He looked at the tree beside him.
About five ters away. A thick, sturdy branch at roughly the sa height as the one he was on.
He pointed his hand toward the branch. Concentrated.
"Not just stick."
"Shoot the web."
He felt the tingling in his palm, stronger this ti. A subtle pressure, as if sothing were building beneath his skin. A warm, concentrated energy, ready to burst.
He imagined a long, thin strand strong enough to support his weight. And fired.
Whoosh.
A silver thread shot out from his palm with a soft sound, like an invisible arrow cutting through the air.
It flew through the air in an elegant arc, gleaming beneath the sunlight.
And stuck perfectly to the branch of the neighboring tree. Lukas stared in amazent.
"It worked... Damn, it worked!"
He pulled hard on the strand.
It was firm. Elastic, yet resilient. When he pulled, the thread stretched slightly, absorbing the shock, but it did not break.
He took a step back on the branch, adjusting his balance. He took a deep breath. Then jumped.
The thread stretched, supporting his weight with ease. Lukas swung through the air in a wide arc, the wind striking his face, the trees rushing past in a green blur.
He laughed out loud.
A pure laugh, filled with childish joy mixed with adult astonishnt.
He released the thread at the highest point of the arc and fired another one at the next tree.
Whoosh. Another silver thread is flying. Another swing.
He moved between the trees like a living pendulum, testing distances, angles, and strength.
Sotis the thread failed to stick properly, missed the branch, or attached itself to a weak branch that snapped, causing him to fall several ters before recovering. But his strength and reflexes saved him from any dangerous fall.
After nearly five minutes of intense testing, he stopped on a high branch.
Panting. Heart racing. Sweat running down his forehead.
But with a smile too large for his face.
"I can shoot webs... I can swing... This is absurd. This is amazing."
He looked at his own hands.
There were no marks. His skin was normal, intact, as though he had done nothing at all.
The ability felt natural.
As if it had always belonged to him.
But the mont he thought about creating the next web, feeling the tingling in his palm and preparing for the next shot, sothing changed.
An extre headache struck.
It wasn’t a gradual pain that started small and grew. It was a blow, as if soone had smashed his head with an invisible hamr. Lukas’s eyes widened. The world spun around him. The trees, the sky, the ground, everything blended into a blur of green and blue.
He almost fell from the branch.
He managed to grab hold at the last second, his fingers sticking to the bark by instinct, without conscious thought.
"Ah!" He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut.
The pain throbbed in his temples.
Throb, throb, throb.
Like a heart beating inside his skull.
Carefully, very carefully, he began to climb down.
He descended the tree slowly, branch by branch, his legs trembling, sweat streaming down his face. Every movent required imnse effort.
When he reached the ground, he dropped to his knees.
The ground felt cold beneath them. Dry leaves crumpled under his weight. He took deep breaths, huff, puff, huff, trying to control the pain.
"Damn..." He whispered, panting.
"What was that?"
He remained there for twenty minutes.
Breathing deeply. Eyes closed. Body motionless.
Tilbo and Prata stayed beside him, unmoving, the ant with her antennae pointed toward him, the spider with her multiple eyes fixed on his face.
The headache slowly eased.
From a deafening blow to an annoying pulse. From an annoying pulse to a mild pressure. From a mild pressure to a distant tingling.
Finally, he was able to move again.
He sat on the ground, leaned his back against a tree, and thought.
"Could it be..."
He rembered a conversation with Clavor months ago. His father had explained that everyone possessed mana, a vital energy present in every living being, but that it was only possible to consciously use mana after the age of five, when the Awakening occurred.
Sohow, Lukas was able to use abilities before that.
His Innate Strength. The webbing.
His new ability, creating webs, sticking to surfaces, shooting threads, probably consud mana.
Just as Prata used her own mana to produce stronger webs.
And since Lukas was still a baby, only one year and four months old, his mana reserves were not large.
He closed his eyes.
"It makes sense. After all those tests... I nearly used up all my mana."
The feeling of being completely drained, that splitting headache, that weakness in his muscles, that spinning world, had not been pleasant at all.
He needed to be careful.
He waited a little longer.
Sitting in the grass, his head resting against the tree trunk, his eyes closed. The headache was now only an unpleasant mory, a distant pressure, like an echo.
When he finally felt well again, he stood up.
His knees were dirty with soil. His hands were marked by tree bark. But he was whole. He was fine.
He wiped his hands on his pants and called Tilbo and Prata back onto his shoulders. The ant climbed up quickly, while the spider moved more slowly on her delicate legs.
"Let’s head back," he said calmly.
"I don’t want Mom to worry."
As he walked back toward the mansion, Lukas felt an excitent he could barely contain.
The sun was high in the sky. The birds were singing. The sll of fresh bread drifted from the kitchen.
He looked at his own hands.
"Strength. Webbing."
"Two abilities."
And the Dmond Mansion appeared on the horizon.
"Ah. Insects for Tilbo and Prata." Lukas had forgotten about that while testing his new skill, so he returned to the clearing and began lifting the various stones.
He quickly gathered so beetles and even a centipede. When he saw that he had enough, he walked back to the mansion.
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