Ishi pushed himself up from the shattered tree trunk, feeling the ache all over his body. He gritted his teeth and dashed toward his father, gripping the sword tightly. As he accelerated, the world around him blurred, slowly fading into near darkness.
His perception warped, and he could only catch glimpses of his surroundings. The darkness seemed to envelope him, and he thought through his options, trying to understand the what was happening. He considered many possibilities. Was it some sort of illusion? Where his eyes injured? or perhaps a side effect of his newly discovered power?
"I must be moving faster than light, its the only feasible explanation" the distance between him and his father appeared to shrink in an instant yet also an eternity. Everything around him seemed slow, mind numbingly slow. Even the light around him was at a standstill, he had to actively run into the light as it just simply couldnt keep up.
He closed his eyes. He visualized a calm, clear landscape, pushing away the enveloping darkness. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and the world reappeared in its normal state.
He found himself back in the clearing, facing his father. With renewed focus, he swung his sword with all his might, expecting his father to be caught off guard by his sudden appearance. To his surprise, his father parried the attack effortlessly. In one quick motion, he turned and struck Ishi on the head with the flat side of his sword. The pain was sharp and lasting, sending Ishi reeling forward.
Desperate to regain footing, Ishi stomped his foot down hard. The ground responded violently, cracking open and spreading a fissure across the ground that extended for hundreds of meters, stopping just before the capital.
Still unsteady, Ishi spun around and aimed a powerful side strike at his father's head. His footing was awkward, and he felt his strength become unstable once again. He noticed that his ankle and leg were heavily damaged, likely from the stop or from his speed, making it difficult to maintain balance or any sort of control over his movements and power.
As a full power attack surged toward his father, he tried desperately to reel it all back in. He had to control the power behind the strike. He focused on reducing his power to a fraction but he could only manage to reduce it to an amount slightly larger than the amount he used previously in the forest.
However, his attack collided with an unexpected barrier or shield. The yellow barrier partially absorbed and reflected his strike. Despite the attack's reduced force, the barrier only held long enough to redirect the attack and absorb some of the energy, causing the attack to veer off course and swing harmlessly into the air.
Panting and struggling to stay upright, Ishi stared at the remnants of the shattered barrier fading into the air.