Duke awoke sometime later feeling refreshed and ready to begin. What he was going to begin, he wasn’t entirely sure. He had options. He could continue planting dungeons on Astraea, switch to another moon, or even plant them all over Teldin. He could work on the kingdom. He could go on a delving spree and focus on how to use all his new power. Options. His mind whirled with the possibilities.
Finally, he rolled out of bed, CLEANSED and RESTORED himself and the room, and TELEPORTED to his throne room. The room was completely devoid of people. Even the pair of guards that had been a staple since his rise to the throne were missing. His curiosity piqued, he pushed his DUNGEON SENSE out throughout the castle. He was immediately shocked at how effortlessly his mind processed the images of everything.
Chuckling, he pushed the Ability out even further, he found none of the strain he had been feeling in the past, even as his Ability extended out past the city limits and kept expanding out to its limits. Duke found he could take all the information in and only needed to focus on areas he found interesting. He found that the Ant Queen, Mandibra, had expanded her own kingdom deep below his own and was easily fighting off an invasion of thin, willowy bipedal creatures.
Furthering his move through different foci, he found that the range of this Ability in the Master rank was more than a 150-kilometer radius. He could see the majority of his kingdom and was happy to see most of it was in good shape. There were a few areas that needed attention but not severely. Returning his focus to the castle, he saw that Madrigal was in his office and prepared to set off to check-in with him. He paused as something tickled his DUNGEON SENSE in a direction that he hadn’t expected.
Duke focused his attention straight up and something quickly passed just at the edge of his senses. It was high up, at the edge of space for this planet, and moving fast. Since his senses extended almost 190 kilometers up, he immediately had a guess as to what it might be. In an instant, he TELEPORTED to where he expected to see the object.
What he saw was a streamlined ship entering the planet’s atmosphere. The ship radiated a sense of foreboding that caused Duke to focus even deeper. He was sure that this was the first of the cosmic assassins to arrive. Duke focused, using his DUNGEON SENSE to see inside the ship to see several red-skinned lizardfolk manning the vessel. Several were wearing what looked like high-tech powered armor moving towards airlocks while putting their helmets on. What struck him was that they all looked identical to him. He couldn’t be certain, but his instant suspicion was that they were clones of each other.
Duke TELEPORTED the front of the ship 100 meters up. There was some resistance, but Duke’s Psyche was sitting at over 30,000 right now and an inanimate object didn’t exact have a Psyche to match. The result was catastrophic for the ship as the superheated gasses of the atmosphere raged through the ship, burning the interior and tearing everything to pieces. The unarmored individuals died quickly. The armored ones were a mixed bag with the ones who had affixed their helmets able to tumble into the atmosphere seemingly intact. Two of the unhelmeted individuals tumbled in the thickening air as they plummeted uncontrollably towards the ground. The four helmeted survivors activated some sort of flight devices and rocketed towards Duke.
Duke smiled, pouring additional Mana into his FLIGHT Ability, eager for a dogfight. Duke was momentarily surprised as the combination of his DUNGEON SENSE and his XENOGLOSSIA allowed him to both hear and understand what the others were saying. “Dropship fatally compromised. Four combat effectives remain. Target acquired. Engaging with prejudice.”
Duke’s COMBAT SENSE engaged as a dozen small missiles rocketed towards him at extreme speed. His years as a combat pilot had honed his air combat instincts to a razor’s edge. The addition of his Abilities only heightened those instincts to the point where he was dodging the missiles before he consciously knew they were in the air.
Nine of the missiles completely missed him which was a minor miracle at this range. The remaining three, however, slammed into him and exploded. Over 5 million health vanished in an instant, including Duke’s left arm. He responded with one of his newest Abilities, SOULFIRE, as he closed the distance to the clustered opponents. The Ability washed over one of the figures and the scream that followed faded as the armored suit plummeted uncontrollably.
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The remaining three split apart and moved to encircle Duke. He overheard another transmission before engaging again. “Be advised, target capabilities significantly understated. Orbital measures recommended.” Duke wasn’t sure what that meant but it didn’t sound good. He TELEPORTED outside the encirclement and slammed his remaining fist into the back of the helmeted figure before him.
The “clang” of the impact resonated, even through the thin atmosphere. Duke was still getting used to his new Strength and Agility which left him stunned at the speed and power of his own strike. The helmet caved in, likely killing the creature inside as it jetted off in random directions, apparently out of control. He was about to engage the remaining three when his COMBAT SENSE screamed at him to move. He reacted without question and TELEPORTED half a kilometer away.
The entire area where he and the armored figures were fighting was engulfed by a bright green beam of destructive energy. The suits melted to slag in short order and the beam of energy ceased. Damn. That would have fucking hurt. Guess that’s what they meant by ‘orbital measures’. Time to head to orbit, I guess. This might hurt. I know that I don’t need to breathe anymore which is weird as fuck, but the cold and vacuum of space might be a bit much for me. Worst case, I have to head back down and wait for the next round with the armored bastards.
Just as he was about to pursue the beam’s origin, he realized that the beam had continued traveling downwards and may have hit the ground. He wasn’t sure where he was relative to the surface of the planet, but he knew he started over Cloudspire. He immediately directed his senses downward, scanning for the impact site of the beam. It did not take long to find it.
The beam had, thankfully, impacted an open area of the forest and not in the middle of a village or even the city. He was not sure how powerful the beam had been relative to other space-based weapons, but it had been plenty powerful enough to wipe out the powered suits he had been fighting and still make a sizeable forest fire.
Duke considered heading down and taking care of things on the ground but, after a long minute of internal debate, decided to cut the problem off at its source. He flew upwards, retracing the path of the beam. While he did so, he continued scanning upwards with his DUNGEON SENSE and his CLAIRVOYANCE to find the source of the beam. The atmosphere thinned more and more as he rose with a corresponding drop in temperature. Duke’s SPELL RESISTANCE and ARMOR SKIN provided some protection, but not nearly enough. The cold and decreasing pressure were starting to take its toll on him. Just as he was about to switch to an alternative plan when he saw a bright object in the rapidly darkening sky.
It was too far away for his DUNGEON SENSE to pick it up and he had missed it with his CLARIVOYANCE, but his ordinary eyesight picked it up even as his eyes were starting to feel the freezing effects of the edge of the atmosphere. With a TELEPORT, Duke got close enough to see inside with his DUNGEON SENSE and another quick TELEPORT got him to an unoccupied area of the ship.
Once inside, Duke waited while his REGENERATION resolved the damage his body had taken. His arm regrown and the effects of the cold vacuum repaired, Duke took some time to go over his notifications and take some time remotely exploring the ship he had found.
*** You have killed 37 members of the Ocktuul Clone Army and destroyed one of their dropships. You receive 7,400 experience plus an additional 5,000 experience for destroying the dropship. ***
Duke also noted that he gained in some of his Skills and Abilities as a result of the brief, but violent encounter. The only notable change was that his Dodge Skill had finally ranked up to Adept.
*** You have been exposed to the cold vacuum of space. This is a new type of damage that is potentially deadly to you. Your SPELL RESISTANCE and ARMOR SKIN provide a small amount of resistance to the damage, but are not able to provide enough to fully mitigate the effects of open space. With enough exposure, you may develop a resistance to the effects of space. ***
He read the message about not getting enough exposure to vacuum to build up a resistance, but the experience wasn’t something he relished repeating. His REGENERATION was able to repair the effects over time, but a resistance Ability would make it much easier. Another thing added to the list of things I have to do that I really am not looking forward to going through. He sighed and began to scan the ship.