by Aaron Oster
Name: ???
Rank - 22
Ability type - ???
“I don’t know,” Morgan replied, more than a little shocked that his skill had given him so little information on the creature. “All I know is that it’s rank 22, and it might be an Intermediate beast. Aside from that, your guess is as good as mine.”
The beast snarled at them, then tilted its head up and howled into the night sky. Morgan felt his skin prickle when the wolf - he assumed it was a wolf anyway - did that. And he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise when the creature got a response.
Within seconds, the entire city was filled with the sound of howling beasts, and Morgan knew that they had a decision to make. Fight or flight. Before he could ask Sarah for her opinion, a barrage of Icicle tridents flew past him and slammed into the wolf. They shattered on impact, tearing huge gouges in the beast’s side, and sending up sprays of inky blackness as they did.
The beast howled in rage and the snakes hissed right along with it, but Sarah’s attack had shown him one thing. These beasts, while twisted, could be hurt. He still wasn’t sure what was wrong with them, but if they could be killed, they might glean some information from its core.
Morgan used his Storm blade, charging it as soon as it formed. Purple and gold lightning flashed across the cone of condensed air as it spun faster and faster. Then, he used Explosive impact, launching himself at the beast and driving the lightning-charged lance into its skull.
The head exploded in a shower of gore and black smoke, and the discharge from the lance cooked the four snakes in an instant. Dismissing his blade, Morgan stared down at the beast in surprise. For what he assumed to be an Intermediate level beast the same rank as him, it had gone down way too easily.
The wolf’s corpse began to disintegrate rapidly until only its core remained.
“What the hell is that?” Sarah asked, not for the first time that night.
Morgan had to agree with her. The core looked similar to beast cores they’d seen until now, but with one major difference. Along with the swirling red and blue inside the core, small spots of gold danced around inside.
Stooping, Morgan snatched the core up and was about to examine it, when there was a howl from what he judged to be a few blocks over.
He debated staying and fighting, but it was dark out, and although the wolf had gone down pretty quickly, that wasn’t to say it would be that easy with the next one. Plus, judging the myriad of answering cries, there were a lot more of them than they could safely handle at the moment.
He turned and grabbed Sarah by the wrist, then took off for the hiding spot they’d seen earlier. Sarah stumbled as he began running, caught off guard by his sudden movement, but it only took a few seconds before she was running alongside him. They ran swiftly, hearing the harrowing cries of the wolves chasing them all the while.
They made it into the crack and placed their backs to the walls on either side, allowing their shields to vanish. It would only serve to give away their position. Peering out from the crack, Morgan watched as no fewer than twenty wolf creatures, each twisted in their own way, bounded into the courtyard.
He couldn’t make out much detail, but by the light of the half-moon overhead, he could see the same inky blackness oozing off them. Sarah peered out as well, and the two of them watched in silence as the creatures wandered about the courtyard, sniffing around and growling at one another.
Morgan really hoped that they couldn’t be tracked by scent, otherwise, they would be forced to fight whether they wanted to or not. They sat in silence for nearly an hour, muscles tensed and ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. The wolves came dangerously close to their hiding spot, one actually turning its glowing red eyes on the crack in the building. It had started moving towards them when a distant howl caught its attention.
The others answered the beast’s call, and within seconds, the courtyard had completely emptied of the strange beasts.
Both Morgan and Sarah let out explosive breaths, then slumped slowly to the ground. They were both exhausted after standing tensed up for so long and were more than ready to go to sleep. Before they were able to comfortably do so, Morgan pulled the still glowing core of the twisted beast from his pocket.
“You mind if I take a look before you try and absorb it?” Sarah asked.
Morgan shrugged and tossed the core over to her. Snatching it deftly out of the air, Sarah stared at it for a few seconds. Then her brows came together in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Morgan asked when she looked back up.
“I can’t open its properties. That’s never happened before.”
“You mind if I try?” he asked, and Sarah shrugged.
“Go right ahead. Maybe you’ll have more luck than me.”
Catching the core, Morgan tried opening its properties, but just as with Sarah, nothing happened. His brows drew together as he tried to figure out what could possibly be blocking them. He was almost sure that the gold flecks in the core were divine energy, the same type he’d gained after his evolution, so he figured that he should have been able to see what its properties.
The answer came to him suddenly, and he grinned widely. Concentrating inward, he pulled a small tendril of his divine energy along with his reiki and tried viewing the core once again. It wasn’t easy, as the divine energy squirmed and wriggled in his mental grasp, but at last, he managed it. This time when he tried to view the core’s properties, there was a minor flash of pain behind his eyes, but it still opened all the same.
Name: Corrupted Snake-Tailed Wolf Core
Rank - 22
Total available energy: 33,000/33,000
This core was taken from a snake-tailed wolf. Experimentation with divine energy has corrupted this wolf and made its energy unstable. Absorbing it may be dangerous for anyone lacking in divine energy, but will be highly beneficial for those who are able to do so.
