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~~Thanksgiving Special (page 2 of 6)~~
Even before the man had responded, however, Hector had technically already begun. Rather than simplifying his technique to the point where he no longer needed any prep time, Hector felt that he might be able to achieve better results if he could just make his prep time invisible to his opponent.

The orbiting technique that he had developed in the Undercrust had gone through several iterations since its inception, especially during the worm fight. Here and now, Hector was sure that it was his best idea so far for creating powerful attacks.

The problem with it, as Zeff had already mentioned, was the prep time. Anything that he put into orbit around himself required at least a few seconds to accelerate before becoming truly threatening.

But what if he didn't actually put something into orbit, and instead merely imagined that it was there?

Everything about materialization only functioned as a result of the imagination in the first place. The cognitive process would be identical. The only difference would be that there was no physical object there.

Until he put one there, of course.

So what would happen if he went through the entire cognitive process of putting an object in orbit, increasing its speed, and then, only materialized that object into reality at the moment he was ready to let it fly?

It would conceal his prep time, wouldn't it?

Hector hadn't actually had time to test this theory out, but it had been in the back of his mind for a while now, and he was fairly confident that it would work.

So when he pointed his finger gun at Zeff--having the cognitive process already "loaded" into his mind and made easier by the hand sign--he was able to instantly let rip an iron bullet.

It burst into existence with a deafening crack and tagged Zeff right in the chest. It didn't go cleanly through, but judging from the fresh red stain on the man's translucent armor, it at least managed to draw blood.

And considering that was just the proof of concept, that he hadn't even tried to soul-strengthen the bullet, Hector was pretty damn pleased with that outcome.