“Did you know that there existed different populations of ‘Stras? Two main ones are particularly noteworthy in our case: we will call them the ‘New’ one and the ‘Old’ one for practical reasons, the New one having appeared more recently as far as I know.
The difference is interesting: the Teostras of the New population often use the Supernova attack against their foes, whereas those of the Old population don’t. I’ll explain why. Actually, the reason is less related to their blast powder than to their Fire Aura. Because the uses of this Aura also change depending on the populations: in most cases, the Aura of the New one only surrounds the Teostra’s head, while the Aura of the Old one surrounds all of his body.
To simplify, it is a question of energy. It’s not that the New Teostras aren’t able to cover their bodies with the Aura, but they choose not to: they prefer to spend less energy and protect only their heads with it… Until they trigger the Supernova. You shouldn’t consider it as an usual blast explosion. It is, in fact, a huge and brutal Fire Aura that has been enabled for a very short time (you might be tempted to call it Super Aura from now on and I won’t stop you).
But this attack requires a lot, a lot of energy, which is why Teostras of the Old population don’t use it; they already spend a remarkable amount of energy in keeping their large Fire Aura on for a long time. Only few skilled individuals - yes, they exist - are able to modulate their power in order to do both… Ahem, such as myself. But that’s also because I got the chance to have half of my blood coming from the Old population and the other half from the New one, which is quite rare.
Personally, I know how to trigger a Supernova but I don’t like using it. It’s a Fire attack more than an explosion, and most of my life I’ve been fighting against Fire-resistant Monsters, making it rather useless. I chose to improve my skills with my blast powder and my sheer strength instead, and it has been working quite well so far.”