“Spirit!” Dyne frowned.

“Dyne. While your battle skills are very powerful, you need to harness your soul energy to create Spirit. Although you have already learned how to use your soul to push and even attack, you seem to lack the ability to control your body's soul energy for physical strengthening.” Tetsu explained.

“If you learned to use this technique, you will be able to deal with lethal blows. Your attacks were fast, precise, and continuous. While most monsters would already fall with you might, skilled enemies won’t easily be defeated by it. But watch, compare the volley of attacks you’ve sent to me, and compare it with my simple attacks.” Tetsu smiled and immediately rushed towards Dyne.

Tetsu’s sprint was so fast.

Dyne wanted to retreat, but Tetsu was able to approach him easily and deliver a powerful punch.

As Dyne couldn’t evade the attack, he jumped backward to soften the impact and dodge the punch. As a trained soldier, this little trick had even saved him from getting stabbed or impaled by his enemies.

But the moment the punch connects, a strange force erupted and caused Dyne to feel the fullness of the force behind the punch. Dyne was flying back and fell to the sand and rolled a few times.

“What was that?!” Dyne was inwardly shocked. His arms were in pain as he felt the strike of Tetsu.

Tetsu allowed Dyne to experience pain through his punch. His pose turned to that of a wise sage and began to explain the mystery of that punch.

“Biron Arts focuses on using that energy that you have allowed us to strengthen our bodies. We can stabilize our steps through the strengthening of our body, wield strong energies that allow us to make explosive attacks that can breach through the enemy's defense. In effect, we actually transfer the energy behind our attack to strike the enemy.”

Dyne was surprised.

“Back before the Seru age, Lord Biron was one of the many fighters that pursued the pinnacle of martial arts. He could fight against monsters when most humans can’t. This is his legacy. There are monsters in this world that are as hard as a rock. In fact, some are made of rocks! And while the powers of a Seru that has bonded with humans are stronger than Biron strength, the true experts of our clan can face a Seru user and match him blow by blow.” Tetsu began to reveal his proud legacy.

“Through the teachings of Biron, we have studied how to use the arts of Spirit. While your fighting styles of persistent attacks may have been harmful to creatures like the Gobu Gobu, the stronger monsters up north are more dangerous. You must have seen the Mantis creatures up north as well as the ostriches on your way here."

Dyne nodded.

"Twin Tomb. Those monsters with sharp claws and had an insect like-shell. I saw the ostriches, and I honestly have been thinking of ways to tame them." Dyne answered and used his knowledge of the game to connect the dots.

"Correct. I imagine that the exodus of the people coming from the scattered towns around Central Drake going to Drake Castle must have caused these monsters to avoid the main roads. But your martial arts can barely harm them. You need Spirit to deal a powerful blow."

"Are there drawbacks of using Spirit?" Dyne asked. He wondered if the 'turn-based' system of Legend of Legaia would appear here.

"Very perceptive. There is a drawback. The drawback is that we can only maintain that state for a few seconds, and you won’t be able to cause your Spirit to make an explosive attack.” Tetsu explained.

Those words may not have much meaning, but to a gamer like Dyne, who had played Legend of Legaia for four times in his life, this sounded very familiar!

“So, that’s why they would attack like that in the game!” Dyne realized it.

“This explains the turn-based system of Legaia. They would channel their Spirit and cause an explosive series of attacks! But after that, they have to recover their Spirit. While they could defend, they won’t be able to attack for a few seconds.” Dyne continued to ponder as he clutched his arms, which was throbbing in pain.

Yet despite the pain, there was a sense of excitement.

“How is it? As a warrior, I acknowledge the ways of how you fight. Is that how you were trained in Sol? It is impressive and considering your age. I'm sure that your skills could match a Biron Monk. Still, since Lord Biron has blessed you, I implore you to study this! In truth, not everyone can fight like this and learn this technique. None of the Hunters can! I trained Vahn in it because he was able to copy my Spirit after observing me for so long.” Tetsu explained and signaled Vahn.

Vahn moved to the center.

“The focus of Spirit can be divided into two categories. Passive Spirit wherein you constantly gather the energy around you for defense, and Active Spirit, which is for offense.” Tetsu explained.

“Vahn, harness your Passive Spirit," Tetsu ordered.

Vahn then began to take a stance, which made him try to harness the Spirit energy around him.

Although Tetsu called it Spirit, Dyne could see what Vahn was trying to do was actually gathering Soul energy!

But this only lasted a second, and Vahn stopped, but his breathing was heavy.

