by Aaron Oster
The East Kingdom is the single-most important to sway to our cause. If you can get them on our side, you will have a much easier time with the others.
The Queen’s name is Le’vine, and she is a very powerful fighter. I don’t know much about her champion but seeing as you’re you, there shouldn’t be any problem defeating them. Make an admirable showing and they’ll listen, but win the fight and you’ll earn her respect.
Morgan finished reading the last paragraph, now knowing just a bit more about the East. Judging by how strong the guards on the wall were, he had known they were militaristic, but he hadn’t realized it was their absolute main focus. He’d also never seen big bodies of water before, not counting those inside beast zones or that one lake he’d seen in this very kingdom.
That trip he’d taken with Sarah seemed so long ago now, though it couldn’t have been more than a year and a half. Sarah would be turning eighteen soon, followed just a few weeks later by him. While it was nothing special, it would mark yet another year’s passing where he hadn’t known anything but war.
Once, Morgan never would have thought that he could grow weary of fighting. Not in the academy, not during his fights in beast zones, not even during the Skyflare Tournament. However, his lust for battle had been decreasing ever since his fight with Samuel. He doubted he’d ever have a fight like that again, not even against the Pinnacle King.
Sure, Morgan knew that the Pinnacle King was strong, but somehow, the knowledge that he wasn’t a god made him seem inferior. Perhaps it was less accurate to say he was losing his taste for battle and more accurate to say that he was afraid he’d peaked with that last fight. Ever since then, he hadn’t found a single real challenge.
Even the fights against the stronger monsters in the Pinnacle King’s army, while tough, weren’t life-threatening. Sure, he sustained an injury or two, but nothing that would come close to killing him or even put him in the realm of possibly dying. Now all of the fighting he did was against the massed forces of those weaker than him, those who couldn’t even put up a fight.
Slaughtering those weaker than him had never been something Morgan had enjoyed but up until recently, he’d always been the one on the back foot, fighting to stay ahead, constantly needing to push himself to even greater heights. The fact that he’d barely grown in the past few months had less to do with the fact that he couldn’t and more to do with the fact that he just had no interest.
Katherine had moved up 4 entire ranks in that time, and she wasn’t even trying all that hard. Sarah was now actually higher than him in rank, though she tried to hide it from him in some weird bid to spare his feelings. He honestly didn’t mind if she grew stronger than him. It should be a point of pride, not something to hide.
Morgan quickly slammed his mind shut on that train of thought before it could come back around to his troubles with her, and instead decided to try and enjoy the landscape. The last time he’d traveled here, he’d been forced to slog through marshes and stay hidden, but now there wasn’t really anyone to challenge.
Morgan’s thoughts trailed off as he picked up two flashes of red in his peripheral vision. Turning, he saw two massive beasts winging their way towards him, each of their cores blazing with the intensity of Intermediate beasts, a stage lower than Advanced. He was currently flying over a thick forest, beneath which he now knew contained marshy swampland.
The moon was high overhead, illuminating the night sky. To his eyes, it shone with the same brilliance as the sun. He had no problem seeing the monsters flying towards him, nor reading their information.
Name: Falcon-Tail Sky Snake
Rank - 55
Ability Type - Super
The creatures were both long and sinuous, their bodies stretching to nearly thirty feet. A pair of massive feathered wings protruded from their backs about a third of the way down their bodies and a single pair of short legs, resembling arms more than anything else, protruded from their underbellies closer to their heads.
Their bodies were a reddish-gold in color, their eyes a pitch black with slitted red pupils, and forked tongues flickered in and out as they closed with him. A row of tall spines lined their backs, and on their tails were a plume of bright red feathers, tipped an electric blue.
They were beautiful animals and Morgan felt it would be a shame to have to kill them. However, they were gaining on him fast, meaning that he likely couldn’t outfly them. He wondered what his chances of success were as he mentally prepared himself for battle. On the one hand, they were both 4 ranks higher than him. On the other, they were both at the Intermediate stage, while he was Advanced.
Well, you were just wondering if you’d find a good fight, he thought to himself, feeling his interest piqued.
He didn’t hold out high hopes for an epic battle, but to come up against two such beasts was a small victory. If anything, it would give him the opportunity to fight for fun rather than to win a battle. The beasts were nearly upon him when one of them opened their mouths and a stream of liquid blue fire lit up the night sky.
Morgan rolled to one side, avoiding the attack, only to find himself facing yet another stream, this one green, set to catch him as he avoided the first. He hissed in pain as he felt the fire scorch him, noting an acidic component to the fire as it began to try and eat at his flesh. His shield sprang up a moment later, expanding into the solid violet and gold construct it had become, layering over his skin like armor and blocking the next couple of attacks.
Even now, Morgan could feel his Recovery beginning to work, and the pain numbing as his core became active. Both creatures broke to either side of him, opening their mouths wide and unleashing another stream of fire, this one burning white-hot.
Morgan’s eyes widened when cracks began to form on his shield almost immediately, the scorching heat of their breath attacks beginning to leak through. His heart began to pound then in a way it hadn’t in a long time, and an excited flush began to creep across his skin.
