Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  The breath was knocked out of his lungs as his back impacted with the wall and he heard several loud cracks, signaling that something had definitely just broken. He landed on the ground in a heap, but forced himself to focus through the pain and used enhanced flight. He flew up off the ground and saw that the massive thing was already charging at him.

  Morgan guessed it had decided that he was the softer target.

  Sarah attempted to slow it down by throwing ice walls in its path, but the massive Arc just crashed right through them.

  “Bring it on!” Morgan yelled, feeling a warm liquid in his mouth, followed by the coppery taste of blood.

  He flew toward the oncoming bear, but felt very sluggish moving through the air. The bear swiped at him and he could see that he wouldn’t be able to get out the way. So instead, he threw both his wind blades up in an X and caught the massive paw. He was knocked backwards by the force of the attack, but since he was in the air, he managed to avoid crashing into anything.

  The bear roared in fury, then barreled towards him and began glowing blue once more.

  Again? Morgan couldn’t afford to be slowed down even more.

  “Morgan! Keep it in place!” Sarah yelled from across the cavern.

  “I’ll try!” he yelled back, then deactivated his flight and landed painfully on his feet.

  He wasn’t sure what had broken when he’d hit the wall, but at least his legs seemed to be working.

  He grimaced as the bear reared up on its hind legs again, towering over him and roaring so loudly that the entire cavern seemed to shake. He took the opportunity to attack the bear, dismissing his slashing wind blade and summoning another piercing one. Then he darted forward, using heavy impact and slammed five hard blows into the bear’s midriff. Three of the blows were turned away by the beast’s frost covered fur, but the fourth and fifth punctured deep holes into it. He jumped back as it roared in pain and attempted to take his head off with its massive teeth.

  It landed on all fours again, blood pooling under it from the open wounds. He quickly darted in again, wincing as his back twinged painfully.

  That wasn’t good. Injuries to the spine were very dangerous and his body could give out at any second if the damage was too severe.

  The bear met his charge with an attack of its own. It swiped out at him with one of its massive paws, and Morgan attempted to block the attack again. He caught the paw between his two blades with a grunt of effort, then the bear lunged forward and clamped its jaws into his left shoulder.

  Pain like he’d never felt before lanced throughout Morgan’s body. It wasn’t only the searing pain from the beast’s razor sharp teeth, but the wave of cold that seemed to be spreading from the point of contact.

  He literally felt as though his blood were freezing in his veins.

  The pain made him lose control of one of his wind blades, but Morgan still forced himself to act. Screaming in pain, he brought his right arm up in a vicious uppercut, connecting with the bear’s neck. He still had his heavy impact active when he did so, and felt the bear’s throat cave under the powerful blow.

  Its jaws went slack and it staggered back from him, trying to take a breath through its crushed windpipe. Then its entire body was encased in a block of ice nearly two feet thick, all the way up to its shoulders. Morgan looked past the bear to see Sarah slumped on the ground and panting hard.

  That was incredible, he thought, eyes widening a bit in amazement.

  Morgan turned his attention back to the bear, who still had its head and shoulders free of the ice block. It was still trying to pull a breath of air into its starving lungs when Morgan buried a whirling wind blade into its skull.

  Morgan winced as soon as he dismissed his wind blade, and began pulling his armor over his head.

  “What are you doing?! The bear might be dead, but it’s still freezing in here!” Sarah exclaimed, rushing over to him.

  “Bear bit me,” he replied as his teeth began to chatter. “My left shoulder is stiffening up quickly and the cold is spreading to the rest of my body. Get a fire going quickly, otherwise I don’t think I’ll be alive for too much longer,” he said, pulling his canvas shirt over his head as well and staring to jump up and down.

  The movement caused him a tremendous amount of pain, but he knew it would keep his body warm until Sarah got a fire going.

  Her face went a bit pale, but she nodded her understanding and quickly retrieved the small leather bag from inside her armor. She pulled some kindling out, getting it lit quickly with the flint and her combat knife. She then began piling on logs and soon had a roaring fire going.

  Morgan nodded his thanks, then stepped right up to the fire and leaned his shoulder toward it. He gritted his teeth against the pain, as feeling began to return to his frozen shoulder. He felt first a horrible prickling feeling, like he was being poked with a thousand pins and needles, then the duller, but more intense pain of the bite.

  A few seconds later, the puncture marks in his shoulder began to bleed and he let out a sigh of relief.

  Sarah was at his side in an instant. She’d torn strips from his damaged uniform with her combat knife and now used them to bind his shoulder.

  “Thanks,” he said, trying to crack a smile and failing miserably.

  “You know, this wouldn’t keep happening if you were just a little more careful when fighting,” she admonished, tying off the bandage and moving around him to check for other wounds.

  He felt her prodding at his back and couldn’t help but flinch as her fingers prodded against the bruised skin.

  “You’ve cracked a few ribs, but it feels like your spine is still intact,” she said after a few moments. “It looks as though we’ll be taking the next twenty-four hours off. There’s no way you can fight in this condition.”

  Morgan let out a long groan as she said this, but knew she was right.

