6 Chapter 6 : Power Tab

Faith and company stared at the dog who was currently licking himself, periodically stopping to pant his tongue hanging lazily from his mouth. Seeing that nothing was happening, Alan tiled his head to one side his floppy ears perking up slightly. Looking to each of them in confusion, "What? Have you never seen a familiar before? I mean, I know I'm handsome but you don't have to stare. Say something."

Annie fidgeted, her expression was that of excitement, "I want. . .to hug you, very badly." As she inched closer to Alan, hands outstretched toward his furry body. Kenny looking back and forth between the dog and Annie, sat down abruptly, "Alright, I'm officially confused. Now there is talking dog, and a weird voice and icons in my vision. . .wait, when did those get here?"

"The icon you see is the Power Tab, collected skills and magic are stored there installed after the systems integration. Concentrate on the icon to open the tab, abilities available to you will be listed."

The system answered, providing an explanation of how to operate the icon. Faith hearing such looked at the icon in her sight, it reacted instantly a screen appearing in her eyes. At the top was two skills labeled Destruction and Flame Manipulation, shifting her focus away from the two skills Faith stared at the others who seemed to be in a daze.

Her cheeks flushed slightly in a embarrassment, "Was I spaced out like that too?"

she thought to herself for a moment, "Indeed you were." The system swiftly responding, causing Faith to smile slightly, it was easy for the system to respond to her thoughts which made it easier to communicate. Kenny shifted a bit and sighed the focus returning to his eyes, looking over at Faith with a wide smile, " I've got two skills, Healing Wind and Light Bullet, looks like I'm your white mage."Shaking her head, she turned away from him looking on toward Annie, who was coming out of her daze.

"I got Wind Manipulation and Water Manipulation, looks like skills from a video game. I wonder if there will be monsters to fight?" The excited look in her eyes growing wilder as she asked, "Confirming hostile fauna near origin point." The system prompt in replying. At this point only Jayson was still in a daze, his lips curling into a deep frown as his eyes regained their focus, "I've got two skills, Copy and Steal. What kind of skills are those?" He asked angrily while walking toward Kenny, " Copy, mimic skills of target. Steal, take items, or skills from target." The system answering the question the moment it was asked.

"Well if your done examining yourselves, you all should be waking up now." Alan barked scratching behind his ear with one of his hind legs, before walking off toward the boundary of their subconscious his tail wagging furiously. Faith watching him walk off in the distance soon losing sight of him, standing to give chase she felt her body seize up. A strong suction generating from the middle of the space of consciousness drawing all of them towards it, without any resistance they flew toward the source. What seemed to be a miniature tornado with a pillar of faint light in the eye, the warmth of the light covering them in its radiance. They circled for what seemed to be an eternity eventually coming to a halt, Faith and the others hanging in mid air as the scenery changed.

The dark emptiness transformed into a lush green land, a pleasant breeze caused the grass to sway carelessly. A sweet scent in the air filled their noses, energizing their bodies and minds, Slowly they descended feet touching the soft grass. Looking around one could see a forest that stretched on for miles, in the distance a few miles from where they landed was a clearing. Inside that clearing was a small village with a large fence surrounding its perimeter, even though they were far from the village people could be seen patrolling the fence. "Should we go and say hello? Annie asked looking at Faith, Kenny and Jayson following suit in their gaze.

"Saying hello would be the ideal thing to do."The system buzzing in their heads, Jayson ticked his head in agitation looking around. His eyes stopping upon a tree a few meters away, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. A strange feeling welling up in his stomach, the urge to investigatedrove him to split from the group for a closer look. Kenny noticing this walked quietly behind, curious to see what he was up to. As Jayson got closer to the tree a faint rustling sound came from the tree top, looking up to the branches for any signs of life, "I think there is something in this tree we should be wary of, I don't know why but its hiding pretty well."

Pointing to the upper branches of the tree Jayson narrowed his eyes, trying to uncover if anything was actually in there. Kenny close behind him noticed movement, "Look out above you." He called lightly, Jayson stomped his feet hard on the ground jumping backward to Kenny. While he was moving a dark figure landed where Jayson was a moment ago, had he moved any slower the figure would have been atop of him. Landing next to Kenny, both he and Jayson stared at the figure making its way from the shade of the tree. It was humanoid in figure, with white fur and blue stripes running along its legs and forearms.

It was muscular with a lions mane and face, piercing yellow eyes that swept over them. From what Kenny guessed it was at least 6 ft tall, with its tail swaying like a snake. Standing before them it exuded a dangerous aura, with blood dripping from its mouth.Gripped in its claws was a meat cleaver with half the blade cut off, resembling close to a short axe that was still dripping with fresh blood. Looking down at the two scrawny boys in front, the blood soaked maw opened and released a deep thundering laugh that shook their eardrums, "Hahaha, and here I thought some adventures had found me coming out of that portal but it was just a group of kids. Those girls seem cute and would fetch a high price, you boys however. . . " It licked away the blood on its mouth continuing, " You shall be my snack for scaring me."

"Its a giant kitty!" Annie screamed running up beside Jayson and Kenny, her knees shaking in excitement, pointing the tip of her sword at the creature, "Hey system, what is that? Can I catch it?" As she questioned the system Faith sat on the ground, keeping her eyes on the village in the distance. "Target creature is called Were-Lion, probability of capture 10%." The systems response came as quick as usual, sounding in all of their heads. With this Annie's eyes brightened, "10% is enough for me, Jayson, help me out." Looking to Jayson with expectancy, to which he shrugged, "Why should I?"sticking his nose into the air as he asked.

"Using the Steal ability raises capture rate to 50%" The system chimed as always when a question was asked, killing Jayson's attempt to be snobby , Annie giggled patting Jayson on the shoulder, "You heard the voice in our heads, lets capture this kitty." Kenny shuffled away leaving Jayson and Annie to face the Were-Lion themselves taking a seat next to Faith. As the Were-Lion watched veins started popping up on its forehead, "You want to catch me?!?! I'll tear you all to shreds and feed your entrails to my kinsmen!!" He roared charging forward, brandishing his meat cleaver. Annie and Jayson separated before the attacking Were-Lion was upon them, looking between the two of them for a moment, "I'll attack the girl first, I don't like the look of hers." Coming to a decision it rushed toward Annie, swinging its meat cleaver at wild angles trying to slice of her limbs.

With each swing it made Annie dodged with relative ease, each swing of the cleaver passing by followed by her movements made it seem like the were dancing, Jayson watching this suddenly realized something, "How do we use our skills?"Looking to Faith and Kenny, who shook their heads in response. "Skills works when activated, speaking them aloud is common, mental activation requires additional requirements that haven't been met." The system chimed, giving Jayson the answer he was looking forward, a sly smile slowly appeared on Annie's face having heard thesystem as well. Lightly stomping on the ground she flew out of the Were-Lion's range, a slight breeze gathering near her feet. Sliding to a stop she lifted her sword up, pointing the tip at the Were-Lion the sly smile turning into a wide grin.

The Were-Lion felt something was off with the girl, "To be able to dodge me for so long, must have gotten some form of training somewhere, well it doesn't matter just makes this all the more fun." Continuing his charge, the meat cleaver in his grip started to glow with a faint green light, slashing toward Annie once again the meat cleaver dischargedthe light in a burst. Flying toward her in a semi-circle of light, splitting the earth as it traveled. The debris from the slash grey in color as though the life was sucked from it, "Draining Strike, mid-tier skill, would you like to Steal it?" The system prompted Jayson.