Seven months later, the initial development of Thunderbolt Mode
And so, seven months passed.
The early autumn wind swept yellowing fallen leaves through the woods, and the scent of humus mingled with the fresh fragrance of vegetation in the air.
In the broadleaf woods of the Soul Hunting Forest's three-hundred-year zone, Su Lin crouched on the trunk of a thick oak, his gaze fixed solely on the Wind-Patterned Cheetah drinking with its head lowered in a clearing beside the river a short distance below.
Wind-Patterned Cheetahs were carnivorous Soul Beasts commonly found in the Soul Hunting Forest's three-hundred-year zone. They excelled in speed and possessed tremendous explosive power, able to outpace even wind-attribute Soul Beasts of the same age over short distances. Judging by its build and coat, the one before him was around two hundred years old. It was not top-tier, but it still counted as a difficult opponent in this area.
Pikachu crouched on a branch beside him, gently tugging his trouser leg with his little paws. He raised his round little head and waved his forepaws, his gilded eyes sparkling as though he were cheering on his trainer.
Su Lin rubbed the little fellow's furry head with his fingertips, then took a deep breath. Guided by his will, the power of lightning deep within his dantian stirred and spread upward along his Conception Vessel. At his chest, it divided into two streams: one flowed toward the Foot Yangming Meridians in his legs, while the other traveled along the meridians in his arms to his fingertips.
A fine warmth rippled over the inner walls of his meridians the instant the current passed through. His muscles contracted noticeably faster, and the light and sounds he perceived seemed slightly amplified. Sparks crackled between his strands of hair and his fingers, and even the edges of his pupils took on a faint golden tint.
It was as though his entire body were lightly wrapped in an invisible lightning force field.
Thunderbolt Mode!
In seven months, he had not only raised his Soul Power to level 15 (482/500), but also upgraded his Electric Arc skill to level 2.
Thunderbolt Mode was the new skill he had developed through his level 2 Electric Arc. By forcibly stimulating the meridians and muscles throughout his body with Electric Arc for a short time, he raised his reaction speed, explosive power, and physical strength together by a notch, as though he had stacked a lightning buff on himself.
Although it did not last long and consumed a considerable amount of Soul Power, using it during a battle's burst window was already enough to let him perform movements he normally could not.
The Wind-Patterned Cheetah on the riverbank seemed to sense something faintly amiss. It raised its head from the stream, its damp nose twitching twice and its ears turning toward Su Lin, but it did not look up into the canopy. After confirming that nothing was unusual, it lowered its head again and took another drink.
Su Lin did not miss this opportunity. With a light touch of his toes against the trunk, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bowstring.
A muffled thunderclap rang out in the air. In just an instant, Su Lin appeared above and behind the Wind-Patterned Cheetah, lightning surging in his palm as he slammed it toward the back of its head.
But the Wind-Patterned Cheetah was, after all, a top-tier agility-attack Soul Beast, and its instinctive response to mortal danger was far faster than conscious thought. The instant the wind from his palm was about to reach the back of its head, the fine hairs on its ear tips stood on end. Almost instinctively, it darted sideways, its gray-brown form tracing a smooth diagonal across the gravel of the riverbank as it evaded Su Lin's strike.
The lightning slammed into the spot where it had just stood. Golden sparks burst into a ring of fine ripples among the stones, instantly scorching the surface layer of dead grass and fallen leaves black. The acrid smell of burning spread, mingled with the scent of earth.
Its forepaws scraped a brief, sharp sound from the gravel as the Wind-Patterned Cheetah wheeled roughly a third of a circle to the left and faced Su Lin again. Its back arched low and the tip of its tail lifted slightly. The human before it was reflected in its amber eyes, and a low, threatening rumble rose from its throat.
Su Lin was not surprised that his strike had missed. Without giving the Wind-Patterned Cheetah more time to adjust, he drove his foot hard against the ground the moment he landed. Rotting leaves and dirt were instantly blasted into flying dust by the force of lightning, and he shot toward the Wind-Patterned Cheetah again like a golden cannonball leaving its barrel.
He was very fast. Although the secret manual Tang San had given him was only an incomplete version, its general circulation route was still intact. Under these circumstances, combined with Thunderbolt Mode, his speed had reached a highly impressive level.
Amid continual flashes of lightning, Su Lin closed in again, relying on Thunderbolt Mode's speed and short-range explosive power to rapidly exchange positions with the Wind-Patterned Cheetah.
The beast's silhouette and lightning flashed in alternation across the riverside clearing, gray-brown fur and an electrically glowing figure weaving back and forth without pause.
Su Lin narrowly evaded every pounce the cheetah made, occasionally sending an Electric Arc back at it while dodging and forcing it to change direction midway. Likewise, the cheetah could evade each of Su Lin's attacks during its first half, but the room it had to dodge was being squeezed away little by little with every clash.
After several rounds of close combat, both man and cheetah were breathing somewhat harder, and both had expended a considerable amount of strength.
A fine sheen of sweat appeared at Su Lin's temples. As Thunderbolt Mode continued running, waves of aching pressure passed through his meridians. The Wind-Patterned Cheetah was little better off: several blackened electrical marks marred its coat, and its movements were a fraction slower than at the start. The continuous electrical paralysis had long since begun quietly eroding its muscle control.
At last, the Wind-Patterned Cheetah lost patience. With a sudden low roar, the wind-type Soul Power around it surged, and it lunged at Su Lin's throat, accepting the cost of taking an Electric Arc head-on.
Su Lin's gaze sharpened. His body swayed, avoiding the cheetah's fangs, his shoulder brushing past the side of that mouth full of sharp teeth. His left hand reached out with the movement and seized the loose fur above the back of its neck.
At the instant of contact, the Electric Arc in his palm raced across the surface of its fur and throughout the cheetah's entire body.
The paralyzing effect of level 2 Electric Arc was more than a single tier stronger than it had been at the beginning. The Wind-Patterned Cheetah abruptly stiffened, its four limbs twitching twice in midair. Most of the force behind its fierce pounce dissipated the instant the paralysis took hold, and its entire body lost the strength to sustain its movement.
Su Lin did not let this window slip away. Drawing on Thunderbolt Mode's explosive power, he twisted his waist and lowered his shoulder, fully reproducing in actual combat for the first time the Soft Skill techniques he had learned from Xiao Wu over the previous few months.
He exerted force through his wrist, his waist and abdomen driving his shoulder and arm. Using the momentum of the cheetah's own forward pounce, he added another push along its downward path.
He forcibly swung the nearly hundred-jin Wind-Patterned Cheetah past his shoulder. It traced a short arc through the air, then slammed hard into the soft mud beside him with a muffled thud, sending dust and clumps of mud flying.
The impact left the Wind-Patterned Cheetah dizzy and dazed. Its limbs struggled against the mud several times as it tried to rise, but the preceding series of intense physical exertions and that final heavy slam had already pushed its body to the limit. It had barely raised its forelegs half an inch before Su Lin's palm pressed against the space between its brows.
A concentrated mass of lightning lit up between his fingers and seeped inward through the point of contact. Powerful paralysis instantly swept through the cheetah's entire body.
This time, the Wind-Patterned Cheetah did not even have the strength to struggle. Its limbs went limp, and it collapsed completely into the mud, only its chest still rising and falling faintly, utterly unable to resist.