KINETIC

Chapter 9 Pulse

Having decided to train the skills he had figured out how to use, Leo spent the next 3 days training his powers while heading up the mountain so as to be closer to the camp.

Although Leo doesn't know the exact location of the camp, he knows what the surrounding area near the camp looks like and is using that as a way to get closer.

'I should be close to being at a similar height up the mountain as the camp. If I use the new movement sense technique I came up with, then it might help me find it quicker. It's not much better than using my usual aura in most situations, but it's perfect for this'

Placing his hand on the ground, Leo gathers energy into his hand and releases it into the ground all at once. This is a skill that took him the entire 3 days to figure out.

At first all the energy he released would just impact the ground, damaging it. Eventually though, Leo managed to realize that instead of just injecting energy into the ground. He needed to spread his aura along the ground. By releasing the energy in a burst rather than trying to maintain it a constant field of energy like he does with Aura, Leo could increase the range temporarily.

When the energy touches objects, it spreads over them like a wave and then continues on. If there is movement, then Leo will sense the direction its coming from. Leo has named this skill, Pulse.

Pulse allowed Leo to use movement sense for a few seconds on a much larger scale than before. The drawback is that this method uses more energy than aura does and the energy disperses after only a few seconds, meaning Leo doesn't have time to see exact details and can only see some parts of a creature touched by it.

Pulse covers an area that is proportional to the amount of energy used. If Leo uses all his energy he is able to increase the distance Pulse can cover to about 5 kilometers, but using all his energy would leave him powerless and open to attack, and so for this Pulse Leo is only using 20% of his energy, covering around 1 kilometer.

'My energy recovers at an extremely slow pace, so I can only use this a few times before being out of energy. I'll have to try recover the energy used before I send out another Pulse. If I absorb small amounts of the energy I generate by moving then I should recover faster and not impact my movement too much.'

When sending out the Pulse, Leo senses a few creatures moving around but nothing that could be the camp. 'Within the camp there would be dozens of people moving at all times, it would be impossible to mistake anything else for them.'

'I'll start moving around the mountain and using Pulse as I go. It takes me an hour to recover the energy used by Pulse if I absorb small amounts of energy from my movement. Of course, Pulse isn't necessary and I could just continue moving in a circle around the mountain until I find the camp, but using Pulse will allow me to be aware of their location ahead of time.'

After a couple of hours of walking and using Pulse once an hour, Leo decides to take a break to recover his stamina. Leo sits down on a fallen tree stump nearby to rest .' If only there was a way to absorb energy without having to walk around, it feels like I'm walking in water when I'm absorbing energy while walking ~Sigh~...wait, what if I...'

Leo reaches down and picks up 3 small stones, each one the size of a button. He holds them in his left hand and rotates them in circles on his palm using his fingers. This allows Leo to generate a small amount of kinetic energy without having to walk around or put much effort in at all.

'I won't have anything impairing me when walking anymore if I use only this method , which is great, but I can feel this generates less energy. I could absorb from this and myself at the same time while walking, that way I can absorb slightly more energy than before. I just wanted a way to get my energy back faster when not walking around, but I've ended up discovering a way to absorb more energy overall...' Leo let's out a small chuckle as he's feeling pretty chuffed with himself.

After a short break, Leo gets up and starts moving again, this time he's absorbing energy from his legs and from the stones in his hand.

' It was a really good idea to take that soldiers boots and jacket. It certainly makes moving around easier when I have shoes, and I'd be freezing without the jacket. Now that I think about it, I never even checked if he was carrying a whip with him... It could've been useful to have. '

After another 4 hours pass and the sun is starting to set, Leo is getting ready to call it a day. He decides to check his surrounding with Pulse one more time before he stops to rest for the night.

Through the past few days, Leo discovered that since obtaining his powers, everything about his body has improved. His speed strength and stamina, he even got taller. But the biggest improvements were that he only needs to sleep once every 3 days and he only needs to eat food once a day.

Leo had slept the previous night so he didn't need sleep for next 2 nights. Instead he would spend the night time practicing his skills.

When sending out his final Pulse for the day, Leo sensed something that was roughly 700 meters ahead and to the left of himself. He could sense multiple moving creatures in close proximity to each other, in a way that wouldn't be natural for animals 'That should be the camp...Since I've found it, there no point in stopping. The timing could not have been more perfect. I was planning on going in at night anyways.' Leo stands up and starts moving towards the camp, with a large grin on his face.

'Although I'm almost certain that what I sensed was the camp, something felt off about it.' Soon Leo could see a familiar sight in front of him.

When the walls came into view and Leo knew he was in the right place, he stopped and hid behind a nearby tree that was close to the wall while he activated his aura, sending it over the camp until his limit was reached. Only being able to extend his aura around 100 meters, he is only able to cover half the camp.

Sensing all the movement within his aura, a frown can be seen on Leo's face. 'It looks like I was right, something is different...There's not nearly as many people here as there should be...'