Skyflare (Rise To Omniscience Book 3)

by Aaron Oster

  He was forced to release his Nature’s wrath at that point, as the pain became too much of a burden on his already strained body. Finally managing to catch himself, Morgan leaned over, retching as blood and bile coated his throat. His entire body was a mass of bruises, and he was sure he had at least one ruptured internal organ, based on the searing pain he was feeling from his side. He coughed again, spitting out a wad of blood, and began searching the air around him for the wyvern.

  There was a loud whoosh of air from above him, and only one thing saved Morgan from dying this time: his Supersonic flight. He barely had enough RP to use it, but activated it without thinking. There was a loud boom of displaced air as he rocketed to the side; breaking the sound barrier. He could feel the countdown in his head as his reiki drained down to almost zero, and whirled around to face the wyvern.

  He was completely shocked when he discovered the wyvern was several hundred feet away, and grinned as he realized how quickly he’d had to move in order to achieve that distance in such a short amount of time. As the wyvern righted itself, an idea came to him, one so crazy that it might actually work. Either that, or kill him.

  Morgan breathed deeply, despite the pain it caused, as he formed the oversized sword still clutched in his fingers into a massive lance. He flared the bottom half until it was wide enough to encompass his entire body. This process took about five seconds, leaving him with just about two seconds before his skill’s timer ran out. He took one more deep breath to steady his nerves, then he exploded through the air, sending out a shockwave behind him as he did so.

  He covered the distance between him and the wyvern before he knew what was happening, and was forcing himself to stop just a moment later. Spinning in the air, Morgan heard another loud boom as the sound of his passage finally reached him. What astonished him most however, was that his plan seemed to have worked.

  Even as he dropped from the air, shrinking his lance down to a glove once more, the wyvern fell from the sky, streaming a trail of blood behind it from the massive hole he’d drilled right through its body.

  42

  Simon watched the entire fight between Morgan and the beast with astonishment. Judging by the performance he’d seen displayed the day before, he’d been sure that Morgan was a weakling compared to the others. So much so, in fact, that when one of the judges had approached and asked if the North would have an issue if they lifted the ban on flight-related skills, Simon had agreed right away.

  By now it was common knowledge that the boy could fly, but given his seeming lack of talent, no one had taken him seriously. He couldn’t place all the blame on himself however, as both the East and South had agreed to allow the skill ban to be lifted as well. His fist clenched on his mug, shattering the wood and sending wine streaming down his hand.

  It wasn’t just the use of his flight skill that was helping him, though. Morgan seemed to have an uncanny knack for tracking beasts, and was leading in kills and overall rank totals- and now that he’d killed the wyvern, in Advanced beast kills as well. The area they were in was massive, nearly forty square miles. The fact that anyone had come across one of the ten beasts placed in there was shocking in and of itself, but the fact that Morgan had defeated a beast 5 ranks above him should have been impossible!

  The crowd was going wild, and even the nobles from the competing Kingdoms were applauding. Had it been anyone else, Simon would have joined them. The feat Morgan had just accomplished would be remembered for years to come. His mood turned even more sour as the screens panned over the West Kingdom’s box, showing the smug face of the Queen.

  If anything, the crowd’s cheers grew louder when they saw her, and she put her hand up in the air, extending three fingers. The cheering grew louder and the screens switched back to Morgan, who had just landed and was limping over to the dead wyvern. Anyone could see that he would be done after this fight, and with just under three hours left, they might still pull off a win.

  ***

  Morgan winced as he landed, being careful not to put any weight on his injured leg, and more hopped than hobbled over to the dead wyvern. He coughed, tasting blood in his mouth, and winced when he breathed a little too deeply. Groaning, Morgan slumped down near the dead beast, and reached out to touch the two glowing purple spheres that had detached themselves from its legs. They vanished, raising his point total by 200 more points.

  Since they didn’t explode, he knew the beast was dead, so he leaned wearily up against its back. His eyes began drooping as exhaustion claimed him, but he forced them back open knowing that it would be unwise to go to sleep when he was in such a state. His best option right now would be to head for the light at the center of the zone, and leave. He desperately needed to see a healer.

  Digging the rectangular piece of metal from his pack, Morgan pressed a bloody thumb into the center, noting that a little under three hours remained. Grimacing, he packed it away, pulling the canteen out instead and taking a small sip. He winced as the water streamed down his throat, but when he managed to keep it down, took another small sip.

  He began to feel a lot better as he drank, and quickly used Aura sense, spreading his perception out over the area. His fight would have attracted a lot of attention, so it was unwise for him to stick around for too long. At this point, he knew that he couldn’t leave yet. There was still way too much time remaining for him to quit, and despite his injuries, he could still fight so long as the beasts weren’t too strong.

  The air around him came alive, and he quickly searched around for his competitors. It took him a few moments to locate them and when he did, he immediately forced himself off the ground. He floated rather than putting his weight on his bad leg, and quickly flew along the wyvern’s corpse, searching for its core.

