Rebirth Online World

Book 2- Chapter 4- Introductions

Shae Alpha POV

One minute we were having a nice conversation, the next, we were ambushed. Thanks to our radars however, we detected and countered them. Pushing them back we managed to get a better view of them.

There were six of them in total, staring down at us on some elevated bleachers. If that wasn’t enough, they were the descendants from the previous guild leaders of the Holy Knights guild.

If I could actually show any emotion or expression, no doubt it would be one similar to Nu’s. First came utter disbelief before slowly changing into something else.

“I must say that I’m quite disappointed. I heard that there were others as strong as us, but here I discover they are a mage, a woman and an elf.”

What seemed like the leader spoke with a clearly annoyed and disdain filled voice.

“Says the group who ambushed us, some knights you are. Here’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. You don’t know us and we don’t know you. Now get off your high horse.”

In response to my retort, a vein popped up. His face contorted in rage but before he could do anything, two of his friends stopped him.

“Calm down, we can’t have you killing our guests. Especially before I get another crack at them. Hehe.”

“Requa is right, you need to calm down Rumo.”

He looked back between the two before finally calming down. He took a deep breath before crossing his arms. And one by one they addressed us.

“I am Rumo Roland, heir to the Roland second grand family whom help founded the Empire.” He stood just a little over a meter and a half tall, with raven black hair that went down to his shoulders and whose black eyes seemed as cold as ice. A great sword could be spotted on his back. His black armor displayed a red insignia on the chest-plate that matched that of Durandal’s original wielder, Roland.”

“A pleasure to meet you, my name is Requa Siegfried, heir to the Siegfried fourth grand family. Let’s get along. Hehe.” The one who answered had short spiky blond hair and blue eyes. He was by far the shortest, maybe around one and a half meters tall. He had a playful look to him but at the same time, that of a predator waiting for a challenge. The chest-plate on his silver armor had the same insignia as the wielder of Gram, Siegfried.

“My name is Huas Oliver, heir to the Oliver seventh grand family. I do hope we can be friends in the future.” He stood at the same height at Roland. Haus had short, chestnut brown hair and green eyes. Unlike the others, he gave off a feeling of friendliness. His sword was strapped to his back. He wore shining white armor with the insignia of the wielder of Hauteclere, Oliver in Gold, on the chest plate.

“I am Kugei Seijirou, heir to the Seijiroyu fifth grand family.” “I am Yusei Ayato, heir to the Ayato sixth grand family.” The two that answered were two individuals that stood at the side, close to one another. The two of them were similar in height, standing at just a little under Haus’s height meters. Both had long black hair tied into a ponytail in the fashion of a samurai and black eyes. They both wore red samurai armor with a katana strapped to their waist. The only major difference between them was the insignia on their breastplate: one which belonged to the kusanagi blade wielder, Seijirou and the other belonging to the Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi wielder, Ayato.

Introducing themselves to us, all that was left one was one more individual. He remained silent and simply stared at us.

“This man here is Truas David, heir to the David third grand family. He’s quite the shy speaker so don’t be too harsh on him.” Instead of introducing himself, the boy named Requa introduced him.

He long straight crimson hair that went to his lower back, he stood a few centimeters taller than Rumo. His cold blue eyes gave off a feeling of seriousness. On the chest-plate of his armor was the insignia of the wielder of Tyrfing, David.

“Now that we have introduced ourselves, it’s about time for you to do the same.” After giving their introduction, the man named Rumo waited for our introduction.

“You can call me Shae.” I quickly responded, keeping my introduction short.

“I am called Nu-Ru. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Nu on the other hand, even went so far was to bow to them.

“Nu..Ru? Shae? Those are odd names aren’t they? So you’re foreigners huh? That would explain quite a number of things. So then, what about you girl?”

The question that the blond kid; Requa, asked wasn’t directed at me, but Als who stood behind us, as if trying to hide herself. A couple of seconds passed before she finally stepped up.

“I am Als…Evergreen.”

She spoke in a slightly shaken voice while trying to avoid eye contact with them. Either because she was a demi-human or she was afraid of them. It didn’t matter as she shuffled out of sight again.

