Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  Cost - 15 RP per second

  Max. height - 80 Ft

  Max. speed - 60 Ft per second

  Max. carry weight - 400 pounds (Adding any more weight will reduce speed by 5 feet per second for each additional pound).

  Gravity impact - Manipulate gravity and air to massively increase your striking power for a short burst (Currently: Strength X3).

  Cost - 100 RP

  Duration - 3 seconds

  Cooldown - 60 seconds

  Storm blade - Manipulate gravity and air to create a hardened whirling blade in the shape of your choice. You can change the shape of your blade without dismissing it. For an additional cost, you can charge your blade with electricity.

  Blade Cost - 450 RP

  Duration - Until dismissed

  Charge cost - 75 RP

  Duration - Single strike

  Explosive movement - Manipulate gravity and air to massively increase your speed for a short burst (Currently: Agility X3).

  Cost - 100 RP

  Duration - 3 seconds

  Cooldown - 60 seconds

  Morgan stared open-mouthed at his new and very different skills. At first, he was almost annoyed about losing powerful skills, like heavy impact and gale force, but then he took a closer look at his attributes.

  Truth be told, his strength and agility were already massive. In the beginning, he’d needed those skills to help make up the difference in strength and speed between him and more powerful opponents. Now he was quite powerful in his own right, plus his new skills would triple his strength and agility for an entire three seconds.

  That might not seem like much, but when he would be moving that quickly, three seconds would be all he needed.

  He was quite pleased with his advanced flight skill. Moving quickly in the air had been a real issue when fighting, but he could now reach half his maximum speed in an instant, which would make combat so much easier.

  The biggest change was to his condensed wind blade, which had now become storm blade. His double damage bonus was now gone but had been replaced by the ability to charge his blade and deliver a powerful electric shock upon impact. He would definitely need to test it out to see how much of a punch the skill packed but had a feeling that he would not be disappointed.

  He moved on to the next tab, opening his divine skill for the first time.

  Divine:

  Shock-blast - Send out a massive shockwave of divine power, stunning everyone within the area of effect.

  Cost - 10 DV

  AOE - 15 Ft

  Duration - Varied

  Morgan growled in annoyance. The skill sounded amazing, but the varied duration made it wholly unreliable in battle. Using this skill would likely be more of a hindrance than a help.

  He exited the useless tab and moved on to his traits next.

  Traits:

  Gravity field - Your body is surrounded by a dense field of gravity, making all attacks, both physical and magical, 15% less damaging.

  Recovery - The spirits of the air have blessed you with the power of healing. If you can survive for 20 hours after being wounded, no matter the injury, your body will be completely healed.

  Aura Sense (inherited) - You have been bestowed the gift of sight by an omniscient. By concentrating on a target and thinking the word ‘sense,’ you will be able to view the target’s aura. The aura will currently reveal the target’s name, rank, and ability type, provided that they are no more than nine ranks above your own.

  Morgan grinned. At least these skills didn’t disappoint. It was nice to see that his resistance to damage had increased and that the timer on his recovery had gone down by four whole hours. His aura sense hadn’t improved, but he guessed that it had more to do with practice than simply increasing his rank.

  Extra:

  Gravity storm (2nd category) - Create a more powerful storm of intense gravity, damaging winds and lighting in a targeted area.

  Cost - 750 RP

  AOE - 40 Ft

  Duration - 45 seconds

  Cooldown - 7 hours

  Starbreak - Create a dense ball of superheated air and compressed gas, which will explode upon impact with a selected target.

  Cost - 1,200 RP

  AOE - 25 Ft

  Cooldown - 12 hours

  Morgan was satisfied with the increased power of his gravity storm, but what really caught his attention was the final skill on the list, which he now carefully re-read. Just the cost of the skill, as well as the massive cooldown time, was enough to tell him how devastating it would likely be. He couldn’t really imagine what the skill would look like, but he sure as hell couldn’t wait to try.

  He closed his status and rose from his seated position on the ground. He was surprised at how light he felt and how well he could move. He’d been expecting to have to adjust to his new height and proportions, but it felt as though he’d been this way his entire life.

  Sarah closed her status then too, and rose gracefully to her feet, grinning as well.

  “I take it your new skills are impressive?” Morgan asked, feeling his own grin spreading across his face once again.

  “Hell yeah!” she excitedly exclaimed and began rapidly explaining her new skills to him.

  Apparently, her old skills hadn’t changed much, only receiving increases to their power, but she now had two new skills: ice golem and glacial impact.

  The first was pretty self-explanatory. She could summon a golem made of ice to fight on her behalf, but the second was the truly impressive one. Glacial impact would summon a mass of ice and water, over twenty feet in diameter, which she could then launch at a selected target.

  Morgan was quick to explain his new skills as well, and Sarah lamented along with him about the apparent uselessness of his new divine skill. What completely floored her was his new ability.

  “I’ve never even heard of something called an evolved supermage,” she said, rubbing at her chin, brow furrowed with concern.

  “Do you think this has something to do with the modifications done to you?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Morgan replied, his mind beginning to race with the possibilities.

