Rebirth Online 3

by Michael James Ploof

  I walked to Cecilia’s pub, knowing that I would most likely find my guild mates there, and I was right. What I didn’t expect to find, however, were about twenty dwarven guards, and Trinity in shackles.

  Chapter 8

  “What the hell’s going on here?” I demanded as I pushed through the crowd.

  I was abruptly stopped by a short stocky dwarven guard who might as well have had the mass of a boulder.

  “Stay back Sonny,” he said to me as he and the others created a perimeter around Trinity and another person.

  When I finally got a look at the other person, I was shocked to discover that it was the guild leader for the Orc Chieftains.

  “Trinity!” I yelled over the dwarven guards.

  She looked my way and winked as the dwarves began to lead her away.

  “Is this the way you want to play it?” said the Orc Chieftains’ guild leader. He was glaring at me with hate-filled eyes and pressing against his chains to lean toward me. “With or without me, my guild is going to win, you cheating fuck!”

  Other players regarded me with suspicion, and I found my guild mates among them. The crowd was too thick to reach them, so I indicated for them to move back toward the shops lined on the other side.

  Kit came running over to me when I emerged from the crowd, and she looked worry stricken.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “She picked a fight with the leader of the guild that we fight tomorrow,” said the cat-furry.

  “I can see that,” I said patiently. “But why?”

  Ember suddenly appeared beside me. “To give us an advantage, obviously,” she said with a look of pride.

  “That’s pretty sketchy,” I told her.

  Tweak, Anna, Cecilia, Nanaya, and Stormy approached, and I raised my arms to the sides as if to say WTF?

  “We couldn’t stop her,” said Anna.

  “That bitch is crazy,” Tweak added as he threw up his arms.

  “You’ve got a real loose cannon on your hands, Samson,” said Nanaya.

  “I guess I’m lead tank,” Stormy put in with a smile.

  “What the hell has gotten into her?” I asked Ember, who knew her best.

  She shrugged. “The Underworld wasn’t easy for her.”

  Ember was referring to Trinity’s time as a captive in the Underworld a few weeks back, when the digital ghost of Kincaid sent everyone to Rebirth Online’s version of hell. All my guildmates had gone through some crazy shit down there, but Trinity more so it seemed.

  Her special ability was to feel pain as pleasure, which made her such a fierce tank, and I didn’t know how that would relate to the Underworld torture. I was under the impression that torture wouldn’t really be torture to Trinity, not in game. Instead it would be more like amazing sex than anything. Still, she was going through something, and I needed to help her.

  But that was going to be hard with her in jail.

  “Welp, we lost our main tank,” said Ember. “But the Orc Chieftains lost their guild leader. How’s that going to affect them, Cecilia?”

  The foxy lady thought about that for a moment as she eyed the nosey passersby. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s talk back at my place.

  We slipped into Cecilia’s pub and moved to our reserved booth by the window. After we all squeezed in, Cecilia spoke a spell word, and a moment later a soundproof energy field sprang into existence.

  “Alright,” she said as she tapped on her interface, and then kind of flung her hands toward each of us in turn.

  My interface flared to life, and I clicked on the new tab. When I did, the entire Orc Chieftain roster unrolled before me.

  “As you can see,” said Cecilia as she tapped on Bogrum’s icon. “Bogrum was the guild’s most powerful warlock. And now that he’s in the slammer for a few days, the Orc Chieftains are going to be depending on this chick.”

  Cecilia tapped on another icon and focused on another player. This one, a female warlock called Hyssia, was a level 55 and powerful as all hell.

  “Jesus,” said Tweak. “Bogrum was better than her?”

  “Yes,” said Cecilia. “But she is only ever been backup for Bogrum. She has never been in charge, and she has never tasted her true power. He keeps her under his thumb. I don’t think she’s got what it takes to take his place. And that means that their entire strategy, which used to rely on Bogrum’s hexes, curses, and demon summoning is going to fall apart.”

  “That’s a bonus,” I said, “But I still don’t like it. What Trinity did feels like cheating, and I think the community is going to feel the same way.”

