Hikaru stood in the plains training. The way he sprinted and moved around the planes was swift and calming. The reason as to why he was training was because of the tournament. Hikaru prided himself on being a winner, and something so clear and so easy as the tournament was suppose to be a straight path to victory. He was one of the strongest ranked people there and he had a lot of experience. So why hadn't he won? This questioned echoed in Hikaru's head as he sprinted toward a target he had set up and punched it with full power sending it flying a few meters back.

Hikaru couldn't help but figure if he couldn't win in combat he would prepare to win with his spells. His speed, for one thing, was already and advantage but the ability to move faster, to accelerate and sprint faster was much harder to come by. Maybe, just maybe if he used his magic he could improve maybe just one of his attributes to aid him in fighting. This is what gave Hikaru an idea. Hikaru dropped his shirt on the ground then walked 40 meters away. He took a stopwatch in his hand and began to sprint towards it. Currently, he clocked it at 2 seconds to reach the destination. He would need to do better than that. His goal was to make it to that 40 in less than one second. It was an impossible feat and didn't seem plausible yet Hikaru often enjoyed to look at a predicament like this in the face and attack it head on. The Young Rune Knight moved toward his shirt, sprinting toward the object again and again. During his first trial his calf area where his pants were began to rip due to the output of electricity. He had outputted too much excelling him a little bit forward but ultimately making it so that he wouldn't make it to the target.

Hikaru focused on his legs as he put electricity inside of them and continued to move. He put a little less this time, and attempted to move, only slightly increasing his speed. All he needed was to feel it once for him to understand how much lightning he should input. This was going to be a long day. Usually things like this required combat and training yet, today Hikaru was a one man team therefore, he was going to have to train solo unless someone showed up. The ability to move faster than his opponents was one that would sure come in handy, but only if he could learn how to use it. He had a spell that currently worked similar to that one, yet Hikaru just wasn't there yet with attempting to use it at a higher level. Hikaru sat down at a tree taking a break after his 10th attempt. It was going to be a long day because at the moment he was nowhere close to where he wanted to be.

[509/8,000] Lightning Demon's Mode: Total Speed

"Control your breathing, you'll control your pace. The pace of the fight is what matters. Why does that tree look like a gigantic-"

Ray's introspective thought process was cut short by a sudden stumble which almost made him fall, had it not been for his natural athletic ability, which allowed him to land onto his hands and disperse the momentum of the fall by rolling over his shoulder. He stood up and dusted off his clothes, and then turned around to look at the reason of him almost face planting. There was a thick root which he'd missed, on which his foot had gotten caught and ended his sprint abruptly. Cursing under his breath, he looked down to see if his foot had suffered any major damage, and let out a small sigh of relief as he saw that his foot was relatively unhurt, except for a little reddening on the point of contact. Shoes would've probably made this negligible too, but for someone who never wore shoes in his life, the concept of having clothes for your feet was ridiculously odd. Shaking his foot a little, he resumed sprinting, heading towards the open plains that dotted the hill. Ray would have to leave this beautiful place soon and return to Era, as his duties as an Apprentice Rune Knight called him back very soon, so he made the most of this place by training whenever he good. And a good sprint to start it all was always required.

Just as he reached the first plain, he saw a streak of...[i]pink?[i] zoom in the distance, and being the curious one that he was, decided to sprint towards it, watching it zoom around the same distance about ten times, and finally stopping somewhere near a tree. Upon arriving closer, Ray saw a pink haired mage, shirtless, sitting by the tree, evidently tired. The mage's face was surprisingly...familiar, as if Ray had seen him somewhere before. Ray halted, and then started approaching slowly, unsure of whether or not this man would be hostile or not, as Ray had no mood to receive any death threats this fine day. Also, it was a growing uncertainty that there was a sense of familiarity between Ray and the man. Ray came close, about 2 meters from the tree, before deciding to clear his throat and speak.

"Hello, I'm Ray. You were going pretty fast, so I was curious."

