Rebellion: Last Born of Ki’darth: A LitRPG/Gamelit Trilogy, page 1
REBELLION
LAST BORN OF KI’DARTH: A LITRPG/GAMELIT TRILOGY
TIMOTHY MCGOWEN
ILLUSTRATED BY
LUCIANO FLEITAS
ALSO BY TIMOTHY MCGOWEN
Haven Chronicles: Eldritch Knight
Dead Man’s Bounty
Reincarnation: A Litrpg/Gamelit Trilogy
Copyright © 2022 by Timothy McGowen
All rights reserved.
Rebellion: A LitRPG/Gamelit Trilogy
Last Born of Ki’darth
ISBN: 978-1-956179-03-3
First Edition: July 2022
Published By: Rising Tower Books
Publisher Website: www.RisingTowerBooks.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For permission request, email to timothy.mcgowen1@gmail.com . This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and event portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Visit my website at AuthorTimothyMcGowen.com for news on my upcoming works.
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SPECIAL THANKS
I wanted to give a special thanks to all the people that helped get this story to where it is today. Most of all to my wife whose worked tirelessly to help me hit my deadlines.
Special thanks to, Paul Bellow, Ezben Gerardo, Dantas Neto, and Sean Hall for proofing and editing assistance.
To my brother Dan. Wherever you are in the cosmos I hope found what you were looking for.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Stats
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - Stats
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16 - Stats
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Epilogue
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CHAPTER 1
The world spun, and I fell from a tear in reality. An annoying buzzing sound filled my ears as I stood. Everything felt fuzzy and I couldn't recall where I was or how I'd gotten there. I wracked my brain, trying as hard as I could to remember the images that had flashed in my mind. I had been traveling someplace, but why and where remained a mystery.
I remembered lights and whistling winds as I traveled. The harder that I focused, the clearer things became. I hadn't been alone, and someone had spoken to me about an important task that I was meant to be on.
With great difficulty, I focused my eyes, finally able to see my surroundings clearly. Judging by the amount of sunlight, it was around noon, but no sun burned overhead that I could find. The air around me was arid and hot. It scratched at my memory. I had lived in a place much like this before.
Something scurried in front of me, and I took a startled step backward. A black cat sat on the ground just ahead, its yellow eyes staring up at me.
“Hello kitty cat,” I said, my ears were still adjusting, and I barely heard my own voice.
I became momentarily distracted as the buzzing returned in full force. Closing my eyes, I focused on making out what the buzzing sounds were meant to be, then like a switch being flipped, I was able to hear.
They were calls for help! Someone was in trouble, and I had to help them. Sparing a quick glance at the cat I rushed forward, my bare feet padding against the dusty road. The cat followed alongside me keeping pace without issue.
I faltered momentarily when glancing down at my feet. They were much smaller and oddly shaped than they should be, or were they? I didn’t know. As I pushed onward a sense of rightness settled over me and I decided my feet were, in fact, normal and that it was most likely my head that was having issues.
Just ahead, behind a bend in the road, the calls for help grew louder. Though my memory wasn't returning as fast as I felt it should, I was getting flashes of things as I ran. I was a champion, a protector of my people.
Who my people were or why they needed protectors hadn't quite sunk in yet. Flashes of memory came and went; large ugly lizard men named Tiokains, a planet dying all around me, and small pockets of life no longer able to support my people. Through it all I kept running toward the calls for help, knowing that someone was in trouble, and I felt compelled to administer aid.
“Is this thing on or what? Can you heeeaar me?” a familiar nasally voice echoed in my mind.
The suddenness of it startled me enough that I lost my balance and fell to the side, nearly landing atop the black cat.
“Are you trying to kill me? Watch where you are going. Why can't you hear me, what did that trickster of a god do to us?”
“Neako?” I asked, the words coming to my lips as I tried to put a name to the familiar voice.
Yes! Neako the cat. Well, Neako was a book … then a cat and possibly still a book...the details weren't important yet because with a head-spinning rush my memories returned.
“Neako, what the hell happened?” I asked, pushing to my feet and momentarily forgetting about the cries for help. “The last thing I remember is breaking a threshold to stall for time, and now I can barely remember speaking with Hakorus. Can you remember?”
“Yeah, I remember everything...I think. Either way, try to keep your large Ki'darthian butt off my delicate feline body. Oh, it feels freaky to be a cat again!”
