Sachihiro van Damage

[Ding], slash.

The creature disappears again and I immediately keep moving forward, Honour still held upright, my pace much slower than it previously was but I keep moving forward. Every step is carefully taken so as to quickly swerve in any direction to defend but I try to keep my pace quick, constant. It’s cold and damp here, my every step echoes through the chamber but I don’t mind the noise as much as I did when I got here. My priorities have changed.

‘’You are nothing, sent here by your patron to die so it gets stronger. You are fodder to be farmed like the rest of your snivelling kind,’’ my tormenter says with that insidious voice that shoots a shard of ice down my spine.

I awash myself in spirit-aura cleansing that fear and doubt from myself like melting ice. Relief and strength come back to me along with anger at the reaction its verbal attacks cause. I keep moving forward, the tightening of my grip on the tsuka the only valve I allow myself as relief of my frustration.

‘’You have any idea how many champions of these minor ‘deities’ I have sent to their deaths? You will be nothing but a notch in a long list of victims I’ll feast on,’’ the words come from all directions but I pay them no mind moving through the stygian darkness. Without my spacial awareness I’d long since be dead from the claws of the creature pursuing me or fallen down one of the shafts going deep into the ground.

‘’You’re going the wrong way you know, and soon you will be dead whether I kill you myself or watch you walk off a cliff, hehehehe’’ the voice says then cackles but still its effect is only auditory as spirit-aura protects me from the fear and doubt its words try to induce. I keep moving forward, more especially because I can read the frustration in my foes voice every time another ambush fails.

I hurdle over a pile of large rocks blocking my way.

[CLANK]!

I deflect the projectile with a slash but slip slightly as I land at an angle pushed by the force of that throw. Still, I treat the attempt on my life as though it were of no consequence and continue headlong in the same direction as I’ve been. I gulp in worry before slowly, involuntarily, letting go of the ‘spirit’ part of my spirit-aura but my movements don’t change as I keep moving forward.

In my brief time in this place with my spiritual energy souped up and returned back to me I’ve learnt that having the power is only as effective as how well I can use it. I’ve studied sorcery from some of the most knowledgeable people I could find on the topic willing to teach. Through Awakening, trial, error and Spiritus lessons I have long since been able to insinuate spiritual energy into my arsenal of abilities.

Incorporating spirit energy into aura is so far the most synergistic and instinctual combination of disciplines. Even to my perceptions and senses as soon as I Awoke it was a natural development to mix spirit and flesh without much issue. Some issues do arise when I try to sink spirit into my mana based skills but even that isn’t an issue if I conjure the water instead of use environmental water.

All these advantages made me confident that I’d just as easily be able to use my spiritual energy when I got it back after the summoning; which I technically can. What I didn’t take into account was how much ‘heavier’ this, much denser, spirit-energy is. It seems I still need the talisman against spiritual acts and though it feels like its barely working anytime my foe speaks I know the voices effects would be much worse without it.

‘’I’ll drink your blood!’’ my necklace talisman warms, a shiver goes down my spine and instinctively I ‘flinch’ by pulsing out my spirit energy into my aura again relieving myself.

This thing is physically stronger than I am but is weary of Honour’s kiss so it stays away. As far as I can tell it can see in this abysmal darkness without issue as it has kept pace with me no matter how I’ve tried to run or hide from it perceptions. Though my own breathing and footsteps are loud to my own ears consistently it has been silently keeping up and ambushing me every chance it gets so somehow it sees me.

[SWOOSH]!

It comes into my awareness towards my left shoulder-blade furthest from my sword but I swerve, vicious claws flying past even as I reverse swing in counter.

We miss each other by a hairs breadth before it is again out of the range of my perceptions, the fucker is fast and wily but still unwilling to trade blows with me. I change stance facing the direction my foe disappeared in second guessing my strategy for a moment, shaking my head I go back to moving forward. Keeping to the same direction I’ve been moving this whole time.

‘’I can smell the taint on you. The traces of a Spirit’s vile Brand on you whenever you call it fort your sorcery,’’ I grit my teeth as every word spoken creates a subtle haze over my mind, my talisman warms but the haze hangs over me. I push on without reacting but its like the words spoken latch on and try to find a way past the talisman’s blockade worsening the mental haze.