“Vahn is a soul cultivator?” Dyne was secretly surprised.

“No.” It was Strafe who answered it.

“He is Soul Sensitive. But he is not Soul Cultivator. He has not achieved awakening."

“Then how can he do Spirit? How can Tetsu do it?”

“To make an analogy, it's like an amateur musician learning how to play one song. He doesn’t know how to read notes, play with chords, doesn’t understand it’s theories... But he knows how to play one song. And it’s like muscle memory for them. I left a few things that allow them to dive into that stage. But without the foundation and knowledge of the soul, what they have is a half-baked and weaker legacy.” Strafe explained.

“Oh, I get it.” Dyne’s expression turned serious as he could feel the strengthening power all over Vahn’s body.

“You’ve improved Vahn. Dyne, try to attack Vahn once. Don’t use those strange and surprising attacks that you did. Make one direct attack that Vahn can block.” Tetsu explained.

Dyne nodded and rushed towards Vahn. He did not underestimate this kid. He rushed in and delivered a powerful kick.

Vahn blocked it as a strange bluish field appeared.

The impact was nullified, and Dyne was amazed. This time he concentrated his eyes to look at how Vahn would block the attack.

“Very good, Vahn! You have improved!”

Vahn’s expression remained unchanged.

“Now. I want you to attack Dyne. Dyne, normally I would teach you how to meditate. But since you already can release Biron Plam Technique, which is another application of Spirit, you should be able to block this. And the best way for you to grow is to receive Vahn’s attack!” Tetsu explained with a serious expression.

Dyne nodded. He agreed with such methods.

“Allow me to prepare,” Dyne said.

He then quickly fell into contemplation and tried to imagine creating a shield. The soul energy moved and formed a shield.

Strafe was surprised. Dyne didn’t need to do the embarrassing movements to make his soul energy take form anymore.

Visible energy could be seen forming in front of Dyne.

Tetsu was shocked. Vahn was startled.

Strafe was so envious.

“You mother fragmenting son of a Biron!” Strafe cursed. His growth was just too fast! The hardest part of controlling soul energy was wielding it to take forms. If Dyne could learn to harden this energy, he would be considered a Soul Gathering cultivator!

“Ma-master Dyne. That’s not how Spirit works.” Tetsu interrupted.

“Erm? What?” Dyne stopped as the energy in front of him dissipated.

“Right. Spirit is an energy that we contain within our bodies. What you did was create it outside your body. Although it's amazing, its not Spirit.”

“Inside my body?” Dyne frowned.

He then closed his eyes and tried it. The Soul energy moved around Dyne’s body. Dyne tried to compress the energy in his right arm, which he intended to use to block Vahn’s attack.

“Go, Vahn.” Tetsu immediately ordered.

Vahn rushed towards Dyne and punched Dyne as Dyne blocked with his shoulder.

BANG!

Dyne was able to resist the attack but could feel the terrifying explosion of Vahn’s fist!

Dyne was pushed back and knelt down. His arms were throbbing from the strike.

“Drats! I failed to block it!” Dyne cursed.

“Failed? No. You succeeded.” Tetsu smiled.

“I succeeded? That punch was not blocked like what Vahn and you did.”

“What Vahn and I did is an advanced form of Spirit defense. By exploding the energy out on the exact moment an attack is made, he can negate an attack that is roughly at least within five times the force he can release or create.” Tetsu explained.

“Blocking!” Dyne recalled that whenever a player or enemy successfully blocks an attack in the game, the attack will do no damage to the character. But for Dyne, he was still hurt. He wanted to achieve what Vahn did, where all of his attack force was successfully negated.

“The basic principle of Spirit is defense. You were able to withstand that attack. Don’t underestimate Vahn, a successful punch that utilizes active Spirit can break rocks.” Tetsu explained.

Dyne was stunned.

“Harnessing this power, you could create a defense that can even withstand stabbing attacks. If your Gomboo attacks me with his blade, I can block it with that advanced spirit defense. But even if I don’t block it and simply do what you did, that stab won’t even leave a deep wound but only a shallow one.”

Dyne was amazed.

“With Spirit, you can basically improve your overall defense. In terms of offense, it would even allow you to kill Serus despite their hard shells!” Tetsu explained.

Dyne nodded. He knew that Vahn would be forced to fight Seru monsters even without a Ra-Seru at the start of the game. And yet, Vahn could already kill them.

“Wow. Strafe. You really were thorough with imitating this game!” Dyne commended.

“I had to imitate it! Otherwise, you would be uninterested in it.” Strafe laughed.