Rebirth Online 4

by Michael James Ploof

  The archers cheered when they saw that they had been able to hurt the giants, and I ordered another volley before turning command over to Mick. I had a few tricks up my sleeve too, and I needed to make sure the giants didn’t reach the wall. As Nanaya bathed the lumbering behemoths in dragon fire, I performed the hand gestures to conjure my Nuclear Thunderclap. I released the spell and watched with glee as the laser-like beam hit the ground right at the center giants’ feet and exploded. Fire engulfed a twenty-foot radius around the giants, who became lost in the mushroom cloud that ensued.

  The villagers let out a mystified proclamation, and silence filled the village as we waited to see if the giants would emerge. For a few moments I thought that maybe I had managed to kill them with the spell, but then a growl of rage shattered the perfect quiet, and the three giants emerged from the smoke and ash at a dead run.

  “Fire!” I urged the archers.

  “Ah shit,” said Tweak as he leapt over the wall with his purple monkeys. “Here we gooo!”

  Spells erupted from the hands of Cecilia, Anna, and Kit, joining my Arcane Lightning. Our spells slowed the giants down, but the monsters were now less than twenty yards from my melee guild mates and their wall of pikes below.

  I desperately fired spells at the giants, then a cheer went up from below. Trinity, Stormy, and Ember were leading the charge, and fifty spearmen followed, the tips of their long spears gleaming silver in the dragon fire light.

  As one, Trinity, Ember, and Stormy all stopped and launched gleaming silver spears at the giants, and each of their missiles found their mark. The three spears each slammed into a different giant’s body and sank deep, but that didn’t slow the angry monsters.

  The stench that the giants carried with them wafted over me as I unleashed a barrage of spells at the one in the middle, who also happened to be the biggest of the three. Two appeared to be male, and the third was female. They all wore ragged animal hides like a loincloth, but nothing more. Their skin was brown and gray. It resembled gravel and looked hard as stone. The most striking thing about their appearance, however, were their hideous faces. Noses were in the wrong spot, and none of their eyes were set level. Mouths too big or too small grinned awkwardly and at off angles as they raced toward the wall, and I realized we were dealing with dim witted smashing machines.

  Moments before the giants slammed into our front line, the line broke, and the pike-wielding men and women scrambled to get away. My guildmates remained, but they couldn’t stop the giants, who like freight trains smashed through the wall as if it were made of toothpicks.

  A big foot came down at me, and I tackled Mick and drove him off the wall moments before a ten-foot-long foot crushed the battlements. Wood crashed down on us as the giants walked over and through the wall, and I conjured my Fire Shield to protect myself and Mick.

  Once the giants had finally passed, we dug ourselves out and scrambled to our feet. I frantically looked north, and easily found the giants. They were gleefully smashing a long line of houses to bits with their wagon sized fists and massive feet. Men and women screamed as they were plucked from their hiding places and popped into eager mouths like chocolate covered crickets.

  “Reform the line!” I heard Trinity bellow, but the villagers weren’t listening. Instead, they were scrambling around like chickens with their heads cut off.

  “Stop!” I screamed and unleashed a weaker version of Arcane Lightning at the group. Electricity crackled between them and stood their hair on end, but it got the result I was hoping for. The villagers all stopped and stared at me stupidly.

  “Now reform the god damned line!” I bellowed. “Move, move, move!”

  The villagers scrambled back into formation, creating a line that was ten wide and five deep. Kit and Anna ordered the archers to fall in behind them, and I moved to the front with Trinity and turned to face the scared army.

  “Men and women of Hinckleton, here me now!” I urged in a voice loud and true. “This is your chance to show these fucking monsters what you’re made of. This is your chance to save your loved ones, your village, your lives. March with me now and extinguish your fear. Let the strength of your ancestors flow through you as you strike the monsters dead. To run is to be devoured, so stand with me now, fight with me now, and soon we shall stand over the felled bodies of the giants!”

