Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  Rage of the Gods - Reiki and divine power flood your body, massively increasing all of your stats (Currently X5). Your body will also rapidly regenerate any damage done to it, so long as your heart remains undamaged. The strain of the power on your mind will cause you to lose control and attack anything in sight (increasing your intelligence may help to mitigate this effect). You are unable to use skills while this skill is active, but you gain the ability to use pure reiki and divine power.

  Cost - (-2) AP to all stats

  Duration - N/A

  Morgan gawked.

  Was this what had happened in the beast zone? Had he somehow activated this skill and beaten the ape?

  He clutched at his head as everything suddenly snapped into place. Everything up until the point where he’d turned to face the ape after it had attacked Sarah. After that, everything was a blank.

  How had he stopped once he’d activated the skill? According to the description, it didn’t have a timer, which meant he would have kept rampaging after the ape was dead. He then remembered what the healer had said.

  She’d said that they both came through unconscious, which could only mean that someone had stopped him.

  Morgan felt a chill run down his spine.

  Someone had stopped him, but who?

  He shook himself, dispelling the sudden feeling of unease that had settled over him.

  Whoever it was, he either owed them or should be afraid of them. Regardless of which it was, he had a feeling he’d be finding out soon enough.

  He took a few minutes to carefully re-read the skill description, which was by far the most informative out of any of his skills. From what he could see, the skill was the most powerful one in his entire arsenal. It would quintuple all of his stats, making him five times as powerful as he was now. It would also rapidly heal him, so he could take on grievous injuries and continue on fighting.

  Losing 2 AP from each attribute would have been rough, but so long as he had a core to replenish them, it could have been manageable. If he would lose his mind every time he used it, though, it wasn’t worth it.

  He blew out a long breath, then used 10 of his AP to restore his attributes to where they were before, watching sadly as his available points dropped to 2. He then dropped into his gravity impact, bringing it to 6/10.

  If worst came to worst, then he could always upgrade when he ranked up next time. He then took a look at his status to see what changes had occurred.

  Name: Morgan

  Evolved Supermage: Rank - 20

  Energy to next rank - 4,701/109,000

  Ability - Divine Gravity & Air

  RP - 1,280/1,280 (Regen - 12.8 per second)

  DV - 30/30 (Regen - 0.3 per minute)

  Strength - 136

  Agility - 152

  Constitution - 137

  Intelligence - 128

  Wisdom - 128

  Skills - Advanced flight, Gravity impact, Explosive movement, Storm blade

  Divine - Shock-blast, Rage of the Gods

  Traits - Gravity field, Recovery, Aura sense (inherited)

  Extra - Gravity storm (2nd category), Starbreak

  It looked the same as last time, but now there was the added rage of the gods skill. His divine energy had also increased for some reason, which he could only assume had something to do with using his new skill.

  The skill was extremely powerful, and the cost to upgrade it was astronomical compared to the rest, which made him wonder if upgrading the skill would give him conscious control over it. Then again, the skill had said that increasing his intelligence would help with that. He just wondered by how much.

  He blew out a long breath, sighing for what felt like the tenth time in the last minute.

  “Is something wrong?” Sarah asked.

  She’d closed her status and was watching him with a worried expression. Morgan debated keeping it to himself, but decided that if he could trust anyone, it would be Sarah. They had gone through an awful lot together, and she might have some insight into his new skill.

  By the time Morgan had finished explaining, Sarah was staring wide-eyed. Then she put on a mock scowl and let out a loud huff.

  “Every time I catch up, you get some cool new power that pushes you far ahead. It’s not fair!” she exclaimed, kicking her feet in a way that he hadn’t seen her do since the day they’d met.

  Morgan snorted, then began laughing. Sarah glared at him for a few more seconds, then joined him, leaning against him and laughing right along with him.

  Morgan felt his worries melting away as he sat on the floor of Princess Katherine’s room in the North Kingdom palace.

  He might not know what would happen next. He wasn’t even sure if they would survive the next 48 hours, but right now, everything was okay.

  ***

  It was nearly four o’clock when a portal opened in the center of the room and Gold stepped through, followed closely by Katherine.

  Morgan had been doing push-ups in the far corner, while Sarah had been reading. They both stopped what they’d been doing as soon as the portal appeared.

  “Oh good. You’re both awake!” Gold said, striding up to a couch and unceremoniously plopping down into it.

  “I don’t understand where you get the idea of us being so lazy,” Sarah replied, her lips pinched in annoyance.

  “Well, if I recall correctly, you two were always sleeping when I came to get you for our afternoon lessons,” Gold replied with a grin.

  “That was because we were exhausted from the torture you called training, you sick bastard!” Sarah exclaimed, slamming her fist down on the table.

  “Now there’s the Sarah we all know and love!” Gold exclaimed, kicking off his boots and propping his feet up on the couch.

  Sarah’s eye had actually begun twitching and Katherine mercifully cut in.

  “There’s no time for whatever this is,” she said, as Morgan approached.

  He was covered in a light sheen of sweat, which Sarah found surprising as he’d been going at it for nearly an hour.

