I slowly exhaled watching my breath dissipate into the cold morning air. The enemy was at our door and our preparation time was over. Ten thousand villagers stood behind me waiting on orders, prepared to die for what we had built. It wasn’t a coincidence, or a surprise that someone wanted to take what we had earned, but it still sucked. A couple years of hard work and dedication lead up to this moment. All that just to have a horde of barbarians come and take all of it away.

Not today.

Today we will stand tall and repel their advance, we will crush them and show the world that we have arrived, today they will know our strength and see what happens when you come against the Sequoia people.

I turned around to look at our creation marveling in the fruits of our dedication and commitment. We had come together a small group of nobodies and castaways. Refugees and former slaves made up most of our ranks, but we were all mighty now. I am the weakest fighter in the village, limited by my ridiculous starting ability “THE POWER OF ONE!” which limits my combat skills to level 10 (except LUCK which was for some reason considered to be both a combat and life skill), and makes me incapable of wearing any armor. Seriously, I am an alpha tester for this worthless game and they hit me with this garbage ability that for all I can tell causes me to be the weakest melee fighter of RPG history! Even my magical abilities are limited, I can’t even summon a decent illusion or creature.

I turned and raised the massive spear in my right hand high over my head while using my shield as leverage to keep my balance, and as one my people hooted their approval. There would be no surrender today, no mercy, anyone that would challenge our right to live in peace would feel our wrath!

I turned and yelled across the killing field, “That is close enough! I can smell your filth from here!” in reply the lead barbarian raised his hand to stall the hordes of bloodthirsty savages at his back. He was pretty imposing riding on the back of his 100’ long elder dragon.

“I can smell your mother’s twat from here you good for nothing lizard! Come down and face me like a man, unless you want me to tear down that wall and pillage that sad excuse of a village,” he smiled wide at his apparent humor.

I stood motionless at the top of our 300’ tall wall confident in our defenses. He thought he was out of bow range, and he thought that he could tear down these walls, I doubt he could accomplish that with double the troops and without our archers picking off half of them. I would love to see him bash his worthless army against our defenses until the last of his men fell and he took his own life out of shame and despair, but I had more than just myself to consider.

Every man I lost was a family without a father, every woman a mother, sister or wife. My people had value and I wouldn’t risk them unless I had no other choice. I had to exhaust every option before it came to that.

“Big words from a man that sits on an Elder Dragon! I will give you one chance to save your people,” I yelled from my perch.

“You wish to make a deal! I expected no less from a coward like you,” a raucous uproar came from behind him as his lieutenants laughed their approval, and soon his sergeants and then his men were caught up in the moment. No doubt having more to do with nerves and adrenaline than the humor.

After allowing the calamity for a good 10 minutes he raised his massive great sword over his head causing instant silence as his power flared and an aura of deep navy blue suffused first his sword and then him, and finally his entire dragon. “My terms are simple lizard, lay down your arms become my personal slave, give me your people to serve as my slaves, your women my harem, and I will keep my men from pillaging too much,” he exclaimed as a creepy smile slowly crept onto his face.

“I will have to decline, but in true barbarian tradition…” I paused for dramatic effect. “I challenge you to a contest of champions!” I finished shouting out so that even the stragglers at the rear that were still pulling the last of the siege equipment into position could hear my challenge.

All mirth left his face and then returned all at once. “These terms are agreeable,” he began his reply, but then paused moving his hand to his chin as if in thought. What a drama queen, how many movies did this dude watch? “I will accept as long as you are champion and agree to a traditional barbarian dual to the death!” he finished by raising his sword again and again an aura surrounded him, but this time it was a deep crimson, causing his army to immediately hoot their approval as they were suffused with his power.

I stood there hiding my relief and excitement, this had been my plan all along. This guy had harassed my people for months causing us to have to move closer and closer to the walls and eventually completely closing off from the rest of the world and limiting our growth. I would take revenge on him, and if my luck held (which it normally does) be free of this menace. By tradition a barbarian lord can use whatever tools he has with him to defeat the enemy in a duel, and that includes concurred creatures. He thought that since he rode on the back of a level 150 elder dragon he could easily best me.

