Chapter 21 Unedited

Since I have no sword now, I try to throw some punches even if they couldn't hurt a fly since she just said to land one hit, but she parried every single one out of the way. I'm already out of breath, but all I need is a hit, so does it really matter how I get it?

I step back since she's only reacting to my attacks instead of attacking me herself. After a couple of deep breaths, I grab a sword and throw it at her, then charge to the next and chuck the second one. She blocks them easily, so on the third one I throw one, then grab a sword and charge her. 

Right before I swing, I infuse it with Mana like she taught me, but before it lands, her hand glows a faint green, then she catches it. While she is still holding it, I let go with one of my hands and put the mana into my free hand and faint a punch to her face and land one on her stomach. 

Right after that, I let go of the sword she is holding onto and fall down onto my ass. Out of breath, I ask, "Does putting Mana into my fist actually do anything to help punching?"  

Her hand lets out a small light, and the sword she's holding disintegrates. Then she says, "Yeah, it'll help with not breaking your hand or anything, but that doesn't mean it'll stop bullets at your level."

Her saying 'At my level,' triggers the question, "Will it be able to stop them eventually?"

"Of course, but that takes time, so there's one skill I want you to learn the basics of today before we even think of going outside the walls."

Before she could continue, I interrupt her by asking, "Is it really all that dangerous outside them? On our way here, we encountered nothing." 

"That's just because Ava was keeping a barrier up the entire time, but that's not very sustainable. So today you're learning a good way to run."

Confused, I mutter "A good way to run?"

Ava walks up and cuts Sarah off by yelling at her, "You got to do the test. I get to do the teaching. That's what we agreed on, so step off!" 

A sour look washes over Sarah's face as she quietly walks off and sits on the ground while muttering something. I just patiently wait for my lesson. Ava gets closer to me then says, "Ok today you are going to learn Glint Step. It's a spell when you use it'll let you go really fast and if you are strong enough, you might even leave afterimages."

Immediately I ask "Doesn't that sound pretty advanced?"

While walking even closer to me she says, "Well, I would normally say yes to that, but with your mana purity and blood I'd say it's worth trying, so take my hands." then holds her hands out.

Once I place them on top of hers, I feel the same sick feeling around my stomach area again. What did they call it again? A Mana Stem? At least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. Just like with putting it in my hands, I feel it dissipate immediately as she forcefully pushes my mana to my feet. 

"You then need to put mana into the ground then chant『خطوة Glint Step』if you are decent at it, you can skip the chant, but with skipping chants it'll make it weaker usually."

"Are there exceptions so it isn't weaker from skipping the chant?"

This question seems to catch her off guard slightly, but she continues, "Well, if you get good enough at it, the spell's drop in quality will not even be noticeable." 

"Alright, so copy what you just showed me then chant『خطوة Glint Step』and it'll just work?" 

In an uncertain tone, she quietly says, "Hopefully." 

After hearing that, I get to work on the first step, getting the mana to flow into my feet. Which I thought would be easy enough with how I've already got it to go to my hands and she showed me how to get it to my feet.

Even with the example from before, I struggle to get mana to flow to my feet. Not that it stops me because eventually it gets to where it needs to go and I even get it to go into the ground quickly.

As soon as I meet the requirements, I say the chant and instantly the ground below my feet turns to sand.

Author's note: Hope you all enjoyed!