Skyflare (Rise To Omniscience Book 3)

by Aaron Oster

  “Dabu said not to move,” Sarah’s voice said.

  Morgan opened his mouth to say something, but his throat was just too dry. Finally, after managing to gather some moisture into his mouth, he managed to croak out one word.

  “Water.”

  “Here.”

  Morgan felt Sarah propping his head up on her lap, then press the opening of the canteen to his lips. He drank greedily, taking huge gulps while Sarah continued talking.

  “Dabu said you’d be thirsty when you woke up.”

  She then explained all that had happened to him and cautioned him against moving for the suggested amount of time.

  He felt a cool cloth began dabbing over his eyes, and after a few moments, he was finally able to open them.

  Sarah’s upside down face came into view, looking both angry and relieved at the same time. He was used to that look by now, and knew that it was how she coped with stress.

  He completely drained the canteen in less than a minute and when he was done, asked Sarah to fill it two more times. By the time he’d gotten halfway through the third canteen, his thirst finally abated, and he moved his head to the side to signify that he was done.

  Sarah winced slightly as his head bumped her knee, but she pulled the canteen from his lips all the same.

  “I told you not to move, Morgan,” she chastised, rubbing at the spot.

  “Come on, it couldn’t have hurt that much,” Morgan said, disbelieving. “I hardly nudged it.”

  “And it still hurt. That should tell you how not in control you are right now. It felt like you’d slugged me full force. Dabu said your control would be shaky right now, so why don’t you take the time to examine yourself and look at your status? Maybe it can give you some insight, as all Dabu had to say was some cryptic mumbo jumbo.”

  Morgan cracked a grin at Sarah’s annoyance.

  “Yeah, he enjoys that a little too much.”

  Sarah’s annoyed expression vanished in an instant, and she smiled back at him, giving his arm a squeeze.

  “I’m just glad to see you alive. You really had me scared there for a few minutes.”

  Morgan noted the subtle tension in her shoulders then, the slight discoloration running in two tracks down her cheeks, and the red tinge in her sclera.

  She’s been crying, he thought, then blinked in surprise. He’d never been that perceptive before.

  “I’m sorry to have worried you so much,” he said flicking his eyes up to meet hers. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about what was happening sooner.”

  Her smile wavered for a moment, but Morgan felt her relax just a bit and noted the tension leave her shoulders.

  “I know that you have a hard time trusting people, but you know that you can trust me of all people, don’t you?”

  “I do,” Morgan answered solemnly. “And I won’t keep anything like this from you again.”

  “Good,” Sarah said, starting to run her fingers through his hair. “Now no more talking. I want you to rest and try to get a handle on what’s changed. When you’re done, I want you to tell me everything.”

  Morgan was about to nod, but stopped himself just in time. Giving her a small smile, he closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her fingers running over his scalp.

  It took him a second to find his core, as it wasn’t on the left side of his chest as he’d been expecting, but instead, now sat at the center. His core looked much the same as it had, but there were some very noticeable changes. For one, the gold had completely vanished from the center, leaving a single purple-black core in its place.

  His core was roughly the same size as before, but it displayed the same characteristics as the divine energy had when he’d gotten it under control. It was completely still. It didn’t pulse lightly as his reiki had previously, or crackle and spark the way the divine energy had when it had been running wild. It sat motionlessly and as he stared, Morgan could see small sparkles of blue and red floating over the surface.

  Was that mana and chi?

  He took in an involuntary gasp of air at the sight, and his core suddenly came to life, thrumming the way his reiki had up until now. Ripples of energy washed out from the core, and began latching onto various parts of his body, a bruise on his left thigh, a small cut on his right forearm, a pulled muscle in his lower back.

  Morgan hadn’t even noticed these injuries, but figured that hitting the ground at the speed he’d been traveling would cause some damage, tough skin or not. Especially so, seeing as he took no action to try and mitigate the damage.

  He took in a half breath, and his core suddenly stopped thrumming, going back to the uncanny stillness of moments before.

  So, he thought, taking in another full breath and watching his core come to life again. Combining reiki and divine energy gave me the attributes of both. He would still receive the revitalizing and healing of the divine energy, as long he kept his breathing in check, but with the added bonus of not blowing up.

  He concentrated on that for a few minutes, filling his lungs all the way and watching as his core thrummed. Once he was fairly confident that he wouldn’t lose his breathing pattern, Morgan focused on pulling up his status. He was sure there’d be some changes, but he was hoping they wouldn’t be too drastic.

  A tendril of the dark purple energy streamed up to his eyes, and a new status flashed into view. It was the same color as his core, and he noted the small shifting sparkles of red and blue moving over its surface.

