Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  She teleported around, delivering powerful strikes to vulnerable areas as the skill counted down in her head. Just as the timer was about to run out, she used another skill, and a mass of chaotic energy formed itself into a massive sword around her clenched fist.

  Then she appeared right before the massive beast, pulling her blade up for a devastating blow. The lyvern’s eyes glinted then, and Katherine knew she’d been tricked. A massive paw slammed into her, razor claws shredding through her uniform and slicing deep into her side. She hissed in pain as she flew back from the creature, but managed to land on her feet and keep ahold of her reality blade.

  “Now would be a good time to help, dumbass!” she yelled at her seemingly useless partner, as hot blood trickled down her side.

  “Do calm down, Princess,” Gold replied.

  Katherine took a second to glare at him and saw him preparing to use some kind of skill.

  Then her attention was drawn back to the lyvern as it let out an earth-shaking roar. It began to glow red once again, and this time its scales actually changed color to match its aura. That could only mean one thing - she and Gold were about to witness this monster’s most powerful attack.

  Katherine began running toward the beast when there was a loud rumbling crack from behind her. Taking a quick peek over her shoulder, she saw Gold gesture toward the lyvern. There was a massive boom as something broke the sound barrier, and a split second later, the beast was thrown clear across the chamber, leaving a stream of blood in its wake.

  Katherine had no idea what kind of skill Gold had used, but this was her chance. She focused her remaining chi on her last powerful skill and activated it. A nimbus of crackling black energy began forming in her left hand, as she sprinted across the chamber. The lyvern was just regaining its feet when she reached it, and slashed out with her reality blade, cutting its right foreleg off at the knee.

  The beast roared in pain as it buckled forward, and Katherine slammed her left hand into the beast’s head. The crackling miasma of black energy expanded as it made contact, and Katherine leapt back as the lyvern’s head was engulfed.

  A moment later, it vanished, and the lyvern toppled lifelessly to the ground without its head.

  Katherine stood there, panting as her blade faded away and hardly believed that it was finally over.

  “Well done, Princess. An excellent showing,” Gold said, clapping slowly as he approached.

  Katherine was about to snap at the infuriating man, but decided against it. She’d just defeated a massively powerful beast and with almost no help from the idiot next to her. So, like any good sport, she decided to rub it in.

  “I’m sorry that I can’t say the same about you,” she replied evenly, holding her hand out and fetching the beast’s core. “But I guess fighting isn’t for everyone.”

  “Indeed. Especially since I needed the distraction to fetch these,” Gold said, jangling a small leather bag before her face.

  Katherine snatched the bag from his outstretched hand and reached inside, feeling a bunch of small metallic discs. Quickly removing one, her suspicions were confirmed as she saw a beast zone key clutched between her fingers.

  “You crafty bastard,” Katherine said, as she began removing them one by one. “You hid the keys in a beast zone so no one could get at them!”

  Gold shrugged, pulling the key from his pocket and opening a portal back into her room at the palace.

  “I needed those keys if we were to rescue Morgan and Sarah, but I couldn’t exactly take you on your word. So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.”

  Katherine finally found what she was looking for; a small key with the numbers 6-31 written on top. She pocketed it and tossed the bag back to Gold. She walked past him without saying a word and stepped through the portal.

  35

  Morgan and Sarah came to the tunnel exit and examined the room once more. Everything looked exactly the same as it had the day before, including the massive lizard lying at its center. Morgan felt his heart rate increase at the sight of the beast that had nearly done him in but otherwise maintained a calm demeanor.

  “Can you get any details on that thing?” Sarah asked.

  She had insisted they both bathe before going into battle, which Morgan really couldn’t understand. If they were about to fight, wouldn’t it make sense to bathe after?

  Sarah had been adamant, though, and they were now both dressed in fresh sets of enchanted armor. Sarah had also taken the time to comb her long red hair, and braid it carefully.

