I closed my eyes, knowing that I was doomed, but rather than the sound of my crunching bones I heard the sharp song of a blade, a gurgle, and a thud.
I opened my eyes and found Ember standing over me offering me a hand.
“Thanks babe,” I said as I took her hand and helped her pull me to my feet.
“Anytime sugar dick,” she said with a wink. “Their guardian is at 6%, you ready to finish this bitch?”
“Fuck yeah,” I said as Kit and Anna’s healing energy washed over me.
“Come on!” Kit yelled as she, Tweak, Anna, and Stormy charged past us.
Ember and I followed them back to the fallen red guardian, and I saw the newly spawned Orc Chieftains charging across the treacherous field of crystal spears.
“Take out the guardian, I’ll head them off!” I yelled to my guild mates.
On cue, Kit, Anna, Ember, and Cecilia cast extra buffs on me.
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
Healing Touch
1,000 Health Regeneration per Second
Duration – 10 Seconds
Beneath the Wings of the Father
500 Armor Regeneration per Second
Duration – 15 Seconds
Freshly buffed and ready to kick some ass, I charged toward the Orc Chieftains with my Fire Shield blazing. I cast Scorched Earth across a twenty-foot swath, then I conjured Firestorm and watched with glee as the fiery meteorites slammed into my enemies. The first Orc Chieftain to reach me was an ugly warlock with big curved tusks. He shot his hand out toward me, and a black winged demon appeared with a flash of blinding light and a cloud of sulfuric yellow smoke. I brought my enchanted sword to bear and struck fast and true, impaling the screaming demon through the chest.
Soul Shatter Strike!
The notification appeared on my interface, and a heartbeat later the demon exploded into a thousand pieces. The warlock’s eyes widened as I sped toward him, and I slapped his feeble staff strike to the side with my fire shield. I stabbed the orc three times in the gut and watched as his health ticked down to 45%, but then one of his teammates reached us and pressed me with an onslaught of sword strikes that left my fire shield sparking.
I glanced over at the red guardian and grinned to myself when I saw that it was down to 1%. I turned to face my opponents once more, but to my surprise, they suddenly took notice of something and ran past me. I turned to see what had taken their attention and let out a grown when I saw that our blue guardian was down to 1% as well, and it was being swarmed by demons.
“Burn the red down!” I yelled to my guild mates. Ember hacked at the downed behemoth, while Kit, Cecilia, and Anna hit it with spells from their staffs. Tweak was hacking at the red with his enchanted blade, while Stormy chopped away at its neck with her massive axe.
I could hear the crowd in the distance screaming like a murderous mob, and the announcers were saying something… They were counting down each of the guardian’s health.
“The Orc Chieftains have the blue down to 0.0098!” Dr. Marks yelled at the camera.
“And Heavy Metal Thunder is just ahead of them, having brought the red to 0.0091%,” said the wizard with amazement. “What a fight this has turned out to be!”
I was too far away to attack the red with my enchanted sword, but I still had my magic. I performed the hand gestures to conjure my spells in a blur of motion, and cast Fireball, Arcane Lightning, Scorched Earth, Firestorm, and Hellfire in rapid succession.
Warning!
Mana 8%
I was already drinking a mana potion when the notification went up on my interface, and I followed up the barrage with another.
Then I heard our blue guardian groan, and I looked to him with a defiant cry. The Orc Chieftains had burned him down to 0.0011%, and any moment now they would land the killing blow.
I desperately conjured a Magic Bolt and looked to the thrashing red guardian, but before I could get off my shot, Nanaya landed on the behemoth’s head in all her hot succubus glory and drove her sword into its right eye.
When the red guardian shattered into a million pieces, the crowd and the entire battlefield went quiet.
Then Doctor Marks’s voice tore through the silence. “Heavy Metal Thunder has done it!”
“By Mangarru’s Beard!” the wizard screamed as he bounced up and down in his seat.
The cheer of the crowd was like crashing ocean waves, and more than one ugly orc turned toward me as I ran to my guild mates in celebration.
Chapter 9
The beers were flowing, and the replays were flashing across the many looking glasses as my guildmates and I walked into Cecelia’s pub.
“Three cheers for Heavy Metal Thunder!” Tweak yelled against the back of his hand.
The crowd took up the cheer, and mugs full of ale were promptly pushed into our hands.
We took our usual booth, and Cecelia had her security guards, who were five stout dwarves, give us some room.
“I don’t know how the hell we pulled that off,” said tweak as he raised a glass. “But we did it.”
“Hear, hear!” said Stormy as we clanged mugs and spilled foam onto the table.
We downed our drinks and slammed them on the table, and a hot little leopard furry waitress sauntered up to us to refill our mugs.
“You really kicked some ass today,” said Ember, offering Nanaya a nod of respect.
“So did Stormy,” Kit happily added.
“We all did good,” I told them. “Trinity would be proud.”
“You’re damn right she would,” came the warrior’s voice.
I turned to find her grinning at us all. She avoided my gaze and focused on the girls instead. Kit gave her a big hug, and Ember offered her a sly grin.
