by Aaron Oster
“Well, that was fun,” Sarah said as Morgan landed next to her.
“Yeah. It was,” Morgan replied, handing her the cores to store in the bag.
They were worth a ridiculous amount of energy for the bare amount of work they needed to kill them, so it would be worth collecting every one.
“I am annoyed about the new outfit, though,” he said, eyeing the jagged tear in the side.
The wolf’s attack hadn’t gone deep enough to actually hurt him, but it had gone through his shield without any apparent effort.
“Oh, don’t be so grumpy,” Sarah said, patting him on the cheek. “We can always buy a new one.”
Morgan blew out a long breath, but ignored her and continued down the block. They kept walking, moving in between destroyed houses, and running into the occasional wolf. They went down without too much trouble, giving them cores packed with power.
“None of this seems right,” he said after they’d killed their latest batch of wolves.
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked, tucking the cores away.
“These beasts. They die too easily, and the amount of energy they offer is ridiculous. I would almost think that the people in this city were experimenting on ways to increase the energy in beasts, while making them easy to kill.”
Sarah thought about that for a few moments as they continued walking.
“I mean, it does make the most sense when you put it like that,” she finally said. “But what could have caused the accident? They also clearly didn’t get the result they wanted, since you’re the only one who seems to be able to absorb the energy.”
“I don’t know, but in case you haven’t noticed, the damage to city has been growing worse.”
Sarah had noticed. As they walked, the destruction became more widespread. They now passed entire sections where not a single structure stood. Only piles of rubble and half melted glass which had hardened into twisted shapes.
The beasts were becoming more frequent as well, and they were now having to constantly battle as they drew nearer to the center of the city.
As they traveled deeper in, Morgan began to feel a light tugging at his core. It was almost as though something were drawing him further in. He stopped as a flash of gold suddenly entered his vision, trailing over the rubble and disappearing into the distance. He shook his head, and the light vanished.
“Something wrong?”
Morgan turned to tell Sarah he was fine, but when he looked at her, he saw a bright blue light coming from her chest. He squinted at the almost blinding brightness, and held up his hand to his shield his eyes, but it did nothing to block out the light.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Sarah sounded worried.
He blinked a few times, and thankfully, the light wore off.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, staring down at the ground and thinking hard.
He was sure what he’d just seen was her core, her source of power, but that made no sense. He hadn’t used a skill and to his knowledge, neither had she. He remembered seeing a faint blue line back when they were outside the city and thinking it was a mirage. Could he have been seeing something else? Something real?
“Morgan?”
He looked up as Sarah called his name again, and forced a smile onto his face.
“I’m fine. I just thought I saw something.”
She looked him over for a few seconds with a worried expression. He could tell she wasn’t fooled in the slightest and wanted to pry, but she just nodded.
“Alright. But you know you can tell me anything right?”
He nodded to her, and the tension in her shoulders eased.
“Come on, we’re not far from the center now,” she said, walking past him and picking her way over a pile of rubble.
Morgan followed after, moving nimbly along behind. They ran into several more packs of the beasts, each being higher ranked than the last, but none put up much of a fight. They finally crested a particularly tall tower of rubble which had been blocking their path, and both stopped at the top to stare in awe.
They stood on the outer circle of a massive open area. It was entirely made of glass, but oddly enough, didn’t reflect the sunlight at all. A tall, twisting spire stood in the very center of the open area, and next to it sat the largest wolf Morgan had ever seen.
It was easily twenty-five feet long, with its shoulders nearly ten feet from the ground. Its body was covered in bristling gold and black fur and it looked completely whole, unlike the corrupted beasts they’d been fighting until now. The only sign that it was like them was the inky black smoke curling off of it in wisps.
A pair of spiraling horns extended from its forehead, curling inward and coming to wicked points. Its back half appeared to be more feline and was a deep red in color, contrasting with the golden fur of its front half.
Morgan used Aura sense and watched as a brilliant gold light burst up around it, and his eyes widened as he read its status.
Name: Divine Golden-Bristle Wolf
Rank - 28
Ability type - Divine
“What the hell? How’s that even possible?” Morgan said, reading over the status to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.
“What?” Sarah asked.
She took had been watching the wolf as well, but couldn’t read its status.
“I think our theory of creating a new type of beast was correct, and I’m pretty sure that that beast is the perfected result.”
Sarah’s eyes widened when he explained the beast’s properties to her, and that its ability type was neither super or mage.
“But how is that even possible?” she asked, digging into her pack and beginning to hand Morgan all the cores they’d collected.
There was no doubt in either of their minds that this was an Advanced beast, which meant that this fight would be difficult in the extreme. They would both need to be as strong as they possibly could, and unfortunately for Sarah, all she could do was boost herself two or three ranks with the cores they had, as she couldn’t use the ones of the corrupted beasts.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling that there is a lot more going on here than just experimentation on beasts. As soon as we’re done here, I’m going to try and contact Dabu. Maybe he can shed some light on what happened here.”