“Now that introductions are out of the way, you mind telling us why you ambushed us?” Nu asked, after things simmered down.

“Don’t presume to point fingers commoners, blame Requa for his stunt.”

Taking offense to Nu’s question Rumo pointed towards the spiky blonde kid or Requa. Who in turn playfully bopped his head while sticking out his tongue.

“Ohh come on Rumo, as if you weren’t curious as well. Anyway, I’m sorry. Are you happy now Rumo.” He apologized in a joking manner, showing that he wasn’t taking it seriously. His face flared up, ready for a fight.

“Now, now. Calm down everyone. We’re all responsible in one way or another.” Getting in the way, the one known as Haus stopped the two.

“Huas, right. Let’s all forget about this. Now then, we can finally move on, follow us!”

Settling the matter, Requa walked off with everyone behind him. Our group had little opinion on the matter, so we were right behind them.

The room looked to be similar to a large shed, eventually we reached a door. Behind it was a wide open space. The ceiling was closed off by what seemed like glass, similar to a greenhouse. The field looked to be several hundreds of meters wide, the whole of it being open space.

“Now then, let’s get started!” Requa energetically shouted, drawing his sword.

“Wait!” The boy was about to start something but Nu stopped him.

“First off, where’s the professor? We can’t just do wha…”

“Huh? You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Well you see, this ‘special’ class was originally created for us. No one could compare to us, so they created this class where we could spar with one another. So no one really teaches, we’re free to do whatever we want.”

I opened my mouth to question the validity of that but no words spew forth. Only then did I question their view point. They were high nobility, from the original founders of the Empire. It wouldn’t that much of a surprise if they’re allow to do just about anything.

Ultimately, I closed my mouth and listened in.

“Now that that is out of the way, let’s get things started!”

Once again, before Requa could do anything, Nu raised his hand an object. “Hold on…can you please explain, why we need to fight exactly?”

“Huh?” Requa replied, looking genuinely confused. “Because that’s how we make friends! It’s also a good way to see just how strong we are compared to one another.”

He responded in a casual tone, as if a child was answering an obvious question. I could already tell, that we weren’t going to be able to avoid this. Before Nu could object again, I pulled him back.

“Seeing as how there’s only three of you, we’ll fight in pairs. You three versus three of us. Doesn’t that sound fair?”

“Sure… ‘Not like we have a choice anyway.’”

Whispering the last part to myself, both group backed off. First order of business, formulating a plan against them.

“So. What’s the plan?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know. Having them challenge us was the farthest thing from my mind when I thought of my first day here. For now, let’s play along. This might be a good experience for us. Let’s decide our roles.”

“Role? What’s a role?”

Raising up her hands I had forgotten about Als for second. Roles were essentially duties assigned to player. Back in [Eternia] it was pivotal that everyone performed their roles correctly. For example, amongst the eight founding members, my role was a [support].

Nu-Ru possess numeral roles depending on a situation. But typically he station himself as either a [Mage support] or a [Mage DPS]. We always assign roles in order to maximize our teamwork. Nu took the time to clarify our meaning to her. It took a bit longer to explain as the term we used weren’t pre-defined in this world.

“Sorry, allow me to clarify. You can only use offensive spells correct?” Nu asked.

“Yes.”

“Then your role will be an attacker, you will be alongside Shae who will be a front line fighter. As for I, I’ll be providing support.”

Explaining it to her, Als managed to understand most of it. Before we dived deeper I pulled Nu to the side for a private discussion.

“Hey, shouldn’t you be in the front? I’m a support class remember?” I whispered, questioning Nu’s plan.

“Those guys are all knights, right now I’m a mage and you’re a warrior. We need to act appropriately. Besides you can’t use your Orbitor. Having a warrior use magic and skills will raise some eyebrows.”

I wanted to object but what he said raised a good point. Rather than dwelling on that, I focused on the task at hand. Letting the matter go, there was one last discussion Nu shared with me.

“Shae….For this fight, do your best to not win.”

“What?!” Hearing Nu’s words, I couldn’t contain my surprise and accidently screamed. Catching everyone’s attention, I quickly quieted down.

