บท 285: Haxenburn.
"Okay, go!" Yue said, and I disappeared from my spot reappearing above the dummy targets, slamming down with an axe kick before disappearing again.
And reappearing in the tree behind them.
"Owowowowow!" I cried as a tree branch no-clipped into my fucking eye.
Yue sprung into action almost immediately, sending out wind blades to chop off the branches before telekinetically pulling me out from the tree, cradling me in her lap.
"Stay still." She ordered as she removed the forked branch from my eye, drawing out blood and goo with it in a long thick, string of brain matter and optic nerves.
With a thought, a blue flame sprang up in her palm and the branch turned to ash in an instant.
"T-thanks, Yue." I panted with pain, as the injury regenerated and I returned to ship shape.
"Un~" Yue smiled, caressing my hair.
"I swear if you guys make that pink world of yours I will throw you in the pool." Margo said, sick of our shit.
"Come on, bambi. Let them be. It's young love~" Eliot gloated, a teasing smile on his face.
"I'm still not comfortable with this." Quentin said.
"Well, good thing it's not your relationship, Q."
I replied.
"I'm not comfortable with it either. Your regeneration that is." Margo said, sipoing on her drink, "Are all the people from your world like that? Or did you get it somewhere?"
"It's a-"
"If that sentence ends with sec and ret-"
"-spoil of war."
Margo raised an eyebrow.
"Spoil of war?"
"Yeah. I got this when I murdered the collective unconcious of humanity."
Eliot choked on his drink.
"What?"
"Every word out of your mouth is a bombshell, isn't it?" Margo chuckled.
"At this point I'm not even surprised." Quentin just resigned onto the picnic blanket beside Alice, gazing listlessly at the sky.
"As expected of Jay." Yue cooed.
"Well, go on. I smell a story..." Margo urged.
"There is a story. But first, I think Penny has something to say."
"Penny?" Margo turned around to see Penny standing by the edge of the garden, looking over a paper in his hand.
He looked back up at me and crumpled the paper, walking over.
"Stanley give you the anchor?" I asked, eyeing the paper in his hand.
Stanley was the default mentor for the Traveling discipline by virtue of being literally the only traveler in America that wasn't dead, trapped in astral form or enslaved to the library by a million year contract.
And he was a runner. A cage bird. He was so afraid of his own gift that he bound himself to the Earth with a soell
The Anchor. It binds the physical body to the Earth allowing only for astral projection, which isn't a bad idea if you're a wuss.
I, on the other hand, don't reject the gift of literal planeswalking. Because I'm not an idiot.
"You too?" Penny asked
"No." I shook my head, "I chose to forgo the whole mentor crap. But I do my research, especially when it comes to things that affect me. I'm betting he told you this ability was a curse and how much of a burden it is.
Probably gave you some sad sap cautionary tale to scare you straight."
"Yeah, he froze his leg off the first time he teleported. Got stuck on Mt. Everest. How do you know this?" Penny asked, intrigued.
"As I said, research. He tells the same story to everyone he meets. It's his icebreaker. Met him in a bar last week. Told me the same thing." I lied.
"Anyways, you don't need to be scared of your ability. All you need is practice and you'll get better."
Penny looked at the nearly bald tree from my many failed attempts at practicing my teleportation, and snorted in amusement.
"Yeah, I can see that."
"Alright Mr. High-and-mighty." I rolled my eyes, "What brings you here?"
"Nothing." He shook his head and tried to walk away.
"By which you mean, 'I will go out and try to deal with the problem all alone and then when I fail, I'll come to you at the eleventh hour, half dead and guilt trip you into helping me out', yes?" I teased.
Honestly, it wasn't just his problem. All of these idiots did the same. They waited till the last moment and then they came to each other in desperation, willing to do anything to get what they wanted because it was almost always a matter of 'grave importance' or 'life and death'.
Like kids doing the whole week's worth of homework at 11:59 pm on Sunday.
Then again, they were college students. I did the same when I was in college.
"What's your problem?" He stepped up to me.
"My problem is that you're not true to yourself. Trying to play the cool guy. Acting like you're some invulnerable fortress. Like you don't need help."
"Because I don't. The only reason I came here was because Kady vouched for you but forget it." He grumbled.
"Then I assume you don't want a solution to your psychic psychosis?" I asked with the smile of used car salesman.
That got Penny's attention.
"You have a solution?" He asked, skeptical of my offer.
"Yup. Here." I tossed him a bottle of pills.
"What's this?"
"I call it Haxenburn. Patent pending. Burns away your connection to the psychosphere, greater and lesser for about four hours, per pill. Made it when the Beast got to me.
Don't take it on an empty stomach or with alcohol. It'll give you a bad case diarrhea and acid reflux."
It was a pill I had made once I got my immediate psychic presence under control and didn't need the patch anymore.
It was made from the stem cells of the Haxenpaxen and adopted it's power to hide things from higher sensory capabilities, like gods, psychic power and locator spells.
It cut off the connection your mind had to the psychosphere and so to all magical means, you basically didn't exist. Didn't stop you from being targeted directly, but on indirect attacks like the Beast's distinct hum, one that he used to drive all travelers mad in the show as a means of killing off anyone who could access his realm, it was super effective.
Penny popped a pill hesitantly and suddenly his eyes shot open, wide and alert.
"The noises.... They're gone. Except you." He looked at Quentin with annoyance, "Stop singing Lady Gaga. It's annoying."
"I-i wasn't....." Quentin pouted.
"Sure." Penny scoffed, and turned to me with incredulity.
"Thanks." He gave me an acknowledging nod and turned to walk away.
"Don't mention it. And, Penny, use them scarcely. That's the only bottle I have right now. It'll take a while before I can make another batch."
He stopped in his tracks, looked down at the bottle and counted the pills as a grim expression swept over his face.
"I'll try."
"Well, if you don't, it's not like you have any other choice." I chuckled and he just huffed and walked away.
______________________
Thanks for reading.
Extra chapter at 600 powerstones.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง