BOOM!
Crackle. Crackle.
A bolt of electricity struck the bark of a tree, causing it to explode and leave a black burn mark on the tree. The strike was followed by a gust of wind and rain-like water pellets that caused the leaves to shake and get wet.
"That's it? I still can't get them to match, or even get close to the power of the lightning."
Alice scratched her head and sighed.
"I feel like even my lighting is not as strong as it should be… It feels like I'm taking water from a blocked pipe."
A ball of lightning generated in her palm, lighting up her face and especially accentuating her aquamarine eyes.
"Am I just weak? Or am I actually being blocked by something?"
Clasping her hands and dispersing the ball of lightning, she thought about something.
"Should I go to Aries?"
If she went to him, he could probably tell her what the problem was and even help her fix it, but only if he actually wanted to help. In reality, though, if she actually went to him, he would most likely get angry with her, and who knows what would happen if he was angered.
While she knew him better than she did anyone else in the town, besides her parents, of course, but even with that, she knew next to nothing about the guy.
Taking this into account, she decided against taking her problem to Aries.
"Sigh… I'll just see if I can come up with more creative ways to use my abilities until I can't figure out the problem."
She struck her palm as a specific memory resurfaced.
"Right! I'll just focus on that!"
At a certain point in their training, Aries mentioned that moves with names are always better than those without—something about the names giving the moves an anchor to the world or something.
Anyway, since she couldn't exactly name every movement she did, Alice planned to focus on pushing her imagination to the max and come up with moves for each aspect of her element, as well as the element as a whole.
First up was lightning.
She put her hand on her chin, thinking about how she wanted to go about making her lightning moves.
"What do I normally associate with lightning?"
She thought for a moment, but it didn't take her long before she knew.
"Speed and suddenness!"
Besides light, lightning was always considered the pinnacle of speed, and when storms came, you could never tell when lightning could strike!
What also fits the description of sudden and speedy?
"Snakes!"
Snakes were ambush predators that lay in waiting for prey and strike suddenly, often unnoticed, with great swiftness.
"I've decided, I'll focus on the speed and suddenness of lightning, while emulating snakes. This will be the foundation for my lighting moves!"
She placed her hand on her waist and laughed a haughty laugh.
"Ehem…"
Coughing into her hand, she stopped herself from laughing further.
After she calmed down, Alice gathered her chi and manifested electricity around her body. Instead of stopping there, she made the electricity seep into her body, coating it inside and out.
When she did this, she felt a change; instead of chaotically sparking like it normally would, the electricity condensed into a unified aura surging around her. Along with this, her body was filled with energy, and she couldn't stop herself from jumping around. Her movements were so fast that it seemed like a blur to her eyes.
The electricity soon enchanted her eyes, and she could suddenly keep up with her movements, not only that, but her vision also improved, allowing her to see things she normally couldn't, like the line of ants walking past a nearby tree. She could also see much farther.
There was a slight problem, though, while her vision was like this, everything looked like it was moving in slow motion.
'This'll take some getting used to.'
Blinking, she retracted the electricity from her eyes. At the same time, she also deactivated the electricity coating her body.
Excitement rose within her, and an ecstatic smile crept its way onto her face, one she tried her best to hide.
'Imagine all the cool stuff I could do with this.'
"Heh… He he… heheheheheheHAHAHAHAHAHAH."
Then she paused, realizing what she was doing. The next second, her expression turned into one of cool nonchalance, and then she acted as if nothing had happened, but she couldn't completely get rid of her smile.
"Alright, I'll call the body enhancement 'Thunder surge' and the vision enhancement 'Snake eyes'."
Following her coming up with the names, Alice mentally associated the names with the two techniques.
'Thunder Surge!'
Mentally calling upon the name of the ability she wished to use, she activated the technique at the same time.
Crackle!
'Snake Eyes!'
Doing the same for the second ability, she activated it as well.
"Whoa! Not only do I feel that the effects are better than before, but the abilities also feel easier to cast! Seems like Aries wasn't lying."
However, while the effect there, it was negligible at best.
"It's just my first try; the effects will probably get better the more the names and abilities get associated with each other."
And she was right, for the next few hours, Alice constantly called the names while activating the abilities, the effects improving each time she did. At one point, she accidentally called the names out loud, and the effects grew even more than before.
Eventually, she felt that the effects weren't improving any further, meaning that the names and abilities were fully connected to each other.
A smug smirk formed on her face once she realized she had completed her first special moves ever.
"Heh."
Now, she could activate both abilities instantly, and their effects grew significantly for the amount of time she had them.
She was about to start on another skill when she noticed something. She looked into the sky, and her expression changed to shock.
"It's night!? Crap, I need to get home!"
'Thunder Surge! Snake Eyes!'
She activated the abilities and dashed out of the clearing and into the lips, then her yard.
That night, a new rumor was born. A rumor of the spirit of light that appeared in lios.