“Yeah, I don't remember you becoming a cat again, what’s that about?” I asked. Before he could answer, another cry for help echoed in the distance, just around a bend in the road. I was off again, running to try and help whoever was in trouble.
My mind was clearing, and I took in my surroundings with a keener eye. The road we were on was roughly twenty feet at its widest point. Jogging closer to the edge, I saw a sheer drop into darkness. Whether it ended just below the shadows or continued forever, I couldn’t know.
Looking beyond the edge of the road my vision was blocked by a veritable forest of natural stone pillars. I kept glancing to the side, hoping that the rocky monoliths would line up enough so that I could look further into the distance. The best I was able to achieve was seeing more rocky pillars. The sheer number of them left me breathless.
As I made it to the bend, the road opened up significantly. Several of the stone pillar formations had fallen or been leveled out by some cataclysmic battle or event. My location on the road was higher up than the distant horizon and my jaw dropped at the sight of it.
At the edge of my vision, I was met by a massive wall of red. After several confusing moments, I realized what I was looking at, skyscraper-sized trees that split the sky with their impossible height. On a few occasions I’d visited the Redwoods before my untimely demise and rebirth, but these trees made those look like mere saplings in comparison.
The bark was a reddish color that was visible even from a great distance. I shook the amazement out of my head and focused on the task at hand as the shouting continued once more.
“Help, please help!” the voice called.
It was hoarse, probably from all the yelling, and now that I was closer, I found the person easily.
A figure wearing tattered brown robes, the kind you would expect to see in movies depicting the generic Christian monk from medieval times. Other than the robes, though, this man would not fit in that time period. His skin was a light orange, and he had two curling horns atop his head. Getting closer, I could see a look of terror in his eyes as he clung helplessly to the side of the road.
From what I could see, I don't think he could have chosen a worse place to fall over the edge. The section where he hung was the steepest by far, and the rocks below were jagged and sharp.
I stopped several feet short of the man, a memory tickling at the very edge of my mind.
“And remember,” Hakorus said, meeting my eyes. “The closest I can get you to the tournament will be a dangerous place. It is a road that feeds new souls to the Realm of the Dead and there will likely be those hoping for easy marks lying in wait.”
“So, what's wrong with that? You don’t think we will be able to handle ourselves?” I asked, the odd streaming lights around us as we traveled made it hard for me to focus. I had a distinct thought that this wasn't a place a living soul was meant to experience.
“Well two reasons really,” Hakorus said in his relaxed and noncommittal way of talking. “Firstly, you are at a fairly low level to travel so deep into the Realm of the Dead, but you do have enough experience to be worth killing. If you are killed in the afterlife, the fact that you are technically still alive won't matter, you will be taken to the beyond, and your soul used as fuel to run the Engine of Creation.”
“And the second reason?” I asked, wishing he had told us this information before we began this trip, but knowing it wouldn't have swayed my decision. I seriously felt like I was going to throw up any moment.
“As a living being in the Realm of the Dead, you will stand out to those who know how to look. Expect to be attacked while you travel the road. Do not trust anyone. Hold tight we are nearly there. The transition to this section of space can be disorienting.”
It was too much. I threw up.
I staggered back, the memory replaying in my mind in the briefest of moments but leaving me with the sensation of needing to puke.
I belatedly realized that this could be a trap, as I saw two figures crash down in front of me appearing from the top of one of the fallen pillars. The man on the edge of the road ceased his yells for help and lifted himself off the edge of the road with ease.
Yep, this was definitely a trap.
“It’s a trap, get ready to fight,” Neako said, speaking for the first time aloud using his cat voice.
It sounded exactly the same as the voice in my head when he spoke to me through our bond.
Neako jumped towards me, my attention momentarily pulled from the attackers only a dozen feet away. His catlike form shifted midair, becoming a book again. He floated next to me, ready for battle. There was no time left. The first of the fighters lunged forward with a vicious-looking spiked mace.
My battle instincts took over and I lunged to the left, the weapon missing me by only the smallest measure. Before I hit the ground, I tried to release a burst of energy to move further away, hoping to give myself the advantage of distance but was surprised when the energy didn't come, and my ability didn't activate. Instead, my body was stung with an overpowering sharp pain that seemed to stab at me from all over.
