Sunscorch (Rise To Omniscience Book 8)

by Aaron Oster

  80

  “Back, back!” Katherine yelled, skidding to a halt and taking a sharp right turn, dragging the nearest person – in this case, Ragnar – along with her.

  A blast of sickly green light flashed through the space where she’d just been standing, smashing into a tree with a sizzling, burning sound and spreading quickly to encompass the entire tree. Within a handful of seconds, the tree was covered in the writhing green acid, and as soon as it was, it collapsed into a smoking, steaming heap.

  “Holy shit!” Ragnar exclaimed. “Where the hell did that come from?!”

  “There’s a squad of fifty closing in on our left!” Grace called as Katherine yanked the dwarf back to his feet.

  “Then we go right,” Katherine said, then took off running in that direction.

  “We need to angle back toward the east,” Elyssa said as they started running again. “We’re going in the wrong direction!”

  “I know,” Katherine replied grimly. “But unless you want to fight through another squad, we don’t really have much choice.”

  Several more spheres of green light came burning through the trees, and their group was forced to turn again, moving forty-five degrees to the north. There was a scream of pain as another flash of green burned through the trees, striking one of the three remaining beastmen and taking her down.

  “Damn it!” Malachi yelled, half-stumbling as he tried to stop but was yanked forward by Lumia, who was now in her hybrid form.

  Katherine threw a look over her shoulder and felt her stomach turn as the woman’s body was engulfed in the burning green light before it disintegrated. She had no idea how powerful the woman had been, but she didn’t like her odds if she were to take one of those green beams of acidic power head-on.

  “Hard left!” Grace yelled, and Katherine obeyed immediately, pulling sharply in that direction as crashing sounds echoed from up ahead.

  Right then, the most valuable members of their group were Grace and Elyssa, for their abilities to sense groups of fighters. If anything, Grace was the more useful of the two, as she was able to use her unique skills to make sure they didn’t run into any dead ends.

  Unlike Elyssa, she could see more than the power signatures of fighters. She could see everything, the landscape stretching out before her with each snap of her fingers or click of her tongue.

  “We’ve got a problem!” she yelled a second later. “We’re running up against a rock formation, but if we move to either side, we’ll be running into a group of fighters.”

  “Which one is smaller?” Katherine called back, slowing to a jog and allowing everyone a moment to catch their breaths.

  “The one on the left is smaller,” Elyssa said.

  “But if we go right, we can reach our destination faster,” Grace said.

  Katherine could see the rock formation up ahead, jutting out of the forest floor, forcing a change in direction.

  “Is there any way to take us through that?” she asked Elyssa.

  “Afraid not,” the elf said. “It’ll be unstable at best. The chances of a collapse are almost guaranteed, and I can’t hold off that much stone in my current state.”

  Both exhausted from a night up and still recovering from nearly two weeks of constant strain, it was a struggle for Elyssa to remain on her feet. Katherine had to marvel at the fact that she was still going, despite all that had happened.

  “We go right, then,” Katherine decided, looking back to their group.

  They had started with just over thirty. Now, thirteen remained, including the leaders of three of the five races of Faeland. They were so close to escaping, and taking a longer path now just wouldn’t be a good idea. The others nodded, then hung right and began jogging along the towering formation.

  “How many other groups can you sense out there?” Katherine asked Elyssa, not for the first time.

  Although Grace’s skills allowed her to see far more, Elyssa’s range, due to her rank, was far greater when it came to sensing auras.

  “Seven others,” Elyssa replied, “Four moving to block our escape and the others trying to surround us. We’ve also got hundreds of fighters coming up from our rear, so heading back that way is no longer an option. Also, we’re right on top of them.”

  Elyssa waved her hand, and the sides of the rock formation turned to liquid, transforming into jagged spikes and slamming into the group that had been waiting in ambush.

  “Let’s drive through!” Katherine yelled, swinging her Reality Blade and cleaving a ripping swath of destruction through the air.

  Her portals might be cut off, but all her other spatial skills still seemed to be functioning, which was good, since all of these soldiers seemed to be ranked anywhere from the high 40s to the mid-50s.

  She’d had no clue there were this many powerful fighters in Faeland, which just went to show how much they’d been underestimating their enemy. They’d been warned that the fighters in Faeland were stronger, but she hadn’t realized just how much stronger they really were.

  Screams rang through the night air as they fell upon the squad that had tried to spring a surprise attack. Katherine cut four of them down before they could react, and Malachi and Ragnar were in their midst in seconds.

  A burning green light flashed past her, slamming into the rock formation and causing a miniature landslide as it destabilized. Elyssa threw several small pillars up, catching the stone as it threatened to fall on them all. The formation was about thirty feet tall and stretched for several hundred yards. At this point, it was just a sheer rock face, and as the remaining soldiers of the squadron moved in to surround them, Katherine’s group found themselves with their backs up against it.

  She growled, her body blazing with power as she fought against the enemy, cutting and slashing anyone who came within reach. Several at the back, all with distinct serpent tattoos, were gathering that acidic green energy for another attack, and the ones hemming them in were now using medium-range attacks instead of coming in close.

