[center][h1]Bak Tsarevna[/h1][/center]
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[@Dezuel][@AtomicNut][@KillamriX88][@rawkhawk64]

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As Bak watched Vittorio float away from their conversation, apparently dead set on getting some practical demonstration out of Miss Moskono personally, she sighed. It seemed like this punishment was going to be harder on her than him if it meant she was going to have to explain things like the difference between training and attempted murder. Oh well, at least he was taking an interest in it! She wasn't worried about Miss Moskono. Plenty of students had tried before. They got the message eventually. 

For now she turned hopefully back to Yuuto. "Do you want to be on team with me?"

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[center][h1]Nasearph Sana[/h1][/center]

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Nasearph could sense his world turning upside down as he was thrown backwards. He didn't exactly feel the ground under his back, but some strange sense that existed outside the five we're all taught as children told him it was so. He almost felt like that one had gotten stronger. Unfortunately, it wasn't the one he was developing.

He ripped the blindfold from his face in frustration and stared up at the vast, blue sky that was only now starting to be tinged with a hint of Orange. He lay in the middle of the small courtyard that led up to the door of their church. Across from his, fist outstretched, stood the fire creature Andras had left in their care. The event that had inspired this foolish idea in the first place. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked down at his chest, bare save for a few lines of whisby brown and slihtly charred feathers that snaked their way down his sides to hug his hips, and spotted an ugly red welt already starting to rise. He scowled at that, and at the similar, older burns that dotted his chest. He was thankful he couldn't feel them.

He jumped back to his feet, took a loose stance, and said "Again!" in what he thought should be a commanding voice. He couldn't hear it on account of the earplugs.

To say his conversation with Ria the week before had lit a fire under his ass was an understatement. It had rocked him out of his complacency like an earthquake. Skulking around and gather information was all well and good, but sometimes you had to get to work and use the information you [i]did[/i] have. And what information did he have? Information on Alto, having seen first hand the boys light-speed attack and, in seeing it, realizing how woefully unprepared he was for it. Yes, the boy did flash to let you know he was using it. The unfortunate wrinkle was that he was still moving, if not truly at the speed of light, than at least fast enough that even Naseraph's eagle eyes couldn't follow him. Knowing it was coming did not protect you from it if you could not avoid, then counterattack. Nasearph had no doubt that if he kept up his training and pushed his power of enhancement to its absolute limit he could move at a comparable speed, if only for a moment. The problem, then, lay in tracking the strike at all so that it could be avoided.

It was an enormous problem. Going that fast meant you were moving faster than anything. Nasearph could tell by sound where an attack was coming from were he to lose his eyes, and the wind pressure tickling at his feathers were his hearing to become unreliable. He had learned such techniques from the old book that had sealed his fate all those years ago, cultivated them through years of isolated training, but they were useless. Alto moved faster than sound, his strike landing before the air between his blade and his opponents body had begun to move. No existing sense could track that attack. Nasearph, however, had discovered another sense. 

On the rooftop he had gone into his meditation and found he could distinguish all the energy that flowed into him from one another. There was only one thing that would move faster than that radiant sword of Alto's, and that was the energy that would be radiating off of it. If he could find that, identify it, he would know from which direction the strike was coming and a flicker of a moment or an instant would be opened where he could dodge and counter all at once. At such a speed a attack from Nasearph would be crippling, and Alto would never think to defend while moving at a speed that had never been matched. 

So the strategy was set. Nasearph would stake everything upon this single blow. One third of his problem would be solved.

The implementation of this blow, however, relied upon him being able to adsorb energy in the middle of battle. Something he, so far, had never been able to do. It was difficult to render himself empty while in the heat of combat, to allow himself to completely open up and allow the energy to flow into him. It required deep focus. So he'd decided to focus on trying to open the hole only a small bit, just enough for a trickle of energy to flow inside. It helped to have his senses dampened artificially. The blindfold, the earplugs, even a special drug he's requested Aram prepare so as to numb his body so there was nothing to interfere with the strengthening of this Seventh Sense. He started out trying to get it to open while standing, then while walking, guiding himself only by the energy he could feel flowing into him. Stationary things were not what he intended to use this power for, however. To truly develop he needed an opponent.

Which brings us to the flame monster Andras has dumped on their hands as though it were a mere pet she was not allowed to bring with her on a trip. It was the perfect training partner. The thing was made of nothing if not energy, a big mass of moving target that he could focus in on. It made for a dependable "easy mode" to start out developing his new sense.

To truly understand what Nasaraph was trying to do, here is a simple experiment that can be performed at home: Blindfold and deafen yourself, stick out your tongue as far as it can go, and attempt to dodge a flaming baseball bat based only upon the way that it tastes.

Thanks to Aram's remarkable drug he couldn't feel the creatures fist scrape along his flash as he jumped back, but he did raise the blindfold and regard the new mark with an appraising scowl. Another benefit of the creatures fiery form was that he could easily mark his progress. He hastily re-covered his eyes. Yes, it was definitely getting easier. He readied himself once more. "Again, creature!"