  “It is what it is,” said Cecilia.

  I nodded agreement. “Alright, lets get to work on a strategy for tomorrow.”

  The next morning, we woke up early to prepare for our first battle against the Orc Chieftains. Aeorock was buzzing with activity, and there were more players in the city than I had ever seen at once, even the week before when the undead had attacked the mountain stronghold. But the mood was much brighter than that bleak event had been.

  The tournaments were to be held in the Aeorock coliseum, which was a new addition by the programmers, and had been built off the main street in a new cavern. The coliseum was open-aired, with sunshine spilling in from above. It was as big as a football stadium and reminded me of a gladiator arena, white sand and all. There were enough seats for at least ten thousand players, and it looked as though nearly every seat was taken. All around the top levels were large looking-glasses showing the pre-fight show, and I knew that the guild wars were being broadcast all around the world as well.

  Every guild in the tournament was given special seating right in the front, and as a dwarven guard led us to our row, I nodded at Frisco, who had the booth beside us.

  “I heard about Trinity,” he said as we shook hands over the barrier. It was hard to hear him over the tumult, and I didn’t feel like explaining things, so I just shrugged.

  “You ready for your first battle?” I asked.

  “Hell yeah,” he said as he glanced around at the gathered crowd. “This shit is crazy, right?”

  “It sure is.”

  Just then Dr. Marks and his wizardly counterpart Donovan came on the looking glass, and his voice echoed through the coliseum.

  “Welcome friends, to the first annual Guild Wars! It is my pleasure to welcome the first two guilds that will be doing battle today. Please welcome The Doom Lords!”

  I glanced over at my guild mates and watched as the Doom Lords came running out of a tunnel and rushed out onto the sand. The crowd went wild for the guild as the camera’s zoomed in on the imposing looking players.

  “And their opponents,” said Dr. Marks. “The Fate Marked!”

  The next guild to enter looked to be comprised mainly of humans, dwarves, and elves. There were twenty of them, compared to the Doom Lords’ thirty players, but with only seven allowed on the battlefield at a time, it didn’t make a lot of difference.

  My guild had been small to begin with, and now without Trinity we only had 8. I had yet to visit Trinity, and I was still pretty pissed at her for putting us in this situation, but I tried to focus on the task at hand.

  “Now,” said the wizard Donovan. “I will conjure the randomly chosen battlefield!”

  He tapped on the crystal on the table, and the crowd gasped as the circle of sand that the two guilds stood on began to shimmer and shift. The entire stadium hummed as the transformation was made complete, and when it was done, a smoldering battleground consisting of tiny islands surrounded by flowing rivers of lava appeared.

  “Doom Lords, are you ready?” Dr. Marks asked as he stared down at them from the big looking glass. The leader of the Doom Lords let out a roar, and the crowd cheered.

  “Fate Marked, are you ready?” he asked the other guild, and their leader nodded.

  A horn blared, and the guardians at each end of the battleground roared. They charged across the battlefield, followed closely by their respective guilds.
Spells began to fly from the many casters on both teams, and soon the battle was in full force.

  It was apparent right off the bat that the Fate Marked were outclassed. The Doom Lords worked well together, and the standby players flawlessly replaced those who fell in battle. After only fifteen minutes, the Doom Lords had burned the other guild’s guardian down to 1% health, while theirs still had 35%. The leader of the Doom Lords landed the killing blow, shattering the opposing guild’s guardian with a spell that laid it low.

  The crowd cheered for the Doom Lords, and I began to think that we didn’t have a chance in hell at beating them.

  Frisco and the Purrrrsian Empire were up next, and I offered the panther good luck when he and his guild mates moved out of their booth and into the tunnel. Their opponents, the Children of Light, strode out when they were announced, and the glow that emanated from their shiny armor was nearly blinding. They were paladins one and all, and they looked quite imposing with their thick, golden blades, armor, and the endless buffs that they had cast on each other. But Frisco had seemed to think that it would be an easy win given the Children of Light’s lack of diversity.

