"..."
?
In the middle of the arena, Misaka Mikoto stood perfectly still.
So far, aside from occasionally turning to scan her surroundings, she had done nothing at all. She showed no intention of leaving the center of the arena, either.
But what the spectators holding their breath and her opponents didn't know was that she was using her control over lightning to release a powerful voltage and current across the arena floor around her.
That's right!
Misaka Mikoto was using the same principle as the step voltage produced when a high-voltage power line touched the ground to guard against enemies, detect them, and even counterattack!
As everyone knew, when one of the live wires on an overhead high-voltage line, carrying hundreds of thousands or even millions of volts, snapped and fell to the ground, the current would spread out from the point where the wire touched the ground. The ground would then form a voltage distribution centered on that point. The farther one got from the point of contact, the more dispersed the current became, and the lower the potential difference—the voltage—on the ground.
But if a person or animal stood within eight to ten meters of where the wire touched the ground, they could suffer a life-threatening electric shock. Even within a radius of twenty or thirty meters, they could still be shocked. This kind of shock was called a step-voltage shock!
Within this electric field, anyone who approached and entered it would be affected by the step voltage, whether or not they were invisible. The current would also travel along the person's lower body, from their feet up their legs and through their hips, then back down to their feet, forming a path of potential difference with the ground.
That meant that even if the enemy had