They say necessity is the mother of all inventions, but Marcus greatly disagreed. From his experience the mother of all inventions are accidents. One of these accidents gave Marcus the largest improvement since he came to understand Carapace correctly. On a sunny day three months into his second year, Marcus was training various strikes and kicks against a tree target. In a moment of carelessness a beautiful roundhouse kick turned into an embarrassing fall on his ass. Annoyed, Marcus kicked the tree with both feet and Impulse Hammer, because it was somehow the tree's fault that he slipped and had mud on his back now. He shattered the tree but physics demanded that Marcus had to obey her and he slid on his muddy back several meter before he hit his head against a sharp rock. After that he did not even have the willpower to curse and just felt pity for himself.

It was in that moment that Marcus' brain realized something that should have been obvious to him since day one. He could unleash Impulse Hammer from both his feet at the same time AND it pushed him away...YOU MORON! All this time! You have been whining about not having any tool for mobility and it was right in front of you! Marcus cursed himself and jumped up with a wide smile. He instantly knew this would work, eventually… after a whole lot of training. But if he had one thing, it was time.

He got on his feet took a straight stance and used Impulse Hammer with 50% power at the sole of his feet. Without Carapace, the recoil shot him three meter into the air and he landed on his ass again. "YEAH" he shouted and punched towards the sky. One more time he tried it but with 100% power. Mud and grass exploded under his feet and a second later he was high in the air looking over most of the local trees before gravity called him back to the ground. He landed like a sack of rice but the pain was nothing compared to the unrestrained joy he felt.

He forgot all other tasks and chores for the day and trained until complete exhaustion (with over 50 vitality that means a lot), and it was too dark to see. By the end of the day he managed to use 50% power and land on his feet again. Three days later a standing "burst" with full power was no longer a problem. He looked for a very tall tree and made some rough measurements to guess his max height. With full power he could touch a branch at ten meter height. While he trained he sung songs of victory and heroism, a new behavior he had picked up a month or so ago. To keep his voice working and his sanity intact he had started to sing, badly. Songs he knew or just stuff he made up on the go. There was nobody here who could complain about his horrible singing, so why the fuck not?

Over the next two weeks he tried to include his new skill in his daily tasks. Especially climbing was much easier now. Getting to fruits of some taller plants was trivial and took barely any time. Moving up on rocks or rough terrain, no problem. Marcus could kick his own ass that he had missed this obvious application of Impulse Hammer for years. In his defense, his power and control of the ability had greatly increased over the years, so there was that. After a month of training and use, Marcus felt confident in his double and one leg jump, the next big step was to use it to move forward. A charge of sort.

His shoes had died a long time ago and he realized that if this was going to be a staple of his combat style in the future, shoes were off the table like gloves before them. He was losing equipment slots and wondered if he eventually would become one of those half naked fantasy brawlers. Kou would have a laugh about that for sure. Kou… Marcus hoped he was fine. He knew that Kou would blame himself for not thinking of a burner unit to keep the portal stable. As if any of them had thought about that. It was a stupid rookie mistake, and he had paid the ultimate price for it. But nothing would come from lamenting the past and Marcus prayed Kou and Achara were still together and happy. Not knowing what was happening in their lives was nearly as painful as not being with them. Would Azaa miss him, beyond needing his blood for her father...he wanted to believe that she did.

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Over the next days Marcus searched for a flat and stable ground with enough space to move around a lot. This was easier said than done but eventually he cleared out a small glade and started operation "Burst Charge". If you have never seen somebody flying head first into the mud, then Marcus was here to demonstrate it. Trying to use his technique in combination with movement was a thousand times harder than a standing Burst. Over and over he missed the timing or just lost control over the ability. At the end of the first day of dedicated training, he had not managed even one proper forward charge but he saw improvement. On the next training day he had reviewed his movements and worked in small steps. The result of day two was a small hop that did not end with his face in the mud.

Day three and four increased the range and success chance of the hop while day five to seven finally allowed him to reach distances a normal jump would not have reached. From here on he used a different training area upon one of the nearby cliffs. A long stretch of plain rock, once cleaned up, was his track. Marcus would run a short distance and fire Burst Charge. It failed most of the time but it was a fast and efficient training method. One week later Marcus was able to run at full speed and jump nearly twenty meters forward. The landing was still rough but the result was amazing. Marcus tried to use Burst Charge as often as possible in his daily tasks to get used to it and on the first day of field testing he ran into a monster that he charged from over ten meters away. With more luck than skill he managed to not only make the jump but also to finish it with a knee attack. It was an instant kill and his greatest success since he had figured out he could cook the yellow meat fruit.

Another month of constant use allowed Marcus to improve his accuracy and distance. He made small circles on the ground and tried to hit them from further and further away. At the end of the month he could hit a ten centimeters circle from ten meters away and a fifty centimeters circle from over twenty meters away. At this point he felt confident he could do the thing. The thing he had been thinking about for a long time. Take on the temple ruins. With his super jump he would be able to climb much faster and safer too.

Marcus carefully prepared the excursion, brought a large amount of water and food and made sure he had reserves when he came back home. Monsters had not bothered him in his home for some time and so he was confident his shelter would still be here when he came back. He ran and jumped through the jungle and reached the base of the tall cliffs in only an hour. If he got his vitality high enough he would eventually move faster with Burst Charge than running at top speed, even over long distances.

He began his ascent and used Burst whenever he felt it was helpful. The speed of his climbing was vastly greater than he had expected. He covered a hundred meters in five minutes and half an hour after he had started, he had reached the level of the temple ruins. Marcus laughed out of excitement and enjoyed the view over the jungle beneath. With this speed he would only need one day all together to reach the temple, and so it was. He touched the first stone of the ruins as the sun sank beneath the horizon. Sweat dripped of his body and he recognized that running with Burst was already faster than his normal run speed. It did cost him a lot more endurance but he dared to dream how fast he could become if his vitality reached 100 or higher. Lack of mobility? Not me, Marcus thought.

He made camp nearby and put his self made hammock on a tall tree. Wise choice, because this area was still filled with monsters and instead of a quiet night Marcus killed half a dozen of them before dawn. The local beasts were mainly the same monster apes he knew but a kind of lizard with what Marcus guessed, were poison teeth came after him too. When dawn came he had earned another level and spent his crest. By his count he had reached level 57, a few more levels and he could heal the Grand Protector.

Marcus wondered if Azaa had found a replacement for him by now. There were many Fighters on Earth. His friends could tell some to scale vitality and then they could power level somebody until they got their third ability. Azaa would replace him and soon forget all about him. Maybe that was for the best. Marcus looked at the gigantic ruin made of dark stone, as the first rays of the sun touched the highest tower. This would not be too bad as a grave, Marcus thought.

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