Pain, that was the first thing I felt. Pouring through me. Then the ground.
I didn't know how far I'd been thrown.
I opened my eyes, dust filled the air.My body screamed when I tried to move.
The figure was somewhere beyond the hole it had punched me through. It wasn't trying to kill me.
I realized that almost immediately. It was trying to knock me unconscious.
Why?
I didn't know.
But I wasn't going to let it.
I pushed myself up.
My arms trembled.
Then I felt something.
A vibration.
At first, I thought it was coming from the ground.
But it wasn't.
It was coming from inside me.
A faint tremor moved through my body.
Then another.
The ground shook.
Hard.
The walls around me rattled.
My entire body suddenly revolted with pain.
I dropped to the floor..
I couldn't breathe.
Every muscle felt like it was being torn apart from the inside.
And then—
The voice returned.
Be calm.
I clenched my teeth.
"Who are you?"
Rise James.
The vibration intensified.
I felt something moving through me.
Not pain.
Something else.
Something I'd never felt before.
My vision changed.
The figure standing several metres away was no longer just a shadow.
I could see him.
Not clearly but enough.
A human form existed beneath the darkness.
A man.
He was moving strangely.
His body seemed to disappear into the shadows around him and emerge somewhere else.
I understood.
Somehow, instinctively.
Shadow walking, it was a demon technique
And Henry and Arielle—
They hadn't been paralyzed by fear.
They had been trapped by a spell.
The figure had immobilized them before attacking me, why wasn't it able to freeze me with its spell?
The voice spoke again.
You must stop him.
I looked at Henry then Arielle.
They couldn't move.
I stood.
Something felt different.
The figure locked in toward me.
Then it ran.
At least, I thought it was running.
But compared to what I'd seen before, he was slow.
Really slow.
It looked like he was jogging.
I could see every movement.
Every step.
Every shift of his body.
I could hear my own heartbeat.
And then I felt my Qi.
Dense.
Thick.
Almost impossibly heavy.
It was there.
But I didn't need it.
Because beneath it was something else.
Strength.
Raw strength.
I'd never felt anything like it.
The figure came closer and yet so far.
The voice spoke.
Move.
I stepped forward.
And suddenly—
He was right in front of me.
No.
I was right in front of him.
I'd crossed the distance between us in a single step.
I stared at my own legs.
"Shadow step?"
I didn't understand how I had done it.
I didn't have time to think.
Now.
My fist moved.
I struck him.
The impact was unlike anything I'd ever felt.
His body folded.
He flew backward and crashed into the ground.
Blood immediately began flowing from his ears.
Then his mouth.
He didn't move, rather be couldn't.
I stood there, staring.
What the hell had just happened?
The voice remained silent.
For a moment.
Then I felt something.
A presence.
Nearby.
Hidden.
Cloaked.
I turned my head.
I couldn't see anything.
But somehow, I knew where it was.
Imagine dragging him
I imagined reaching out.
Grabbing him.
Dragging him toward me.
And then—
It happened.
Something invisible seized the man.
His body was violently pulled across the ground toward me.
I froze. Telekinesis.
I hadn't moved.
I hadn't touched him.
I had simply thought about moving him.
My breathing became heavier.
Then my eyes began to burn.
A strange sensation spread through them.
The invisibility surrounding the man's body flickered.
The cloak disappeared.
My vision sharpened.
And finally—
I saw him.
Really saw him.
The face.
The clothes.
The man beneath the darkness.
My blood ran cold.
I knew him.
I'd seen him before.
During the training grounds.
The man who had given me the tonic.
The man who had spoken privately with Mr Matthew.
The man who had looked at me like he was seeing something he had been waiting for.
I stared at him.
"Who are you?"