“What do you mean?” I asked again, trying to control myself.

“It is just as I said. For this match we can’t win.”

“Ok? But why?” I repeated again, letting a bit of frustration show.

“They belong to the families of the original Holy Knight Guild and are nobility. They would surely be trained from a young age to bear the families’ name. Currently their levels are 23. The highest we have seen since coming to this world. If we are going by this world power standards, these guys are probably strongest in the empire. What would happen they were to be defeated by unknown foreigners?”

Realizing what he was getting at, I pondered his words. His line of reasoning’s seemed a bit paranoid but understandable. But that didn’t mean the thought of purposely losing was frustrating.

“I’m not asking you to let them win, merely that we don’t have a complete victory. Please.” Placing his hand on my shoulder, his expression softened. Taking a deep breath, I calmed down.

“…Ok. I’ll see what I can manage.” Answering back, Nu patted me on the back with a small smile. Looking back at the other group, they already assemble their fighters.

Our opponents were Requa, Haus and one of the katana user. Standing a fair distance away from one another, we positioned ourselves with Als and I at the front and Nu behind us. Our opponents on the other hand stood side to side.

“Alrighty then, here are the rules. We’ll be sparing until we can’t fight anymore. Of course I would suggest giving it your all. Are you guys ready?”

Looking back at our group, Als and Nu nodded their heads. We were ready. “We’re ready!”

The moment I said that, they charged directly at us. It took me a half a second to fully register just how quickly they lunged at us but I quickly snapped out of it.

“|Heavy Knuckle|”

“|Crystal Shard|”

“|Magic Arrows|”

To start off the fight, I used my skill and punched the ground. Grabbing a chunk of the ground, I tossed it at them to slow their movement. Dashing forward, Requa cut it with ease and evaded the rest. Our spells missed when they maneuvered around them.

Requa charged full force at me, pushing me back. I held up my arm and defended against his slashes thanks to Nu’s |Enchant- Iron Skin|. Following behind him, his comrades divided themselves and went after Nu or Als.

Splitting us off, Requa didn’t let up as he continued to attack relentlessly. With his speed, I would either block using my arms or dodged. On my own, I held my ground against him. Fighting with my fists, all I could manage were light japs and quick strikes. His reach with his sword prevented me from getting close.

“When I first heard about you, I was skeptical. A warrior that fought with no weapon, now seeing you in person I can see that it’s all true. Hahaha, show me more!”

His attack started to quicken and become frantic. He picked up the pace and caught me off guard with the sudden boost in speed. Thrusting his blade towards me I dodged away as it graze my cheek. However this left his open.

Throwing a fist up, I hit the sword to stagger him backward. Cupping my hands together, I brought my knuckles down only to smash the ground beneath us. The ground cracked and tremor from the sheer force of my attack. However, Requa jumped out of the way.

Gazing back at the destructive force of my attack, a small whistle noise escaped from his mouth. “That would have hurt if I was hit.” Requa playfully commented. Clicking my tongue, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed by him goofing around.

‘I know he said we should lose…but.’ Reminiscing, I instantly looked to my hand where my [Binding Ring] was held.

Binding ring was a unique item. The item allowed users to lower their levels as they see fit. It was created with the intention of allowing higher level players to play with lower level friends. The item does more than simply lower’s a player level. It also lowers the user’s stats and power to appropriate level.

And we have confirmed that the ability still carries through. Running some experiment with the rings, it has shown that we are significaly less powerful with the ring on. But that only relates to our power, such traits as our bodies’ durability, speed, and strength remain. Merely our magical strength are reduce.

For someone like Nu, this greatly hinders his ability to use higher tiers spell. I on the other hand only suffer from the fact that I can’t use any of my support spells. Not that it would matter.

Snapping back to reality, I needed to focus. As much as I hated to admit it, Requa held the advantage. As a support, I had little to no physical attack skills. So I must rely on my physical strength to fight. Tightening my fist, I needed to strike first.

Kicking the ground, I launched myself at him with explosive force. Throwing a punch, Requa jumped in time. Missing, I smashed ground, causing the ground to splinter. Using my planted hand, I twisted my body and performed a sweeping kick that caught him off balance.