  Name: Morgan

  Evolved Supermage: Rank - 28

  Energy to next rank - 157,202/807,000

  Ability Advancement: 1,250,478/3,800,000

  Total Available AP: 0

  Ability - Natural Disaster

  RP - 2,000/2,000 (Regen - 20.2 per second)

  Strength - 185

  Agility - 207

  Constitution - 171

  Intelligence - 200

  Wisdom - 202

  Skills - Perfect flight, Explosive impact, Storm blade II, Goldfire, Nature’s wrath

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

  Extra - Gravity storm (2nd category), Starbreaker

  Morgan felt a small sense of relief when he noticed that not much had appeared to change with his skills. His reiki also appeared to be the same and he’d gotten a nice boost to all of his attributes, something which he hadn’t thought possible until he ranked up, or advanced his ability.

  The changes he did see, though, were quite extreme. For one, his ability had changed, and his divine energy, along with all his divine skills, had vanished. He wasn’t too upset about losing Shock-blast, as the skill had been fairly useless, but he was a bit upset about losing his Rage of the Gods skill. Though he probably wouldn’t have used it in a normal battle, it was always good to have a trump card. Sighing, he mentally selected his new ability and was relieved when a new screen flashed before his eyes.

  Ability: Natural Disaster - Control the very power of nature itself.

  Well, that’s helpful, Morgan thought sarcastically. He closed the ability tab, and selected his RP next, curious to see if there were any changes.

  Reiki: The combination of mana and chi, and the purest form of power in the world. You have combined divine energy and reiki, merging two powers that were never meant to exist in the same plane. As such, the imbalance had to be corrected. Your reiki is now the dominant power source and will remain that way indefinitely. Some aspects of the divine energy are still available to you, but you will no longer be able to control it.

  Well, that was a bummer. Not being able to use two dominant energies at once would give him less versatility in battle, but it was better than being dead. He’d done just fine for himself without the divine energy and now that it was gone, he had one less thing splitting his focus. He could now concentrate entirely on ranking up and advancing to the next stage in power. Finally, he opened the last change- his new skill.

  Nature’s wrath - Infuse your b
ody with the energy of the world, and harness the power of nature from your surroundings. This skill has no time limit, but will cause significant strain on the body. It will also drain reiki in ever-increasing amounts the longer it is used.

  Cost - 5 RP per second, cost doubles every five seconds

  Cooldown - 1 hour

  Morgan couldn’t exactly be sure as to what the skill referred to, but judging by the ‘strain it would put on his body’ part, it would increase his physical power. He was still a little upset that his Rage of the Gods skill was gone, but if he was being honest, he probably would never have used it again. The loss of control was too great a price to pay for power.

  Closing his screen, he opened his eyes, seeing Sarah still sitting quietly and stroking his hair. Then she spoke, keeping her tone casual, but Morgan felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise all the same.

  “I noticed that you seem to have a deep cut across the back of your hand. Care to explain?”

  19

  Morgan quickly made some excuse about hurting it when he fell, but judging from Sarah’s expression, she didn’t buy it in the least. Instead, he quickly changed topics to try and divert her attention. He explained the changes he’d discovered in his status as best he could, including the disappearance of his divine energy, as well as the change to his ability.

  Luckily for him, Sarah seemed willing to drop her questions about his hand to focus on his new ability. After listening to everything he had to say, she was convinced that his ability change was a good thing. Before, he’d only had control of two aspects of nature: gravity and air. Now, however, he would be able to control it all…theoretically, of course.

  They spent the next three hours talking about what they should do for the two days before heading into the capital. They decided that spending time in a beast zone would likely be their best bet. Sarah needed to increase her rank, and they both needed to break through to rank 29. Sometime during their conversation, Sarah had removed her knife and set to cutting Morgan’s hair, something for which he was grateful. It had been getting in his eyes too often and Sarah had done such a good job the last time, that he was all too eager to have her do it again.

  “Alright,” Sarah said, placing the knife on the ground and washing his hair off with icy cold water. “I think you’re good to move now, but wait a few seconds before you do. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take some precautions.”

  “No problem,” Morgan said.

  He felt very relaxed at the moment. Despite the freezing water at the end, the haircut had relaxed him very much. He hadn’t realized how much stress he’d been under over the last few days. But now that he thought about it, he’d had certain death hanging over his head the entire time, so who could blame him?

  Sarah slid out from under him, placing his head gently on the ground. She then rose and dusted herself off. Then, her mage shield flared to life, coating her from head to toe. She quickly built a wall of ice, more than three feet thick, building it up to around chest height.

  “Alright, you’re good to go!” she called out, crouching behind the wall.

  Morgan turned his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

  “What?” Sarah said defensively.

  “Nothing,” Morgan replied with a grin.

  He then turned his attention back to his body and began moving slowly. First, wiggling his fingers, curling them into fists and flexing his muscles. He made sure to keep his breathing deep and even the entire time, feeling his core thrumming in response.

  Taking one more deep breath, Morgan rolled quickly to the side and slammed into Sarah’s ice wall over ten feet away, sending a web of fine cracks across it.

  “Watch it!” Sarah exclaimed, quickly pumping water into the cracks and freezing them. “Roll the other way next time!”