Hikaru closed his eyes in the shade enjoying nature and the break he had. He was at peace, as he heard footsteps approach Hikaru turned his head to hear a man clearing his throat. The face looking familiar, and the hair color was different like his.The Man's name was Ray. He looked close in age to Hikaru, and seemed like he was genuinely interested in Hikaru's training. Hikaru smiled at the compliment but then remembered what was driving him, defeat. The smile quickly turned into a regular face as he thought about the  defeat he had just taken and he looked at the man and spoke back to him.

"Not fast enough, at least not yet." Hikaru said thinking about it. After telling the man he wasn't going fast enough it brought something to Hikaru's attention he hadn't yet introduced himself. Hikaru put both hands on the ground lifting himself up from it. Now revealing his 6'1" Build and his guild tattoo in pink on his right pectoral. Hikaru lifted his right arm toward the man to introduce himself. The man towered over Hikaru by a couple of inches so Hikaru did have to look slightly up when talking to him." Hikaru Nakamura, nice to meet you." Hikaru said as he looked toward the plain.  

He was curious as to whom this man was but Hikaru figured he might as well attempt to make a friend. He figured the sprints weren't working so maybe he would just have to take a different approach. Where Hikaru thrived the most was combat. "Would you mind sparring with me ?" Hikaru didn't really take no for an answer so immediately he ran full speed 10 Meters away assuming the man would say yes. Hikaru wasn't sure about the man's magical ability yet or anything about him but he figured that if anything the man would walk away if he didn't want to partake. Hikaru wasn't the weakest in Fiore, and was capable of being an ace to several other guilds around. Therefore Hikaru decided the best approach to take was to hold back on this mage. He didn't want to scare away any new allies he made.

The only thing Hikaru would try to do was focus on the spell at hand. He felt lightning course through his legs. If the spell work it would be a game changer but still he was just only 1/8th of the way to mastering it. Fighting was a way for multiple individuals, including the Lightning Demon Slayer, to get the experience and training they need at a much quicker pace. The best way sometimes for people to learn was to be thrown in chaos and crash and burn. Now this was going to be fun, it would probably be a sloppy battle for Hikaru because he would bet testing out different forms of speed. His goal was to surpass what he could currently do, and he had no quarrel in his mind that he would.

Ray noticed that the man had a slight smile, which had vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Mentally shrugging it off, Ray realised that the sense of familiarity was still there, even at such a close range, almost as if he had definitely seen this man somewhere. He looked back at the pink haired male, as the man told him that he hadn't gone fast enough yet. "Not yet? What kind of speed does this man want to move at?", thought Ray, an apparent disbelief on his face. This man had gone by fast enough so that Ray's eyes could barely track him, and here he was stating that he hadn't gone nearly as fast as he wanted to. Just by this one statement, Ray could tell that this man was of a different calibre altogether. Ray stepped back a bit as the man pushed up off the ground and got up, only to realise that he was offering his hand. He was just a slight bit shorter than Ray was, about 3 inches, so Ray had to bow his head a little, in order to look the man in his eyes. His eyes were blue, much in contrast to Ray's very own red, and a quick look told him that this man was well built, and that he was also a Rune Knight, much like Ray. Ray took his hand and shook it just as he heard the man introduce himself.

"Hikaru Nakamura. Lieutenant Hikaru Nakamura. No wonder this guy was moving about at that speed. And that's why I found him so familiar."

Ray immediately moved into a salute. "Lieutenant Nakamura", said Ray, in a quick and decisive voice. He had seen this man on the day of his initiation, and he had heard and read about him quite a bit. It was stated that this man had abilities on par with all the other aces of the guild, a feat that wasn't by any chance easy. Ray would then drop the salute and speak, looking anywhere but at Hikaru's eyes, "I am an Apprentice, sir."

