admit it, you must have thought about it for a second,” Trinity pressed.

  “Well,” said Kit shyly. “Maybe a second.” Then she grabbed my arm and pleaded. “It was just a fleeting moment Big Daddy. I would never betray you.”

  “I know that you wouldn’t. “I told her.

  Trinity scoffed, but when I looked at her, she offered me a wink.

  “What did Frisco want you to do?” I asked Kit.

  “He just wants me to spawn onto the battlefield but then hide and stay out of the battle. That way we would only have six people fighting.”

  “Alright, this is what we’re going to do,” I said, gesturing for the guild to lean in to hear the plan that I was about to lay out.

  A half hour later, the Doom Lords secured their victory over Hiro Quest, and we prepared to enter the arena to the chorus of screaming fans.

  The Purrrrsian Empire was the favorite to win, and for good reason. They were a tight guild that worked extremely well together, and they had won more times than we had during our practice sessions. But that didn’t stop my optimism from taking over my thought process.

  I never planned on failure, it just wasn’t in my DNA.

  Not anymore at least.

  “Up next!” said the wizard. “Heavy Metal Thunder versus The Purrrrsian Empire!”

  The crowd completely lost their shit, and the coliseum shook with the rumbling of their stomping feet. We were showered with rose pedals as we raced out onto the sand, and fireworks exploded above the open-aired stadium. The chant for Frisco’s guild was equally as loud as the chant for ours, and it only grew louder when we waved at the crowd and pumped our fists.

  Frisco trotted over to me with a feline grin and shook my hand. “May the best guild win,”

  “Good luck, Frisco. You’re going to need it,” I said with a grin of my own.

  He slapped my shoulder and laughed, before returning to his side of the arena.

  “Alright, peeps,” I said as I brought my guild mates in. “Cecilia and Kit, you two are alternates. You know what to do when you get on the battlefield. Now, for this to work, you’re going to have to make it convincing.”

  “Gotcha, Big Daddy,” said Kit.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” said Cecilia.

  While we stood in a huddle, Ember laid her traps around our base. We were going to let Frisco and his gang take the offensive. It was their MO, after all. With their feline bodies they would be able to get across the battlefield quickly, and I was counting on them pressing us hard.

  “Let the gods choose the battlefield,” the wizard Donovan bellowed, and it was a fancy way of saying that the computer would now randomly select the terrain that we would fight on.

  We all waited with bated breath to see what the outcome would be, and when the battlefield shimmered into existence beneath our feet, more than one of my girls let out a gasp.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” said Anna.

  “I’ll take it!” said Tweak, rubbing his hands together.

  Before us loomed a thick, tangled jungle. Tall trees with huge canopies rose high above the coliseum, and I could see thick, coiled snakes hanging from the branches. There were spiders the size of small dogs scurrying about, and from deeper in the jungle came the sounds of the many wild animals. Among them I heard tigers, panthers, and other wild cats. The pungent aroma of the jungle hit my nose
, and I took in the fragrance of swamp, decaying foliage, and the sweet tinge of flowers.

  “This is a cat’s paradise,” Trinity complained.

  “If I didn’t know better,” said Ember. “I’d say that the Purrrrsian Empire hacked into the battleground program and picked this themselves.”

  “It’s not all bad,” said Tweak. “Look.”

  He pointed up into the trees, and a grin slowly spread across my face when I saw the dozens of monkeys swinging through the canopy.

  “You think you can get them to fight for us?” I asked.

  “Imma try like hell.”

  “Alright,” I said, “slight strategy change, Tweak’s going to try and recruit the monkeys, everyone else stick with the plan. With a little luck we might just beat these pussies.”

  “Really?” said Cecilia.

  “What?” I said with a shrug. “Pussies, you know, as in cats.”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed, and the other girls were right there with her.

  “Alright, let’s buff up,” I instructed my guild mates.