His Maximum Might was still on cooldown, so he’d be getting no speed boosts in the air. Still, he used his Concussive Burst, boosting his strength by a factor of three and rolled to one side, finding the white flames following him as he did so. His shield was nearly gone by now, cracks riddling the outside, even as he tried to fill them in.
Seeing that this was a battle he’d lose if he didn’t act, Morgan rocketed towards one of the snakes, ignoring all defense and going on the offensive. Immediately, the snake’s attack cut off, and it began to try and evade, while the snake from behind moved in, its fiery breath reducing his shield to sparkling motes of light.
Morgan’s fist flashed out, and a blast of compressed air slammed into the snake, clipping its side and tearing loose a patch of scales. However, the damage wasn’t nearly as much as he’d been expecting, and Morgan felt his grin grow even wider. Letting out a whoop, he began pulling evasive maneuvers, trying to avoid the white stream of fire as the shield around him faded completely, leaving him without any defenses other than his armor and tough skin.
All the while, he continued after the other snake, which seemed content with evading him, while its partner peppered him with attacks. He twisted and rolled, firing off his own Compressive Blast over and over, his massively increased Strength propelling the attacks with bone-crushing force.
Still, the snake was agile and slippery, managing to dodge most attacks and mitigate the damage. Morgan knew he had to close, dodging once more and feeling his skin crisping under the intense heat from the other’s attack. Gritting his teeth, he tried to pull another hard change in direction, but the snake anticipated this and unleashed a spray of emerald flames.
They burned into him, melting through his armor and skin, and sent pain signals to his brain, which he quickly numbed using his core. His fists flashed out in rapid succession, firing off compressed blasts of air, yet the other snake continued avoiding the attacks. Morgan changed direction then, breaking off from the first and closing with the attacking beast. Caught off
guard, it wasn’t able to avoid his attack.
Morgan let out a shout as he sent out another blast of air, this one in a cloud before him. He wasn’t confident he’d be able to hit the snake with the thinner and more powerful attack, so blasting the area was his best bet.
The snake was caught in the attack, the air knocking it back and tearing more scales from its side. Morgan was after it in a flash. The wind around him howled as he summoned a glowing violet sword, catching the construct in his open palm and swinging for the snake’s head. The beast twisted, hissing in pain as the oscillating blade sliced deep into its side, sending a spray of blood raining down to the ground below.
As the snake twisted, its tail came around and slammed into his chest. Morgan had not at all been anticipating this. The fact that they’d been fighting a defensive and ranged battle had lulled him into the false assumption that they would try and avoid close-quarters combat. However, seeing as they were supers, he shouldn’t have allowed himself to make that assumption in the first place.
And now, he was going to pay for that mistake.
The air whooshed from his lungs, and Morgan felt his ribs straining to stay intact as the powerful tail collided with his body. The worst was yet to come, though, as Morgan found out just a moment later when the snake’s tailfeathers began to glow.
12
Even through the pain, Morgan could recognize the danger as the tailfeathers grew brighter and brighter. He had maybe a second to act, and in that time, Morgan threw up a defensive construct, the most basic one he could think of in the short amount of time he had. A violet shield flared between his face and the glowing tail, just before it exploded.
The flash of blue and red was nearly blinding, and the massive impact cracked several of his ribs, sending him hurtling from the sky. Smoke billowed from his body as he fell, leaving a visible trail.
Morgan coughed, tasting blood and feeling his chest constrict painfully, his broken bones grinding together in a very unpleasant way. He’d managed to avoid the worst of it, as witnessed by the cracked and smoking construct floating before his face. The pain he felt from his broken ribs was only somewhat numbed, signaling that he was nearing the end of what his core could do on its own.
Though he needed a moment or two to collect himself, the snakes weren’t going to give him that. A bright flash of white from his right forced Morgan to roll, avoiding the liquid fire by a hair’s breadth. His senses screamed out a warning, and he dropped from the air, free-falling a dozen feet and narrowly avoiding the tail of the same snake who’d attacked before.
He lashed out with a punch to one side, finally catching one of the snakes with a solid blow as it tried to close. The compressed air slammed into one of the snake’s wings and punched straight through. The beast hissed in pain, plummeting from the sky as blood streamed from the damaged appendage.
Still having no time to rest, Morgan dove down after it, pursued by the first who’d begun breathing white fire once again. He dodged and rolled, desperately trying to avoid being burned, but couldn’t avoid all of its attacks. His legs were singed before he coated them in armor constructs, which began to degrade even faster than his shield had.
He had an advantage, as he’d put himself between the pursuing snake and the falling one, meaning that if it didn’t want to hurt its partner, the attacking snake would need to be careful. Morgan pulled another change in direction, switching his downward dive to an upward one in the span of a second.
The G-forces pressed down on him, gravity fighting to push him down, while his skills forced his upward. The snake tried to avoid his attack, but at that moment, Morgan triggered the Supersonic sub-skill. Space seemed to warp around him as he rocketed forward, an oversized lance whirling around his body and turning him into a makeshift drill.
