Rebirth Online 2

by Michael James Ploof

  “I’m with Sam,” said Kit.

  “Of course you are.” Ember rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not really in the guild,” said Tweak. “But I think this bitch is pulling the wool over your eyes, Sam.”

  “I helped free all of you,” Nanaya reminded them. “If I was working for Kincaid, why in the hell would I be offering you so much help?”

  “Don’t play stupid,” Trinity said with disdain. “That is exactly what you would be doing if you were working for Kincaid.”

  “Fuck this!” Nanaya threw up her hands and stormed away.

  “Sam,” said Cecilia. “Don’t tell me that you trust this woman. You barely know her.”

  “Listen guys, I’m going to need you all to just go along with me on this one, alright. I’m going to need you to trust me.” I looked them all in the eye, trying to relay my thoughts to them with my eyes.

  Trinity’s expression subtly told me that she understood that I had more to say about all this, but now was not the right time.

  “Fine,” said the warrior with a shrug.

  “Fine?” Ember regarded her with surprise. “Just like that?”

  “Sam has never led us astray,” Kit told the drow assassin. “He’s our guild leader, and we need to trust him.”

  “He’s not my guild leader,” Cecilia reminded us, but then she softened and smiled at me. “Still, I trust Sam.”

  “I think that succubus has got you wrapped around her little red finger,” Tweak said with a laugh. “So, don’t go saying I didn’t tell you so.”

  “Good, then it's settled,” I told the group. “We work our way up the ranks, take out the bosses, and then kick Kincaid’s ass.”

  Chapter 21

  “Nanaya! Wait up!” I yelled as I ran through the cavern after the pissed-off succubus.

  “I’m done, Sam. I’m sick and tired of that fucking ape, and I’m sick and tired of that blonde bitch.”

  I finally reached her and put my hand on her shoulder, but she spun around and knocked my hand away.

  “Whoa, whoa, I just want to talk.”

  She huffed and crossed her arms, unable to meet my eyes. “Ok, so start talking.”

  “I trust you, alright. It’s like you said, you’ve been helping us the entire time. Tweak and Trinity are just, well, they’re just being Tweak and Trinity. Don’t worry about them. I’m the guild leader, and if I say that you’re cool, then you’re cool.”

  “Mmm hmm,” she said with an arched brow. “Then why did it take you so long to answer me when I asked you earlier?”

  “I don’t know. I had to think about it for a minute, I’m sorry.”

  “Not good enough,” she said and turned on her pointed heel.

  I started to second guess my hunch that she was indeed working for Kincaid, so I decided to put her to the test. If she really was done with us all, then she wouldn’t come back.

  “Listen hot tits,” I yelled after her. “I told you that I was sorry, and I vouched for you with the others. I’m not chasing after you. You want to go, then go.”

  She kept on walking with her head held high. The alluring sway of her hips made me second guess myself again, and I wondered if I had just blown it with the only Underworld ally that I had.

  But then she stopped.

  I hurriedly turned and acted like I had been walking away, and a few seconds later she cried out, “Sam wait!”

  I turned to find her flying toward me on her dark red wings. She landed in front of me and leveled me with a seriously hot and at the same time scary as hell gaze.

  “If we’re going to do this, I’ve got to know that you trust me,” she said.

  “I do.”

  “One-Hundred percent,” she added.

  “One-hundred percent,” I said with sincerity.

  “Fine,” she said. “Now can we stop fucking around and plan our next move?”

  We returned to the far wall of the cavern, where the recently freed players were still sleeping. Trinity, Ember, Kit, Cecilia, and Tweak all walked over to us with curious looks on their faces, and I turned to address the groggy crowd.

  “Fellow citizens of Rebirth Online, awake!” I bellowed, and my voice carried far and loud in the cavern.

  The players began to stir, and I gave them a few minutes to get to their feet and offer me their undivided attention.

