The mountain fell silent.

The wind itself seemed to hesitate.

Liam’s expression changed completely.

Because he noticed something strange.

Dickson wasn’t standing still.

Not exactly.

His body...

Was flickering.

Like an unstable image.

Appearing.

Disappearing.

Appearing again.

His voice echoed strangely.

Each word overlapping itself.

Vibrating unnaturally.

"I-I-I-I-I d-d-d-don’t th-th-think..."

Electricity exploded across his body.

"...it’s just about making myself faster."

Crack.

Crack.

CRACK.

The lightning grew violent.

His clothes fluttered wildly despite the absence of strong wind.

The rocky ground beneath his feet began trembling.

Pebbles bounced.

Tiny cracks spread outward.

Liam’s eyes widened slightly.

"...Dickson."

He wasn’t joking anymore.

The sensation...

It reminded him of something.

Not power.

Potential.

The very space around Dickson appeared unstable.

His entire existence blurred.

His outline split into afterimages.

One.

Two.

Three.

Multiple Dicksons overlapped for fractions of a second before snapping back together.

The sound changed.

At first...

It resembled electricity.

Then...

It became vibration.

Bzzzzzzzzzz.

BZZZZZZZZZZZ.

The frequency increased.

Higher.

Faster.

The mountain beneath them shook harder.

Dust rose into the air.

Dickson slowly turned his head toward Liam.

Even his smile flickered.

"I’ve been practicing."

His voice sounded distorted.

"...and I think..."

His body vanished.

Then reappeared.

Vanished.

Then reappeared.

"...I figured something out."

The smile on Liam’s face disappeared entirely.

For the first time since this conversation started...

He looked genuinely interested.

Genuinely serious.

The world itself seemed to hold its breath.

Dickson lowered his center of gravity.

One foot remained on solid rock.

The other hovered above empty sky.

Electricity erupted around him violently.

The very air screamed.

The mountain cracked beneath his feet.

His grin widened.

"Try counting."

Liam stared.

"...What?"

Dickson looked ahead.

Toward the impossible path below.

Toward the rocky outcrop that should have been unreachable.

His body became pure vibration.

His laughter echoed through the mountain peak.

"One."

The air exploded.

"Two."

Reality distorted.

"Three."

Then—

BOOM!!!

——-

Dickson vanished.

That was the only way Liam could describe it.

One moment, his best friend had been standing at the edge of the mountain with lightning dancing around his body and his entire existence vibrating at an impossible frequency. The next moment, he was simply gone.

BOOM!

The mountain peak exploded beneath Dickson’s foot.

The sound came after.

Liam’s eyes widened as streaks of blue-white lightning carved a path down the mountainside like someone had taken a glowing blade and sliced reality apart. Dickson wasn’t running anymore. Running implied movement that could be followed, something the eyes could process and understand.

This wasn’t that.

He was a blur.

The cold mountain air howled violently around the disappearing figure, but Dickson tore through it as if the wind itself wasn’t allowed to touch him. Jagged rocks became meaningless beneath his feet. Uneven surfaces, steep cliffs, loose gravel—none of it mattered. Every step released an explosive burst of lightning that launched him farther and faster, leaving burning trails of electricity suspended in the air behind him.

Liam instinctively focused harder.

His evolved vision activated on its own.

Environmental awareness.

Enhanced perception.

Dynamic sight.

Everything sharpened.

Even then...

He was struggling.

"...No way," Liam whispered.

For the first time in a very long while, he genuinely had trouble tracking someone else’s movements.

Dickson reached the rocky outcrop they had been looking at.

His foot landed.

Then...

BOOM!!!

The entire surface exploded.

Chunks of rock blasted outward in every direction as the force of his acceleration shattered the ground beneath him. Dickson launched upward like a bolt fired directly from heaven itself before latching onto the mountain face.

Then he ran vertically.

Straight up.

The mountain became his road.

Lightning burst from beneath his bare feet as he sprinted against gravity itself, his body vibrating so quickly that even the mountain struggled to acknowledge his existence.

The truly terrifying part wasn’t his speed.

It was the fact that the electrical trails he had left behind below were still there.

Still crackling.

Still floating.

The sparks dancing down the mountain hadn’t disappeared yet.

That meant...

Dickson had already returned before the evidence of his departure had time to fade.

At the top of the mountain, Liam slowly opened his mouth.

"O—"

His eyes widened further.

"..."

He never finished.

Dickson was already standing in front of him.

The mountain breeze gently moved his hair.

Lightning crackled softly across his skin before fading away.

Woooooo...

Dickson spread his arms proudly.

"I guess you never counted one, right?"

Liam stared at him.

Completely stunned.

Not because he forgot how to count.

Not because he froze.

No.

He simply hadn’t gotten the chance.

Dickson had returned before Liam could even say the word "one."

The smile on Dickson’s face became unbearably smug.

Meanwhile, Liam’s jaw slowly lowered.

"...H..."

He blinked.

"...How?"

His voice came out weaker than he intended.

"H-How?"

Even Dickson looked surprised by the reaction.

