The shouting and maniacal laughter had gotten so loud that Clawdad saw his chance and rushed forward to the cage door. In an instant, the large powerful behemoth of a pokka broke through the cage door and this caused everyone to react.
Donkuulii ended up quickly pointing his gun toward the large creature. But at the same time as all the other criminals are turning to face Clawdad with their guns as well; the sound actually scares Augustus enough into pulling the trigger by accident. The laser beam though misses his father by a wide margin and ends up hitting a replaceable fuel canister that is meant to power the backup fuel supply for the spaceship. The canister was not large but the contents within it were highly explosive. And as the laser beam hit it the heat from it piercing into the highly flammable explosive liquid caused the canister to combust.
As it blew up metal shrapnel from the canister was sent flying in all directions. A few pieces scratched up his parents, but a couple of big chunks ended up piercing into the criminals. An especially sharp and large piece ended up impaling Donkuulii through the back of the skull.
This killed the man instantly causing his body to give a knee-jerk reaction shot that ended up missing and hitting one of his own people through the neck and killing them. The others were so shocked by the explosion and being hit with the shrapnel that by the time they realize what had happened, Clawdad was already mauling them to death and ripping them limb from limb. After Augustus got control of himself in that moment he remembers rushing forward to untie his parents who by the time they were free all of the criminals were dealt with and they soon untied his sister. Because of that experience, Augustus has had a crippling fear of getting onto spaceships worried that the same thing might happen again.
As his heart is pounding recalling all of this, he is snapped back to reality as he hears his sister scream. He turns his head back peeking around to see the creature is now within 50ft of her.
Seeing her face, he saw the same terrified expression she had now that she did then on the spaceship all those decades past. Realizing that he was in a similar situation where he was going to have to do something to protect his sister and his niece this time something began to stir in him. It wasn't bravery and fearlessness. It was the need to find a solution that would save his loved ones.
But more than that it was regret for not being able to try to protect his family in the past. Regret for being too afraid and cowardly. As he saw Cuddles take up a fighting stance to defend Cinderella and Lucille, he feels ashamed for not doing the same.
That shame quickly turns to anger. Anger which starts to boil over when looking at the monster's face and only seeing everything that reminded him of his trauma. Still, his fear gripped him, making him unable to move.
As he and Cinderella locked eyes, she cried out in horror, "Augustus please help!!!!" Seeing her crying and calling out to him as the monster was now just on the other side of the car looking down over them finally cause that rage to spill out and go wild.
Augustus felt like everything inside him and outside ignited into flame as he just took off running forward towards the creature at a speed he didn't even know he was capable of. His hair ignited into white flames along with his eyes and beard. Red lightning arced around his arms and legs. His blood seems to turn into molten magma. For a moment he was enveloped in an aura of light that lit up the street as if the sun was shining down specifically on them.
Before he even realized it he swung his fist in the same way that he had been training how to throw the perfect punch for the last century and a half. As his punch connected to the chest of the large creature he just let all of his anger out in that single hit.
To both his surprise and everyone else around, the moment his fist hit the creature's chest it almost instantaneously burned a massive hole through the creature's torso. As the impact of the force of the blow was still strong enough to send the creature flying backward, as an after-effect of having a massive hole blown through its chest, the rest of its body then slowly disintegrated from the residual heat still in effect. The pathway from where the monster was standing to about a hundred feet back was now covered in molten slag as the heat left a definitive trail of effect that was visible.
Just as quickly as Augustus had unlocked this hidden power it simply stopped. But the flames at that point had burned his shirt away and the lightning had scorched small holes throughout his pants.
Standing there shirtless surprised by what he just did, Augustus was taken aback by his strength and power. Both his sister and his niece looked at him not knowing that he was capable of that. Then he slowly looked back at them trying to confirm that they were all safe. The moment his eyes spotted his sister and niece being perfectly safe and sound he let out a visible sigh of relief. Only then to immediately get pounced on by Cuddles who was now licking his face out of concern.
The cute adorable animal was worried that her owner might have been in danger or sick at that moment, and was just trying to comfort and help him. As he tried to comfort the creature enough to get her off of him, it slowly lifted everyone's spirits seeing that their hero was now being smothered in kisses from a large but friendly beast. At the same time, many people started to have the adrenaline running through them subside, and the realization of what just happened fully sink in.
Seeing the carnage of it all, the people started to understand that this was not only real but a couple dozen people died. As that realization sank in the clouds parted, and several knights made of neon light with wings made of stardust descended from the sky. As they landed on the buildings and streets and all across the city they kneeled with spears in hand pointed towards the sky.
Upon seeing these people everyone knew who they were, the Heralds of the God of Adversity, Mischief, and Games. Every time they show up on a planet it is because the God of Games has decided to afflict the people of that world with what is known as the Player Plague which is more of a blessing rather than a curse depending on how you see it.
The Player Plague is not an actual disease but rather a combination of a blessing and a curse from the God of Adversity. He decided a long time ago that he would test mortal kind in his way to see if they were truly worthy of becoming more than insects in the eyes of the Divine and the Damned.
