blink return

Even as I spoke, Aura began to spill from my skin. In moments, it formed a rotating circular structure in the air before me in a ghostly white outline that was far clearer outside the bounds of the visible light. I crouched slightly, eyes focused on my target even as my Aura reached out to touch it. The moment I felt contact, I lunged forward at my full speed, passing through the circular gateway with a sensation like shattering glass, and felt myself accelerate abruptly. I closed the distance in an instant, a hand reaching out to grasp the Grimm by the shoulder even as streamers of both Aura and heat clung to my arms and legs, ropes of fire and power leading back to the circle far behind me. Even as I touched the monster, however, I could feel the pull of those chains, as if my passage through the gateway had created some enormous vacuum, and the circle collapsed into a tiny point as its structure was sucked towards the center. An instant later, I felt myself moving backwards as if time were running in reverse, my direction reversing without any loss in speed.

And then I was back where I’d stood in the beginning, almost as if I’d never left at all—except I’d brought along a souvenir. I’d dragged the Grimm back with me, though it collapsed limply even as the sound of things snapping reached us moments later. Unprotected by Aura or the skill, the whiplash had killed it outright.

“Holy,” Adam swore, drawing away from me at once and dropping a hand to his waist. He let go of it a moment later, seeing the state the Grimm was in, but glanced back at the crowd far below, spotting the crater the sheer speed of my attack had left in their ranks. “What the fuck was that?”

“One of the skills I picked up off the Aethon,” I answered, tossing the corpse aside. “It’s like…I can’t think of a great analogy, but think of it as sort of like a bird swooping down to snatch something up. It boosts my speed towards a target and then returns me to my original position with whatever I happen to be carrying.”

“Like people,” He guessed.

“Or parts of them, at least,” I answered, nodding towards the corpse. “From what I gather, it wasn’t really built with the safety of the subject in mind. Even if I don’t try, well, it’d be pretty easy to snap someone’s neck with the whiplash. I’d thought about using it as an extraction technique, but…”

Bane of the Prometheans (Active) LV1 EXP: 43.71% MP: 1000
A technique developed in Ancient Mantle by the Kaukasios tribe for use against their sworn enemies, the Promethians. At its most basic level, a technique to quickly attack and withdraw from an enemy, the skill distinguished itself for both its effectiveness and brutality. After marking the target, the user creates an expanding pathway between their opponent and their starting position while they approach with tremendous speed. After reaching the end point of the pathway, an interaction between the structure of the technique and the user’s Aura causes it to retract back towards its point of origin, carrying the user—and anything they happen to be holding—back with it in the process. The removal of the opponent’s liver is not required for the successful completion of the technique, but is customary to the maneuver.
Increase DEX by INT for the sake of determining attack and movement speed for one attack.
50% defense penetration.
Range: 100m