  The wizardly announcer tapped his crystal again, and the battlefield changed from tiny islands and burning lava, to a desert landscape full of rolling dunes. The two teams stood beside their respective guardians, and the battle began.

  A soon as the horn blared, sand worms suddenly emerged from the dunes. The creatures were twenty feet long and resembled earth worms, except they had scales like a lizard and giant gaping maws full of rows of teeth.

  The Children of Light decided to take up defense and fanned out in front of their guardian, while the Purrrrsian Empire charged across the dunes and let their guardian clear out the sand worms.

  For a few minutes it looked like the Children of Light might just win. No matter how many spells the Purrrrsian Empire landed to the opposing guardian, its health didn’t budge. But when Frisco and his guildies turned their attention on the paladins instead of the guardian, they dropped them all in less than thirty seconds. For ten seconds there were no paladins on the battlefield, and that’s when the Purrrrsian Empire made its move. They bombarded the opposing guardian with spells and curses while their own guardian slammed into his counterpart. When the paladins respawn countdown ended, however, the Purrrrsian Empire turned their attention back to the paladins and burned them all down again before they could perform any buffs.

  In this manner, the Purrrrsian Army soon secured victory, and I found myself cheering for them with the rest of my guild.

  “Purrrrsian Empire, Purrrrsian Empire!” Kit screamed beside me with a look of pure delight.

  The crowd seemed to love Frisco and his cats as well. Their cheers were thunderous, and it took a full five minutes for the crowd to settle down enough for Dr. Marks to speak.

  “What a battle!” he said to Donovan.

  “I think they might be a contender for the final four!” the wizard declared to the great enthusiasm of the crowd.

  The highlights replayed while the two announcers pointed out where each guild had gone wrong and what they had done right, and the looking glass showed the next two guilds scheduled to do battle.

  Heavy Metal Thunder

  Versus

  The Orc Chieftains

  “You girls ready?” I asked my guildmates.

  “You got it Big Daddy,” said Kit with a smile

  “Let’s kick some ass!” Stormy yelled as she slammed her sword against her shield.

  “Alright,” I said and took a deep breath. “Let’s show them what we’re made of.”

  We were led from our booth to the tunnels below by a dwarven guard, and when our name was called, we emerged from the tunnel onto the sand to the applause of thousands. My guild was famous, and we had basically saved the game from being shut down twice now, but there were still some boos mixed in with the applause.

  “Heavy Metal Thunder, are you ready?” Dr. Marks asked.

  “Ready!” I yelled, and my voice echoed through the coliseum.

  “Orc Chieftains, are you ready?”

  “These cheating bastards are going to pay!” said the orc warlock Hyssia.

  Some in the crowd booed her statement, but others applauded and cheered them on.

  “Let the battlefield be chosen!” the wizard announced in a voice filled with dramatic flair. He tapped on the crystal, and the ground beneath my feet began to change, along with the surroundings. Gone was the desert, and in its place a grassy meadow full of tall crystals appeared.

  “Well, this isn’t too bad,” said Tweak as he took in the landscape.

  I was about to agree, but the jutting crystals suddenly retracted back into the earth and began to randomly shoot out from other locations, and they were everywhere.

  “I take that back,” Tweak said with a sigh.

  “Alright, guardian,” I said, looking up at the big blue crystal behemoth. “I want you to stay here, away from those crystals.” Then I turned to my mates. “We’re playing defense on this one. Let them try and make it across that maze of jutting crystals. They’re sure to take on damage, and by the time they get here we’ll have the upper hand.”

  The countdown began, and my guild mates quickly cast buffs on each other in preparation. The Orc Chieftains didn’t hesitate, and once the countdown reached zero and the horns blared, they charged across the ever-changing landscape. The crystals erupted from the earth like swords, and more than one of the Orc Chieftains found the ground beneath them suddenly erupt and throw them one-hundred feet into the air. Their red guardian was hit a few times as well, but they kept on coming.

