Rebirth Online 6
Michael James Ploof
Copyright © 2019 Traveling Bard publishing
All rights reserved
Chapter 1
I knew that Bogrum and the Orc Chieftains were close, because the den smelled like shit. It had taken me a week to track them down, but with the help of a few devious imps in the Underworld, I was able to pinpoint their location. I had tracked ole Boggy and his stoolies to the Snaketooth swamps, a level 60+ zone that my guild and I had rarely ventured into. The swamps had a sulfurous stench to them, but they still smelled better than the Underworld, and that was saying a lot.
The den that Bogrum and his guild had been hiding out in was one of many located in the realm. From the outside it looked like nothing more than a large mound of earth covered in moss and bare trees, but with my Dark Lord Aura Detection I could see the lifeforms inside. I counted thirty-five and grinned to myself.
My prey was close.
Soon they will feel the power of the Dark Throne.
The voice of the throne startled me, but I tried not to let it show.
“Soon they’ll feel the power of my foot up their asses,” I said aloud. It was weird talking to the throne in my head, so I spoke aloud whenever I wasn’t around my guild mates.
Bring them to the dungeon, kill them until they are your prisoners in the Underworld, said the Throne in a voice that gave me the creeps.
“That’s the plan, now you mind if I do my thing?” I asked, and the Throne finally shut up.
I knew that Bogrum and his peeps would have a bunch of defenses in place, which was hilarious, given that I was now the Lord of the friggin Underworld. But I tried not to be too cocky. There were still beings more powerful than me, and I wasn’t as strong on the surface world as I was in the Underworld. I had learned that the hard way by spending too long in the sun. As it turns out, I can only spend about two hours in the sun before I start to feel really, really terrible.
But I had flown to the swamps at midnight, and I felt as powerful as a dark god.
I scanned my surroundings and wondered if the Orc Chieftains were aware of my presence. They hadn’t sent any of their minions against me, and they hadn’t suddenly evacuated, matter of fact, they hadn’t moved at all.
It’s a trap!
I don’t know if it was my own voice in my head or the Throne’s, but the warning blared in my mind and I shot into the air on leathery wings. Dark green glowing chains lashed out from the nearby trees and wrapped themselves around my arms, legs, and wings. There must have been two dozen chains, and for a moment I thought that they might pull me back down to the bubbling green waters that surrounded the den. Whoever had put the enchantments on the chains had been a real pro, but they hadn’t accounted for my power. I beat my wings as hard as I could, snapping the chains that were trying to pull them closed and lifting my attackers into the air. They held on desperately, and I could hear them chanting. By the strange lisp created by their large tusks, I knew that it was the Orc Chieftains themselves.
“Bogrum, I’m impressed that you had the courage to try and take me down yourself!” I yelled from on high. I could see him now down there with the others, and he was chanting right along with them. The power that coursed through the chains hurt like hell, but I was getting pretty used to pain. I was more interested in the source of the power. It disturbed me a little how much dark energy there was in those chains, and I knew that ole Boggy must have made some friends in low places.
“Which one of the other six Underworld bosses did you have to blow to get your hands on these chains?”
Bogrum didn’t answer, but the Throne was happy to pipe in.
The lords of the Underworld covet my power over all things.
I ignored the Throne and began casting Arcane Lighting, careful not to make it too powerful. I wanted them alive after all. If I killed them, they would just resurrect at one of the many graveyards nearby, then they would scram like cockroaches in the light. But before I got my spell off, a sudden surge of power coursed through the chains, and an overwhelming pain surged through me.
Whoever had given them the chains was one of the higher-level bosses, that much was apparent, because for a moment I was completely immobile. I began to fall, my wings flapping uselessly above me, and the chains became tighter.
Then I got really, really pissed.
Yesss! The Dark Throne cheered me on in my mind, and unbridled power filled my every fiber.
I tore my right arm free of the chains and unsheathed my enchanted blade, now the tool through which I channeled the Dark Throne’s immense power, and I spun a complete circle and severed the glowing bonds that held me.
“You think that your feeble weapons can take me down?” I screamed and unleashed Arcane Lightning.
I might have made the spell a little too powerful in my anger, and half the guild might have died, but they were the lucky ones.
I flew down the ground as the now dull chains landed hollowly in the murky waters. Bogrum lay on the ground in front of me, and I barely made it to him in time to stop him from killing himself.
“No you don’t!” I yelled and used my telekinesis to paralyze Bogrum and his remaining guild mates. I’d been practicing a lot with the spell, and with the power from the Throne, it was becoming easier to control multiple things at once.
“You like that one?” I asked Bogrum as I turned him over with my big ass skull studded boot.
“Fuck you Mary Sue!” he yelled.
“It’s been a lot of fun, Boggy. It really has. But now it’s over.”
I opened a portal in the air beside me and pushed it back about ten feet.
“I’m sending you to my dungeon, Bogrum. Do you know what’s waiting there?”
He growled against my power, but he was feeble to do anything about it. Now, he was my bitch.
“The Soul Reaver Saltire,” I said with a smile. “The same one that Artemis Lightbringer used to trap me and kill me over a dozen times.”