It is only when I again synchronise my spirit energy with my aura that I find myself completely free of outside influence. But it again speaks as soon as my hold on the spirit energy loosens.

‘’The stench is how I track you,’’ I miss a step startled by the admission but again I am moving forward and for the first time since I got here, after hours of light jogging in a single direction I come against one of the walls of this prison I’ve found myself in. I turn facing away from it so as to properly cover the now fewer angles by which my foe can attempt another ambush.

Carefully I reverse toward the wall whilst estimating its solidity as much as I can with the vibrational senses of my spacial awareness. It seems to be as solid a rock as the floor to my senses so without much second guessing I put my back towards it and face the one way I can now be effectively ambushed and take a breath.

‘’I can tell you are struggling to keep your socery shielding you all the time. Its harder than you thought isn’t it? Using it, it takes its toll on us but don’t fret cause I’ll relieve you of the burden.’’ I say nothing, breathing and thinking. ‘’Usually the ones sent here die quickly without practice at using their taint, but you... You are an anomaly and I’ve decided not to kill you if you give me some answersss...’’

I don’t believe the creature for a second but I have been struggling to consistently use my spirit-energy. Though its use is at the tips on my fingers or every move I make when I permeate it into my aura its been getting harder and harder to use. And it isn’t a question of how much more spirit energy I have either because even generously permeating it into my aura I can feel the smouldering lake of it still within my grasp.

My struggle is more like trying to use a muscle that has been small and malnourished to do a lot of heavy lifting all at the same time. Still, I can rest whatever pseudo muscle that’s tired by talking to this thing and hopefully getting more answers than the lies and innuendo its been tormenting me with.

‘’How about we give each other answers creature of the dark,’’ I say and nowhere and everywhere it’s hiss sounds dangerously.

I swing Honour around as I start moving along the wall. With my back secured from ambush I don’t see how he can again ambush me without getting cut on his retreat, something it has so far been studiously avoiding with its speed and unnatural agility.

‘’Fine!’’ it hisses coming into the sphere of my awareness and I get a good look at it for the first time since it started chasing me. The thing is tall but slender, taller than average at least at over 2.3m with long sharp claws and thick tearing fangs emphasized by its perverse grin. Rags cover its grimy skin from head to toe, slim covered tattered things mostly on strategic places on its body leaving the rest of it naked. I don’t even know what to classify this thing as.

‘’What are you?’’ it hisses the question out jerking its head at me with a frown, its claws elongating and retracting at a noticeable pace. Does it know I can see it from this range? I take in the implications of the question and how quickly I can decapitate this thing before it gets the best of me.

‘’I am human,’’ I answer honestly seeing no reason to lie especially wanting answers of my own. The thing leans slightly forward and sniffs at me with a disgusted scowl, its nose two large holes flat on its smooth face. Could I cut its face off before it moves? Maybe if I already had on Limit Break but that needs a me thoroughly warmed up first.

‘’You smell like a spirit, but a spirit clothed in flesh. How is this so?!’’ it asks in visible frustrated curiosity but that could easily be feigned.

‘’It is my turn to ask the question creature,’’ I say though keeping in mind I now apparently smell different. It hisses at the reminder, the sound warming my talisman and slightly affecting my mind but I’m resting my unseen pseudo spirit-muscle now so I bare with it best I can.

‘’Where am I?’’ I ask and the thing smiles viciously and retreats back into the darkness. The last echoes of my voice fade away and the silent darkness again envelopes all else. Shit, maybe with that question I gave it the upper hand? I don’t see how though cause its obvious I’m lost already isn’t it?

I stay there waiting for an attack whilst still in my head trying to figure out my next move from here. I place the edge of my heel against the wall confirming its solidity. Which way to go now? The crystals still point me ahead straight into the wall but obviously I won’t be tunnelling myself through this place.

Going left or right are my only options and hopefully this creature’s reaction to my choice will tell me all I need to know. I move, the very realisation that this vast underground place truly is just a humongous chamber and not a space of emptiness encouraging. I was starting to worry I was in some sort of weird space of darkness having travelled so far and not come across a solid barrier, underground.

I duck under the thrown projectile then duck again as another one clanks on the rocks behind me the thing hisses again clearly displeased by my continued survival. I don’t like having an enemy trying to kill me so often but no matter how I plan it, going after it would be too much trouble in this environment. The darkness alone means everything a little over 10m around is in my blindspot, not much of a problem if my enemy would stand to face death but I doubt he’d acquiescent.

I keep moving and thankfully my steps make less noise crushing the loose dust closer to the wall, no water here either. Now that I think about it its as though this chamber was recently flooded or something, not that I know much about underground chambers.

I increase my pace to something fairly respectable having been travelling a few minutes without incident. I don’t want to be here longer than I have to be and with the wall on my left and Honour on my right I don’t have much to worry about unless my enemy is hiding a trick up its nonexistent sleeve.

Eventually I reach a corner and swerve around it to a stop trying to get my bearing and where my enemy might be relative to the way I need to go. I get nothing, no sound besides water draining which I’m tempted to follow but there are currently too many variable... Fuck it, I should have thought of doing that earlier. What if this water comes from the surface and drains down here and all I have to do is follow it?

I keep the wall to my back whilst contemplating my next move. I’ve covered a lot of ground but that doesn’t mean anything if I’m going the wrong way, even though it leads towards my family it isn’t necessarily a way out. I look towards the deep blackness towards which I’ve been heading and the vastness of it is intimidating in its endlessness.

It is completly dark and I can’t ‘see’ far at all but from the dimensions I’ve already travelled I imagine myself inside a hall large enough to accommodate titans. Once long ago I saw a skeleton of one, a creature unimaginably large that once roamed this world and they definitely had to live somewhere. The stone of the wall could never form this straight naturally and though I don’t have the bigger picture I imagine I’m standing at the exit.

Should I keep going or should I face my foe and find the water sources? I sign then take a few steps forward then stand at the ready with low guard stance gedan no kamae tapping my blade into the puddle I’m standing in. Eyes closed I centre myself and give myself fully to my awareness, I’ve survived all these years without spirit energy and I won’t be dictated into making foolish decisions because of its absence now.

I wait, calming myself and actively experiencing the connection I have with my blade, my self. A playfull giggle echoes in my mind, I smile as a silhouette comes to mind. Kenjutsu, zanjutsu, swordsmaship; all words trying to explain something simple yet very nuanced. Divided Mind, my awareness is clear and dispersed, my focus not on any particular position. The imagine of my surroundings perfect in my mind, my blade held at the ready, breathing steady, body ready to spring.

With a part of my concentration I sink my mana into the puddle of water, its slow but I’ve got nothing better to do. Another tap of my blade and I watch the wave travel to the edges, I frown as an idea forms in my mind.

Turning fast using Honour’s weight as leverage I’m able to dodge a projectile that shoots past me into the darkness, another follows but deflects off my blade. I hear it fall and clatter onto the stone floor, the sound echoes for a few seconds then again all I hear is moving water. From another direction a projectile comes and I swerve, another at its heels and I deflect then stand waiting for my opening.

We stay in this stalemate a while, minutes turn into an hour by my estimation but I don’t mind as long as no words come from its mouth; in fact I benefit. My spirit muscle recovers, I don’t use it but I can feel inside myself that my spirit energy is back in my immediate arsenal again. The time spent at the ready whilst so in tune with Honour In Death fruitful as I fall into jinzen, the meditative part of zanjutsu, something that has never happened during combat before.

I am the sword and the sword is me, she giggles playfully in my mind as I swerve left letting an object past my torso then duck under another then roll under a 3rd unexpected surprise.

[SHOO].

A water spear erupts from the puddle at my feet going straight to where the projectiles came even as I let loose shuriken after shuriken the direction I hope my enemy doesn’t dodge. I launch myself and slash, holding my stance as my enemy falls writhing at my feet trying to hold its bowels in.

[KRRRRRR - Aarggghh]

It grows and screeches horribly trying to roll away but like a sturdy boot falling on a wounded rat Spirit Oppression knocks the breath out of the thing in an instant. Before it moves I turn slashing through separating the head from the rest of the body.

Silence, sweet silence. I stand here over my dead enemy still in a heightened state of zanjutsu, that wouldn’t have worked if I was dealing with a slower and dumber opponent. Anyone slower wouldn’t have been able to dodge the stars and anyone dumber wouldn’t have realised their best dodging position. This things mistake was underestimating my reach. The distance between life and death is the breadth of a hair.

I start moving to the sound of flowing water.