Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 508: Soul.

Dante's martial arts had always relied on killing the opponents movements before they can execute a move. That becomes increasingly more difficult the more skilled his opponent is, but with Absolute Awareness active, even the most skilled of martial artists would fail to keep up with him.

Riot might look like a brainless juggernaut, but his fighting skills were unmatched in this day and age. Even then, he failed to keep up with Dante. The difference in skill became more apparent with each combo exchanged, but neither moved to end the fight.

Just as Dante decided to move on to the attack, the grin returned to Riot's face.

"You sure you want to keep this up?" He asked. "Those fancy arm of yours won't hold up for long."

Dante was far more skilled, true, but there was one aspect he failed to take into account when entering this fight—the durability of his bionics.

CRACK

The sound was louder than anything else in the underground arena. Punching the wall of muscles away, Dante stopped to look at his arms. His eyes shot wide open when he noticed the cracks running through the green plating of the 4-3 Module, and from what he could tell, those weren't surface cracks.

"Don't look so surprised. We've been swapping blows for some time now."

Riot seem to take the hint and dropped his stance, bringing the fight to an end. The red glow coating his arms slowly dissipated, and his skin regained its pale color soon after. Dante watched him in silence before his face scrunched up in a frown.

"How the hell can you do this?"

"How the hell you can't?" Riot replied. "You fight better than most people yet you still haven't figured out Soul Manifestation?"

"Soul… what now?"

"Huh… you haven't even heard of it before?"

The way the big guy talked made it sound as if it was something Dante should know about, but clearly he had no idea what it was. The only time he heard about soul was in relation to his cyborg body and how it needed to change shape to fit in it.

"That's strange…" Riot dropped down on the floor, sitting with his legs and arms crossed. "Who was your teacher?"

"I don't have one." Dante replied. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Yeah, right. You're a genius who got this good on his own yet never played around with his Soul."

Riot's mocking tone got on Dante's nerves, but he did his best to let it slide.

"I'm no genius…" Thinking for a moment, he then added. "There was this homeless old man that used to give me trouble a while back. I just copied what he did and…"

"... damn…" Riot whispered under his breath. "Son of a bitch really is a genius…"

Though the comment irked Dante, he let it slide as his mind went back to a few years ago, around the time he arrived in Neo-Vatra. Being homeless at the time, it wasn't uncommon for him to clash with other homeless people as they fought to survive.

No one took those conflicts personally or held a grudge over them, but there was this one vindictive old man who never let Dante see the end of it after their first encounter. All Dante did was steal one packed sandwich from him, but even after getting his revenge, the old bastard hunted Dante everywhere, making his life hell.

The old bum could fight, somehow. After trying to kill him a few times, Dante learned that using guns against him was a quick way to get the beating of a lifetime. That left him with no choice but to learn to counter him with just his hands, and after two years of getting his ass handed to him, the old bum disappeared. Dante never won against him. Not even once.

"Strange… why would he pass his technique to you but not take you in?" Riot muttered, holding his chin in thought.

"Who knows?" Dante shrugged. "Maybe he kicked the bucket too soon?"

"Yeah, I'm not buying that. You sure he isn't coming back?"

"It has been over a year since I last head from him. We… we didn't part on good terms…"

It happened around the time Dante got his first implant. He recalled the old bum being sorely disappointed. With his main goal being revenge against Paragon and Eidolon, Dante saw no point in learning martial arts. What he needed were stronger weapons and implants, and the fastest way to get those was the bloody work of a merc.

"Listen..." Riot pressed his mouth to a thin line, taking a long pause before continuing with what he has to way. "I know it's not my place to say this, but you screwed up when you decided to go down the cyborg route."

"... what?"

"You clearly have talent, so if you just kept at it for a while, you would have climbed up to Level 4 in no time. You might have even reached Level 5."

Dante scuffed.

"Now you're just reaching. How the hell can you get that from…"

His words died out near the end as he realized that he was spouting nonsense, seeing that the proof was sitting right in front of him. The muscular man sitting in front of him was close to being a basic, with the only implant on him being a bionic heart. He wasn't a Sorcerer, and neither was he a Genome. Despite that, he able to hold his own against a Level 4.

"Soul Manifestation," Riot said, as if reading his thought. "It's the most natural enhancement route humans could take, though few ever do."

".. what?"

"You heard me." Riot said. "Sorcery can only be practiced by those with the right blood. Bionic implants and genetic engineering are shortcuts that mostly end up in failure." He held his hand up, and the red glow from before returned. "Soul is the only path all humans could take. It's the longest, and the most arduous. Only those with unyielding willpower would choose to walk it."