Stoneheart (Rise To Omniscience Book 11), page 19
He stared at the portal for several seconds, then willed it closed. He was still too worked up to go back, which meant there was only one thing to do. Morgan let out a breath, then kicked off the ground.
The final battle of this Beast Zone was held on a mountaintop, inside the crater of a long-dormant volcano. For those who couldn’t fly, simply climbing this mountain would take several weeks, especially considering how many Beasts they’d run into along the way. Then again, any person or team powerful enough to challenge a Rank 99 level inside of this Zone wouldn’t let something like that bother them.
Because of his speed and flight, Morgan had completed this leg of his trip in a fraction of the time, which was probably why he was feeling like he still needed to fight, but that was all good by him because there was one more level in this plane – the Skill level.
Morgan rocketed up, climbing higher and higher as he left the world behind and streaked out into the vast expanse of space. This level was one he’d discovered quite by accident some twelve years ago when wanting to test the limits of the Zone’s influence. It was unfortunate that this level only opened once every four months, as it was perfect for training, but when it did, he relished the chance to push himself.
The portal had been open for over two weeks now, but he’d been pushing it off, looking for the perfect opportunity. To him, there would be no better time than now.
It only took him a few minutes longer to see the shimmering portal, the rotating disk of orange light showing him the way into the special level. Of course, he’d need the key to get in, and not the same key that would be used to get into the Beast Zone. He’d had to hunt this one down within the Zone, a challenge that had taken over half a year to complete, but once he’d gotten it, he had not been disappointed.
From a pocket space, Morgan produced a triangular piece of gold, carved with runes of a language he couldn’t understand. He slotted it into the space within the glowing frame, then ran his Reiki through it. The frame flared for a moment, and then the portal opened, the shimmering curtain of light turning into the landing area of the special level.
Morgan left the key where it was, knowing he’d be able to retrieve it on his way out. Morgan flew through the portal and felt the familiar heavy weight settle on his shoulders. He made sure to land quickly as his connection to his Core dimmed. A portal fuzzed open to his left and Morgan drew out the shining silver spear that had slain gods as the last of his power was suppressed. He had no idea how this level in the Zone did it, but he wasn’t going to complain.
Morgan let out a shuddering breath as access to his skills was cut off, leaving him with only his physical stats to work with. He grinned despite himself as he looked around the wasteland that he found himself in. To his back, the glowing orange portal spun, giving him a way out, though he knew he wouldn’t be taking it. He would be exiting through the other portal, though it would still let out in the same space.
Two craggy spires of dark stone flanked the spinning portal, and as he watched, the small Beasts began appearing on its surface. He breathed in, the air feeling charged with ozone. The sky was dark, with azure light illuminating the clouds from within and giving the landscape a strange hue.
In the distance, he could see pillars of stone rising, disappearing into the cover of the thick clouds above. As he passed each of those pillars, a small measure of his strength would be returned until he passed the 8th, at which point he’d have access to his full abilities before fighting the Arc of the S level, as he’d taken to calling it – a rank 100 Pinnacle Beast.
While normal Zones didn’t produce Pinnacle Beasts, there was one, and this was it. There were a couple of downsides to this though. Firstly, there were the time constraints, as the most he could challenge the Arc was three times per year. Secondly, its Core would be destroyed when it died, making any potential energy gain obsolete. Thirdly, the Arc would only appear if he killed every single Beast on this level and did it inside of a week. This was especially challenging in the first through third pillars, as the Beasts were fast and plentiful, while his access to his skills was greatly diminished to nonexistent.
His success rate of completely clearing the floor was only around 55%, which meant that nearly half the time, he never even got to fight the Arc.
So why push so hard to battle this Arc in the first place? Zones weren’t simply there for the challenge of besting a strong opponent. There had to be a reward at the end of it all.
