Mask of Humanity

Nicolai reacted to Beth’s Soul Sense attack immediately. He formed his own into the tight sphere around him in time to endure the attack, and worked to keep it solid and concrete while she struck and tore at it.

He didn’t struggle, his Soul Sense sphere holding firm until Beth pulled back, a frown on her face, and her Soul Sense began to twist and shift as she prodded and poked, searching for a weakness, attempting to form different shapes to see if she could have any more effect. Perhaps it is easier for the defender? It was a significant difference to the attack from the bird’s Soul Sense, which had overwhelmed him with ease.

‘A giant bird attacked us,’ he told Kleos absently. ‘It had Soul Sense of its own, and it was strong, much stronger than me. It crushed my Soul Sense which fell back inside of me, and I was unable to use it. I only managed to resist because…’ Because of that part of myself. A part which, despite the issues it caused him, he was increasingly thinking was also very useful, and necessary. He just needed to gain full control over it. His thoughts led his focus to decline slightly, and he felt a tiny crack open up in his Soul Sense sphere where Beth was spiking it, and immediately her Soul Sensed poured in, disrupting his perfect sphere shape and seeking to break it down entirely. He closed his eyes, and focused, and firmed his Soul Sense, and forced her out and reformed his sphere. He heard her let out a little irritated scoff, and grinned in return.

‘It was difficult to resist,’ he managed at length to Kleos.

‘Sounds like a Spirit Beast,’ said the head. ‘Think you can kill it?’

That initially drew a laugh from Nicolai. Nope. Then he paused, considering it more seriously. ‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘But it wouldn’t be at all easy. I’d probably have to try and arrange a tower to fall on it. It didn’t appear to even notice our attacks.’

‘And yet, it didn’t kill you,’ Kleos mused. ‘It can’t be too strong. Most likely it has Symbiotes giving it some kind of defence or healing. Did it attack you with Symbiotes?’

‘Only one. It’s eye glowed and it was able to pull us towards it, once it… broke our Soul Sense. Do you know anything about that? The breaking of Soul Sense?’

‘Of course. There are many types of Symbiotes, but some of the most common are those which require Soul Sense to work properly. You have to apply them to your opponent, which means you need to break their Soul Sense. Then they work.’

Despite Nicolai’s split focus Beth was having very limited success in her assault of his Soul Sense.

‘Let’s switch. I attack, you defend,’ he told her. She nodded, and her Soul Sense retreated to form the sphere around her. He gave her a moment to gather herself, shifting his own Soul Sense into a tendril and circling her, considering how he wanted to do this.

‘What’s the best way to break someone’s Soul Sense?’ he asked Kleos.

Beth opened her eyes and shot him an exasperated look. ‘What? You’re cheating? Why didn’t you ask him that before you had me attack yours? Afraid of a good fight?’ She formed a challenging little grin.

Nicolai’s eyes narrowed. Kleos chuckled beside him. ‘She has a point,’ said the head, smirking.

‘I’ve connected,’ said Perro from the side. ‘To my Seed, that is.’

‘Very good,’ murmured Nicolai, eyeing Beth. ‘You can tell Perro what to do next, then,’ he said to Kleos, and then he attacked.

He formed his Soul Sense tendril into a great hammer which rose above her and crashed down, his best impression of the bird, all his focus and thought driving it from behind, his Soul acting as leverage.

Her Soul Sense sphere split at the top, and he burrowed into it, chopping and pressing and squeezing, making room for himself inside, doing his best to tear apart her sphere.

She let out a little hiss of focus and her Soul Sense squirmed around his own.

His awareness of the others, of Kleos’ quiet words to Perro, of Jo observing, faded.

It wasn’t easy. Her Soul Sense was stronger, reinforced by the close proximity to her Soul. There was an advantage to the defender. But even so, he was close, just a little more… he felt her focus grow, a surge of determination, and bit by bit she began to force him out of her sphere.