Bogrum’s face slowly dropped, and I savored the look of fear in his eyes.
Look at him. The Throne said to me in a near whisper. He fears you as he should, as all should. Together we shall make the world quiver.
I’m going to kill you Bogrum, over and over, just like you did to me, only I’m going to finish the job once and for all. Then do you know where you go?”
His eyes widened.
“Yes,” I said with an ever-widening grin. “The Underworld, the place that I just so happen to be the lord of. Oh, we’re going to have good times, Boggy. Good times indeed.”
“Dude,” I heard Nanaya say behind me. “Are you seriously monologuing right now?”
I turned to regard her, and the face that she was making made me crack up.
“Shit, I think I was,” I said with a laugh.
I pushed Bogrum and his guild mates through the portal, knowing that they would land in the dungeon and be secured by my golden sons.
“How long have you been here?” I asked the enchanting succubus.
“Long enough for you to start sounding like a bad cartoon villain,” she said with a wink. “What’s with all the steaming chains in the water? That one of your spells?”
I told her what had happened, then I glanced at the hut.
“They used live bait and somehow made themselves invisible to my eyes. Come on, let’s find out who it is,” I said and motioned her toward the hut.
I walked through the small entrance and squeezed my horns through as well as I could, but I still ended up shaving off part of the shitty mud hut’s ceiling until I came out into the main room.
Then I stopped dead.
The decoys had been Frisco and his guildmates, and as soon as I saw them
, I froze. Frisco’s mouth was gagged like the rest of his friends, and his eyes were wide with warning and fear.
A light suddenly erupted from a crystal on the floor, and I expected an explosion, but instead a big hologram of Bogrum’s ugly mug appeared before me.
“Hey Mary Sue, you piece of shit. If this message is playing, then you’ve captured me and my guild mates. But I’ve got some bad news for you. If you don’t release us, your favorite furry friends are all going to bite the dust. You see, they have all swallowed suicide bomb pills, and unless you free me from wherever you sent me, then they’re going to explode. I’d say you’ve got about one minute to decide, then it’ll be raining furballs.”
The hologram of Bogrum smiled, “Oh, and before you get any big ideas, the bombs are perimeter sensitive, so don’t get too close, and any attempt to tamper with them will lead to their detonation. I am the only one who can stop them from going off, so don’t do anything stupid. All you’ve got to do is free us, and your friends will live. Tick tock, Mary Sue, tick tock.”
A timer replaced Bogrum’s face, and I looked to Frisco.
“You’ve only got thirty seconds,” said Nanaya behind me.
Frisco’s eyes were widening as he watched the countdown, and I considered the situation. If I didn’t summon Bogrum and his guild mates back, Frisco and the Purrrrsian Empire would die and lose a level. But if I did summon them back and let them go, they would slip out of my grasp once again.
I glanced at the timer, noting that I had twenty seconds left to act.
“Sam!” said Nanaya.
“Sorry Frisco,” I said as I turned for the door. “I’ll make it up to you buddy.”
Nanaya watched me walk past with her mouth agape, but she quickly followed me out at the timer began to beep loudly.
I opened a portal that would lead us back to Samson Tower and stepped through without looking back. A moment later, the hut exploded, and the portal closed behind me.
“I can’t believe you let them die,” said Nanaya as we emerged outside the dungeon beneath Samson Tower.
“You of all people have a problem with that?” I asked with a cocked brow.
“No,” she said with a grin and looked me up and down like I was the sexiest beast that she had ever seen. “I’m impressed.”
As am I, said the Throne.
I ignored them both and walked through the big iron door leading to the dungeon. A few dozen of my sons were down there watching over Bogrum and his cronies, who had already been stripped of their items and secured to the saltires.
“You let them die,” said Bogrum. He shook his head. “You really are a dark lord.”
I didn’t reply, not because I didn’t have anything to say to the asshole, but because I couldn’t speak. Rage and regret were boiling over inside of me, and it needed an outlet. I walked over to Bogrum and conjured a Magic Bolt, then I put my right palm against his head and screamed in his face. My voice was many, and echoed with the growl of the Dark Throne, and my spell exploded Bogrum’s head.
I spit out the gore that speckled my lips and turned my furious eyes on the rest of the Orc Chieftains. They regarded me with utter terror, and I felt the Throne’s malicious glee ripple through me.
Do it! Show them the power of the dark throne!
I screamed and lashed out my right hand. I had no spell in mind, but one shot out from my hand regardless. I had never seen the spells before, which issued from my core in a writhing mass of black tendrils, but I knew instinctively what it would do. The tendrils entered the bodies of the Orc Chieftains and took hold of their souls, and I pulled back my right hand, ripping the very essence from their pixilated avatars.
“Holy shit!” I heard Nanaya gasp.
My prisoners all disintegrated, but the power of the saltires forced them to respawn where they had died, and I grinned at Bogrum as he solidified.
“Fuck you!” he screamed, but I cut off his brave proclamation by ripping out his heart and eating it in front of him.
Bogrum died with a shocked expression, and I systematically walked down the line of orcs and tore their hearts from their chests as well.
Taste your victim’s blood… the Throne said seductively.
