Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  “Nope.”

  Sarah let out a long sigh.

  “Guess we just walk straight and hope we find the Matriarch or Patriarch.”

  Morgan grimaced when she said this.

  “What?” she asked. “Plan not good enough for you?”

  “That’s not it. We have no idea if it’s a Matriarch or Patriarch, and it’s such a mouthful to say every time. From now on, I’m calling them Arc’s.”

  “Really?! We’re stuck in a frozen wasteland full of monsters that want to kill us, and the thing that bothers you is the terminology used to define a zone boss?”

  “Yes,” Morgan replied, then walked past her and began trekking through the snow.

  Sarah just shook her head but was quick to follow.

  It didn’t take long for them to come across their first beasts, and the two of them stopped as a pack of what looked like frost-foxes padded down the mountain towards them. Except, they were slightly too large to be frost-foxes, and their fur was a shade lighter as well.

  “No idea what those are, but I call dibs,” Morgan yelled, using enhanced flight and rocketing toward them.

  “Hey!” Sarah indignantly called out, but he ignored her.

  He covered the distance quickly, and dropped out of the air, free-falling ten feet to land in the middle of the pack. The foxes all turned to him in surprise, and that momentary distraction was all he needed. His uninjured hand flashed out in a rapid series of blows, and within seconds all of them lay dead.

  “Aww, they died so easily,” Morgan complained as Sarah caught up with him.

  “Serves you right for rushing off without me!” she exclaimed, throwing a rod at him. “Since you killed them, feel free to pull the cores out yourself.

  “Oh, alright,” Morgan said, then stooped to collect the cores.

  He was a bit surprised at the size of the first one, so he was quick to examine it.

  Name: Snow-fox core

  Rank - 7

  Total available energy - 654/654

  This core was taken from a snow-fox and has no special properties.

  Morgan was surprised at the amount of energy they provided, seeing as they were so weak. Then again, he had a feeling that anything under rank 9 wouldn’t really pose much of a threat.

  “It’s called a snow-fox,” Morgan said as he absorbed the energy and moved on to the next. “It’s not an evolved beast though, so maybe it’s just a bigger species of the frost-fox.”

  He absorbed the rest of the cores and dusted off his palms, now feeling quite a bit better about the easy fight. He had gained over 2,500 energy from only a few seconds of work.

  “They were all rank 7, so this stage likely won’t have anything over rank 8, except for the Arc,” he said.

  Sarah nodded, and the two of them began walking again. The going began to get much tougher the higher up they went. The snow tended to collect in drifts, leaving them to wade through snow that was waist deep at times. At a certain point, Morgan had been forced to fly them over a bank that was in their path, leaving him to wonder as to what kind of moron had designed this zone.

  There was no way that anyone would be able to get through here in any sort of timely fashion.

  They went on like this for the next two hours, periodically fighting off packs of snow foxes. They stopped at a certain point, and Morgan built a small fire, removing some of the wolverine meat and sticking it directly into it. While they were waiting for it to cook, they suddenly heard a loud snuffling sound from behind them and turned to see a massive wolverine coming over a rise to their right.

  “Dibs!” Sarah called, even as Morgan was rising to his feet.

  “Hey, no fair!”

  “Someone needs to watch our lunch, and you got to kill the last pack, so it’s my turn,” Sarah said with a grin.

  “But this is a new type of beast!” Morgan complained, eyeing the approaching wolverine with longing.

  “Nope. Fair’s fair!” Sarah replied, then dashed off to face the oncoming threat.

  Morgan watched as she quickly and efficiently took the beast down, using her icicle barrage and condense water skills to utterly destroy it. She then returned to him with a bounce in her step, plopping down next to him and grinning widely.

  “What kind of beast was it?” Morgan asked, almost sulkily, as he pulled the meat from the fire and allowed it a few seconds to cool.

  “It was a steel-clawed wolverine,” Sarah replied, taking one of the juicy pieces of meat and popping it in her mouth.

