Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Lucy found herself looking at the procession of sad faces heading towards the ration stands and shaking her head. Her short chestnut hair fell over her eyes, only adding to the frustration she was feeling. She was used to keeping her hair shorter than it was, but the apocalypse had seemingly done a number on hairdressers specifically. Even though it was only a small fringe, it was annoying.

Everything was getting like that. Problems which wouldn’t be problems if they had been stopped earlier. The ration line filtered itself, ordering by strength and willingness to be violent. Thugs at the front, meek at the back. “They were supposed to inherit the Earth, but it turns out it was the bullies who got the win after all.”

A growl rose in her throat and she stifled it. Stifling was definitely the word to use for the day. The grey concrete was stifling. The “officers” who stole from the poor, or worse, were stifling.

However, Lucy had a secret. The Aspect of the Wolf in her soul let her gain the freedom she desperately desired. She had found it on the first day of things and hidden it from her father. The influence of the wolf was as much of a saviour as the skills it gave her. She would never have been able to use her teeth so aggressively before she found the Wolf. Now, it was fairly rote.

Or it had been.

As one of the known Aspect users of Londimin, Lucy was technically allowed out of the city. Aspected People were asked to kill monsters and reach a quota of food brought back from looting monsters. It was a weird system, but farms and things were still being set up for now. As part of that expansion effort, the bravest were encouraged to range as far as they felt safe.

Which is where Lucy met him. She had been fighting a stupid thorny turtle when the high-pitched voice called out. Her eyes snapped up, not knowing what to expect. In her wolf form, she was angered at the interruption, but had to stop herself from putting her tail between her legs as her eyes rose.

Her every sense screamed upon seeing him.

Upon returning to Londimin, everything felt so stale. It was like only that man contained the only real life and colour in the world. Lucy knew she had to meet him again, and she went looking without stopping in at home. His unique scent was easy to pick out with her sharp nose. Lucy followed as stealthily as she could manage. She needed to know. Who was this person, who’s aura sang of death and power? Who smelled like the ground after rain combined with the tang of blood?

She might get her answer, now that he was apparently about to get into a fight. A patrol from Londimin prowled towards a nearby subway, clearly sensing the man’s powerful energy. He wasn’t even using skills, but just his presence was heavy. They could tell something powerful was below, and were wondering how to proceed. It seemed they thought it was a monster, and Lucy couldn’t argue against that assessment. She thought about warning them, but decided not to. If they wanted to poke a bear, that was their choice.

She faded into the shadows and waited to see what kind of monster this man was.

——————————————————————————————

Davy did not especially want to be out amongst the trees and the monsters, but it paid well. There were a few System stores in Londimin which accepted them for various goods, but the other industries were also taking them too, now. There were a few beers being brewed in the city, which is where he was planning to spend his wages. All in all, Davy felt like he was adapting to this new normal as well as could be expected.

For the most part, it was just better than doing nothing. Using magic was cool, too, and it wasn’t really allowed inside the city barrier. Unless you went out hunting, you didn’t get to do much but manual labour at this point. When Ben had managed to get put on a scout patrol as a leader, Davy jumped at the chance to join, knowing it would mean they could essentially be lazy and earn money. He and Ben had been doing as much for years, and he was glad to have his best friend here while the world ended.

They had both survived the first day together in their suddenly empty mobile phone repair store, locking the door and just hoping none of the monsters outside came in to get them. They ignored the screams for help, knowing they’d just join the chorus if they did. At least, until the room lit up and a crystal the size of a melon appeared out of nowhere. Ben, being the more confident of them, took it. That was their first Aspect, the Aspect of Stealth.

Now filled with magical abilities, Ben had helped keep Davy safe until they happened upon another of the crystals, this time the Aspect of Air. The Aspect bound itself to his Speed attribute and suddenly we were pretty much untouchable. By the time they met the crowds of people gathered by Seth, they were already doing their part to thin the herd of monsters.

“Does anyone else feel that?” Ben asked from a few paces ahead, bringing Davy back to the present. Everyone else said they couldn’t feel anything, shaking heads and shrugging. Ben held up a hand for everyone to wait, tilting his head back and forth. “It’s like a noise I can’t quite hear, or a word on the tip of my tongue…”

Without another word, Ben vanished, making use of the skills his Aspect gave him. Elise and Kelly, their heavy hitters and both users of the Aspect of Hammers, tensed up and got ready for a fight. Walking up beside Davy was the always carefree Alastair. “A monster, d’ya think?” The Scottish man asked, same as one might ask when it was going to rain.

“Let’s find out,” I nodded. Ben would be somewhere, setting up an ambush, while us four took the attention. I planted my feet and splayed my hands, grasping at the air. It could interact with it like it was solid, so I buried my hands into the thick, humid air and made it mine. With an injection of mana into the surrounding area, all of the gases in a huge radius came under my control. Everywhere except-

Rubble, tiles, rock and dirt exploded from below. “We’re under attack!” Elise screamed. Her words changed from high pitch to low as she flipped over and over in the air and Davy would have laughed if he wasn’t so terrified. It took all of his concentration, but using Air Manipulation, he cushioned the space around his falling ally. He spun to see what had burst through the floor, but there was nothing.

Tentative, Davy reached out with his mana and felt that same, blank spot that his skill could not control. He had not felt anything like it to this point. Though he would never tell anyone how deeply it worked, whenever Davy grasped hold of the air like this he could normally sense every detail. Everything. He would never admit to using it at night, walking through the suburbs watching people in their beds, but it was becoming a habit.

