Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

”Easy, easy.” Vulpes bopped me on the side with her nose as I bent over retching.

“I—I’m so done.” Was there something wrong with me? Usually I could handle all the teleports without much of an issue. Hell, one of the most useful things in my entire kit was Spectral Flock, and I hadn’t had issues since the beggining with that one.

”I’ll talk with milady about it,” the Greater Sprite offered lightly. “For now, your kinetic tutor is here.”

“Chek.” I took a breath and leaned back, staring up into the rafters of the pavilion. Then, I let Fox’s Fluffy Cloak take over. Maybe it was Aether Sickness that was getting to me? Either way, Fox really wanted me to use it when interacting with my teacher, so I’d follow her wishes as long as they weren’t too pressing.

Vulpes stepped over to me and crouched down so our faces were on an even playing field. “Woah, you really are short, aren’t you?”

”Yip!” I snapped at her muzzle. She pulled back just in time, dodging what admittedly would’ve been a playful nip more than a ferocious bite.

”Heh… kits are so cute.” She bumped my side with her nose and looked around. “Uh—I’m going to cast a few spells on you. All good things. Just sit still.”

I sat back on my haunches—“Yip!”

I bolted upright and spun in a circle, blowing lightly on my tail. As it turned out, the entire force of my body slamming onto it wasn’t exactly pleasant. The traitorous streak of silver darted away from me like it wanted to be captured, and it got my competitive spirit all riled up. I pounced—

“Shiro.” Vulpes’s paw pressed down on my back and stilled me. The Greater Sprite practically loomed over me. She truly was gigantic for a fox, wasn’t she? “That was the opposite of still.”

I rolled my eyes and bounced around on my paws. If she wanted to have me sit still, she should’ve had a long chat with Fox before giving me the transformation ability. It was so very hard to sit still like this. Usually I didn’t notice since my mind was on other things, but I was practically overflowing with energy. My electrogenesis felt overcharged through the roof.

“Just—“ She shook her head and focused. Thanks to Aetherial Perception, I felt dozens of magics activate on me.

I sat perfectly as still as I could while she worked, though I kept getting distracted by an armored fox at the end of the hall we were in. He kept glancing around the corner then ducking back like he was terrified of getting caught. What was that about—ah, right, lectures. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to get lectured either.

Vulpes batted my ears with her tail. The brushing of fur on fur was obscenely loud, making me flinch back. Electricity sparked off my fur from the static. ”Try speaking now.”

“Yip?” I tilted my head at her. One of my ears pulled low while the other poked straight up.

The Greater Fox frowned and stared at me. Her eyes traced over me—more accurately, the magic cast all over me. “I swear I cast All-Speech… why?”

“I’m just messing with you.” I bolted upright and stuck out my tongue. Or, at least, I tried to. It just kept going out further and further than I expected, giving me an intense dysphoric sensation.

“Shiro…” She bopped me on the back of the head with her paw, and my tongue shot back into place.

A shudder went down my spine. It seemed I wasn’t quite as used to this body as I thought I was. Sure I could walk and move around now, but there were all sorts of things I wasn’t prepared for.

“So? My new teacher?” I shifted, and an arc of electricity discharged into the ground, draining some of the hyper-active energy flowing through me.

“This way.” Vulpes nodded her head down the hall and started walking down the hall. “This isn’t First Peak, where milady’s central pavilion and court are held. We’re now on Fifth Peak.”

I darted after her. My legs were much, much smaller, meaning I had to take a dozen steps to hers just to keep up. Electricity rapidly charged inside of me once more, which I not so subtly drained into the floor. “Fifth Peak?”

”It has a lot of private rooms and offices. It’s usually kept for Magi of a certain level, though not many actually come into the Aether.” She shrugged. “This place is off-putting for most people.”

Weirdos. The air was clean, the atmosphere cleaner, and foxes cuter still. Granted, I didn’t have to deal with the usual pressure a sprite might have on someone. Before I got the interface, I definitely would’ve been intimidated by the likes of Corvid and Vulpes. It’d done wonders on my confidence, if nothing else.

Eventually, we arrived at a rather ornate door. Vulpes casually pushed it open with that sprite telekinesis everyone except for me seemed to know. “In here.”

I followed her into what looked strikingly similar to the private booths in Athena’s pub. I hadn’t been there in a while, but it certainly gave me a similar vibe. Of course, there were some key differences. For one, a balcony looked over the mountain and the other eight peaks in a breathtaking display.

A rather tall man leaned over the balcony and stared out over the place. A burning cigarette was held loosely in his hand, which he lightly took a drag from. “Just set it on the table.”

”Ahem.” Vulpes coughed lightly. I slid into the room right behind her, peaking up at the man through her front legs.

The man turned around—and froze at seeing the two of us. The casual ease that he just had turned more business-like, though he still looked fairly relaxed. He almost had a noble vibe to him? “Apologies, Lady Vulpes. I didn’t realize you were dropping by.”

”I’ve come to drop off your student.” She shifted out of the way and lightly pushed me forward with one of her tails. I resisted for a second purely out of rebellious spite, though she easily overpowered me. It seemed fox sprites had deceptively strong tails.

The stench of cigarettes hit me thousands of times harder than it would’ve if I’d been normal. My eyes immediately teared up, and I felt my ears pull low to my head.