Ray heard Hikaru say something with the keyword being "sparring", but before he could ask anything about it Hikaru was already moving back, around 10 meters before he stopped. Sighing, and realising that he didn't have a choice, Ray cursed under his breath and took his stance, knowing that he would also have to move faster if he wanted any chance to survive. The pace and the beat of this fight would matter most, as a young mage was now up against a behemoth. Ray slid his right leg back and his front leg forward at an approximately 45 degree angle, while both his fists were now at his chin, with his forearms covering his chest and his neck slightly bent to protect his chin completely. It was a classic on guard boxer's stance, as Ray had learned from an ex boxer on the ship. Ray would then start shifting his body weight between his two legs, starting to bounce-step, making sure that the beat of the fight would be on his rhythm. Knowing he'd have to take the first shot, Ray dashed forward as soon as his rear foot hit the ground, reaching the 5 meter mark between him and Hikaru within a second. He then concentrated his energy into his right palm, creating a meter long bolt of lightning as he rotated his torso to his left and threw the bolt at Hikaru, then using the momentum created by his body to start moving to the left, running at full speed to about 10 meters to the left. He would then resume the bounce-step and keep his guard up just in case Hikaru had caught up with him, which was very likely.

Spells Used:

Hikaru watched as the man saluted him. Curious as to why he saluted him, it quickly came to him as the man addressed him by Lieutenant when Hikaru had not told him that. This man himself was a Rune Knight. Hikaru returned the salute to him, and listened as Ray told him his rank. Either way, the two were still going to spar. Upon reaching the 10 meter Mark, he watched Ray get into a stance. Hikaru observed it seeing it was a good form, looking hard to block but nonetheless it would be fun to fight against. Hikaru decided to get in his fighting stance. It was similar but Hikaru's legs weren't spread out far apart but were moderately separated allowing for maximum mobility. His right fist slightly lower than his left fist, at his chin, and his left fist was up towards his eye, but not blocking it. His body stayed loose and relaxed ready for movement.

Hikaru watched as Ray came forward 5 meters within a second, so that guy wasn't as fast as Hikaru but based on his body type he had great potential to be physically stronger. Hikaru watched as the man reached 5 meters and a bolt of lightning was going toward him Hikaru moved his leg in the direction away from the spell, and he quickly moved out of the way in a manner that looked like he was white lightning particles. It was his sidestep move. Hikaru moved to the left of it as it flew passed him. In all honesty, Hikaru could have simply taken that hit and not been affected, but what fun was that? Lightning was his magic, and Hikaru was tempted to attack him with something but didn't want to give him a high magnitude attack. So Hikaru ran towards the man at full speed who was 11 meters away, Hikaru attempted to use the new spell he was trying to master. He could feel the stress on his leg as he tried to apply lightning to it. It actually slowed him down instead of allowing him to move full speed, making it so he traveled at the man at 15 meters per second instead of his 15 meters per second. "Damn it." Hikaru thought to himself as he approached the man

Hikaru approached the man, in less than a split second still,  with his palm wide open, Hikaru would aim for his chest. White lightning crackled in his hand, a mixture of light and lightning. His palm struck the man and would promptly knock him back further creating a five-meter gap. Hikaru smiled as he got back in his original stance looking at the man. "Not bad first move, but Lightning is sort of my specialty." Hikaru said with a smile. He had one of the strongest Lightning magics in Fiore, it wasn't just lightning it was light and lightning. Hikaru's could feel the stress on his leg from trying to do the spell. For a moment he felt like he might have been able to do it, but the input was just too hard to make. Hikaru would continue to adjust it. The Rune Knight's speed spell wasn't the easiest one to master, it was on the equivalent to an S-rank spell, one of the strongest spells known in Fiore. To reach such a powerful spell took some years to master, some days, it varied on the degree of difficulty. However, Hikaru was determined to master the spell and improve his speed in combat. Hikaru got into the same stance he was in before. He stared at Ray waiting for him to make the next move. It was going to be an interesting battle. The attempt to use this new found speed wasn't easy, and it wasn't going to get easier. The more he attempted the slower he would be in his current battle, however he neeeded to. The purpose of the battle was to master some of his new spells he had in mind. If he was going to be any use to the Rune Knights as well as his team he would truly have to master his Lightning Demon Mode: Total Speed. It was an uphill battle, but this wasn't the firs time Rune Knight went up against adversity and like all times, Hikaru would for sure conquer this spell. However, he was getting closer. Hikaru was almost 1/5th of the way there.

1,746/8,000

Spoiler:

Ray's eyes flickered towards Hikaru as he'd resumed his bounce-step, the pace of the fight directly affecting the rhythm of his feet. All he could see at Hikaru's position was particles of what seemed to be lightning, although at this distance Ray couldn't really discern what the magic actually was. But what worried him, was that he hadn't seen Hikaru at the location he was supposed to be there. It was almost as if Hikaru had moved with that terrifying speed that Ray had seen earlier. As if on cue, Ray saw a mass of pink hair approaching him from his peripheral vision at a really high speed, and he barely had enough time to push his guard slightly closer together. Ray clenched his jaw as Hikaru reached out with his palm wide open, hitting Ray's guard right in the middle, as if he were aiming for the chest. Ray felt his feet leaving the ground beneath him as he was forced back 5 meters, his arms slightly reddened due to the impact of the hit. Ray exhaled sharply as his foot found sure ground and assumed his stance again, doing the bounce-step.

He was sure he'd seen a white lightning emanate from Hikaru's open palm when he'd struck him, and Ray had definitely felt that surge of electricity passing through him, although it was much different than his own. Much stronger, more potent, and, for some reason, it seemed holy. In all the books Ray had read, he'd never read about a magic that was described as what he'd just felt, it was vastly different. His assumption was proven half-correct when Hikaru spoke, saying that Lightning was a speciality of his, but Ray was adamant that this was not normal Lightning. He debated asking Hikaru outright what his magic really was, but then his eye caught Hikaru, who seemed to be staring at him. Clearly, Hikaru's lust for fighting wasn't satiated yet, so Ray pushed the thoughts about his magic away and ran straight towards Hikaru, until he was a foot away from Hikaru. Putting his guard up as he stopped, Ray would then throw his body back, using the momentum generated to drive his right knee forward, aiming for Hikaru's abdominal region. Regardless of whether it would hit or not, he would then extend his left foot onto it's toes, and then bring the right foot down without bringing it back, so therefore now his left foot was behind him and his right in front, while his guard was still up. He then proceeded to bring his left knee up and twisted his body clockwise while extending the knee, using the momentum generated by his twisting to adding speed and strength to the kick, almost as if his foot were a baseball bat. He would aim for Hikaru's right ribs with this kick, and would aim to hit with the lower shin. Ray would then follow through with the kick completely, turning a 180 degrees and then pushing off the ground with his right foot, heading away from Hikaru in a dive roll, coming to his knees about 3 meters from Hikaru.

Ray would then push up and assume his stance again as he turned to face Hikaru, who, hopefully, had either been struck by one move of his combination or had moved back.

Hikaru's hit had been successful in pushing Ray back. He was curious as to what Ray's move was, he was curious as to how the man fought. Hikaru's stance was as good as anyone's but so was Ray's. Cleary this man was no stranger to fighting even though he was an apprentice. Hikaru watched the man with his eyes, only to see that Ray wasn't one to give up so easily after getting hit. Hikaru smiled seeing the man rush toward him. Hikaru looked at the man and analyzed his body watching to see if anything stuck out of the ordinary.  Hikaru watched as a knee came flying towards him. Hikaru took both his hands, reinforcing his right hand with his leg hand, to take the knee and forcefully push it down. The contact with his hand helped block it from striking his abdominal region. However, It seemed like Ray was already on the move. This time he was going for a full kick rather than a knee. He had already abandoned his stance by blocking the knee, so seeing the leg come flying at him gave him no choice. Hikaru used his right arm as a defense mechanism bringing it tightly to his body. The leg hit his right arm knocking Hikaru toward the side, Hikaru would let the momentum from the kick help him as he would do a side roll similar to Ray, but right from the side roll Hikaru would plant both feet on the ground and attempt to move towards the man. He once again tried to use his new spell, but due to the excess strain on his leg he ran the same speed as Ray.

