Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 74: Aura

[Auras] were an interesting part of one’s powers, and one that you’d be stuck with for a long time. Much like you got your [Inspect] and [Privacy] upgrades with your second [Class] and were stuck with it. Sure, they got stronger as you levelled and further scaled with some other Aspect of your kit, but their basic form would not change from what someone’s first Evolution offered.

That being said, [Aura’s] weren’t necessarily linked to your [Class]. You were offered an absurd number of options, the first based on your personality, then a few based on your various achievements, one for every Aspect, one for every [Class], one for every [Skill] you used a lot, one for every … point was, there were a lotof options.

Finding the right [Aura] was somewhat similar to digging through the bargain bin at the supermarket. There was a lot of crap there, some decent things, and some that were literal gold.

Unfortunately, the [System’s] labels didn’t really help here, though. The various [Auras] were ranked from common to legendary, but that generally referred to acquisition difficulty, rather than raw power. Sure, legendary was better than common in almost all circumstances, but not always. For example, a luck aura unlocked by winning the lottery would be ranked pretty highly, possibly even being considered legendary, but ‘luck’ effects were generally not the strongest.

For example, if there was a banana peel near where someone was walking, luck could interfere and increase the probability of someone stepping on it, but no fighter worth their salt would miss a banana peel lying on the ground and definitely not put their feet anywhere near such an obvious tripping hazard.

At the end of the day, luck didn’t create situations, it made beneficial things that were fated to happen do so sooner or later, depending on what was helpful at a given moment. A lightning bolt being delayed until the target had walked right up to its intended point of impact, old masonry crumbling ever so slightly prematurely and the like. Except people paying attention could see most of those things were about to happen and then, they could simply step out of the proverbial line of fire.

And that was how it went with the auras.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 25, gained your third Class and are now eligible to choose your Aura!

Your Aura is a projection of your will, manifested out in the world, able to be felt by all it touches (barring Auras specifically meant to unnoticed).

Each Aura also has their own, unique power which can be applied within its area of control. When Aura’s overlap and conflict, you may use your Aura to fight your foe’s, but the effectiveness of your efforts may differ significantly based on your respective Auras.

Each Aura has several key words that describe its attributes, such as range (short: 2 m, medium: 5 m, long: 10 m, very long: 25 m), purpose (combat, sensory, utility, mobility, domination) and affinities (specific element, emotion, concept, etc. )

Projecting your Aura costs 10 points of mana per minute, certain auras have the option of investing additional mana to create additional effects.

Upon first activating your Aura, it will reach full strength slowly, use this to familiarize yourself with it, how it feels, what it does, and how to best manipulate it.

Warning: only one [Aura] can be used at a time (without specific [Skills], which are only available in [Classes] that specialize in their use). Activating two [Auras] is not fatal or causes permanent disabilities, but you will not like what happens when you try.

Each [Aura] costs ten [Skill] points.

It was the same screen as last time, including that stupid little line that practically dared you to try and use two [Auras] concurrently and end with them both intermingled, locked together, unable to be used or deactivated until you somehow managed to separate the two again and deactivate one of them. If you hadn’t gotten good enough with either of them before then … you had to shut them down forcefully using something like a spiritual attack, which both messed with your ability to do quite literally everything [System] related and hurt like a godsdamed bitch.

Also, trying to figure out the intricacies of two [Auras], rather than sticking to one, massively limited how good you could get with either.

Lastly, it was simply very expensive to buy two of these things, given that after the second Evolution, you only got two [Skill] points per Level and from the third onwards, you only got one. However, he’d saved plenty of points, which meant that he did have the points to spare. Whether or not he would, well, that depended on what was offered to him.

