Rebirth Online 4

by Michael James Ploof

  “Let’s light this shit up!” I yelled to Nanaya over the wind.

  “You took the words right out of my mouth,” she said in a deep but still feminine voice.

  She banked hard left, and I held on tight as she dropped from the sky, swooped down over the treetops, and belched a thick line of fire. The swath was one hundred feet long by the time she stopped, then she circled around, drew in a deep breath, and continued to set the forest ablaze.

  I launched Fireballs down into the forest and unleashed Firestorm on the advancing army. A plethora of spells streaked through the air suddenly, but they weren’t meant for us, instead they screamed toward the crazy snake-dragon that Nanaya had conjured.

  “That thing only lasts five minutes,” Nanaya said, craning her neck back to look at me. “But it’s strong as all hell.”

  I saw firsthand what she meant a moment later, when the long demon collided with one of the Dragons of Fury and tore it to shreds in about five seconds. Nanaya joined her hell spawn, and soon we were battling with over thirty dragons.

  This wasn’t a tournament, and to die here meant to lose a level just like any other part of the game. I hated to go backward, but we needed to do everything that we could to stop the Dragons of Fury.

  So, we did what we had to do…

  We flew right into the mouth of danger, screaming like madmen the entire time. When I unleashed Nuclear Thunderclap right in between two of the dragons, I was treated to the sight of their charred bodies spiraling out of control and slamming into the ground.

  Nanaya was hit by more than one spell, and so was I, but she flew fast and somehow kept us out of the worst of it. The Dragons of Fury were having a hard time against the snake-demon-thing, and without their help, the barbarians and the rest of the guilds attacking us were left to face our casters alone.

  I could see the spells already streaking through the sky behind us. The three attacking guilds’ ice mages and other casters had broken through the flames, and the barbarians were beginning to charge out of the forest into the waiting arms of the militia.

  Nanaya and I were doing good keeping the Dragons of Fury out of the fight, and the demon-snake-dragon had spewed a couple thousand demonic bats that continuously attacked the dragons, keeping them from getting to the main battle.

  We had killed five of them ourselves before Nanaya was hit by a barrage of spells that she couldn’t recover from, and I held on for dear life as she fell lifelessly from the sky. Nanaya did what she could to level out before she died, and she probably saved my life in doing so, but she also steered right for the center of the barbarian army. We slammed into the screaming crowd, crushing more than one of them, and I was thrown off her in the process.

  I flailed my arms and screamed as I sailed through the air and slammed right into a barbarian warrior, driving him to the ground. I broke my left arm in the process, but with my right I had already unsheathed my sword and stabbed the downed barbarian right in the back of the neck. I growled against the pain in my left arm and downed a healing potion, but as soon as the last of it slid down my throat, a big boot found my face and smashed the bottle against it. I landed on my back with glass shards in my nose, lips, and cheeks, and tried to summon a spell. My left arm wasn’t healed yet, however, and my casting failed miserably.

  There were barbarians all around me, and they had seen me land on their fellow warrior. One of them grabbed my foot and yanked me so hard he cracked my back. I was thrown to another barbarian, who laughed and punched me in the face with a fist the size of a brick. My nose crushed into my face and my front teeth shattered, leaving me begging for the killing blow.

  But it never came.

  A spell landed at my feet and engulfed me, and I was instantly healed to 100%. My interface informed me that Anna had cast the spell, and from two hundred yards away. I thanked the gods for my elven healer and leapt to my feet as three barbarians circled me.

  “Suck on these!” I screamed and unleashed three Fireballs in rapid succession, spinning as I went.

  My barrage hit one in the gut, another in the face, and exploded against another’s shield. I cast Scorched Earth at my feet, and from behind the wall of flame that sprang up I shot Arcane Lightning at the group. The barbarian who had deflected my fireball charged into the flames even as electricity coursed through him. He was nine feet tall and covered from head to toe in thick furs. An antler head sat on his crown, and the face beneath it would have sent scared children screaming to their mothers.

