Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  “Holy shit!” Sarah exclaimed, nearly falling over in shock.

  The cat had attacked with such speed that she hadn’t even had time to react!

  “Stay on your toes!” Morgan yelled, dashing past her and engaging with the cat.

  Just from that one kick, he was able to feel that he’d underestimated the beast’s weight. The only reason he could think of was that the quills were heavier than he’d originally thought.

  The cat had landed on its feet and turned to glare at him.

  Well, he’d gotten its attention. Now to see what it was made of.

  It let out a mighty roar and pounced, claws extending a good eight inches as it attempted to disembowel him. Morgan dodged back and to the side, narrowly avoiding its glittering claws. Aiming for the unprotected head, he used heavy impact and punched a closed fist toward one of its eyes. The cat dodged back, turning what would have been a crippling blow into a glancing one. Morgan’s fist connected with the bone of its brow instead of the actual eye, splitting the skin and opening a shallow cut.

  Hissing in pain, the cat whirled on the spot and slammed its spiked tail into his side. Morgan winced as multiple barbs punched through his armor and pierced his side. He was thrown back under the force of the attack, but managed to catch himself with his flight skill and landed back on the ground. He felt at his side as he landed and his hand came away slick with blood. The wounds weren’t too deep and nothing felt broken, so the armor had done its job; for the most part anyway.

  The cat turned to him, blood streaming down one side of its face from where his fist had injured it. It roared again, then an icy haze settled over it as Sarah used her improved frostbite skill. This new skill was called bitter frost and it slowed targets by thirty percent. It also had the additional effect of lowering the target’s resistance to damage by five percent.

  The cat visibly slowed, as the haze settled over it. Then Sarah’s icicle barrage hit it full force, sending ten icy spears into its unprotected side. Four of the spears sunk into the cat’s flesh, but the rest were deflected as the spines along its back rose with a rattle.

  From the looks of it, Sarah’s attacks hadn’t been much more than flesh wounds. The cat was still relatively unharmed and all they’d really managed to do was enrage it.

  The cat whipped its head back and forth, trying to decide who to attack, eventually coming to rest on Sarah. It let out a low rumbling growl, then all the spines along its back rose at once, making it appear to double in size. The spines began glowing a brilliant blue and the cat crouched low as if in preparation to pounce.

  Morgan had begun dashing to intercept the cat, when he realized it wasn’t attacking. Rather, it was slowly crouching lower and lower, as the blue glow intensified. An icicle barrage slammed into the crouching cat, but this time they simply bounced off the glowing spines.

  “Shit! What the hell is that thing made of?” Sarah exclaimed, then started throwing one barrage after the next at it, as if hoping to get in a lucky shot

  Morgan kept a close eye on the cat.

  Something was definitely wrong here. It had demonstrated that it had a mage ability, but it wasn’t attacking at all, even as Sarah pelted it with one attack after the next.

  The spines began rattling as the cat’s head came close to touching the ground, and Morgan finally understood what was about to happen. He dashed toward Sarah with all the speed he could muster, even as the cat rose from its crouch, head pointed to the sky in a mighty roar.

  Morgan dove forward, catching Sarah around her waist as the massive cat let its attack loose. The glowing blue spines shot from its back in a massive area of effect attack, the spines buzzing through the air like a swarm of angry hornets.

  Morgan bore Sarah to the ground just as the attack went off, but he wasn’t fast enough to completely avoid injury. He winced as one spine tore a furrow across his cheek, and another pierced right through his shoulder and into Sarah’s arm. She let out a cry of pain, as the glowing spine punched through her mage shield like it wasn’t even there.

  Morgan shielded her as best he could, and after a few seconds, it grew quiet. He rose cautiously to his feet, turning to survey the damage that had been done. The cat stood in the center of a forest of bristling spines. They were everywhere; protruding from the ground, the trees, and even from a few rocks. The spines had gone through them all.

  The cat stared at him, as new spines slowly regrew from its back. Morgan grimaced as he gripped the spine lodged is his shoulder and ripped it free. He could feel his uniform start to soak up the blood, but did his best to ignore it. He was surprised at the cold feeling coming from the spine clutched between his fingers. He briefly examined it, noting with interest that it was some kind of metal he’d never seen before.

  He had no time to examine it now. The cat was vulnerable after that attack. Now would likely be his best chance to strike.

  Moving his arm to the side, he used condensed wind blade, watching as a swirling lance of air formed over his arm. The lance glowed a rich purple color, as the reiki in his core strengthened it.

  He now knew that the cat had a mage ability, which meant that his piercing weapon would deal double damage. He just hoped that the cat didn’t have any resistances against reiki, though he thought it was unlikely.

  He heard a loud curse as Sarah rose to her feet behind him. She was clutching at her bleeding arm and didn’t look at all pleased. Morgan himself could feel the burning pain in his shoulder, but he ignored it for now.

  He could be in pain once the beast was dead. For now, he needed to concentrate on finishing it.

  “Sarah, now’s our best chance! Quick, while it’s recovering!” he yelled.

  Hoping she would back him up, he used gale force and flew at the angry cat, dashing over the ground at more than twice his normal speed. The cat roared its challenge, then bounded towards him as well, muzzle bunched up in a snarl.

