My System Doesn't Give Power

"How do I do it?"

"Do what?"

"Anchor myself with Mana."

Armani gave a small nod. "Extend the flow through your feet and into the ground. Don’t simply cover your soles. Connect your Mana to the Mana beneath the surface and create a temporary link between your body and the earth."

"The principle is similar to a tree taking root. The deeper and more stable the connection, the more force you can withstand without being displaced."

"Wouldn’t that restrict my movement?"

"That’s why speed matters. You activate the anchor only at the moment of impact."

"Maintaining the largest coating possible isn’t what matters. Applying the right amount in the right place at precisely the right moment does."

She raised a finger. "The second thing you need to learn is how to coat the inside of your body."

"You mean like painting the inside of a house?"

"Exactly. The outer coating protected your skin, but the force of my attack still traveled through it. The vibration, recoil, and pressure entered your body and damaged everything beneath the surface."

"The outer coating remained intact because my attack wasn’t strong enough to break it. But it did nothing to stop the transferred force from tearing through your insides."

"If you had reinforced your body internally as well, you wouldn’t have suffered those injuries."

Zac immediately thought about the part Matilda had deliberately left unexplained. "So this is what she wanted us to discover on our own."

[It certainly looks that way.]

Once he had processed everything, Zac turned towards Armani and bowed. "Thank you for teaching me. I won’t forget this."

With that, he turned and started down the path leading off the mountain.

He had barely taken a few steps when Armani’s voice stopped him. "Wait."

Zac turned back. "What?"

"Where do you think you’re going?"

"Home."

"May I ask why?"

"As though she needs my permission," Zac thought, though he wisely kept it to himself.

"You answered my questions and pointed out everything wrong with my training. I’m going back to practise while it’s still fresh in my mind."

Armani’s smile widened, and for some reason, the sight of it sent a faint sense of unease through Zac.

"Do you need something else?"

"Your classmates entered the portal today, correct?"

"Yes."

"They won’t return for another two or three days."

"Correct."

Armani walked closer, her golden eyes gleaming beneath the moonlight. "Then you’ll remain here until they return and train under me."

Zac stared at her. "With proper guidance, I should be able to turn you into someone reasonably competent before your classmates come back."

Zac considered the offer.

Receiving personal instruction from someone of Armani’s caliber was the sort of opportunity most variants could only dream of. Unfortunately, the memory of being nearly killed by a casual flick of her finger was still painfully fresh.

"I don’t think that’s necessary," he said cautiously. "You’re the vice principal. You must have plenty of work to deal with, and I wouldn’t want to impose."

Armani continued smiling, and somehow, it became even more intimidating.

Zac immediately changed course. "On second thought, staying here sounds perfectly reasonable."

"That’s what I thought," Armani said. "Because I wasn’t asking."

Zac watched her turn away and quietly accepted his fate.

[The next two days are going to be extremely entertaining.]

"For you, perhaps. I’m just hoping I’ll still be alive by the end of them."

"Now, here is your first task," Armani said while glancing towards the distant horizon. "You have until first light tomorrow."

"Since you already know how to coat the outside of your body, learning to reinforce the inside shouldn’t be too difficult. Anchoring yourself to the ground is also fairly straightforward."

"Your main challenge will be learning to shift the coating from one part of your body to another as quickly as possible."

She looked back at him. "At sunrise, I’ll return and test you again."

"If you haven’t improved enough, you’ll suffer the same injuries as before."

Zac’s expression stiffened.

"And to be completely honest, the pill I gave you was the last one I had." Armani spoke as casually as though she were discussing the weather.

"If you’re injured that badly again, your best-case scenario will be spending several months in a hospital bed."

Zac swallowed.

Armani met his gaze. "So, are you up for the challenge?"

For a moment, Zac remained silent, but then the words she had spoken about his father returned to him.

When the road ahead led through hell, everyone else stepped back. His father had stepped forward and asked how long the journey would take.

Zac looked Armani straight in the eyes. "I am."

