Repercussions

"You idiot," Neo slapped Ryan across his face lightly.

Ryan, sitting on the couch flinched in response to the pain from the force Neo thought he was holding back.

'Ah. An Athlete's hand. Strong and firm.' Ryan thought to himself.

Jane and Jason were seated next to him, their faces showing disappointment in him. Jane showed this more by shaking her head in a slow manner.

"You could've gotten hurt. What if the regeneration stopped working? What if that Gyro member hadn't helped you? What if.."

Neo was ranting, talking to Ryan like an angry mother who was disappointed in her child.

Ryan sighed. He brought this upon himself. He had told them the day after the fight and they were angry at him for going all by himself. And now he had lost a bit of the Source of Power, whatever that was and that wasn't the end.

His current status had changed because he had been given a mission to get information from the Twin Dragons which he failed.

[Host: Ryan Carsonn]

[Energy: 95/95]

[Level: 2]

[Dexterity: 5]

[Skills: 3]

He had lost 15 Energy from his reserve and had gone down a whole level. He hadn't looked thoroughly through the mission and didn't know they would be repercussions and that they would be this large.

He had instantly thought the mission was to take them down but it was only to gather information. It wouldn't be that hard, they were just a bunch of kids anyway, probably not even 13 years old yet. It's a good thing that it didn't affect the other's stats.

But that wasn't what had hurt Ryan the most, what hurt him the most was that Neo, his best friend was upset with him. He had always made him worry.

"Dude?" Neo asked him with his arms crossed.

"Yeah." Ryan's eyes looked at him, his pupil a bit enlarged and was obviously filled with guilt.

Neo just sighed as he gestured for Ryan to stand up. He hugged his bro with his head on Ryan's shoulder.

"You know you're my best friend. Sometimes you're too ambitious and I get worried about you. Please, if you go against anyone like the Curse again, tell us." Neo said as he let go of Ryan. "We have phones for Heaven's sake." He said with a tired smile.

Ryan nodded in response with a new determination to fulfill this promise.

"I will." He said.

"Well now that's that over with, how 'bout we do a little sparring." Jason told them with hidden excitement, keeping an apathetic face which was failing him.

"Cool! Let's do it." Neo said with new found excitement and Jane and Ryan just nodded, trying to hold in laughter because of the two's sudden change in mood.

* * * * *

It didn't take long for the sparring to begin. Like before, they were at Jason's stupidly wide backyard away from the prying eyes of others.

The type of sparring they would be doing was a free for all which meant no one was on any particular team.

Jason and Neo activated their Abilities but not their costumes while Jane had her silver suit on.

As for Ryan...

"I have to get good at him to improve my dexterity. Tanjiro Kamado." The Manga Watch had told him that a way to improve Dexterity was to practice with a character of a higher dexterity requirement than him but not too high.

[Tanjiro Kamado Selected]

[Transformation Successful]

"Ready..." Since Jason's parents were almost never at home, he had mech androids to help him. They were very exclusive but his parents were just that rich and had bought them for him so they could help take care of him. They were so good at their job that when Jason didn't need them, one wouldn't even know they existed.

Everyone readied themselves as the android said those words. The android had a human shape and even wore a black tuxedo but a metallic face. It had it's right arm in the air.

"Go!"

"Ha!" Before he said that, Jason had his right arm out with his hands in a gun position because his index finger was sticking out.

[Volt Bullet Activated]

Jason's index finger started to glow in a small but glorious white light that looked like it was spinning. He raised his finger up, creating a small silver bullet-shaped object in the air. He moved his finger to the left, downwards and upwards multiple times, creating more silver bullets each time.

Jason exclaimed in adrenaline as he released out the silver bullets towards the three.

In response, Neo also used the new skill he had gained.

[Shadow-port Activated]

Neo's shadow on the ground started to elongate farther out as he moved forward, ducking and dodging to avoid the bullets. The shadow had finally gotten to where he wanted it to.

"Teleport." Neo disappeared and then reappeared behind Jason and had done so silently.

Meanwhile, Jane had been using her tail shooter on her gauntlet to attack Ryan after the raid of bullets had ceased.

