Chapter 40 - Ball Lighting

Kyle knew that he had no time. More time he stayed here without moving is more time he is in danger of being evaporated. Him not moving would also build up the static and tension, making it more likely for him to be struck by lighting.

He could see the meadow, and he could see that the lighting was striking from time to time at it.

Also, from the ravine that Kyle has stopped next to, there were coming out some roars of pain from time to time. As if the earth itself was hurting from the lighting strikes.

This ravine especially was different from others. The main reason was that the blue lighting that was always present in the depths, in this one was of normal yellow colour and was very thin in its presence. Considering that this was the centre of the forest and by logic, the energy should be higher. This really mystified this particular ravine to Kyle.

'I can't even move a finger!' Kyle was starting to panic. There had to be some way for him to hide under something. Maybe go into one of the caves or hide under the trees. But he couldn't move what so ever even to try.

After trying to circulate all of the qi inside of his body, and he still didn't have enough power. More and more lighting was entering his body, slowly building up inside of his dantian and going to one of the 8 circles where the lighting was.

Kyle knew that this was an incredibly beneficial process for him, but at the same time, if he dies, it wouldn't matter even a little bit.

Also, the lighting that was falling down seemed to be accelerating and striking harder and harder with each strike.

At the moment Kyle was only absorbing the big lighting that was striking, he has already counted 28 strikes. The lighting was also getting lighter and lighter with each strike. If at the beginning it was deep purple with black colour, it now was nearly white with some laster of yellow and purple. The speed and the size was doubling every strike as well which alerted Kyle even more, 'How much more powerful can this lighting get? Why is it striking the middle of the forest?'

Suddenly after looking at the lighting, something dropped from the sky. It was also a type of lighting, but it was round in shape and was floating right above the ground without discharging. 'This is the famous ball lighting, sometimes called sphere lighting!' Kyle gasped.

'Back on Earth, I heard and saw pictures of it. It is the most mysterious manifestation of heaven will. The ball lighting is said to form when an incredible force of lighting meets some force that doesn't immediately discharge the lighting. The lighting to counter that loops it's currents and forms a circle that constantly supplies itself with the power to keep functioning.

The ball lighting manifestation has always been linked to deaths and destructions, the power of it was so incredible that nothing could stop it in its tracks.

The worst thing was that it was always attracted to other sources of energy that it could consume to grow bigger, that is why it was very dangerous to have open windows in your house during the lighting storm.

Kyle was absorbing the remnants of lighting on the outskirts of the centre of the forest, next to him already many streaks of lighting has formed that were linking him with some of the air particles that were charged. Right now, Kyle was the closest and the biggest source of energy that ball of lighting could see.

Kyle looked at the ball lighting and prayed that it would go in the other direction, but just as Kyle predicted, it went straight at him.

The positive thing was that it was moving at a very slow speed, so slow that a turtle would outrun it. The negative was that everywhere it went, everything got burnt to a crisp, nothing survived. There was a path of black scorched plants and fire that was starting to kill all that still existed.

Even though the grass and the plants were different from the usual and could survive the normal lighting strikes, the overcharge of this ball lighting was too much for them to deal with. Kyle could understand what it meant if it touched him even slightly.

'I have no time anymore. I have to free myself from paralysis.' Kyle started to struggle even harder.

He has first tried to circulate his qi to the peak. So fast that some of the qi from his meridians was overheating and dissipating into the air, still, Kyle couldn't free himself.

As that didn't work, Kyle tried taking out items from the pearl that could potentially help him, but as his clothes were burnt to nothingness straight after the lightning linked with his body, all of the items also either got melted or shred to pieces straight after they got taken out.

Kyle also tried talking to the pearl, but it was refusing to talk or interact with him, fully focusing on the task of taking lighting and absorbing it.

Kyle looked forward, and there was a ravine nearly 2 metres in front of him that could help him escape this dire situation as his body could fit into the crack, but the ball lighting wouldn't be able to fit.

Kyle was cursing through teeth as he grinned them. The Lighting Step was impossible to activate as his connection to the feet was also paralysed. Without full lighting affinity, he would have first to execute the footwork properly to activate the technique.

Kyle didn't know what to do. There were only around 20 metres left between Kyle and ball lighting. It was zipping very slowly, but as it came so close, Kyle could feel some hiss as if a snake was talking in human tongue, "Come to me, let me play with you… sweet lighting, come to me…" This freaked Kyle out even more.

'This seems to be the end of me, heavens are not happy with me and so decided to kill me finally,' As Kyle thought that, he lost all hope, he was ready to accept this death.

At this exact moment, Kyle could feel that some of the meridians were without any lighting in it. This meant that he could use those meridians to execute some technique!

Kyle had an idea.