He felt the impact as he sliced into the beast, and when he forced himself to stop just a second later, the monster was falling in two pieces, its two halves shredded beyond recognition. Still having a few seconds left on his Supersonic Flight, Morgan dove downward, which, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best idea.
The thump and crack of his impact with the snake was followed a second later by the ground, which very obligingly caught him as he slammed into it face-first. Mud and swampy water rose around him and for a moment or two, Morgan was too disoriented to act, not knowing up from down.
The mud closed in all around him, pressing him from all sides, trying to work itself into his mouth and lungs. He gathered himself and shot up, his flight skill running out just as he reached the surface. He came up, spluttering, cursing and coughing, soaked through and covered from head to toe in clinging, reeking mud. He continued cursing as the pain began to set in, and his adrenaline faded.
Wiping mud from his face, Morgan blinked a few times, trying to get his bearings. The bodies of the two beasts lay near him, bleeding out and still twitching, while water rose all around him. Though he’d gotten himself mostly free, Morgan was still buried up to his waist in mud. He’d also apparently created a miniature crater with his impact.
He had no idea how deep down he gone but knew that if he didn’t leave now, the water would soon be rising over his head. Pulling himself from the clinging mud using his flight, Morgan floated over to a relatively dry spot and collapsed, finally allowing the pain from his injuries to fully set in.
Groaning quietly, he began to strip out of his sodden and clinging clothes. It would do him no good to keep them on when they were covered in mud. However, as soon as he began tugging at his gloves, he remembered his Rupture skill. He felt like smacking himself in the head for forgetting one of his main skills and chalked it up to his injuries.
It only took him a couple of seconds to remove all the dirt, mud and other sediment from his clothes and body, leaving him with only the water element. He might have control over earth, but the water was another matter. Although he was now free of mud, Morgan was still soaking wet.
The temperature outside wasn’t too bad, but he knew that once he started flying, it would get much colder. He snorted then, realizing that he felt fine and decided to simply leave the clothes on. If temperatures below zero – the Pinnacle King’s power excluded – wouldn’t bother him, then flying with wet clothes would be fine.
Instead of worrying about that, he instead turned his attention to his injuries. Feeling gingerly at his ribs, Morgan began to count. Four were broken, another one was fractured, and there was some deep bruising.
Well, that’s likely why it hurts to breathe right now, he thought wryly.
The burning sensations coming from his arms and legs were secondary, as his core was numbing most of that pain. Despite the fact that his limbs hurt less, he still went to check out what the damage was. His sturdy armor had managed to absorb most of the damage but there were some tattered spots in his clothing, meaning that he’d need to change at some point before meeting the Queen of the East.
Not gonna do that now, though, he thought, lying back down and staring up to the sky through the swaying trees.
Though he wanted to do nothing more than to simply lay there and rest, he knew he couldn’t afford such luxuries. He didn’t feel much like standing up, so he simply floated up off the ground, righting himself and finding the most comfortable position as he made his way over to the corpses of the fallen beasts.
He rooted around for a moment or two before retrieving their cores, the fist-sized spheres of red and blue energy shining in the dim confines of the forest.
Name: Falcon-Tail Sky Snake Core
Rank - 55
Total available energy: 600,500/600,500
This core was taken from a Falcon-Tail Sky Snake. As this core was taken from an Intermediate beast, the amount of available energy has been greatly increased.
Morgan was surprised by how much energy was contained in just a single one of these cores. Seeing as they’d been Intermediate beasts, confirmed by the fact that their cores held no AP, he’d expected a lot less. The Infernal-Bane Lyver
n had given nearly two-hundred-thousand less energy back when he’d gotten the original core from Katherine.
Maybe the energy increases the further they advance past 50? Morgan wondered, pocketing the core and going to fetch the other.
This one had slightly more energy, giving him a grand total of 1,228,640 energy, enough to push him a quarter of the way to his next rank.
Wanting nothing more than to stretch his sore muscles but needing to resist the urge due to his injuries, Morgan took off into the sky once more, feeling better now than he had in weeks. That battle, though tough, had given him what he’d needed more than anything, a challenge. There’d been a high chance he could have died during that battle, and he’d persevered, coming out on top.
With a much lighter heart, he aimed himself towards the capital once again and picked up his pace. He’d lost some time with that battle and would now need to make it up. In his mind, it had all been worth it!
Morning found him flying above a sparkling expanse of water, the largest one in the East Kingdom, the Diamond River. In all his life, Morgan had yet to see such a beautiful sight. The water was a dark blue, small rippling waves marring its otherwise smooth surface and stretched for miles on end.
He’d begun his flight over the water about an hour ago and still couldn’t see the opposite bank. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the sun warmed his back as it rose, giving him an odd sense of tranquility. He’d passed over several boats and small islands along the way, but with all the flying beasts around, he’d likely be dismissed as one of them.
Though he’d encountered plenty of beasts, none had bothered him thus far, though it was no great mystery as to why. Unlike the snakes he’d run into during the night, these were far weaker. For the most part, those flying over the river were simply enlarged birds, Basic and Evolved beasts going about the business.