by Aaron Oster
But now, experiencing what he was truly capable of if he were to reach his full potential, he realized that he wasn’t even tapping into twenty percent of what he could do.
Pentagon roared and unleashed a wave of heat, forcing him to back off. She followed up by swinging her arm forward, unleashing a new attack, one that he had yet to witness. White blades of light tore through the air. Though he managed to avoid them for the most part, one of them hit him.
For a brief instant, Morgan felt the pain, as the skin on his forearm was torn open, and blood flecked his face and chest. Then, it was gone, the wound closing itself up, leaving him whole and uninjured once more.
Pentagon tore herself from the wall, her constructed armor covered in cracks. A line of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth where one of his punches had managed to crack the plating around her jaw.
“You’re going to pay for that, human,” Pentagon said, her voice coming out as a growl in his mind.
Morgan smiled grimly in return, then dashed at her once more, preparing to take the beast down, once and for all.
49
Their clashes were swift and intense. There were moments of chaotic violence, interspersed with brief flashes of pain and the satisfying impact of flesh on bone. Morgan’s fist, now carrying four times the power, thanks to his Maximum Increase, slammed into Pentagon’s abdomen, cracking one of her ribs and blasting the Pinnacle King through a row of metal instruments on the far side of the room.
The shrieking, tearing sound of crumpling metal was deafening, but Morgan hardly noticed as he followed after her, lightning crackling from his pair of shortened lances as he streaked toward her. Pentagon roared, tearing her way free of the wreckage, and sent a beam of condensed molten sand right at him.
Morgan teleported to his left, avoiding the beam entirely, and, when Pentagon followed up by unleashing another one of her scorching roars, he punched, expelling a wide-range Compression blast. The very air exploded as their attacks clashed, shaking the entire room and causing cracks to appear on the ceiling above.
The ground beneath them split as Pentagon tore two massive slabs of stone from beneath the sand, slamming them shut like a mouse trap in an attempt to catch Morgan unaware. He rocketed up then forward, narrowly avoiding the stone as it slammed shut. Before Pentagon could launch yet another attack, he was right in front of her, unleashing another flurry of punches and kicks.
Operating at his full capacity, Pentagon was hardly able to keep up, barely managing to block even a quarter of his attacks. Blood and tufts of fur flew as Morgan landed blow after blow, tearing deep gouges in the Pinnacle King’s hide, scoring several nasty gashes and managing to buckle another one of her ribs.
Pentagon roared once again, slashing out with her gleaming black claws. As Morgan teleported back, a dozen thin pillars of sand caught him in the stomach, tearing into his skin and trying to bore holes through him. He rolled to the side, then vanished, appearing right behind the Pinnacle King. Her tail seemed to have a mind of its own, as it flashed, the stinger slamming into his shoulder and unleashing its payload.
Morgan’s entire right side went momentarily numb, and he slumped as searing pain wracked his body. Pentagon whirled, her claws slicing through his left eye and tearing bloody furrows across his face. He fell back, but not before kicking out and up, using the fall to his advantage.
His foot caught her in the hip, snapping the joint out of alignment and dropping the Pinnacle King to her back as well. The two of them lay there, writhing in pain for several long moments, until Morgan’s healing kicked in, flushing the poison from his system and healing his ruined face. He was back up in an instant and pounced on the still-downed Pinnacle King as she tried to force her hip back into its socket.
“Damn you!” she screamed as he brought his leg up, then slammed his heel down, aiming for her head.
She managed to avoid the attack, which was lucky. The floor buckled, massive chunks of stone flying into the air and sending cracks radiating throughout the room as they landed. Pentagon’s wings snapped open, and she dragged herself into the air, spinning as she did. Morgan followed, only to receive a funnel cloud of whirling sand as his reward.
The attack drove him through no less than three walls and five boulders. When he finally came to a halt, there was a hole in his chest roughly the size of a fist, and it felt as though every bone in his body had either been broken or fractured. Pentagon didn’t follow, likely taking a few moments to recover after an attack that big, giving Morgan the few seconds he needed to regenerate all of the lost blood, regrow the skin and muscle and allow his bones to heal.
He blew out a long breath as he tore himself from the wall, noting that he was beginning to feel distinctly tired. Half his time had already elapsed, and the longer he fought using his Soulstream, the more taxed his mind became. This skill wasn’t simply draining him physically but mentally as well, and when his timer ran out, Morgan had a feeling that he’d be less than useless.
This appeared to be a double-edged sword. Sure, he had an amazing offense, but as soon as his time ran out, he’d have to pay the price.
Funny how that wasn’t mentioned in the skill’s description, he thought as he tore back toward the Pinnacle King.
He needed to land a powerful attack, one that would do enough damage to either put her out of the fight or injure her badly enough to make a win possible. As Morgan entered back into the room where Pentagon had last been, he was shocked to find that she was no longer there. His Aura Sense flared wide as he searched for her, and finally, he locked onto her core, now five levels below.
She’s trying to run out the clock! Morgan realized as soon as he found her.
She might not know what he was doing, but Pentagon was intelligent enough to recognize a skill when she saw one and was determined to run out his timer.
