"Stop!" Her voice carried the same panic it had before the soul stone had exploded. His thoughts scattered; the energy fell back to his gut. "Listen very closely, kid, or else you just might lose your arm."
Marcus opened his eyes. "But you said—"
"I said channel 'some' of it, not 'all' of it. And I said to channel it into your arm, not your fist. Soul essence increases the abilities of the parts of your body it's most concentrated in, and nothing else.
"As you are now, a bullet to the gut probably wouldn't penetrate, but it would tear through any other part of you like butter."
"So then if I—"
"If you channelled all of that soul essence into your fist and threw a punch, you could demolish a house, but every part of your body other than the fist you threw would explode."
His heart tripped. "What!?"
"Newton's laws still apply. The force you output has an equal and opposite force going back into you. You could die as easily from recoil as you could from an OC," said River.
Marcus took a breath.
He'd nearly lost his life without even knowing it.
Thinking back to seven years ago, he'd popped his shoulder trying to shoot a gun without knowing about recoil, which ended up being the reason those goblins nearly killed him. He found it morbidly funny how he was about to make the same mistake twice after all he'd learned since then.
"So then how do I do this?" He closed his eyes again, nervous. Those things might be scared of him because of his awakened soul essence, but cornered animals fight tooth and nail no matter the opponent.
He didn't like the idea of having his eyes closed much longer.
"Take out only a little soul essence, and spread it throughout your entire arm evenly. Make sure it gets into every muscle and every joint. And be careful! If you channel too much into your entire arm, you'd still die.
"Your body is automatically strengthened by having a higher amount of soul essence than anyone else, so you could handle landing a strengthened punch. But any force higher than that would require you to distribute it evenly across your entire body. That's too much for someone who didn't have any soul essence until yesterday," she said.
Wasn't this entire situation a bit much for someone who didn't even know about soul essence till yesterday?
"A tiny bit…" he said, listening for confirmation.
"Spread evenly across your entire arm," she completed, her voice strangely reassuring and a little concerned. He could trust her.
Once again, he focused on the coldness deep within his gut. He began pulling on it superficially, drawing a much smaller portion up his stomach, then to his chest, and then up to his shoulder.
It was like taking out a single thread from a ball of yarn and stringing it along the inside of his body. The energy went down his arm, through his shoulder, down his bicep, to his forearm, wrist, and ending at his palm.
"Remember, spread it thoroughly, even the hairs on your arm should get a little soul essence in them."
Now that was just absurd.
He wasn't a professor of anatomy; didn't he need to understand his body on a cellular level to do that?
He stretched the thread of soul essence further, reaching it down to his fingertips and fingernails.
The feeling was alien, like he was consciously controlling the flow of his blood. But then, like second nature, the single thread stretched across his entire arm and chest.
It felt like a glove was wearing his skin.
Rather, it felt like the thread dissolved in his arm. Not so much that he couldn't still feel it within, but enough that he could feel it touching nearly everything.
His entire arm became a tad bit colder, and so did his chest. He felt it wasn't completely spread out evenly, but it was spread out enough; he could barely tell the places it didn't reach without concentrating even more than he already was.
Now came the tricky part—trying to stay concentrated on what he'd already done with his eyes open.
He opened them, staring at the goblins in front of him. They'd all taken a step back, probably sensing that he was prepared to attack.
It was like River said before.
They could sense the soul essence spread across his arm, like how humans or animals could tell when they're being threatened or about to be attacked.
He found his mind focused on the goblins in front of him, and the soul essence stayed spread across. It was time to test his abilities.
One of the goblins lunged at him with its rusty knife, probably having triggered its fight-or-flight response.
It chose fight.
Marcus swung his arm back and waited for the thing to get closer. His heart pounded faster than he'd anticipated as memories of seven years ago raced through his mind.
Channelling the years of resentment into his fist, he narrowed his eyes and calmed his nerves.
One more step and he'd hit that goblin with all he had.
About two feet away from him, the goblin jumped, thrusting the knife at Marcus.
"Put some into your feet to—"
Marcus swung his fist like a fired bullet—a straight jab, aimed at the goblin.
His knuckles met with the tip of the knife.
To his surprise, the blade didn't rip his hand in two. Rather, his fist continued to travel unattended, shattering the blade down to its handle, and not stopping till it slammed into the goblin's chest.
For an instant, he could feel its greasy, rough, dry skin on his fist before emptying the full brunt of his attack into its tiny body.
Energy reverberated through him—the recoil—nearly knocking Marcus off his feet.
But he didn't fall.
The goblin whizzed like a fired arrow, flying back at its pack, tearing through three other goblins; cutting them in half; before splatting on the wall at the end of the alley.
A brief silence washed the area as the goblins watched three of their kind fall to the floor in halves. River's eyes opened in shock, and Marcus's mouth was wide open before curving into a savage grin.
He did it.
He used soul essence.