"Good." With that, Armani turned and headed down the mountain towards the cottage.

Zac remained alone in the clearing.

Beneath the open night sky, he sat cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes, and began practicing Mana Coating.

Time passed, and just as she had promised, Armani returned at first light.

She found Zac sitting in the exact same spot where she had left him, cross-legged beneath the pale morning sky.

Standing behind him, she asked, "Are you ready?"

Zac opened his eyes, rose slowly to his feet, and turned to face her. "Yes."

Armani put some distance between them, summoned her Mana throne, and sat down with one leg crossed over the other.

Then she raised her right hand and curled her index finger against her thumb. The moment Zac recognized the gesture, every nerve in his body went on high alert.

Armani flicked her finger.

A compressed wave of force tore through the air towards his chest, but rather than block it, Zac stepped sharply aside and let it pass.

"Why did you dodge?" Armani asked.

"What did you expect me to do? You said that pill was the last one you had. I’m not keen on spending the next few months in a hospital bed."

"Why did you dodge?" she repeated, completely ignoring his explanation.

"System, am I somehow inaudible to her?"

[She heard every word. She simply decided none of it was worth acknowledging.]

"Answer me, Zac," Armani said. "Why did you dodge?"

"I just told you."

"I heard you. Why do you think I gave you the entire night to train?"

"You did, but I didn’t think the test would involve you trying to break every bone in my body again."

"No buts. Your excessive caution is getting in your way once more." Her golden eyes narrowed. "Now be a man and block it."

The words struck a nerve.

A flash of blood-red appeared in Zac’s eyes as irritation surged through him, but the Sword Heart technique he practiced reacted almost immediately, suppressing the emotion before it could take hold.

"System, what just happened?"

[A woman questioned whether you were a man. Apparently, your bloodline took that as a declaration of war.]

"I’m not that petty."

[You may not be. Your bloodline clearly is.]

"I’m beginning to think this bloodline is more of a curse than anything else."

[You’re only beginning to realise that now?]

Before Zac could respond, Armani pressed her middle finger against her thumb, preparing another flick.

Zac immediately spread Mana across both arms and extended the flow through his feet, anchoring himself to the ground.

Armani flicked, and the compressed force shot towards him again.

Zac brought his palms together and blocked it head-on.

The impact thundered through his arms and drove him nearly three meters backwards, his feet carving deep tracks through the earth despite the mana anchoring him in place.

When the force finally dispersed, he released the breath he had been holding.

"Good," Armani said. "It seems you’ve got the hang of internal coating as well."

Her gaze moved over his arms.

"Coating your entire arms instead of stopping at your palms or wrists was also the right decision. Otherwise, the impact would have broken your forearms or dislocated both shoulders."

Zac lowered his hands, still feeling the lingering numbness in them.

"Now, don’t block the next attacks," Armani continued. "Parry them."

She raised her hand again.

"Treat the coating around your arms like the edge of a sword. Redirect the force instead of taking it head-on."

Armani switched to her ring finger and flicked. Another wave of compressed force sliced through the air.

Zac drew a deep breath, settled into a swordsman’s stance, and raised one arm.

Just before the attack struck his body, he swept it aside. The force split away from him and crashed into the earth, gouging a deep trench into the training ground.

Armani followed with her little finger, then her index finger once again.

Zac adjusted his footing and parried each attack in turn, moving his coated arms as though they were blades. Every redirected strike tore through the air or slammed into the ground around him, leaving deep scars across the clearing.

"Good," Armani said. "Keep going."

Without giving him a moment to recover, she resumed attacking.

This time, the flicks came one after another without pause, each delivered with a different finger.

Worse still, the attacks no longer travel in a straight line.

Armani’s hand barely moved from its position, yet the waves of compressed force came at Zac from different angles, targeting his shoulders, ribs, legs, and head in rapid succession.

Zac tightened his stance as another barrage closed in.

"This is going to be a long day."

[It most certainly is.]

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