Closing its status, he gave Sarah a triumphant grin.
“It’s called a snake-tailed wolf. Apparently, some experimentation with divine energy has corrupted it somehow, though I’m not exactly sure why.”
“Can you absorb it?” she asked, looking both intrigued and troubled.
In answer, the core turned to dust in his hands and the energy flowed into him. Morgan shuddered as the energy entered his body, gritting his teeth as pain wracked him for a moment. It felt as though all his nerves had been set on fire at once, and his head felt as though it were going to split open. Then the pain vanished all at once, leaving him panting and out of breath.
Sarah was at his side in an instant, placing a hand on his shoulder and looking worried.
“Are you okay? What just happened?”
Morgan’s eyes opened and Sarah let out a gasp as golden lightning flickered across his irises for a second, before returning back to their usual violet color.
“I’m fine. It’s just pain,” Morgan replied.
“How do you feel?” she asked, watching carefully for any sign of that golden light again.
Morgan opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. He looked confused for a few seconds, then grinned.
“I feel great! Better than I have in a while, actually. It’s almost as though my entire body is packed full of energy. I feel like I could fight that entire pack of wolves on my own!”
“Any changes to your status?”
“I haven’t checked yet, but I’m assuming I’ll be seeing some changes.”
Sarah nodded, looking him over once more.
“Well, you seem to be alright. Would you mind taking the first watch? I’m exhausted, and want to get some sleep.”
“Aren’t you in the least bit curious about what I’ll find?” Morgan asked as Sarah made her way a bit deeper into the small cave-like room they were in.
“I can find out when you wake me for my turn at watch. Four hours should be enough,” she replied, pulling one of their winter coats from the bag and spreading it out on the grou
nd.
She curled up on top of it. Then, without further prompting, she was out like a light.
Morgan shook his head in wonder when he saw that. It was interesting how she’d just assumed he would take the first watch, then went right to sleep.
He snorted to himself. It didn’t matter. With the energy coursing through him right now, he wouldn’t be able to sleep, even if he wanted to try. Focusing inward, he could see that the crackling ball of golden power in the center of his core was now just a bit larger, and when it sparked, sent small jolts of power through his entire core. Pulling a tendril of that power up to his eyes, Morgan opened his status, excited to see if there were any changes.
Name: Morgan
Evolved Supermage: Rank - 22
Energy to next rank - 34,344/149,000
Ability Advancement: 185,091/3,800,000
Total Available AP: 0
Ability - Divine Gravity & Air
RP - 1,540/1,540 (Regen - 15.4 per second)
DV - 80/80 (Regen - 0.8 per minute)
Strength - 145
Agility - 161
Constitution - 150
Intelligence - 154
Wisdom - 154
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 immediately noted that his divine energy had increased by a significant amount. More so than any rank up had done before. He also noted with some excitement, the new skill that had appeared. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d gotten it, as there was no rank up or breakthrough, but he wasn’t about to complain.
Goldfire - Manipulate gravity and air to create flames using your divine power.
Cost - 50 RP + 5 DV
Cooldown - 5 seconds
Now, this was something completely different. This was a skill that required the use of both his reiki and his divine energy, though he wasn’t entirely sure how the manipulation of gravity and air could cause fire.
Maybe it worked in the same way as his Starbreak skill.
Morgan checked to see how much it would cost to upgrade and whistled softly at the massive cost.
Goldfire - 2/95
He wondered why the cost was so high, but figured it had something to do with the skill’s power. While the cooldown time was fairly low, it would take 5 DV to activate it each time, and since his DV regenerated less than 1 per minute, he only had a finite amount of attacks.
Closing his status, Morgan leaned back, smiling softly to himself. He would have to test the skill, of course, but if absorbing one wolf core gave him such a massive increase to his divine energy, then killing a whole bunch of them should give him more. And luckily for him, this city was packed full of the mangled beasts.
12
Morgan groaned as Sarah shook his shoulder. He’d woken her for watch after five hours instead of four, so he’d only gotten around three hours of sleep.
“Come on lazybones, wake up. We’ve got places to be, and beasts to kill.”
“Can’t we kill them later?” he asked sleepily, trying to brush her off. “It’s not like they’re going anywhere.”
“We can,” Sarah said, but after a moment added, “I can also give you an early morning bath to help you get up.”
Morgan’s eyes snapped open and he was on his feet in an instant, prompting a fit of laughter from Sarah.
“You know, one of these days I might just light you on fire for all the times you’ve drenched me,” he grumbled as her laugh rang out inside the small room.
“Ooh, getting kind of unnecessarily morbid, aren’t we?” Sarah asked, still chuckling.
“Not when you mess with my sleep, it isn’t,” he replied, rubbing at his eyes.
Sarah just shook her head and gestured outside.
“So, where do you think we’ll find answers? Is anything coming back to you now that we’re here?”
Morgan shook his head, walking out through the crack in the stone. He squinted in the early morning light and waited for his eyes to adjust.