  The crowd let out a primal cheer that sent a surge of excitement coursing through me, and I matched the war cry as I held my enchanted sword high.

  “Charge!” I bellowed, and the villagers raced across the debris filled streets with their weapons aimed high.

  “Fire!” Mick ordered the archers, and a barrage of silver-tipped arrows flew over our heads and slammed into the back of the closest giant.

  The three lumbering behemoths had fanned out and were now gleefully destroying houses and buildings, like kids hopped up on sugar crushing their Lego creations. Wagons and horses were tossed around like they weighed nothing, crashing into the upper floors of tall buildings and smashing against them. Massive columns that looked like the broken remnants of the village’s glory days were swung like bats, reducing walls to rubble and smooshing the fleeing villagers.

  I grabbed a twenty-foot-long pike from one of the villagers and quickly wedged it against a large slab of stone debris, as the closest giant came charging toward me. The strategy worked, and the stupid giant impaled himself on the long pole. Its momentum sent the silver tip right through its chest and out its back, leaving it leaning forward and staring wide-eyed at me.

  Trinity, Ember, and Stormy were there in a heartbeat, slamming the long pikes into the giant’s legs and stomach, while the archers behind us unleashed another barrage that left the giant looking like the world’s largest pin-cushion. But the icing on the cake was Nanaya. She landed on the giant’s massive head and gouged out its eyes with her sharp talons. The giant managed to get ahold of her, and I cried out her name as he angrily bit her in two.

  Damn, that must have hurt.

  “Die, you son of a bitch!” I screamed and summoned a Magic Bolt.

  The giant reached for me blindly, but my spell slammed into its face and sheared off its nose, leaving it staggering backward. Trinity was there with Ember, and they were ready with another pair of pikes. They skewered the giant through the back as Kit tangled up its feet with her vines, and the behemoth hit the ground like a felled oak.

  The villagers fell upon the beast with reckless abandon, stabbing it repeatedly and screaming bloody murder the entire time. Its health bar was barely visible, and I knew that at any minute the killing blow would land. To help it along, I climbed the giant’s head, pulling on the hair like it was rope, and then stabbed the giant through the right eye with my enchanted blade.

  Soul Shatter Strike!

  The notification popped up on my interface at the same moment the giant exploded, and a few seconds later I was standing in a mass of bone fragments and gore.

  “Fuck yeah!” I screamed to my army as I raised my sword.

  “Fuck yeah!” they answered like animals frothing at the mouth.

  “Kill them all!” I screamed and shook my head violently, sending blood and gore flying in every direction.

  The primal image of their fearless king covered in blood must have triggered something in them, because the villagers suddenly turned into a violent mob eager to taste blood. I led them after the female giant, who had ripped the roof off a barn and was munching on entire cows like they were chicken nuggets. Kit tangled up the giant’s legs, and my guildmates and I stabbed the surprised monster with our long pikes. The archers did there part as well, and soon we had the giant down. It didn’t take long for us to kill the smallest giant, but when we did, the last and largest of them all turned toward us with rage burning in its mismatched eyes.

  “Olga!” it bellowed, its breath like a hot wind fresh off a garbage heap.

  “Surround the giant!” I ordered my army, and my guildmates led them around the village square as the giant
bore down on me.

  “Come on big boy!” I taunted as I conjured Hellfire. The spell exploded in the angry giant’s face, fully engulfing it in green hellfire, but that didn’t slow it down in the least.

  The archers had fanned out as well, and they unloaded on the giant, some arrows finding their mark, and others sailing into the distance. The pike men closed in, and I growled right back at the giant and charged to meet it. I don’t know if it could see or smell me through the flames, but it knew exactly where I was. It reached down as it approached me, but I was the quicker, and I dropped and slid beneath the groping hand. I slid between the giant’s legs and shot Arcane Lightning right up into its large hanging balls. The giant’s teeth chattered as it growled and turned, but I was already on my feet behind it and running away.

