"One more dollar and I can buy a cup of coffee." Lucius muttered, pocketing the spare change he'd just scored from an elderly couple. He was standing outside the convenience store where he liked to hang out on warm days. He sat down in his favorite spot, the guy that worked in the store couldn't see him but Lucius had a clear view of the customers as they came and went. He began to rub the soreness out of his legs, his body was paying the price for him walking across town yesterday, when mysterious images began flooding into his mind. In the sudden vision a man dressed in medieval-style garb stood in front of a glorious crystal palace.
The unexplained intrusion made it difficult to see straight, but at the same time he couldn't help but stare at the images he was seeing, "It's beautiful," he thought to himself. "it cant be real, nothing that amazing exists."
Lucius rubbed his eyes hard as he tried to shake the strange scenes out of his head, but instead of going away it got stronger. Now it wasn't just a visual, but came with powerful emotions that were not his own—the emotions came radiating from the ancient man in the vision like some kind of psychic secondhand smoke: the emotions came in a rapid succession of despair, anger, sadness, and regret.
"Did I finally go crazy?" Lucius whispered, glancing around at the people nearby. Everyone in the parking lot had stopped walking mid-step, all wearing the same startled, wide-eyed expressions. Lucius was quite sure that the same look was spread across his own face, too.
His turned his attention back to the vision. The ancient man had begun to scream as he lifted his staff above his head, defending himself from something.
"What is that?" finally noticing that the man wasn't alone when he saw the towering shadow creature looming nearby. The dark shadowy mass radiated a sickening primal dread, that twisted Lucius' insides with unease. The terrible creature lurched toward the man, bearing down on his staff. The mans eyes began to glow and the staff shone with a magical white brilliance causing the creature to slightly recoil. The whole world gently trembled as the man and the shadow monster clashed, as if reality itself couldn't bear the weight of it. The shadow moved away and rose up, growing larger until it eventually towered over the man and sending it's vile tentacles slithering out toward him.
The man's face was pale and solemn as he mumbled something. The words were spoken in a language that Lucius had never heard, but he was able to understand their meaning nonetheless. The man was asking for forgiveness.
As soon as the words left his lips the man's face became resolute. With that look of resolve he leapt up and charged without hesitation into the swirling mass of tentacles and shadows.
The tentacles wrapped around the man's body, viciously squeezing and engulfing him as they drew him into their depths. Soon he could no longer be seen. For a few moments there was silence, before a blinding explosion of light tore open the shadows from within. In the next instant all traces of the vision vanished from Lucius' mind, and the world seemed to return to normal.
Lucius would have been sure he had lost his mind, but the elderly couple near the store's door quickly helped him remove that thought.
"What was that, Jimmy? Who was that man? Is he okay?" the old woman asked.
Her husband firmly grasped the old woman's arm to stop his hands from shaking as he replied, "I d-don't know. I d-don't like it. We'd better get home right away."
"Okay, Jimmy, I'm scared."
The elderly couple turned away from the store and started heading back to their car.
Lucius' heart began to race as a panicky feeling welled up in his chest. It was the same feeling of unnatural unease he'd felt when he first saw the shadow creature in the vision.
As the feeling was spreading through his chest a block of words popped up in Lucius' vision:
Latent talent detected
You have unlocked the talent Sense Danger
Sense Danger - Level 1
"No way." He didn't have time to be shocked at what he was reading; the magical warning blaring inside him was too loud to ignore. "Wai... wait a minute!" He called out to the elderly couple.
The old man gave Lucius a suspicious glare. "Leave us alone; we already gave you money."
"No, that's not what I—" Before Lucius could say another word, the sky darkened, as if a shadow had come over the sun. The alarm blaring in his chest cranked up to eleven. His legs started to shake as he felt the sweat forming on his palms. "Somethings wrong, we…n-need to hide." He wanted to scream but the words barely came out as a mumble, he couldn't think properly. It finally became too much for him, and he ran toward the store doors. He needed to hide. All the questions and confusion about what was happening melted away in the face of fear.
Lucius bounded up to the doors, wrapped his hands around the handle, and pulled them open as he quickly glanced around the small store. There was a young man barely older than Lucius behind the register, and a middle-aged woman with a boy who looked about ten or twelve standing in line. Lucius pushed the door shut quickly behind him, and only a moment later he heard screaming coming from outside. The people in the store quickly gathered around the glass door that Lucius was holding shut, trying to see what was happening.
The first scream came from the old woman and her husband. The husband Jimmy was kneeling on the ground near their car, with an insect the size of a housecat clasped to his face. The insect looked like a giant flying crab with eight clawed legs, but it had a proboscis-like mouth, similar to a mosquito. The insect had landed on the man's face, instantly piercing its proboscis into his left eye. Jimmy screamed, but only for a heartbeat. Then, he stopped moving and appeared unnaturally calm, even as his wife continued to scream. The proboscis had pierced so deep into his head that it had lobotomized him.
"Someone help him!" It was the young boy who spoke, while everyone else just stared with looks of horror on their faces.
"You aren't going out there, James," his mother replied, gripping the boy's arm tightly.
The store clerk grabbed a broomstick from behind the counter and charged toward the door, but Lucius stepped in front of him.
"You can't go outside. You'll die."
"What are you talking about? Get out of my way!" the clerk responded, trying to push Lucius aside.
"Just listen to me! I can't explain, but I can sense…"
Lucius was cut off by a deafening buzzing. The four of them all looked out the window in impotent terror as a swarm of the oversized insects descended on the people in the parking lot.
The elderly woman tried to run toward the building, as the bugs easily overcame her. She flailed her arms and screamed, but it didn't slow the insects down in the slightest and they soon covered every inch of her body.
"They'll get inside! We need to seal the building!" the middle-aged woman yelled, clutching her son tightly.
"We have tables in the break room; they should be enough to cover the glass!"
Lucius and the other young man rushed into the break room and began moving furniture. The tables were large but made of plastic and quite light, so it only took a moment to position them. As Lucius was using duct tape to secure his table to the wall, his danger sense flared again. He dropped the tape and picked up the broom the clerk had left there earlier. He glanced around the store warily, trying to figure out where the danger was coming from.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" asked the clerk.
Lucius walked toward the bathroom and shoved the door open with the end of the broom. Across the room, a window was propped open about three inches—just enough for the insect that was currently squeezing itself through the gap. Lucius ran toward it, holding the broom out like a spear. He thought he could push it out and slam the window shut, but he was too slow. Before he could reach it, the insect squeezed itself inside and took flight!
"Help!" Lucius yelled as he began swinging with all his might at the bug.
The insect whizzed past Lucius and did a maneuver like a dive bomber, flying up high and then dropping straight down toward the boy and his mother. The woman saw it coming and threw her son behind her, holding her purse up like a shield. The insect raced toward her but changed targets at the last second, swooping around her and heading for the boy. The boy screamed as the insect grabbed his face, but before its proboscis could pierce his skin, a wave of white powder rushed past, knocking the insect to the ground. The boy looked up to see the clerk, who was blasting the bug with a fire extinguisher.
"Keep spraying it," said Lucius, as he ran up to the embattled bug and smashed down on it with the broom as hard as he could. He expected to feel a crunch, but his full-strength swing barely harmed the creature. Fueled by adrenaline and panic, Lucius reared back and swung again and again. Finally, covered in sweat and breathing heavily, he felt the insect's carapace give way under his assault.
You have defeated juvenile abyssal insectum level 1.
You have reached level 2. You have 1 attribute point available for distribution.
Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Strength attribute.
Through effort, you have raised "Sense Danger" to level 2.