Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Chapter 595: Creating a New Technique.

The training courtyard of the Palace of Black Blood was located in an isolated area of the northern wing, surrounded by high walls, black columns, and ancient statues of vampires in battle poses. It was not a field made for ordinary soldiers. The ground was reinforced with red runes, the walls had layers of impact absorption, and several deep marks in the stone showed that creatures far stronger than humans had trained there for centuries.

Kael was alone.

At least, that was what he wanted.

He had left Sylphie, Irelia, and Amelia resting after a long morning of discussions, documents, and messages sent to the Kingdom of Witches. Eleonor’s answer had not yet arrived, Elion was probably still reading the first copied seals of the Order, and Yggdrasil... well, Yggdrasil was probably complaining about being indirectly involved in yet another problem Kael had brought to her roots.

So he decided to train.

But, for the first time in a long while, there was no sword in his hands.

No blade. No weapon. Not even a practice staff.

Kael stood at the center of the courtyard, wearing only a dark shirt with rolled sleeves, training pants, and light boots. Around him, small burn marks and fresh cracks revealed that the training was not going as well as he would have liked.

He took a deep breath.

Scarlet mana began to circulate through his legs, rising through the muscles, compressing itself in the knees, ankles, and feet. The idea was simple. At least in his head.

An explosion of speed.

Not a true teleport. Nothing about folding space, opening a portal, crossing dimensional layers, or depending on displacement magic. Only pure movement. An advance so fast common eyes would not be able to follow. A brutal, controlled, short, precise acceleration. Something that would make the enemy believe Kael had teleported, when in truth he had simply crossed the distance before the opponent’s thought could finish.

It seemed simple.

It was not.

Kael released the air and unleashed the mana.

The world trembled beneath his feet.

He advanced.

For two meters.

Then the magic fell out of balance.

The impulse struck the right foot first, then the left, at different timings. The result was less an explosion of speed and more a humiliating attempt to be thrown against his own dignity. Kael twisted his body in the air, spun, landed with one hand on the ground, and slid until he stopped near a column.

He stayed still for one second.

Then murmured:

"Ridiculous."

He stood, dusted off his clothes, and returned to the center.

He tried again.

This time, he concentrated the mana in the muscles before releasing it. The explosion came far too strong. Kael crossed ten meters in the blink of an eye, but the impact against the air was so violent that the courtyard’s magical barrier glowed around him. He managed to stop before hitting the wall, but the accumulated energy tore the ground beneath his feet into two black lines.

Kael looked at the marks.

"Better."

Then he noticed the sole of one boot had started smoking.

He looked down.

"Not that much better."

Another attempt.

And another.

And another.

Some failed for lack of impulse. Others from excess. In one of them, Kael managed to vanish from the starting position for a fraction of a second, but reappeared crooked, spinning sideways, and had to dig his fingers into the stone to avoid crashing through a statue of an ancient vampire king. In another, the mana rose through his body too quickly and nearly activated a real teleport by reflex, which completely defeated the purpose of the training.

With every failure, his irritation grew.

The problem was not speed. Kael was fast. Much faster than most living warriors. The problem was creating a method that did not depend only on physical strength, or teleportation, or a sword technique. He wanted a new spell. A magic that transformed movement into a controlled explosion.

But his body and mana were not cooperating.

He stopped in the center of the courtyard, breathing with forced calm.

"Again."

The mana gathered.

Kael advanced.

This time, the impulse was almost perfect.

Almost.

He appeared near the opposite end of the courtyard, but the movement dragged the air behind him like a blade, tearing pieces from the surface of the ground and making three nearby columns tremble. Kael stopped with his body leaning forward, one hand extended, his eyes narrowed.

It had been fast.

But loud.

Far too loud.

Nothing like the clean, illusory effect he wanted.

"Shit."

"Are you trying to destroy my courtyard or merely offend it?"

The voice came from the side entrance.

Kael turned his face.

Liza was there.

The Queen of Vampires wore a dark dress less ceremonial than the one from the meeting, though she still carried the cold elegance of someone incapable of truly seeming casual. Her long white hair fell over one shoulder, and her red eyes followed the marks on the ground with a discreet mixture of curiosity and judgment. She did not seem surprised to find him training alone. She seemed more surprised that he was training that way.

Kael straightened his posture.

"Queen Liza."

"King Kael." She entered the courtyard with calm steps. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"A new spell."

"I noticed that. The entire barrier noticed."

Kael looked at the cracks in the ground.

"It is in development."

"Clearly."

He took a deep breath, deciding to ignore her dry tone.