  “My guildmates and I have freed you from the pits. But the fight has only just begun! There are thousands more who need to be freed from the clutches of the Underworld torturers, and they need our help. Will you march with me?”

  “Yes!” the crowd cried in unison.

  “Will you fight with me?”

  “Yes!”

  “Then let us march. And let us show the dead that it is they who should fear the living!”

  The crowd cheered and shook their fists, and a wave of adrenaline surged through me at the site of my army.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Trinity asked.

  Nanaya was watching us closely, but so too were the rest of my friends.

  “Sure,” I said, and led her away from the outcropping that we were standing on and moved deeper into the cavern through the forest of stone formations.

  “What the hell is going on with you,” Trinity blurted.

  I glanced back at the gathering and pulled her closer.

  “I’ve got everything under control,” I assured her.

  “Really? That succubus whore is playing you, Sam, and I can’t believe that you can’t see—”

  “I know,” I said, stopping her in mid-sentence.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I’m about 80% sure that she’s working for Kincaid, or that he’s got something on her and he’s using her. Either way, I think Tweak might have hit the nail on the head. It makes sense.”

  “Then why the hell are you going along with her plan? Which is, might I remind you, Kincaid’s plan.”

  “Because I don’t know what will happen if we expose her,” I said. “This little ruse might be the only thing keeping Kincaid from devouring us all.”

  She shook her head and paced around in a circle. “I’m such a moron. Sam, I’m sorry that I thought—”

  “Don’t worry about it, Trin. Just don’t let on that we’re onto her, and don’t talk about it with the others. I’ll fill them in on my own.”

  “Gotcha Loverboy,” she said, still looking a little abashed for having doubted me.

  I gave her a kiss and lifted her chin with a finger.

  “You’re just looking out for us all. No hard feelings Babe.”

  “I feel something hard,” she said, pressing closer to me.

  A laugh escaped me, and I considered sneaking off with her behind a stalagmite.

  “Play later,” I said with a groan as she giggled and pushed her breasts against me. “Right now, there’s work to do.

  “Aye, aye, captain,” she laughed and sauntered back to the group, and I adjusted myself and followed her.

  When we got back, my girls and Tweak were waiting for us at the head of the standing army. I couldn’t help but notice that the army had been assembled into a tight formation, and I immediately assumed that Ember had been the one to do it.

  “We’re ready to move,” the beautiful drow assassin informed me as Trinity and I approached.

  “Excellent,” I said and turned to Nanaya. “Lead the way, general.”

  She smiled at me, scowled at Tweak and Trinity, and abruptly turned on her heel.

  “Move out!” I yelled, and our little army began marching across the cavern.

  An hour later we came to the outskirts of the city, and I let the army take a breather while my guildmates and I scoped out the area. We climbed up some rock formations to get a better view, and then walked out onto a ledge.

  “That’s Pygon’s Tower,” Nanaya told us.

  The tower was an upside-down pyramid, and from each of the four corners blood poured like a waterfall. Dragons with ripped, leathery wings, lar
ge bats, and other badass creatures were lounging about up there, and in the streets below, thousands of newly captured players were being pulled along by large winged demons.

  “I think that if Megulla is ever going to go good on her offer to help, now would be a good time to cash in,” Nanaya told me.

  “You want us to play all our cards on the first boss?” Trinity asked the succubus with an arched brow.

  “Yeah,” she said with just as much venom. “Because once Sam has secured the first throne, he will have the power to restore all the captured players’ levels and powers.”

  “What?” I blurted. “You never told me that.”

  “I had to know that you trusted me, Sam. Don’t take it to heart.”

  “That’s a pretty big piece of information to keep from us,” said Cecilia. Her bushy tail moved back and forth behind her like a mesmerized cobra, and it didn’t take a genius to see that she didn’t trust the succubus either.

  “Are we going to have this conversation again, or do you bitches want to get to fucking work?”

  None of my guildmates answered, and she turned her attention back to me. “Well?” she said crossing her arms and cocking a hip to the side.

  “If Megulla helps us take out Pygon, then what’s to stop her from becoming the level one boss?” I asked.

  “She’s not interested in ruling the first level of the Underworld,” said Nanaya. “Trust me. She’s got her eyes on the third throne.”

  “I still don’t feel good about using our wildcard so soon,” I told her. “I think we can do this on our own.”

  “Fine,” said the succubus. “We’ll try it your way. But listen, we need to strike hard and fast. Our army looks good, but that’s about it. Once we come under fire from the tower guards, the army is going to fall apart and be overrun. We need to use them as a diversion and get into that tower. From there it’s up to you.”

  “Alright,” I said, glancing around at my guildmates. “You guys up for this?”

  “No,” said Tweak.

  “Of course,” said Trinity.

  “Sam, once we get in there and face Pygon, how exactly do you intend on defeating him?” Ember asked.

  “With this,” I said, holding up the pulsing golden orb that Dr Hamilton had given me.

  Nanaya backed up a step, and I grinned.

  “I’m going to take out the other bosses the same way that I’m going to take out Kincaid: send them to another dimension where they can never hurt anyone else ever again.”

  The succubus eyed the glowing orb with a hint of fear, and I tried but failed to figure out what she was thinking.

  “You never cease to amaze me Sam,” she finally said.

  “Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself,” I said with a grin. “Now let’s go kick some Underworld boss ass.”

  Chapter 22

  I didn’t like the idea of using my army of newly freed slaves as cannon fodder, but I liked even less the idea of Kincaid ruining the game for everyone. I might not have liked the idea, but it was the only way to get into the tower.

  I returned to the waiting army and stood atop a natural shelf carved into the bright red stone.

  “Victory is close at hand. But first we must fight through the city to the tower at the center. Those of you with weapons, break into groups of five. The rest of you, spread yourselves out among those with weapons. It is up to you to protect those who are unarmed. Once we fight through to the tower, I’ll take it from there.”

  There were questions, but I had no time to answer them, and I didn’t think the players would like what I had to say. Once they got their powers back, however, I assumed that they would forgive me for whatever pains were endured by storming into the city.

  “Alright,” I told them all. “You know what to do. Now go kill every one of those demonic bastards!”

  I led the army through the large red stalagmites that had been carved to resemble pillars, and my guildmates, Tweak, and Cecilia charged behind me. The first demon I encountered looked so surprised that it was actually comical. I slashed his stomach as I passed, and to my great satisfaction, the notification for a Soul Shatter Strike appeared on my interface. The girls raced through the red mist that had once been the demon’s body as more undesirables began to take notice of our sudden charge.

  Bells began to toll somewhere in the city, and I could see that some of the people gathered in the city were racing into their homes.

  “Fight, kill, conquer!” I yelled as I unleashed a Magic Bolt at an approaching hell hound.

  Three more spells streaked by me, which I assumed had come from Kit, Cecilia, and Ember. Not to be outdone, Trinity leapt over me, landed in front of the hellhound, and shot an enchanted arrow right down its throat. The beast fell dead in front of her, and the fearless warrior charged the next in line.

  An army of demons, undead trolls, ogres, harpies, and imps raced to meet us.

  “Fire!” I heard Tweak command in a voice filled with authority, and a second later a volley of two hundred arrows flew by overhead. The arrows arched through the red cavern and slammed into the approaching army, devastating about a third of the monsters.

  “Fire!” Tweak screamed again, and another volley thinned the ranks.

  But then the ground began to rumble, and I yelled to Trinity to stop when a giant fissure suddenly opened in front of her. She barely stopped in time, and I skidded to a stop in front of her and pulled her back.

  “That was close,” I said as she looked up at me with wide eyes.

  A heartbeat later, about a thousand-winged beasts erupted from the steaming fissure, and Trinity and I hit the deck. At first, I thought the monsters to be giant bats, but when I saw their little goat hooves and the wolf heads that sat atop the sinewy bodies, I realized that they were something altogether different.

