Chapter 8 Improvement

Getting up from the ground, Leo walks away from the ants. His aura follows him as he walks, maintaining a 10 meters radius around him.

When the ants are just about to exit the range of his aura, Leo turns to face them again. He then takes 1 step back and the aura moves past the ants, no longer covering them.

'So I was right. I can only sense movement when it happens within my aura.' Leo takes a step forward and the ants re-enter the area of the aura again. Immediately Leo is able to sense each and every movement the ants make.

'The range is too short... I need a way to search a large area. Otherwise It will take me too long to find the camp again.

Over then next 2 hours, Leo manages to thin out his aura so that it uses less energy to be projected outwards. This allows him to increase the range of his aura to around 100 meters.

Activating his aura to its full range, Leo is pleased with his progress. 'Its a start but it's still not enough.' while deep in thought trying to find a new way to increase the range of his aura, Leo senses something on the edge of his 100 meter limit. He moves closer so that his aura can better cover whatever he sensed moving.

When sensing the creature through his energy, Leo views it as though each movement causes a ripple of kinetic energy to extend from their body. All living creatures are constantly moving, whether it's walking, running or simply just breathing. These ripples allow Leo to see the shape of a creature.

'It looks like it might be a deer or something similar' Leo thinks while closing his eyes to focus on the creature. Leo moves in closer until he's within 30 meters of it. Getting a closer look Leo can see that it is indeed a deer. The deer is about a meter tall with two short antlers protruding from its head.

With the deer within Leo's sight, his aura is no longer necessary so he allows it to subside back into his body.

Circulating his power into his legs and right arm, Leo gets down into a stance that looks like he's about to run a race. When the deer reaches down with its head to eat the grass below it, Leo runs forward.

Or more accurately, he jumps. Leo had yet to test what would happen when placing his energy into his legs. He had assumed it would allow him to run faster, but he had put too much power in his legs and was now catapulting towards the deer at an incredible speed about a meter above the ground, matching the deers height.

When his legs leave the floor and he realizes his mistake Leo reprimands himself internally ' You idiot! You should have realized this would happen... Well whatever. As long as it gets me there it doesn't really matter, does it.' Leo lifts his right hand.

Leo condenses his energy to a single point on his fist and throws a punch towards the deers head. Having gotten alot better at controlling his aura, Leo is able to control all aspects of his energy far better than when he condensed his energy to hit the tree. This time, when condensing the energy on his fist, it happens within a second.

The deer didn't have any time to react, one second it was eating grass and next it was lying on the floor with a hole through its head.

Looking down at the deer Leo couldn't help but think, 'I thought this was going to be more difficult. Regardless, I've discovered something amazing. Once I was moving, I could feel it. All the energy generated by my movement through the air was being absorbed into me.'

Currently the energy within Leo was the most he's ever had.' If I can absorb energy generated when I move, does that mean I have an unlimited supply of energy as long as I take the time to build it up? '

To test his theory Leo spent the next 10 minutes running around in circles near where he killed the deer. He was absorbing the energy generated by running. Coming to a stop, Leo was thinking about his little experiment with the running he just performed.

' It seems there actually is a limit to how much energy I can hold at one time, although I haven't reached the limit yet, I can feel that I'm close. Although what surprised me the most was that while absorbing the energy I was generating, my movements were becoming slower. The more of the energy I absorbed, the slower my body would move. If movement generates kinetic energy and I'm absorbing that kinetic energy, does that mean the movement is stopped? Is that why my body felt so much resistance while running? Because I was absorbing the energy and preventing my own movement. '

'I should do some more tests.' After another 20 minutes of running around and absorbing the energy, multiple discoveries were made.

'When reaching the limit of how much energy I can hold, if I try to absorb any more, a searing pain is felt in my chest, like I'm burning from the inside. Also, it seems that with the muscles in my body constantly generating more force to move forward, I'm unable to absorb it fast enough to do more than just slow my movements. Lastly, I can't effect anything I'm not directly touching. Considering how I can't stop myself due to my muscles producing more force, if I were able to influence objects I'm not touching then...they would stop moving since theres nothing to generate more energy.'

While going over his recent discoveries, Leo's stomach begins burning from hunger, reminding him that he needs to make a fire so that he can cook the meat from the deer he's hunted.

Leo gathers the necessary materials needed to start a fire so that he can begin cooking his food. Starting a fire is common knowledge... even among slaves.

As the sun begins to set and Leo's meal is cooking over a fire, he goes into his thoughts.

' I might not be able to affect things I'm not touching, but the voice in the cave said I was given the basics for this ability. That means that the possibility for what I can achieve with this power is unknown. For now I'll practice using the skills I've already figured out, that way I'll have a foundation to work from as I create or discover new ways to use my power.'