  She hadn’t been sure she’d enjoy it, but the wolverine was oddly tasty despite the lack of seasoning.

  “It wasn’t an evolved beast, so it’s likely another variant.”

  Morgan nodded as he took a large bite from his meat. The food seemed to help him get over the missed fight pretty quickly, and soon he was back to his normal self. Morgan kicked some snow over the fire and winced as he jostled his hand.

  “How much longer until it heals?” Sarah asked, noticing his discomfort.

  Morgan looked up at the sky, and judged it to be around four in the afternoon, though it could have been later. The day and night cycles seemed to be completely screwed up in here.

  “About four more hours,” he said, tucking his injured hand into his pocket with a grimace. “I just really hope we won’t have an issue with the Arc once we reach it,” he said, as they started their march through the snow once more.

  The wind began to pick up just a few minutes after the resumed their hike up the mountain, making their climb a thoroughly miserable one. They came across two more of the steel-clawed wolverines, and Morgan cheered up a bit as he got to fight one, but the longer the two of them walked, the more miserable they became.

  Sarah was beginning to lose the feeling in her toes, when Morgan called out to her.

  “I think I found the Arc’s territory!”

  She looked up, and could just make out a grayish shape up ahead.

  A cave, maybe? That would definitely be welcome after hours of bitter cold.

  They sped up their pace, stomping their feet hard to get their blood pumping and avoid frostbite. The distance was quite deceiving and it took them nearly twenty minutes to reach the mouth of the cave, but as soon as they walked in, there was an immediate difference in temperature.

  “It must be a good thirty degrees warmer in here!” Sarah exclaimed, as she clapped her hands together and jumped up and down.

  “At least,” Morgan agreed, doing the same, but keeping a lookout for the Arc.

  When they’d warmed themselves as best they could, they began walking down the stone tunnel. As the light behind them receded, they became aware of a different source of light up ahead.

  “You think that’s where our Arc is hiding?” Sarah asked.

  “Only one way to find out,” Morgan replied with a grin.

  “You’re hopeless. You know that, right?” she said, shaking her head.

  “So you keep telling me.”

  They reached the end of the tunnel and Morgan held out an arm to prevent Sarah from going any further. The cavern before them looked oddly similar to the one on the previous stage. The only difference being that this cavern was made of stone.

  A massive gray and white fox lay in the center of the cavern, appearing to be fast asleep, but both of them knew better than to rush in. The moment they would leave the tunnel, the beast would rise from its supposed slumber.

  Morgan had to once again wonder at the idiot who had designed this place. Come to think of it, Gold never had explained how these places came into being and he resolved himself to ask when they next met.

  “So how do you wanna do this?” Sarah asked, looking over the massive fox and biting her lip nervously.

  “Same as always, I guess,” Morgan replied with a shrug. “Though it might be a bit more difficult with my hand still being injured and all.”

  “How much longer?” Sarah asked. “It might be worth it just to wait, so you can fight at full strength.”r />
  “At least another hour, but by then it’ll likely be a lot colder and we’ll want to have hunkered down for the night. Though, if we can manage to stay in here, it would make things a lot easier.”

  Sarah let out a long sigh. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

  Morgan nodded, and both their shields flashed as they were activated. Morgan then used gale force and leaped forward, activating enhanced flight and speeding across the open cavern.

  The fox rose from the ground as soon as he left the tunnel exit, its icy blue eyes locked onto him. It suddenly glowed a bright red, then let out a loud bark and the room was engulfed in a howling blizzard of stinging snow and ice.

  Morgan hesitated as the fox vanished from view, landing on the ground and squinting around for any hint of the beast.

  This was not good.

  He began running in the direction where the fox had last been, only to be forced to roll to the side as a gray and white shape blurred into view, not three feet from him. He felt the wind of its passage ruffle his hair as it passed by overhead, then it was lost from sight, swallowed up by the swirling snow.

