"Don't let it touch you!" the tiger groaned, panting heavily.

Clearly whatever had happened while the goblin spirit had been on his back had been very painful, although no wounds showed.

"What did it do?" Jin asked in a low voice, as he searched around with his eyes, on guard for the goblin spirit's next appearance.

"Soul attack... I haven't ever felt anything like it..." the tiger said, his words sounding labored and dazed.

Jin too, had never been subjected to a soul attack, though he knew what they were. Some cultivators could undergo arduous training that allowed them to develop resilience in their very souls, and which could let them wield them as weapons, invisibly attacking the souls of their opponents. A soul attack could be fatal, and even the quickest exposure to soul violence could be extremely debilitating, leaving the victim mentally and emotionally unwell, as well as causing physical symptoms like light-headedness, weakness, and difficulty meditating and cultivating. The goblin spirit must have had the innate ability to use soul violence, just as many demons and spirits did, according to what Jin had been taught.

The real problem with dealing with soul violence was that the soul was a completely different matter to the body and mind. One couldn't tell by looking at somebody, or even by watching them in a normal, physical fight, what the strength or resilience of their soul was. Some people had strong souls, some people did not. Some people cultivated to strengthen their souls, to protect themselves against soul violence or to be able to use it themselves, others couldn't. Others still didn't prioritize it, as it was a more unusual form of violence to encounter, if one mainly stuck within the realms of mortal humans. More crucially, if one had never been in a situation where soul weapons or attacks were present, like Jin, one could not know or even guess at how well they would be able to withstand the onslaught.

Jin didn't know whether he could stand up against the goblin spirit's soul attack, but he did know that the soul violence had had a profound effect on the tiger, and he could also guess from the way the creature had attacked that it had chosen the tiger as its opponent for the time being. If the tiger became too weak to go on, then Jin would be in an even worse predicament - even if he could beat or escape the goblin spirit, he'd be in the forest after dark with nothing to keep the beasts at bay, looking for a place he hadn't been to since he was 12. He needed to defend the tiger from being touched by the goblin spirit again, but how, when the thing could vanish as soon as he got close enough to strike?

There was no time for strategy. The air around Jin moved and he spun around to see the goblin spirit racing towards him and the tiger once more, before leaping to try to get onto the tiger's back again. Its limbs were flailing in the air as it pounced with its arms stretched forward to grab the tiger's fur, and Jin desperately slashed at the arms with the instinct to prevent the creature from making contact with the weakened beast.

He hadn't expected to cut - only for the goblin spirit to vanish again before it had a chance to touch the tiger, giving him a few more seconds to try to think of a way to defeat it. Yet, the blade of the butterfly sword in Jin's right hand cut keenly through one of the goblin spirit's spindly wrists, and its tip managed to reach and lacerate the other arm, too.

A hellish gurgle of shrill displeasure came from the goblin spirit's disgusting mouth, as thick, dark blood poured from the stump where one hand had been, and the gash on the other wrist. Jin registered his success with surprise and used the momentum from the cut to bring the second sword down on the creatures head, as its body smacked to the ground, falling where it had been unable to grab on to the tiger. Alas, the second strike did not land, as the creature rolled frantically out of the way of it, and before Jin could strike again, it vanished for the third time, leaving a mess of sticky blood, and a dead hand, behind it.

Why didn't it vanish before I could cut its hand off?

The goblin spirit's aura still hadn't gone away. The creature was badly wounded, but it hadn't retreated.

Jin had to think fast, knowing another attack would come in moments. If the goblin spirit's main form of attack was with soul violence then there was a good chance losing a hand might not affect how dangerous it was. If anything, the rage and pain it must be feeling may make it attack more ferociously.

What was the difference between then, when I hit it, and the two times we tried to attack before? The first time it was just standing there. The second, it was on the tiger's back, performing its soul attack. The time I hit it, it was leaping... Is that it? Does it need to be still to use its transporting ability?

"I've got an idea, but I need your help. When it comes again, do you think you can run to make it chase you?" he asked the tiger.

There was no time for the great beast to reply, but he'd heard Jin's words. The goblin spirit reappeared, this time from amid the trees on the other side, putting the tiger between itself and Jin. Jin could have jumped over the tiger in time to try to slash it head on, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to avoid the creature touching him that way, and as he didn't know if he could tolerate even a fraction of a second of soul violence while still being able to keep the ability to attack, he didn't want to risk that. Instead, he let the tiger do as he'd asked, and start running. Jin himself jumped back out of the way, so he could move in pursuit when the goblin spirit gave chase and use his exceptional speed to catch up and slash at it from behind.

It was a good plan, but it failed.

Jin had been relying on the goblin spirit continuing to attack the tiger, rather than himself, allowing the tiger to serve adequately as bait. This would allow him to test his theory that the goblin spirit couldn't vanish while it was in motion in relative safety. If he was wrong, then the goblin spirit would disappear before he could decapitate it, but he and the tiger wouldn't really be any worse off than they were before the attempt. However, as the tiger rushed away with a roar - weaker than before but still enough to strike terror into most forest beasts - the goblin ignored it, the force of its malevolent glare fixed on Jin as it hurtled forward, that same thick blood drooling from the clean wounds he'd left on its arms.

He had no choice but to engage it like a normal foe, now, so Jin rushed forward too, as soon as he realized he was now the target, crossing his butterfly swords in front of him like scissor blades, aiming to run them through the creature's body and cut it in half. The strike was partially successful, because the enraged goblin spirit was now attacking with no caution at all. Jin's twin butterfly swords slashed through the wobbly, loose flesh around the creature's belly, though it had managed to shift backwards slightly when it saw Jin moving to meet it in its dash, so he wasn't able to cut all the way through its body.

A wound like this would prove fatal, in fact, the creature's entrails were starting to drop and slither from the slashes Jin's swords had made, but causing a death that wasn't instant was not a win against a creature such as this that used soul violence. It could attack with its full power until the moment it truly died, because its body wasn't its weapon. Jin turned his arms quickly to perform the second strike, this time bringing the uncrossed blades across the creature's body to cross again, but before he could finish the movement - rapid as it was - the goblin spirit thrust the bloody stump where its hand had been against Jin's chest.

Now Jin would experience soul violence for the first time.