Whatever was below, it made Davy feel blind. There was something more, a growing sense of eyes on his back. Davy felt sure that if he turned around, he would find himself face to face with a predator. He couldn’t even choke out words as the pressure continued to mount on his mind. Then, all at once, everything went dark. The senses Davy had become used to were snatched from him as he lost all control over the air around him. Davy screamed, deafened and blinded, before his mind crashed under the pressure.

He fell unconscious, plagued with nightmares of dragons and terrible storms.

——————————————————————————————

After using a small Mana Bolt to clear the space above me, I waited for the dust to settle. I heard someone shout in fear, which was fair, but then someone started doing magic. Whoever was locking down the air was making it harder to breathe, so I ripped control from them with Air Manipulation. It was like taking a knife from the hands of a child. Except, there was a pained scream from above and I opened my eyes wider in surprise. Did I… hurt someone with that? That was almost embarassing.

Holding back laughter, I jumped out of the hole, floating up high and then gently down with my control of the air around me. A woman with two hammers stood glaring at me, a man with a large ginger beard to her side with a glowing hand on her back. To my left was a man on the ground, a woman with a single, larger hammer stood over him. Behind them, I saw the shimmer of magic and the outline of a human. He was technically invisible, but I had long dealt with that trick by training with Naea.

I took in all of the details that seemed to matter. They did not seem to be people who were close emotionally, based on their stances. Their clothes were surprisingly clean considering it had been months since everything started, suggesting they had access to enough safety for their appearance to matter. As well as soap, which my own town only gained reliable access to once I bought System-based vendors. I was conspiratorially certain that the System had stolen our resources to sell them back to us, but that was neither here nor there.

Interesting group, though. I picked up the auras of two identical Aspects, and three other common ones. They reminded me a little of The Ascent when I first met them, if a little rougher. One of them was already on the ground. “Is he okay?” I asked. The woman with two hammers flinched as I spoke. I held my hands up to try and keep them all calm. “Let’s all just take it easy. Sorry about your friend.”

“Who are you?” The two hammer woman asked, her voice shrill with fear. Her mana was pooling slowly into her weapons in a way I certainly couldn’t do. I wanted to ask her about it right there, but her wide eyes were scared and I felt it wasn’t the time. “Where did you come from?”

“I’m Grant, and I came out of that hole in the ground.” I didn’t trust them enough to immediately give away my friends back home. No one here could realistically hurt me and threaten the towns, but I didn’t know enough yet. “No more questions from you, though. This will go faster if you answer mine instead.”

I let my Dao trickle out. Over my downtime, one way I occupied myself was in training some Dao resistance into the Fledglings. I had become fairly adept at controlling it, but even at the lowest level, there was always something that could be sensed to hear them describe it. Sanjay, the spear using leader of one squad described my “quiet state” as like knowing a tiger was in the next room, sleeping. I quite liked that description.

Whatever these people’s senses were telling them, I cranked up a notch. Dao is one’s understanding of the universe given form, and my Dao were both domineering bastards. I opened the door a tiny crack, letting these strangers see the tail of the tiger. It was interesting, and enlightening.

It was clear none of them had ever seen or interacted with the Dao before, which made sense. None of them could be over level twenty, if they had even reached fifteen. Well, except for the one slightly further away, but they also had no Dao to speak of. I knew I had an effect on the speed of Dao development in Ascentown, but was it truly this pronounced? I hadn’t crystalised my own understanding until I had come into contact with the feeling myself. I was the first in the world to create a Dao Pool. It wasn’t too surprising that they hadn’t figured it out, but it was telling all the same. Their settlement didn’t have anyone over level thirty then, most likely.

“Which direction is your city?” I asked. It crossed my mind to ask for names or information, but I was pretty certain there was no chance these people were going to be reliquaries of knowledge.

“Who said we’re from a city?” This time, it was the apparently Scottish man asking. The ginger hair suggested as much, but I hadn’t wanted to assume. I withered him a glare and another layer of Dao. Under my gaze, he looked like he was experiencing g-force, his cheeks sagged and his hand dropped from the woman’s back.

“I said,” speaking with genuine ire in my voice, “I’m the one asking questions.” I whipped the air around into a frenzy, the stormy winds causing the nearby trees to shake as they wailed through their branches. “Point me in the direction of your settlement and I’ll be on my way.”

“What are you going to do when you get there?” Two-Hammers asked yet another question. At the same time, the supposedly invisible person in the back started to move towards me. I didn’t know who was more audacious. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was getting nowhere with this.

“What I’m not going to do is be ignored.” Fine, I decided, forget diplomacy. My Alternating Armament leapt to my hand from within my inventory before immediately turning into a staff. I slammed the end of the weapon into the ground, using just my raw strength to make a point. I might not have an earth-shaking skill from the System, but I could make it happen.

As the tremors of the blow unsteadied the group, I released my Dao in full. Both the roar of the dragon and the howl of the storm bellowed out from me like physical forces. Those who had been standing were forced to their knees, including the invisible man. They had got quite close in their approach and I kicked them away, into the stomach of Two-Hammers. She couldn’t see the incoming human projectile, and it ended up knocking over her and the Scottish guy, too.

“I’m done asking questions.” I whispered, not worrying that my words would get lost in the wind. My words were the wind, the very air this man breathed. I approached the no-longer invisible man. There were daggers in his hands, still white knuckled in his grip. Arguably this was random, but a part of me wanted to punish them for trying to sneak attack me, too. “I don’t need you to tell me anything, I’ll take the answers myself.”

Drain.