  Morgan dodged a swipe from its massive paw, then stuck out with the lance of air. The cat yowled in pain as the whirling blade punched into its shoulder, but it twisted its body out of the way and avoided further injury.

  Morgan clenched his teeth as the cat danced back and he dashed after it, determined to end it before its spines regrew completely. The cat abruptly changed direction as he moved in and this time, he wasn’t fast enough to dodge. Its claws made a horrible shrieking sound as they scraped over the chest plate and Morgan was now very glad for the improved armor. He then spun in place, landing a heavy kick to the side of the cat’s head and snapping one of its fangs. The cat staggered back under the force of the attack, as blood sprayed from where the tooth had been knocked loose.

  It shook its head and roared in pain, sending a shower of blood spraying across him. Darting forward, it attempted to take a chunk out of his arm in retaliation for its lost tooth. Morgan put all his weight on one foot, then pivoted to the side and slashed the blade across its ribs. The piercing weapon wasn’t as effective at slashing attacks, but the blade still cut a bloody furrow across its side.

  The cat spun and attempted to batter him with its tail, but since the spines had yet to regrow, the damage was minimal. Morgan grinned when the attack merely bounced off his armor, then lunged forward once more. The cat attempted to dodge back, and a ball of ice the size of a small boulder slammed into its head.

  The cat staggered under the force of that blow, momentarily stunned and Morgan saw his chance. Activating both gale force and heavy impact, he darted forward in a blur of motion.

  He’d found that using the two skills in bursts, rather than keeping them active, saved him a lot of RP. The rapid shift in both strength and speed would also throw his opponents off and allow him to strike a decisive blow.

  Morgan dodged a clumsy swipe of its paw and, with a cry of triumph, sunk the whirling purple blade deep into the cat’s skull. The beast shuddered a few times as the blade tore its brain to pieces, then crashed to the ground in a heap; blood pooling underneath it from the massiv
e hole left in its head.

  15

  Morgan dismissed his wind blade and winced as the pain in his shoulder hit him. He turned back to Sarah, who was clutching at her bleeding arm with a pained expression on her face.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, clutching at his own wound and walking over to her.

  “I don’t know,” she said with a grimace, her hand clamped tightly over the injury.

  “Let me see,” he said, crouching down next to her.

  He gently pried her fingers away from the wound and examined it closely. Then he pulled the damaged uniform shirt over his head and tore a strip from the bottom.

  “It doesn’t look too bad. It may hurt for a few days, but it should heal just fine.”

  He then asked her to wash the wound out, before tightly binding it with the strip of the shirt. Sarah watched him as he worked and it was only then that she noticed the line of blood running from his shoulder.

  She’d been too busy with her own, comparatively minor, injury to even notice.

  “Your shoulder looks horrible!” Sarah exclaimed, as soon as Morgan moved back and she got a better look at it.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said with a shrug.

  “Don’t give me that!” she said, feeling guilty for not tending to his obviously more severe injury before he dealt with hers. Getting to her feet, she started washing away the blood, then tore another strip from the shirt and cleaned away the rest. Sarah was shocked by the sight of the gruesome injury.

  The quill had gone clean through, tearing muscle and even scraping the bone. How could he just stand there and not even show an ounce of discomfort? Was he even human?

  Morgan stood still as she finished cleaning, and then bandaging, the wound.

  He would heal fully in twenty-four hours, but blood loss was still a big risk. This would hopefully do the job until then.

  He examined the binding once she was done and nodded his thanks. Sarah then fished a new armored shirt from her bag and handed it to him.

  “I know the uniforms are supposed to be self-healing, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take,” she said, taking the torn one and placing it in the bag.

  Her injury had been on her arm and since her uniform was sleeveless, she didn’t need to worry about changing. Morgan’s, on the other hand, had been thoroughly shredded and covered in blood.

  Morgan nodded his thanks once again, then pulled the shirt over his head, feeling it tighten and conform perfectly to his body.

  “Well, let’s go check out what kind of beast we just fought,” he said, a grin now spreading across his face.

  Sarah just let out a long sigh and slumped down to sit on the ground. “You go check it out. I’m too tired,” she said, waving him on.

  “Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug, then ran toward the now dead body of the massive cat.

  He stopped before it, crouching down and pulling the core retrieval rod from his belt. He had a bit of a hard time getting it, but after a few minutes of effort, he removed a glowing red and blue core. Excitedly, he pulled up the core’s status so he could see what kind of beast they’d just fought.

  Name: Magesteel-spine leopard core

  Rank - 10

  Total available energy - 7,106/7,106

  This core was taken from a magesteel-spine leopard. As this core is from an intermediate beast, the amount of available energy has been greatly increased.

  To say that Morgan was shocked would have been an understatement.

  With the level of difficulty, as well as the damage output on that thing, he’d expected it to be at least rank 16. This fight raised even more questions about beasts and how their power was measured. Sarah had told him that all beasts evolved, but the soot-spine leopards were rank 12, and they were just regular beasts.

  He turned to look at Sarah, who was now lying flat on her back and appeared to be sound asleep. Morgan shook his head in amazement.