  He understood that women liked to be presentable at all times, but still thought it was strange. As soon as the fight was over, they would have to bathe again, and all their time would have been wasted. But he still felt a little guilty for the ordeal he’d put her through, so he’d acquiesced without too much complaining.

  Morgan nodded, then tightened his focus on the lizard and used aura sense. As with the last few times he used the skill, a red light flared around the beast and small letters floated up over its head. Now he was able to get a better idea of what they were facing.

  Name: Electric-spine lizard Matriarch

  Rank - 24

  Ability type - Super

  Morgan relayed this information, grateful that he’d been able to examine the beast before the fight. Now he knew what to expect. He and Sarah might be rank 19, but the lizard was still a full 5 ranks above them. Not to mention that it was most likely an intermediate beast, which would mean a difficult fight at best.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Sarah asked, clenching and unclenching her fists in anticipation.

  “I say, same as always. You try and pin it down and I’ll attack head-on. We both need to test our new skills anyway, and this will be the perfect opportunity to do so.”

  Sarah bit her lip for a moment, loathe to allow him into danger again after such a close call, but eventuall, she nodded.

  “Fine, we’ll go with your plan. But the moment I see that it’s too much for you, I’ll be the one attacking.”

  Morgan nodded in agreement. He wanted to use his most powerful skill right away, but that wouldn’t really give him a chance to test the others out.

  “Alright then, let’s go!” Morgan exclaimed, feeling the rush of excitement that always accompanied battle.

  This time he was careful to keep himself in check and stepped carefully into the open chamber. The lizard rose as soon as he entered and let out its rattling hiss of warning. Morgan ignored it and activated his shield. His body flared with purple light as it was coated in his reiki in all but one spot.

  He looked down in surprise, as a small circle in the center of his chest glowed gold, standing out against the deeper purple of the rest of his shield. Seeing the change made him wonder how this new divine energy, which didn’t feel at all godly, would affect his skills.

  Then again, he should probably be more worried about the ability-change thing a bit more than some shiny new skill.

  The lizard let out another hiss, then its spines began rattling as it gathered its body up to pounce at him. Morgan used his advanced flight, then pushed off the ground, rocketing towards the beast at an astonishing speed. He closed the gap faster than he’d thought possible, and shot straight past the beast, smashing into the opposite wall.

  “Ow,” he said, pulling himself free of the small crater in the stone and turning to face the lizard once again.

  He could hear Sarah laughing from across the cavern and scowled. Why did she always find it so funny when he hurt himself by mistake, but got all teary-eyed when something else hurt him?

  He rubbed at his head, then stopped, surprised at the complete lack of pain. Looking down, he felt like smacking himself as he saw the rich purple glow of his shield. He really needed to get his head in the fight.

  Morgan shook himself, then crouched and dashed toward the lizard, who had by now turned its attention to Sarah. She had her shield up and had a nearly endless barrage of massive icy spears slamming into the beast
. He could see frost coating its body, and a block of ice forming on its right leg. She really was amazing.

  “Hey, ugly, over here!” Morgan yelled, taking the beast’s attention off Sarah.

  The lizard whirled, and as though understanding what Morgan had just said, hissed in anger and began glowing a bright red.

  “Oh no, you don’t!” he yelled, slamming into it full force and throwing a heavy punch into its jaw.

  The lizard was rocked to the side under the force of the blow and Morgan was amazed at the speed and power he’d just displayed and all without using a single skill. He danced nimbly back as the lizard tried to rake him with its claws, then darted in and punched it six times in rapid succession, aiming for vital areas like the eyes, nose, and ears.

  He had a feeling that it wouldn’t be nearly this easy if Sarah wasn’t hindering its movement so much, but despite the heavy barrage of blows, the beast was only mildly dazed. Morgan shrugged to himself at that. It made sense, after all. This was a rank 24 beast. Regular punches wouldn’t be enough to take it down at his current rank.