But as they went, he was learning. He scrambled and tangled and looped around her, employing every trick he could think of to stay within the sphere, to stop her re-forming it, and he regained his balance, seized the momentum, then once more she was on the back-foot and he was only moments from breaking the sphere around her. The thrill rose within him, enjoying the fight, and his Soul Sense savaged hers like a wolf.

‘Gah!’ yelped Beth, rocking where she sat and clutching at her head as her Soul Sense broke and retreated into her to recover.

‘Ha!’ he yelled in return, and laughed, delighting in the victory.

‘Fuck you!’ she howled, face twisting with almost-fury but then she was laughing, too, until she winced. ‘There’s that headache. Not as bad as after the bird, at least. Hey, head.’ She looked to Kleos. ‘What’s the best way to defend, then?’

Nicolai settled back, his eyes also moving to Kleos. He checked his Node, and found its drain increasing. His Soul had taken some damage, his Soul Sense shrinking as a result. Beth also seemed to notice this, taking out a crystal to recover herself, and Nicolai was quick to do the same.

The head took a moment, and he saw a little smile on its face. Kleos seemed to enjoy the role of mentor.

‘There are three basic forms of attack, and three basic forms of defence. On attack: Crushing, Piercing, and Cutting. On defence: the Long Guard, the Loose Guard, and the Heavy Guard. The guards have specific forms and functions, but the attacks are more a manner of attacking, and can have variety.’

‘People normally default to some kind of attempt at one of the forms their first time attacking and defending, or a combination, of just some random useless movements,’ said Kleos. ‘Being able to properly shape the forms requires a little practise to start out, and then more practise to truly master them.’

The head paused with thought. ‘There is also one more useful skill you should learn, it’s called Shelling. Normally, a Cultivator’s Soul Sense, if left to itself, floats passively around them. Then it can also extend in a tendril to investigate things. But there is a third form. You can entirely retract your Soul Sense into your body, and try to form a shell, one that mimics the world around you. This is called Shelling, and it allows you to hide the signs of your Soul Sense, the signs that a Cultivator gives off through the Aura. I would think against this bird, hiding from it would be better than fighting it. Once Shelled you do your best to prevent yourself from giving off any Aura ripples, which is easy if you are weak and using no Arts.’

‘So, the bird detects us without its Soul Sense touching on us, you’re saying, by noticing these ripples?’ asked Nicolai.

‘That’s right. By monitoring the Aura around it. You don’t… right. I thought you’d have worked that out. If you pay attention to the world around you, using your Soul Sense to feel it, you should be able to faintly feel movements, now and then. Like feeling the wind brush your skin. These are movements in the Aura. You can use them to work out if there are other Cultivators about, what sort of things they are up to. Avoiding leaving such signs is the main purpose of shelling, though keep in mind you can’t use Arts from Imbued or Symbiotes while remaining properly Shelled. They give off powerful Aura vibrations.’

Nicolai and Beth explored that a little, for a time, and Nicolai realised it was true. Especially when Beth was utilising her Soul Sense, he could feel the movements as though the air was a sea, and his Soul Sense detected the vague ripples moving through it in response to her movements. He realised it was something he’d been aware of at some level without even noticing.

He and Beth spent some time on Shelling, enough to ensure he knew how it worked. As Kleos said, it involved forcing his Soul Sense to entirely retract within him, forming a Soul Sense Shell over his skin, and then attempting to have that shell mimic his surroundings, spiritually.

In the same way that when he pressed his Soul Sense against the stone, and he felt that it was cold, and old, and made of stone, he could make his Shell resemble that stone, or the air, or the shadows. When doing so, Beth’s searching Soul Sense was encouraged to pass over him, but if she investigated closely enough she would spot him, and presumably the same held true for the bird.

After that the focus returned to the forms of attack and defence. He and Beth spent some time practising, while Kleos resumed the job of teaching and guiding the others. Then, they prepared to resume the struggle.

She looked determined to win, and he found himself grinning at her, eager for the fight, glad that she looked like she intended to put up a good one.

‘It won’t be so easy this time,’ she warned him with narrowed eyes, and her Soul Sense began to spin.

‘We’ll see,’ he said, his grin growing, his Soul Sense rising and preparing. With a flex of will, his tendril lanced out in attack.

