The two of them had stepped back behind at the entrance of the valley.
“Wait, so the lightning is passing through the ground?” Kane raised an eyebrow. “How is it passing through solid ground?”
Rui had long known that esoteric material science was quite developed in this world due to the presence of many fascinating esoteric substances that could do things that defied logic.
In turn, a holistic and theoretical understanding of the more natural and day-to-day phenomena had taken much of a backseat, compared to Earth. It made sense that Kane did not know what lightning was constituted of, and how it moved, given that electricity was not really something that was a well-known phenomenon that was used widely. Rui highly doubted this world had come up with Maxwell’s equations.
“Lightning is closer to a gas than it is a solid, it passes through things rather than colliding against them like a solid object,” Rui briefly explained to him. “So do not be fooled by the mild craters they produce. The average lightning bolt isn’t a threat to Martial Squires but this…”
Rui turned back to the ocean of lightning bolts in the distance that only grew denser the further away. “This is not average, this is at a bare minimum on the upper end of lightning bolts.”
He glanced at the ground in the distance, noting the strange neon colors of the rock and soil. (‘This esoteric substance is most likely a charged superconductor. It would explain the absurd voltage and potential difference between the clouds and the land, causing such a flood of current passing from the clouds to the land in the form of so many lightning strikes.’)
“Well, whatever it is, I’m good,” Kane cracked his knuckles and joints. “Forget dark dungeons that one can’t sense worth shit, or dumb training methods involving punching water like a dummy. This is what I’m about!”
He dashed in swiftly with blurring agility before Rui could even reply. It was only a split second before he encountered his second overhead lightning strike.
BOOM!
A single step was all he took. He sidestepped a bolt of lightning narrowly yet cleanly, making sure to not get hit by the ambient heat as well!
“Come on, Rui! Whatcha waiting for?” He called out before suddenly evading yet another lightning bolt.
Rui couldn’t help but be impressed.
Of course, he knew this did not mean that Kane was faster than lightning, or even as fast.
Not even close, in fact. The reason that the two of them could conceive of dodging it was because the distance between the clouds was maximum at the edges of the valley. Tempestuous Feel told him that the clouds were three kilometers away from the ground. That was the reason that they were able to dodge it was because of the sheer distance that lightning bolts needed to travel before they reached Rui and Kane.
Even ordinary humans could dodge a bullet from half a kilometer away.
However, Rui could see that the clouds got increasingly closer and closer to the ground the closer one got to the center of the valley.
Rui turned back forward as he watched Kane evade the lightning bolts with greater comfort every passing second. He had a confident grin as he swiftly and sharply danced past barrages of lightning bolts.
It was definitely a stark contrast with his gloomier self in the Umiana Trench.
Rui heaved a sigh as he considered how to go about the matter.
(‘I definitely need to use Forestep at some point, even if I have to dial it down a bit… But the issue is that it won’t be anywhere near as effective as it was against the Root.’) He sighed.
The reason for this was that against the Root, he already had a rigorous predictive model that served to be quite effective against the organ. The same could not be said here. Lightning paths did not have any discernible patterns. They were mindless, and what path they took was subject to near-quantum factors that he simply did not possess the ability to perceive or analyze.
𝐯𝐿xt.𝕔𝑜𝑚
That meant that, for the time being, he could not predict lightning. That meant that he could not use the Forestep technique to its absolute maximum the way he did against the Root, or even in the Umiana Trench. The ocean was far easier to predict, even if intuitively than lightning was.
(‘I suppose I’ll eventually need to bank hard on using Forestep with Primordial Instinct,’) He noted to himself. Primordial Instinct was certainly not on par with the VOID algorithm as far as being able to compensate for his lacking reaction time, but it was still better than nothing.
He closed his eyes as he honed his mind briefly, focusing on himself. He could not afford to be scatterbrained.
“Fuuu…”
STEP
He readied a running stance before quickly dashing forward.
His skin tingled as it felt the sheer amount of energy that blew through the air. Just then, his instinct soared as he felt a threat from above.
BOOM!
This time, he managed to evade the lightning bolt cleanly and entirely. It was quite a thrilling sensation to do something that was thought to be utterly impossible back on Earth.
Kane had already gone quite ahead in the distance, and Rui aimed to catch up with him as soon as possible.
He closed his eyes as he activated Forestep with his breathing, suddenly, his body felt much lighter while a significant surge of power coursed through his body.
WHOOSH!
Rui dashed forward having grown multiple times faster.
“You used Forestep eh?” Kane noted as Rui began catching up to him. “Be careful you won’t drain yourself.”
“I minimized the technique’s effect significantly,” Rui replied. “It makes it easier on my mind to be able to process everything at this speed.”
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The two of them swiftly shifted from their spots as three lightning bolts threatened to fry them, cleanly evading the lightning as they surged forward into the Thundering Valley.