  Tweak and his monkeys leapt up onto the screaming monster as it turned to pursue me, and a dozen pikes slammed into its body. But the thing was on the war path, and if it felt pain, it didn’t show it. The giant bent and swept its long right arm at the nearby attackers, and five of the villagers were taken off their feet and slammed into a nearby brick wall. The left hand shot out and swept another three men off their feet, leaving them broken among the rubble. The giant pulled out the pikes sticking in its body and chucked them at the archers, leaving a dozen of them broken and bloody, but still we fought on.

  I turned and shot a Magic Bolt at the giant’s head, while similar spells erupted from my guild mates. We had the thing surrounded, but that didn’t mean much when you were talking about a seventy-foot-tall giant. The monster’s health bar was steadily ticking down despite its stubborn determination to kill us all, but I hoped that we could burn it down before it killed too many more villagers.

  “We’ve got to get it out of the city!” I yelled to Anna, who stood ten feet away from me casting spells.

  “What you got in mind?”

  I looked to Nanaya, who had been back from the cemetery for a while now.

  “Is your cooldown done yet?” I asked.

  “I’m ready,” she reported as she dodged a pike that had been thrown back her way.

  “I want you to take on the form of that female giant, Olga,” I told her.

  She nodded understanding and grinned, then she waved her hands in the air and extended one toward the felled female giant. A moment later she began to grow, not as tall as Olga had been, but nearly twelve feet, which was enough to catch her mate’s eye.

  “Olga?” he said with a toothy grin.

  Nanaya ran for the southern wall, and predictably, the giant chased after her, completely forgetting about the rest of us.

  We chased after the giant, riddling it with pikes and arrows and blasting it with spells as it desperately tried to catch up to its lost love. But he never caught Nanaya, and fifteen minutes later Trinity landed the killing blow.

  I stood panting with my guild mates amidst the cheers of the victorious villagers. We had won the day, but a heavy toll had been paid. The village was nearly in ruin, and the bodies of dozens of brave men and women littered the streets.

  Chapter 4

  With morning came the realization of the full extent of the damage. Not only had 75% of the buildings been destroyed, but thirty-three villagers had died. On their approach to the village, the giants had snuck around the west side, and in doing so, had trampled through the fields, destroying the crops.

  The villagers had won, but no one was celebrating that day.

  Once the dead were properly buried, I gathered the villagers around. I stood atop the remnants of a stone building ten feet above them and addressed the crowd. “I feel for your loss, good people of Hinckleton. Many good men and women died last night, but alas, the giants have been defeated.”

  “You were supposed to kill the giants, not us!” a grieving mother screamed.

  Some in the crowd shared her sentiment, and they weren’t shy about it.

  Mick turned to his fellow villagers and raised his hands in my defense.

  “If King Samson and his knights hadn’t come to our aid, the giants might have killed us all!” Mick told his fellow villagers. “Without Samson’s silver-tipped weapons and his magic, the giants would still be feasting on our bones.”

  “You have your lives,” I reminded the crowd, “not only because of us, but also because of yourselves. Together we defeated three mountain giants, imagine what else we might be able to do together.”

  “Our village is destroyed,” I heard Tweak say below me in a voice that was oddly feminine. “Who will help us rebuild, who will give us sanctuary?”

  “I offer you all sanctuary in my new city, Haven,” I told them all.

  The crowd began talking amongst themselves. Some were against the idea, and to others it sounded like a wondrous offer.

  “You just want peasant farmers to grow your food!” an old lady claimed.

  “Fancies himself a King with something to offer, he does,” an old man roared. “But I ain’t never heard of no King Samson, and I’ve lived in these parts longer than any of ya!”

  “It is true that I am a new king. And it is true that I need good farmers such as yourselves. What I can offer you have already seen; protection, guidance, help. But I can offer much more, like security in knowing that you and your families will have a brighter future. Together we could build a kingdom the likes of which has not been seen in a thousand years. But only together will we achieve this goal. Only together can we become our better selves!”