"I want to create an explosion of speed. Something short, direct, almost instantaneous. Not teleportation. Real movement. I want to advance so fast that it looks like teleportation to whoever is watching."

Liza stopped a few meters from him.

"Why?"

"Because teleportation can be blocked, distorted, tracked, or anticipated if the enemy knows the flow. Physical movement is harder to stop. If I can combine bodily acceleration with mana, I can cross the distance before an anti-magic defense can react."

Liza observed him for a few seconds.

Then looked at the ruined ground.

"And you are trying to do this with pure magic?"

"Yes."

"Without lightning element?"

Kael frowned.

"Lightning?"

"Yes." Liza folded her arms. "To achieve what you are describing through magic, you would need an element capable of conducting acceleration, nervous reaction, muscular impulse, and displacement in a single flow. Lightning would do that. It is rare, unstable, and dangerous, but it would be the most direct path."

Kael was silent.

"I do not have affinity with lightning."

"I noticed."

"Because of the failure?"

"Because of the courtyard suffering."

He narrowed his eyes.

Liza continued, unshaken.

"Pure magic can increase strength, reinforce muscles, reduce friction, improve reflexes. But if you try to turn all of that into instantaneous acceleration without a conductive element, the energy explodes unevenly. The body goes one way, the mana another, and the ground ends up paying the price."

Kael looked at the marks left by his attempts.

That made far too much sense to ignore.

"So it is impossible?"

"With magic, that way, probably."

He released an irritated sigh.

Liza tilted her head slightly.

"But it is not impossible with bodily training."

Kael looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"You are trying to create movement from the outside in. Mana pushing body. That will always have delay. Even if the delay is minimal, it exists. Vampires do the opposite."

Kael became more attentive.

Liza took a few steps to the center of the courtyard, passing him calmly.

"Our racial abilities do not treat speed as a spell. They treat it as a natural reaction. The blood accelerates before the intention finishes. The muscles respond before the magic takes shape. The shadow of the movement comes after the body, not before."

Kael narrowed his eyes.

"Show me."

Liza looked at him.

"Observe carefully."

She was in front of him.

In the next instant, she was not.

There was no portal.

No spatial ripple.

No magic circle, rune, glow, or explosion of mana.

Kael only saw her body disappear from its initial position and appear behind him, less than a handspan away, with one hand raised near the back of his neck. The movement was so clean the air barely reacted. Only afterward did a faint cold current pass through where she had been before.

Kael stayed still.

Slowly, he turned his face.

Liza was behind him, calm.

"Like this."

Kael’s eyes widened slightly.

He did not look frightened.

He looked offended.

"That was exactly what I was trying to do."

"I imagined so."

"Without visible magic."

"Yes."

"Without teleportation."

"Yes."

"Without destroying the ground."

Liza looked at the cracks.

"That part seems important to you."

Kael turned fully toward her.

"Is it that easy?"

Liza shrugged.

"I am a vampire."

Kael stared at the queen for several seconds.

"That answer is irritating."

"I imagine so."

"You just did with a racial ability what I am trying to build as an advanced technique."

"Yes."

"And you made it look simple."

"Because, for me, it is."

Kael ran a hand over his face.

"I hate ancient races."

Liza raised an eyebrow.

"You travel with the successor of Yggdrasil, an Umbral entity, a nine-tailed fox, and a primordial dragoness. That complaint seems selective."

Kael was silent.

Then pointed at her.

"Fair."

Liza almost smiled.

Almost.

"But if you truly want to learn something similar, you need to stop thinking like a mage for a few minutes."

"That is offensive to my lineage."

"Probably useful too."

Kael folded his arms.

"Explain."

Liza slowly walked around him, evaluating his posture, the position of his feet, the tension in his shoulders, and the way his mana was still circulating through his legs.

"You accumulate too much energy before moving. That makes your intention visible. Even if the enemy does not see the mana, they will feel the pressure. Then you release everything at once, as if trying to shoot an arrow using your own body as the bow."

"And is that wrong?"

"Not completely. But it is crude."

"Thank you."

"You asked."

"I did not ask for offense."

"You asked for explanation."

Kael muttered something under his breath.

Liza continued:

"True speed does not begin in the foot. It begins in the center of the body. Hips, spine, breath, intention. The foot only confirms the movement. Vampires use blood to align all of that in a fraction of a second. If you try to imitate it with mana, you need to reduce the explosion and increase the synchronization."

Kael grew serious.

"So less power."

"More control."

"I hate when that is the answer."

"Strong men usually do."

He looked at her.

Liza held his gaze with perfect serenity.