"Still not there.." Hikaru thought to himself as he saw Ray was now on his feet. He ran quickly towards ray, However he didn't stop.He decided he would go for a move that would get the man down on the ground. He still needed to work on his speed.  Hikaru didn't stop running but rather began to slide on the plain as he approached the 1 meter away mark. Hikaru was trying to slide tackle Ray similar to a soccer player, except he assumed the man didn't have any shin guards so of course it would be a bit worse than a regular one. Hikaru kept both his palms together looking upward to see if he had to reposition his hands to either his face or his body if Ray managed to dodge it. Being on the ground wasn't the best case scenario but it was a spar so it was always fun. After the slide tackled Hikaru would get up and dash 10 meters away creating distance gain before turning around and looking at Ray.  He would speak to the apprentice seeing how good he was. It was often you saw someone with that decent skill in fighting at the rank of an apprentice. Hikaru looked to see what Ray would do or what he did do, but Hikaru also commented on Rays attack to HIkaru.

"That wasn't a bad attack. To be honest I wasn't expecting that." He said with a smirk on his face proud of the strength of the Rune Knights. The thing about the Rune Knights was that Hikaru didn't care if you were the strongest or weakest, if you were someone who knew how to fight and could get a few good hits then that just meant that you had potential to grow much more and he saw that quality in Ray. As he spoke to Ray Hikaru's legs were feeling a bit better He was indeed getting close he could feel it in his leg. He couldn't help but get happy. It seemed that combat was the exact thing he needed to speed up his training regiment with this spell. In no time he would be there. Currently Hikaru was already halfway there and soon he would be able to debut his first S-rank spell to Ray. It was only a matter of time until he was strong enough and fast enough. Hikaru assumed his stance now in a defensive position. At the rate they were going, Hikaru didn't want to stop, rather he wanted to keep on going and fight this man until he mastered the technique he was seeking. He had come this far, so it was already too late to back out. Plus this was more progress then he would have ever had solo. Hikaru looked towards Ray's direction and prepared himself for anything the man had comign to him. Wether the slide tackle hit or not, the battle was far from over, especially with how much fun Hikaru was having.

2550/4000

After the slide tackle had hit Hikaru was in a battle position but Hikaru looked up seeing the clouds in the sky starting to get cloudy. He was busy and had to do a lore more training outdoors before the storm came in. Hikaru wasn't much to fear of the storms but the training he had to do would best be done outside of the rain then in it. So he figured he could postpone the training or now and maybe do it some other time or some other place Hikaru looked at ray and didn't quite know what to tell him but Hikaru knew he had to depart. He also was going to train alone. The combat had helped him a lot but this was a higher ranking spell so he didn't quite want to get ray tied up in something that could take hours. Hikaru looked at ray and spoke to him The Rune Knight looked at the mage and spoke to him saying "I've got to go, I usually do a quick run of the entire city and I doubt that would be something that interest you, but you sir have potential. I'd enjoy to talk to you more when we get back to Era and one day hopefully me and you could work together. Surely I will not forget you Ray. Have a good one." Hikaru said as he turned his back facing away from the Rune knight and starting to walk towards his clothes. The grassy plains rub on the bottom of his shoes. Hikaru put on his shirt and retied his laces in hope that he would be able to travel fast enough. Hikaru planted both feet on the ground and looked up as he took off running. He didn't want to stop and he wasn't going to stop his pursuit for the power he had been searching for.