I tore a chunk out of one of the hearts and swallowed it down, reveling in the power that came with it. A primal ecstasy overwhelmed me, and as the Orc Chieftains respawned, I went absolutely ape shit on them, tearing them apart with my bare hands and ripping chunks of flesh from their bodies. I felt my horns grow, then my claws grew longer, and as I mutilated my enemies, I felt the power of the Throne swell inside me.
“Sam?”
I turned around with a mouth full of Bogrum heart and found a teary-eyed Anna staring at me. Worse yet, the rest of my guild mates stood behind her, and all but Nanaya were looking at me with fear and disappointment.
“Sam…” Anna lamented. “What are you doing?”
I swallowed down the chunk of heart and wiped my mouth.
“Getting even,” I said in a voice that I didn’t even recognize.
Anna covered her mouth as her eyes watered. She tried to speak, but her words came out as an incoherent sob, then she turned and ran to the door.
“Hey bro…” said Tweak. He acted like I was some kind of feral creature and walked toward me cautiously, arms out. “Why don’t you take a break? These guys aren’t going anywhere.”
“What are you all looking at?” I asked, trying hard to sound like myself.
They are weak, said the Throne. You don’t need them anymore.
Yes, I do, I replied in my mind, but then I began to wonder…
“Big Daddy,” said Kit. “You’re scaring us.”
“Leave me alone,” I told them all and turned back to Bogrum.
“He’s lost his way!” Bogrum yelled to my guild mates as he stoically stared into my demonic eyes. “The throne has taken over. Get away from this maniac while you can.”
I growled and grabbed both of Bogrum’s arms, then I tore them from their sockets with a feral snarl. The orc howled in pain and kept on screaming, “Run! Run while you can!”
“Enough of this shit!” Trinity screamed and stomped toward me. She unsheathed her blade and stabbed Bogrum in the heart, then turned her furious gaze my way. “We need to talk.”
“Leave me alone—”
“Right fucking now!” she screamed and pushed me with all her might, which moved me all of three inches back.
How dare she assume to control you! You are the Dark Lord of the Underworld!
In my rage induced state I agreed with the Throne. His outrage at her actions were mine, and before I knew what I was doing, I cocked back my arm and bitch slapped Trinity.
A collective gasp issued from my guild mates as Trinity was thrown back against the wall like she had been hit by a truck.
Kill her! Kill them all!
“Trinity!” I said with alarm at what I had done. I raced toward her, but Tweak suddenly slammed into me with his five hundred pounds, stopping me dead.
“Back up dude,” he warned.
“Father?” said Legion, looking from me to my guild mates quizzically with one hand on the hilt of his sword.
Kill them! The Throne commanded.
“Get out of my head!” I screamed and pressed my hands against my temples.
Tweak backed up from me as the girls grabbed Trinity and ran out of the room.
“Wait!” I begged them. “I’m sorry!”
“Get your shit under control, man.” Tweak offered me a pained look, unable to meet my eyes.
You disappoint me, Samson.
Tweak left the room, and I slumped with a sigh.
“You’re going to lose them all Sam.” It was Bogrum, and I turned to regard him with a scowl. I didn’t recall him ever calling me by my name. Perhaps he had before, but this time there was real concern in his voice, almost like he was talking to an old friend.
“Quit trying to save your ass,” I told him and walked toward the doo
r.
“believe it or not,” he said with a little laugh, “I’m not worried about me or my guild mates.”
That left me a little rattled, and as soon as I was alone, I turned my attention to the Throne.
“Listen to me, you asshole,” I said as I paced the hall. “If you ever try to get me to kill one of my guild mates, I’ll—”
You’ll what? He said with a sneer. I am the source of your power, and you dare threaten me? I have seen a hundred Dark Lords before you, and I shall see a hundred after your bones are ashes.
“You will not turn me against my friends. Do you understand? You want to ride my coattails to the top? You want to invade the surface world? Then get off my back!”
You friends have nothing to offer you.
“That’s not what friendship is about.”
Friendship, he said disgustedly. Useless.
“You chose me,” I reminded him. “And you will not be disappointed, but I swear to god, if you tell me to hurt someone that I love one more time.”
Do not presume to threaten me, mortal!
I dropped to my knees as pain surged through my head.
“Stop!” I begged as I felt my horns being torn from my skull.
Let this be a warning, came the evil voice in my head, and I looked up to see my own horns turn in the air in front of me. They suddenly shot forward and impaled me in the chest, tacking me to the wall.
Then I felt the Throne’s great power recede, and I was left there to bleed as I hung from my own horns.
Chapter 2
“Sam?”
The apprehensive voice lured me from sleep, and I opened my eyes to find Kit approaching me cautiously.
“Hey Kitty Kat,” I said in my own voice.
“Are you…yourself?” she asked as she gained confidence and took a step closer.
“Yeah babe, it’s me. I pissed off the Throne and he left me here like this. Can you help me down?”
She reached out with both hands, and vines erupted from her palms and wrapped around the horns embedded in my chest. It hurt like hell when she ripped them out, and I fell to the floor coughing up blood.
Rebirth Online 6 Page 1