  With the way he felt right now, he would only get himself killed.

  “Alright, but let’s at least take a peek at the fourth stage before we make camp for the night.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes.

  “How about you go and check it out, but I don’t want you walking. You’ll only make the injury worse,” she warned. “I’ll collect the bear’s core for you and meet you in the exit tunnel.”

  “Deal,” Morgan said with a tired grin.

  He grabbed his coat and slung it over his shoulders, then floated up off the ground and headed into the exit tunnel.

  As he flew down the tunnel, Morgan began to notice a definite increase in temperature. The tunnels were all fairly well lit, which he found to be quite odd.

  Shouldn’t they be pitch black?

  He shrugged inwardly, deciding that it likely had something to do with the magic of the zone. As he approached the tunnel exit, a blast of heat suddenly washed over him. He was so shocked that he nearly fell out of the air.

  Quickly pulling the coat from his shoulders, he flew out of the tunnel and emerged into the fourth stage.

  His mouth dropped open in amazement as he examined his new surroundings and a smile slowly crept onto his lips. He quickly spun in the air and rocketed down the tunnel, heading back to the third stage.

  Sarah was never going to believe this!

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  “Holy crap!” Sarah exclaimed, as she emerged from the exit tunnel and took in her new surroundings.

  Morgan floated out of the tunnel behind her, a wide grin plastered on his face.

  “What did I tell you?” he said, sounding just a bit smug.

  “I can’t believe we’re finally somewhere warm!” she exclaimed, quickly taking off her coat and her armored shirt.

  She would have to change back into the armor she’d just stripped off, as it was much more durable and more suited to this new climate, but she would wait until she had some privacy. Then again…

  She bit her lip, eyeing Morgan as he flew around the area, examining their new surroundings. She couldn’t blame him for that, as they we
re quite breathtaking.

  They were standing in a massive cavern covered in glittering crystal that seemed to stretch on for miles. Small streams of magma flowed throughout the area, reflecting off the clear crystal and lighting the entire area in an odd orange glow.

  Sarah shrugged to herself, then began unbuckling the straps that held her canvas shirt in place. She kept an eye on Morgan as he flitted around the cavern ceiling, nearly forty feet above her head. She pulled the canvas shirt off of her body, then bent down and pulled the armored shirt back on. She sighed as the light material conformed to her body, then stuffed her coat and canvas shirt into the small leather bag.

  She looked down at her bulky snow pants, then back up at Morgan. No, she decided.

  She may be sort of comfortable changing her top, but she would not strip down to her underwear in front of him.

  “This place really is something!” Morgan said, coming down from his inspection of the cavern ceiling.

  He was clutching a piece of clear crystal in one hand and he tossed it to her as he landed.

  Sarah caught the crystal and examined it. Clear in color, and shot through with red and yellow, it was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. She went to hand it back to Morgan, but he just waved his arm.

  “Keep it. I know girls like shiny rocks.” He then walked away from her and began looking for a good place to set up camp for the night.

  Despite herself, Sarah could feel her face flushing in pleasure. Morgan had given her a piece of jewelry! Well, sort of…

  She grinned all the same, and carefully tucked the piece of crystal away. When they got out of this damned place, she would have something nice made out of it; maybe a necklace, or bracelet.

  “Hey, I think I’ve found a good spot to bunk down!” Morgan called out.

  She let out a long sigh, then walked over to see what he’d found.

  “Check this out,” he said, pointing to a crack in the cave wall.

  Sarah looked at it, but didn’t understand what he was seeing.

  “I don’t…” Then she stopped, as she realized what she was seeing.

  “After you,” Morgan said with an exaggerated bow.

  Sarah suppressed the urge to laugh, but just barely. Turning her body sideways, she squeezed her way through the narrow gap and into the small cave set behind it. She turned around once she’d gotten in and helped Morgan squeeze through as well. She caught the momentary wince as his broken ribs were aggravated when he slid through the narrow opening, but didn’t comment on it.

  Once he was inside, they set about making camp. The cave was quite snug, only about ten feet across and just high enough that they wouldn’t bump their heads standing upright, but it was definitely a safe place, as no beasts would be able to get in.

  “Do you think this cave was built in here on purpose?” Morgan asked.

  Sarah turned to see him stripping off his heavy pants and quickly turned away, face flushing red in embarrassment.

  “Warn me when you’re changing!” she yelled, trying to calm her suddenly racing heart.

  “What? It’s hot in here and I’m not going to wear these thick winter pants if I don’t have to,” he replied.

  “It’s not something you do, Morgan! People don’t just strip in front of each other!”

  “Katherine didn’t seem to mind and she’s a princess. Honestly, you’re the only one who seems to care,” he replied.

  She whirled around in anger, thankful that he was wearing pants now, and glared at him. He just stared at her impassively and shrugged, as if to say, what do you want from me?

  She let her anger melt away and she headed for the cave exit.

  “I’m going to change as well. You stay here and get supper going. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Morgan shrugged again, catching the leather bag she tossed to him and began pulling pieces of wood from inside. She watched him work for a few seconds, marveling at how well he hid his discomfort, then headed out of the small opening and back into the open cavern beyond.