  “Morgan! Can you hear me?” Sarah’s worried voice cut through the howling wind.

  “Yes! I’m coming to you. Don’t move!” he yelled back, then took off in her direction.

  He was forced to dodge the lunging fox two more times before her glowing blue shield came into sight.

  “Glad to see you’re alright,” she said, looking him over.

  “I’m not really sure how dangerous this fox is, but I can’t see more than five feet in any direction and with its coloration, it’s practically invisible!” Morgan replied, eyes flicking around frantically for any hint of movement.

  “Maybe we limit the direction from which it can attack,” Sarah replied.

  Morgan was about to ask how, when she began building walls of ice using her condense water skill.

  “Good thinking,” Morgan replied as she built up walls on either side of them, then turned and placed her back to his.

  “Stay sharp. I’m not really sure if it’ll be able to break through the walls. They were a bit of a rush job.”

  Morgan just grunted in reply, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead.

  Sarah had built a sort of funnel, with the ice wall extending about five feet in both directions in front and behind them. They waited in silence and as the seconds ticked by, Morgan began to wonder if the fox was smart enough to realize the trap and was just going to wait them out. Then a pair of glowing blue eyes emerged from the swirling snow, followed by a narrow face and gleaming white teeth.

  “It’s on my side!” Morgan yelled, using his condensed wind blade as the massive fox leapt at him.

  The swirling wind condensed into a two foot saber, and Morgan slashed out with it as the fox’s claws made contact with his shield. With a sickening squelch, the blade sank into the Arc’s neck, sending up a fountain of blood.

  The bladed form of his wind blade worked a bit differently than the lance. While the lance whirled in a rapid circle, the wind on the bladed weapon was oscillated along the edges, making the cutting power that much stronger.

  The blade howled as the fox collided with him, and tore clean through its neck, neatly separating its head from its shoulders. He staggered back under the fox’s weight, but was thankfully able to retain his balance.

  The fox hit the ground in two separate pieces, and the blizzard around them petered out, leaving a tangible silence in its wake.

  “Whew! Glad that’s over!” Sarah said from behind him.

  Morgan turned and saw her arching her back as she stretched, pressing her knuckles into her lower back.

  “Yeah. It was definitely an interesting fight,” he replied, bending down by the beast and retrieving its core.

  Name: Blizzard-fox Patriarch core

  Rank - 10

  Total available energy - 4,017/4,017

  This core was taken from a blizzard-fox. As this core was taken from a zone Patriarch, and an evolved beast, the amount of available energy has been slightly increased.

  “Looks like this was an evolved beast,” Morgan said, absorbing the energy from the core. “No wonder its ability was so dangerous.”

  “Guess we’re moving on to the next stage now?” she asked, coming up next to him and looking around the now snow covered cave.

  “Maybe…” he replied slowly, eyeing the tunnel exit with an idea forming in his mind. “Let’s check out the tunnel first. I think I have an idea on how to stay warm tonight.”

  22

  Just twenty minutes later, the two of them were sitting by a warm fire while pieces of wolverine meat sizzled on a flat rock. Morgan came up with the idea to stay in the tunnel for the night and have Sarah block up both sides, leaving just a small gap near the top to let air in and allow the smoke to escape.

  Sarah leaned back against the wall with a content sigh. She’d bunched her coat up beneath her, as it was already quite warm inside and she’d wanted something between her behind and the cold stone floor.

  “Some hot water would really be nice right now. Any ideas on how we might be able to boil some?” Morgan asked, prodding at the slices of juicy meat with her knife.

  They were eating meat from the wolverine’s belly for supper, and she could see the streaks of fat practically melting as the thin slices became crispy.

  “I do, but I’m not exactly sure if it’ll work or not,” she replied, tugging the enchanted armor over her head, leaving her in her canvas uniform.

  “Go for it. We’ve got nothing to lose,” he said, pulling the meat from the stone and adding more.