Kael took a deep breath and returned to the center of the courtyard.

"Do it again."

Liza repeated it.

This time, Kael paid attention not to the arrival point, but to the instant before the movement. He saw almost nothing. There was no magic gathered in the legs. No obvious preparation. But there was a minimal change in her weight, an imperceptible contraction of the torso, a current of blood accelerating through the body before common perception could follow.

It was movement before being movement.

Kael narrowed his eyes.

"Again."

Liza vanished and reappeared to the side.

"Again."

She appeared atop a low column.

"Again."

Behind him.

"Again."

At the courtyard entrance.

Kael watched each repetition as if dismantling an invisible blade. The irritation was still there, but it was beginning to be replaced by concentration. Liza noticed the change and remained quiet. He was not merely someone trying to copy a racial ability. He was someone who, once he understood the logic, would begin twisting it until it fit his own body.

Finally, Kael closed his eyes.

Scarlet mana appeared again.

But this time, it did not gather in his legs.

It first descended through the center of his body, spreading through his spine, hips, abdomen, and breath. Instead of pushing the muscles, it wrapped around them. Instead of exploding, it compressed itself in silence.

Liza observed.

Kael opened his eyes.

He advanced.

The movement was still not perfect.

He did not disappear like Liza. The air still vibrated. The ground still received a small crack beneath the starting foot. But this time, Kael crossed half the courtyard with far less noise, stopping cleanly, without being thrown, without twisting his body, without nearly destroying a statue.

Liza tilted her head.

"Better."

Kael looked back.

"It was slow."

"It was controlled."

"It was slow."

"Would you prefer fast and dead?"

"Depends on the enemy."

"Kael."

He let out a short laugh.

"Fine. It was better."

Liza walked to him.

"If you insist on this, perhaps you can create your technique. It will not be the same as ours. You do not have vampiric blood to conduct the movement. But you have enough mana to compensate for part of the difference and a body strong enough to survive the mistake."

"Was that praise?"

"It was an evaluation."

"I will accept it as praise."

"Do as you wish."

Kael looked at the courtyard, then at Liza.

"Will you teach me?"

The question seemed to surprise her more than anything else that morning.

Liza was silent for an instant.

"You are asking a vampire for instruction."

"I am asking instruction from someone who just did exactly what I want to learn."

"Even knowing I am a foreign queen?"

"Especially because of that. You probably have less patience to lie about my mistakes."

This time, Liza truly smiled.

Small.

Cold.

But real.

"Then start by standing still."

Kael frowned.

"Still?"

"Yes."

"To learn speed."

"Yes."

He closed his eyes for an instant.

"This is going to be irritating, is it not?"

"Extremely."

Liza walked until she stood before him.

"Now breathe. Do not gather mana. Do not think about advancing. Do not think about destroying the ground. Only feel the weight of your body before movement."

Kael remained still.

For three seconds.

"This is boring."

"You are worse than Elizabeth when she was a child."

He opened one eye.

"Was that a diplomatic insult?"

"It was a historical evaluation."

Kael let out a low laugh.

At the courtyard entrance, without either of them immediately noticing, Sylphie, Irelia, and Amelia had arrived silently.

Sylphie watched Kael standing before Liza, receiving instruction from the Queen of Vampires, and slowly folded her arms.

Irelia looked at Amelia.

Amelia sighed.

"I knew we should not have left him alone for too long."

Sylphie narrowed her eyes.

"She is teaching him."

Irelia smiled faintly.

"That is good, is it not?"

Sylphie did not answer immediately.

Kael, in the center of the courtyard, finally noticed their presence and turned his face.

He saw Sylphie.

He saw her expression.

And immediately understood the problem.

"Do not start."

Sylphie raised an eyebrow.

"I did not say anything."

Kael pointed at her.

"Your face did."

Liza looked between the two.

Then, with almost cruel calm, commented:

"If you prefer, Lady Sylphie, you may observe the lesson up close."

Sylphie smiled.

A smile far too sweet.

"I prefer that."

Kael looked at the dark sky of the Vampire Kingdom.

"Of course you do."

Liza turned back to him.

"Breathe, King Kael."

He closed his eyes again.

"I should have brought a sword."

"Why?" Liza asked.

"Because swords are less complicated than beautiful women teaching dangerous techniques in front of other beautiful women."

Amelia answered from the entrance:

"That sentence will be recorded."

Irelia laughed.

Sylphie approached with soft steps.

Liza merely raised an eyebrow.

And Kael, trapped in the center of the courtyard, realized that learning to move almost like a teleport might be the simplest part of that training.