  I conjured a Magic Bolt, unleashing it when he was only six feet away. Again, he brought up his massive shield to deflect it, but the blast that ensued from the impact sent him staggering backward. It gave me an opening, but just then I heard someone behind me. I instinctively leapt to the side and rolled away from an axe that dug into the ground where I had stood. I came up casting and lit the barbarian who had attacked me from behind with Hell Fire. He shrieked as the green flames engulfed him, and I spun a circle searching for a way out. But I realized quickly that I was fucked. I was in the middle of the barbarian army, and had they not been so preoccupied with the militia’s attack and the spells that arched from the tower and exploded around them, I would have already been cut in half.

  The barbarians weren’t moving forward, however, and I considered that a good thing.

  “Sullivan!” a voice roared from the crowd.

  I brought up my fire shield and spun around, but I was a heartbeat too slow. A green spell hit me in the left shoulder and pain wracked my body. Then I was off my feet by the spell that squeezed the life out of me, and that’s when I saw my attacker.

  Bogrum, the leader of the Orc Chieftains was grinning up at me as the spell streamed from the end of his staff.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this, you fucking Mary Sue,” he grumbled. Then he raised his left hand to reveal something that resembled a slug, but with the face of a snake and about a dozen rows of circular teeth, all spinning in opposite directions. He threw the slug at me, but I was too incapacitated with pain to block it. I glanced down when it hit my stomach and stuck, then I began to scream as those little teeth went to work burrowing into me.

  “Fuck you Bogrum!” I screamed as the little bastard of a slug tore through my skin.

  The orc laughed his ass off and intensified the spell that held me aloft, ten feet above the ground. When he ran out of mana, I hit the ground in agony, but I still had the presence of mind to cast Hellfire at the son of a bitch.

  An orc warrior suddenly appeared right in front of me, and my spell exploded against his shield. He appeared from behind the shield with a grin, then he kicked me in the face hard enough to break my recently grown back teeth.

  I rolled with the blow, ignoring the pain, and came up swinging with my enchanted sword. The orcs had circled me, but the closest hadn’t expected me to be so quick. I stabbed the sword into her throat suddenly and was rewarded with a Soul-Shatter Strike that made her explode.

  The orcs cursed me as their guild mate’s remains slid off their armor, but I was already casting another spell. I hit the orc to my right with a Fireball that took off its left arm, then I brought down Fire Storm on their ugly heads.

  “You’re going to pay for that!” Bogrum warned, but I hadn’t forgotten about him. I grabbed the armless orc as others reached for me, then I pressed my glowing hand against his spine and fired a Magic Bolt. It tore right through his back and out his chest, leaving him alive but paralyzed, and I used him as a shield and charged Bogrum.

  Spells bombarded my orc captive, and swords slammed into his chest, but they couldn’t stop me. I tossed him to the side and came in low as Bogrum scrambled to hit me with a spell. He missed, and I came up with the mother of all uppercuts, engaging my kinetic energy ring as I did so, and hit him square in his thick green jaw.

  Bogrum’s head snapped back so hard that his neck split open, and his body flew ten feet into the air.

  “You will never defeat me!” I screamed as his lifeless b
ody hit the ground.

  A moment later a dozen orc swords, spells, and spears slammed into me, and I died with two middle fingers raised high and a big grin on my face.

  You are Dead!

  One Level Penalty

  You are now level 67

  “Yeah, no shit,” I told my interface as I respawned in ghost form in the cemetery.

  I expected to see spells flying from the top of the tower and slamming into the newly spawned intruders, but for some reason, none of the enemies were anywhere near our cemetery. The only fighters respawning in the cemetery were the militia, my guild mates, and the Guardians of Haven. I stepped over the cemetery barrier as Anna came running over to me.

  “Where the hell are the other guilds?” I asked as I joined her and rushed to the tower.

  “They must have their own cemetery,” she said as spells slammed into the emerald energy dome surrounding the tower.

  “What? That’s a thing?”

  “Apparently, they figured it out, because they’ve been respawning behind their army.

