Grasp the Earth, Grasp the Future

Earth-Grasping Step. It was one of Ulv's creations, one of her biggest creations in fact. The way the book wrote about it, and the second volume talked about it, she was most proud of this one. Though, it was also dangerous. Hvit gave Calypso more context on the vague notation of danger, which was quite grotesque to hear. Ulv had shattered herself by using it without preparation, so Hvit was not letting her pull anything remotely like it until Calypso could at least Lotus Step. And so that was what Calypso was on right now, focusing her energy through her body to prepare for the advanced Lightfoot of Lotus Stepping as she finished reading the book once again. Wouldn't be easy, but she had some determination to succeed, and a friend besides.

"Ulv seems to enjoy life, reading this book. Nobody who saw martial arts as perfunctory or a means would ever create something like Cretaceous Hwechook" Calypso commented, closing the Nine Yin Manual and entering into a Martial Meditation post to ease her into energy flow.
'She certainly enjoyed martial arts in all their forms, yes. Between Tundra Lotus, Cretaceous, and the ever beautiful Wolf-Fu, she embraced the Artist more than the Martial' Hvit put in, lending subtle guidence to Calypso's energy flow. It was all power at the end of the day, and Hvit knew how to handle power in excess of comprehension itself.

Focusing energy, she would kick off with a Lightfoot and soar through the air, a mighty blast of power from her peak-Giant Dantian. She had come a long way from the young girl in the hospital bed, but the gulf in front of her was much further to go yet. And the grasp of subtle intricacies were where the struggle was. While soaring, she tried to grasp the air below her, but couldn't manage to do it before landing. High level Lightfoot like this was a two step process, one of taking off and the other of landing. From how Earth-Grasping Step read, that was similar, with some high precision vector manipulation thrown in for good measure.

Trying to get it right, Calypso was ignorant of just how far she had travelled in her attempts to understand how to Lotus Step, and landed in the middle of a fight. Naku clan members from the looks of it, hunting the Great Black Beasts. Quite the fight as well, she must have skipped into what was known as The Wastelands, where the walls between worlds were thin, and the Hollows came in streams. One of the beasts swung for her, so she blocked the blow and smashed him in two with an Armour-Shattering Fist. She was not opposed to a good scrap though, it might help her grasp what she needed, so she barrelled into the group of Naku to help out.

The Hwechook was a classic kick. It was the crux of Ssamsu and the root of all other techniques in the style. Calypso liked it because it was simple enough to use but had a lot of power behind it, blowing off a Hollow's jaw with her foot and then spiralling into a second trying to bite her. A combination of Blade-Deflecting Body and Flow Control let her catch the creature by it's teeth and then rip it in half. The break in the fighting came when everyone was buffered by the shockwave that the Boss Guy's death beam gave off. Not one to be bothered by such things, the beautiful swordswoman in the middle of the blast was cutting through it with the most elegant sword Calypso had ever seen.

Calypso would Lightfoot over to the beast and kick it in the head to give Xian a moment to recover. But damn was this fucker solid, as he took the kick, sprawled a little and then wrapped his tongue around Calypso and slammed her into the ground. The mucus was burning like a hot sun, and if she didn't get out of this soon she felt like it was going to start actually ripping through her skin. But, his tongue was so thick, so tough, she couldn't rip out of it even when she was putting all her strength into it! This was definitely not the way she wanted to go, melted by some Hollow. And yet, with a second slam into the ground knocking the breath out of Calypso, the creature retracted it's tongue as if trying to eat her whole!

Soaring towards the Hollow, he would let out a howl and then dissolve as Xian's "Splitting The Clouds" struck cleanly, bisecting him without a hint of resistance. Blood Of Dragons - or, Black Gold as they called it here - really was a whole other level of power over what Calypso had right now. And the sword probably didn't hurt either; probably Sky-Piercer from the brilliant way it sliced without issue.

"You ok?" Xian asked, as the tongue dissolved and Calypso was freed. Her clothes had suffered some heavy damage, and her skin was red raw from the acid, but she had not suffered anything serious, so she would just nod. Xian would then turn and give a shrill whistle, to which ever Naku clan member responded by leaping suddenly into the air.

The reason for this came a second later, as Xian flourished her sword and then cut down the mass of Hollows with Crying Divinity - Tears Of A Thousand Gods. Watching a woman just simply pull off one of the Three Legendary Strikes hammered home just how powerful Xian was. Beneath all the posturing and degeneracy, was a heaven-touching Empress far and away above any other.

"So, got any money? I'm not trying to charge you for saving your life or anything, but donations appreciated" Xian exclaimed, flicking the sword back into it's sheath as her people cleaned up the stragglers that hadn't run away. Calypso's moment of awe quickly nose-dived into the ground at such a request. A leopard really couldn't change it's spots....

Regardless of her thoughts, Xian did save her from at least a lot of pain and discomfort, so Calypso handed her a cheque for thirty grand, and she took off as soon as the people here were done. One of these days, she was going to go to Alavazi and find out why he allowed such a stain on his family's honor to keep flouncing about the place. Though with everything done, Calypso would stretch and leave the area before more showed up. One never killed all the Hollows in the Wasteland, only ever subdued roving hordes of them temporarily. The run back was uneventful, and she was not able to properly grasp the Lotus Step by the time she was back home.

Getting a shower and a new set of clothes, she would retire to her room for some stoic meditation while her body recovered from the acid rash. She never expected the horizon to come easily, but did it have to be so far away, so hard to breach? It really vexed her that she was unable to do what she should, as a prodigy.

'Too much pressure. Go masturbate' Hvit piped in, flushing Calypso's cheeks.
"I swear...I am going to start making you leave before I do that in future" Calypso muttered, trying and failing to regain focus.
'You think as a prodigy, things should just teach themselves to you, when a real prodigy is a person who puts in ten times the effort of others. Keep being diligent, and it will all pay off eventually'