  “Three cheers for King Samson!” Tweak cheered, sounding this time like an old man. I hadn’t asked him to yell such things, but it seemed to be working. As cheesy as it was, the crowd was eating it up.

  “Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!” they cheered.

  We helped the villagers gather everything that they could salvage and loaded it up on what wagons remained, then began the two-hour journey home. There was a buzz of excitement around the caravan as it snaked its way through the fields and forests. The villagers were excited about their new home, and I was overjoyed with having gained so many loyal subjects.

  As I rode with my guildmates, we happily daydreamed about the vast fields of vegetables and wheat that we would soon have, and the trade that would open due to our increased production. But having so many vassals meant housing and protecting them as well, and I already had plans for the young fighters that had helped us against the giants. Out of the 1,000 or so villagers, there were a least 250 able-bodied men and women. They were all mostly farmers, and my intention was to deed the volunteers large homesteads if they decided to join the Haven Army.

  We crested the last hill blocking us from the view of Samson Tower, and when we did, the villagers cheered, though there were those who expressed surprise that it was so small.

  “That is Samson Tower,” I said from my horse proudly. “It may seem insignificant now, but it is powerful, and was gifted to me by the gods. Soon it will reach toward the heavens, and around it our great city will grow. Together we will build a city known for its prosperity, its riches!”

  “All hail Samson!” Tweak said out of the corner of his mouth beside me, and I shook my head at him and smiled when the crowd took up the cheer.

  “They love you,” Kit noted as we rode toward the tower. Behind her, the sun was flirting with the horizon.

  “We’ve given them hope,” I said. “No matter what life throws at you, as long as you’ve got hope, you’ve got a fighting chance.”

  When we reached the tower, my guild mates and I helped set up camp. Tweak and Cecilia took a quick trip to Aeorock and came back with large tents for those who didn’t have the means to create one, and within a few hours the villagers were settled in and fires were burning. Music played and laughter filled our little tent city as friends and family gathered to cook what food they had. Cecilia had her furry workers bring a dozen barrels of ale, and a proper celebration was in full swing in no time.

  While we were partying with the NPC villagers, a notification popped up on my screen, and
I read it with growing intrigue.

  Congratulations

  You have acquired Vassals

  Fruitful Bounty Awarded

  + 50% Growth Speed to all Crops

  Blessing of Fortitude Awarded

  + 500,000 Defense to Samson Tower

  “Look!” I said, pointing at the fertile land beyond the camp. It had begun to glow with sparkling, golden light. “Our farmlands have been blessed by the gods!”

  The crowd was mystified. Some fell to their knees and wept, others hugged each other and danced joyously, but one and all praised their good king.

  I awoke in the morning surrounded by seven gorgeous naked women. Life didn’t get much better than that.

  “Good morning,” I said to Anna when she roused with a yawn and smiled up at me from the crook of my arm.

  “Good morning my liege.” She kissed me, and I was reminded of one of the best things about Rebirth Online: no morning breath.

  We had all gotten a little too drunk the night before, and the details were still pretty fuzzy, but I was now a level 66, so I knew that we had made love. I had unlocked a new spell as well, and I tapped on the glowing icon to see what it was.

  Congratulations!

  You have unlocked a new spell.

  Fire Spirit

  Summons a Fire Elemental Minion

  Duration – 10 minutes

  See nearest mage trainer to learn

  “Sweet,” I said as I swiped the notification to the side. “I’ve unlocked Fire Spirit.”

  “Oh nice,” said Anna. “Isn’t that the elemental one?”

  “Yup. How about you?”

  “No new spells, but I can finally wear that set of armor that I’ve been dying to try out.”

  “Ah,” I said, remembering when we had found it in a troll’s den in the forest. “The Robes of Zarra.”