The half-solid, ready state of Beth’s Soul Sense meant Heavy Guard, so a crushing attack was Nicolai’s choice. His Soul Sense tendril rose, forming a clubbing head, and he slammed it down. She tightened her defence into the proper Heavy Guard as he attacked, but this only aided him as the attack landed. Cracks ran through her Soul Sense and she grunted with pain.

He raised it for another strike, but as he did he saw her frown in thought, and then her Soul Sense shifted into the Loose Guard, counter of crushing attacks. He struck anyway, just to see what would happen. This was more about learning than winning.

The crushing blow rebounded from her loose, springy defence, having no effect that he could see.

Either cutting or piercing would counter the Loose Guard. Nicolai went for piercing, because while practising he had found it was one of the fastest to form and attack with. His tendril lunged forward, forming into a stabbing point.

She was faster this time, ready for the change, as she switched back to the Heavy Guard and flexed it just as the attack arrived. To his surprise, the piercing point did do a little damage, sending a crack through her Soul Sense.

He switched to a crushing attack but as he did so she switched to the Loose Guard, so he switched back to piercing as he struck. This time, she switched it for a Long Guard, which struck towards his tendril, deflecting it aside.

Nicolai struck again and again, testing her defence, but he found it very hard to catch her with a piercing attack while she was in the Long Guard. So, as he struck, he switched into a sudden cutting strike, aiming at the base of her lance-like deflector.

It severed the deflector in one move. Half of her Soul Sense tendril collapsed as it was cut away, turning into a cloud of Soul Sense that flew into Beth.

He pulled back, observing as her Soul Sense returned to her and in a moment her defence was restored. He and Beth considered one another. Both had learned much in this short exchange. Their bodies were tense and ready like dogs held at the starting line of a race, eager to resume, prepared to attack and react.

Nicolai struck out in another cutting slice, and she was switching into the Heavy Guard. His strike deflected and he followed her change, switching for a crushing mallet, but she was ready with a Loose Guard.

The speed of their switches rose, focus intensifying. He understood, now. This game was one of both speed and prediction. He could already see that with more practise they would grow faster at switching, he was doing so already, but even so it would always take a moment to change stance, and as a result the best way wasn’t to react—it was to predict what the opponent would do.

This was something he had much experience with, even without the extra ability of his Soul Sense.

Beth still wasn’t doing a perfect job of hiding her emotions, even though he knew she could, if she tried hard enough. They leaked out of her Soul Sense whilst Nicolai’s stayed firmly cloaked and inside, and this gave him a free source of information on what she was plotting.

He switched from crushing to piercing and he sensed her moving to react, but he was already moving back to crushing and then his tendril slammed down, just when she’d finished switching to a Heavy Guard. Her sphere shook and cracked, and he raised the mallet for another blow but she was switching. He sensed her desperation, the sudden damage jarring her previously calm mindset, and she reacted almost thoughtlessly to move to a better position. He knew that would be the Loose Guard. As his tendril fell for another strike it switched to a cutting slice that drew a great ragged rent in her sphere, catching her in the crack his previous attack had made and penetrating deep.

Her Soul Sense shook, and he knew that in only moments he’d have won. Again. A smile pulled at his lips. But he felt her anger, her upset, and sensed her sudden aggressive intent. Her Soul Sense gave up on defence and it surged towards him. His Soul Sense was at her metaphorical throat, and he could have simply held up his offence and overwhelmed her instantly since her defence had literally run out in attack. But, instead he retreated before her attack, giving up on his chance for a win and settling his Soul Sense around himself to defend.

He was enjoying this very much. It might only be sparring, but he relished the opportunity to practise an entirely new form of combat and had no desire to end things too early, especially when he worried Beth might react badly to another loss and perhaps even refuse to spar any longer.

She eyed him and from her gaze he knew she knew he’d let her off, and she wasn’t happy about it.

‘Come and get me,’ he told her, grinning hugely, his body near vibrating with the joy of the fight. She snarled and her Soul Sense lunged.