  She headed away from the crack in the wall and walked for a good few minutes, until she was sure that he wouldn’t catch her changing if he decided to come out. She looked around for a moment, before spotting a large rock protruding from the cavern floor.

  Perfect!

  She walked around the rock and laid the armored pants on the ground next to it. She began pulling at the straps holding the heavy winter pants, looking furtively around to make sure Morgan hadn’t followed her.

  She crouched down once the buckles were loose and undid her boot laces, sliding them off her feet, along with her pants. She grabbed the armored pair from where it was lying on the ground and was about to pull them on, when a loud menacing growl made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

  She froze, turning slowly until her eyes alighted on a massive furry beast standing not ten feet from her. The beast was around the same size as the Arc they’d just fought, but there were some very distinct differences. For one, the beast appeared to be some sort of badger-like creature, except its fur was striped with red and gold, instead of black and white.

  Its claws were well over a foot long. They curved into wicked points and seemed to glow in the soft lighting of the cavern. Her eyes traveled slowly up the massive beast’s body until their eyes met. Sarah felt her heart rate quicken, as she met the two black glittering pools that gave the beast an almost demonic appearance.

  Its muzzle bunched up, revealing a mouth filled with several rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Holy shit! This stage was no joke.

  Sarah got to her feet very slowly, not even daring to break eye contact with the massive badger. She was in a bad situation, to say the least. She was far enough away from their camp that she couldn’t count on Morgan for backup, not to mention that the bottom half of her body was clad only in a pair of underwear.

  As she straightened, she noticed the badger’s muscles beginning to bunch up.

  “Oh, screw it!” she yelled, activating her mage shield and using icicle barrage.

  The beast roared, shaking the cavern with its rage as ten icy spears slammed into it in quick succession. Sarah jumped back, trying to create as much distance between her and the beast as possible and crossed her fingers that her attack would work.

  Her icicle spears connected with the badger in a hiss of steam and her eyes widened as not a single one of her attacks made it through.

  What was it with this damn Zone? Was it built specifically to kill mages with her ability?

  The badger lumbered towards her, its fur rippling as waves of heat poured off it. Sarah gulped as the areas where the badger’s feet connected with the ground melted into pools of magma, giving her a pretty good idea of what would happen to her, should that beast land a hit.

  “Damn pest!” she yelled, using bitter frost in an attempt to slow the lumbering monstrosity. Of course, it had no effect at all.

  “Shit!” she yelled, dodging a swipe from its glittering claws.

  She winced as a blast of heat hit her and she quickly back-peddled, wincing as sharp stones dug into her bare feet.

  Sarah grimaced as the badger spun in place, determined not to let her escape. She wasn’t cut out for this up close fighting.

  She quickly used condense water, but instead of solidifying it into ice, she collected a sphere of water around three feet in diameter. She hoped it would work, as it had her cost nearly half her MP.

  As the badger spun to face her again, she launched the sphere of freezing water right into its face. There was a massive explosion of steam as her attack landed, but Sarah didn’t wait to see what had happened. Instead, she turned her back and ran as fast as she could.

  She ignored the multitude of rocks digging into her feet, instead leaning forward and putting on more speed. She heard a loud roar and chanced a peek over her shoulder.

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!” she yelled, watching wide-eyed as two tons of angry badger erupted from the steam cl
oud.

  It was soaking wet but otherwise looked to be unhurt. But boy, did it look mad.

  “Why me?!” she yelled, pumping her aching legs even faster.

  She was now glad that Gold had made her do all that running back at the academy. Otherwise, she’d likely already be that badger’s dinner. It was gaining on her and would be on top of her in a matter of seconds if she didn’t do something quick.

  Only one thing left to do.

  She skidded to a sudden halt, then spun around to face the oncoming monster.

  This better work, she thought, then slammed both hands onto the ground and used her most powerful skill, icy wave.

  There was a loud crackling sound, then a wave of icy spikes spread in a conical shape before her, shooting up from the ground with astonishing speed. The badger, seeing the danger it was heading towards, tried to veer away at the last moment, but the momentum of its charge was too great. With a pained yowl, it crashed headlong into the field of razor-sharp icicles.

  Sarah watched in fascinated horror as the massive beast plowed through the field of knives, the icicles tearing massive bloody furrows and punching deep into it. The beast thrashed around for another minute, trying desperately to reach her, but the wounds inflicted by her icy wave were too much. Finally, bleeding from numerous gashes and massive rents in its hide, the beast collapsed in a pool of blood.

  Sarah stood stock still for a moment, body shaking with adrenaline and fear, then she let out a loud whoop.

  “Yeah! Take that you furry bastard! Mess with me and you’ll end up a corpse!” she hopped up and down, completely forgetting where she was and reveling in the joy of vanquishing a tough enemy.

  “Um, Sarah?”

  Sarah froze as she heard that voice and slowly turned to see Morgan giving her a concerned look.

  “Why aren’t you wearing any pants?”

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