Time slipped by. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
Inside a special-alloy Training Room at Marine Headquarters, Loa bounced lightly on his feet a few times, like a boxer.
Then he vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving a deep footprint in the alloy floor where he had stood.
Almost the instant he disappeared, Loa reappeared at the other end of the room. Facing a three-inch-thick iron plate, he drew back his arms and extended his index, middle, and ring fingers like claws.
"Finger Pistol: Eight Maidens!"
His steel-hard fingers tore furiously at the plate. Though he used only two hands, they became a blur of claws that engulfed it.
The attacks were too fast to see. Only the cracks in the air and the plate's teeth-grating groans hinted at the punishment it was taking.
Suddenly, as the momentum in his hands faded, Loa stopped short and swept his left foot upward at an angle.
"Tempest Kick!"
Before he had finished speaking, Loa appeared above and to the side of the plate. The afterimage he left behind was still carrying out his previous move.
Without pausing, Loa used Tempest Kick again, then appeared directly in front of the plate.
"Tempest Kick: Three-Day Moon!"
Three crescent-shaped blades of air shot out and struck the iron plate at the same instant.
Boom!
At last, the plate could take no more. It exploded, scattering fragments across the floor.
Loa jumped down and let the protective ice he now raised by habit block countless shards, each as dangerous as a bullet.
Because this was a specially built Marine Training Room, there was no soil to kick up into a cloud of dust.
That only made what Zephyr had seen more startling.
*In one month, he's learned Finger Pistol, Soru,