  “Fuck!” I swore as I took the stairs up to the tower two at a time. I ran to the edge of the ramparts, where Tweak was standing behind his mounted cannon laughing maniacally as he unleashed a barrage of fireballs.

  I gazed out over the battlefield, and my heart sank. Our militia was being decimated, Zoe and her orcs were being pushed back, and the barbarian army was steadily advancing. I clutched the talisman around my neck, knowing that if I summoned my demonic children, they would wipe out the enemy in a matter of minutes. But if I did so, I was sure to be labeled a demon lord, and my legacy would be that of an evil overlord.

  I didn’t want to win that way. My goal with Haven was to create a harmonious kingdom with many allies. I wanted to create, not destroy.

  “Miramar!” I yelled and spun around.

  The NPC wizard appeared in front of me with his palms still smoking from the last spell that he had cast.

  “How many militiamen do we have out there?” I asked.

  “Sixty-five,” he said gravely, then added, “I mean sixty-three now Sire.”

  I stared at the raging battle, not knowing what to do. The barbarians were tearing through the defenders, and I saw Kit, Anna, and Trinity die again. The fireballs and cannonballs being launched at the enemy from the tower cannons were killing dozens of barbarians at a time, but they were now in league with the three guilds that were attacking us, and therefore the barbarians were respawning behind the main force as well.

  Eventually, the enemy would push us all the way back to the emerald energy shield, and it was only a matter of time before they burned it down.

  We needed to find that cemetery, and we needed to destroy it.

  “New plan!” I said, motioning Miramar, Nanaya, Cecilia and a recently spawned Anna in closer. “We need to get around the attackers and find their respawn point. Cecilia, any idea what they’re using to create their own cemetery?”

  She was already tapping on her interface when I asked the question, and she nodded grimly. “They’re rare, but there are certain artifacts in game that can be used as a respawn point. Usually these artifacts are things like the bones or petrified heart of a dead demon lord. Whatever it is, its some dark ass magic.”

  “Like a talisman that can summon a demon army?” said Nanaya.

  “I’m not using it,” I told her and shook my head. “We’re going to win this thing on our own.”

  “We would still be winning it on our own,” she countered with a deep frown. “We’re simply using all the resources at our disposal.”

  “I’ve made my decision.”

  “Yeah, well it’s a stupid decision,” she said, glancing around at the other girls. “Can I get some fucking backup here?”

  “I’m with Sam,” said Anna. “We’re not winning like that.”

  “That’s how we won the damn tournament to get this place!” Nanaya yelled, arms wide.

  “She’s right,” Cecilia told me. “We’ve got to use all our resources if we’re going to win. They’re going to burn down our shield and take the tower. Is that what you want?”

  “I can’t control them!” I said angrily. “You saw what happened after we won the tournament. You saw how they were trying to get free. If I unleash a thousand golden demons who share my special ability, they’re going to screw their way right to the top. They’ll conquer the entire damn world.”

  “He’s right, bitches!” Tweak yelled from atop his cannon. “Listen to your damn king and do what he says!”

  “Excuse me?” Nanaya said to the ape and crossed her arms.

  “We don’t have time for this, alright, listen up.” I outlined my plan and told Nanaya to change into dragon form. When the rest of my guild mates spawned and joined us on the roof of the tower, I instructed Trinity, Ember, and Stormy to aid Zoe and the orc army. Then the other casters and I mounted Nanaya and took to the sky.

  The Dragons of Fury were on us as soon as we emerged from behind the emerald shield, but Miramar had been instructed to focus all firepower on the guild of dragon shifters, and the barrage caused enough chaos for us to slip through on swift wings.

  Nanaya veered toward the back of the enemy line, and as we approached, I saw a glowing clearing where the barbarians and enemy guilds were spawning.

  “Nanaya?”

  “I see it,” she growled. “Hold on!”

