Burk mind tricks. This _is_ the big juicy fist you're looking for.

So, the same bewitching powers as Evelye(sp?) I assume?

His ability to manipulate the supernatural apparently goes so far as to allow him to just tell sapient spirits to hold right there while he gets a good wind up. And they'll listen.

what

Either something inherent about burk, or someone did something to one of the contracts.

Guess the glowy eyes are a symbol of using power, and he seems to have a command trick similar to Evyle.

And that's Burk with a nat 20 on persuasion!

Von Esperda has the powers, but not the reaction speed.

I believe that was an attempt at sarcasm from a spirit who never encountered the dreaded playground style wordplay.

or perhaps he knows he has the power to always punch a magic user and the contracts that gave the spirit powers also makes him vulnerable to Burks abilities

As mentioned by others, not sure if it's an esper ability or Vonesperda just not expecting that speed.

now that's a disturbing facial expression

So Burk IS an Esper! His powers are just subtle and primarily used to support his physical combat capabilities. Either that, or Burk is somehow half-Spirit, due to him sharing his eyes-hidden-by-his-hair thing that this spirit has. But Burk being an Esper, or some other type of specialised punching-mage, sounds more likely.

A thought. We saw spirits can possess things from the cat earlier. What if Burk is possessed by a spirit?
Like he's an esper, we can see him make verbal demands here to a spirit that they have to follow. But he also looks to be about to physically interact with one. If he's possessed, his fist would also be a spirit fist... maybe?

So, he's an esper, after all.

Some weird kind of esper, maybe. Or something new, but with significant overlap.

Something will go wrong. I couldn't be this easy!

She does look pretty happy to let Burk punch her face!

Guess this is the first time we see Burk actively and unarguably using a power. We've seen passive use before (like with the shoulder Burks warning him about where a hit would go) and we've seen him do plenty of rather extraordinary stuff but that could always be explained away by "it's a fantasy comic, and we've seen other people do similar feats, so maybe it's just normal for a buff guy to do that in this world".

@Charter

That... actually makes a lot of sense. Possessed by two spirits, to be exact. Two oddly identical looking, palette-swapped spirits.

At first I also thought Burk is just too fast for Vonney to react, but... Her expression makes it look more like she is TRYING to react, but finds herself unable to.

My vote is on Outside Context Burk.

He is something completely different that nobody in this world has ever encountered before. As evidenced by the fact that nobody has a handle on him even after witnessing his abilities.

@Melany

Could it be, that Burk is possessed by himself? If this is an RPG, there could have been some rules-lawyering shenanigans where Burk went and fought in the spirit realm, obtained posession abilities and decided to possess himself? If it means a power-up to himself and to the body he took, it means he just basically gets a 2x power bonus and all the abilities the possession gives ...

Rather than assume that Burk is using a previously undisclosed power of his own, why not assume that this is Evyle's doing, since we have seen her wield the exact same trick just a few pages ago?

Remember what he told the mini-burks while running away in https://www.neorice.com/hoh_3156

He asked if they remembered what the behatted trenchcoat centipede had said (on behalf of its master, Evyle), and told them to be patient.

Based on information presented so far, this seems much more likely to be a setup planned by Evyle using her power than Burk turning out by strange coincidence to master her trick.

@Deliverance Exactly what I was thinking. The meeting with Corkscrew was clearly setting up something important, something Burk had to wait for.

Then a few pages later, Vonesperda looks different and can't seem to defend herself? I have to assume this is what Burk was told to wait for.

That said, we don't know WHY she looks different (it started page 3164, for reference). Nor do we know if Burk's eye sparkles do anything.

But my guess is, this is mostly Evyle and/or Corkscrew's doing, and the eye sparkles are just Burk being excited.

Burk's eyes have done the sparkly thing before.

And yeah it is a little hard to figure out if she is being commanded. Or just sarcastic and caught off guard by Burks speed and leaping ability.

But i guess we will likely see next comic.

This is probably Evyle/Corkscrew powers and Burk powers working in tandem.

You can tell which power is from Burk because it's the one that involves punching.

If it is Burk revealing himself to be an esper, this tells us surprisingly little about him. What is he so strong and fast? Why does he have shoulder spirits?

I GUESS it could just be a totally normal thing, spoil sports.

@Lord incaros :

Interesting gues, since we know that Evyle did send a message to Burk.

@ Deliverance: Honestly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Burk ended up being a Pandemonium Mage or an Esper (with the Esper being more likely) whose shoulder-devils are independent magical or Esper constructs that control his powers. They are bound to/maintained by him, and so inherently want to keep Burk alive, thus the warning of danger thing they have done. But they also aren't Burk, and can consider him getting injured funny, resulting in them not using their powers when it would be funny, or using their powers to be funny.

«Esper confirmed» comments are so cringe. What new information are you given in this page? Stfu with your ill placed confidence. That goes for the new spirit posession theories too.

@Darius Drake
I wouldn't either. I have no idea what Burk is, apart from being one unit of Burk, who likes to Burk.