General Auras

Personality Aura: Aura of Obsessive Focus

Goal Aura: Aura of the Desperate Seeker

Achievement based Auras

Aura of the Reeve (epic)

Aura of the Hidden Master (legendary)

Aura of the Teacher (rare)

Aura of Reckless Hunter (rare)

Aura of the Ambitious Summoner (legendary)

Aura of the Shady Savior (epic)

Aura of the Tarnished Knight (epic)

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (legendary)

Aura of Divinity Endured (legendary)

Aura of the Subtle Leader (legendary)

Class based Auras

Aura of the Hidden Blade (common)

Aura of the Beast Within (epic)

Aura of Sword’s Intent (legendary)

Aspect based Auras

Aura of the Ghost (rare)

Aura of the Spectral Haunt (epic)

Aura of Depth’s Hunger (rare)

Aura of Constant Renewal (rare)

Aura of Eternal Renewal (epic)

Aura of Reality Altered (rare)

Aura of Reality Faked (epic)

Aura of the Cruel Binding (rare)

Aura of the Bladestorm (epic)

Twenty-four options. Twenty-four. That … that was a lot. But then again, Isaac could dismiss all of the ones linked to Aspects out of hand as they were simply too hyper-focused to be useful in all situations.

[Class] based ones were very much meh as well, giving the ability to hide better and pointing out the best place to stab when attacking from ambush, hiding an intent to attack and then bursting out with an intense wave of killing intent upon initiating the offensive and projecting blades at close range, respectively.

The latter, linked to his new [Class] was definitely good, but there were plenty of others that were also good.

And then there were the [Auras] based on him, specifically, rather than his [Classes], Aspects or achievements.

Aura of Obsessive Focus (medium range, utility/combat/, temporal/mental)

Some people are unable to focus on any one thing long enough to finish it. Others, those being the vast majority of people, can finish projects, but are also willing and quite able to take time off for more mundane pursuits. And then you have people who focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. People like you!

And this Aura is about that feeling condensed to its absolute extreme, granting the user the power to sense things within his Aura to a limited degree, then focus in on a specific area at will. As to what happens to that area? Simple, time itself will slow to a crawl (or at least moves 10 % more slowly, though this can be increased with enough practice). This can be used on the user himself to give him more time to think or slow down enemies and their attacks.

Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 50 mana per minute to enhance temporal effects

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (very long range, sensory, mental/emotion)

We all search for things in this life. Money, wealth, power, freedom, those are the common ones. But others seek knowledge instead, be that for knowledges sake, slowly and methodically uncovering all the secrets the world holds, or to achieve some goal, desperately searching for the solution, clawing at the world to make it release its secrets.

This Aura embodies the spirits of the latter, of grabbing reality itself by the collar and shaking it until it gives up all that delicious information.

It is a sensory Aura that given the user information about anything it touches, and can be focused to further enhance the amount of information it gives. It may also be used in conjunction with Inspect and its upgrades to gain information on monsters and other people without needing direct line of site on them, so long as they are within the Aura’s range.

Lastly, this Aura may be infused with the frantic, manic energy of desperation and can be used as a (weak) mental attack.

Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 25 mana per minute to enhance information defense penetration and secondary mental effects.

Yikes, the [System] was not pulling any punches today. That Aura based on his personality felt a little … pointed.

But flavor text aside, the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] was bloody fantastic. It was also a sensory type Aura, just like he’d had in the other timeline. A sensory [Aura] not only made for a fantastic fig leaf for discovering certain things, it was also something he could manipulate with the deftness of a virtuoso. If he also grabbed an [Aura] for combat, he’d be far stronger in a fight while also having an excuse for how he’d figured out some things.

The [Aura of Obsessive Focus] was good as well, but the sensory component was vastly inferior and the temporal effect wasn’t that vital to him. A proper, true-blue combat [Aura] would produce superior results and if he picked another one for the express purpose of wielding it in combat, that was what he would get.

The problem of training two [Auras] at the same time would be a non-issue as he was already highly proficient with one of them.

As for the cost, he could afford it right now and it would likely be worth it. Now he just had to pick one.

