Kai looked up at Professor Hera, slightly shaking his head in silent refusal.
He didn’t know why she picked him out of everyone in class, but it was not a good idea.
But Professor Hera remained steadfast in her decision, so Kai had no other choice but to co to her. Out of the thods that existed in using the winged boots, Kai chose the one that utilized one Primordial Lock for one winged-boot.
Since his mana control was better than average, this was the best thod for him.
It allowed him to adjust the power of each winged-boot at will.
Naturally, this wasn’t the standard thod.
Most supernals used the thod where they combined both mana from both Divine Locks—pooling it at the pit of their stomachs, and then funneled it into the winged boots. This thod lessened the direct strain to their Divine Locks and is also easier to manage—as the mana was already out of their Divine Locks.
But this sacrificed direct control and reaction speed.
Both were important in battle, so Kai opted not to use this thod.
Kai infused mana into the winged-boots, and under everyone’s eyes, their wings grew about an inch longer. He then made a high leap before the winged-boots began flapping their wings, pushing back against gravity.
He hovered across from Professor Hera and waited.
Professor Hera gestured for him to co closer, and he did.
"How high is your mana stat?" She asked in a whisper.
Kai looked down at the other students, and then whispered back, "Four hundred points."
Almost instantly, Professor Hera’s eyes widened.
She was sowhat expecting it to be high, especially after overhearing so students talking about what Kai did against the Star Beast. Using his imprint multiple tis is a sign that he has an incredible amount of mana.
But four hundred points were way higher than what Professor Hera expected.
Her guess was around two hundred, and he has doubled that.
"Let’s go a bit higher. Follow ."
"Okay."
Professor Hera brought Kai even higher, hovering about fifty feet off the ground. At this point, the two of them were quite far away from the class, but visible as the sky was clear. And they stood apart, facing one another.
"Protect your head, brace yourself, and try to resist the force with your winged boots."
"Protect...? Can you at least tell what’s goi—?!"
Swish—!
Before Kai could even finish his question, Professor Hera already blurred.
She disappeared from her spot and appeared right above him, spinning for an axe kick.
In the nick of ti, Kai crossed his arms overhead to block the attack.
And the impact launched him down hard.
Swoosh—!
Kai was hurled down like a broken oath—as Professor Hera’s axe kick detonated against his guard with the force of a collapsing building. Wind tore at his uniform and his hair—the raw bewildernt still coiled in his skull.
He didn’t understand why he was axe-kicked like this.
But he rembered what she said.
Snapping into focus—Kai tapped into his Primordial Locks. Deep inside him, two spheres of total darkness cracked open, and dark mana poured forth in a flood. He channeled it down to the winged-boots that clung to his feet.
A subtle dark shimr coated the winged-boots.
And a fraction of a second later, their wings flared an inch wider.
Moreover, the feathered pinions beat harder against the fall with the sound of snapping sails.
Even so, the ground kept coming.
Kai gritted his teeth until pain needled through his jaw; pouring more mana into the winged-boots. The wings flapped even harder, fighting the plumt with desperate strokes, but it was not nearly enough.
They demanded more and more mana; an insatiable thirst that clawed up both his Primordial Locks, siphoning mana at a rate that caught Kai off guard. Since he had plenty, he allowed them to devour more.
He gave it all.
Crashing into the ground wouldn’t kill him, but it would certainly break a few bones.
Sothing that Kai didn’t need right now as he still needed to mine mana ores.
Soon, in a final, shuddering heave, the descent bent.
Kai hit the ground as a teor that was at least only a quarter of his initial falling speed.
His boots struck the hard clouds, and the impact reverberated through his knees, through his spine, and through the locked gates of his teeth. He reeled backward, arms wheeling against the montum.
By the tenth step, his heel finally found strong ground, and he ca to a halt.
It was a spectacular feat.
Even though he managed to survive the fall, blood imdiately burst from his mouth.
Exerting that much mana strained even his Primordial Lock.
Considering how much mana he has, this shouldn’t be possible, but then he rembered that Professor Hera asked how high his mana was. She must’ve made a ntal calculation to make sure that the descent would exhaust his mana.
It was a performance for her to make a point.
"As you can see, Lesser Angel Kai tried resisting the fall, but ended up hurting himself in the process," Professor Hera said, staring at the student who asked her the question earlier of what was the point in this.
"What do you an, professor?"
"What are you trying to say, professor?"
"I’m saying that you can fly comfortably using the winged boots now—but you’re not in any way ready to use them to fight. Just like learning to ride a bicycle. You learn how to go straight, how to turn left or right, how to turn around, but that doesn’t an you can already race with it."