Skirting backwards, I charged at him once more. “|Heavy Knuckle|” Finally activating my skill, I threw my punch at him. Holding his sword up to block, a loud popping sound echoed through the room as my attack hit.

Knocking him back, Requa managed to keep on his feet while skating backwards. Smoke could be seen steaming from the foot tracks. Holding his hands up, his face was hidden. His body was trembling.

“That was great!” Requa screamed, a sense of joy could be heard. Plastered on his was crazy but energetic grin. “Hehehe~” Hearing a noise, it came from Requa. A sound of pleasure escaped his grinning mouth.

Hearing his far frightening laugh, I could help but shudder. He was enjoying our little rumble. After my attack, it was now his turn. Stabbing his weapon onto the ground, he charged at me while streaking his weapon across the ground. Requa swung up, sending dust towards me.

It was enough to catch me off guard, allowing him for a frontal attack. But thanks to my new synthetic body, the dust had little effect on my sight. Attacking with upward slash, I used my palm to counter. Again the air rippled as fist connected with his sword.
Once again, Requa was forced to retreat and maintain a steady distance. Huffing and puffing, Requa took a moment to catch his breath. While he was focused on recovery, I checked up on the others. Als was having trouble with her opponent while Nu and his opponent were about even.

“Man, what a rush!” Hearing his excited voice, I focused my attention back to him. “It’s about time I get serious or else my ancestors will be disappointed.” Making his claim known, something changed. His stance shifted, a look of purpose showed in his eye. Watching the sudden change, I too got serious.

Staring at one another, we both dashed forward simultaneously. We both exchanged a flurry of slashes and punches. His speed increased tremendously but so did mine. Back and forth the two of us went, not giving either an opening.

‘Then I’ll make an opening!’ With that thought in mind, I carefully selected a support spell that I could use without any notice. Silently casting |Fortitude|, I increased my defenses. Throwing a left punch, Requa countered it but in reality it was a feint.

Thanks to |Fortitude| I created the opening I was looking for. “|Heavy Knuckle|” Activating my skill once again, my victory was assured. However that wasn’t what happened.

“|Counter.|”

The next moment completely surprised me. Even in his small dazed state, his sudden action caught me off guard. My fist was repealed backwards only confusing me further. It took me all but a second to realize what just happen.

He performed a Skill!

Of course that shouldn’t a surprise. We knew little of this new world. With everything going on and that we have seen. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to see someone perform a Skill. In all likely hood, I should have expected it.

In the split second that I was dazed, Requa continued his attacks. Now I was the playing defensively. He wasn’t going to let me rest for even a second. Uttering the name of another skill, he readied his attack. “|Cross Slash|”

In response, I got ready to block. With |Fortitude|, the damage done by a simple skill would be easily negated. As he drew closer I felt a tingly sensation. Receiving the attack I felt the force of it. Numbers flashed before me as my health went down by a bit, but that wasn’t what concerned me.

What?! How?!

The reason for my distress wasn’t the fact that I took damage. Rather how he damaged me. With the |Fortitude| activated, the damage should have been reduce. Yet I still felt the force behind the attack when I shouldn’t have.

I observed him with frantic eyes, looking everywhere as to give me any hints. Eventually I looked upon his sword, which was glowing. ‘That’s… The legendary sword item, Gram…I see, it makes sense now.’

One of the swords used by the leaders of the Holy Knight guild was known as ‘Gram the Penetrator.’ The weapon special ability allows it to cut through all defenses of an enemy. Be it armor, support spells/skills or abilities. To be more specific it ignores armor entirely and attacks them as if they don’t have any armor on.

This time, I was too slow to respond. Charging forward, Requa attacked again. Unprepared, I managed to only block a few of his strikes. Combined with the fact that my mind was still jumbled. Seeking to end the fight, he close the distance.

Point the blade at my neck, it was his win. “That was an entertaining fight, but I win.” Requa stated, flashing a childish and smug grin.

“You…” Gnashing my teeth, I grab a hold of the blade. “Don’t underestimate me!” Striking when his guard was down, I grab the sword by the blade and lifted him in the air. Not wasting a second, I slammed him back down.