I saw his eyes flare with power as he obviously read my character sheet or at least what he had available to him. At his level I had no doubt that he could see my combat skills, all of them. Even though they were limited to level 10, I had more skills than you could shake a stick at, it took him several minutes to take it all in, but then he started to laugh uncontrollably. This time he was by himself as only the dragon seemed to understand his mirth with its empathetic link. He nearly lost his seat and fell the more than 50 feet to the ground from his mount high on the mighty beast’s back.

He wiped away the tears from his eyes and spoke in a broken cadence struggling to breath, “You hope… to defeat me… with your skills… what are you going to do… kill me with kindness?” he finished and composed himself. “I have seen kittens with more combat skill, you probably should have just focused on one skill instead of gathering as many as possible,” he looked more disappointed than anything at this point. “Very well we have both agreed and it has been witnessed come down and meet your end,” he bent over patting his dragon with affection and obvious trust. It laid down allowing him to slide to the ground with an audible clank from his massive heavy armor.

I watched him come to an abrupt halt and smiled at him, then I casually stepped off the shear face of my wall to meet his challenge. I was ready, months of hard work were about to pay off big with the acquisition of a high-level army and tons of loot, I just needed a couple more lucky breaks and this next move had to work exactly the way I wanted it to.

I came to a stop around a hundred yards from him on the flat well-kept grass that was our primary grazing land for the goats. Then I activated my God level special ability “THE POWER OF ONE!” for the first time in its truest form. Immediately I began pulling in the power of the entire village, all their knowledge and experience began to suffuse every fiber of my being. The air became electric with the sudden transfer of so much energy, the air started to draw toward me in a mighty torrent as it became super-heated and rose with the sudden creation of thermal driving head. The army was pushed forward as the wind at their back picked up to a fever pitch. My body glowed softly at first and then like the sun as it changed to accept the energy. The liquid fire that ran through my veins began to burn and I started losing HP as my body wasn’t up to the task of holding so much power in, but then I started to adapt. My muscles grew stretching my skin taught and bulging out as my mass pushed against my clothes. Then my muscles grew denser, first as hard as a rock, then steel, and settling in around liquid metal. My skin changed from its normal green scaly hue to a translucent pearl shining with an intense inward light that swirled with power and beauty. The wind continued to pick up as a tornado formed from the sudden change in pressure as the air above me rose with newly infused energy, although the transfer was efficient even the 1% that leaked through was enough to cause a sudden change in weather. Fear played across the faces of everyone that witnessed the event. The barbarians knew that such a display of power wasn’t expected after their leader had nearly fallen unconscious from laughter and my own people feared for my safety, fearing that the power would rip me apart and burn me to nothing as it burned the very air. Lightening struck me once, then ten times in quick succession as some of the energy I had given away returned to me. I opened my eyes realizing that they were closed, even though I was completely aware of my surrounding seeing the energy that controlled all things instead of the light that reflected off their surfaces. My mind raced as it tried to compartmentalize the combined knowledge of every man woman and child in my village, ridding itself of repeats and storing all relevant information in the proper place.

I realized that I was hovering looking back over my shoulder I could see straight over our mighty wall and into the faces of my loyal followers. I suddenly had the knowledge to control my vertical position.

Congratulations you have gained a new epic level ability “Controlled Ascent” this ability can be used to climb to great heights slowly, or to just impress a bunch of mouth breathing barbarians! Congratulations you have survived your God Level Transformation and been awarded a new form for your efforts! Energy State is now available, and you can now access the full description of your ability. In the energy state you gain the ability to wield unlimited energy! As your power burns hotter than the sun, you must use 1% of the available energy to maintain your sanity and physical body. This means that you are limited in the length of time you can stay in the energy state and you must wait 10 times the length of transformation between uses, because the ability is hard on your body and mind. All knowledge and skills will be lost when you return to your normal and unimpressive self, so don’t get a big head, you are already cocky enough. Enjoy your new ability! Congratulations due to your connection with energy while in the Energy State you have gained a new ability “Energy Sight”! Energy makes up all things, and now you can perceive the presence or lack of energy around you. Now you can see through solid surfaces and understand the inner workings of object by directly viewing the energy and how it flows through the object!