In this instance, while there was no Core to be found, the real prize was the Arc’s body. Small, it might be, but it carried with it a series of precious metals that could not be found anywhere else within the world of Somerset nor in any Beast Zone Morgan had explored to date. To him, the very best part of it all was that the metals came in small amounts, which meant that to get any significant use from it, he would need to defeat the Arc multiple times.
Morgan had collected those metals from the Arc several times over the last twelve years and had carefully stashed them in his pocket space. When he completed this run – once he went home to Sarah and apologized for being gone so long – he would go visit his favorite dwarven smith, Ivaldi. He was sure the man would be chomping at the bit to get his hands on this metal, and unlike many of the others in New Faeland, he knew the dwarf only ever had a single interest, and that was in the art of crafting.
A chittering snarl came from his left, and Morgan spun the spear into place, as the rank 91 dog-sized creature approached, slinging forward slowly. Around him, he could see several more, varying in shades of red and green, in addition to the blue one coming for him.
They looked like a mix of fish and lizard, with squared snouts and a massive underbite, leading to a row of spiny teeth that protruded upward toward their slitted noses. Each of the creatures had four glowing eyes, two each on either side of its head. A row of spines ran down their backs, appearing partially like the backfin on a fish, while their back legs were longer than the front, which gave them powerful lunging abilities and increased speed. They were also invertebrates, their lizard-like appearance deceptive in that sense, as their exteriors were made of a hard chiton, designed to repel attacks.
Though Morgan’s Aura Mastery didn’t function here, he knew their names by examining their Cores in the past once he’d made it out of there. However, this time, he wouldn’t be wasting any time collecting them as his goal was the Arc. He needed a real challenge, and the S level of this Zone was going to give it to him.
The first of the Chi-zeds lunged at him, jaws opening wide and crackling with electricity as it looked to take a bite out of him. Morgan sidestepped deftly, the spear coming up and around, cracking into the underside of the Beast’s chin and flinging it off-course. There was a loud crack from the impact and a yelp from the Chi-zed as it hit the ground and rolled, but that blow alone wouldn’t be enough to kill it.
As the rest of the pack moved in, Morgan dropped into a lower stance, clutching the spear in both hands. He grinned, then moved in for the attack.
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Morgan lunged in with a quick thrust, the shining head of the spear punching clean through one of the Chi-zed’s thick skulls, piercing its brain. He flicked the Beast to one side, then reversed his grip on the weapon and spun in a half-circle, slashing at the noses of the other four that had thought it would be a good idea to try leaping at him from behind.
A red one leaped from a craggy spire above, flames gathering inside its mouth. Having little time in which to react, Morgan snapped out a punch, his fist vanishing down the Beast’s throat and exploding out the other side, as it sank down to his shoulder.
Fire exploded out of the creature, washing over him and burning away his cloth shirt and stinging his skin. The pain was negligible, but Morgan couldn’t stay still and he knew it. A pain in his calf told him that one of the Beasts had managed to get a lock on him. An instant later, lightning tore through his body, trying to force his muscles to seize. Without his skills and innate healing, he had to rely on purely physical force, and while his body was tough, it wasn’t immune to attacks of Beasts ranked in the 90s – especially when said Beasts were all in the Intermediate stage.
Morgan kicked his foot as his spear came down, crashing into the top of the Beast’s head. The Chi-zed let out a shriek as it was forced to release him, a deep puncture wound oozing blue blood as it landed. The Beast wobbled for a few moments before it keeled over in a dead heap. Morgan barely noticed as he turned his spear in another sweep, forcing the pack back. Then he advanced, driving the spear downward in a series of swift thrusts, the weapon turning into a blur of silver in his hands.
Chi-zeds threw themselves at him, fire and electricity crackling in their mouths. It was the final Chi-zed that made him the most nervous. The greens were the least common, though there were a couple in this pack. Unlike the others, they tended to be a bit more intelligent and their skills could be used at a distance to affect the landscape. In other words, they could trap him, allowing the other Beasts to swarm him.