  If whoever had modified him somehow knew about this new ability of his, then they were even more dangerous than he’d originally thought.

  “At least we know why your appearance changed, though,” Sarah said.

  Morgan nodded.

  It would only make sense that a new and more powerful version of the supermage ability would come with some cosmetic changes, though he still wasn’t sure how it would translate over to actual combat.

  “I don’t know what’s happening to me, but to be safe, I don’t think we should tell anyone else. Even the people we trust.”

  Sarah nodded in agreement. It would be foolish to tell anyone about this.

  It was bad enough when Morgan was a regular supermage. Now that he was an evolved supermage and had some kind of divine power to boot, all of the Five Kingdoms would band together to hunt him down.

  Morgan looked toward the exit of the tunnel and his familiar wild grin spread across his face.

  “You think we can take that overgrown lizard down now?” he asked, giving her a sidelong glance.

  For once, Sarah actually returned his feral grin with one of her own.

  “I don’t doubt that for even a second.”

  34

  “Hold on, I can see the tunnel opening up ahead,” Katherine said, gesturing to the yawning tunnel mouth just a few hundred yards away.

  “So it is!” Gold said, marching straight past her and continuing on to the tunnel mouth.

  Kathrine clenched her jaw in aggravation, but otherwise didn’t let her annoyance show. They’d been in this damned zone for the last thirty-five hours, and now that they were nearing the end, even she could begin to feel the slight fatigue that the near constant fighting was beginning to have on her.

  Gold’s attitude hadn’t changed either. In fact, his flippant and lighthearted manne
r had grown exponentially worse since they’d first entered the zone. Now, the moron was walking right up to the Patriarch’s territory without taking a moment to set up a strategy on how to tackle the beast.

  “So what’s your plan?” she asked, catching up to him just as he entered the tunnel.

  “We go in and hit it until it’s dead,” Gold answered.

  “What the hell kind of plan is that?” Katherine exclaimed. “You do realize that the strongest beast known to the Five Kingdoms is literally at the end of this tunnel, right?”

  “Yup, it’ll definitely be a fun fight.”

  Katherine scowled, then took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She’d never fought this particular beast before, so she didn’t know much about its attack patterns or specific abilities. All she did know was what others had told her.

  She had to wonder how Gold had even managed to get his hands on the key. Last she’d heard, it had been in the possession of the East Kingdom’s royal family.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the tunnel opening up ahead, and stopped just inside the exit. Thankfully, Gold stopped as well and she got her first good look at the infernal-bane lyvern. It lay on a raised pedestal at the center of a massive crystal cavern. Huge pillars of the crystal grew all throughout, breaking up the battleground and giving them plenty of places to hide should the beast prove to be too much for them.

  The lyvern wasn’t nearly as large as Katherine had first thought. It was just over twenty feet from nose to tail. She couldn’t tell its exact height, as it was lying down, but she estimated that it would be about eight feet at the shoulder- almost a normal sized monster. Despite its relatively diminutive size, however, it was truly a terrifying beast to behold.

  Its body was long and narrow, with the front half of a lion and the back half of a wyvern. It was a dark, blue-gray in color and the only way to distinguish between the soft fur and hard scales was the soft light reflecting off of them. The scales and fur blended seamlessly halfway down its back, but there were scales scattered over the fur as well. The scales in its fur, unlike those on its back half, were a lighter blue in color, so they stood out in sharp contrast against the darker fur.

  Katherine shifted a bit and accidentally stepped into the open chamber. The lyvern was on its feet in an instant, and she swallowed hard as a pair of gleaming amber eyes stared at her from across the room. A low, rumbling growl resounded off the crystalline walls, and Katherine could see its long, scaly tail flicking back and forth.

  The only thing she didn’t see was its mane, the one distinguishing feature she’d been expecting to see.

  “Where is the…” she began to ask Gold, when her question was preemptively answered by the beast in question.

  The lyvern roared, and a mass of billowing red and black flames shot from its body. Katherine was quick to step back into the tunnel and watched wide-eyed as the flames took on a cohesive shape. After a moment, they settled into what was clearly supposed to be its mane. The black and red flames danced around its head, the scales on its body reflecting the light and giving it a truly terrifying appearance.

  It crouched and two sets of gleaming claws emerged from its front paws, slicing into the stone as easily as she would a steak. She noticed that its back claws were the ones to watch out for. Over eight inches long and wickedly barbed, they looked like the perfect tools for rending flesh from bone.

  “Do you really think the two of us can take that thing?” she asked Gold, who didn’t look in the least bit concerned.

  “Where did all your confidence go, Princess? Aren’t you supposed to be one of the most powerful supers alive?” Gold quirked a brow.

  “One of the most powerful, yes. One of the most stupid, I think not,” she replied. “I know when I can’t win a fight, and I’m getting the sense that I can’t win against that thing.”

  “It’s not that big,” Gold said, once more trying to brush it off.

  “If that’s the case, how about you go in and fight it first,” Katherine sarcastically said.

  “Okay,” Gold said, then waltzed right into the open chamber.

