While I literally kissed the ground to evade their quills, it was done purely by reflex, and there is no preparation whatsoever for the next move I would have taken.

However, these mole beasts are different.

Not only their agility provides the sufficient performance to dodge their own quills like it was nothing, their body was also forged to hunt while keeping their stances low, as if they are sweeping the ground with their bodies and claws.

And that is why, I am a step too late to move compared to them.

After they dodged their own quills by a hair’s breadth, they immediately adjusted their posture while charging towards me like an arrow. Their steps were light, as if their muscles are made of feather while their bones are made of dry wood as they gained the most advantageous position to surround me. Their claws radiate a vicious glint as they slashed the empty air, sending wind claws towards me from the back, front, left and right of my position.

Upon facing their well-coordinated attacks, I immediately gathered all the strength I can muster towards my feet as I wildly kicked the ground and jumped my way above, reaching the wide and open space in the air.

Even the trees in my surrounding was below me as I looked at the vast horizon in my front. I felt that my prana was significantly drained, as I feel a momentary feeling of limpness as I tore the air with my body.

However, that doesn’t mean I can relax.

After all, my body has not been tempered enough to withstand the falling momentum I would receive upon landing!

Human’s brain are made to automatically process lots of information at the same time in real time. Since the thing I need the most is a plan, I willed as I cut all unnecessary calculation and thought my brain processed.

My mind immediately reached its peak of concentrated state as my ascending speed gradually diminished, while feeling that the time goes slowly as the wind graze my whole body, reminding me of the impending doom I will face. The colors and light I perceive with my eyes dimmed in less than a blink of an eye till my eyes only catch the pitch black space, as I forcibly willed my mind to cut my visual senses.

However, I can still feel that this is not yet enough. I willed my mind, and cut all the senses in my body to accelerate the thinking process of my brain in order to come up with a solution.

Prana is an ethereal substance, which originates from its source inside a human’s body.

Whenever one wishes to conjure a mudra to create a phenomenon one desired, the prana would have to be purified and then amplified by the strength and quality of their soul, and then with a certain activation sequence the conjuring of the phenomenon will come into being.

However, the theory I hypothesized when I created negative mudra had proven that prana can affect reality, albeit still as an ethereal substance.

Although I am unable to comprehend why my negative mudra which destroys ethereal substances scattered in space is unable to be used, I can still conclude from the jump I just made that the prana in my body takes the form of pure energy, without any kinds of characteristics.

And as I willed, the prana changed into surplus kinetic force which propels my jump, thus reaching this frightening height.

If only by moving it with my will to my feet and then it changes into kinetic force, then can I move it with my will to the air outside my body to inject it with kinetic force, thus moving it as I wish?

In less than a hundredth of a second, I restored the senses in my body as I try to experiment and find conclusion from this theory. As I moved the prana with my will outside my body and injected it towards the air grazing my body in my fall from below, I observed the result of what I did.

Failure. No levitation was produced to decrease the momentum in the initiation of my flight as I lose all the ascension speed I had from the jump.

Revise the theory.

Where is the error?

My descent is starting to speed up, positioning myself 98 meters above ground.

The gravity…. Doesn’t differ much from the one on my homeland world, so I can still calculate it with the same as always.

In other words…… about 4 seconds till I reach the ground.

I once again cut all unnecessary subconscious calculations and thoughts as I focus all my mental strength in revising a new theory to make use of my flexible yet inflexible prana to

resolve the crisis I am facing.

If by injecting prana to a certain part of my body would somehow boost the performance of the said part, I can do the same with all my limbs, giving it a boost in performance.

With the reckless energy gathering effort I just made before jumping, I was able to reach about 101 meters above ground in one jump. Of course, the price was about 45% of my total prana. Thus the momentary feeling of limpness struck me hard.

How about gathering a bit more than what I previously used to jump in order to withstand the falling momentum?

No no no.

