Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-85.130.101.225-20130816112245/@comment-10390252-20130917071125

The Devil's Advocate WP wrote: The prologue did not emphasize that at all. It emphasized that mankind was only able to fight them off with the power of Dust. Ren blew the Taijitu's head off without using Dust. You're missing a key point of Ren's adventures in the Initiation. After using an aura attack, Ren was at half power or less for the rest of the test and was of only minimal usefulness against the Death Stalker and Nevermore. Because Aura is a bio-generated power, it is finite and high-level use fatigues the user. Extremely high-level use (like Ren's shotgun punch) can leave you burnt out until you can rest and recuperate (something unlikely in battle). The total ineffectiveness of Jade Dragons against the Taijitu mean that I'm sure Ren was forced to almost exclusively use his aura against them. That's why he was at such low energy, collapsing from exhaustion when everyone else was still bouncing around.

So, Aura is not a game changer. It is a leveller but really is only effective in extended use for defensive applications (basically to keep you alive as you retreat). To force the foe back, to hold your ground and to win, you need a way to multiply its power many times over and widen the scope and reach of its applications. You need Dust.