  He leapt back as the beast broke free of the ice encasing its legs, and used storm blade. A whirling purple blade formed in an instant, and Morgan shaped it into the weapon he desired- a two foot cone of condensed air. As with his shield, he could spot small flickers of gold every few seconds running across the surface of the blade.

  The lizard’s spines rose off its back then, and a crackling field of black lightning began coating them.

  Morgan grinned, then used his new explosive movement, as well as gravity impact. Time seemed to slow around him, as his senses sharpened to an almost unbelievable degree. He could feel the timer counting down in his mind, but that seemed to be moving in slow motion as well.

  He saw the black lightning crackling slowly across the surface of the spines, and he knew what to do next. He ran forward, his storm blade changing in an instant from a lance to a saber. Then, with one massive swing, he neatly severed the row of spines from the lizard’s back.

  He whirled on the spot, feeling that he was nearly out of time, and lashed out with a powerful spinning side kick, right into the lizard’s hind leg. Time abruptly sped up then, and the lizard screeched in pain as its back leg was crushed to a pulp. Morgan leapt back, just a little disoriented from the rapid shift, but not fast enough to dodge the incoming tail.

  His shield reverberated under the force of the attack, but it held, which surprised him more than anything. He caught himself with his advanced flight skill and looked down to where the beast had struck him. The tail had hit him right in the chest, and he could see a fine line of cracks running across his reiki shield, in all but one place. The smooth golden disc was completely undamaged and he was forced to reevaluate the worth of this new energy.

  It appeared to be much more powerful than reiki, which was strange enough, as reiki was supposed to be the truest energy source available. The lizard let out a screech of rage and he was forced back to the present. He would figure this all out later. For now, there was a fight to finish.

  He shot forward through the air, watching Sarah sending massive half-moon blades made of ice at the lizard. When had she learned to do that?

  The lizard was hissing in pain, as each blade bit deeply into its scaled hide, sending splatters of blood all over the cave floor. Morgan quickly reformed his blade into a lance and used his skill’s new charge ability.

  He heard a loud whining howl as the blade’s natural oscillation increased tenfold. After only a second, a massive amount of friction began to produce lightning. He stared in awe as the purple lightning crackled and flashed across the blade, interspersed every few seconds with flashes of gold.

  He grinned widely as he dropped from the air, blade first.

  “Eat this!” he yelled, before his blade slammed into the lizard’s scaly back. The blade whirled and whined as it tore through the scales and sank deep into the beast. A second later, the lighting was discharged. Morgan leapt back, watching in awe as the electricity crackled over the lizard, but it didn’t have nearly the damaging effect he’d been expecting.

  Then he remembered that the lizard had a similar ability. Of course, it would be resistant to electrical attacks!

  He stopped his retreat a few feet away and took a moment to examine the beast. Its back leg was crushed, its spines were gone, and it was covered in cuts from where his and Sarah’s attacks had landed, but all of those wounds weren’t enough to kill it outright.

  Then it began to glow again.

  Morgan’s skills were still on cooldown for the next twenty seconds, so he couldn’t rely on the extra speed and power they would afford him. He did a quick check of his RP. Surprisingly, he had about 1,000. He had his high wisdom to thank for that. Doing some quick math in his head, he figured he would need roughly 15 seconds to regen the RP he needed to use his new starbreak skill.

  The beast was gearing up for a massive attack, though, and he didn’t know if Sarah would be able to hold it. She likely didn’t have enough MP for any of her big attacks, as she’d been using her skills almost non stop.

  So, against his better judgment, Morgan used his new divine skill, shock-blast.

  “Sarah, get back!” he yelled, as his body began glowing a brilliant gold color, and warmth suffused him.

  He saw her eyes widen, then she turned and sprinted away from him as fast as she could manage, cursing him all the while.

