Chapter 38

Gooey Consequences

Through my normal eyes I saw Teach fling his hand and knock Stephen out of the way. He had already started to release his energy and when he was batted aside the rest of it was knocked out of him.

Kenzo flew up to me. He was thunder pissed, but, somehow, there was worry there, too. I knew why. The power was overwhelming me, no longer me guiding it, but the minds I’d gathered took the reins, pulling our collective whole in all directions. I felt it reach out and touch other brains, pulling more energy, adding further fuel to this fire that I had completely lost control of.

“Darcy, you have to try and pull it back. Focus as much as you can. And, no matter what it feels like is happening, do not worry about me.”

Him? I didn’t know what he meant at all by that, I didn’t give a shit about anything at the moment, my whole mind was burning. But I did what he said, tried my best to pull it back. It took everything I had, but all I managed to do was stop it from spreading.

“Great, Darcy. Keep it like that the best you can.”

A new energy source kicked on. This one calm and controlled, not a flame but a river. I vaguely recognized it, it was Kenzo’s energy. My power, hijacked by the brains, leapt at him, trying to add him to our Link. His power faltered as the energy from me overwhelmed him. This is what he was talking about. I did as he said, pulling back, willing it all to stop and return.

Something was weird. The teacher's energy was diminishing… but nothing was being added to our horde. Then, amazingly, it was pressed back, his waves swelling, pushing back the flames. With his push and my pull, we were able to reign it in enough for me to come back in control.

“Great, Dracy. Now, release it. Let the energy return to where it came from.”

I did as he said, releasing my hold on them and just letting them drift back. Lightly nudging them back to their rightful place. The fire burned itself out, returning to unconnected candles.

I collapsed onto the ground. Stephen rushed to my side and grabbed my arm. “Darce, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” I said breathlessly.

“Can you stand?” Kenzo asked, his voice stern and cold.

At once I pushed myself to my feet, with Stephen’s help.

“Come here.” The teacher walked a ways off, to one of the further dummies I’d mentally latched onto.

I joined him beside it and, “Oh my God.”

The brain had melted, one whole half of the brain was mush. An outer layer slid off and hit the ground with a wet quelching.

“I did that?”

“Yes.”

“If they were human…”

“Interverse death, for sure. But it could have been more than that. You could have melted their brains back on Earth. Go too much too early and that’s what can happen.”

I swallowed hard. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I told you to stop at five.” He looked at me with such disappointment. Way worse than the look he’d given that B lady back in the group meeting. I said then it would make me rethink my whole life if he ever turned that gaze on me. Well, I was right. It was worse than I imagined.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There’s no sugar coating this. I puked. Right there by the dummy, the puke–sorry for this detail–joining with the melted brain.

“I’m so sorry,” I said as soon as I could talk again.

“Are you okay?” The teacher asked, still stern, but concerned. “I’ve never seen this happen.”

“It’s okay,” Stephen said as he patted me on the back. “She doesn’t do well with disappointing father figures.”

I barfed again. I took a few minutes to recover, Stephen patting my back, a bit too hard where it went from a comforting gesture to maybe being an attempt to knock all the vomit out of me.

Okay. No more vom-talk, sorry.

“I’m okay now.” I stood back up, the teacher still wore the same stern face, it hadn’t let up hardly at all. My stomach churned.

“You see now, right? The things you are learning here are not to be taken lightly. Even if you were to use that as an attack against foes, The Admins could very well pick up that something is not right. You would be taken in and interrogated. If they can somehow discover that you’ve awakened to your abilities… it puts me and everyone I’ve taught in danger. We would be hunted down and snuffed out.”

I averted my gaze and stared at the melting dummy brain. Not a much better sight but much preferred to disappointment. “Yes, sir. I’m really sorry.”

“Does this mean I’m unquestionably the favorite student now?” Stephen joked, trying to cut through the awkward and depressing atmosphere I’d caused.

The teacher laughed, returning more to his normal self. “You know teachers don’t pick favorites.”

“I know that’s a bullshit thing that teachers say! You have a favorite.” Stephen slammed his chest. “And for right now, it’s me.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts. I’m gunning for my throne.” I brandished my fists, not fully back to myself but getting there.

“If that’s what it takes for you to follow my instructions and improve… then I will allow you to continue thinking I have a favorite.”

“How noble of you,” I said and the teacher’s eyes seemed to sparkle with bemusement, like nothing had even happened.

“Now, what say we get back to training?" He said. "I want you both to do five again, and hold it, for as long as you can. And then return the energy back. Safely.” He gave me a look, but smiled, softening the blow. “We will slowly increase the amount until you can handle all fifty.”

“We only have a few days,” I said. “Is that enough time?”

“That’s purely up to you two. Let’s get to it!” He clapped and the broken dummies were switched out for fresh ones.

The gross mess by my foot seeped into the floor—again, like nothing happened. It seemed it was only me still lingering on what I did. But that was for the best. I needed that, to know how serious what we were doing was. It wasn’t fun magic powers—it was something real, from the depth of our brains and if I didn’t take it seriously it could cause real harm. Real death, real consequences, not just a Game Over and some lost loot and experience.

I hoped Stephen learned from my mistake. But he played things by the book, it was always going to be me to break a rule. I shook my arms and head, throwing all that aside.

It was all up to us. We didn’t have much time left.

#

The next few days, as you can imagine, were spent training. I’ll try and skip through it, I don’t think you want the full rundown of Stephen and I straining and floating with our eyes closed for hours.

And during the game? Similar busy work. We went with the plan, told our band of followers that Stephen needed time to hone his powers and prepare for the final day. And they bought it. Completely.

Amazing.

But unlike Stephen, I didn’t have such a clean excuse to hide in a cave and continue to train (and was he even training? There were no brains in there. He HAD to be sleeping. I just knew it). I tried to just stand outside the cave and pretend to guard it (…okay, you caught me, I was napping) but that didn’t last long.

“Um,” a small, unsure voice said.

I sighed and looked down, expecting to see some little kid. But my whole fishbowl was filled with nothing but ripped abs. I looked up to see a man towering over me, he had long blonde hair and one of those butt chins. He might be sexy to someone but, to me, he just kind of looked like a try hard, hiding something.

“Could you help me with something?” That small voice came from within the hulking man. He was hiding something after all: his true age and size.

“You know, you can get voice changers,” I said.

The buff man-child blushed. “I spent too much on body mods.”

That made sense. A body like that had to be expensive. “Is that what you want help with?”

He blushed further and shook his head, his hair going every which way. “N-no. Um… you’re strong, right?”

A good question. My Stat screen said absolutely not but with my psychic powers… “Sort of.”

“Could you show me how to stand up to a bully?”