You choose the target creature as you cast Harnessed Lightning. You don’t choose how much to pay until Harnessed Lightning is resolving. No player may take actions between the time you choose how much to pay and the time the creature takes damage equal to the paid this way.

If the target creature becomes an illegal target, Harnessed Lightning is countered and none of its effects happen. You won’t get or be able to pay any .

is the energy symbol. It represents one energy counter.

Energy counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with specific permanents. (Other kinds of counters that players may have include poison and experience.)

Keep careful track of how many energy counters each player has. You may do so by keeping a running count on paper, by using a die, or by any other clear and mutually agreeable method.

If an effect says you get one or more , you get that many energy counters. To pay one or more , you lose that many energy counters. Any effects that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with energy counters.

Energy counters aren’t mana. They don’t go away as steps, phases, and turns end, and effects that add mana “of any type” to your mana pool can’t give you energy counters.

You can’t pay more energy counters than you have.