  She rolled to the right when a barrage of spells streaked toward us from the casters below. Most of the spells screamed past us harmlessly, but others turned in their flight to follow us. I turned in my saddle and unleashed Arcane Lightning, as Anna, Kit, Cecilia, and Tweak fired their own spells at the projectiles. But one of the spells got through and hit Nanaya in the hind quarters, and she let out a growl of pain.

  “You alright?” I asked as she struggled to stabilize her flight.

  “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Get ready to jump!”

  She glided around in a wide arc, trying to steer clear of the main force, and swooped down over the glowing clearing. I could see an orc shaman standing in the center of the clearing. He held a glowing staff high and was chanting an incantation repeatedly. The magical energy that emanated from his staff spread out above him like an umbrella and covered a large area. Beyond the veil of magic, I could make out an ancient looking cemetery where hundreds of barbarians were waiting to respawn.

  “Get ready!” I warned my guild mates. Then Nanaya glided over the orc shaman, and we all leapt from her back.

  I cast a spell before I even landed, and my Magic Bolt hit the orc shaman in the back of the head. I landed and rolled, coming up and releasing Hell Fire. But the orc shaman was surrounded by a very powerful energy shield, and he continued to chant even as my guild mates began to unload on him.

  The magic shield surrounding him had a health bar like any other. I could see it below the orc’s health and mana bar. The shield’s bar was green, and it appeared that our attacks had only knocked it down to 95%.

  It was time for Nuclear Thunderclap.

  “Keep them off me!” I told my guild mates, indicating the dozens of spawning barbarians and enemy guild members who were rushing to defend their shaman.

  My girls and Tweak created a perimeter around me and the shaman, and I quickly but carefully went through the complicated hand gestures to conjure my spell. I felt the power coursing through me in the moments before I released the spell. The power that I felt was primal. It was like having a two-foot-long rock-hard boner, and I couldn’t wait to share it with someone.

  I unleashed my Nuclear Thunderclap right at the feet of the orc shaman, and the massive explosion send a plume of fire and dirt one hundred feet into the sky. As the mushroom cloud rolled skyward, my guild mates and I resumed our attack.

  When the smoke cleared, I was dismayed to find that the shaman was still standing, and not only that, but his shield’s health was still over 35%. I desperately slammed Fireballs and Magic Bolts at the son of a bitch’s sh
ield, but soon the barbarians were upon us. My guild mates and I went from attacking the orc shaman to fighting for our lives, and I thought we were doomed, but just then Nanaya arrived with Zoe and a dozen orcs. They leapt down and joined the battle at the enemy cemetery, but so too did the Dragons of Fury.

  “Can you and your orcs give us two minutes?” I asked Zoe as she ran over to me.

  She ducked a sword from a barbarian and turned him to ice, then she leapt over him and swung her staff at his head. When she landed in front of me, the barbarian shattered and fell to the ground in a thousand pieces.

  “For you?” she said with a wry grin. “Anything is possible.”

  “Just keep them off us until we burn this fucker down!”

  Zoe and her orcs surrounded us and fought their asses off. The orcs weren’t as big as the barbarians, but they were still powerful as hell. My guild mates and I bombarded the orc shaman with spells, and managed to drop the shield down to 20%, but Zoe and her army were slowly being overtaken.

  “Mary Sue!” I heard Bogrum bellow, and I turned in time to deflect his sword as he came flying over the orcs.

  Zoe was on him in a flash, hitting him with ice spells that slowed his movement, and I hit him with Arcane Lightning. But the bastard had been buffed to the max by his allies, and he was hell bent on taking off my head.

  Warning!

  Tower Defenses 30%

  “Fuck off and die!” I screamed and unsheathed my enchanted sword.

  Bogrum leapt toward me with his big sword cocked back, and even though three spells hit him on his descent, his course remained true. I deflected the sword with my shield, but the powerful blow sent me staggering back. I spun and slashed at the orc shaman, trying to keep up the pressure while at the same time staying out of range of Bogrum’s big sword.

  My guild mates were being distracted by him as well, and to make matters worse, the barbarians had killed nearly all the orcs. The enemy was respawning around us fast, and soon we would be overwhelmed.