"What?"

Liam pointed at him.

"No seriously."

He looked down the mountain.

Then back at Dickson.

Then down again.

Then back.

"What the fuck?"

Dickson scratched the back of his head.

"...Was it really that impressive?"

Liam finally snapped himself out of his trance and grabbed Dickson by the shoulders.

"Impressive?"

He looked genuinely offended.

"Do you know how ridiculous that just was?"

Dickson blinked.

"You couldn’t even follow me?"

"I had trouble!"

"..."

"..."

The silence lasted exactly one second before Dickson burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha!"

He bent over slightly.

"You?"

He pointed accusingly at Liam.

"The guy that flies faster than missiles?"

He pointed at himself.

"You had trouble following me?"

Liam looked away.

"...Shut up."

"Hahahahaha!"

Liam narrowed his eyes.

Then something clicked.

He turned back toward Dickson.

"...Wait."

Dickson wiped tears from his eyes.

"What?"

"If you could do this..."

Liam gestured wildly.

"...then how the hell did Lilith beat you up that badly?"

Dickson opened his mouth.

But before he could answer...

The two of them paused.

"..."

"..."

Liam sniffed.

Dickson sniffed.

"...Do you smell that?"

The two slowly lowered their gazes.

Then...

"...Oh."

"..."

"...Oh."

Dickson looked down.

His boots were on fire.

Literally.

Bright orange flames danced happily around them.

"...Shit."

He blinked.

"...Shit!"

Then he started hopping around.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

He frantically pulled at the burning footwear.

Liam finally snapped out of his shock.

Then immediately burst into laughter.

"Hahahahahaha!"

Dickson removed one boot and threw it down the mountain.

Then the other.

"I LOVED THAT PAIR!"

The flaming boots disappeared into the clouds below.

Dickson stared after them with a pained expression.

"...Those were imported."

Liam laughed even harder.

"You crossed mountains faster than lightning and your biggest concern is your shoes?"

"They were expensive!"

"They caught fire!"

"They were comfortable!"

Liam had to wipe tears from his eyes.

The sheer stupidity of the situation finally overwhelmed him.

The man had just displayed speed so absurd it defied logic.

Then lost a battle against footwear.

Eventually, Dickson sighed heavily before walking back toward the edge of the mountain.

Without his boots, his bare feet rested against the freezing stone surface.

He slowly lowered himself down.

Then sat at the edge.

His legs dangled over the endless drop below.

The morning sun had risen further now.

Golden light painted the mountain peaks stretching across the horizon.

After a few moments, Dickson finally spoke.

"The reason I got beat up..."

His tone was calmer now.

"...was because I let her."

Liam’s laughter gradually faded.

He turned toward his friend.

"You let her?"

Dickson nodded.

"Yeah."

"You could’ve escaped."

He looked at Dickson with genuine confusion.

"You literally just outran my ability to count to one."

Dickson leaned backward until he was lying flat against the cold mountain surface.

His bare legs still hung over the edge.

The breeze swept across his face.

"...Yeah."

He looked toward the sky.

"I could’ve escaped."

Silence settled between them.

Then Dickson smiled softly.

"Nobody knows what I can do, Liam."

His voice lacked its usual joking tone.

"I never told anyone."

"I never showed anyone."

"Not Lilith."

"Not Vanessa."

"Not Kelly."

"Not even you."

Liam stared quietly.

Dickson folded his hands behind his head.

"When I first got these powers, I was scared."

He chuckled weakly.

"Lightning sounds cool until you realize you don’t understand what the hell is happening inside your own body."

"I kept experimenting."

"I kept failing."

"Burning myself."

"Breaking things."

"Learning."

His eyes reflected the rising sun.

"And eventually..."

A smile slowly spread across his face.

"...I discovered that being underestimated isn’t always a bad thing."

He turned his head slightly toward Liam.

"If everyone thinks I’m just the loud idiot of the group..."

His smile widened.

"...then nobody prepares for me."

The mountain breeze carried his words away.

"I let Lilith beat me up because..."

He closed his eyes briefly before reopening them.

"...she needed it."

Liam frowned.

"Huh?"

Dickson chuckled.

"She was angry."

"Embarrassed."

"Worried."

"And honestly..."

He scratched his cheek.

"...I deserved some of it."

Liam snorted.

"Only some?"

Dickson grinned.

"Okay."

"I deserved most of it."

They both laughed.

Then Dickson looked toward the endless mountains stretching beneath the morning sky.

"But if I truly wanted to leave..."

He lifted one hand.

Tiny sparks danced between his fingers.

"...nobody would’ve stopped me."

Liam looked at his best friend.

The idiot who got scammed by fake pregnancies.

The idiot who lost to burning shoes.

The idiot who laughed while free-falling through clouds.

The idiot who willingly took a beating from his terrifying cousin because he thought he deserved it.

And now...

The idiot who had somehow become fast enough to outrun Liam’s ability to count.

For the first time since this started, Liam genuinely wondered just how terrifying Dickson would become if he ever stopped holding back.