Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

'Crap.'

When Corey cursed inwardly, the sky clapped and thunder resounded across Aethara's Imperium.

CLAP!

A second later, a crimson lightning bolt fell toward Corey's location, but Corey had already moved from his location before the thunderclap even resounded.

BOOM!

The ground sundered apart where the crimson lightning struck, and molten magma erupted and flowed across the ground.

The sky rumbled again, and this time around, countless crimson lightning bolts could be seen streaking across the sky, and a second later, they all fell.

Corey's pupils shrunk when he saw this, however, his expression was still one of calmness. He moved two of his fingers on his right hand and waved it, and then the wind around him stirred and multiple whooshing sounds could be heard around him.

Countless hexagon barriers moved towards some of the falling crimson lightning bolts, and as they approached the crimson lightning bolts, they joined together and then took a humanoid shape.

One of the changes he made to his Hexagon Barrier skill after using an evolution crystal on it for it to become Hexagon Nova Shield was that the mini hexagon barriers could form hexagonal constructs that could act as sentinels around him.

The sentinels would be able to autonomously defend against attacks and counterattack by releasing the accumulated energy in them, and repair the barrier if needed.

Ever since he made this upgrade, his stars of consciousness had always been passively working on improving his mastery over the Hexagon Nova Shield skill. Although there have been no 'massive' changes, there have been minor ones.

One of them was the fact that the mini hexagon barriers no longer formed hexagonal constructs which made them look like machines. Now, they had humanoid appearances when they became sentinels.

The sentinels appeared before several crimson lightning bolts, and then the crimson lightning bolts struck the sentinels. Unsurprisingly, the sentinels did not last a second before the crimson lightning bolts and instantly shattered into countless particles.

However, Corey kept sending more and more sentinels toward several crimson lightning bolts while he dodged the crimson lightning bolts that came his way in his Focused state.

Corey had just narrowly evaded the fourth crimson lightning bolt, however, a part of his right arm was burnt because the crimson lightning bolt had just slightly grazed him.

The sky rumbled once again, and Corey snapped his head upward with slightly wide eyes. He could see and sense the intent of five crimson lightning bolts aiming for him.

Before he even snapped his head upward, his stars of consciousness had already activated one of his skills.

Streaks of lightning appeared on his feet and legs, and the instant an extremely loud thunderclap resounded across the Imperium, Corey moved.

Lightning Movement Art; Lightning Step

Corey moved at a speed that was extremely close to the speed of lightning, and arcs of electricity were left behind in his wake.

The Lightning Movement Art was an ancient grade skill that was given to Corey by the Wandering Paragon in the dungeon of his school, and it had five stages and skills.

The first was Thunder Step.

The second was Flash Step.

And the third was Lightning Step.

One of the things that Corey's main consciousness and his stars of consciousness had worked on while he was in Gravenstone City was the Lightning Movement Art.

To Corey's surprise, the Lightning Movement Art was not an easy skill to learn and master at all. It was not meant for Astral Beings, and it was meant for beings that were at least Tier 4s.

Despite previously learning Thunder Step and Flash Step, Corey came to realize that he had not unearthed the full abilities of the skill.

Previously, Thunder Step increased his speed by 50%, while Corey believed that Flash Step made him to move as fast as lightning, and the more mana he poured into Flash Step, the longer the distance he could cover.

However, when Corey started learning more about the Lightning Movement Art, he came to realize that he had not fully mastered the two sub-skills of the Lightning Movement Art.

First of all, Thunder Step did not just increase his speed by 50%, if used properly, it could even increase his speed by 100%.

Thunderstep focuses more on short bursts of speed and agility, with every step creating a shockwave that disorients his opponents… as long as they are not tier 4s and above.

If Corey poured enough mana into Thunderstep, he could gain a short burst of speed and agility that would increase by a full 100%.

As for Flash Step, Corey did not move as fast as the speed of lightning, and he came to realize that he had been using Flash Step wrongly and his proficiency with the skill was not as high as he expected.

First of all, Flash Step was not meant to produce loud thunderclaps. Instead, Corey's movement and steps were meant to produce only extremely faint sounds or no sound at all. His movement was meant to be faster and more subtle.

His current proficiency in Flash Step allows him to vanish from one point and reappear at another almost instantaneously, leaving behind faint afterimages of himself. It also sharpened his reflexes, allowing him to adjust his trajectory mid-movement.

The difference between the current Flash Step and the past Flash Step was not that huge, but it was important and crucial for him in learning the next stage/step of the Lightning Movement Art.

Lightning Step

Lightning Step integrates the raw energy of lightning into his movement and enhances his speed to near-lightning levels, allowing him to streak across a battlefield in a flash of crackling electricity.

His movements create arcs of electricity that damage or stun enemies he passes by, and this sometimes becomes a chain effect depending on the situation and conditions. Also, this was if the enemies were beneath Tier 4s.

While using Lightning Step, Corey also absorbs some of the generated kinetic energy around him as he moves, and this slightly enhances his physical and magical reserves.