  Morgan nodded sheepishly, shocked at how far he’d traveled. He hadn’t meant to do that. All he’d wanted to do was roll onto his side. His core was pulsing faster now, in time with his breath, and he forced himself to slow it in order to get his - for lack of a better term - heart rate down.

  After another minute of deep breathing, his core returned to its calm, pulsing rhythm, and he tried once again to roll onto his side. This time, he was very careful not to make any sudden movements and managed to accomplish his task. Slowly pushing himself to his feet, Morgan wobbled unsteadily for a second, and when he tried to compensate, ended up tearing through the canopy above their heads.

  He landed on the ground with a crash, much to Sarah’s amusement, but found that he barely felt a thing. Morgan assumed that either his skin had become tougher, or his reiki had patched the bruise before it could even begin to form.

  It took him another half hour just to be able to move around without suddenly losing control. Every time he shot off in one direction or another, Sarah would shout out encouragement, or laugh at his predicament. But Morgan was a fast learner, and soon enough, he was walking as he always had, albeit much more carefully. It wasn’t that he was much stronger or faster than before, but that his control seemed to be gone and he would have to re-learn it as he went.

  He did smash into Sarah’s barrier a couple of times though, but luckily for her, it held up just fine.

  “I think you can come out now,” Morgan said after he was sure he wouldn’t hurt her by accident.

  Sarah gave him a dubious look, but when he rolled his eyes and picked up a small chunk of ice without crushing it, she nodded and allowed her shield to drop. The small cubes of ice had been a test of sorts. Sarah had made them on his request, so he could gage when he had some modicum of control.

  The first few times he’d lifted one of the cubes, it had shattered in his grip almost immediately, but as the minutes passed, he was able to hold out for longer before the cracked. Now, he lightly tossed her the ice cube, catching her off guard. She instinctively caught it, marveling that it didn’t hurt at all. Had he thrown that only minutes ago, it might have broken bone.

  “You really are a quick learner,” Sarah said with a smirk, approaching him with a sway to her hips.

  Morgan watched how she walked, picked up the subtle vibrations in the air around her, and heard her heart rate increasing. He knew what she was about to do, and although he wasn’t going to like it, he would bear it for her. After all, she had thought he was dead, and he felt he owed her after putting her through that.

  So when Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, he didn’t resist. The kiss didn’t last very long, only a second or two, but when she pulled back, her cheeks were flushed, and she had a happy smile on her face.

  “Thanks for that,” she said in a low voice. “I know you don’t enjoy it, but I couldn’t help myself. I thought you were dead, and…”

  She cut off as Morgan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. He wasn’t much for hugging either, but knew that she needed the comfort. Despite his lack of an emotional connection with her, his new perception gave him an…insight, that he’d been previously lacking. She needed stability at the moment, and this would give her the strength she needed to get over the emotional turmoil he’d caused.

  He felt her melt into him, squeezing him back and burying her face in his shoulder. She didn’t cry however, merely stood there and held onto him while the sun began setting in the west, sending golden light dancing across the dunes.

  After what felt like an hour, Sarah finally let go and stood back, giving him a bright smile.

  “Maybe you are learning,” she said in a quiet voice.

  She rested her hand on his chest for a few more moments, then reluctantly backed away.

  “So, what now?”

  “Now,” Morgan said, “we train.”

  ***

  Lord Simon stared down at the letter that was handed to him by King Edmund. There were several long pages of scrawling text, along with the Queen of the West’s signature and her royal seal at the bottom.

  Outlined in the letter, were the rules for the Skyflar
e Tournament, as well as the limitations on the North Kingdom’s party due to the ongoing war.

  “They’re only allowing five of us?” he exclaimed, throwing the papers to the table and glowering.

  “I can’t say it’s surprising,” Edmund replied. “Have you gotten ahold of your sister yet? We only have two days until registration, and we need her to be there in person.”

  “Yes, I’ve already tracked her down. Now all we need to do is use one of the scrolls to retrieve her, and another to travel to the West Kingdom.”

  “That will use half our supply,” Edmund said, with a slight downturn of his lips.

  “As invested as she is, I’m sure Loquin will be in the West for the tournament, so getting more shouldn’t be an issue,” Simon replied.

  Edmund hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

  “Very well, I will send you with three of my best. They will travel along with you to Sing’s location, then from there, you will travel to the West.”

  “Two, actually,” Simon replied. He hated to contradict the King, but Sing had someone with her who would be crucial in fetching his daughter.

  Edmund raised an eyebrow, and Simon was quick to explain.

  “Sing is accompanied by the best tracker in the North Kingdom. He may not be a fighter, but we’ll need him if we are to succeed.”

  Edmund stared at him for a long moment, bright violet eyes appraising him, then nodded.

  “Very well. I shall have my two best men accompany you. Now, before you go; are you sure Sing meets the rank requirements?”

  Simon grinned.

  “She’s at the maximum allowed, which is perfect for us.”

  Edmund nodded, then called out to his guards waiting outside. When one of them entered, he ordered his two best men, Luke and Desmond, to pack for a long trip and be in his tent within the hour.