“Dash Tackle,” Zen said. “How does that look like.”

His mother, Wang Lin, closed her eyes. “Let me show you.” She took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and her body was covered in white ki and she sped forward, with the ki forming a tail behind her. She landed and opened her arms, as if she was expecting applause.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“That looked cool and all, Mommy but can I learn Scythe Kick instead?” Zen said, breaking the silence.

“What?” her jaw dropped.

“It seems like a physical move,” Zen said. “Now that I think about it, I have a lot of physical moves, Blitz Punch, Dazzling Jab, Meteor Kick, all my offensive moves are physical and require close range, I need something with at least a midrange to round out my abilities, like Scythe Kick.”

“No, you need Dash Tackle to round out your abilities.”

Zen’s shoulders drooped. “Is this because you want to teach me Uncle Jao’s move?”

Zen remembered his brother telling him about his mother and his twin, Uncle Jao. They were like the Jao twins, or at least the previous Jao family’s generation of Jao twins, except unlike Fuu and Cong, his mother and uncle were very competitive. Wang Hun usually said he was happy that the twin blessing the Jao’s had seemed to skip the Wang’s, otherwise he and Zen might have just been as competitive.

“You don’t have many movement related ki techniques,” she said. “The only one you have is Meteor Kick, and that has a big drawback. You probably have realised it yourself.”

“Is it the time it takes to perform the move.”

“Exactly!” she snapped her fingers. “By the time you are ready, your opponent will either be ready for the move or ready to dodge.”

“But even if I miss, it has a wide area of effect.” Zen defended his move. “When it lands, the shockwave…”

“…will catch only those who are not fast enough.” She said. “Face it Kiddo, against a fast opponent your most powerful move is dead in the water. Even with its movement capabilities, its doesn’t justify it being your only go to move.”

“Meteor Kick has movement capabilities?” Zen said, tilting his head in confusion.

“Of course. The beginning of the move, you leap straight up into the air, then fall toward the ground at an angle.” She drew an invisible path using her hand. “But even with its movement capabilities, it does not change the massive disadvantage it gets when facing fast opponents, or opponents who can prep an answer to it.”

Zen deflated at hearing this. Meteor Kick was his best and favourite move. It took him a long time to learn it and now he was hearing it was near useless.

“Don’t get me wrong, its still a powerful and useful ki technique but maybe learn another ki technique with a fast start time and an even better movement ability.”

Zen nodded.

“Remember when you were in the air and I used Reverse Scythe Kick and you could not dodge, so all you had to do was block and hoped you could reduce the damage?”

Zen nodded again. “Yeah, its one of the problems of being airborne during a fight.”

“Now imagine if I threw that attack at you and you could do this.” She leapt straight up into the air, activated Dash Tackle and flew straight over Zen and landed behind him.

His eyes widened. “The move allows you to fly!”

“Not exactly.” She said. “It allows you move in a straight line, even in the air but as long as the dash technique lasts.”

“That is still so cool!” he said.

She nodded, “So I take it you are ready to learn?”

Zen nodded eagerly.

“Good,” she said, “Now, the first step to learn Dash Tackle is…”

After a few hours, Zen was beginning to grasp how to do the technique.

“That’s it, Kiddo.” Lin said. “Careful not lose control of your energy. You need to form a stable portion of ki around your body for an extended amount of time.”

“Yes, then I need to use it to thrust myself forward.” Zen said, his eyes closed. His ki began exiting his body through his pores. Debris began moving away from him as more and more of the ki exited.

“That’s it,” Lin said, sounding like a kid in a candy shop.

Zen’s face crunched as he commanded more of his ki to exit. Then there was a burst of his murky ki that appeared and then almost immediately disappeared. Zen sighed.

“That’s good, Kiddo.” She said. “You just need to get that first step correct.”

“Madam Wang!” Jun Nee shouted running towards them.

Lin looked at the girl. “Yes, Jun Nee?”

“Master Jao asked me to find you,” she said. “Urgent City Lord business.”

Lin deflated at this. “What City Lord business, I worked hard to clear my day to spend it with my son.”

“Sorry Ma’am, he did not tell me.” She said. “He said he would not divulge such important information to a lowly commoner like me… or something like that.”

“Urgh, Papa!” Lin said before turning to Zen. “Well, guess you’ll need to practice on your own.”

Zen nodded, “I should be able to manage.”

Alright, my ZenZen!” she said, affectionately ruffling his hair.

“Mommy!” Zen said in annoyance before his mother left, following Jun Nee.

Zen looked at Shibi and smiled, “I guess we’ll continue, hey bud?”