Gods Speed 7

Just as the titan bear lifted its paw up, I firmly kicked the ground in front of me, creating a cloud of dust, covering me from view.

Four slivers immediately sliced through the dust cloud I had made between the beast and me, allowing me to just barely see how wide the attack was before I immediately used Burst Step to avoid it.

“Damn it,” I spat through gritted teeth from the sharp pangs of protest in my legs.

Rolling on the ground and back onto my feet, I prepared myself again. I knew the hitbox of one of his attacks now, and I could make do with that. However, I still needed to be able to completely dodge the attack in the least amount of movement as possible if I’m going to dodge all of his attacks and clear the distance between us.

Thoughts of Kordri’s training popped into my head, and I couldn’t help but reveal a helpless smile. Either this was some big coincidence, or Windsom was indeed a calculative devil.

I glimpsed the impatient titan bear release another attack, this time with a thrust of his paw. I immediately kicked up another cloud of dust to buy time, but the bell attached to me constantly gave away my position. Reacting immediately as a hole tore through the cloud of dust, I forced another Burst Step.

“The more you run, the more painful it’ll be for you and the less of you there’ll be left for me to eat.” The mana beast let foul chuckle that didn’t match his cute appearance.

“Okay! I won’t run anymore!” I stood still with my hands up.

I could clearly make out the almost human-like expression of a triumphant sneer on the bear’s face as it casually released another slicing attack with the swipe of its paw.

I barely had the time to swallow back a choke as I executed the modified Burst Step I had been working on.

As I willed mana into the proper muscles at the precise timing while strengthening my bones to help withstand the force of this abrupt stimulation, I heard a sharp crack from my legs before I was hit with the all-too-familiar sensation of high-speed motion just as the titan bear’s blunt spell pressed against my chest.

My body shifted less than a meter to the right, and the attack that was supposed cave my chest in just barely grazed my left shoulder.

Even more blood began flowing out from the deep gash on my left leg from the sudden pressure I had exerted to use Burst Step; a small crater had formed beneath my legs from the sheer force of the movement. Despite the success of my new movement skill, the explosion of pain that was growing increasingly unbearable had filled me with doubt.

Through sheer will and my own stubbornness to win this fight against my unruly body, I choked down the pain as I concentrated more mana to my lower body.

The titan bear stared at me, confused at first but it’s gaze soon turned sour as it narrowed its eyes in irritation.

Before it had the chance to release its next attack, I kicked at the ground again, creating a cloud of debris to separate us.

I had less than a second to dodge the bear’s attack once it passed through the dust cloud, and I was willing to bet the next assault wouldn’t be just a single attack.

In the midst of this game of dodging the lethal attacks, I had figured out the basis of successfully implementing my new Burst Step. Just as I had to coordinate the mana in my muscles to propel my body, I had to mirror the progression of mana flow in my body to stop the movement as well.

The ground underneath my feet had sunken, once again, due to the force I had to expel in order to come to a stop, but it had worked again.

The cloud of dust I had created was torn into pieces a flurry of attacks from the titan bear headed straight at me.

Burst.

My vision blurred as I propelled myself to the right. The rigid ground cracked at the force of my landing about two meters away. The first step had me gritting in pain but using Burst Step again had sent an explosion of agony through my lower body as the muscles and bones inside me nearly gave out from the stress.

Just as the bell rang, giving away my position, I locked my mouth into a determined snarl and swallowed back any screams of pain that were building up in my throat, and executed Burst Step once more to reach my opponent. The titan bear’s head spun at the sound of my bell, but by that time, I had already closed the gap.