The early morning next day, Athar arrived in the same hall for his class.
This was a practical class, and in all probability, it was to be taken by the teacher about whom Teacher Sankul had mentioned—the teacher who would teach them about Human-Beast Synergy.
The students this time already stood in a semicircle formation, and Athar had made himself more comfortable, standing at one edge of the semicircle while a boy stood to his left.
It was some time later when loud echoes of boots reverberated in the hall. From the gates had entered a lady, and her crisp, rhythmic walk was like music to the ears. The lady appeared to be in her mid-thirties. She was dressed in blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a brown jacket. The boots matched the colour of her jacket.
She was almost six feet in height. Her black hair was tied in a ponytail, while her big black eyes were narrowed as she studied the students.
"Good morning, everyone," she said with a grin, and the grin subconsciously sent a chill down the spine of the entire class.
"Good morning," the entire class replied in unison.
"Now, as Teacher Sankul might have told you, I will be the one who will guide you all and help you all to achieve better synergy with your beast."
"As for my introduction, my name is Angelica," she said.
"Let us begin," she said. "The first thing we need to understand is why this synergy, this synchronisation with your beast, is so necessary if you really want to be at your full power."
"Now, what happens is that the moment you form your bond with your beast, you start getting affected by their characteristics and attributes. You not only gain skills, but their attributes also start to affect you."
"For example, suppose I bond with a beast that is fast, known for agility; these attributes will start to affect me too. My body will slowly become more agile."
"Similarly, if I have a beast known for brute force, then it affects my strength. I will become physically stronger."
"So, what do we do in such situations?" she continued. "Suppose my beast is an agility-type beast, but I start focusing more on refining the physical strength of my body. Will it benefit me or put me at a disadvantage?"
She answered the question herself, "There is no clear answer to such a question. Why? Because there are two ways to look at this thing."
"Firstly, you might say that since my beast is already helping in improving my agility, I can focus on my attributes like strength and develop all-around fighting capabilities. I can be an all-rounder, and this might probably give me an edge in a battle," she said. "Does this scenario make sense?"
The students nodded. It perfectly made sense to all of them except Athar, who remained impassive. He was waiting for the second scenario.
"The second scenario: Since my beast is already helping to improve my agility, I must focus on agility itself. It will give an overwhelming advantage in agility, and though my strength might not be that high, my agility can make do," she explained. "Does this scenario make sense?"
The students again nodded. This also made perfect sense.
"Great," she chuckled. "Since both scenarios make sense, the case should be that cultivators taking either the first path or the second path should be successful. Both of the paths should help the cultivator and his beast their full potential."
The students nodded as she continued, "But sadly, this does not happen. It is general phenomenon that cultivators taking the first path never reach their full potential."
"And for this reason, cultivators generally take the second path. You met Teacher Sankul yesterday. Did you see his beast?" she questioned.
"An Ape," one of the students replied.
"Yes," Angelica said. "A beast heavily attuned towards strength."
"And so, Teacher Sankul took the path of strength. During a battle, he relies on overwhelming strength to deal damage to the enemy. His physical body too has been tuned for an overwhelming strength kind of physique."
"But suppose he had chosen to go on the agility path. Would he have had the same capability? No. For a little bit of agility, he would have let go of the massive advantage in his strength."
"But why does this happen? Why is the first path almost doomed to fail?"
"Well, there is a very fine reason for it," she continued. "It is said that when we form the bond with the beast, we, in reality, get naturally attributed or tuned to their characteristics."
"Which means that we are naturally tuned towards agility or strength or whatever. And in such a case, if we take the first path, we are actually going against the natural tendency of our body."
"So, does it not make sense that we do not reach our full potential if we do take that first path?" she asked.
The students nodded, and a smile appeared on her face.
"So, Teacher Sankul embraced his natural attributes. Strength. A bulky body to support that strength and he reached the full potential of his body."
"Now," she said. "I used general terms likes agility or strength to explain the concept. But this does not end here."
"If your beast has a natural attribute to some other thing; say an elemental beast- you will also get that same attribute. You will get control over that element. Every attribute of your beast will affect you."
"Your beasts' skills are also transferred to you and you can use them easily," she explained. "It is as I said, that our body gets naturally attributed or tuned to the characteristics of our beasts."
"And thus, developing this natural synergy forwards, refining it even further is the best suitable way forward for any cultivator who wish to unlock their full potential."
"Am I making sense?" She asked and the students nodded.
"Good," she continued, "and now this pushes us to our next topic- selection of suitable battle techniques."
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