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood/renewal/combat)

When the System descended, it brought war with it. War, conflict, bloodshed. Some people drowned in it, their lives ending in one of a myriad of horrible ways. Others, though, they survived and rose back up, stronger than ever.

A phoenix, rising from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield and taking flight among the pillars of smoke that rise from the field of corpses, reborn anew in the crucible of blood and steel to take war to take war to the very heavens themselves.

This Aura allows the user to wreath themselves in an aura of blood and violence, projecting hardened slabs of crimson energy around themselves, to be used as a means of attack and defense, as well as to enhance the user’s stats by up to 10% (this can be increased through practice).

However, while this Aura is active, the user embodies the very spirit of a phoenix emerging from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield, healing in the midst of a storm of violence, constantly increasing as conflict continues and escalates, and as more blood and more blood soaks the soil underfoot.

If the user wants to, it can also show those who sense it the entirety of what the user has killed, demonstrating their power and achievements to all those who would dareto face them on the field of battle.

Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), cannot be overcharged with mana, projections cost vary between 5-20 mana per second or spilled blood

Aura of the Tarnished Knight (medium range, combat/domination, leadership/weaponry)

Knights. Brave warriors who travel the countryside, slaying bandits, saving princesses from dragons or waking them from a curse of sleep via true love’s kiss.

That is the knight as he appears in a fairy tale.

Knights. Lesser nobles given a little bit of land, power and influence, all so they were in a position to afford upkeep on a warhorse and set of plate armor with the end goal of serving the king in times of conflict and strife.

They were also expected to uphold their code of honor, the code of chivalry, upholding such values as faith, charity, justice, hope, diligence, valor, truth, temperance and other high minded ideals.

This is the idealized version of the historical knight.

The real life version … a little less so. Sure, they were expected to be all those things, but in reality? Yeah, things were nowhere near that rosy.

The knights were an elitist group of pricks that was almost impossible to join, and the people who tried and failed but still wore the armor were often decried as ‘Raubritter’. Better? Maybe, if a little pessimistic.

This Aura embodies the idea of a knight in the realistic sense. A warrior who works towards good causes, while realizing there are certain actions that would further those causes while also being looked askance upon by others.

As such, it gives the user an aura of truthfulness and might, while helping hide some of the darker aspects of their being. And should those things nonetheless reach the light, it may create an effect that helps convince others of the necessity of those deeds.

In addition, the user may manifest a full set of spectral armor (modelled after any historical armor the user wishes for) for a slight additional mana cost.

This Aura places you in the world as you are, a warrior striving for a goal without being bogged down by the chains of propriety.

Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), 20 per minute if armor is manifested, can be overcharged with up to 30 mana per minute to enhance the user’s charisma ormassively strengthen the power of the spectral armaments

Both of these were pretty cool, though as far as he was concerned, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] was the clear winner here. It was even pretty damn similar to his old style of fighting. Killing minions, using their life force to power up certain attacks that accepted it as an alternative power source, and then using them to obliterate [Raid Bosses]. With the right setup, it could be incredibly powerful, though it was massively weaker when there weren’t any little minions scurrying around underfoot, not that that was ever likely to be an issue in a world overrun by monsters.

The [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] was obviously a hell of a lot weaker than a well thought out build with proper synergies, but it was the exact kind of thing an endurance fighter like him needed, especially when fighting against hordes of enemies.

Therefore, he took both the [Auras]. This meant he’d have to level a little bit before he could get any of his [Class] [Skills], but that was fine. [Auras] would always be relevant, while a lot of the older [Skills] could easily become less and less useful as time passed.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Bladewraith

Species: Human

Level: 25

XP: 1,372/8,400

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 500/500

Stats

Fortitude

50

Perception

80

Strength

60

Agility

70

Magic Power

50

Magic Regeneration

70

Free Points: 0 Stat, 2 Skill

Aura

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration)

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)

