Chapter 6-163 - Hotfoot and Wings (1/2)

With cheers from the crowd, they were off.

Edward’s feet were trailing flame as he powered forward, and as he did he moved diagonally at the same time. He threaded between Milty and Harris, then reversed back between the startled Kasper as if inertia wasn’t a thing; bounced off nothing in front of flaxen-haired Niorn; zipped sideways in front of the tall and lanky Jason, and slapped Sama’s hands two strides ahead of the sprinting Thomas, making it look easy.

Thomas almost crashed into the padded walls in shock at his loss, Sama’s arm swinging out of his way before he could touch it.

“Uh, wow?” the tall blond had to admit, looking back at little whispers of fiery chi on the floor fading away in front of his shocked fellow students.

“How did he do it?” Sama called out, and the students all milled about in confusion. “A couple of you managed basic Lightfoot. Any ideas?” She waggled her eyebrows at Thomas, who just looked chagrinned.

“Not a clue, Senpai,” he admitted, and none of her other students had any ideas.

“While they are called Fire Dragons, that is simply because all chi-users are called Dragon Hand Warriors, and Dragon Hand Adepts. The style that the House of Fire uses is called the Phoenix Claw. Does that help at all?” she asked archly.

The kids were embarrassed that they didn’t know this. Surely it couldn’t be hard?... But nobody spoke up.

Sama made a sound of exasperation. “How do phoenixes get around? Natalie?”

The pouty neo-goth girl was startled to be called on, but despite herself, had been paying attention at this not-so-boring assembly. “Uh, they fly?” the black-lipped girl managed.

“What, they don’t run around?” Sama shot back.

“Uh, no, they’ve, like, got wings, S-Senpai!” she managed to answer. She wasn’t one of Sama’s students, but that was everyone called her in Wakefield.

“And where would wings be on a human?” Sama pointed at Chadwick Forster sharply.

“Uh, the arms? The... hands?...” he trailed off slowly, and saw both Sama and Edward grin.

“Yes, precisely! The Phoenix has WINGS. Arms out, Edward.” He stretched them straight out from his shoulders. “This is a basic Hotfoot exercise. Rotate right, not moving.”

Without moving a muscle, other than obviously flipping his hands over in opposite directions, Edward began to spin clockwise, soon at a very decent clip, his feet sliding around a central position on the floor, as if the floor was spinning, not him.

“Left!” He halted so sharply he might not have been moving at all, and then reversed speed, almost bouncing in the opposite direction. “Right! Left! Right! Left!” Despite there only being a few seconds behind her words, he still stopped and got up to full speed in the opposite direction before the next command. “Halt front!”

He snapped to a full stop, his feet still poised shoulder-width apart in his original position, completely stable. It was a small show, but anyone who’d spun in circles was impressed despite themselves at the fact he wasn’t dizzy in the slightest.

“While lightfoot includes the whole body, the Phoenix Claw Hotfoot technique makes exquisite use of the hands to change the motion of the body in erratic and hard-to-predict ways, allowing for acceleration, deceleration, and changes of direction and motion that the other lightfoot styles cannot emulate.

“Picture it as having little rockets he can turn on and off, positioned all over him.” Their eyes lit up in understanding at the image. “Master Edward, a stroll between the kids again, if you will.”

In slow motion, it was totally apparent there was something going on, as he was walking straight ahead, but being shoved first left, then right, sliding above the ground sideways to get past them, even as his forward stride wasn’t interrupted in the slightest. His hands and elbows were shifting slightly, fires burning here and there as he was shuffled back and forth. It was almost surreal to watch in slow motion.

“This is the Waveskating Step of the House of Waters.” Sama took over with a skating motion, and while it was smooth and graceful, it was plainly apparent that she was moving slower than he had, actually having to push off right and left and adjust her course to weave between the grinning students.

“Likewise, watch these kicks. Phoenix Kick, on three, right leg.” She stood next to him, facing the kids. “Watch his hands!”

They started the kick together, but he got to the apex faster than she had, his palms towards the ground, and then fires on his elbows and shoulders pushed him back to the ground faster than gravity. The same fires this time brought his clawed hands up from below wicked fast, as if he had no inertia, and he finished the move of flaming claws ripping up into an enemy almost a full second ahead of her.

“Minerva!” Sama pointed, as they both straightened.

“He pushed off with his hands as well as his feet for altitude, getting to face height faster so he could kick before someone could guard. He switched it to his elbows and shoulders to land faster than he should be able to, so he could attack from under their raised guard, Senpai!” she replied eagerly.

“Exactly right,” Sama confirmed. “Now, can any of you do any of that?”

There was sudden quiet in the room, and Edward suddenly felt awkward.

“That’s right... no, you can’t. If you want to fight someone like Edward, you can’t fight him the way he can fight you. You’ve got to be better on fundamentals, it’s the only way.”

She pushed off to three paces away from him, sliding across the floor as if it was made of ice, all the students watching hungrily. “Master Edward, your Blades, if you will.”

His mouth was suddenly dry as she put her hand to that dagger, pulled it out, and with a flick of her wrist it became a meter-long gleaming Sword. The sight of it instantly silenced the whole gym so hard you could hear them breathing.