Wizard girl tried to get away from training. She failed. Poor Eli, you will be missed.
Whether people admire or look down upon one's motives is largely irrelevant for who wins. It's of course not what people want, and for that reason also something they might not expect.
He should have a fairly clear motivation if he feels he lacks one. There's that whole future thing. It might not be something he feels is in a future he can connect to, but it's there if he wants to aim for something.
Would be much funnier to see the others not being able to get up, rather than just being told about it.
That stepping thing seems a bit odd, since the speed you can move forward is dependent on your centre of balance relative to the rearmost point you can push from on the ground. Unless you can use magic to push against the air or shrink space so you don't have to move as far.
And for the normal version, normally you already have a foot forward, so you don't need to "step in" first. The reason you have a ready stance like that is so you can move immediately. Though there is an element of surprise if you stand with your feet next to each other.
Yeah, read it in a manga. Sounds legit.
It's not that you get an extra move, it's that you can move farther in the same tempo. And it's kind of hard to gain "a little bit" in each tempo over time, since you kind of have to match your opponent, or there will be a hit (or double). If you move faster, what's going to happen is that you're going to force your opponent to move less to keep up with you, which would keep them at the same tempo. So there's an advantage in the speed, but not as he explains it.