While it might be possible should I try to strengthen the overall endurance of all parts of my body, the shock would travel everywhere and give me a momentary paralysis. By that time, those wind claws will surely lacerate my whole being into paper shreds.

What should I do?

“……”

2,98 seconds to ground impact.

Floating is impossible.

Taking the momentum is a no go.

Then….

How about this?

Instead of injecting prana to the rampant air surrounding me as I fall once again, I concentrated to feel the wind.

The first experiment was a total failure since I tried to create a kinetic force which propels me upwards, decreasing the momentum I will have to face.

But everything in this world, be it moving or unmoving objects, contains force.

The silent rocks by the riverbed, the fleeting dance of a leaf being blown by the wind, the gravity and even the gentlest wind. Everything contains a certain amount of force, which makes the nature moves naturally, as if following a certain law.

The certain law that when one moves, all will be affected no matter how slight it is.

However, my instinct tells me that although I am beginning to touch the surface understanding of something deep and profound, I find that it will take too much time for me to comprehend it.

At least, to the point where I can use it to get out of this predicament that I am currently facing.

My body keeps falling in ever increasing speed as I try to make my thoughts think in another perspective. The wind grazing my body was getting fiercer as the sound I perceive in my ears getting louder, reminding me of the impending doom I am about to face should I take the falling momentum of my jump head on like I hypothesized earlier.

What to do?

Conjuring levitation force is impossible. Taking the falling momentum head on is a no go. But other than the two, I still don’t have enough knowledge to make another groundbreaking

ideas.

The jump just now was indeed, the undisputable fact that I am undoubtedly a combat novice.

However, just as I think more and more, a strong gust of wind blew me and slanted my descending vector, changing my landing spot which was the very spot where I jumped off to a tree, with its thick branches and leaves.

Oh shit.

I readied myself to face the fall and the scratches that comes with it as the sound of wind finally disappeared from my ears, replacing it was the dull sound of my body falling while breaking the branches as they slowed down my fall.

Luckily, the tree was tall, so I got lots of branches to break my meagerly built falling momentum. At the last second of my estimated time of contact with the ground, I had already restored my balance and then leaped again from branch to branch to create some distance with the moles.

The enemy had already been divided.

Now it is time to conquer.

The first to strike have the advantage!

Although I can’t really say that I had that advantage to begin with.

My feet fiercely kicked the branch I was on as I raised my altitude by jumping off to a higher branch. However, I altered a bit of my jumping trajectory slightly. This way, it will not let me stand on the branch, but my head will clash with it instead.  

One unexpected strike to suddenly kill.

A moment before my head meets the branch, I flipped my body upside down using acrobatic moves which involves the movements from my waist, back and legs, positioning my head below my leg while my leg meets the branch.

I softly placed my legs upside down, cancelling my colliding force with the bottom part of the branch as I kicked it back, gaining a sudden acceleration supplemented by gravity as I jumped my way towards a mole diagonally below me. I rotated my body again, my head back to the top as I advance midair.

Being completely unaware of this move, the mole only managed to react by stopping his advance and raised his claw to blow me off. But its claws were just simply too late as my kick landed fiercely on its head, and planted myself on the branch below me.

I can feel the gray matter of the mole beneath my feet as I moved again, jumping from branch to branch while evading the various skilled attacks of the moles.

I begin to think while evading and taking cover from their wind claws.

The tactic I used just now was good, since it managed to kill one of them. If I were to continue in this manner, then I will be able to kill all of them while preserving my life.

But there is one flaw in this tactic, which is the exhaustion of stamina.

I just can’t imagine myself being able to hold out until all of them are killed.

There is also the fact that the jump before depleted 45% of my total prana reserves.

What to do?

I lowered my upper body as I evade a wave of wind claw from my left. In my lowered posture, a mole in my right clawed downwards with its claws, clad in sharp wind as it arced to slice

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

my head.

