Argol looked up at Reine, his eyes glazing over as blood bubbled from his lips. He tried to speak, his chest a hollow ruin—a "donut" of shredded armor and bone.
"L-Li-Live..." Argol wheezed, the word escaping in a spray of crimson.
Reine stood in frozen horror. He had spent only two days with this man, but those forty-eight hours were warmer than the last five years of his life. The Commander's voice boomed like a mountain collapsing, "ADDRESS YOURSELF!"
But Reine heard nothing. Tears blurred his vision as he roared, a careless, grief-stricken surge of mana flooding his arm. He lunged with a full-mana blow, reckless and sloppy. The Commander grunted, swinging the massive slab of steel, but Reine's muscle memory—forged in a thousand deaths—snapped his body back just in time. Reine took a jagged breath, stilled his heart, and launched his newfound technique: The Pulse-Strike.
He aimed for the Commander's head, the mana coating his fist like a vibrating diamond. But as the fist traveled, the world tilted. His mana circuits, overstrained by his emotions, finally buckled.
He fainted mid-swing.
SNAP.
Reine was back. The cool air of the treetop hit his face. The sun was low, and the fox was just about to squeak. Reine trembled, the image of Argol's ruined chest burned into his retinas.
"The loop," Reine thought, clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. He took a long, shaky breath, forcing the grief into a small box in the back of his mind. Argol didn't know. To Argol, they had just climbed this tree. Reine had to keep it that way.
"Hey, are you okay?" A familiar, warm voice asked from the branch beside him. "You seem frustrated."
Reine turned. There he was. Argol, looking at him with genuine concern. Reine didn't care about the mission or the stealth; he lunged forward and hugged Argol tightly, burying his face in his friend's shoulder.
"Uhh, are you okay man? You're acting strange?" Argol asked, patting Reine's back awkwardly.
Reine let him go, his eyes hard and clear. "Yeah. I'm fine now."
The fox let out its warning squeak. Below, Okla and Bokla appeared. This time, Reine didn't count down. He didn't wait. He used the Pulse-Strike logic, distributing 50% of his mana flow to his legs only at the micro-second of takeoff.
He moved like a blurred streak of lightning. Before the brothers could even look up, Reine was in their guard. He shifted the flow to his fists and landed two devastating blows. They didn't die instantly—their armor saved them—but they were shattered. Reine didn't waste a heartbeat; he finished them with two precise strikes to the throat.
"REINE!" Argol shouted, dropping from the tree in shock. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"
"Stealth Op training," Reine lied blatantly, his voice cold.
Argol grinned, wiping sweat from his brow. "Yeah, right."
The Breakthrough: Kinetic Retraction
As they skipped through the trees toward the next mana presence, Reine's mind was racing faster than his feet. He analyzed the punch he'd thrown at the Commander.
"When I hit him, the mana stayed in my fist," he mused. "It pierced, but it also anchored me. Like a hook stuck in a wall. If I want to hit multiple targets, I can't let the mana linger. I need to snap it back."
He visualized the mana flow. Usually, a punch is a one-way street: Body → Arm → Target. But Reine saw a new path: Body → Arm → Target → Body. "If I retract the flow at the exact moment of impact, the momentum won't just stop. The mana will act like a spring. It hits the target, dumps the kinetic energy, and the 'recoil' of pulling the mana back will reset my arm for the next strike. It's not just about power... it's about the reset."
They found their next target: three soldiers and a Mage. Reine sensed the Mage's Mana Heart—a rhythmic, pulsing drum pushing energy into the air.
He launched. A blue mana shield flickered into existence around the mage. Reine ignored it, aiming for the first soldier.
The Impact: His fist hit the soldier's chest. In the 0.01 seconds of contact, he jerked his mana flow back into his shoulder.
The result was a Kinetic Vacuum. The soldier didn't just fall; he was blasted backward by a shockwave of pure pressure, his internal organs failing instantly. Reine's arm didn't overextend; it snapped back into a cocked position, perfectly ready. He pivoted instantly, his arm fresh and energized, and hit the second soldier before the first one had even hit the ground.
The Mage began to panic. Reine sensed the mana mixing with the atmosphere to ignite a fireball.
"Spells..." Reine thought as he closed the distance. "It's just a different way of moving the flow. If they can move it outside, why can't I?"
Before the fireball could leave the Mage's hand, Reine's fist met the mana shield. He punched, retracted, and the shield shattered like glass. The secondary shockwave crushed the Mage's chest.
Reine stood over the bodies, his eyes glowing with a cold, analytical light.
"Hey," Argol said, catching up and looking at the carnage. "You're getting... scary, Reine."
"I'm just learning, Argol," Reine replied, looking at his hands. "Just learning."