  “We need to break through!” Grace called from her position at the back of their group. “We’ve got another squad incoming!”

  Katherine gritted her teeth, then tried to lunge forward but was pushed back by threatening weapons and attacks. The ground before her turned to liquid, and a dozen spikes shot upward, but as soon as they did, those in the back attacked, unleashing the corrosive green energy. The two attacks collided, and Elyssa’s burned away in an instant.

  “I’ve got this,” Lumia growled, then leaped into the air and unleashed a torrent of burning blue flame.

  Unlike her last attacks, this fire didn’t burn but froze. The front line of fighters screamed in pain as their bodies were engulfed in an inferno, only for it to freeze in place, trapping them within.

  “Now’s our chance!” Ragnar roared, then charged in, swinging his hammer.

  The ice shattered into a thousand pieces, ending the lives of the soldiers trapped within. Malachi followed closely, elongated claws glittering as he fell upon the second row of attackers, ripping them apart. The ones in the back tried to attack again, but Elyssa countered, pulling stone from the ground and intercepting.

  Katherine’s cleaving attacks hit them next, the rippling blades of distortion slamming into them and cutting cleanly in two. It was one of her newer skills, one that would displace bodies upon impact by scattering the various parts that were cut. It was a horrible way to go but cleaner than any actual sword cut and much faster.

  There was a shout from behind, and Katherine turned to see another group charging toward them from the far side of the formation.

  “We need to move!” she yelled, slashing another attacker in half and spraying blood over the side of the formation.

  There were still several soldiers ahead of them who had been on the verge of running, but now that they saw reinforcements, their morale was boosted.

  “Take them down!” a gnome shouted, right before Ragnar’s hammer blew his head to bloody chunks.

&
nbsp; The others recoiled in horror as they all received a chunk of their new leader, and Elyssa used the opportunity to raise a wall between them.

  “Run!” Katherine shouted, then was tackled from the side by Grace.

  She felt a burning pain on her shoulder, then a loud crack as the corrosive energy that had nearly ended her slammed into the rock formation. Katherine was back on her feet in an instant, giving Grace a grateful nod and ignoring the burning pain from her shoulder.

  Run now, heal later, she thought as their group took off running again, Elyssa pulling another wall up behind them to try and slow their pursuit.

  It was exhausting, terrifying, and exhilarating all at the same time. Katherine felt as though a noose were slowly tightening around her neck as they made it past the towering rock formation and into the darkened trees. Leaves crunched beneath her boots, audible over the sounds of pursuit and their own panting breaths.

  When they’d been trapped in their bunker, they’d at least had a buffer between them and their attackers. Now, they were closing in on all sides, slowly herding them toward a point where they would be surrounded and killed.

  Aside from Grace and Lumia, not a single member of their party was uninjured, some worse than others. Two of the dwarves were hobbling, and Malachi’s only remaining wife had a bloody gash in her side that refused to stop bleeding.

  “We need to speed up!” Grace suddenly called. “We’ve got groups closing in on both sides, and they’ll cut us off unless we make it through within the next minute!”

  Katherine silently cursed, wondering if this night could get any worse. Still, she did as instructed, and their group moved faster, weaving in between trees, branches cracking underfoot, and the sounds of pursuit growing louder. They’d barely made it a few dozen feet when Elyssa called out a warning as well.

  “I can sense a large group gathering about two hundred yards out,” she said. “I have a feeling that’s where our portal is.”

  “They’ve beaten us to it?” Katherine asked, feeling her heart drop.

  “Not quite, but if we hurry…” Elyssa said, then trailed off as the entire world shook.

  Grace cried out as she was thrown off her feet, and Katherine staggered as a massive explosion hit the trees above. Splintering cracks echoed through the air as trees began falling all around them, and a moment after that, a shockwave hit, tossing everyone to the ground.

  “What the hell was that?!” Malachi yelled, staggering back to his feet as the ground continued to tremble.

  Katherine was wondering the same thing. What the hell had the kind of power to cause the entire world to tremble?

  “Can you sense what it is?” Katherine asked, staggering to her feet as more tremors rocked the ground beneath them.

  Elyssa shook her head, looking pained.

  “I can’t sense anything,” she said, clutching at her head. “I can’t look anymore, either. It hurts too much. We’re going to have to rely on Grace to keep us going, I’m afraid.”

  “There’s nothing much to say,” Grace said, getting shakily to her feet. “We might not see it yet, but we’re pretty much surrounded. Our best chance right now is to try and push ahead to the portal and hope we can break through where we failed the last time.”

  What she didn’t say – what everyone was thinking – was that this time, they had less than half their number, were injured, and exhausted from their run. Another tremor ran through the ground, threatening to knock them off their feet again.

  Whatever the hell it was, perhaps it had knocked enough of the enemy off-balance for them to make it through, or so Katherine hoped. At the moment, it was their best chance at escape. Enemies were closing in all around, and within minutes, they would be facing a force they could not hope to beat.

  “Let’s move, then,” she said, staggering forward as the tremors continued. “And let’s hope, for all our sakes, that we make it through before we’re completely surrounded.”

