Chapter 367: Ah… fuck.

Trying to move himself with one large telekinetic force was like trying to walk by detonating explosives beneath his feet.

So Lucian decided to try something else.

’Alright.’

He narrowed his eyes as he stared at the next incoming attack.

Lucian moved, only this time, he didn’t push his entire body at once. He only used a small, almost minuscule amount of energy to pull his shoulder, another energy pulled his hip, a third worked on his left foot and so on.

His body turned.

It was very, very awkward, unnatural even. Lucian actually broke a bone doing that but... the attack passed by him and this time, he wasn’t standing hundreds of meters away from where he was before.

"Heh."

Lucian smiled.

Neroth narrowed his eyes.

With just one move, his future attacks became useless. It didn’t matter, he changed the direction of his attack.

Another sphere rushed towards him. Lucian tried the same technique again. A bit of force on his shoulders, hip, back and feet, all independent of each other.

His body twisted sideways, it was still too much but...

He still managed to dodge it and he still wasn’t standing hundreds of meters away from where he began, he was only six meters away.

"There."

His eyes brightened.

"That’s better."

He smiled.

Neroth’s face changed. Lucian stared at him, then, another attack came. Lucian repeated the same trick again, he dodged again, just like before, only this time—

He was only standing four meters away from where he originally was.

The attacks kept coming, Lucian kept dodging them and as he did, his new technique started becoming better and better.

He was moving awkwardly, no human should even be in the shape he was in when he moved, but that shape was improving, his muscles were no longer tearing apart from being at an unnatural angle.

He was... getting the hang of it.

At the same time, his movements were becoming sharper and sharper.

Four meters of distance became three, then two, then even one.

At this point, Lucian wasn’t even attacking, he was using this as a training simulation. Just that...

Neroth wasn’t here to teach him.

Suddenly, dozens of projectiles surrounded Lucian. That was the cost of staying in one spot for such a long time.

Lucian’s smile disappeared.

"...that was my bad."

He admitted his mistake.

Standing like a fool while thinking about training obviously wasn’t sane.

But...

If he really thought about it...

Wasn’t this a training opportunity as well...?

What changed if he needed to dodge dozens instead of just one projectile...?

It’s mostly the same thing, no?

It wasn’t.

The attacks came from every direction, Lucian focused clearly and moved. He distributed telekinetic forces throughout his body. A slight pull against his shoulder, pressure around his ribs, a push beneath his heel, counterforce around his waist. His back, his head, his arms, his legs, he moved most parts of his body individually.

It didn’t even feel like he was flying anymore.

It felt like he was being controlled by invisible strings and the strangest part of it all?

As weird as it looked, it was working.

The first attack passed his face, Lucian leaned sideways. He twisted his torso to dodge the second, he dropped his entire body down for the third, for the fourth he accelerated forward.

Again and again and again, as the spheres kept coming, he dodged them all with clean precis—

BOOOOOOOOM

Just then, one grazed him and exploded.

Lucian was blasted upward.

"Motherf—"

Neroth didn’t give him a moment, several Crimson Hearth formations activated at once, beams of crimson light came from different sections of the Estate.

And Lucian—

He just grinned.

Because with his new technique, he didn’t even need to regain his balance to be in a position to dodge, he could start dodging right now.

Telekinetic forces worked on different parts of his body again, his body moved weirdly, he dodged six attacks at the same time, for the one he couldn’t dodge, he formed a barrier.

The barrier was still absurdly large.

He still needed to control it, so he did exactly that.

He started experimenting with the barriers, after all, even if one of the attacks did hit him, he could always rely on his regeneration.

And with that, the second round of training began.

Another beam came, this time, Lucian used less energy, so the barrier was considerably smaller. Then even less, then even smaller, again and again.

There were even times when he reduced the energy too much, forming a barrier that barely did anything.

But Lucian managed to avoid those hits in time because of the weird movement technique he had just created.

By the fifteenth attack, the barrier Lucian formed was barely larger than his body.

BOOOOOOM

When the beam struck it, the explosion pushed him a little further, but the barrier still managed to hold on.

He stared at the barrier.

His new Demonic Energy was so dense that something he couldn’t even block before, even if he created hundreds of barriers, now only needed a barrier a few centimetres thick to stop.

That felt... quite rewarding.

Lucian grinned. Neroth saw that grin and his anger shot up.

"Stop smiling!"

BOOOOOM

More energy exploded from his body.

Lucian chuckled at his request.

That seemed to have angered Neroth because the moment he saw him laugh, the Archdemon moved. Now, he came to Lucian himself.

It was a brave move, especially considering Lucian, with his current strength, could practically crush him like a bug but...

Lucian still had no control over his body.

Neroth did.

He may not be as fast as Lucian, but his movements were very controlled and precise. So when Neroth appeared to his right and Lucian tried turning, even though his body was physically stronger and faster than him, he couldn’t move the energy in time.

A claw covered in Suffering Energy tore his flesh, Lucian rotated far too late. Neroth used that moment to elbow his head instead.

Lucian’s jaw shattered.

Neroth kicked, this one, Lucian managed to dodge, but then he punched him.

BOOOOOOM

And Lucian’s body was launched downwards.

"Ah... fuck."

His new movement wasn’t very good at close combat.

It was a work in progress.