Ryan had parried some of her attacks with the help of his thinsword some but he was hit by a few.

[You have received minimal damage]

[-5 Energy]

[Damage has been regenerated]

He had received this alert only twice so he had only 70 Energy left since he had yet to attack with a Skill.

Jane's rain of lasers seemed to have stopped as the shooter needed to recharge so instead she had pulled out two medium sized metal boomerangs and charged towards Cypher, her intention being a close range fight.

"You said you needed to train yourself so close combat might be the best choice." Jane told himself as she went for a stab with the dagger in her right hand. Ryan seemed to have trouble with getting his sword in the right position and seemed to have fumbled a bit, so Jane slowed down her attack.

Ryan finally grasped the sword comfortably and parried away Jane's attack, thanking her inside for slowing down and being thoughtful.

"Good job but I'll be holding back even less now." Jane said to him as she threw her dagger with full speed towards his right knee.

Ryan in response, gathered momentum after pulling back the sword and then slanted it to the side and then parried away the dagger, knocking her hand into the air.

"Good. At least as good as swordsmanship looks to me, I'm not an expert." Jane told him and he nodded with a big smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling?" Jane asked him, curiously.

He waved his hands frantically, telling her it wasn't important right now.

[User has gained one point of Dexterity]

* * * *

While Jane was giving Ryan a lesson, Neo and Jason were going a bit overboard with their sparring which may have just turned into fighting.

When Neo had appeared behind Jason, he had punched Jason with full strength in the back, causing him to jerk forward before turning around.

As he turned around, Neo had thrown a kick which Jason had caught in time. Neo in response had used the Shadow-port again and appeared by his left.

"Ha!" Neo threw a punch but it was blocked.

*Buzz

*Buzz

He had made contact with Jason's Thunder Barrier and it had electrocuted him, powerfully.

[Damage has been inflicted]

[-10 Energy]

[Damage has been regenerated]

'Damnit! Maybe close-range isn't the best idea. In that case..' Neo came up with another strategy.

[Shadow Hop Activated]

[Shadow Hop Activated]

Neo was somewhere between 12 to 17 feet in the air and from there he had his left arm extended outwards and his right arm supporting it.

[Abyssal Bolts Activated]

A large one was created in his extended arm that was sparking with power.

"Ha!" With a simple push forward with his left arm, he had released the attack towards its target, Jason.

In reaction, the white-haired boy had brought up the Thunder Barrier which he had previously taken down before.

As the Bolt made contact with the Barrier, smoke had been formed after a small explosion was heard.

Neo landed down on the ground, thinking he was able to go through the barrier like before but when the smoke cleared, Jason was seen.

But he wasn't on the floor. Instead, his Thunder Barrier was still up and he was behind it, looking perfectly fine. The Thunder Barrier however looked like it was it could break down from just strong wind because of all the cracks around it.

Neo was shocked but now more excited that the battle wasn't over and he was prepared to continue the fight.

"That's enough." Jane informed them as she walked towards the duo with Ryan by her side, smiling for some reason. She no longer had her silver suit on her and Ryan had detransformed.

"And it was just getting fun." Neo said as he deactivated his Ability.

"Yeah, I was actually surprised that my barrier didn't break this time." Jason said before also deactivating his Ability.

"Come on. Let's go inside and eat." Ryan said as they entered the house again.

* * * * *

A couple of days ago.

In a place, far away from Kafince, someone could be seen walking towards the entrace of what looked like a fortress in the middle of the night.

He was slightly limping and frost was visible on his face, he was also shivering.

'That Cypher boy. He literally sent me to the south pole while my Portal Gauntlet wasn't ready yet.' This man was Andy and he was furious.

As he got to the gate, they immediately opened for him, allowing him to pass through.

'I'll get back at them. Ugh, their childishness is rubbing off on me.' He thought.

* * * *

Author's note: If you like this story so far, consider voting for it or leaving a good review or comment. I really need it. Also go check out my other books. MY CASTER ACADEMIA and SAGA OF THE SAIYANS.

I'll be sure to change their covers into something much more attractive.

ARIGATO GOZAIMASU