“You’re forgetting that we still have to live through this fight,” Sarah said, pulling the regular cores shining with red and blue light from the pack and beginning to absorb them.
“We don’t have to fight that thing,” Morgan said.
“Wait, what?” Sarah asked, eyes going wide. “There’s a beast down there that uses divine energy to fight instead of mana of chi, and you don’t want to fight it?”
Morgan, in fact, wanted nothing more than to fight it, but previous experience had taught him to be cautious when facing beasts of this caliber. He had to go into this fight assuming that it would be tougher than any rank 28 Advanced beast could hope to be.
There was no way it would go down as easily as the other corrupted beasts, and he came to that conclusion for one simple reason. There had been no corrupted title in the beast’s name. The upside to killing a beast like this was that the core likely held a massive amount of power. A core like that could likely push his divine energy through the roof, not to mention that there were probably attribute points to be gained from it as well.
But, he’d come here to find out more about his past. All he’d gleaned, however, was that there had been some experiments with beasts. Nothing here told him who he was. He was about to suggest they turn around and leave, when he felt something tugging at his core once again. Looking down, he could see a line of golden energy flowing down and to the huge wolf. That wasn’t all, though.
As he watched, the wolf breathed in, and all the divine power in air entered its body, flowing into a core that he could now see clearly. It was almost pure gold and shone so brightly that it nearly blinded him. He felt his heart rate ramp up a few notches, as he suddenly f
elt the beast’s power.
A shiver ran over his skin, and he knew that the two of them had to kill this beast here and now. If they left this creature alive, it would reach the Pinnacle stage in just a few more weeks.
13
Sarah raised an eyebrow as Morgan began absorbing one core after the next, barely giving the energy any chance to settle before taking in another one. He grunted in pain each time the energy of a core entered his system, but he fought through it and continued going.
Sarah watched in fascination as a golden glow started emanating from his skin, and bits of electricity sparked off his body.
“Morgan, what are you doing?” she asked, making sure to keep her distance.
Just a moment ago, he was debating leaving without fighting the beast. Now, however, he was draining cores like a man possessed.
“If we don’t kill that beast now, it’ll evolve into a Pinnacle beast in just a few weeks,” he replied through gritted teeth.
“How do you know?” Sarah asked, eyes widening at the insinuation.
She knew what a Pinnacle beast was. The highest tier of beast, and one that neither of them could hope to defeat.
“I’ve been sensing energy over the last day or so. Or at least, that’s what I think I’m doing,” he replied as sweat beaded his brow.
“Did your skill change to allow you to do that?”
“Don’t know. I haven’t checked.”
Sarah closed her mouth, deciding to put off questioning him until he was done with the cores.
Morgan groaned as he absorbed yet another core, feeling the fire in his body intensify just a bit more. He’d felt pain before, but nothing like this. It felt as though he were burning from the inside out, and every core stoked the flames to burn that much hotter.
The rush of power he felt kept him going. He put a large portion of the energy towards advancing his ability, but he put plenty into ranking up as well. He could feel the energy strengthening his body and mind, as he ranked up over and over again. He hadn’t ranked up this many times since he and Sarah had been trapped in the Staged Beast Zone a few weeks back, but the feeling was exhilarating.
By the time he’d absorbed the last core, he was the same rank as the beast they were about to face, and he could practically feel his body trying to move and attack on its own. He took a few deep breaths, rising to his full height and staring down at himself.
His entire body glowed purple and gold in his vision, and he could practically feel the power pouring off of him. He gave Sarah a look, noting she was at rank 25. He nodded to her, then pulled up his status and assigned his attribute points.
Name: Morgan
Evolved Supermage: Rank - 28
Energy to next rank - 157,202/807,000
Ability Advancement: 1,063,500/3,800,000
Total Available AP: 6
Ability - Divine Gravity & Air
RP - 1,700/1,700 (Regen - 17.0 per second)
DV - 750/750 (Regen - 7.5 per minute)
Strength - 172 (+27)
Agility - 194 (+33)
Constitution - 160 (+10)
Intelligence - 170 (+16)
Wisdom - 170 (+16)
Skills - Advanced flight, Explosive impact, Storm blade, Goldfire
Divine - Shock-blast, Rage of the Gods
Traits - Gravity field, Recovery, Aura sense (inherited)
Extra - Gravity storm (2nd category), Starbreak
Morgan had tried pouring more points into Strength and Agility, but found that at a certain point, he was unable to. He figured it made sense in a way, that he couldn’t just continue adding points to his attributes and have himself grow more powerful than anyone at rank 50, all while remaining in the 20’s. He guessed that in order to add more points to any particular attribute, he would have to reach the Intermediate stage or break into rank 29. Both of which would be extremely difficult.