I kicked the ground to my front and arrived just below its arm as I parried its claw by blocking the arm with my hand. In that state, my other hand rushed its way to the mole’s abdomen, as it pierced the backbone and disabled its mobility for good.

However, the first mole who attacked me with wind claws from the left moved at the same time my hand pierced its comrade, exactly to rob me of my escape with its horizontal sweep to my neck.

I didn’t however, try to escape its claws.

I turned my body as I positioned myself behind the mole I pierced as I used it as a meat shield while keeping my head lower, as its claws sweep immediately sliced the mole’s head off like tofu. By the time blood splattered from its severed neck, my hand had already been pulled out.

I kicked the headless corpse to disrupt its focus as I immediately pierced its neck and directly tore through with my right hand while my left blocked the inner side of its elbow and stopped the advance of its claw towards me.

That’s three.

Which means, three more to go.

Faint sounds of footsteps rang in my surrounding as the remaining moles positioned themselves to perfectly execute a killing move simultaneously in my still position. Their silhouettes,

however, was incomparably fast I can’t catch them with my eyes.

Hm……

Should I assume this is due to them moving so close while at maximum speed?

Excellent bodily control indeed.

However, they didn’t give me the time to even to think of countermeasure as I felt a chill on my back. In a flash, I kissed the ground again, dodging the horizontal sweep of a claw while all my four limbs propelled my body as I jump back in a somersault manner to dodge the incoming claw aiming towards my head while retreating about three meters.

In my back flipping motion, my legs kicked the tree behind me midair as I suddenly jumped 2o’clock my position and stabbed with a spear hand in the space in front of me.

My hand tore through the torso of a mole moving in high speed as it tried to keep its encirclement. It seems this one deliberately keep circling me while the other two attacked to keep me from escaping, but that moment of carelessness when its comrade attacked made it face a fatal setback as I killed it in an instant.

My hand tore through its torso from the left side and perfectly pierced its solar plexus. I immediately rotated my body, changing the position of its body and mine so that I can use it a meat shield. Indeed, a claw immediately lacerated the body, and continuing through to where my hand was planted.

So they finally chose the tactic of neutralizing my combat ability and then killing me, rather than an instant kill attack.

 As I pulled out my planted hand in a flash, my other had arced its way and with a stab, tore through its neck without a hitch. I then kicked the headless body of a mole to my front as a diversion and drop my body with my back on the ground to evade a vertical claw attack from behind me.

Surely enough, the chill I felt from my back came to me like a sword slash; even after dropping my body, the mole had already predicted that I would dodge in this manner so it also threw its torso lower to extend its range, catching me in its grasp.

I, however, didn’t let him claw my face.

My hand readied itself and with a fist, stroke its wrist. Out of reflex, in that strange position rotated using my other hand as a pole and swept a low kick to attack its balance. Unexpectedly, towards my surprise, the mole anticipated this move of mine and jumped low enough to barely evade my sweeping leg, and sent its claws again stabbing towards me in its brief descent.

Holy shit.

I moved my hand reflexively and parried its stab in my still awkwardly low posture while moving my body to maximize the parrying effect my hand provided. I immediately kicked the ground and jumped towards my front and thrusted the neck of the mole as I evaded a wind claw attack from my behind!

However, the aim was a bit wider than before, and the mole behind me also predicted that I would move in this manner so although my left leg wasn’t severed completely, the muscles were torn apart.

With this, my mobility can no longer keep up with this last mole.

Crud.

Unable to react in time, my abrupt jump roughly crashed my back on a tree. A cough was let out of my mouth as I can’t help the violent crash I suffered in my reckless dodging attempt.

The mole, however, didn’t give me a chance.

It immediately charged and with a thrust, tore the space towards my heart. A chill can’t help but flow through every single pores of my body as I feel the impending demise as I was still in my unprepared posture, incapable to dodge or parry anymore.

In this most dangerous situation, I used the least movement to miss my vital points from being damaged by facing my body sideways while I stepped towards my front, and stabbed with a spear hand towards its heart. My hand can feel the heat and pulse it can only find in its heart as it bleed, and then fall for eternity, unmoving.