  “Fire, fire, fire!” Tweak commanded, and a flock of glowing arrows slammed into the ascending monsters.

  Hundreds of the creatures escaped the volley and swooped down to destroy my little army. I had to act fast, so I quickly performed the hand gestures to summon Arcane Lightning and unleashed the spell into the center of the dark mass. The spell hit one of the nasty creatures, and lightning exploded from the impact and webbed across the entire flock. If I was a higher level, my spell might have done more than it did, but instead of frying them all it only slowed them down, but it was long enough for our bowmen to get off about five more shots each.

  As the wolf-headed little winged bastards fell from the sky, I hit them with three Arcane Lightning Blasts in a row. When I tried to light the ground aflame and therefore sear the flapping and flailing little monsters, a notification burst into my field of view.

  Warning!

  Mana 0%

  I still had a couple mana potions on me, but I didn’t want to use them just yet. Instead I decided to let my mana regenerate on its own and unsheathed my enchanted sword. It blazed to life like a lightsaber, and I went to work putting the dying monsters to rest.

  A few of our fighters were badly injured in the fight with the winged creatures, but Cecilia and Kit kept hard at work trying to heal them all.

  “We’ve got to get around this thing,” I said to Nanaya, indicating the gaping fissure that spread from one cavern wall to the other. On the other side I could see that more defenders were rushing to the edge of the canyon.

  “There!” she said, pointing to my right. I glimpsed what she had indicated; a stalagmite had fallen over when the ground was ripped apart, and it now lay across the expanse, creating a bridge.

  “Everyone to the bridge!” I yelled, and Tweak reiterated the command.

  The army followed us to the base of the stalagmite, and after a small climb we were all charging across it. I half expected a dragon or demon from the bitter depths of hell to smash the bridge in two at any moment, and quickly end our little revolution, but no such calamity befell us as we hauled ass across the stone.

  When we reached the other side, my guildmates and I were
met by a host of rotten warriors that looked like they had emerged from a five-thousand-year nap in some dank crypt.

  We fell into a familiar routine as we engaged the zombies, and with the armed players shooting from the bridge, we were all soon across and raging toward the city proper.

  “This is where we slip into the shadows,” Nanaya told me as she beheaded a dwarven zombie.

  I stopped and told my friends that it was time, and then turned to my army and spread my arms wide. “The city is yours!” I declared with confidence. “Leave no demon alive!”

  The crowd cheered and surged into the city in the wake of their streaking arrows, and my friends and I ducked into the shadows and began running down a dark alley.

  “How far to the tower?” I asked as I struggled to pace the succubus, who now flew low upon crimson wings.

  “Not far, hurry!”

  We all hauled ass through the alley, down a street full of surprised imps, and continued into the heart of the city. A half a dozen alleys, a few rooftops, and a skirmish or two later, we emerged at the base of the pyramid. The thing was massive, and it slowly turned clockwise no faster than the second hand of a clock.

  “Get down!” Nanaya warned, and we all jumped behind a nearby stalagmite.

  A moment later, an army of about one-thousand ragged looking skeletons emerged from the tower, and at least fifty dragons, bats, and demons joined them from the large roof.

  “Now!” said the succubus, and she leapt from her hiding spot and raced toward the main gate.

  “Come on!” I yelled to Tweak, Cecilia, Ember, Trinity and Kit, and together we followed Nanaya into the tower.

  As soon as we entered, the big doors closed behind us and a blinding white light stopped us in our tracks.

  “Who dares enter the house of Pygon?” came a deep, rumbling voice from everywhere and nowhere.

  “Samson Sullivan!” I yelled into the glare. “You mind turning down your nightlight? It’s kind of bri—”

  A green beam of light slammed into me and pinned me to the far wall. And a moment later I heard the many thuds as my friends were hung like decorations as well.