He thought it was funny that most morals treated life like it was a game so he devised this affliction that made them see aspects of life as a game. The main thing is the status screen window or character sheet. Those afflicted with the curse can pull up a digital holographic screen in front of them that displays all of their characteristics from their race to their class to their numerical stats and so much more. All of this can be seen by not only the person whose information is on it but also the people around them at the time who happen to look at it.
Along with this the God of Adversity often creates what is known as Dungeons, Ruins, and Towers that people who are afflicted with the plague may enter to try and improve themselves through combat and exploration of these areas. If they are successful they would be rewarded not only with experience points, but also items that can only be used by those afflicted with the curse. As such this allowed normal mortals to transcend their previous limitations and grow into powerful individuals.
However, the God of Games often like to spice things up and he would pick a couple thousand people from a planet that he has bestowed the Player Plague and take them to a different planet entirely. One that was similar but functions slightly differently from the others that he would interact with. It is said that those afflicted with the curse on that world are much more powerful due to what one has to go through to survive on that world. Despite how that might sound though this was an optional thing that people could choose to do.
At least it was for everyone outside of what is known as the First Awakened. Those were the titles given to individuals who would be the first to kill a creature that would spawn on a world that is being afflicted by the Player Plague. The First Awakened would be considerably more powerful than normal people as they grew higher in level but they would be required to go to the other world. Why this is the case is unknown but Augustus was about to find out as he was now the First Awakened of his world.
This became apparent to him when a status screen appeared in front of him congratulating him on the feat of becoming the First Awakened for his planet. It also classifies him as the 9th person to be given the title of First Awakened. As such it will give him 3 special starting awakened abilities. 2 of Transcendent level and 1 of Mythic level.
The God of Games is known for being quite fair with everyone. The greatest proof of this is that when the Player Plague is first given; everyone gets a unique awakening skill that is determined completely at random. The rankings on a skill's overall uniqueness and power are classified in tiers from lowest to highest as follows: Normal, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, and Transcendent. No matter the ranking of it, each skill starts with a grade of D and as a person levels up and gets stronger by using their skills more often it will grow. As it grows it will transition from Grade D to C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, X, and Z. A skill, no matter what its ranking, that is of Grade Z is considered so powerful that the person who has that skill is seen as a continental level threat at a bare minimum.
Seeing this as the case Augustus was at first in shock and then perplexed. He did not know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing for him. When he woke up this morning he knew that today was going to be a very life-changing day just by the sensation that he could feel in his heart. However, this was not what he expected but it might be what he needs. The thought of that being the case slowly formed a curiosity within him as he watch the screen change once more.
It explained that his skills would be in correlation to his class. Instead of generating from a completely random list, it would reduce itself to only skills of that ranking for his class. It congratulated him for having a one-of-a-kind class called, Godwoken. It explains that the class is near impossible to get as it requires a person to be training their magic, ki, and psychic energies all at the same time while becoming at least adept in manipulating spiritual energy outside of these 3 key principles.
His abilities that he got were as follows:
Master of Catastrophe (Transcendent-D): You pick 2 damage types of your choice and you gain immunity to damage types. Any spell or ability that you use that deals either of those two damage types deals 15 extra dice of damage, has tripled range and area of effect, has +15 to their save DCs, and doubled duration. Once per day, you can perfectly synergize with the two damage types that you chose allowing you to transform in response. This transformation lasts for 10 minutes and for the duration: all spells and powers that deal either of the two damage types that you chose gain advantage and +15 to hit, all attacks you make deal +250 of both damage types, and deal quintuple damage on a crit.
King of Ruin (Transcendent-D): All spells, ki powers, and psy powers you use now: can be used twice more per day, deals 15 extra dice of damage, has doubled range and area of effect, has +15 to their save DCs, deal +300 extra damage, and have a crit range of 15-20 on the dice. Along with this, he gains a permanent +500 to HP and +10 to AC. All of his stats gain a permanent +5 while all of his skills gain a +10.
Eyes of the Cinder King (Mythic-D): You gain Deathsight, Magesight, Dragonvision, and Truesight of 100ft. All spells, ki powers, and psy powers that you or any allies within range of your sight cast deal 20 extra dice of damage. However, this buff does not work for allies who are outside of the range of your special sight. Any spells, ki powers, or psy powers used by enemies within the range of your special sight only deal half damage to you.
After receiving the skills the window changed to inform him that almost all of his new permanent bonuses stack outside of things like range, duration, and area of effect. As for these 3, they will increase based on which buff is the biggest. Currently, that would mean that by default all ranges durations and area of effects for his abilities and spells are doubled, but any that specifically do either of the two damage types that he will choose in a moment will instead be tripled for those.
Upon understanding that the screen changed again asking him to pick two damage types from a list. The choices are: fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, cold, poison, acid, sound, force, psychic, radiant, necrotic, holy, unholy, bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing. Upon weighing his choices he ended up selecting fire and lightning as those were the 2 elemental type spells that he has had the best practice and use which that align closest with him.
Upon making his choice he is quickly engulfed in an inferno and lightning starts arching around him again. In a different manner to how it did when he mustered the courage to fight the monster a couple of minutes ago. Just as quickly as it happened it stopped with a pop-up notifying him that his choices have been confirmed and the process is complete.
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