  I cast Scorched Earth on the ground beneath us to give them a fire resistance buff, and the rest of them cast their spells as well. Excitement washed over me as their spells took effect, and I watched them scroll down my interface.

  Call of the Warrior

  + 25% Strength

  Duration – 15 mins

  Shadow Armor

  +25% Armor

  Duration – 30 mins

  Blessing of Gaia

  +25% Pain Resistance

  Duration 15 mins

  Gift of Life

  Regenerate 100 health per second

  Duration – 10 mins

  Holy Retribution

  5% Chance Enemy Attack Will Rebound

  Duration – 1 hour

  Dwarven Strength

  Increases Strength by 25%

  Duration – 15 mins

  Call of the Last King

  Increases Stamina by 25%

  Duration – 10 mins

  Nanaya cast a new spell on us all, and I grinned as I read it.

  Wings of Black

  Bestows Demonic Wings

  Duration – 5 mins

  There was a small amount of discomfort in my shoulder blades, then two huge black wings burst out of my robes. I glanced from side to side, marveling at my wingspan. Having the new wings was like having a new set of arms, and I would control them just as easily as the rest of my limbs.

  The spell was a new one that Nanaya had received upon reaching level 60, and our plan depended heavily on it.

  I marveled at my winged companions, and they all shared excited looks as the game master began the count down.

  “Let the battle begin!” he cried to the delight of the crowd.

  Tweak took off for the thick canopy, Kit flew quickly to the west, appearing as though she were abandoning us, and the rest of us rose into the air to await our opponents. As predicted, Frisco and his feline friends bounded into the jungle on all fours.

  “You’re up,” I told Nanaya.

  She raised her arms to the sky and her body began to change. Her smooth red skin turned blue and shiny, then her body began to grow. Her wings disappeared, and her arms, legs, and chest grew thick. Soon I was looking up at an identical copy of our guardian.

  “Now!” I yelled, and the remaining four of us swooped down as our blue guardian spread his arms wide. Stormy and I grabbed his left arm, while Trinity, and Ember grabbed ahold of his right arm. We flapped our wings as hard as we could, and to my delight and that of the guardian, we raised the big lug into the air.

  “It’s working!” Stormy cried.

  “Higher!” I urged, and soon we were soaring over the treetops with our cargo.

  “I’m flying!” the guardian sang as he sailed through the air.

  I heard spells explode back at our base, and I knew that the ruse had worked. With any luck, half of the Purrrrsian Empire would be caught up in Ember’s traps, and Nanaya would last long enough to give us a good head start burning down their guardian.

  “There’s the base!” I said over the howling wind. “Steady now, I don’t think the red guardian has seen us.

  Frisco had decided to leave their guardian safe by their base and attack ours, and that was the beginning of his downfall.

  “Steady!” I urged as we all tried to maneuver the twenty-foot-tall guardian through the trees and down toward his counterpart.

  “Ready to let go in three, two, one!”

  We released our guardian about fifty feet above the red, and our blue badass landed right on top of him and drove him into the ground.

  The rest of us circled them and unleashed a barrage of spells that lit the jungle like the Fourth of July. We managed to burn the red guardian down to 88% in the time it took Frisco and his cats to realize the ruse, kill Nanaya, and turn back to help their guardian. When they did, Anna and I broke from the group to slow them down. We didn’t want to kill them, because that would allow their teammates to spawn right at their base, which we were currently attacking. Instead, I was hoping to slow them down enough to give Ember, Trinity, and Stormy a chance to deal out some more damage.

  “Follow me!” I yelled over the wind and banked hard with my dark demonic wings.

  I flew through the tangled vines, over branches, and beneath thick gobs of old man’s beard. The Purrrrsian Empire was racing in tight formation through the thick underbrush, but my Fire Sight allowed me to easily make out their location.

  “Right there!” I told Anna as I cast Arcane Lightning upon the feline guild.