“You should have seen it,” said Kit. “We barely beat them. It was, it was…it was fucking amazing!”
“Oh, I saw it,” said Trinity. “I bribed an NPC guard to bring me a small looking glass.”
Trinity slid into the booth across from me and finally met my prying eyes. She offered me a sweet smile, and I couldn’t help but return it. The blond warrior was just too damn pretty, and she knew it. I wanted to have words with her, and she probably knew that as well, but the middle of a busy pub wasn’t the place, so I let it go until later.
The crowd pressed in, some cheering for us, and others accusing us of being cheaters. What Trinity had done may have solidified our victory, but it had tarnished it as well. I glanced around at the players surrounding us and barely being kept back by the five stout dwarves. I half expected to see Bogrum standing among the malcontents, but if he was around, I couldn’t find him.
“Don’t worry about Bogrum,” said Cecilia knowingly. “The guards have explicit orders to keep him out of the pub.
“He’s going to want revenge,” I said with a glance at Trinity.
She shrugged. “He shouldn’t have started talking shit yesterday. It’s his own fault he got locked up.”
I arched a brow and offered her a dubious look.
“Whatever,” said Ember. “We won fair and square.”
“Yeah man,” Tweak added. “We out classed them, simple as that.”
“Look,” said Anna. I followed her gesture and saw that Doctor Marks and the wizard were back on the big looking glass.
“Everybody shut up!” Cecilia yelled at the crowd. She tapped on her interface, and the voices of the two announcers got louder.
“What a day of competition,” Doctor Marks was saying as highlights of our battle with the Orc Chieftains played behind them.
“I’ll say.” The wizard Donovan nodded affably. “W
hy, I haven’t seen a fight like that since I told my ex-wife I was moving out.”
Some in the crowd laughed, but most groaned at the lame joke.
“Tomorrow is sure to bring us another batch of amazing battles,” said the doctor. “We’ve got the Crimson Dragons fighting the Bards of Calimdor, the One True Guild against the Skullthumpers, and the Gilded Mages set to do battle with the Wyverns, to name a few.”
“Right you are, doctor,” said the wizard. “And let’s not forget about the Tokyo Kids versus the Manchurian Meddlers. That fight is bound to be nearly as exciting as Heavy Metal Thunder and the Orc Chieftains was today.”
“We’ve got two days before we fight again,” said Trinity as she turned from the looking glass. “We should level up while we’ve got a chance.”
The girls looked my way coyly, and Tweak shook his head. “You guys have fun. I’ve got to go see my trainer.”
The girls and I left the tumult of the pub for the comfort of Cecilia’s bedroom. As I watched them disrobe, I thanked my lucky stars for the hundredth time. The girls all surrounded me as I lay on the bed, grinning like a fool, and they took turns riding the magic stick. As they leveled one by one, I fought the urge to release my pent-up seed, and by the time Stormy took her turn I was ready to pop. She clung to me as we both climaxed, and the notification appeared just above her swaying breaths.
Congratulations!
You’ve Reached Level 53
“Oh wow,” said Stormy as she lay against my chest panting. “I’m level 57 now.”
“Yup,” said Kit with a purr as she slid up against my right side. “And in twelve more hours you could be a level 58.”
I fell asleep shortly after leveling. It had been a long day, and the battle against the Orc Chieftains had left me feeling spent.
When I woke up, I found myself standing in the throne room of none other than Megulla.
“Is this a dream?” I asked the demon.
She smiled down on me from the throne. “Who is to say what is real and what is not?” she asked with a grin. “I see that you have defeated your first opponent.”
“Yeah, barely,” I said as I glanced around the ceiling expecting to see my golden children hiding in the shadows.
“I believe that you will continue to win,” she offered with a wave of her hand. “Soon you will be a king among men. Then we shall conquer the world.”
“Did you do as I asked? Have our, uh, kids stopped leveling?”
“Yes. I have forbidden them from leveling until you have become a king.”
“Even if my guild wins and I become king, I need you to wait. Becoming a king is only the beginning. I need to become a powerful king before we can even begin to think about conquering the surface world.”
She studied me for a moment, and finally nodded.
“This talk of war bores me.” Megulla snapped her fingers, and the next thing I knew I was standing at the foot of a big king-sized bed.
Megulla lay at the other end completely naked, and I remembered the underworld bonus that deactivated the cooldown on my special ability.
“Come to me, Samson,” she said as she played with her pointy red nipples. “Fill me with your magical seed.”
My cock swelled in my pants, and I took a dreamy step around the bed, but then I remembered what had happened last time.
“You want me to give you more children,” I realized.
“Of course, we have only just begun to build our army,” she said as her hand moved down her beautiful body.
Damn, I wonder if there are condoms in Rebirth Online, I thought to myself as I stared at her ridiculously hot body.
“I think I’m going to have to take a rain check,” I told the demon, but she only laughed.
“You’re such a tease,” she moaned as she slipped two fingers into her glistening demon snatch.
“I’m serious, Megulla. No more sex, no more children. Not right now anyway.”
She sobered instantly and sat up as anger flashed across her face. “What is the meaning of this? Is it those whores that you frolic with? Have they turned you against me?”