  He was way too amped up to sleep right now. He also needed answers and he thought he knew someone who might be able to supply him with some.

  Fishing Katherine’s pendant from under his uniform shirt, he closely examined it. It was a small piece of flat metal with two small protrusions on either side. Other than that, it just looked like a regular silver coin. Pressing the small protrusion on the left, he spoke into it, feeling just a bit foolish talking to an inanimate object.

  “Katherine?” he asked questioningly.

  “Morgan!” Katherine’s sultry voice sounded in his mind after a few seconds. “It’s good to hear from you so soon. Did you decide to call and arrange our marriage, after all?”

  “No.”

  There were a few seconds of silence and Morgan could almost see her pouting on the other side of their connection.

  “So, what do you need?” she asked, after a few more seconds of silence.

  Yup, he could definitely detect a pout in her voice.

  “I actually had a question and was wondering if you could answer it for me. We just took down a beast and when I examined the core, it said that it was an intermediate beast. I’ve seen a few different types of cores and the amount of energy seems to wildly fluctuate between them. I just can’t seem to get a sense of how power is measured when it comes to beasts. The beast we fought was the same rank as I was, but the fight was a lot more difficult than it should have been.”

  “No one at the academy explained it to you?” Katherine asked, seeming to perk up a bit.

  “No, and it’s really starting to bug me,” he replied.

  “Alright, I’ll do my best to explain. Beasts are lumped into five categories. Ranked from weakest to most dangerous, they are: basic, evolved, intermediate, advanced, and pinnacle. Basic beasts are the most common and the ones that you’ll run into the most. They are the easiest to defeat and greatly resemble their animal counterparts. Their intelligence is also quite lacking and they’re no smarter than your average animal.”

  “Evolved beasts are a bit rarer, but still quite common. You will not find an evolved beast under rank 9, as they only exist when a basic beast breaks through into rank 9. This doesn’t happen with all beasts, however. That is a common misconception. They tend to be more intelligent and powerful than the basic beasts, but are still quite manageable to defeat on your own.”

  “Intermediate beasts are where the real danger begins. They are a lot more intelligent than an evolved beast and tend to be a whole lot more powerful. They still resemble their animal counterparts, but always have a distinct characteristic that makes them stand out. Most supers or mages would be extremely hard pressed to take one of equal rank out alone. Because of their power, the amount of energy available is always significantly higher than that of an evolved beast. If I may ask, what kind of beast did you just fight?”

  “A magesteel-spine leopard,” Morgan replied. “And you’re right. It wasn’t an easy fight.”

  “Really?!” Katherine sounded quite excited.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Did it fire off its area of effect attack?”

  “You mean where glowing blue spines flew in all directions and almost killed us?” Morgan asked.

  “Is there anyone in the area?” Katherine asked.

  “No, why?” Morgan asked, wondering why she sounded so excited.

  His head whipped to the side as a swirling portal suddenly opened, not five feet away, and Katherine stepped through, dressed in a uniform cut in a style similar to Sarah’s. There were a few key differences though. For one, hers was red and white in the fashion of the North Kingdom’s military. For another, it was a whole lot more revealing. The pants had a line of open slits running up the outside of both her legs and the shirt had a deep neckline that revealed quite a bit of cleavage.

  Morgan noted all of this as she stepped through. For a moment he wondered what the purpose of wearing armor would be if so much was uncovered, then he remembered Katherine’s rank.

  If something was powerful enough to actually har
m her, then a layer of armor wouldn’t make any difference. There was also the East Kingdom’s heat to contend with. It was still quite early, but the heat was already beginning to hit him, so he could understand why her uniform had so many gaps.

  When her eyes landed on him, Katherine flashed him a warm smile, then came over and gave him a tight hug. Morgan felt the air rush out of him as she did and his ribs creaked ominously under the immense pressure.

  “Can’t breathe!” he wheezed.

  “Oh no! I’m so sorry!” she said, quickly releasing him and looking him over.

  “It’s alright,” he said, rubbing at his ribs.

  Holy crap, she was strong. If she’d squeezed just a little tighter, his ribs may very well have snapped.

  “I’ll have to be more careful in the future,” she said sheepishly. “Now, where is that leopard?”

  Morgan pointed over her shoulder and her eyes lit up when she saw all the spines littering the ground.

  “Would you mind telling me why you want these?” Morgan asked as she began collecting them.

  “Magesteel is a very rare metal and isn’t a naturally occurring resource,” she said, as she worked. “It’s extremely hard to find, as it only grows on certain beasts and will only be potent if the beast infuses it with mana before it dies.”

  “What can it be used for? And what would have happened if it didn’t infuse it with mana?” he asked curiously.

  Katherine was a literal fountain of knowledge. He’d learned more in the few minutes he’d spent speaking with her than he had over the last few weeks. Then again, he had been on the run for most of that time,

  “Magesteel is used in all kinds of things, but mostly for enchanted weapons and armor,” she said, walking over to a new spot and stooping down once more.

  “If the beast had died before using its attack, the spines would have turned soft and eventually disintegrated, so you can imagine why I’m so excited.”