Central Skills

Form of Horror XVI

The Chosen Weapon XXI

Skills

Hundred Faces XIV

Stealth XVII

Power Strike XXV

Piercing Strike XXVI

Sundering Strike XXIII

Blades XXV

Sneak XVII

Sweeping Strike IX

Far Strike XIX

Manifold Strike XVII

Hunter’s Gaze XXIII

Phantom Step XIII

Unknown Fear XIII

Bestial Regeneration XII

Undying Focus XI

Tools of Terror XII

Fleeting Presence III

Crippling Blow IV

General Skills

Gralloch IX

Alchemy X

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Poltergeist (2 stack)

Poltergeist’s Flight

Poltergeist Shift

Hydra (2 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Dunkleosteus

Gills

Fata Morgana

Improved Basic Illusion

Perception Block

Blade Tempest

Blade Control

Eternal Blades

[Empty Slot]

And now, it was time to try it out. The [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] activated slowly, a tingling feeling manifesting at first in his eyes, soon jumping to all the ‘normal’ sensory organs like the ears and nose, and then, finally, moving on to his skin, the biggest sensory organ of all. Everything felt a million times more intense for a moment … and then he felt thing normally again, but what he could sense was everything. Well, everything within twenty-five meters, that was.

It felt good. It felt right. It fit like a godsdamned glove, like an old friend finally returning, or maybe like finally going home.

Of to his right, a mouse went running, scared nearly to death by the sudden burst of foreign will. Isaac muttered a silent apology and retracted his [Aura] from it, but only it. By checking for things like air currents, radiated body heat and the like, he could perfectly keep track of other living beings without actually having to touch them.

Good for stealth, but also for avoiding angering people. After all, you could feel the ‘flavor’ of an [Aura] that touched you, so if it was a sensory [Aura] that swept over a person and that person took it the wrong way, well, let’s just say that being careless with a sensory [Aura] was an excellent way to end up having to have teeth regrown. Hence, the trick of not directly scanning people.

Of course, this technique displayed true mastery of one’s sensory [Aura], something he had precisely noexcuse for having at this point in time, so he’d stick to tearing ragged holes into his [Aura] wherever there were people and he was aware of that, the quick and dirty version of what he’d used to do.

And now, it was time to play around a little. The [Aura] cracked through the air like a whip, zeroing in on a specific tree and scanning it down to almost the cellular level, then sweeping through the air like gossamer thread, weaving through a nearby blue tit without the bird so much as twitching in response.

Sensory type [Auras] could were rather ephemeral, at the end of the day. They were utter garbage at auric combat, but could even survive overlapping with more solid [Auras], though the amount of information gained would drop as a result. And given that sensory types were always the longer ranged of the two without a truly ludicrous level difference, a sufficiently mobile fighter could easily avoid having to defend themselves from an [Aura] more directly suited to auric combat.

Now though, he wanted to fight something. A few moments later, the Tier 5 circle lit up and disgorged a Hydra, five heads roaring their fury at him, and then they lunged.

Isaac closed his eyes and stepped to the side. Sure, with a high enough Perception you could do effectively the same thing, but not needing to rely almost exclusively on your eyes was a truly massive boon.

Five heads struck, five heads missed, four heads came back around to try again.

The last one, meanwhile, lay on the ground with massive brain damage. Isaac had punched it in the skull in just the right spot to fracture it, shards of bone shredding the grey matter below. It was one thing to know intellectually where a good spot to try that was, it was an entirely different matter to be able to see it and track it in real time.

He sidestepped the first one, swayed his torso to the side to avoid the next, then leaned backwards as if he were playing ‘limbo’ when the last two tried to pincer him and prevent him from stepping to the side.

He chased them and leaped atop one of the necks, and jammed two fingers into its neck, aiming for a specific vertebra that had been slightly damaged when the first missed attack had smacked it into the rock ground. His strike broke the bone, severing that one’s spine, rendering it thoroughly unable to move as everything between the break and the base of the neck was no longer receiving nerve signals.