“No, this has nothing to do with them,” I said. “We must take this slow, that is all. I shouldn’t even be here right now. If the gods knew that we were—”
“To the Underworld with the gods!” Megulla cursed. “I do not fear them.”
“Honorable, truly, but you should fear them. We need to be more careful, do you understand?”
“But Samson,” she said as she brought herself to her feet with her long black wings. “I need you. I crave you. I must have you inside me.”
She walked up to me and kissed me passionately, and when her hand found my shaft, I let out a groan of pleasure.
“Megulla…” I panted. “I can’t.”
I pulled back from her grasp and stared into her shimmering eyes. She frowned, then scowled, and promptly slapped me across the face.
“Fine!” she said as she regained her composure. “I shall heed your advice. And I will be patient. But know that I long for the day that I might feel your body against mine.”
“Return me to the surface world,” I said as I wiped the blood from the corner of my lip. “I must prepare for my next battle.”
“Good luck, my love,” said Megulla, and then with a wave of her hand the bedroom disappeared.
I awoke draped in naked women, and it took me a moment to realize that I had been dreaming.
Or had I?
I wiped my bleary eyes and roused my guild mates. We needed to hit the simulation chambers and start practicing if we were going to have a chance against the next guild.
“Wake up girls,” I said as I slapped Trinity and Kit’s bare asses and pulled the covers off the others. “Time to get to work.”
I found Tweak and his purple monkeys in the kitchen whipping up a huge breakfast, and the ape put a cup of coffee in front of me when I sat down at the counter.
“You look like you’ve been ridden hard and put away wet,” he said, raising his own mug.
“You could say that,” I offered.
“Oh my god, what’s that smell?” said Kit with a yawn.
“Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage,” said Tweak. “Help yourselves ladies.”
“I’m liking this big purple ape more and more,” Stormy said as she rubbed her hands together and sat down at the table.
When our bellies were full, and all the dishes had been magically dismissed, Cecilia shared a file with each of us from her interface, and a guild roster unfolded before my eyes.
“Alright, peeps,” said Cecilia. “This is the roster for the Harvesters of Sorrow. They beat the Grinders yesterday quite easily, and I think they’re going to give us a hell of a fight. But they have their weaknesses, and I intend on exploiting them.”
We watched the battle between the Harvesters of Sorrow and the Grinders five times on the looking glass, and Cecilia pointed out various formations that the Harvesters favored, and the flaws in their strategy. When we finished, we went to the training chamber and ran a simulation that Cecilia and Tweak had managed to load somehow through the game master.
The digital version of the Harvesters of Sorrow appeared before us and then took to the other side of the metallic room.
“You two did a hell of a job with that program,” I told Cecilia and Tweak.
Tweak waved me off. “Child’s play.”
“They’re programmed to act like the real Harvesters of Sorrow, or as close as the computer can get them anyway,” said Cecilia.
“Alright,” I told my guild mates. “Let’s do this.”
We buffed up and moved to the other side of the room, where the blue guardian waited. The game master brought the simulation to life, and a moment later we were standing in a foggy swampland.
“Gross,” Kit yelled when she stepped in the mire up to the knee. “Have the game master pick a different one.”
“We need to get used to fighting in any condition, on any battlefield,�
� I told her as I helped her out of the mud.
“Heavy Metal Thunder!” the game master yelled. “Are you ready?”
“Ready!” I yelled back.
“Harvesters of Sorrow are you ready?” he asked the other guild.
“Yesss,” said the guild leader. She was a mean looking dark elf witch-doctor named Vyra who hissed like a snake when she spoke. Her guild, all bad-ass looking dark elves, red-eyed dwarves, and a few orcs all wore similar black armor.
“Let the battle begin!” the game master cried, and our opponents began to charge across the high ground. They were letting their guardian lead the way, which was a strategy that we had seen from yesterday.
“Alright, team,” I said as I conjured a magic bolt. “You know what to do. Stormy and Trinity are backup. Nanaya and Ember take out their healers. The rest of you with me.”
Nanaya turned into a twelve-foot-long alligator and disappeared into the swamp, Ember became invisible, and the rest of us hunkered down behind whatever cover we could find. When the spells started flying, it was the Harvesters of Sorrow who struck first, going right for our guardian and ignoring the rest of us completely.
Kit, Anna, and Cecilia focused their healing energy on our blue guardian, while Tweak and I focused our spells on the red. One of the warriors turned his attention to me as I was unleashing spells upon the red guardian, and the dark elf charged toward me with its long sword cocked back for the kill. I kept my attention on the red, knowing, or hoping, that Ember would intercept the dark elf warrior. On cue, the elf staggered as if it had been slashed across the back of the legs by a sword. Ember became visible behind the downed warrior, and she landed three dagger strikes to his back before the dark elf was able to spin around and block the fourth. I shot a magic bolt that exploded against the back of his head, as Ember weaved and dodged around the big sword. She stabbed him in the neck and the blood flew as the dark elf stumbled and fell to one knee. The healers were still under attack from Tweak and his purple monkeys, and they didn’t have a chance to help the injured warrior before Ember and I finished him off.
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