The man pulled off a set of sun-glasses, revealing a pair of dark grey eyes. He nodded his head respectfully. “I’d heard I was teaching a sprite. You are?”

”Um—ah—I—“ The words tumbled around in my mouth. Something about the guy was a little… I didn’t think unsettling was quite the right word. He felt kinda familiar for some reason, and that made me uneasy. Not to mention he was a giant. The guy could probably step wrong and kill me, which brought back all sorts of unpleasant memories.

”This is Lady Shiro.” Vulpes huffed in amusement. She quickly cast a spell, and the man’s cigarette was plucked out of his hand. “She has a sensitive nose.”

”Chek. I must apologize once more, then.” The man waved a hand and wind blew through the room, washing out the scent of smoke. Not magic. Aetherial Perception didn’t activate, so maybe some kind of wind kinetic? “You can call me Akito.”

Akito… Akito… nope, didn’t ring any bells. Maybe I saw him on the news once before? He was part of a merc team or something, so that would make sense. “Shiro.”

”So I’ve been told.” He moved over to the table. Maybe since the usual denizens of Nine Peaks were foxes, the table was extremely low to the ground. The man simply knelt on a cushion across from me. “So, you have a kinetic ability, chek? From my research, it seems to be quite rare for sprites to awaken one.”

“Lady Shiro was quite lucky.” Vulpes spoke up from the door. Her eyes narrowed in on the man, almost as if warning him not to ask too many questions. “I’ll leave you to it. Call for me once you’re ready to leave, and I’ll hear.”

”Of course.” The man waved a hand. It wasn’t dismissive so much as an acknowledgement. “Then shall we get started? What’s your ability?”

”Um, so, I can control electricity.” I pulled a thin strand of sparkling blue lightning out of my reserves and let it glide through the air. I’d been steadily training my control, so it hardly wobbled around as it wrapped into a circle.

”Interesting…” He leaned forward and stared at the lightning ring. “You have an internal charge, I take it?”

”Chek. Electrogenesis is what I’ve been calling it.” I shuffled around and static built up on my fur. The static easily transferred up my body and sparked out.

Akito reached forward and stabbed his finger into the electric ring. It immediately jolted through him and ground itself. “Weak.”

”I’ve been having trouble with that bit.” I shifted from paw to paw and drained the rest of my charge away once more. Being a fox seriously overcharged the Kinetic ability in general. I could probably power a couple homes like this.

He raised a brow and leaned back onto his heels. “Is it that draining?”

“No…” My tail whipped around behind me and curled around my paws. “Unless I burst it out. I can only have stronger electricity in bursts.”

It fully drained me, but by overloading it all at once I’d found some success. Like with the monster rat in the subterranean road, I’d just dumped everything I had into it and the water without bothering with the fine control of things.

“Of course. Most new Kinetics are strong when bursting without technique.” He nodded his head in encouragement. Or, at least, what looked like encouragement. “Instincts take over, and they stop getting in their own way. Is there anything else you can do?”

“U-um, I can drain electricity from external sources too.” I didn't have anything on me to show him since my equipment was all stored elsewhere. “It has a bad ratio turning into internal chrge.”

“Hmm…” He rubbed at his chin and stared at me. “Well, usually for us elemental types, learning and acting with your element is the first step. For me, wind flows so I had to learn to work with the flow.”

”Um… that means?” I stared at the man in confusion. Did turning into a fox also make me dumber? Learning electricity… I felt like I had a good grasp on the stuff already.

”It means hard control like you’re trying to do might not be the right idea.” He shrugged. “Of course, control is important. Lightning moves along the path of least resistance though, chek? Forcing it into a path might be making it weaker than anything.”

”S-so, what I’ve been learning is wrong entirely?” All my efforts up to this point were entirely wasted then? Damnit.

Of course, now that it was pointed out to me, it was obvious. Of course electricity would follow the path of least resistance. Everything I’d read online and my assumptions had been around forcing my will onto my kinetic ability to get it to work, though. Even the control exercises were to help with that. With it being my own assumption, and then with that assumption backed up by the net, it stuck me in a cognitive loop.

Hmm… so should I try for aerial strikes then? Letting it surge down through rather then attack horizontally might increase the strength. And, in hindsight, it’d been way stronger when I electrified the water with the sewer rat. That should’ve been my first hint that I was doing something wrong.

”Not necessarily.” Akito pulled out a phone and started typing on it. Looked like he was taking notes? At least he looked like he was taking this seriously. “I’ll do some research before our next meeting, but for now let's focus on what exactlyyou’re controlling.”

“Uh—electricity?” My head tiled to the side.

He sighed and looked over the top of his phone at me. “Yes, but is it simply electricity or electrons themselves? The two are very different.”

‘Course I knew that. Although he was making me feel like it, I wasn’t a complete idiot. If I could control electrons themselves, then that had some very dangerous implications. Theoretically, if my strength and control grew to a certain point, I could create ionized particles akin to a nuclear explosion. That was… that was horrifying, especially when considering the fact I might’ve been playing with something like that.

Of course, that was under the assumption it was electrons and not just electricity. Even if it was true, I likely wouldn’t be able to get to that point for a long time. I could barely create a controlled burst strong enough to stun without any help at the moment.

“We have much to test.” He leaned forward and rested his head on his fist. “Show me what you can do.”

And so began a long, draining process of jumping through countless rings until he was satisfied.