A savage grin spread across his lips as he realized that this was the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He’d needed a few seconds in which he could concentrate on activating one of his skills. A bright purple-blue light flared around his body, flames licking around his hands, feet and chest, as motes of sparkling white light danced across his skin.
The air blazed with the power of his skill, the sand warping and turning to glass as the heat intensified. Pentagon might be immune to lightning, but when it came to heat, she was only resistant.
It took another couple of seconds for the skill to be ready, the burning aura spreading wider and wider. An orange-yellow light danced at the very edges, while closer to his body, the burning heat was a much darker, almost black, violet color. Morgan blew out another long breath, then dove.
His body, now powered by the Shooting Star, tore through the sandstone as though it wasn’t even there. Pentagon came into view as he smashed through the last floor. She was crouched in the center of a whirling cyclone of sand, the individual grains each so hot that they were glowing. This looked like a big attack, but Morgan was beyond caring right now. He continued down, his body leaving a streak of sparkling, fiery light in its wake.
Pentagon looked up, her eyes blazing with hatred. She unleashed her attack just as he reached her. They collided, the burning sands trying to tear their way through him, while he attempted to break through and damage the Pinnacle King. It soon became clear that this was a battle that would either end in a stalemate or with him losing. But Morgan had more than one big attack, and as he fought to break through the wall of burning sand, he unleashed another.
A tiny black spark flew from his fingertips, slipping easily through the whirling, chaotic storm of glowing light as it drifted toward the Pinnacle King. Pentagon roared, her tail flashing out as she tried to destroy whatever he was attempting to do, which was exactly what Morgan had wanted her to do. A savage grin twisted his lips as the Collapsing Star activated.
The air went black, all light leeched from their surroundings as the massive ball of gravity trapped everything withing 45 feet in its crushing influence. Morgan’s Shooti
ng Star wore off then, and his body was riddled with thousands of tiny holes as the last of the burning sand tore through him. He fell back, dropping to the ground just inches from the black sphere, which was slowly sinking into the ground.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself back up while his body worked to heal the damage. He needed to prepare another attack just in case Pentagon survived. The entire city began to tremble, massive chunks of stone tearing themselves from the ground and collecting in the air, drawn by the powerful gravitational force of his Massive Meteor.
His RP was plummeting and refilling faster than he could keep track of, and his head was beginning to ache. He could feel the Beast King’s wrath, its strength growing the longer he continued to draw on his power. Time was short, and this fight needed to end. The Collapsing Star finished in a fiery explosion, the heat and force washing out over his surroundings and destroying massive swaths of the underground city – which now resembled less of a city and more a burned crater, a husk of its former glory.
A roar greeted him, sound finally able to escape the crushing field of gravity. Pentagon came into view, crouched at the very bottom of the thirty-foot crater. Smoke trailed off of her fur, which was now so blackened and burned that it was hard to recognize. Her wings, while still intact, were missing small bunches of feathers, and it was clear by the way she looked that several more bones had broken.
“Here, have another!”
The Massive Meteor dropped, bearing down on the lioness and giving her no chance of escape. She was trapped, well and truly, and she knew it.
“Ultimate Desiccation!”
The roar sounded just before the burning meteor impacted, and let Morgan know – just an instant before it happened – that something bad was coming. A shockwave rippled out as the meteor impacted, blowing a massive chunk out of the ceiling and revealing the individual levels of the underground city for all to see.
A scorching wind washed over him next, locking his limbs in place, effectively preventing any attempts at escape. He tried to teleport, but once again, found his attempts blocked. Then, moisture began leeching from his skin. It was only minor at first and felt a bit like breaking a sweat. However, within just a few seconds, water was flowing from his body in alarming amounts. He could feel his skin tightening and drying out, causing his muscles to contract. His body was withering and dying.
At the same time, his body tried to heal him, replenishing the lost stores just as quickly as they were stolen, which only prolonged the agony. He lay there, locked in place, forced to endure more pain than he’d thought possible. It was so horrific that he had to fight to remain conscious, holding onto the image of Sarah in his mind.
He was vaguely aware that his attack against the Pinnacle King was wearing off. He turned his head and could see her through the haze of pain. Blood dripped from dozens of wounds, one of her arms was dangling by her side, and her dislocated leg seemed to have been broken in several places. Her face was blackened and burned, yet her violet eyes showed that she was still very much alive.
Her core, which had been burning with reiki before the impact, had been reduced to a mix of mana and chi, her last massive attack having used up what little she had left. Pentagon raised an arm as though she was going to attack, then dropped to one knee, wheezing in pain.
“How are you still alive?” she demanded.
Her voice was ragged and raw, even in his mind, and though Morgan’s body continued to shed and replenish water, communicating wasn’t impossible.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he replied, coughing up a lungful of blood, only to have the lost liquid replenish itself a second later.
“I am a Pinnacle King! Strongest of the strong!”
“You and I both know that isn’t true,” Morgan said.
He could feel that the effects of the Ultimate Desiccation were beginning to weaken, which meant he’d be able to move soon.