While I absorbed this new information I slowly descended until my outstretched toes met the ground. As I approached the ground the grass beneath me burned to ash leaving a round patch of burned pitch that was quickly picked up in the swirl of air that blew past me constantly. As my toe touched the earth it immediately turned to lava proving that the new ability and form were meant to be used together. I couldn’t just turn into a being of pure energy and expect to walk around like a normal person, so I just hovered at the scorch the earth height, or about 3 feet.

My smile was one of shear amusement and confidence as I started to cross the remaining distance and approach my opponent, walking across the air as if I couldn’t just hover over like a ghost. The fear had left his features and was replaced with resolution and determination. He was ready to see this fight to the end, weather it was due to ego, peer pressure, or simply the inability to give up due to certain inherent racial abilities.

His aura flashed, and his armor glowed as he stared back at me waiting on the inevitable battle that was moments away. I could see him casting buffs and understood their effects immediately. I could also see the full set of Legendary level armor he had on with matching ring, necklace, and two-handed great sword. It was made from the body of a greater demon, that had possessed and corrupted an elder dragon.

I stood there in my normal attire, lucky t-shirt, jeans, underwear, socks and sneakers. Real imposing on my 5ft tall frame when faced with a mighty 7ft tall barbarian warrior. He bellowed with rage as one of his racial abilities kicked in bulking up his already muscled frame as his strength doubled and he gained infinite stamina for a short period. He was really going all out, possibly hoping for one fatal blow. His yell suddenly cut off as he leapt and swung his sword with both hands above his head. This left his entire front open to attack and would make a great still shot for a poster, as he came flying through the air in a long arc assisted by the hurricane strength wind at his back leading him straight at me.

I just hovered there motionless without as much as a dagger, at some point I had dropped my spear and shield or maybe they had vaporized when faced with the perpetual sun that was my body. The world slowed around me, either due to another ability… nope no prompt. Just heightened perception then, he was now swinging down in a direct path for my head.

Bad idea.

As he flew toward me unable to stop his forward momentum. His sword leading, he realized that he had messed up. The sword vaporized as it got within a foot of me, and his flesh followed a few feet further back, but not having the resilience that the demonic dragon’s jaw bone had. Luckily his rage made him feel no pain while the ability was active, as his body became smoke and his armor glowed red from the mere proximity to my glowing form. The battle was over in the blink of an eye, and I hadn’t even lifted a finger.

Congratulations! You have gained a new ability! “Energy Sphere” this ability causes you to allow a portion of your energy to flow out of you protecting you from physical harm and damaging opponents. Limit 10% per second, damage is exponentially higher the more energy you let out but be careful this ability effects both friend and foe. Also, it is a side effect of you showing off and not fully understanding your ability or how to control the energy and hold it all inside. Luckily it didn’t kill you!

His entire body was turned to smoke and dust in the wind and was sent upward into the swirling vortex. The extremely dense and heavy armor fell straight to the ground, as if all its forward momentum had been halted.

I continued to stand there unflinching as the heavy armor fell to the ground a few feet in front of me. My hands swung out and I gestured for the army to lay down their arms and bow down to their new leader. They came out of their daze and kneeled as one.

You have gained five thousand new villagers! You have gained a new race to your village, and their inherent abilities and skills are now available! Barbarians are mighty warriors and fierce in combat, they also reproduce quickly and eat A LOT! You must feed each barbarian two portions of food at every meal and if they miss even one serving their abilities will take a hit.

Weather it was from hard work or just shear dumb luck, your village has grown and prospered you are now considered a small city! New controls and options are now available to you as the ruler of a city!

I rose back into the air and cut off my Energy State, then I slowly walked forward as if on an invisible bridge to address my new followers and settle old debts.