“|Heavy Knuckle|” Rushing forward, I used my skill one last time. Before I could bring my fist down, something appeared out of the corner of my eye. Jumping back, it turned out to be Haus; whom tried to attack me.

‘If he’s here….then.’ Looking away for just a moment, I spotted Als lying on the ground. Turning my attention back to the two, they appeared to be having an argument.

“What the heck Haus? I had her!” Requa yelped.

“Had her? She lifted you in the air with one arm and then threw you. What monstrous strength….” Haus commented on the side.

Watching their argument from a far, I was presented with a perfect opportunity. I could easily dashed forward and catch the two by surprise. Edging closer, I almost implemented my idea until…

‘Stop!’ Hearing a sudden voice, it was Nu. Before I could respond, Nu appeared right next to me. Following him was Yusei…or was it Kugei? There was no telling the difference between the two. Back to back, the three of them faced us.

As one another continued to stare at one another, Nu was the first to act. “We surrender…” Acting first, raised his white flag and surrendered. Even I was caught off guard. Before I could take any action I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning, I saw Nu slowly shaking his head. He was telling me to stop.

Quietly, the others unsheathed their swords. Upon seeing them relaxing, Nu too relaxed. With nothing left to do, Haus walked up to Nu and the two shook hands. Breaking away, Nu immediately ran towards Als.

Walking towards them, the three of them started to chat with one another. They were commenting on our fight. Doing my best to ignore their comments, I met up with Nu and Als. Nu and I sustained little damaged compared to Als. There were small bruises all over her body with light wounds and cuts as well.

“Are you alright?” I asked, looking over her body.

“I’ll live….I’m fine.” Answering in a raspy voice. Als struggled to get back up, using the wall as a support from falling.

“Let me help.” Pushing his way forward he started to inspect her.

“I don’t nee–“ Objecting, her voice fell on death ears. A warm and majestic light shined down upon Als. Casting |Heal|, her wounds were gone.

Nu activated his spell and healed her wounds. She slowly slid down the wall until she sat on the floor and started to relax. Her breathing steadied.

“…Thank you.” Thanking him she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes to rest. Satisfied, the two of us moved back.

“Anyway, I want to say sorry.” Hearing Nu’s sudden voice, I couldn’t help raise my brow at his odd statement.

“What do you mean?”

“The fight. I know it’s frustrating to lose on purpose but it was necessary. If we had beaten them out right, then people will definitely raise their eyebrows at us and suspect us. The Empire is our biggest suspect in this investigation….” Letting me in on his thoughts, I quickly stopped him.

“It’s not your fault, so don’t worry about it.” Reassuring him, I put a stop to him before it got sappy. “I was about to go berserk so if anything you said me. We’re in this together, so don’t shoulder all the blame.”

Lightly hitting his chest, he responded with a warm smile. He meant well but there were times when he fails to express his sincerity. A warm hearted atmosphere came to pass. Amidst of everything, I was quickly reminded of an important detail.

“Right! Nu, those swords–“

“Yea, they’re the real deal.”

“B-But…how?! Those weapons were among the best legendary class weapons. A player would need to be at least level 95 to equip it, let alone use it.”

No matter how hard I tried to reasonably explain it, it is impossible for them to use the weapons. That meant only one thing, that there was no level requirement. For now we’ll put that matter on hold. The weapons appeared to be in a weakened state compared to their original power.”

I was certainly relieved that they weren’t at full power, then that would be big trouble. Yet the weapons were enough to enhance them enough to beat us in our weakened states.

With [Binding Ring] we restricted ourselves to level 22. Despite the leeway, it was clearly not enough to fend off against them should they get serious and gang up on us.

“What do we do now?”

I asked the big question, all I received from Nu was a tired sigh as he leaned against the wall.

“I-I don’t know. For now it’s no real danger but we’ll need to keep a close eye on them just in case.”

Ending the conversation we all sat in our little corner of the room to rest. The other party paid us no mind and simply went about the time talking and/or fighting. What seemed like an eternity passed before it was finally over and we could go home.

And that concluded our first day of school in this new world.