Morgan received a slash from one of the Chi-zeds across his forearm as he raised it to block his face, leaving four lines in his flesh, which quickly began to bleed. He could feel the sting as he continued to fight, his spear hitting the Beasts as often as his fists or feet. He’d just managed to work himself out of the pack when one of the greens acted.
Emerald light flowed over its body, and the craggy outcropping next to him seemed to come alive, the stone turning liquid as it leaped for him.
Having little choice, Morgan hurled his spear, the weapon streaking through the air and slamming into the green Chi-zed, piercing it straight through the eye. The liquid stone turned rigid, halting an inch from his skin, but now he had to go retrieve his weapon. Under normal circumstances, he could simply call it back to him, as he had a connection to the weapon, but just as his skills were cut off, so too was the connection.
Morgan gathered himself and leaped, sailing neatly over the heads of over twenty of the Beasts, before landing next to the green. He was forced to shove a few of them back as he tore his weapon free, then went on the attack once more. Three more of the Chi-zeds managed to injure him before he finished the pack off, leaving Morgan with a missing pant leg up to the knee, a series of bloody lines on his chest, and a bite mark on the fleshy part of his calf. That last one hurt like hell, and he knew the pain wouldn’t stop until he made it past the third pillar and his healing really began to work.
Still, he was happy. The challenge and limitations were pushing him, taking his mind off his real-world worries. Here, he fought for his life and triumphed against powerful opponents. Here, he could forget.
Morgan forged onward, walking until he spotted the next pack of Chi-zeds hanging out around several craggy outcroppings of stone. This time, he approached them stealthily, making sure he wasn’t seen. There were three greens in this pack, and with so much stone around, it would be easy for him to be caught. He would do well to take them out first before they could get started.
However, they were all spread out, so the question was how he would manage it.
In the end, Morgan decided that he’d only be able to take two out at once and would have to move on the third after. He moved from cover to cover, closing the distance between them until he was right up against the edge of the pack. He took a breath, then made his move, turning rapidly out from behind the stone pillar. He threw his spear, the silver weapon streaking through the air and slamming directly into the open mouth of the furthest green.
Even while the spear was flying, Morgan leaped, stepping on the heads of a couple of the blues before leaping up and bringing an ax kick down on the head of the nearest green. His foot impacted with all his considerable strength, shattering the carapace and coating his foot in blood and gore. Morgan barely even noticed as he lunged toward the center, where the third and final Chi-zed rested.
The Beast shrieked, and the others moved in to attack. Morgan flowed through their ranks, crushing with punches, kicks, elbows, and knees. Stone flowed from his left, and he kicked one of the Beasts into it, the creature vanishing with a shriek of terror into the liquid. Pain flared in Morgan’s chest as one of the red ones unleashed a blast at point-blank range, having leaped down from atop the closest spire.
Morgan seized the annoying thing and used it to smash two others. He pulled his arm back for another attack, only to find it stuck fast. Looking back, he could see liquid stone encasing his fist, flowing up toward his elbow.
That wasn’t good.
One of the Chi-zeds lunged at him and Morgan’s hand snapped out, catching the thing by his throat. It snapped and writhed, but he ignored its gouging claws as he hurled it at the last remaining green.
The blue one slammed into it, shattering one of its legs, as well as its concentration. The stone froze, trapping his arm in place.
Morgan flexed his arm, kicking another Beast into a spire and cracking its back. Stone exploded around his fist as he ripped it free, showering the area with debris. Then he was moving forward again, dodging between lunging Beasts and slaughtering any unfortunate enough to come within reach.
The green managed to activate its skill again, but not before Morgan had closed the distance between them. It released an enraged shriek the instant before his foot came down, shattering its skull and painting his leg in blue gore. Once that was done, Morgan retrieved his spear and continued on until the pack was dead.
Over the next few hours, he scoured the area before the first pillar, ignoring the stinging pain of his accumulated injuries and simply enjoying the hunt. Morgan had to work to minimize any damage he took, which was something he normally didn’t even need to think about.