  Wasn’t he tired after the day they’d had? How could he keep going?

  They’d already changed and had decided to keep what had happened to themselves, once again deciding not to trust anyone else, unless Dabu decided to pop by for another visit.

  She’d never met the man, but she really hoped she’d be able to soon.

  She was snapped from her thoughts as Katherine continued speaking.

  “We have plans to discuss, so if you’ll please all sit down, we can begin.”

  Gold spread his arms out, motioning to his sprawled out position on the couch, prompting a snort from Sarah and an eye roll from Katherine.

  Morgan took a seat on a plush chair, wiping his brow with a towel and waiting for Katherine to begin.

  “I just heard back from my informant in the guild. The attack on Arnold will be happening tonight. They have indeed tracked him to the South Kingdom border and plan to ambush him on an abandoned stretch of road near the border wall.”

  “Glad to hear some good news,” Sarah said.

  She’d been wanting to see Arnold dead for years now and was glad that someone was going after him in force, even if it was the Assassins Guild.

  “Yes, that traitor should be dead by the end of the night, which brings us to our plans for tonight. Unfortunately, I cannot go with you, as I’m still trying to reach my contacts in the other kingdoms. Lucky for us, Gold has agreed to join you two.”

  They both looked to Gold, who twiddled his fingers at them in reply.

  “Do you have any information on what kind of opposition we’ll be facing?” Morgan asked.

  “As far as I can tell, there will only be a total of eight guards in the compound between eight and nine o’clock tonight. We estimate them to be from ranks 25 to 32, not including their current head, a woman by the name of Swan.”

  “That really isn’t a whole lot of time,” Morgan said, brows creasing. “Not to mention that we’ll be sever
ely outmatched.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

  Morgan turned to see Gold, still twiddling his fingers with that same slightly sadistic smile on his face.

  “How could we forget, with you interrupting every minute to remind us?” Sarah asked dryly.

  “Yes. Gold will be there, so there’s no need to worry about being overpowered. You will need to be careful not to trigger any alarms, though. You’ll have to be quick and make sure none of them get the chance to alert the others.”

  Sarah and Morgan both nodded, and Katherine continued.

  “We’ll be going through a portal to another location in three hours’ time. After which, I’ll open a portal to the guild’s headquarters. As soon as you’ve killed Swan, contact me, and I’ll open a portal in your location. Every member of the Assassins Guild will know as soon as she’s dead and will return to their headquarters, so it’s vital that you don’t delay for even a second.”

  It was a relatively simple plan, but simple plans were often the best. It left little room for a mistake, and if something went wrong, they could figure it out on the go.

  “Now, for what will happen after,” Katherine continued. “As we’re working on such a tight schedule, we’ll need to attack my father by tomorrow night. As it stands, we only have about 38 hours until this first Pinnacle King awakens. I’m not sure exactly what will happen when he does, but I’d rather not find out.

  “As of right now, I’ve only managed to secure the help of two people,” she said with a grimace. “All the others were too afraid to act this soon, so it looks like we won’t have the support we need. This will have to be done quickly so that there’s no time for my father to react.

  “Right now, we have the element of surprise, as he isn’t counting on an attack from within his own forces. The plan is for me to portal straight in to give him a quick report. I do it all the time, so he won’t be suspicious if I leave the portal open while we speak. Then, you’ll come through. I have someone who will keep the attack silent, so as not to attract attention, but we’ll have at least six guards who will be over rank 40, as well my father himself, who is at the maximum rank of 50.”

  Morgan winced when he heard that.

  “Do you really think we can beat those odds?” he asked.

  Katherine shrugged.

  “If I’m being perfectly honest, our chances of success aren’t that great, but we don’t have any other choice. Luckily for us, we’ll have our own maximum ranked fighter coming along with us.”

  “Who?” Sarah asked, sitting up straighter in her seat.

  “King Herald,” Gold cut in with a grin. “I had a little chat with him last night while the two of you were being lazy. He normally wouldn’t take this kind of risk, but apparently, Samuel’s warning was a good enough cause for him to do it.”

  “If Herald is going, shouldn’t he be able to bring along some of his guards?” Morgan asked.

  Gold shook his head.

  “According to his intelligence, Edmund is planning a massive raid on his camp tomorrow night. The timing couldn’t have been worse.”

  “Yes, it’s bad timing,” Katherine said, “but tomorrow night is still our best chance. Since there will be that massive raid, the camp will be mostly empty. Not completely, mind you, but there will probably only be a token force of around a thousand or so.”

  “Oh, that’s all good then!” Sarah replied sarcastically. “Only a thousand soldiers. We can take that many.”

  “As I said, we’ll only need to deal with him and his guards.”

  “If I may ask, what’s the point of us going along?” Morgan asked. “If all the guards will be over rank 40, then there really isn’t much the two of us can do.”

  “You’ll be our backup, in case anyone comes to visit while we’re taking care of the king,” Katherine replied. “It’ll be four against six, so we’ll have our hands full.”

  Morgan nodded. That made sense. They couldn’t count on everything running smoothly, so they would bring the two of them along just in case.

