“What the…” Lucius muttered, pocketing the spare change he just scored from an elderly couple. He was standing outside of the convenience store, where he liked to hang out on warm days, when a mysterious vision flooded into his mind. A man, dressed in medieval style garb, stood in front of a glorious crystal palace.

The sudden intrusion into his mind was jarring, but he couldn't help being awed by the images, "it's beautiful" he mumbled, "I don't think it's possible for something like that to exist."

Lucius was overcome with powerful emotions, but not his own, they came radiating off the ancient man, like psychic second hand smoke—despair, anger, sadness, and intense regret. It was a strange thing, being able to feel someone else's emotions, as if they were your own.

“Am I losing it?” Lucius whispered, glancing around. Everyone around him had stopped mid-step, wearing the same startled, wide-eyed expressions. Lucius knew the same expression was spread over his own face, as well

His attention was quickly drawn back to the vision, the ancient man screamed, and lifted his staff above his head, like he was trying to defend himself from something.

"What is that..." Lucius finally noticed, the man wasn’t alone. A towering shadow creature loomed, radiating a sickening, primal dread that made Lucius’s insides twist. The creature lurched at the ancient man, and bore down on his staff. The staff shone with a magical white brilliance, and the creature recoiled. The whole world seemed to tremble, as the man and the shadow clashed, as if reality itself couldn't bear the weight of their struggle. The shadow began to enlarge, growing to rapidly tower over the man, as sickly and rotten tentacles slithered out from the shadows toward him.

The man’s face turned solemn. He mumbled something that wasn’t English, but the meaning was transmitted, just like the emotions before, the words meant "forgive me".

As soon as the words left his lips the mans face became firm. With a look of resolve, he leapt up, and charged without hesitation into the swirling mass of shadow tentacles.

The tentacles wrapped around the mans body, viciously squeezing, engulfing him, and drawing him into the bulk of shadows. Soon the man could no longer be seen at all. For a few moments, nothing happened, followed by a blinding explosion of light, tearing open the shadows from the inside. The next moment, the vision disappeared from Lucius’s mind.

The elderly couple, near the door of the store, removed any doubt from Lucius’s mind about if he was hallucinating.

“What was that, Jimmy? Who was that man? Is he okay?” the old woman questioned her husband.

He firmly grasped the old woman's arm as he replied, obviously shaken “I don’t know, I don't like it, we’d better get home right away.”

“Okay, Jimmy, I’m scared. What was that thing?”

The elderly couple turned away from the door of the convenience store, and started walking back to their car.

Lucius’s heart started to race, he felt a panicky feeling welling up in his chest. It was the same feeling he’d had, when he first saw the shadow creature in the vision. It wasn't a natural emotion, it was something else.

As the feeling grew in his chest, a block of words popped up in Lucius’s vision.

Latent talent detected

You have unlocked the talent “Sense Danger”

Sense Danger - Level 1

“No way." Lucius didn't have time to be shocked at what he was reading, the magical warning that was activated inside him was too loud to ignore-"wai... wait a minute!” Lucius called out, to the elderly couple. He needed to warn them!

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

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 in front of the sun. The alarm blaring in Lucius’s chest turned itself up to eleven. Lucius had never felt anything like that terror, his legs started to shake, and he was immediately drenched in sweat. "We're gonna die, w-we need to hide." He wanted to scream, but the words barely came out in a mumble. The feeling was so strong he couldn't think, he just panicked and ran. Delirious with fear, he sprinted toward the doors of the store. He needed to hide, now. All the questions and confusion 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 to be ten or twelve years old, standing in line. As Lucius pulled the door shut, he heard screaming coming from outside. The people in the store heard the screaming, and gathered around the glass door that Lucius was holding shut, trying to see what was happening.

The first of the screams came from the old woman, and her husband. The old man, named Jimmy, was kneeling on the ground near their car. An insect, as large as a housecat, was clasped to his face. The insect looked like a giant flying crab, with eight clawed legs, but it had a proboscis for a mouth, like a mosquito. The insect had landed on the man’s face, instantly piercing its proboscis into the man’s left eye. Jimmy screamed, but only for a heartbeat. Then, he just stopped moving, and appeared unnaturally calm, even as his wife continued to scream in terror. The proboscis had moved so deep, into his head, that it had pierced his brain, lobotomizing him.

“Someone help him!” It was the young boy, who spoke, while everyone else was stunned into silence.

“You aren’t going out there, James” his mother replied, as she grabbed the boy tightly by the arm.

The store clerk grabbed a broomstick from behind the counter, and charged toward the door. Lucius stepped in front of him.

“You can’t go outside. I won’t let you open the door. You’ll die.”

“What are you talking about? Get out of my way! Hurry, he’s dying!” he responded, trying to push Lucius out of the way.

“Just listen to me! I can’t explain how exactly, but I can just sense that…”

Lucius was cut off by the sound of buzzing. Louder and louder, until it was deafening. They all looked out the window, in horror, as a swarm of the oversized insects descended on the people still in the parking lot.

The elderly woman tried to run towards the building, but the bugs easily overcame her. She flailed her arms and screamed, but it didn't slow the insects down in the slightest, as they soon covered every inch of her body.

“They’ll get inside! We need to seal the building!” the middle-aged woman screamed, as she held her son tight to her chest.

“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 started to move furniture. The tables were large, but made of plastic and quite light, so it only took a moment to move them into position. As Lucius was using a roll of duct tape, to secure his table to the wall, his danger sense flared up again. He dropped the tape, and picked up the broom the clerk had left by the door earlier. He glanced around the store, 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. There, across the room, was a window propped open about 3 inches. Just enough to fit the insect, that was currently squeezing itself through the gap. Lucius ran towards it, holding the broom out in front of himself, 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 managed to squeeze itself inside, and take flight!

"Help!" Lucius yelled, as he started 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 than dropping straight down towards the boy, and his mother. The middle aged woman saw the bug coming, and threw her son behind her, she held her purse in front of her chest like a shield. The insect raced towards her, but at the last second changed targets, swooping around her, and heading for the boy. The boy screamed, as the insect grabbed his face, and as the proboscis was about to pierce his flesh, a wave of white powder rushed past his face, blowing the insect to the ground. The boy looked up to see his savior was the clerk, who was blasting the bug with the 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 had barely harmed the creature. Full of adrenaline, and panic, Lucius reared back and swung down again, and again, and again. Finally, covered in sweat and with ragged breaths, he felt the insects 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.