TJ gasped, feeling more himself than he'd been able to for a while. His fingers and toes spread, feeling the humidity of the clouds flow through them. His brows were wet from the clouds, and each breath moistened his throat, which he only then realized was dry. Before he could relax or contemplate or resettle himself, the System demanded again,
What have you learned?
He tried to formulate a thought as the earthshaking voice rumbled his entire being. His sense of self was swept away as again, it shouted at him,
What have you learned?
Less than ten seconds passed and and the voice returned, louder than ever,
What have you learned?
The System's messages filled his vision, stealing away the beautiful view,
What have you learned?
TJ screamed in pain
What have you learned?
He looked for freedom
What have you learned?
"Freedom! Power! Opportunity! Flexibility!" TJ shouted, the words meaning next to nothing to him as he just wished for release. Blessedly, the System ceased its inundation of information and sound. TJ gasped, trying to bring himself back to rationality. He hadn't said anything with any real thought, but as the System's insistence pulled back from him, TJ allowed his thoughts to coalesce. The words he'd spoken were, in large part, what he'd thought as he watched other people use Wind Manipulation, or something like it, to great effect.
There were uses he'd considered and done before, like pulling something closer or pushing it away, using it to cut like a blade or pummel. Then, there were basic uses he merely hadn't considered, like the coatl using the winds to leap higher and dive faster or the farmer to carry the seeds. These applications were interesting but basic. Much more interesting to him were how some visions showed more creative uses, like the spearman somehow making lightning appear in the Skill, or the witch on the cliff channeling her power through that of the weather.
Others had accelerated individual attacks, lightened their steps, and helped others to run faster. Bringing good weather to crops and fending off clouds of locusts also filled the other visions, and TJ felt his mind open to more than what he had used his Skill for thus far. He got the distinct impression that none of the visions he saw used a Skill above Copper tier in power, so how had they been able to produce results so much better than his own? Maybe it was due to a massive difference in attributes, but TJ suspected it was something else entirely.
He felt the System approaching, ready to browbeat him once more. There wasn't time to think more about it, he needed to talk to preserve his own sanity.
"The winds are free!" TJ declared to the heavens. "They will not be bound, and they will outlast anything that wishes to control them. They can be patient, but they aren't unless forced to. They whip around the highest peak and batten down anything that refuses to acknowledge their superiority. Everything must bend or break before the wind, because the wind doesn't care about what everything else is or thinks.
"The skies bring rain, light, and life. Someone who wields the winds becomes a vessel for the heavens, to cloud them or open them as they desire, to destroy mountains with rainfall and lightning, hurricanes and typhoons. More than a mere weapon, what I wield is the oldest, strongest tool of the gods, and I've seen it as a mere blade instead of the limitless domain it is. Beyond destruction, the winds carry moisture inland and seeds from their trees. The sun brings life to those it warms, and the winds are energized by it." TJ could feel the beginning of a true "enlightenment" coming, but he also felt that he was rambling, so he drew his speech to a close, hoping it would count for the System.
"The winds are movement and release, joy and rage, implacability and capriciousness. I cannot forget its flexibility and place as the first of the divine tools."
Enlightenment achieved. Fixation +10. Tribulation inbound.
TJ wasn't warned of anything, but as soon as the System's words stopped ringing in his head, he was wrenched from the celestial plane he stood in. The softly glowing clouds disappeared from view and he slammed to the ground on top of a hill. Nothing but a vast plain surrounded him, and he wore only a simple tunic. None of his equipment was nearby, and when he tried to call up his Status, nothing appeared. When he tried to activate Divine Transformation, nothing happened.
Appraisal too didn't work, and he got the feeling that his other passive Skills were unavailable to him as well. Only Wind Manipulation answered his call, though it was not limited to the Dirt tier. The speed with which the Skill gathered the winds and prepared whatever he commanded was at least on the same level of his Copper tiered Skill while under the influence of Divine Transformation. Perhaps the change was the boost he'd received to his Fixation?
Though he wanted to continue to explore the thought, the System shook him from his exploration of his situation.
Survive.
There was no further explanation, even an ominous timer. Instead, TJ looked in every direction, hoping to see what he even needed to react to. There was nothing. No enemies, no allies, no monsters, no people, no threatening anything. There was, as far as he could tell, nothing that would merit giving him the warning to "survive". Even so, TJ figured there was no reason to disregard the warning, and looked for a defensible position. There was nothing anywhere nearby, but he'd just seen how Wind Manipulation could help him scout more effectively.