  The lyvern’s eyes instantly locked onto him and its flaming mane flickered as the fire intensified.

  He’s insane, Katherine thought as she watched him use his mage shield and conjure a couple of twenty-foot tall diamond golems.

  She stood at the tunnel exit for a few seconds, before finally shrugging to herself.

  They did come here to fight the lyvern, after all, and the sooner she killed this thing, the sooner she’d be able to rescue Morgan.

  Katherine held her arm out to the side and a portal opened right above her hand. A massive two-handed mace fell from the open portal and she deftly caught it in a single hand. She swished it through the air a couple of times, then nodded to herself.

  She heard a loud roar and turned her attention back to the beast. The lyvern had locked onto one of the golems and crouched on its pedestal, tail whipping back and forth in agitation. The golem took a step forward and Katherine watched in shock as the lyvern opened its mouth and roared again.

  A beam of condensed black and red energy shot from the beast’s mouth and struck the golem center mass.

  “Better get in there while it’s distracted!” Gold cheerily called out, as the golem began to glow white hot.

  Then it actually began melting under the intense heat and Katherine grimaced as the beam of energy punched through the golem, leaving a gaping hole through the center of its chest.

  This was not going to be a fun fight.

  Katherine took a deep breath, then stepped into the chamber. As soon as she stepped in, the lyvern’s attention fixed on her once more and its glowing amber eyes shone with intelligence.

  Katherine swung her mace out behind her, conjuring a mass of crackling black energy at its tip. Just as the lyvern opened its mouth to use its energy blast again, she swung forward. The pillars of crystal around her shattered with a loud boom, as reality tore open from the force of her attack.

  A rainbow-colored blast shot out in an arc, slicing through crystal and stone alike, and sucking them into itself as it passed, but the lyvern wasn’t just any old beast. It roared its challenge and responded with an attack of its own. Its mane exploded outward in a massive sphere, just as her attack was about to hit.

  There was a loud shrieking sound as the two energies battled one another and finally, Katherine’s attack petered out. Her attack didn’t leave empty-handed, though. Just as her attack was about to fade, it sucked a good portion of the flaming shield into itself, weakening the beast just enough for one of Gold’s diamond golems to punch through.

  The shield shattered with the sound of tinkling glass, but the lyvern leapt into the air and avoided being struck. Then it twisted its sinuous body and decapitated the golem with a swipe of its tail. The golem toppled back, but Katherine had taken the opportunity to dart forward and close some of the distance between her and the cat.

  She snapped her fingers, targeting the lyvern and trying to separate the space between its body and its head. The lyvern reacted with impossible speed, contorting its body in the air, then pushing off a crystal pillar behind it, which took it out of reach of the attack.

  “Shit!” Katherine yelled as the lyvern flew at her, mouth opening wide and a glowing red energy gathering in its paw.

  Then one of the crystal pillars slammed into it from the side, smashing into the ground. The beast’s body tore a swathe of destruction through the crystal, before coming to rest over a hundred feet away.

  Katherine saw her opportunity and dashed forward, flashing across the distance in the span of a heartbeat, then brought her heavy mace down on the lyvern’s head. The force of the attack forced the beast’s head a good two feet into the solid stone, extinguishing its mane. Katherine pulled her mace back for another strike, then was thrown back by a blast of kinetic energy that spread from the lyvern in a massive dome.

  She cursed as she flipped into the air, and l
anded on the ground thirty yards away, digging her heels in as her boots tore twin furrows through the crystal underfoot.

  “Well, that didn’t work,” Gold said, as the lyvern pulled its head from the ground and shook itself violently.

  “It did work, dipshit. Just not as well as I’d hoped,” Katherine said, as the lyvern’s mane flared back to life.

  “Well, any plans?” Gold asked, as the lyvern began glowing an angry red.

  That’s not good, Katherine thought as the beast prepared to use what would undoubtedly be an extremely powerful skill.

  Katherine dropped her mace and stood straighter. Only one thing to do in a situation like this: meet power with power.

  “You might want to step back,” Katherine said, as her body began to glow with a brilliant multicolored light.

  This was one of her most powerful skills and she was loathe to use it, as she could only activate it once a week. Then she shrugged to herself. What good were skills if one didn’t use them?

  The lyvern roared a challenge and Katherine answered back, yelling out as she launched herself at the beast. The lyvern suddenly doubled in size, still glowing an angry red, and its mane turned a pitch black. The crystal around it began to glow and Katherine could feel the waves of heat emanating from the monster.

  They lyvern then opened its mouth and shot a black beam of flame so intense, that the very air warped around it. Katherine grinned, then abruptly vanished, reappearing right near the beast’s right side. She lashed out with a powerful kick, then vanished again and appeared near its head, slamming a fist into its front shoulder.

  She watched out of the corner of her eye, as the black fire punched a twenty-foot gap in the cave wall, then she vanished again and punched the lyvern right in the jaw. The beast roared in pain as Katherine’s attacks began doing some damage and it tried to retaliate, but Katherine was moving too quickly.