Free Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) by Christopher Skliros

with that, she rested against a tree as she smugly
waited for me run out of energy.
She was right – it was slowly draining me. Not even the
thought of Stefanie could keep me up for much longer.
And yet I had done it. I had a power and now I was going to
make Grace pay.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind reach out to the space the
shield was occupying – confident in my newfound ability. I
could feel my wall, solid and sturdy.
I felt Grace approach it, and lay her hand on it to check it
was still there. The satisfying crackle made me smirk.
Even though never once in my life had I ever thought of
violence as an answer to my problems, Grace had pushed me
too far. Knowing it would work, I manipulated the shield to
form a tendril-like beam of energy and with as much mental
power as possible, I jabbed at Grace.
Her resounding yelp added to my grin. I knew she was just
getting angrier, and even as I was building up to my ultimate
revenge, I had to admit, this was a pretty cool power.
Maybe if I… “ARGH!” Grace yelled out again.
I made more tentacles of energy push out of the wall and I
began to lock in directly on Grace, intending on wrapping
her in a web of my energy.
I found that the longer I had to reach to hit her and the
more powerful the tendril, the more energy it required, I
knew I only had so much left in me but the satisfaction in her
pain, for now, was enough to keep me going.
More yelps. Then something went numb inside of me.
One bead of sweat too many and I felt my power
considerably weaken. I didn’t have much time left to either
incapacitate her or, well, die.
I had to think quickly.
Contemplating the extent of my abilities, I dared to think
that maybe, just maybe, that as well as being able to
manipulate the matter between us, I might just be able to
manipulate her. I wondered if what I had was full-blown
telekinesis… Every second I spent wondering, however, was
a second of effort wasted and so I decided to test my
hypothesis out.
I imagined myself picking Grace up out of the air, with an
invisible claw-like grip. I wanted to throw her with my mental
power, get her away from me once and for all and yet… I
couldn’t.
I could still feel my wall and also feel my zapping tendrils
and even feel her occupying the mental space around me, yet
I couldn’t actually move her.
My power was new, though, and between supporting the
wall as well as zapping her, I couldn’t summon the strength…
Tossing up my options, I contemplated. I could continue to
keep her away until I eventually collapsed from fatigue, or I
could run the risk of her attacking me while letting the wall
down to see if I could actually do something with my power…
I decided quickly, letting the wall down for just a second…
and instantly pinned Grace to the spot.
I could feel my mind constricting her, no longer needing to
upkeep the wall, or jab her with energy – all my mental
capacity was focussed on cementing her in place – and it was
working.
But all it took was half a minute, and a wave of weakness
passed over me again as I lost the connection. With practice,
the ability would be unstoppable, but right now, the odds
weren’t looking too great about me even getting that far.
I found myself defenceless, my limbs were like dead weight,
and I struggled to keep my eyes in focus. Judging from the
exceedingly more cruel expression on Grace’s face – she was
preparing to take advantage of my lapse.
“Oh you poor thing,” Grace said with fake sympathy. I saw
her entire body tense up, preparing to leap, and out of my last
effort to stay alive, I stumbled into the orange rope, and
attempted to run.
Weakly, somehow, I managed to fray the rope, both using
my physical and mental strength. I pushed through it and out
into the forest, attempting to run.
Trying desperately to resummon my power to help me, I
reached out to it and attempted to jumpstart it or something.
It felt like a muscle – a muscle