Electric Shock

Pishku held one staff on his fingertip, balancing it perfectly while standing on one toe on his other staff in the large bubble of greenery. His staff pulsed blue and wobbled through the entire bubble, shaking the entire forest.

Suddenly, a small bud just outside the bubble buzzed. Without opening his eyes or moving, he controlled the water around the bud to pick it up. Black stems grew from it, leading straight to his mouth. He said to it, "Iustus, why have you not picked up all this time? I've been calling for months. The boy brought here by Fortune hasn't died. What is the meaning of this?"

Many monks walking by stopped what they were doing to listen to him. Never has he intentionally interrupted one of his own wave sessions. He believed it to be the path to awakening his water affinity as it was what his grandmother did and he had never paused it for anything like a talk. What could be so important?

The little bud said, "this is not Iustus. This is a member and I have been instructed to tell you, your position as replacement Third Eye has ended. You now have no contact with us, destroy the bud."

"What?! Because Rah didn't kill the kid for good? It still killed him!"

"That is not the reason. You are simply useless now."

Pishku ground his teeth and crushed the bud. One monk asked, "Pish, what was that?"

"That was news. They've found the altar and can awaken the real leader. I've got an organization to destroy and a boy to kill. Again."

"Zeeth?"

But Pishku didn't reply. He hopped off the staff and went into a large, hollow tree. When he came out, instead of his usual straw hat and brown tunic, he wore a grey one-piece and grey cap, still covering his face.

"Today is the day I break my vow as a monk. And the day I shall rid myself of all monk duties, habits and practices. Those who wish to join me, follow suit. Those who wish to follow monk practices, you may stay."

The monks stared in confusion. "What the heck?"

"What does he mean?"

"I joined both. Who do I choose?"

Back at the school, Zeeth eyed the machine and read, [Name: Talent Testing Machine.

This machine injects your body with electricity and tests your pain tolerance. Depending on that test, it calculates what chance you have of developing a talent later on.

Voltage: 1-100000]

On the back, we're three knobs all turned to 0 and up to 100.

Edmund hopped in the chair and said, "dude, turn all the knobs to 100. I wanna see what it's like."

"Dude, you have no idea what it's like. What if it kills you?"

"Why would they have a setting to kill you?"

"It's a prototype, they could be testing the limits or making it for someone else, or maybe it's made to kill people. You have no idea."

"You're too paranoid, a teacher ordered this. It should be fine."

"And you're too reckless. How have you not died yet?"

"Yeah, I hear that a lot more often than you think. C'mon, I've been through a lot and I've lived. Just do it already."

"No." Zeeth used God's Eye to check if he could withstand the machine at full power but all it said was [unable to determine future.]

Instead, he looked for skills that could allow him to survive. He had a few interesting skills, like Temperature Control: allows the control of heat and cold, storing some within his body and releasing it when he needs.

Or Reckless Abandon: after countless years of being surpassed by his peers, he has developed the neediness to become stronger, growing more reckless as well. During a life or death situation, for 3 minutes he will disregard all safety and fight aggressively only on instinct. 300% increase attack speed and power.

50% decrease in control.

To distract him, Zeeth asked, "do you know how people get their skills found out? Surely the tattoo on the Boulder is t enough to tell everything."

He was curious. He had never had to find out before because of God's Eye but he wondered how others without an analyzing skill could find out.

"How do you-? Oh right, homeschooled. You probably have your parent's skills, huh? And they told you?"

"Um, yeah…"

He went along since he had no other explanation.

"Pretty common method. There are three other ways, having an analyzer see it and tell them, less reliable, but often cheaper and faster.

Or two, go to a machine like this one, have it read your tattoo, compare it to others and predict what it is. Also unreliable but it won't lie. What it gets is what it gets.

Or just testing it out and see what activates it. Then you'll know for sure.

Or getting all three methods tested.

Now, speaking of machines, if you won't turn it on, I will."

Edmund jumped to the back, turned all three on max, and jumped back in the seat. But nothing happened. Edmund looked around the machine and saw a plug lying on the ground that Zeeth had been trying to hide.

"Oh, could you- never mind. I'll do it."

Edmund hopped out and gave Zeeth no choice. He held the two horns and nearly crushed them, but he had a thought, he doesn't know Edmund that well. What's it to him if he hurts himself? Zeeth wouldn't be there to save him in the first place if he wasn't undercover.

Ed sat in the seat and used an extension cable from the wall to plug it in after he sat down. The horns cackled with blue lightning, zipping near his head. The electricity extended to the chair, slowly turning whiter.

Suddenly, he remembered, 'Ed is my only lead to Dirt so far. Shit, I need to stop this.'

In a room at the center of the school, three large bright yellow gems about 6 feet tall, five scientists walked by, holding screens and talking to each other. The yellow gems flickered grey a few times for a fraction of a second, all five scientists suddenly looked up in a panic.

He began to head for the outlet but a thought struck him. If he were to clearly save Edmund then wouldn't he give him any information he needed?

The electricity became white-hot and ten bolts bounced from the large box on the back. The entire school blacked out, the three gems all sparked and greyed out. The scientists had already been investigating and found the location for the blackout, "the Talent Machine!"

Westiga saw his overhead lights flutter and shut down as he studied a little blue ball. Dan did the same while reading the papers and angrily scribbling something.

Hundreds of other students and teachers all looked up and saw the lights fail.

The pure white bolts of electricity headed for Edmund, which was just past Zeeth's arms. Nine bolts struck his two arms, while one hit Edmund, more or less how Zeeth had planned it.

The bolts hit Zeeth's arm with such a tremendous force that he buckled and leaned against the chair just to stay standing. The one that hit Edmund struck his side, flowing through his entire body. Ed froze up and then began shaking violently. The electricity rendered him useless, unable to move or even think properly.

But Zeeth managed to stay standing even as nine berated him. He channeled the lightning to all his slimes and even through his suit to spread it out as far as he could. Black tried to release some out his back but he wasn't strong enough.

Suddenly, words popped up, [Protection: another attribute for a great leader has been unlocked.

Even though painful or harsh situations, you protect your soldiers before you, a sign of a great leader.]

[A slime has developed a new skill: Electric Shock.]

The scientists yelled into a pipe, "the Talent Machine has been started! All teachers, head for the Talent room, all students, stay where you are!"

Their voices echoed from the pipe to dozens of cleverly placed holes in the walls, allowing everyone to hear without the use of electricity.

Westiga rushed from his room, running into Dande.

"Headmistress, you're here too. I'm very sorry that my machine-"

"Save it. We need to see who's using it," she yelled, running towards the room.

The slimes were all freaking out, excitedly jiggling about or wobbling. The slimes were all concentrating the electricity to the single slime that developed a skill for it, saving Zeeth and Ed's life. The slimes that he had at first thought were a mistake saved him a number of times.

Pishku entered a big white building labeled Vane Industries still in his grey suit and cap. The V was drawn like a bird. Inside, two people sat behind a desk, each holding wands.

As he casually walked up to one guard, placing his hands on the desk, and asked, "where can I find the brooms and janitor cleaning products?"

"ID?"

He fiddled around with his pockets in a panic and said, "I'm sorry, I seem to have lost it. I swear I put it in my pocket. Sorry, me and my old brain."

"No ID, no entry."

"Yes, okay. Will do." He left the table, clicking his tongue. 'It wasn't this trick before. I suppose my threat puts them on edge.'

Outside, a janitor wearing the same thing he wore was sweeping the floors, collecting the trash into a bin. Half a minute later, Pishku went back in with a badge and an unconscious man hidden in a bin.

"Fred? You're the new guy?"

"Yessir."

"Alright, head on in."

Pish tucked the card into his pocket.