Looking around the destroyed courtyard, Morgan could only see one path going forward; a once wide block that was now covered in rubble and half blocked by a building that had collapsed in the center.
“So, what was up with your status. Anything new?” Sarah asked, walking up next to him and chewing on a cracker.
She opened her mouth to take another bite, but Morgan snatched it away from her and popped it into his mouth instead. She glared at him, fishing another one from the bag and biting into it with a loud crunch.
“Yes, actually,” he answered once he’d finished chewing. “My divine energy got a significant increase, and I got a new skill.”
“Ooh, look at you! Getting new skills and finding new ways to kill people,” Sarah joked, punching him lightly in the arm.
“Yeah, yay me,” Morgan replied dryly.
He ignored Sarah’s pretend glare, and started making his way across the courtyard to the path leading deeper into the Ruined City. Now that it was light out, the oppressive feeling of the previous evening had lessened somewhat, though it hadn’t completely vanished.
They left the courtyard, walking onto the half-blocked road and headed deeper into the city. From his memories, Morgan knew that the city was very large, and he remembered the worst of the damage being around the middle of the city. This meant one of two things. Either there was some sort of accident inside the city, rather than some outside force, or, whatever had struck the city had had perfect aim.
Morgan had a feeling it was the former, as the latter was highly improbable. The two of them moved silently between destroyed houses and buildings, noting that some sections had been turned completely to glass. After more than thirty minutes of walking, Morgan was actually starting to wonder about the apparent lack of beasts.
Last night, the city had been full of them. Now, however, there appeared to be none. It was as though they had simply vanished.
“You notice the lack of any beasts?” he asked Sarah, just as they were rounding a corner.
Sarah’s eyes widened, and Morgan felt like face-palming after he caught a glimpse of what Sarah had seen. Of course a beast would show up as soon as he asked about them.
Turning his head, he gritted his teeth in annoyance.
Nope, not a beast, but a lot of beasts.
“This is your fault, you know,” Sarah said as they both activated their shields.
The pack of seven corrupted wolves all growled at them, fanning out to try and flank them.
Well, Morgan thought, keeping his eyes trained on the ones moving to the sides. Now is a good a time as any to see what this new skill can dish out.
“Sarah, get back!” he yelled, holding his arm out and using Goldfire.
His wrist turned up however, and instead of a ball of fire launching at the enemy, the air swirled around over his palm. He felt both reiki and divine energy flow through him, and the air suddenly heated to an almost unbelievable degree.
A small purple flame, tinged with gold appeared floating over his palm then, and Morgan stared at it in confusion.
What the hell was he supposed to do with this?
Then, all at the same time, almost as one, the wolves howled and pounced. Not having any idea what to do with the fire, Morgan did the only thing he could think of. He pulled his arm back and threw the energy and fire. The candle flame-sized attack sailed in a graceful arc, tracing a line of gold through the air before it came into contact with one of the wolves.
“Holy shit!” Sarah yelled, as the tiny flame suddenly exploded into a five-foot sphere of roaring golden fire.
It only lasted a handful of seconds, but when the flames died down, only the core remained.
“Holy shit is right!” Morgan replied, staring in awe.
That was one hell of a skill.
It was almost
like a scaled down version of starbreak, but it wasn’t quite the same. Starbreak also exuded an intense amount of gravity, and this skill only burned. But boy, did it do its own job well!
The other wolves had shied away from the attack and were now watching them with wary gazes. Morgan couldn’t be entirely sure of it, but he was fairly certain that this particular attack would be especially damaging to these corrupted beasts.
“Alright! Let’s take them down!” he yelled, feeling a grin stretching his lips.
Launching himself at the wolf on the far right, Morgan drove a closed fist into the side of its head. The wolf snarled as his fist impacted with a crack of bone, but swiped back with its left forepaw, tearing right through his shield, and ripping a strip in his armor. Morgan ducked another attack and spun in place, slamming his foot into the creature’s ribs.
The beast began leaking that inky substance again, and it howled in pain. Morgan was about to finish it off, when he got the sudden sense that something was coming at him from behind. He threw himself to the side, just in time to dodge an attack, as a pair of corrupted wolves pounced, their rotting teeth snapping closed on the thin air, where he was just standing.
A wave of razor icicles flew past him then, skewering three wolves and shedding their bodies to bloody chunks.
Morgan glared back at Sarah, who just twiddled her fingers at him, then held out a hand and formed no less than fifteen javelins made of ice. He turned, seeing that she was aiming at the other three wolves, all of which had clustered together and were advancing slowly.
He grinned at her, then used Explosive impact.
To Sarah’s eyes, Morgan seemed to appear in the midst of an already dead pack of wolves, but she knew better.
She glared at him, but he just pointed at the field of razor ice, as if to say, you took mine, so it’s only fair.
Morgan then stooped and collected the three cores, shoving them into his pockets. He would absorb them later, but for now, they needed to keep moving.
He floated over the field of ice to retrieve the other cores, while Sarah fetched the last one from the wolf he’d incinerated before.