  81

  Immense, burning, and crushing pain was all that Sarah knew. A blazing sphere of burning light surrounded her, even as thousands of tons of stone collapsed on top of her. She couldn’t escape, as she couldn’t focus enough through the pain to get away. Her control over her abilities had been shattered, and now, she was continually broken, even as her Essence tried to pull her back together.

  Never in all her time as a goddess could she remember hurting this much. In fact, never before in all her life had she been in this much pain. Her body would reform, only for the orange sphere surrounding her to burn her again. Then the weight of the stones on top of her would crush her once more.

  The rumbling had stopped by now, the massive section of wall that had been brought down, finally settling. From where she lay, she could see the massive gap in the thousand-foot structure, dust billowing high into the air. That was where the accursed clone of Morgan floated some quarter-mile away, still glowing with that red-orange light and watching her struggle.

  He couldn’t see her, of course, as she was buried beneath the wall, but he could sense her struggling to hold herself together, to fight through the pain, and force her way free.

  That damned brat! Sarah thought angrily. Who the hell does he think he is?

  She raged internally, even as the glowing sphere faded, leaving her trapped beneath the collapsed wall. She couldn’t move, her reforming body painfully crushed as it tried to rebuild itself. It was costing her more and more power. Yet, despite all of that, the emotion she felt most acutely was pure, unadulterated rage.

  How dare this mortal, this nobody, do this to her? She was a god, a being of cosmic power and might! No one should be able to hurt her, especially not some knock-off of one of her friends!

  Sarah’s power began to build within her core, the one part of herself that could not be harmed by the mortal world. It began trembling and shaking, as did the stone around her. As her rage built, so did the tremors. The stones around her began to clatter and crack, a bloody, misty aura beginning to work its way through the stones and into the air outside.

  She was a god, and nothing could stop her!

  With a scream of rage that shook the entire world, the wall exploded off of her, sending thousands of tons of stone flying hundreds of miles in all directions.

  Sarah stood, her body now fully reformed, her body blazing with so much power that the walls to either side of her began to crack and flake away. The gap created by Morgan stretched some half a mile across, which was quite impressive, considering how massive the wall was. However, when compared to her, he was nothing!

  She swiped her hand through the air, clearing the dust in an instant and revealing Morgan, still standing where he had been before and looking down on her with something bordering on disgust.

  The bloody aura thickened even further, Sarah’s form warping and taking on a much less human shape. She was no longer going to be holding anything back, and if the world fell apart in the process of her ripping this mortal to shreds, then so be it!

  ***

  Morgan stood in the air, watching as the walls shook themselves apart under the might of the goddess. His own power, the power of the sun itself, blazed within him, reassuring, comforting, all-encompassing. Never before had he felt as strong as he did now. Sure, his Soulstream had lent him tremendous strength in the past, but it was never anything like this.

  With the power of his Sunscorch running through him, Morgan felt as invulnerable as he was. Now, more than ever, he felt the truth of his title. He kept saying he was Eternal, but in this form, with the power of the sun radiating from his skin, he truly was.

  The power built beneath the walls as the goddess’s rage increased. He could sense the veil being lifted, the true might of a god blazing forth in a bloody storm that seemed to wash out the sun.

  He fought back against it, his own power blazing forth. His aura, the red-orange glow, extended further, the heat increasing and forcing the bloody aura back. He would not allow it to engulf him or smother him.
He had a job to do, and so long as this monstrosity with the face of Sarah continued to live, his job was not yet finished.

  The air rippled and warped, and the stone wall exploded outward, sending a plume of dust billowing into the sky. Boulders the size of castles came soaring past him, but Morgan ignored them. Even when one slammed right into him, he paid it no heed. Because, instead of bearing him to the ground and crushing him, the boulder shattered against him, dust and debris showering to the ground, glowing red from the heat of his body.

  Morgan could see her now. Sarah was standing in a crater between the two halves of the split wall. She no longer looked like herself, however. She was taller, somewhere around eight feet tall, and her body was made of sharp lines and angles, all colored a deep crimson.

  Her hair flowed out behind her in a bloody wave, her eyes glowed red within black sockets, and her fingers ended in sharpened claws. Sarah no longer looked human. The power that radiated from her was so intense that space warped around her, and the ground began splitting open where she stood.

  Although he was standing in the air, Morgan could feel the entire world shake, and when that unearthly creature opened its mouth to howl, he felt a chill run down his spine.

  He was no longer fighting Sarah, the goddess. He was now fighting an agent of Chaos, a monster among monsters!

  ***

  Sarah screeched, an unearthly sound that shattered the stones around her, then punched the mortal in the face, her body covering the distance between them so quickly that he couldn’t even react in time. Her hand burned as she hit him, but it reformed quickly, and she ignored the pain as she followed his plummeting form, landing on the ground before he could and bringing a knee up into the center of his spine, bending him almost in half.

  He was blasted up into the air, and she was there, ten-thousand feet up to blast him back to the ground. She flashed all around, kicking, punching, and blasting with her goldy might in an attempt to rip the mortal apart. Her blows were powerful enough to shatter the entire planet if she were to direct her attacks downward, and yet, no matter how hard she hit him, the damned idiot refused to die.