Gods Speed 6

I stood at the edge of the open space and imagined Clawed to be lurking at the other end. “How am I supposed to catch a cat that reacts as soon as I try to approach it?”

Approach… approach? That was it! It was just like the black bird! The bird had tricked the squirrel by intentionally exposing itself, using it as a feint to get the squirrel into the air where it couldn’t change direction.

Even when Kordri, an asura, had used Burst Step, it was still essentially still a single step. Corresponding muscles were still used to propel himself towards me. Even though the essence of Mirage Walk was to conceal fluctuation of mana to throw off the opponent completely, I still had to move the muscles that were responsible for making that one, incredibly fast, step.

But what if I could get rid of that?

What if I could almost entirely void the motion needed for me to make that step? Appearing as if I had truly teleported from even a standstill position.

If I could do that, I could, in theory, feint Clawed.

But how do I come up with a way to make Burst Step into something that would bypass the need to control the muscles mechanically?

I’d imagine if I were any other mage or mana manipulator in this world, I would’ve thought of it as impossible, but I had one crucial advantage: Knowledge from my past life.

Due to my mediocre ki center, I had studied in-depth about the human body, namely the working mechanics of what went into essentially putting the human body into movement. It was through this knowledge that I had been able to fully utilize the little ki I had inside me to become a king.

Shutting my eyes, I used the entirety of my concentration as I spread mana throughout every crevice, no matter how micro, of the inside of my body.

When I opened my eyes, the sun was already high up in the sky. Sweat and grime covered my body as I slowly stretched my stiff body that had been standing still for hours. But I was happy. Ecstatic.

Not only had I reached a breakthrough to get me at the very peak of the light yellow stage, but I had also figured it out.

“I got it,” I grinned.

....

The air around us grew heavier as it became harder to breathe, but I maintained my stance.

Now!

The moment I lifted my foot up, the silver panther leaped to the side.

“Got you,” I smirked. Ignoring my protesting legs, I executed Burst Step from my standing position, using the fake step as a feint to get him to move. My surroundings blurred, my eyes focused only on the movement of the wounded mana beast. I had succeeded in cutting him off, but the distance I had cleared was insufficient by just over a meter.

As I lost my balance, I desperately grabbed onto the panther’s neck with my arms and held on tightly.

“Gah!” My body jerked unnaturally from the abrupt change in direction and I left was hanging onto the silver panther with all of my strength.

“You’re mine!” I hissed between my teeth as I used mana to strengthen my hold on him. My only hope was to choke him.

The panther I was riding on let out a vicious snarl as it whipped its head, trying to throw me off but I endured. Its sharp claws tore at my clothes, ripping fresh wounds on my sides and legs before it buckled feebly from lack of air.

Just when I thought the panther was about to relent, it suddenly jerked. As if possessed, it used the last of its strength to throw itself backward. By the time I realized what it had done, the ground underneath us was gone as we plummeted down the steep gorge.