  Three of Anna’s spells followed my arcing lightning down into the underbrush, and we were rewarded by the feral cries of our surprised opponents.

  It didn’t take the Purrrrsian Empire long to recoup, however, and soon spells were streaking out of the foliage and crashing against our enchanted armor. We zigged and zagged through the onslaught and continued to attack the Purrrrsian Empire with incantations meant to slow them down.

  Then they did something completely unexpected. Frisco gave the order, and as one, the ferocious feline fighters unsheathed daggers and stabbed themselves right in the heart.

  “Shit!” Anna cursed as the bodies of our enemies disappeared.

  “Come on!” I urged. “The replacements are going to spawn in ten seconds!”

  We flew as fast as we could back to the enemy base, but we were too late. Seven new members had spawned at their base to replace the dead, and they had killed everyone but Trinity. She soon fell, however, but not before taking two of the Purrrrsian Empire with her.

  With our guild members down, the Purrrrsian Empire turned their weapons and magic on our guardian. Their guardian was now down to 60%, however, and ours was still at 90%. We had a good lead, but we were in a terrible position at the moment.

  “Focus your attacks on their guardian!” I informed Anna, knowing that four of our guild mates would soon reach the enemy base, having already replaced the dead. There was still no sign of Tweak, and I wondered if he had fallen victim to one of the many dangers of the jungle.

  A spell nearly took my head off and I veered right. It was time to try out my new spell, and the cluster of cats below was what Kit would call a purrrrfect target. I went through the hand gestures, careful to get it right, and then clapped my hands together with all my might.

  Deafening thunder boomed and shook the ground, and I heard the crowd cry out in surprise. My Nuclear Thunderclap zipped toward Earth and exploded right in the middle of the Purrrrsian Empire. One moment they were there fighting our guardian, and in the next they were gone. A mushroom cloud twenty feet wide bulged into the air, and when the smoke cleared, the two guardians were the only things left in a twenty-foot radius.

  I quickly drank down a mana potion and urged my guildmates to attack the red guardian before the Purrrrsian Empire replacements raced through the veil. Nanaya, Stormy, and Trinity came racing out of the jungle and lit into the red guardian. Stor
my and Trinity no longer had their wings since dying in battle deactivated all wards, buffs, and spells, but they still had their grit.

  Anna and I focused our spells on the cats that were now emerging from behind the veil. We kept them back for a time, but there were seven of them and only two of us. The damage had been done, however, and by the time they engaged with our guildmates on the ground, their red guardian was down to 40% health. Ours was still over 70%, but it had taken some damage fighting in enemy territory.

  We had the upper hand, and now it seemed that victory was just a matter of time, but everything changed when a determined-looking Frisco raised his head to the sky and let out a howl that echoed through the jungle.

  His guild mates howled as well, and my skin crawled when dozens of wild cats answered the call.

  “Oh shit…”

  The underbrush began to tremble, and a moment later over a dozen panthers, tigers, lions, and leopards darted out of the jungle. I quickly cast Arcane Lightning at the wild cats and followed it up with Scorched Earth. Anna simultaneously cursed them all with a spell that slowed their movement, but they still fell upon our guild mates like a feline nightmare.

  Anna and I swooped down and bombarded the wild cats and the Purrrrsian Empire with spells, as our guild mates died one after another. Soon, only Anna and I remained, and we quickly drew the attention of Frisco and his crew.

  “Watch out!” I warned Anna as a dozen spells streaked through the air toward us.

  A green glob of glowing ooze hit me in the right wing as I tried to dodge the onslaught, and I soon found myself spiraling out of control. When I hit the ground, a panther leapt onto my back and sunk its teeth into my left wing. It shook and thrashed, ripping meat from my conjured wing. I felt every bit of it and cried out in frustration and pain as I frantically summoned a fireball and rolled over onto my back. I released my spell, hitting the panther in the chest and taking it clean off its paws.