I faltered and fell. My shoulder slammed hard against the ground, and I tried another tactic, activating my Finger Cannon ability. My foe was close enough that I didn't need to aim, and even the reduced damage from the precision strike would likely be enough to make him think twice before jumping me.
The smallest of energy beams lanced out and harmlessly impacted his chest. Meanwhile my body was stabbed with vicious pain again.
“Neako, something is wrong! What happened to my spells?” I sent the words through our mental bond and felt him receive the message.
“Looking into it now! Uh oh, watch out!” Neako shouted, shifting himself into the path of an oncoming attack. I cringed, thinking the blow might tear him apart if my magic wasn’t working as it should. But to my surprise, his cover flashed blue and the burly, gray-skinned attacker was thrown backward.
Rising to my feet I held my hands out in front of me, I had to do something to stall for time while Neako worked. “Easy there fellas. Before you go ganking travelers, shouldn't you have prepared some cliché back and forth dialogue? Here I’ll go first.”
I cleared my throat and did my best to sound like a frightened moron. “Oh dear, what could you possibly want from a weary traveler such as myself? Please spare my life.” I even went so far as to clasp my hands together as if I were begging.
For all my work, the three attackers did pause to look at each other, exchanging confused looks.
“Power moves off you in waves, boy,” the larger, gray-skinned attacker said. His voice had an ethereal echo to it, low and deep. “You will be a tasty treat.” His voice lowered to a growl as he spoke.
There was one final attacker, smaller than the rest, with a hood up that obscured his face. The dirt around him shifted and moved like waves crashing against the beach. Some type of energy spilled into the air around him. Something told me he was their leader. The larger, gray-skinned man was bald and had a forehead several inches too large—he appeared to be no great-thinker, and the orange-skinned demon kept stealing glances at the smaller thug, probably waiting for instructions.
With a subtle nod of his head, the smaller attacker sent his two companions forward to get me. I dropped the act immediately and reminded myself that my power wasn't just in using energy attacks. I had learned to defend myself using several forms of hand-to-hand combat, and I had the strength to back up my moves.
I fell into Open Form and waited for them to reach me. Open Form was meant to be used against multiple foes and was the easiest form to use for quick transitions to other more damaging forms.
The first attacker to reach me was the gray-skinned man and he struck out with a wicked-looking mace. The orange demon-man was just behind him and he raised a bow in my direction, letting loose a wicked bone arrow.
I narrowly dodged each strike and arrow before an opening finally appeared. I slipped past the muscled mace wielder and closed the gap between the archer. Transitioning to Fire Form, I struck out with reckless power and speed.
A crack reverberated through the air as the demon-man was thrown backward. If the sound had been any indication at all, he had several broken ribs and would be moving slower now.
My reckless attack left me open and the skin on my shoulder seared in pain as a spike from the gray-skinned thug’s mace connected. To my surprise, I didn’t feel any blood flowing from the wound. Perhaps the attack hadn’t been as well placed as I had thought. Ignoring the pain, I slipped into Stone Form, catching his next attack in my hand and yanking downwards.
He must not have expected such a maneuver because he fell forward, his weight already shifted into the attack. I released the weapon and connected my knee to his forehead as he fell. Without my energy attacks, I wasn't confident that I'd be able to deliver a death blow, so I put some distance between us as they recovered and hoped Neako had figured something out.
“I think I've figured it out!” Neako cried out suddenly, his book form swung in front of me, his cover opening. Information streamed through his pages.
“Neako, I don't have time for this, can't you help?” I asked.
I was in too much of a hurry to focus on speaking internally, but I knew from experience he would understand me if I spoke aloud.
“Not since that Mah'kus fellow fixed our connection,” Neako shot back, sounding as annoyed as I felt. “But here, I can release a basic spell Lh’an gave us. It aligns closely with the type of source that is feeding into your mana and you have a high enough Magical attribute for it now as well. It is more structured than anything we've used before. It's called 'Arcane Missile'. Here, read this section and focus on your intent.”
I saw a diagram of sorts, explaining the structure of a spell and how it draws on power. There was no way I was going to be able to figure it out in time. My attackers had recovered and were coming into range. I dodged and weaved in Wind Form. My battle suit was gone, and the thick fabric tunic I wore was being cut to tatters as I narrowly avoided being smashed by a mace or pierced by arrows.
Neako was persistent and kept putting himself in front of me. Suddenly it clicked, like facts I already knew being forced to the forefront of my mind.