  Morgan grinned, then activated the skill. A massive flash of light lit up the room as the golden energy expanded outward in a ten-foot radius. When the light faded a couple of seconds later, Morgan beheld the lizard and his grin widened.

  Maybe the skill wasn’t useless, after all.

  The lizard was frozen in place, its body locked in the position it had been holding just before the blast had hit. It was still glowing red with chi, and black lightning still coated its body, but even that had frozen. He examined the frozen beast in fascination, wondering just how long the skill would keep it this way.

  He remembered the varied duration and was quick to take a few steps back from the beast, circling around it until he met back up with Sarah.

  “What did you do to it?” she asked, staring wide-eyed at the frozen beast.

  “That divine skill I told you about,” he said distractedly, as he watched his RP carefully.

  “How long will it… never mind.”

  Morgan’s attention snapped back to the lizard as Sarah said this, and saw that it was once again moving.

  He gritted his teeth in annoyance. He’d really been hoping that the skill would last longer than that.

  The lizard turned to the two of them, eyes gleaming with malice as it dragged its lame leg behind it.

  “What’s your MP look like?” he asked.

  “I’ve got about half.”

  “Can you block that attack?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Can you delay it for a few seconds?”

  Sarah growled low in her throat, then made a slashing movement with her arm. A barrage of icicle spears flew outward and began slamming into the lizard. From far away, the spears had appeared to be the same, but up close, Morgan could see that they now all sported three tips, like that of a trident, and they were all wickedly barbed.

  “Thanks!” he said, dashing to the side in an attempt to flank the beast.

  It was then that he felt his RP fill to the max, and the battle came to a head.

  The lizard roared in pain as one of Sarah’s spears punched into its shoulder, and it decided against trying to defend itself. The crackling electricity built up around it quickly, lashing out every few seconds and shattering stone.

  “You’d better kill it!” Sarah yelled, then turned and ran for cover.

  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” he said to himself as the lizard turned to face him.

  He stared the lizard in the eye, and used starbreak, feeling his RP begin to plummet at an almost alarming rate. At the same t
ime, the lizard opened its mouth, and the lightning that had been gathering over its body began streaming into it, condensing into a crackling ball.

  Morgan felt his body float up off the ground, similar to the way gravity storm had, but this skill felt quite a bit different. His right hand extended out and he could feel a tiny bead of super-dense gravity begin to form. Then the air around his hand began to rapidly heat, as the gravity pulled something in. A moment later, the growing sphere of reddish yellow energy began to glow brightly, slowly rotating on his open palm.

  He stared down at it, feeling that the energy seemed to be familiar somehow, but couldn’t quite place it. He looked down the lizard and saw that almost all the lightning on its body had now gathered in a sphere before its mouth.

  Morgan grinned as he felt his skill finish gathering power. A brilliantly glowing sphere nearly three feet in diameter was floating just an inch above his palm. He stared at it for a second, feeling the power radiating off of it, then his grin widened.

  He turned looked back to the lizard, just as it finished gathering the energy for its attack. Perfect timing, he thought, now they’d see who was truly more powerful!

  He pulled his arm back, then threw the glowing ball at the lizard below. At the same time, the lizard fired off its attack. The black, crackling beam of energy impacted against the glowing sphere with a loud boom. The two hung in the air for a second, and Morgan began to worry that his attack would be pushed back. Then, with a sudden whooshing sound, the glowing sphere expanded to ten times its original size.

  Morgan watched in awe as the sphere engulfed the lizard, attack and all, in a swirling configuration of gravity and plasma. As he watched the swirling yellow orb, it finally struck him why it had seemed so similar. His attack looked just like a miniature version of the sun.

  He laughed to himself, thinking that starbreak was an extremely appropriate name for this ultimate skill.

  It didn’t last nearly as long as gravity storm, and the attack rapidly began losing its form. Finally, after only ten seconds, the energy was spent and the attack dissipated. As he floated back to the ground, Morgan noted the damage caused by his attack.