  “Are there any other questions? I haven’t slept in four days and really need at least a few hours before tonight,” Katherine said.

  “Why do you need to sleep?” Gold asked, his innocent expression giving away his intention of a wisecrack before he even said it. “After all, you won’t be doing anything tonight.”

  ***

  Morgan stepped through the swirling portal and emerged into a wooded clearing. He had no idea where he was, but apparently, this was the staging point for their assault on the guild. Katherine’s informant had contacted her five minutes ago, saying that the compound had emptied out, and now they were preparing for the attack.

  He pulled his magesteel gloves from his belt and began pulling them on, as Sarah, then Gold, stepped through the portal. A few seconds later, Katherine stepped through and the portal closed behind her.

  They were all dressed for combat, aside from Katherine, and were already geared up for the attack.

  “Where are we?” Morgan asked in a low voice.

  He wasn’t sure why, but he felt that speaking too loudly wasn’t appropriate at a time like this.

  “We’re on the fringes of the Central Kingdom, near the border to the West. The Guild’s main compound is located just a few miles east of here, but we’re far enough away not to trip any alarms.”

  “Aren’t you worried that your portal opening will trip some sort of alarm?” Morgan asked as she looked down to her wrist.

  “As I said before, this normally wouldn’t be possible, but we’ll have a small window in which to get you in.”

  “How small are we talking?” Sarah asked.

  She was wearing her tight-fitting armor and had her combat knife strapped to her belt.

  “Ten seconds, but you shouldn’t need more than that if you all go at once.”

  “You weren’t kidding when you said the time frame was small,” Gold said, talking at a regular volume.

  Everyone winced, and they all turned to glare at him.

  “What? You said that we were far enough away to avoid detection,” he said with a shrug.

  Sarah had opened her mouth to deliver what would likely be a stinging retort when Katherine suddenly held her hand up for silence. They stood like that for several seconds, then she lowered her hand and opened a portal.

  “On my say, go in and move quickly.”

  They all nodded and Morgan could feel his heart rate increase with excitement.

  He wondered what kind of enemies he’d get to face in there.

  “Five, four, three, two… Now!” Katherine said, and Morgan lunged forward, darting through the portal before anyone else got the chance.

  There was a moment of disorientation, then he was sprinting across an open field, toward a small shack. He wondered for a moment if they might have the wrong place, but suddenly he caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye.

  He rolled, avoiding something flying through the air at eye level, then sprang back up to his feet.

  His eyes locked onto a black-clad figure, who was running at him and closing the gap with astonishing speed.

  Wasn’t this supposed to be an open window where they could get in?

  Morgan quickly focused on the figure, using aura sense. Immediately, a blazing red aura surrounded the figure and letters floated up above his head.

  Name: Melvin

  Rank - 27

  Ability type - Super

  Morgan blinked, releasing the skill and gearing himself up for a fight. Then, something slammed into the man’s side, hurling him through the air. He landed with a muffled thump a few hundred yards away and a massive ice block fell on his head.

  He heard a sickening crunch, and knew the man had met his end. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Sarah giving him a self satisfied smirk, while Gold just shook his head.

  Had Sarah really just taken out a rank 27 super in two blows?

  Then he noticed the bloody sto
ne spike sinking back into the ground to his left.

  Now that made more sense.

  “Where is the compound?” Morgan asked in a hushed tone, as Sarah and Gold jogged up to him.

  “You’re looking at it,” Gold replied, pointing to the small shack.

  “That’s the headquarters of the largest guild in all the Five Kingdoms?” Sarah asked, incredulity written all over her face.

  “No time to talk out in the open. Follow me, and I’ll explain,” Gold said, taking off at a sprint.

  Sarah looked to Morgan and he shrugged, then took off after the man. Sarah let out a snort but followed all the same. It only took them about thirty seconds to reach the shack, and Gold stopped before the door, holding his hand up to stop them from advancing any more.

  He pressed his ear to the door and waited for a few seconds, then straightened up and gently eased the door open.

  “After you,” he said, motioning them in.

  Already being used to this from their time at the academy, both Sarah and Morgan walked into the small shack, still wondering how an entire clandestine organization would fit inside.

  Their answer came the second they walked in. A long, concrete corridor stretched before them, continuing on for what seemed like miles.

  “Yup, much bigger on the inside,” Gold said, pulling the door shut behind them with a light click.

  “Any idea where we’re supposed to go?” Sarah asked.

  “Only one tunnel,” Gold said with a shrug.

  Sarah glared at him, but Morgan placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

  “He’s right. We only have 55 minutes until our window close. We need to hurry.”

  Sarah nodded, deciding to save all of her aggravation for Gold until their mission was complete.

  “Tread lightly if you can. Sound will carry for a good distance in here,” Gold advised, then took off at a sprint down the tunnel, feet barely making a whisper on the ground as he went.

  Morgan was quick to follow and Sarah was right on his heels. Neither of them was nearly as silent as Gold, but they moved with more stealth than would have been possible before their rank ups.