Pentagon didn’t reply to his jibe, merely allowing a low growl to leave her throat. It was far less intimidating with how beat-up she was. He knew that when he was free of her skill, he’d be able to finish her for good.
The Pinnacle King’s head snapped up, her nostrils flaring. Several seconds passed, and the effects of the attack lessened even further. Now that he was paying attention, Morgan could sense what she could smell. Two cores, both very familiar, had just entered the city. Judging by the look on Pentagon’s face, she knew who they were.
“I see another of your kind has decided to join us,” she said, slowly rising to her feet. “It’s a shame that she’s come all the way here to die!”
“No!” Morgan yelled, half-forcing his body off the ground as a mixture of anger and fear flooded his body.
Pentagon’s foot slammed into his chest, driving him down and knocking the air from his lungs. The Pinnacle King’s skill was still attacking his body, and he was too weak to resist.
“Humanity is a weakness,” Pentagon hissed. “Perhaps if I take this one, you will finally shed yours!”
Her wings snapped open then. She flapped down hard, blasting into the air and vanishing through the hole in the ceiling, leaving Morgan to scream in impotent rage at his inability to so much as move.
50
It all came rushing back to him as he struggled to rise, trying to force his rebellious body into an upright position. In his mind, he was back in the glacier, his hands fused to the floor as Octagon the Bitter impaled Sarah.
Now, Grace was up there. While she had Lumia with her, there would be little the drake could do to save her. Pentagon was much faster than her. If she went right for his protégée, Lumia would not be able to move fast enough to even get in her way.
Rage boiled up inside him, a burning inferno of hate, self-loathing and fear. Someone he cared about was going to die, and once again, he would be unable to stop it, unable to even get in the way. His teeth ground together as he once again tried to force his rebellious body to move. His muscles spasmed, then flared in pain as the water was sucked from them, only to be replaced in the seemingly never-ending cycle.
The attack was fading, but by his estimate, it would take roughly thirty seconds until he could move again. By then, Grace would already be dead. Time was not on his side, just as it hadn’t been two years ago when he’d failed to save the person who’d made his life worth living. For years, he’d pushed down his pain and the emotional trauma. He didn’t allow himself to feel anything or grow too close to anyone.
Then Grace had come along, and slowly, he’d begun to open up again. She was a shining light in the endless darkness, a warm, welcoming presence, who was constantly around, reminding him of better times and showing him what the future could hold. In their short time together, he had come to care for her, much as he had for the few others who’d affected him in one way or another.
Right now, she was one of the only things keeping him going. Yes, the knowledge of Sarah’s revival forced him onward, but it was Grace who truly allowed him to live, not merely exist, until the day when he and Sarah would finally be reunited. She made life bearable. Her endless optimism and curiosity, mixed with the frustrations of youth, made every day unique. But now, he was about to let her down.
Why does everyone I love have to die?
The thought was bitter, self-pitying and filled with more rage and pain than Morgan had even thought himself capable of feeling. There was so much of it. So, so much. He felt like a bottomless pit of misery and hatred, all directed at the one person who never seemed to be strong enough, who was too slow. He was too late to ever make a difference. Always too late…
***
“You’re not too late. Grace is still alive, which means you can still save her.”
Morgan turned his head, once again finding himself surrounded by strange, silvery mist, though this time, things felt a bit different. Sarah stood before him, the mists billowing around her legs as her voice echoed strangely.
“But…I can’t move,” he protested, feeling anot
her twinge of pain as he saw her once again and was reminded of what his weakness had cost her.
“So what?” Sarah asked, crossing her arms and giving him a stern look. “When has something like that ever stopped you before? You’ve gone through more fights than I can count, and you were outmatched in nearly all of them. Did that ever stop you from winning?”
“I might have won last time,” Morgan replied. “But…You still died. I can hardly call that a victory.”
“And what about the millions of lives you saved as a result?” she asked, slowly approaching. “You seem to be forgetting one very important thing, Morgan. I chose my fate. Do you think I went into that fight, not knowing the risks? Do you think that I was unaware of what I was doing when I faced that monster down on my own?”
Morgan winced as the reproach in her voice cracked out like a whip, her tone sharp and unyielding.
“Yes, but I…”
“But nothing!” Sarah snapped, stopping just inches away and glaring down at him. “I’ve never needed to be coddled, nor did I expect you to save me. I willingly gave my life so that you could live. So that you could make a difference. Continuing to mope about it completely invalidates everything I’ve done!
“Stop treating me like a victim, and start seeing me as the person I was. I loved you enough to give up my own life, so that you could live yours! The blame does not fall on you, but if you continue down this path, continue commiserating and allowing my actions to ruin the life I fought so hard to preserve, I would truly have died for nothing!”
Sarah’s words hurt more than anything anyone else could have said. She always knew how to get to the heart of a matter, and the worst part about it was that she was right. Sarah had known what she was doing when she sacrificed herself. She’d known the risks when she’d gone along with him to face the Pinnacle King. She had singlehandedly discovered the method in which he could be locked away and had sacrificed herself to see him succeed.
