James was currently on the ground, frustrated, staring at the clouds drifting by above him. His breath was ragged and coming in harsh pants, obviously exhausted, the same calm, instructive voice urged him back to his feet. "Come on James, get up. You've got more in you I know it." His eyes slipped shut in response and he took in a deeper breath before sitting up right and exhaling it, looking up to L'sara. "I can't even catch you, how the hell am I supposed to without knowing anything? You said yourself I was like a child."

She shook her head, "Thats the point, use your head. I told you, when you can manage to land a clean hit on me we'll move on to trying to fix your form and teach you, until then there is no point. Just consider this body training." Those clawed fingers curled up, waving towards him to get back to it, James for his part just hunched down and launched towards her, the same as he had the last few times. Rather than shift like a matador, letting him sail past like she had the last few times, she decided to put a stop to him blindly rushing.

Her hips turned and she was sideways, hoof instantly lashing out and cracking him right in the shoulder, sending him tumbling back away and to the dirt groaning in pain. "You really should learn from your mistakes. I told you I'd punish you if you didnt. Stop trying the same thing." Unable to say anything coherent, James was in a heap, gripping at his now bruised, and likely cracked shoulder.

You have taken 40 [Blunt] damage

"Get up, I didn't hit you that hard." Rocking back and forth, James was not in a state to answer her mocking point, instead, he continued holding his shoulder, anger building inside him. "Come on. Where'd all that bravado go?" More anger began flooding his senses as he forced himself up into a seated position, glaring at her, the pain obvious on his face, but lips were barred, snarling almost at her.

"Oooo... so scary. I'd be more worried if you could even catch me~" It seems L'sara had grown tired of the motherly tone which seemed to be doing nothing for the boy, instead, opting to poke his temper. It was working. James roared at her, lunging too his feet, the hand of the shoulder she had struck flexing, looking at it to make sure it worked before fixing back on her. He dropped down and lunged, doing the same move again.

L'sara, annoyed, was ready to hit the other shoulder and put the boy down for the day before her eyes opened wide. He'd disappered from view about eight or so feet from her. "Wha--" She was cut off by James body slamming into her own causing her to take a few steps back hands instantly grabbing and throwing sending the teen into a spiral away. "What the hell was that!?" Her voice was laced with confusion, and a little bit of anger.

If he had been hiding and ability like that, a hard to get one at that given he completely disappeared from her senses, what the hell was with the random bull charging he was doing? James for his part just began cackling like a madman, not even bothering to get up from the dirt, laying on it face down and beating the floor. "It fucking worked!" L'sara approached, even more annoyed at being out of the loop, "What worked? What the hell was that? Since when did you have the ability to teleport?"

The cackling continued for a few minutes longer before he turned his head and looked up at her from the ground. "I didn't teleport." L'sara's hand moved to her face, holding it, trying to calm herself. "If you did not teleport how did you completely vanish and then reappear?" He began laughing again, muttering that it worked once more before slowly getting to his feet. "Spatial Storage."

The response only got her tilting her head, "Like the bags? You can't go into one of those. Its just an extension of the inventory." James brow furrowed, "Bag? No. Its a skill." L'sara lowered her hand, raising herself back to her full height, glaring down at him. "What do you mean skill? The system only lets you get that applied as an enchantment and its highly regulated and obfuscated, the system has killed more people than I can count for trying to pick the bags apart."

James, still estatic that he had learned something new, seemed to gloss over this information as L'sara continued, "Where the hell did you learn that?" He had his hand gone from view, seemingly cut off at the wrist, then his arm, then part of his shoulder, before pulling it all back and giggling again like a madman. L'sara, not liking the surprise, gripped him by his hair causing a wince and a glare from the teen, his hand coming up to hers and trying to get it loose.

"Answer me. First that staff, and now this skill. The god of luck or fate your lover or something in another life?" James continued struggling, trying to get her iron grip free before he took a breath and his head disappeared down to the shoulder, only to reappear as he pulled back and away from her, only to stumble and hit the floor, dizziness flooding his senses. "Wooaah fuck.." L'sara, initially shocked at his head disappearing, saw him hit the ground on his own this time, a look of concern momentarily overwhelming the anger.

"What happened? Why'd you suddenly crumple like that?" She asked as his hand came upto his head, holding it. James felt like he'd just gone for a ride in a blender it felt almost like the first day on the system, a mumbled, "Check Status." came from his lips, concerened about what was going on.