  Sarah nodded, then stood from her seated position on the ground and began to cast around for small stones. When she’d gathered enough, she placed them directly in the fire to heat up.

  “I’ll need your help for this next part,” she told Morgan, as he pulled the last of the meat off the fire.

  “I need you to cut a hole in the stone using your wind blade. If my plan works out, we may even have some hot water to wash ourselves,” she said with a smile.

  Morgan nodded excitedly, then formed a wind blade. He chose the lance, as he knew it would easily tear up the surrounding stone. Walking over to the far corner of their shelter, he plunged it into the ground.

  Sarah watched in fascination as the whirling blade of air sank into the stone as easily as a hot knife through butter.

  “How big do you want the hole?” Morgan asked.

  “That size should be good for drinking,” she replied, seeing it was about eight inches deep and five across. “Now make another one, wide enough to sit in and about a foot and a half deep.”

  Morgan nodded and after only a few short minutes, had the hole dug to her specifications. Sarah examined both, then nodded her satisfaction. Concentrating for a moment, she quickly filled both holes with water. Then, walking back to the fire, she used her knife to roll some of the hot stones out.

  “Oh, that is a good idea!” Morgan said with a grin, dismissing his wind blade and walking over to help.

  “Gee, thanks,” Sarah sarcastically replied.

  The rocks landed in the water with a hiss, setting off an explosion of steam that temporarily blinded them.

  “It’ll probably take a few minutes for the water to heat up for our baths, so we may as well eat in the meantime,” Morgan said.

  He started walking back to the fire, when he suddenly stopped. Sarah was concerned for a moment, then saw the look of relief on his face. He pulled his hand from his pocket and she watched in amazement as the swollen mess began to heal. First, the swelling went down, then the broken bones reset themselves. Finally, the cuts scabbed over and disappeared, leaving his hand whole and unblemished.

  She watched as he flexed his fingers a few times and noticed that his shoulders had slumped, as the tension she hadn’t even realized was there left him.

  He must have been in a lot more pain than he was letting on, she thought as Mor
gan made his way over to the fire and sat down.

  “You coming?” he asked, looking back at her as he reached for one of the crispy pieces of meat.

  “Yeah, just a second,” she replied, walking back to the smaller hole and dipping her finger in to check the temperature.

  She quickly pulled it back with a hiss and stuck it in her mouth to cool.

  Yup. Definitely hot enough, she thought.

  She then used her condense water skill, forming two mugs made of ice. It wasn’t the best plan and the water wouldn’t stay hot for long, but it was the best she could come up with. She quickly dunked the two mugs in and made her way quickly back to Morgan.

  “Drink it quickly, because it’s already cooling,” she said, handing him one of the mugs.

  He nodded his thanks and took it from her, taking a sip and letting out a content sigh as the steaming liquid warmed his insides.

  Sarah helped herself to some of the meat, taking a large sip from her mug and sighing as well.

  Who knew a cup of hot water could be so satisfying?!

  They finished their meal in silence, listening to the crackle of the fire as they enjoyed being truly warm for the first time since they were trapped here.

  Sarah kept eyeing the makeshift bath, already imagining how good it would feel to sit in there for a few minutes. Morgan bit into a piece of meat with a crunch, and it was only then that she realized her dilemma.

  Morgan! How was she going to be able to take a bath with him here?! She could make an ice wall, but they were quite see-through and she didn’t want to risk lowering the temperature in here by using more ice.

  She bit her bottom lip as she tried to solve the problem, but no matter how she thought of it, she could only come up with one solution.

  “You’ll have to leave while I take my bath,” Sarah said.

  Morgan looked up from his meal at her words and raised an eyebrow.

  “And where would I go?” he asked, crunching another piece of meat and taking a sip from his mug, which had already begun melting.

  “Why don’t you go explore some of the third stage?” she asked, trying to appeal to his love of fighting. “I’m sure you’ll run into some strong beasts and when you’re done fighting, you can come back and have a nice warm bath.”