Knowing what he was about to do, though, TJ needed to swallow down his fear as he compressed the wind below him. Then, he leapt and pushed his Skill to allow him to leap twenty feet into the air. He tried to look around, to look for any goal to move towards, but he'd miscalculated the jump and the use of his Skill. As he started to flip over himself in the air, TJ screamed. He plummeted towards the ground headfirst, nearly guaranteed to hurt himself.
With both his arms curled up over his head, TJ thumped to the ground. He groaned, but had underestimated the strength of his body. His Vitality and Toughness were both pretty close to 100, and those combined to make the fall onto soft ground mere painful instead of debilitating or even crippling.
He grunted and tried to gather himself up. Though the Skill-assisted leap hadn't provided any information on the first attempt, TJ was more than willing to give it a second. As he sailed up into the sky the second time, though he floundered and was bound to land on something other than his feet on the way down, he took in the surroundings. Nothing but green fields in every direction, though off to the side, there was a dark cloud of something. With the sun directly overhead, TJ couldn't tell if the cloud was to the east, west, north, or south, and worse still, he had no idea if the cloud would be a good or bad thing. He thought it was good, but there was, of course, no damned instructions coming from the System about what he should do. Perhaps it was the source of whatever he needed to survive, or it was something he could exploit to ensure he could survive whatever else this Tribulation threw at him.
Fortunately or not, TJ quickly received his answer when a horde of Mayan Lightning Dogs, just like what Molly could transform into, rushed towards his hill from the opposite direction of the cloud. Several dozen of the creatures lunged towards him, and TJ knew that if they managed to surround him, he wouldn't survive. Instead of confronting them head on as he would have before, he called on the winds to hasten his movements and sprinted in the direction of the cloud he'd seen before.
TJ cursed his hesitation when his knee-jerk reaction had been that the cloud was a good thing. If he'd started running as soon as he'd seen it, he would be so much closer than he already was, and now, there was no way he would get there before the Lightning Dogs caught up to him. For now, though, it was better to focus on sprinting. The winds compelled by his Skill carried him forward ever faster, ever further, and though the baying cries of the Lightning Dogs grew closer and closer, TJ focused solely on continuing his flight.
The clouds drew closer and closer, and TJ got the distinct impression the cloud was actually being pushed towards him. Maybe divine providence, maybe a sign that the Tribulation was intended to be survivable even for boneheads like him, or maybe something else entirely. Either way, TJ needed every additional second he could get. The deep shadow that fell under the clouds was a quarter mile away when the first of the Lightning Dogs reached TJ.
It snapped forward, its teeth shining with electricity. As the teeth closed, the lightning crackled like a taser. TJ only barely escaped, and sent a long thin blade of wind back. He didn't care to kill or even cripple any of the beasts. He only needed to slow them down. The creatures suffered through the shallow cuts without issue, and TJ screamed his frustration to the skies. Would he be able to escape, ro would he be killed here? If he was killed here, did that mean permanently or just in this vision? There was no time to worry, instead, TJ pushed himself harder.
A pair of jaws found his left calf and bit down into the flesh. TJ's screams of frustration quickly became agonized as jolts of electricity shot up his leg and into his torso. He tried to keep his balance, but couldn't. The electrical current was too much, and though it quickly ran out, TJ was hobbled. Blood covered his legs and made the ground muddy underfoot as he thrashed.
With a shout, TJ blasted the closest Lightning Dogs back, the winds answering his desperate call. For a moment, he gained a small distance between himself and the Lightning Dogs. TJ struggled to his feet, running towards the cloud cover. He was sure that there, he'd be able to turn the tides, escape, survive, or even defeat the monsters. The creatures seemed to desperately want to keep him from doing so and TJ knew that was how he'd survive. Another beast's jaws found him and sent another jolt of excruciating electricity down his spine. He shuddered and struggled to continue rushing away. Escape was mere yards away.
Two more pairs of jaws set into his legs and TJ screamed in agony and fear as he stretched his fingers out, touching the edge of shadow. The clouds moved over him, and TJ was quickly covered in shadow. He pushed back onto his feet, ready to stand through the agony.
The Lightning Dogs didn't allow him. A third and fourth pair of jaws found him, the electricity keeping him from moving at all. While he still jittered in place, a fifth pair of jaws found the base of his spine.
With a final bite, Thiago Jorge Harris IV died.