Given the analogy that way, the students nodded their heads in understanding.
They knew what Professor Hera was trying to say.
Soone who had only learned to ride a bicycle would not be able to ride on a proper road— with relative ease. There are countless factors on a real road that would require them to make all the appropriate adjustnts.
A pedestrian could suddenly get in the way. A car could’ve suddenly entered the bike lane.
Not to ntion, in battle, the variables were more diverse and worse.
Simply going to battle with winged boots to gain practical experience would be dangerous.
Professor Hera didn’t explain further.
Instead, she climbed higher and moved in a circle around the students, accelerating to a speed none of them had ever experienced. She shot to the right, then leaned back and thrust both of her legs forward, snapping into a sudden left turn.
A perfect, razor-sharp turn.
Moving at such a speed and making a sudden sharp turn should be impossible.
At least for the students it was, but not for her.
Professor Hera summoned two mana disks in her hands and threw them skyward.
Expertly, she crouched mid-air and launched herself higher.
She rose in a straight line, piercing through the air—and then spun her body suddenly to the left, striking the first disk. Without pause, she flew higher and spun right, kicking the air with her left foot to tighten the arc as she slamd into the second disk.
Spinning the body is the main tool of maneuverability.
Once both energy disks were shattered, she deactivated her winged boots and flipped over—surrendering to gravity. Everyone watched as she plumted like a bullet and felt their toes curl out of fear.
Her speed built with every heartbeat.
Fifty feet. Forty feet. Thirty.
At twenty feet, she was still diving—fast enough to completely mush her body on impact.
But at exactly fifteen feet, she rolled forward—snapping into the motion of an axe kick as the winged boots roared to life again. Mana burst through the wings, and a single flap killed her montum almost instantly.
Professor Hera stopped re feet above the ground, hovering as if she was weightless.
"Being able to quickly deactivate and activate your winged boots. Controlling your center of gravity. Manueverability techniques. Intuition. Bravery," She listed all the things that none of the students possessed. "Every single thing I listed will determine whether you could triumph over a Star Beast or not—the foundation of operating winged boots.
"Now," She swept her gaze across her class. "Do you still think you’re already good at this?"
"..."
Silence.
Of course, in comparison to how she moved, the students looked like a chick trying to fly.
Incomparable.
"Since you arrogant brats finally understand, let’s start our class."
In order to be able to fly like Professor Hera—the students began by training to activate their winged boots and deactivate them at will. Not from the ground, but while they were flying, so that each failure would drop them to the ground.
Professor Hera said that this way would be easier.
But seeing the students dropping and wailing in pain from the drop made them skeptical.
For the students, it looked like she was motivating them to learn quickly using pain.
"Haah..." Kai was on one knee on the ground, exhaling exasperatedly. His mana almost ran out because of being set as an example earlier. "Did she really have to pick ? Better yet, did she really need to kick that hard?"
His arms were still throbbing from the kick.
It was frankly a miracle that his arms didn’t break from blocking that.
Professor Hera was supposed to be on his side, so this doesn’t seem right.
After everything that had happened at the Blood Rite, Kai was certain of one thing: she wanted the best for him. Not out of pure kindness—but because she needed him for sothing in the future. Letting him grow stronger aligned perfectly with whatever she was planning.
So, he found this odd.
She wouldn’t do this unless it was necessary.
Am I being watched?
Kai looked around the cloudy expanse, searching for any sign whether he was being watched or not, but found nothing. He wanted to use the Black Starfall imprint, as if the person has the ability to turn invisible like Chester; this was the perfect mont to check whether his imprint could do that.
But he decided to refrain from doing so.
It would be too reckless of him to use the Black Starfall right now.
Others were focused on their own training, but they would easily sense what he was doing.
"Let’s assu that I’m being watched."
Kai shook his head and began training.
His mana was depleted, so he mostly hovered a few feet above the ground before deactivating the winged boots and attempting to trigger them again. Despite the mana exhaustion, it was easy for him to force the winged boots to activate again.
Naturally, he blad it on his Primordial Bloodline.
It made the winged boots compliant, and paired with his above-average mana control, doing the task ca with surprising ease. In fewer than twenty attempts—Kai had already grasped the technique.
Along the way, Professor Hera ntioned that the average student required a ten-foot drop before successfully reactivating the boots mid-fall. Kai easily activated his winged boots in a few feet.
Quicker than the other students, according to his observations.
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