Grey Speed 5

I needed to get below the beast’s head, now.

Except, the only non elemental I could use was one that I had only tried with mana. Back then, my body couldn’t withstand the burden of it, but even if it could now, I wasn’t able to manipulate mana.

Taking a sharp breath, I focused internally on the state of my body as I continued sprinting toward the beast. I tried to feel every muscle in my leg, back, hip, and core move in a predetermined manner in a set order, pushing my body to move a certain way.

I wanted to enhance every step of this process, imbuing power into each and every micromovement of muscles, tendons, and joints in order to far surpass the limits of even asuras.

I wanted to use Burst Step.

Derived from the pantheons’ use of a single explosive step, the Burst Step I had developed, merging the fundamental theory of mana manipulation along with my knowledge of the human anatomy, was going from a standstill position to an explosive dash in a single instant—almost to the point where, to the unsuspecting eye, the body would look almost pulled at high speeds by a higher force.

Albeit still linear and incomplete, I had surpassed the original technique of the pantheons with Burst Step. The real question at this moment was, could I replicate or even go beyond my initial success while using aether?

With my newly formed passages within my body, I timed the strength, location and flow of aether, at least trying to replicate the explosiveness in speed even if I had to forgo starting from a standstill position.

And, largely, it worked.

Tempering my core and forging my aether passages through all of the trials and tribulations had allowed me with a certain precision in my control. And as if the world had been pulled away from right under me, the world blurred as my eyes remained focused on my destination.

My position and timing were both ideal as a shimmering sphere of energy formed within the beast’s mouth.

I should’ve been happy. Hell, I should’ve been ecstatic. If I could do this now, with enough practice, this meant that I would be able to fully use Burst Step to my heart’s content.

But I wasn’t satisfied. I felt like I was missing something—the same feeling as a word lost on the tip of the tongue. Touching upon the basis of Burst Step, seeing the world pulled from right under me as I used this technique made me feel like I was on the cusp of something greater. Except I didn’t know what.