Back in the village, Tetsu had been meditating and comprehending more about Soul cultivation that he was oblivious at the training that Dyne had Vahn undergo.

So when Vahn performed what Dyne called ‘Juggle,’ it piqued the martial artist in him. The attack was powerful and difficult to evade.

The monster was kept high up in the air and allowed Vahn to deliver a combo that released the Spirit attack upwards. It was powerful and very precise.

“Juggles?” Tetsu heard Dyne’s praise and marveled at the term.

“Alright. Let's absorb the experience first and get the gold!”

Tetsu then turned his attention to Dyne, who was now telling Vahn to make Meta divide the experience. He then carefully observed the Frog and was even more amazed.

He knew how hard these monsters' skin is but realized that the Spirit energy that Dyne released was compressed on the Scythes tip. As Tetsu's understanding of Soul grew, he could see just how Dyne manipulated the spirit energy.

What was mysterious was that Dyne was able to take control of his Spirit and even caused it to overflow into the Seru. Thus, a Spirit attack that was enveloped on a sharp weapon appeared.

Dyne gathered the gold as Meta began the quick work of gathering the experience and dividing it among them. As Dyne found that there were no more ways for him to improve in that, he left the experience gathering and division to Meta.

“What is Juggles?” Tetsu finally asked when they were free.

Dyne smiled. This brought him back to the good ol’ days of Tekken 3. Although Dyne managed to play the first two games, it wasn’t until Tekken 3 that he learned and began to juggle his opponents.

“Juggles is a battle technique that is aimed to keep enemies up in the air while we continuously deal damage by hitting them. As you can see, Vahn had used his Spirit to create an upward explosion to throw the monster higher. One of the weaknesses in using Biron Spirit arts is that it's hard to switch from offense to defense. This was your concern, wasn’t it, Tetsu?”

“Correct. I told you that if the enemy can retaliate by abandoning defense through your technique, it would do critical damage because we are not protected. A single monster’s attack can easily kill an average human.”

“That’s why I taught Vahn juggles. The goal is to kill the enemy without the possibility of them being able to counterattack. Even if you are unable to kill it, a successful round of juggles will greatly injure and hurt the enemy. This is better since I couldn’t find the keys to that throne room in the castle to get that book.”

“That was fairly impressive. Eight combo hits! The Frog should have had ways to attack Vahn, but Vahn had already injured it too much for him to land the killing blow. Also, his last move looked like a Biron art.”

“It was. Power punch! Right, Vahn? This is another advantage of Juggles. By allowing Vahn to deliver several moves in succession, the Spirit power being stored in his body accumulates and allows him to perform a powerful Art.”

“Master Dyne. What about you? You were able to cause your Spirit energy to flow through your Gimard!”

“Eh.” Dyne shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s a Soul Gathering thing. Cultivate harder, and you will soon be able to do that. Vahn could do it, with the help of Meta.” Dyne pointed at Vahn.

Tetsu was silent. But he sighed. Yet again, the two youths outdid him. Although Vahn’s case was that he had a Ra-Seru, Tetsu still blamed his inaptitude and vowed to train harder.

“I have divided the life energy.” Meta reported.

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The experience was all evenly divided among the three of them. While everyone could absorb the experience as they were all Soul Cultivators, Meta was far more efficient and faster.

Dyne motioned for Calamity to begin feasting on the monsters.

As Calamity began to devour it, Tetsu and Vahn gazed curiously.

“Master Dyne isn’t this Calamity a little bit darker than the one on the other side.”

“Yes. It must have eaten something that has received blessings from a god. I’m not sure which monsters, as Calamity doesn’t know as well. That’s why I want to see if eating these things will give him more blessings.”

“Great! If Calamity grows stronger, our journey will be faster.” Tetsu praised.

“But it’s amazing that it can kill these frogs.” Vahn was amazed. He knew how tough and strong these monsters were.

“I thought them to play possum. They pretend to be dead or dying. Because of their different colors, the monsters assume that Calamity is dying. And when they get close enough, BAM! Slime Spirit Strike!” Dyne laughed.

Soon, the Slime finished its meal and left nothing but bones on the frogs.