  It only took him a few seconds to locate it, by which point the other three had closed the gap even further. Digging his hand into the dead beast, Morgan tore the glowing core from its chest, shaking it free of the clinging gore, then took to the air, flying north as fast as he could. There was still a gap between Sing and Arnold, and if he moved fast enough, he could completely avoid them both.

  As he closed the distance, his breathing gradually grew less strained, and it looked as though he would make it in time. Of course, things couldn’t work out that easily though. A beast resembling some sort of eagle plunged from above, raking its talons across his back. Morgan screamed as the white-hot pain flashed across his skin, and nearly lost his concentration on the skill keeping him airborne. He’d been so focused on clearing the entrapment, that he’d completely ignored his surroundings.

  He twisted violently to the side, his Stormforged glove slamming into one of the beast’s wings and breaking the delicate bones with a loud snap. The beast screeched, falling from the air, trailing feathers and blood. Morgan caught a brief glimpse of white as it fell, meaning that this beast was carrying a 5 point sphere.

  Deciding that it just wasn’t worth it, Morgan continued flying, wincing as he felt hot blood coating his back from the line of slashes left behind by the sneak attack. Clenching his teeth, Morgan angled right as he saw that he wouldn’t make it in time, and decided that he would rather Arnold spot him than Sing.

  As far as he knew, the man had no ranged attacks that could hit him at his current height. He cursed the damn bird anyway, pulling hard to the right as he sensed Sing changing her direction. Then, he saw him. Arnold was running below, eyes fixed on the spot where he and the beast had fought just moments before.

  Morgan hoped that the man wouldn’t look up, although movement did tend to catch the eye. Especially when someone was moving as fast as Morgan was. He saw Arnold opening his mouth, but he didn’t stop, instead, pulling his arms to his sides and trying to fly faster. He’d attempted to use his Explosive impact earlier to increase his speed, but discovered that while his strength had increased, his speed no longer received a boost as it did on the ground.

  He wasn’t sure why that was, but figured that it probably had to do wi
th his body’s limitations. He rolled to the side as Arnold sent a half-hearted attack his way, but as he’d predicted, the attack never reached him. Grinning despite the pain, Morgan searched for the closest beast he thought he could take down without too much effort. He had three hours left, which meant he had to kill as many beasts as he could.

  Stumbling out of the portal and into the arena, Morgan slumped tiredly to the ground. His entire body ached so much that he could hardly maintain the concentration he needed to stay airborne. Thankfully, Eric must have seen it, as he was by his side as soon as he emerged.

  “Good to see you still alive and kicking,” the man said, giving him a smile.

  “Glad to be alive,” Morgan wheezed, lying back on the ground as Eric began working on him.

  “That was one hell of a show you gave us with the wyvern,” Eric continued. “Shame Sing managed to kill one as well, so I’m not really sure how the points will be distributed.”

  Morgan grunted in response, feeling as the horrific pain which had defined the last three hours of his existence, slowly faded away.

  “I don’t know how you managed to keep fighting with these injuries,” Eric commented as he continued working. “Though by this point, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise.”

  Another grunt.

  “You will have to tell me how you kept going as long as you did though,” he continued. “I understand pushing yourself for a fight or two, but to fight another sixteen beasts after you were injured is just not normal!”

  “I had to win this one,” Morgan finally answered, his breathing much more easy now.

  “That you did, but I would advise you from pushing yourself this hard again. There’s only so much my healing can do and if your injuries are too severe, there may be permanent damage.”

  Morgan nodded as Eric helped him back to his feet. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, but he still had to go up on stage and listen to the end of day ceremony. He didn’t worry about causing himself any permanent injuries, as his Recovery trait would heal any injury within 10 hours of his receiving it- so long as he survived, that was.

  Groaning, Morgan forced himself up the stairs, and was glad to see that he hadn’t been the only one who’d been injured. The other three looked just as worn out as he was, more so than him in Marsha’s case. They faced the announcer as the judges conferred with one another before passing down their judgment, which was delivered via a messenger that ran up to hand it to him.

  “Let’s hear it for our champions! They put on a spectacular show once again, and have done each of their Kingdoms proud. There is one however, who truly stood out today! Let’s hear it for him, folks!”

  Morgan looked wearily around, just wishing for it all to end so he could get some sleep, when the screens unexpectedly focused on him. The first thing he noticed was how ragged he looked. His uniform was tattered and bloody, his hair was plastered to his head in sweaty strands and he looked about ready to fall over. Then, he realized that the crowd was cheering for him!

  The crowd’s cheering grew louder, as the screens replayed a small clip from his fight with the wyvern, where he’d drilled straight through the beast. He watched in fascination as he disappeared from view, only to reappear a moment later on the other side of the wyvern. Then again, as the beast fell from the sky, seemingly in slow motion.

  The cheering redoubled as the screens focused back on David and he waited for them to quiet down.

  “Now, for the allocation of the bonuses. For the most beasts killed, the first 500 point bonus goes to…Morgan, who killed a total of thirty-nine!”

  A smile touched Morgan’s lips as the points were added, but strangely enough, the large screens weren’t displaying the point totals. He figured this was more for showmanship and that they would show them once the final bonus was handed out.