STATUS TITLES SKILLS NOTIFICATIONS WIKI

Name James Harbor Race Human Age 19 Level 11 Status Points 5   Resource Pools Stamina 65% Fatigue 81% Health 99/120 Mana 0/51 HP/s 1.65 --- ---   Stat Points Strength 5 Constitution 5 Dexterity 5 Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10 Willpower 10

The screen showed his mana was practically bottomed out. "There goes a good bit of my plans. It uses mana while I am in there." Speaking out loud, more to himself out of habit, than anything, L'sara inserted herself again now that she was under the assumption it was just mana fatigue. "You used too much mana, ok, but what is it, you said its called Spatial Storage, but those are accessories for the inventory not skills."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

James slowly getting his head to stop spinning looked up to her, "Its a skill I got on the first day the system arrived... I killed a boss or something, they said it was an exploit, the exploit got overturned because it wasnt my fault and then the system rewarded me and the skill I got caused a black out."

"Boss monster... first day. No. You pissed the god of fate or luck off, thats what you did. Boss monsters aren't even supposed to start showing up until the six month grace period is over outside of dungeons." Her lament over his history caused James to pause his wobbling as best he could, "Wait. Six months? We got a week. Hell. We've got a few days left before the transition is done?"

L'sara did not answer. She just looked down at James, her face almost seemed covered with pity, before she slipped down to the floor in front of him. "I've gotten myself involved in something I shouldn't have...I" She bit her lips, looking at James, and then off in the direction they had come from, towards town. "I should leave.. its not worth it." Moving to get to her feet, she felt a hand come down on her wrist, holding it.

"Wait wait. Leave? Weren't you supposed to be my teacher?" Another chew of her lip to his question, shifting about a little, "That was before I knew.." It was his turn for confusion, face showing a little bit of a grimace, "Knew what?" She shook her head, "Listen... your planet. Its being targeted. Most system aligned planets have six months to go through the transition process, this gives the inhabitants plenty of time to grow in strength, limit casualties and such... I assumed your planet was nearing the end of its cycle, but if its only been a few days most of your kind are going to die. Theres nothing that can be done about it."

She squeezed his hand, rather for him, or for her, was unknown, "Thats not all though... occasionally you'll have an uninhabited or 'backwards' planet, that gets targeted for transition for the sole purpose of giving the race in charge benefits of the system, mana, items, so on, that's likely what is going on here... its not really supposed to happen to places that show your level of evolution but.. well. The system does not really care as long as the mana costs are in check, so there are cases where planets are wiped out like this. Now that I think about it, its probably why so many people came and then immediately left again, theres no point in doing anything on a forced transition planet unless your freshmeat for at least a few years."

Having finished her explanation, she sighed, giving his hand one more squeeze and getting up off the ground, leaving him sitting there. James, taking all of this in was unsure of what he was supposed to feel. Some part of him hated the worst of humanity, people similar to the ones he'd killed over the last few days. The other, warring part of his brain thought of Alison and Marcy, both of them whom saw a distressed teen and tried to help them out even if it put them both at risk. "So what?... What the hell does that mean for me? For us?"

He asked her, his voice raising a little at the end, obviously frustrated and not sure how to deal with the situation properly. He was here, in a small town, to try and avoid things like this, to limit his interactions, but it seems like fate had decided that he needed a motivator. "Extinction? My entire race is going to be led off a cliff so someone else can get what?! Some mana and a special fucking sword?!"

He was screaming at this point, and unbenknownst to himself, crying, tears of impotent rage rolling down his cheeks. His fists began hitting the dirt, repeatedly, screaming out an unintelligbile mess of words while L'sara sat there, watching, unsure of what to tell the boy. Her heart was racing, the emotions welling up despite the fact that she knew this sort of thing happened, she never had to deal with the fallout personally. "I.."

She started, and stopped, James, jerked his head towards her, and she faltered. L'sara felt fear looking down at the distraught teen, like behind the tears and rage there was something worse lurking, even despite the fact the logical part of her brain was telling her she could crush him with her pinky. That only served to squeeze her heart more, arms coming up to wrap about her chest nervously. "I can't James... I can't help them. Maybe I can help you, but given how things are going... even that... that might be too dangerous. But I'll try."

His stare didn't diminish, he could barely hear her. The words were like they were echoing down a tunnel, his heartbeat was far too loud in his ears. He was getting ready to unleash another yell in rage when he felt her arms around him, his body lifted from the dirt like it was nothing, scooped in a warm, tight embrace. He stopped, eyes wide, lips trembling some before his head began shaking back and forth, hands doing their best to try and shove her off having forgotten anything but brute force and fleeing.

"Go... let me go.. let me go." The words were repeated, but L'sara didn't relent, even when his teeth caught her chin like a rabid animal, trying their best to inflict damage and coming up short.

You have dealt 2 [Blunt] damage

You have dealt 5 [Piercing] damage

You have dealt 3 [Blunt] damage

She didn't speak, just kept squeezing him tighter, all the air being forced out of his lungs. The struggling gradually got weaker, and weaker, before finally it stopped altogether. She'd literally squeezed him into unconciousness before he was allowed to regain air. "What the hell am I doing? Is this all worth it? Will I even be able to see you again?" Looking down at the distraught, but outcold face of the teen in her arms she frowned before turning and heading back towards town.