The security guard whispered into a small ball on the table, "we have a suspect approaching room 12. He's wearing the janitor's clothes and has Fred's ID. I have eyes on him, he doesn't seem to notice me."

The ball beeped twice, signifying that they had heard. All across the building, guards picked up their swords and weapons, heading for room 12. Pishku didn't hears the man but he could sense the water in every person moving around, picking up tools, and approaching the room he was headed for.

He sped up his pace, thinking, 'I need to get there before they get to me or I'm dead.'

He rushed in, grabbed a bucket, two brooms, and a mop. When he turned around, a group of five loomed over him menacingly.

"You ain't Fred, man."

Without a word, he put the bucket on his foot and tore off the handle, flinging the metal can into the chin of one man, who instantly fell over. He then broke off the mop head and used the handle like a javelin, shooting it past the guard's heads to distract them. Meanwhile, he stuck the bucket handle through the metal brooms, creating a long nunchuck that he used to bash them all aside.

He took another mop and slammed it into another face, hopping out and skewering one person. Someone else threw their sword at him, nearly hitting his stomach just before he swung his mop handle directly in its way, sticking the sword through the handle like a scythe. Using the mop scythe, he took a step forward and swung in a full circle, slicing five guys away at once. He tossed the nunchucks into the way of three incoming spells, blocking them all and destroying the brooms.

The floor trembled and trapped him in three cages, stone, wood, and metal. He coated his sword in a layer of water and sharpened it, turning it into a larger, shaped scythe that easily sliced all the bars off. The cage slid apart with the water.

One man had his chest split open by the scythe and began crawling away, yelling, "the Grim Reaper!"

Pish lifted his mop with the blade and cleanly sliced off someone's head, tossing it away from the body that fell, lifeless.

He looked more and more like the grim reaper, a stark contrast from his monk days. His face grew darker with each kill and more pained with each wound.

He saw fifty more men rush around corners, all holding weapons and preparing magic. Some robed people wearing the Three-Eyed Cult robes ran around, waving wands with much more potent magic.

Pish lifted his hand and said, "you know I can kill you all without a sweat. Stop wasting my energy and your life."

"Hell no! I don't even know who you are!"

One woman rushed at him, trying to stab him with a sword, but he deflected it with his mop blade, shooting it away, and held her head against the blade and handle of the scythe, growling, "I'm the goddamn Grim Reaper."

And tossed her aside.

After seeing how easily he killed people, the men were much less enthusiastic. Pish walked forward. At first, no one moved. But as he got closer, the intimidation skill he developed through his many years of nonviolent practices while protecting his men became more useful and people cautiously stepped out of his way.

Zeeth thought about many things as the electricity struck him. One of the things was that he wished, amongst the many skills at his disposal, that he had an intimidation skill like Pishku had. Then, he could've stopped Ed nonviolently before he got to this point 'Pish had [Peaceful Intimidation Lvl 100.] A rare level skill, meaning it could grow the more he used it. He trained it to the point where he could use it on a Buffalo from miles away. Through a long life of protecting using nonviolent means, he had to develop skills to keep others away.'

Strangely enough, even during the immense pain, he could still think. And it helped him endure it by thinking of other things.

At the doorway, five teachers gathered, watching electricity striking two students, one protecting the other from the main damage. Westiga ran to the outlet and yanked it off, returning the electricity back to the building, turning on lights, and flickering the electric gems back on. But by that point, the machine had basically finished. It powered down on its own and began showing the calculations. But the plug was yanked and the number faded away before finishing.

Dan pulled Zeeth aside, asking, "can you hear me? We need the doctor."

One of the five teachers was a woman in her twenties with long, pink hair and a cute face, who kneeled down beside him and began healing.

Zeeth's mouth was agape and his body was limp from all the damage he had taken. Even with the help of all his slimes and Pinky, it would take a considerable amount of time and energy to bring him back.

She scrunched her forehead as she began analyzing and healing him.