The Hydra tried the same method of attack, over and over, each time losing the ability to use one of its heads until all five were lying on the ground, desperately trying to heal from major brain and spinal trauma.

Old Reliable’s Zweihänder form manifested in Isaac’s hands, ignited, and in a single sweeping arc, removed all the beast’s heads.

Sure, he’d had seven Levels on this thing, but other than his [Aura], he hadn’t used any [Skills] to take it down. Pericogntition, knowing exactly where to dodge and where to aim his blows, all of that added up to an insaneadvantage when no one could interfere with it.

Isaac then wrote and sent a couple of Emails. The first went to Bailey, saying that he’d been right about his hypothesis with regards to the next Evolution Level and it had unlocked a completely new style of power, so he’d be taking a few more days off to try and master it to a certain degree.

Of course, what he’d really be doing was spending a couple of hours figuring out how to appear less skilled, then seeing how well he could handle the other [Aura] and once that was done, write an instruction manual. He’d then slowly be releasing this ‘guide to [Aura] control’ bit by bit at a realistic speed.

This manual would include some descriptions of his own [Auras], but only the parts that would be immediately obvious at a glance. He simply wouldn’t be able to keep that secret in the first place, and the mere appearanceof openness could win you a lot of goodwill.

The second email went directly to Polizeirätin Eisenberg, warning her about how much of a gamechanger [Auras] were and how badly things would have likely gone last Friday if Krebs had had one. It pointed out a few tricks for levelling quickly, and also mentioned how someone involved in the takedown would likely be offered a good [Class], lastly offering that someone could drop by his house and buy some Aspects, also giving a shortened list to choose from.

He'd sent it to her, specifically, because she was ostensibly the team’s police contact, though there was no doubt everyone in the department would have it an hour after she read it, and then, so would everyone else. The police were pretty good at keeping their business secret, but they were hardly Fort Know when it came to information security.

And finally, it was time to try out the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn].

When it went active, a fire erupted in the pit of his stomach, as if he’d downed a bottle of everclear, and Isaac hunched over, gasping in shock and pain. But then, it began to spread, the pain going away as it was replaced with fire and fury, bursting through his skin and erupting outwards and for the barest instance, a pair of bloody wings erupted from his back and curved around the front, though he might have imagined it.

He straightened, his very being singing with fire and fury, a few small scrapes, which he’d gotten when the [Aura] had first activated and sent that bolt of pain through him, disappearing into nothingness.

Blood-red streaks appeared around him, disappearing moments later as he stopped feeding mana into them, the projection power at work.

And then, the Hydra manifested and charged. Nothing better than a field test, amirite?

A massive red chunk of matter, angular and sharp edged, appeared over his right hand and he drove it into the side of one of the Hydra’s necks. Blood spattered over him and the ground, and the [Aura] swelled while the toxic substance burned right off his skin wherever he’d been struck as the regeneration truly kicked into high gear.

The next hit severed another head’s spine and more crimson liquid fountained into the air and flowed around him, the ongoing mana cost to support the [Aura] vanishing mere moments later as the blood took over that task.

Bleeding slashes appeared in the very air itself, cutting into the Hydra whenever it touched them, both they and his fists shredding it to pieces even as it regenerated.

But Isaac was growing slightly faster, though there was a clear limit to how far it could boost him.

Still, both the constructs and his regeneration were growing as the ground was stained crimson, even overcoming the beast’s regeneration until it died despite how quickly it was healing.

Sure, the lack of an interfering enemy [Aura] and the Level difference had made the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] seem more powerful than it actually was, but it was still damn good. Most combat type [Auras] were pretty nasty when one could get one’s foes within their range, but this one fit his fighting style perfectly.

Yet despite how useful it had been, he’d made several serious errors, blades going awry, manifesting too early or too late, and so on, and so forth. It seemed like he’d have to train it a little more than he’d originally expected to have to.

Training montage time!