He took a short break after defeating the seventh pack, taking a swig from the bottle of water he’d attached to his belt for just this occasion. No pocket spaces meant no extra storage. Refreshed, he rose to his feet and continued on his way, but after another hour of moving forward and scouring the area, he didn’t find so much as a single Chi-zed, which meant that his next opponent would be the Pillar Guardian, or the Mini Arc, as he liked to call them.
The multicolored Chi-zed stood waiting for him by the first pillar, its body over twice the size of the rest of its kind, with fire and lightning coating his jaws and jagged knobs of stone protruding from its body.
The Mini Arc spotted him as soon as he stepped into the hundred-foot radius of the pillar and snarled, lowering itself to pounce. Morgan spun his spear into the ready position and waited.
The Beast exploded forward, its powerful legs allowing it to cover the distance between them in just a couple of seconds. Morgan reacted instinctively, his spear snapping forward in a clean thrust. The Chi-zed’s carapace sparked as it skittered along its thick plating, scoring a deep groove in its shell but not quite penetrating.
Morgan yanked the spear back, then rolled to his left as the claws raked down. It didn’t miss entirely, managing to snag the edge of one of his boots, the claw shearing through the leather and nicking his heel.
He hid a wince as fire burned at the wound, but ignored the pain and moved forward, leaping to his feet and spinning with a slash of the silver blade. The spear scraped across the carapace once more, leaving a deep groove in the armor but still not piercing. The Chi-zed whirled, snapping at his face, and Morgan backpedaled, snapping out with a kick that caught the monster under the jaw.
The Beast’s head snapped back, fire blasting upward and a crackle of lightning covering its eyes. Morgan used the distraction to dance around its front leg, then lunged forward with the spear, putting a fair bit of power into it. With a crackling crunch, the spear slammed through the thick plating, piercing all the way up and through the Mini Arc’s heart.
The Chi-zed stuttered for a moment as Morgan ripped the gore-covered spear free, then crashed to the ground in a twitching heap as the glowing blue of its eyes faded to black.
Morgan took a moment to catch his breath, then rose and stuck the tip of the spear beneath one of the thick joints of plating on the Beast’s back. He’d learned from experience that he was going to want a shield in this next section, and the heavy plates of this Mini Arc made for the perfect defense.
It took a few minutes for Morgan to work it free, and a few minutes longer to clean it of the clinging blood and gore. Once he was done, he used the tip of his spear to gouge some rudimentary holes through the thickest part of the carapace, then used strips from his torn shirt – which he’d made sure to save – as handles. Morgan slid his left arm through, using his teeth to tie them snugly.
He tested it a few times, then nodded to himself and walked past the first pillar, feeling a small measure of his skill return to him. Morgan couldn’t access anything in terms of actual skills, but it did open his healing and aura-sensing ability to a limited degree, which meant he wasn’t quite as blind as he was before.
Now that he could use more than just his eyes, he began to walk, knowing the first of the Beasts would be on him soon. It took even less time than he expected for the first of the cat creatures to appear. Mangy humanoid monsters with faces straight out of a nightmare, these creatures were dressed in the ragged remains of human clothes.
They looked nothing like the Beastmen, who appeared refined in comparison. These creatures looked half-starved and had long, rusted, knife-like claws that extended from the tips of their three-fingered hands and four from their elongated feet.
Gungy tails swished at their backs, while their faces looked half-rotted, with sharpened canines and glowing purple eyes. A low, keening yowling filled the air as they spotted Morgan, the cat creatures rushing in to tear him to pieces.
His spear snapped into the ready position, the end of the haft tucked beneath his armpit and braced against his elbow. The cat creatures would be faster than the Chi-zeds, and any cuts from their claws would start a nasty infection. Under normal circumstances, Morgan’s Eternal Soul would nullify it within a few minutes, but with limited access, it would do little to counteract the poisoning effects of the claws until he passed the fourth pillar.