  “Fire!” I yelled as they reached the middle of the battleground. I cast Firestorm and lit the ground surrounding our base with Scorched Earth, while the rest of my guild mates unleashed their own spells at the closest opponent. The orc warrior took the blows like a boss and charged through the smoke and fire as his health steadily ticked down to 20%, but a buff from one of his guild mates brought him back up to 40%. I unleashed Magic Bolt, Fireball, and Hellfire as my mates followed up their own spells, and the orc warrior fell dead less than ten feet in front of me.

  “Focus your firepower on their guardian!” I told the others, then I looked over at Nanaya, who was our one and only alternate. “Be ready.”

  I downed a mana potion and hit the opposing guardian with everything I had while my guild mates did the same. The spells hit home, but so did those cast by the other guild. The Orc Chieftains had finally crossed the maze of thrusting crystals, and they lit into us with everything they had. I took a hit from a warlock that left me dazed, and another from an ice mage that left me with only 25% movement speed. Finally, an assassin appeared beside me, smiled, and stabbed me in the heart.

  You Are Dead!

  The pain lasted only a moment, and I found myself in ghost form waiting behind the veil at our base. Nanaya quickly took my place, however, and to the crowd’s delight, she took the form of a white dragon.

  I watched my cooldown tick down to zero, and as soon as I became whole again, Nanaya swooped down and grabbed ahold of me in her long talons. She glided upward and did a barrel roll. Then she released me and flipped back around in the air, allowing me to land on her back safely.

  “Are you nuts?” I yelled over the howling wind as I clutched the horns protruding from her shoulder blades.

  “Yeah, pretty much!” she said with a laugh. “Now let’s show these fucks who’s boss!”

  The crowd cheered as the image of me and the white dragon appeared on the big looking glass. The applause was electrifying, and I couldn’t help but smile as we bore down on the red guardian. Nanaya unleashed dragon fire, and I hit the guardian with a Magic Bolt, Fireball, and Hellfire in rapid succession. Spells flew toward us from the Orc Chieftains, but Nanaya maneuvered around the glowing projectiles with practiced ease. On the ground, our little aerial show had created the distraction that the rest of my guild mates needed, and I watched from on
high as they lit into the orc chieftains with spells of their own.

  Nanaya flew back around and unleashed another streaming tongue of flame. It exploded against the ground at the red guardian’s feet and left him staggering blindly in a pyre that reached thirty feet into the air. The crystals continued to shoot out of the ground, and one struck the guardian in the knee, buckling it.

  “Hold on!” Nanaya yelled back at me, then she did a barrel-roll that left us falling like stones toward the staggering guardian.

  Our blue guardian crashed into his counterpart, sending the red off balance and leaving him face down on the ground. Nanaya took advantage of the moment and suddenly pulled up as we shot toward the wrestling behemoths. She landed on the red’s back and doused its head with dragon fire, while I unleashed a torrent of spells aimed right at the crystalline head.

  A spell hit Nanaya in the neck, then another in the head, and she reeled back just as I was going through the hand gestures to conjure a fireball. I tumbled backward down her tail, fell off the right side, and landed hard on my back. The air exploded from my lungs, but before I could attempt to recover, an orc warrior came leaping through the flames with a war hammer cocked back high over her ugly green head.

  I unleashed the fireball that I had been holding on to, and it took the orc right in the face. She flipped backward and landed hard on her ass, and I unleashed my follow up spell. Scorched Earth should have left her reeling from the pain as it engulfed her, but to my surprise, she shot up off the ground and slammed her enormous war hammer right into my chest. My armor took the brunt of the blow, but it was still enough force to crack just about every bone in my back and send me ass over teakettle.

  And right into a jutting crystal.

  Warrior Stun

  50% Movement Speed Reduction

  Duration – 10 seconds.

  Ten seconds! That was a lifetime when you were fighting for your life. I let out a groan that sounded like it came from a slow-motion clip as I writhed like a turtle in pain. The warrior came into view as I tried desperately to conjure a spell, but I was too slow, and she drew back her war hammer with a grin and swung it downward.