DesertBus

DesertBus (Desert) is the creator of One of a Kind. His Virtue, Creator's Grace, was the first Virtue ever created and allows him to walk on air. He has created many of the original features and mechanics of the game, such as Proving Ceremonies and Trading Rituals, as well as countless Virtues. He is the founding member of the Pantheon.

## Virtue

Desert's Virtue is Creator's Grace. It's main feature is granting him the ability to walk on air if he walks off of a ledge, but it also grants him the ability to fall slower or faster on command and causes him to take less damage while in the air. By walking off of a high ledge, he can remain in the air almost indefinitely, where he is most protected from damage. Despite the damage reduction, he is still considered To Hasten due to the mobility and utility that being in the air provides him with. This Virtue originally only granted slower falling speed, but was later buffed to allow the Beholder to walk on air and fall faster on command, then later buffed again to grant damage resistance while in the air.

Type: Second Nature

Essence: To Hasten

Resistance: 50% while in the air.

Counters: To Hasten

## Soul

Desert owns PrawnCracker's Soul, which grants him the ability make opponents fall through the floor by meleeing them. While it is guaranteed to kill an opponent in almost any situation, the opponent needs to be at low health for the effect to actually take place.

Beholder Soul: PrawnCracker

Level: 5

Name: Acceptance

Type: Mastered

Essence: To Harm

Activation: When opponent is at half heatlh

Cooldown: 3.3 seconds

Countered By: To Hold, To Hasten, To Heal

## Lore

While Desert's past is largely a mystery, he's known to be the first Beholder and considered to be a god of some sort, having demonstrated the ability to create a large amount of things, most notably Virtues. His Title alludes to him being The Creator, one of the possible origins of Virtues. The two share many similarities, such as the fact that both are said to be the first Beholder and both create and give Virtues.

Desert spent a lot of his early days waiting for strangers to visit him, then demonstrating to them that he had a Virtue and would give others Virtues too if they could best him in a duel. While many gave up or said that he was lying, he eventually managed to gain a small following of Beholders that would battle amongst themselves for fun using their Virtues. As the numbers of new Beholders grew, Desert started telling campfire stories about the new members and all the adventures that they would have. While Desert enjoyed doing this, eventually people started joining too fast for him to keep up, but he still occasionally tells a story from the distant past around a fire to any Beholders who will listen to him.

While Desert used to make each Virtue for his guests by hand, it eventually became too difficult with the large amounts of people, so he founded the Pantheon, a legion of gods made up of humans that he chose for their creative potential and unique abilities to create. The Pantheon both helped take a lot of the stress that Desert had away and made him feel less lonely in a world where people around him grew and died while he remained on Earth.

At some point, Desert was inspired by the stories he'd heard circling about him that his Virtue allowed him to walk on air instead of just being able to fall slowly and decided the enter the Proving Ceremony so that his Virtue could achieve just that. He came out successful, but while he was satisfied for a long time, him and the other Beholders knew that his Virtue was one of the least effective among the group that he battled with, so he decided to enter the Ceremony again to make himself a bit more sturdy while in the air. He succeeded at doing that as well, and is now a decently impressive opponent on the battlefield.

Shortly after the discovery of The Well, Desert jumped in and received a Soul, but later traded it to BlackHawk for Prawncracker's Soul. While he was at first upset that the Soul didn't really suit him, he eventually found comfort in the fact that Prawn was just as bound to Earth as he was. Despite his age, Desert learned a lot of lessons from Prawn, such as how to relax, and the two became great friends.

On the Final Solstice, after the Principalities were used and the Perfect Being was freed, The Perfect Being possessed Desert and gave a dire warning through him that "Collectors" were coming. After this incident, Desert dug up an old book called the Divinomicon that would supposedly help, but he wasn't able to translate it. However, in his search, he did find Cottage Fables, a book containing stories by Adeline Sky, which he sometimes reads to other Beholders.

## Tips

* Hitscan is almost always more effective against Desert than projectiles.
* The defensive boost provided by Creator's Grace combined with Desert's above average regen from being a Fate makes him a surprisingly sturdy opponent. keep this in mind while fighting him.
* Creator's Grace allows Desert to reach all sorts of areas and escape unfavorable fights easily. It's best to either kill him quickly or avoid him so that he doesn't waste your time.
* Desert's ability to stay high in the air makes him a hard counter to any short-ranged playstyles. This is especially effective against other To Hastens that choose the playstyle of sticking to close range power and using their speed to close the distance between them and their enemies.
* If Desert picks Pharah on a map with a high skybox, he can stay in the air forever and easily boost high enough into the air that enemies can't deal any notable amount of damage to him at any time, then regen that health back with Fate. He's almost completely unkillable in these scenarios, but will be forced to come back down if he hopes to compete with the others. Retreating to rooms with ceilings may be a good strategy if this becomes a problem.
* For Acceptance to work, Desert has to successfully melee you. Staying out of range using speed or high ground will render it completely useless.
* Against Acceptance, you can choose a flying hero to negate the penalty of getting hit by it.
* Note that for Acceptance to work, you have to be at low health. Using a healing hero or To Heal Virtue might help to avoid this happening.

## Trivia

* The name "Desertbus" comes from a videogame that was considered by some to be the worst video game ever created.