Chapter 174
By the time the boss lady had stopped, Michelle had already figured everything out. The footwork was indeed similar to her Shadow Spirit Steps. But there were some differences.
And the biggest difference was that while Michelle kept her shins and ankles as relaxed as possible while only contracting the muscles in her thighs, the boss lady did quite the opposite.
She relaxed her thighs and contracted her shins. She also made sure to lock her knee and ankle joints in place, so when she moved, the only joint in motion was the hip joint.
That made the movement a bit slower than the skill’s full potential, but it extremely heightened the precision and accuracy, so the user could even control whether they would leave behind footprints when walking.
And Michelle also noticed the thing that made her Shadow Spirit Steps so similar to the boss lady’s footwork.
It was the start of the skill and the posture the user had to keep.
Michelle kept that posture all her life, so it seemed natural to her, but when the boss lady showcased her footwork, she, too, got into that position, making Michelle realize that it wasn’t that natural of a posture. She was just used to it.
When using the two footworks, the user always set their head back a bit and straightened their back to an extreme. But at the same time, the user would let down and relax their shoulders.
That minimized the energy needed to move arms and also gave the posture good aerodynamics, compensating for the loss of speed created by locking in the knee and ankle joints.
And then, there was the start—the initiation of the footworks. Both Michelle and the boss lady always dragged the toe of their non-dominant leg—in both cases, the left leg—across the ground for a few centimeters, creating small dents on certain surfaces.
They also did the same thing when they switched terrains, but very briefly. Well, at least Michelle did it. She didn’t see the boss lady switch terrain, but she was guessing she did it too.