“No changes, huh? But I expected this. Calamity should grow stronger if it eats more Lippians. Going by Meta’s story, I think the Lippians are the ones blessed. The Goddess of Water, Ferti, must have blessed them. But until we kill one and have Calamity eat it, we won’t know for sure. Let’s move.”

The group began to continue their journey northwards.

The Mist was getting thicker and thicker as they moved further up.

Dyne frowned as he saw the thick Mist.

“Meta, can you use your powers to protect us from the Mist? If this continues, Tetsu and I will soon be affected. Our training can prevent us from going scared or mad, but it will make us very irritable.” Dyne recalled the previous sessions.

“Even I can’t resist it if I move in such a thick Mist for too long,” Dyne added.

“Not at the moment. I can only protect Vahn from the Mist. But I am still too weak to drive away such thick Mist.”

“It’s a good thing we brought in some of Drake Water. The Mist is far thicker here…” Dyne noticed.

They continued moving and met several monsters along the way. This time, it was an Ostrich with a Frog. The pair worked together and defeated it easily. This time it was Tetsu and Dyne who attacked.

The Frog was mercilessly and brutally combed to death when Tetsu tried the technique of juggles. It was impressive for a first-timer to try it. The Frog was already dead on the seventh strike. Tetsu began with a simple strike that launched the monster into the air.

With Dyne’s explanation of the Tekken Juggles system, Tetsu already prepared several launching attacks and executed a very accurate combo. The difference between Tetsu’s expert techniques was revealed. He used summersaults and a two-staged cross kick combo that sent the Frog hurling once more. But even when the Frog died, Tetsu wanted to see just how far his ability in juggling can carry him.

A seventeen-hit combo was made, and this only ended because Tetsu was unable to acquire more art points to deliver the succeeding Arts.

After completing his juggles, Tetsu was satisfied with himself and turned towards Vahn to see his expressions.

But upon turning, he found Vahn’s jaw wide opened, and Tetsu turned to where Vahn was looking.

The bisected parts of the Ostriches were all falling to the ground. Blood was everywhere, and the Ostriches' body parts were still flying all over the place.

Grim was flying and slicing on the air and would boomerang back to Dyne, who would throw it back up in the air and would strike any pieces and parts of the Ostriches to send it back up to be hacked and slashed.

Dyne finally ended his combo, but not a single drop of blood was on Dyne.

“How?” Vahn was confused about why the blood did not fall on him.

“He created a Spirit Block. It was very weak and paper-thin. But it was just enough to repel the blood.” Tetsu observed it.

Vahn felt a strange chill on his back. The attack that Dyne released was very gory and brutal. The Ostrich ran towards Dyne and planned to ram him, but Dyne struck him with Grim. The blade stabbed through the Ostrich and sent it flying up. Dyne could see a fountain of blood spewing upwards and knew that Dyne used his Spirit to explode and hurl the Ostrich upwards with Grim.

When it was on the air, Dyne then proceeded to slice the Ostrich with Grim. The Ostrich was several meters high and gave time for Dyne to set up a thin Spirit shield to prevent the blood from spilling at him.

“Alright. Looks like meats back on the menu, boys!” Dyne gave a hearty and rowdy laugh.

“Mas-Master Dyne?” Vahn called out. He feared that the Mist made Dyne grow crazy.

“Alright. For now, we set up camp. I think if we proceed any further than here, the Mist will start affecting us. So we’ll stay here.” Dyne pointed to the shore of the deep river nearby.

“Are you… alright?” Tetsu hesitated to ask.

“Oh. Yeah. That sight must have made me look insane. Don’t worry. I was trying to do a Juggle with Grim. And just like you, it looks like I was successful. How many combos did you hit?” Dyne inquired at Tetsu.

“Seventeen,” Tetsu answered.

Vahn was shocked.

“Amazing!” Vahn knew that Tetsu was not able to practice this.

“You shall surpass me soon, Vahn.” Tetsu laughed.

“Alright. I dissected it this way for a reason. We now just have to cook the sliced meat!” Dyne began to lick his lips. Ever since his transfer to this world, he has not had the chance to eat fowl meat.