longest thing Jasmine said this whole trip by far.
I feel so honored.
“Thank you?”
I reorganized my thoughts before
trying to explain in steps what I did.
“It’s a simple technique really.
Since I was feinting to Mr. Krensh’s right side, I place my right foot
forward as the last step before the feint. There I instantly focus my
mana into the right foot, pushing myself back, and at the same time I bring my
left leg behind right, aimed towards where I want to go, and focus mana unto my
left foot this time, but with more power than when I used mana on my right so
that I don’t propel myself backwards instead of the direction I want to
actually go to.”
That was a mouthful.
I looked around to see Adam, Helen,
and even my father head towards the clearing, trying to test out what I just
explained.
When I turned back to face Jasmine,
I only saw her back as she rushed to the clearing as well.
Mother sat next to me, patting my
head with a gentle smile on her face that seemed to say, “you did well.”
Angela came up to me too, burying my face, or rather my whole head, in
her bosom cheerfully exclaiming, “Cute AND talented aren’t you? Why couldn’t
you have been born earlier so that this sister could snatch you up herself!”
Blushing, I willed myself away from
those breasts that I suspected to have their own gravitational pull.
Those…weapons are dangerous.
My guardian angel, Durden, was a
lot calmer about all of this and just gave me a thumbs up. He’s so cool.
The night passed as the four idiots
spent most of the time trying to master the feint step while I slept in the
tent with mother.
________________________________________
A couple of days passed as we finally
managed to make it to the foot of the Grand Mountains, which sure lived up to
its name.
Along the way, only Helen managed
to lay down her pride as she asked me for some clarification on the feint step.
I went over it slowly, explaining what the timing of the interval between
the last right foot and the left foot should be and how to properly balance the
output of mana into both feet so you can go the way you’re aiming. The whole
time, I could almost see the ears of the other three idiots getting bigger as
they tried to suck in the information that I gave her, nodding while
taking mental notes.
The first one to succeed was
Jasmine. She seemed like the cold, genius type. I guess it was
true.
She pulled me aside one day,
blushing, while I was taking reading and writing lessons on the back of the
carriage with mother and asked me to watch.
We had to take a small stop so the
carriages wouldn’t leave us behind. After successfully demonstrating the
feint step to me, I applauded saying “Amazing! You learned it so quickly!”
It’s one of the most basic
techniques I developed, but I’m not going to tell her that.
She responded curtly saying, “It
was nothing” but the upward curvature of her lips and the slight, proud twitch
of her nose showed otherwise.
Haha, she’s happy.
By the time we arrived at the foot
of the Grand Mountains, all four of the idiots managed to learn the technique,
changing it slightly to fit their own fighting style.
The next step of the journey was
going up the mountains. Luckily, there was a path that was around two
carriages wide that circled around the mountain, eventually leading to the
teleportation gate at the top.
The front carriage included Durden,
holding the reigns in the front, with father besides him keeping him company.
This carriage carried most of our luggage. Helen was currently
seated on the top of the second carriage, the one I was riding in, scouting for
any abnormalities. Angela sat in the back carriage with my mom and me, Adam
walking at the back, keeping guard. While Jasmine was steering the carriage, I
keep noticing how she turns back her head and
Learning to Kill: Stories