  “For the highest rank total, the next 500 point bonus goes to…” He stopped here, and cupped one of his ears as though asking the crowd.

  A second later, Morgan’s name reverberated around the arena, and he felt his smile widen just a bit more.

  “That’s right! With a total of 1,209 ranks added over the beasts he killed, Morgan receives the second 500 point bonus! Now, for the last bonus, we have a tie. Since both Morgan and Sing each killed a single Advanced beast, the judges have decided to nullify the thousand point bonus rather than splitting it.”

  The crowd booed at that, but the announcer remained unflustered, keeping his grin the entire time.

  “Don’t worry, folks, there will be another challenge tomorrow. It is perhaps the most anticipated one of the tournament. The battle royal!”

  The booing quickly changed to cheers at that proclamation, and David gestured to the largest screen in the arena where the competitor’s names appeared once again, along with their point totals. Morgan’s eyes started at the bottom, and slowly moved up as he checked the leaderboard.

  Marsha was in fourth place, with 2,845 points, Arnold was in third with 3,025 points and… Morgan’s eyes widened as he saw that he was now tied for first with Sing, each of them having a total of 3,420 points. He noticed Sing’s previously smug look vanish when she saw the totals and turned to glare at him, but he ignored her.

  He was way too excited. Now all he had to do was win in tomorrow’s challenge, and he would receive the information the Queen had promised. And even if she did try to go back on her word, he would still have the Skyflare.

  “Well, that wraps it up for today, ladies and gentlemen! Until tomorrow, where the champion will be crowned!”

  Morgan walked off the stage, heading for the door set into the side of the arena wall that led to his room. He was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get some sleep.

  43

  Sarah didn’t even bother hugging him this time when he entered, instead pinching her nose and pointing straight to the bathroom. Morgan didn’t mind in the slightest. He just grinned tiredly, dropping the small pack with the cores he’d collected on the ground and headed for the bathroom. When he emerged a few minutes later, he found that Sarah had already separated the cores into two piles: the ones he could use, and the ones he couldn’t.

  Unfortunately for him, the pile of cores that were usable to him was quite small, containing only six of the thirty-nine he’d collected. All the rest were under rank 33, and therefore of little use to him.

  “How much am I looking at in total?” he asked, sitting down across from her with a groan and reaching for the largest one.

  “Just over 250,000,” Sarah replied.

  Morgan grimaced at that, realizing that it still wouldn’t be enough to push his ability into the next stage. He wouldn’t be far off, though, and maybe once the tournament was over, he’d finally be able to advance. Opening the core’s status, Morgan looked it over.

  Name: Azure-Crystal Wyvern Core

  Rank - 38

  Total available energy: 61,900/61,900

  Total available AP: 28/28

  This core was taken from an azure-crystal wyvern. As this core was taken from an advanced beast, the amount of available energy has been massively increased.

  “Looks like there’s a significant difference between a rank 38 and a rank 39 core,” Morgan noted as he absorbed the energy and put it towards advancing his ability.

  “Yeah, I noticed that as well,” Sarah said as he absorbed the cores one by one. “There also seems to be a huge difference once the cores get higher into the 40’s as well.”

  Morgan nodded, remembering well the rank 49 core that Katherine had left for them when she’d thought she was dying. The amount of energy in that core had been staggering.

  “So…” Sarah said after a few more moments of silence. “Have you figured out how we’re going to get away tomorrow?”

  Morgan nodded. He’d figured it out during today’s challenge. It was such simple idea that he’d kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner.

  “We go into a staged beast zone. The same one we were trapped in last
time.”

  Sarah’s expression grew sheepish when he said that, and her cheeks tinged a light pink in embarrassment.

  “The portal on the final stage, how could I have forgotten?!” she exclaimed.

  Their escape route had literally been in their bag the entire time, and neither of them had even considered it. They’d even had a discussion about how the other Kingdoms had likely transported people over here through those particular portals. Morgan, however, just grinned.

  “I’ll meet you back here after the challenge is over tomorrow. The Queen will likely come to visit soon after, to have us killed, or at the very least, to take the Skyflare from me. If I’ve guessed correctly, we won’t be receiving any of the information we came for either, but if I win the tournament, that won’t matter.”

  “So I guess I’ll be waiting with the portal open as soon as you get back?” she asked.

  Morgan nodded.

  “If I have the Skyflare, we’ll go directly in without waiting for the Queen. If, however, I don’t win. I’ll be waiting here for her when she shows up.”

  “Why? You aren’t really the take revenge type of person.”

  “No, but I’ll make an exception in this case,” Morgan replied. “I don’t like being forced into something against my will and that woman has a big mouth. I’d be willing to let it go if I win, but if I don’t, then I’ll be getting something out of this tournament.”

  Sarah nodded, then leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling.

  “How are you planning on winning tomorrow? You know they won’t be playing fair. If anything, the other three might just gang up on you.”

  “I’ll have to be quick then,” Morgan answered. “What I’m more worried about is what your father is planning right now. Even though he hasn’t seen you, I’m sure he knows, or at least assumes that you’re here.”