My chest, however, was badly grazed the bones could actually be seen clearly with naked eye.

I fell on the ground as my wounded feet finally failed to support my body. With a thud, my body landed on the dirty ground, my nose smeared with the natural odor of the earth.

This is bad.

With my mobility lowered, I can’t dodge and move if another creature decides to attack me.

My only way out is to force the mysterious healing force inside my body when I ate those wolves meat and while going through the super compensation process, rely on the chance that the wound on my leg might be healed.

My sore fingers and nails dug the ground as I crawled bit by bit towards the nearest meat in front of me, which is the last mole I killed.

Damn, since I had always and only been using my spear hand to kill, my fingers are starting to hurt a lot now…..

Even so, I resisted the pain on my fingers as I forcefully ripped the thigh meat of the mole. I opened my mouth and with a huge bite, I wolfed down the raw meat with great difficulty as I swallow it down.

It all goes in…..

I focused my mind to ignore the nauseating sensation that makes me want to puke and vomit all the meat and continued to rip more meat. I chewed big mouthfuls as I eagerly anticipated the awaited moment when the healing power from Asya’s heart activate.

Surely enough, by the time I almost finished all the meat I can immediately eat from the first mole, the pain immediately crashed onto my senses like a broken dam, bringing with a surge of unbearable pain in an instant and continued on and on to corrode my every being as I writhe on the ground, enduring the agony I expected.

Uuu…. It’s much more heavier than when I eat the meat of those wolves…..

The corrosion persisted for about three quarters of an hour when it finally began to die down slowly and then perished completely when an hour had finally passed. All the time, the surge of warm healing energy from Asya’s Heart had always been flowing non-stop inside my body, revitalizing my being while refining, tempering, and purifying the state of my body at the same time.

I immediately turned my eyes and check.

Surely enough, the wound on my leg had been healed.

With this, my body should be able to last longer in fights like before!

I could feel that the surrounding around me becoming more vivid and clearer yet again as my senses had been tempered more, sharper than before. The flow of wind felt so delightful, as my skin perceive every stroke the breeze brought in its calming dance.

The flow of prana inside my body was very oppressive, like a water tank overloaded with water, about to burst out.

A little bit more painful if compared to the super compensation from before, but not something I can’t handle.

However, unable to handle and not handling is a different thing altogether.

I guided the palpitating flow of prana towards the center its source point, and willed to revitalize and evolve like I had done before when I was imprisoned.

“……….”

My wrath sears the heavens of my heart as I remember that incident.

Calm down.

Burning your own heart with fury and wrath at these kinds of time brings you nothing but demerits!

I immediately focused my mind to quell my anger and then continued to guide the rampant prana towards the source, and then after a brief moment, I can feel the source point burst with stronger prana.

It was more vigorous and thicker, and the amount was simply incomparable to that of before.

So this is how it feels to break through.

However, I can feel that this flow, although very rapid and thick, there is a sensation that tells me this state is not stable just yet.

With this in mind, I immediately absorbed the residual prana from the prana source inside the remaining corpse of the mole.

After a whole lot of tempering and a series of pain towards my prana veins, I can feel the prana veins inside my body becoming stronger and sturdier, it can allow more prana to flow faster with more quality and half the time and effort.

I felt like being reborn, as I unrestrainedly enjoyed the delighting feeling of freshness and vigor I felt in my meridians as I breathe in and played with the prana flow which has gotten faster and thicker.

Bits by bit, the information of the wind claw implanted itself inside my head and after a few seconds passed, along with a shattering pain on my brain I finally understood the concept of the wind claws these moles used.

This pace is good, I think.

With that, I began my first short seclusive training in the woods after gathering the other corpses as I spent my time to stabilize the sudden breakthrough of my strength.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this little work of mine, although i am still a novice i really appreciate your attention for this work!