The cost to rank up again was astronomically high, as his Evolved status meant he would pay more energy to move up in rank each time. In addition, breakthrough ranks cost three times as much as what it would normally have cost to rank up, so now his cost would be nearly a million energy. That was not to mention the 2.75 million it would still cost to move into the Intermediate stage.
Morgan pulled up his skills next. He’d saved a few attribute points, so he could increase the power of a few of his skills before he’d be forced to fight that monstrosity below. He boosted his Advanced flight and Storm blade skills, which only took one point each, boosted Starbreak, which took 3 points, and decided to keep his last one in reserve. A single point wasn’t much, but it could make all the difference in the heat of battle. He then looked over the upgraded skills with a sense of satisfaction.
Perfect flight - Manipulate gravity and air to reduce your weight and move swiftly through the air. You can now reach your maximum speed instantaneously.
Cost - 18 RP per second
Max. height - 120 Ft
Max. speed - 85 Ft per second
Max. carry weight - 800 pounds (Adding any more weight will reduce speed by 20 feet per second for each additional pound).
Storm blade II - Manipulate gravity and air to create a solid 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 - 500 RP
Duration - Until dismissed
Charge cost - 115 RP
Duration - 2 Strikes
Starbreaker - Create a dense ball of superheated air and compressed gas, which will explode upon impact with a selected target.
Cost - 1,500 RP
AOE - 45 Ft
Cooldown - 10 hours
Morgan was thrilled. His new skills would definitely give him the edge in battle. It felt a bit strange to him, though, preparing for an ultimate battle so soon after finishing his last. He hadn’t been expecting to fight this hard until he came up against a Pinnacle King, but now that he thought about it, he never would. He wasn’t planning on fighting them, so this beast was as good as any to fight with all he had.
Closing his status, he saw that Sarah was now staring at him.
“What?” he asked, wondering if he’d gotten something on his face.
“Did you check your status to see what was up with you Aura sense skill?”
Morgan grinned sheepishly and opened his status once again to check on the skill.
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. You may now also see, and feel, the flow of aura in the world around you. This can be activated by thinking sense, but not selecting a target.
“Huh, I guess you were right,” Morgan said, astounded by the discovery.
He could now see the flow of aura in the air around him just by concentrating, and the reason it had been acting without his direction was because he was giving the intent of the skill, without actually trying to use it.
“Of course I was,” Sarah said smugly. “Now let’s go kill that thing!”
“About that…” Morgan said, wondering how best to put it without insulting her.
“Yeah, I know,” Sarah said with a pout. “I’ll only get in your way if I get too close. Don’t worry, I’ll hang back here and attack it if I get a clean shot.”
Morgan smiled, glad that Sarah was so understanding. Had she been a few ranks higher, he might have felt more comfortable having her join him. But when it came to battling a beast of this caliber, every rank counted.
He could have pushed himself to rank 29. That would have made this fight much easier, but he didn’t want to do that until he reached the Intermediate stage. In fact, he hadn’t wanted to rank up at all until he’d reached Intermediate, as he was sure he was losing out on
attribute points. When he’d evolved, the amount of available points he should have gotten per rank were 15. Instead, he’d gotten 18.
Morgan assumed this had something to do with being an Evolved supermage, so it only stood to reason that an Intermediate supermage would get even more. For a fight like this, he would have to sacrifice the points. He could always theoretically get more if he killed enough Advanced beasts- or so he hoped, anyway.
“I’ll move down there and open with my upgraded Starbreaker. You attack with your gigantic glacier thingy right after. I’m hoping that’ll finish it off, but I’m not really sure it will.”
“Glacier thingy?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You know what I mean,” Morgan said with a grin. “Now come on, let’s go kill that thing!”
14
Morgan ran down the opposite side of the rubble pile, feeling the power of his enhanced muscles going to work. His massive increase in Strength and Agility had enlarged his muscles somewhat, but not enough to restrict his movement in his new clothes.
He’d pulled on his magesteel gloves, and taken Sarah’s combat knife just in case. He was really hoping it wouldn’t come to a point where he’d need to use it. As he slid down the rubble, the beast looked up at him, bright golden eyes meeting his.
Now that he looked at its face, he could see that it resembled a cat’s a lot more than that of a wolf’s. In fact, the only wolf-like aspects of the creature were its front half and general body shape. Perhaps the beast’s closeness to evolving had begun changing its body?
Morgan couldn’t be sure about anything with this particular monster, but he could read a frightening amount of intelligence in those eyes, as though the beast knew exactly who he was and how best to deal with him. At the very least, this would be an extremely difficult fight.
Out of his peripheral vision, Morgan could see Sarah running to make her way around the open area so she could attack the beast from behind. The problem was that the beast’s eyes were on her as well.