He ran extremely fast attempting to output white lightning in his legs. He could hear the thunder in the sky brewing. HE was so close yet so far. Hikaru continued to make progress as he approached the city from the plains. Due to the storm the streets would probably be more empty, and that was true. He could see local merchants or farmers that did business outdoors remove their tents and their items and begin to pack up. Hikaru figured a break was necessary so he stopped from his run feeling his legs tighten up from the sheer tiredness of having been abused by Hikaru in an attempt to seek out this training. He looked at the groceries that the man was putting away and without words, HIkaru helped the man put everything in the box. The man seemed genuinely greatful and at the end of it, he gave Hikaru a fruit for his hard work. It was a banana Hikaru had explained to the man he was attempting to travel at new speeds and it was not an easy feat. The Banan was a good fruit to give to any person doing any running activity. It wasn't too heavy, so therefore it wasn't something that would move around in the stomach much, also the potassium helped the runner avoid cramps which was a common thing in running. Finally the biggest part of it all was that it was a fruit. It carried a bunch of natural sugar and other things that were healthy for an individual.  Hikaru unpeeled the banana, it's color was perfect. It was a bright yelllow Banana that was definetly riped due to a few spots, but it didn't have too many sopts that made it disgusting. He opened his mouth and ate the banana. He chewed it slowly, and after taking the first bite he took another, and another after that bite. Once the banana as completely gone, Hikaru tossed the pelled into a local park that he was walking through. It would be frowned upon for a Rune Knight to do such a thing, but there were three reasons he did it. First of all there was no one around so the chances of him getting caught and called out about it were close to 0. Secondly he was the authotrities so he basically overided the local authorities who were most likely a lower rank then him. Finally the last reason was the simplest of them all, the Banana was a biodegrabalbe fruit. That meant that it was a fruit that decays quickly in nature and actuallyh can act as a fertilizer, so rather than hurting the enviroment he was actually helping it. It was a strange thing indeed but Hikaru didn't care. and like that he caught he breathe digested the floor and his legs still felt like lead but he was on a mission to get this spell trained and that he would do. Hikaru took off in full speed beginning to run through the town.

Hikaru moved at his constant speed, still not buffing it but this time he was inputting lightning in his legs a bit lighter and gradually building it. up. He continued to move as fast as he could, however, he made little to no progress to what he was doing before. Hikaru couldn't quite figure out what he was doing wrong."God damn it." The man screamed to himself. Hikaru, the rune knight, was frustrated. He usually wasn't one to stress out about this type of stuff but at this point it was killing him  He looked upt o the sky curious as to waht to do. Then that was when it hit him. He heard laughter from kids running inside the house away from the storm. He could hear the thunder, but it was something about the kids that caught his atteniton. The way they ran. They had horrible form and horrible technique, but the way they ran wasn't force, but rather it was free. Hikaru looked up to the sky seeing lightning striked down. Like the kids, lightning was free and the spell he was trying to do was a lightning based spell. He had been thinking of this all wrong, he was inputting and outputting a certain amount of magic assuming that he would just find the perfect medium doing a hit or miss, but rather what Hikaru had to do was find a perfect medium by just feeling it. He had to let himself go. He couldn't let things like pain weight him down nor could he just simply force it, Hikaru got into his running position. His right floo back and his left foot forward. Both slightly bent. His head was down but he lifted it up. HIs hands relaxed down by his side as he looked up. He could feel the white lightning surging through his body as he looked up . He had no destination, his only goal was to run free."Lightning Demon Mode: Total speed" Hikaru stated to himself to ensure he knew his goal. The neurons in his body began to fire quickly He could feel his body tingling only wanting to be unleashed to the world. And like that HIkaru took off, His first initial steps were slow but then he began to speed up. Hiakru had started off at 20 m/s but began to move at 25 m/s. He realized he was moving faster but he wasn't quite there yet. He wanted to get faster, he wanted to be faster. He continued to move forward letting his body loosenup. His hands relaxed, his legs pounding against the ground and only accelerating. He could feel his legs slowly turning into lead but he just ignored the sensation and kept his eyes open as he continuned to move faster now reaching 30 m/s He was now moving as fast as a car mayb even faster. He wasn't quite there yet. he wanted to travel like a bullet he wanted to be fast, he was going to be the fastest. Hikaru looked foward and this was what would make it or break it. It wasn't about input but rather it was about what he wanted. He focused on the end of the street. There was a meter made to count down the speed of an vehicle.  Hikaru used his full speed as he screamed, at that moment he hit the perfect input of magic and he accelerated by 10 m/s all the way to 40 m/s his goal speed. He flew past the spedometer and several cars making each one shake that he passed. He turned around to see what the speedometer said.  It said 90 mph. He  couldn't help but smile. Today the Rune KNight had just added a new move to his arsenal.

4,000/4,000

Spoiler:

-EXIT