"She’s... trying to be of help. In her own way."
"By siccing this thing on ?"
"Yes. My daughter has never given anyone a challenge they can’t survive. As far as I know."
Willfully, the father’s brain redirected all of his thoughts from the tales Yatrel told, the minimally truthful descriptions of ’duels’ that were *quite* deadly from the ancient cultivator’s past. Because that was all a very long ti ago. He was sure!
Except he still dodged wildly when it *jumped* forward like a spider, then rapidly moved crabwise to the side - while its blunt striker limb darted towards the other man who had still not exactly retrieved his own weapon. Aleck kept his balance while being forced to move, grabbing at the chain in his hands and pushing physical energy through his limbs to tear the hamr part free before spinning it around himself defensively.
The combat construct didn’t press forward, but it did reposition itself outside of the estimated range. Instantly, the teor-hamr user felt a similar feeling that he’d had when fighting Qatrand in the competition duel. This ’creature’ was testing him and learning... and his usual sparring partner these past days felt the sa.
"Don’t lock up! Vary your rhythm before it finds an opening!"
Too hesitant to outright ’destroy’ it, even though it was supposedly capable of killing him in the wrong situation, the too-wide swing and too-weak pull of chain was easily intercepted by a segnted leg, moving up at improbable angles, and willingly tangling sacrificially with the tal. Yanking the cultivator forward before he could loose his grip on the weapon, another of the snaking limbs briefly wrapped around his ankle before he hastily yanked it free. Hard material scraped against his leather boots as he scrambled around the hail of grappling, tentacular cage he was too soon dealing with.
In so ways it was eerily like fighting Voidlings, but in others it was beyond opposite. Lessers used their extending, rending limbs in chaotic, aggressive, and ferocious patterns. He could tell while evading and slipping through this construct that it genuinely was *trying* to restrain first - not lash out with a killing strangle. Though so of the sudden movents felt aid too close to striking his temple with hard substances!
When he finally got out of that scrum, he barely had ti to grab and sling his chain up in front of the ’sharp’ striker. A thrust had been aid at his shoulder as the ’enemy’ backstepped. The shiny, glinting set of blades speared and skated into tal links with clinks and whining shrieks as diamond forcibly resurfaced the weaker material. A low and forceful swing of the hamr end - to try and wrap its legs up - only caused the creature to lift all of the limbs up off the ground at once without any ceasing of the next striker thrust.
"It can float, rember!"
"I THOUGHT IT STOPPED WHEN IT GAINED LEGS!"
Aleck managed to shout his complaint before the blunt implent caught him in the ribs, sending him spinning and hitting the ground hard. Breath exploded from his lungs as he tried to break his fall and avoid being caged again. But the construct remained where it was, front two weapons swaying in a hypnotic loop that was at once warning and provocation. It was not pressing the advantage.
It was giving him ti to recover.
Ti he used to close his eyes and try and recall all the details he’d just learned.
Because when he was in the middle of all that nonsense, he hadn’t been able to stop his Astralism from surging out with his unpracticed spiritual sense. When he was tested at the youth guild, he had been told it was called asure. Similar to Danger, this spiritual ability also mostly detected things in proximity to the cultivator. The key difference lie in what they both did and why.
The ease of detecting hostile intent from other spirits and sothing of a minor foresight was combined in the Danger Astralism, giving an improved sixth sense quite geared towards martial focuses. anwhile, his own Aspect was usually seen as sothing better for builders or artisans. Within the range of his spiritual sense, he could receive a sort of feedback that gave instinctual ’asurents’. Exactly how far away anything was from him, exactly it’s dinsions, all without much in the way of conscious thought.
In fact, he had spent much of his early life trying to quiet it. His choice of the teor hamr was sowhat... masochistic. Feeling the size of every link, the distance of each as it twirled around him, the mont the tal ball slipped past his limited range of detection. Training daily was a matter of gaining a headache until he could ignore all of that. As he was only an Enchanter in the energy type, it was not completely overbearing.
’But it was annoying. And made not like working with others. So I picked a weapon that also didn’t work well around people or obstacles. That way I could fight out in open spaces.’
Plunged into the middle of severely undulating segnts of a half-dozen ’snake’ limbs and the constantly shifting carapace plates he was sure it ’saw’ through... was the exact opposite of an open space. And yet, he’d been able to struggle and escape it because of the data his mind was being fed. Information used quite efficiently by his particular Physique.
Cerebellum was an uncommon ’organ’ to have an Aspect for, but not an unknown like the personally nad Ogre of Elua er Goltbred. At low realms of cultivation, it helped with balance, physical coordination, and posture. The effect of that was notable but not drastic at first becoming an Enchanter in physical energy to ’unlock’ the ’free’ and natural routing of improvents... but he would be lying if he claid he didn’t feel that it had aided his ability to learn his particular mid-range weapon.
Because he had also learned a lot of other weapons quite quickly those years after he decided he wanted nothing to do with most Guild structures.
With being a part of a team, or doing much of anything except perfecting his own martial arts. Still, life did not work on perfection and hobbies alone... so he did take on various work throughout his life as an adult - with gusto and a good attitude about it. Most recently he had been slumming around with odd jobs underneath Qatrand gil Yecine’s territory instead of going back ’ho’. Just a little scared to see a *lack* of faces after the Descent.
Surviving until now ant he was still capable of fighting, unlike those who had fallen. Training until now ant he was strong enough to continue, unlike those who could train no longer. And though the seemingly soulless, automated construct was only partly there for his own therapy... martial pursuits was most of what Aleck knew. So he muttered while standing, while settling into his self-taught stance.
"Again."
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
Only twenty minutes later, the stubborn cultivator was collapsed on stone and dragged by the construct to a certain spot in the training courtyard. Where Ondua er Goltbred watched the ground ’eat’ him before the automaton turned back into an unassuming sphere that floated above the spot serenely. His daughter had tossed a large rock from sowhere during the fighting, with a note carved into it, that he’d had to crouch and read. Sowhat prophetic, sowhat helpful, and very... very his little girl.
/ When he loses, he’ll be put into a healing formation. Don’t worry. It just looks terrifying. It’s not really burying him alive. I an, it is - but it isn’t. /
"Can she do a single thing today that is not concerning?"
"Not as long as you react to it, father."
Raising like the living dead out of the ground in another ’recovery bed’ beside the one Aleck was sat in, the girl who had powernapped for the last half hour looked just a little less tired. And that only concerned her dad more! So she didn’t fight it when he stomped over as she sat brushing magnetite-rich ironsand off herself back into the pit, lifted the silver-dressed brunette over his shoulder, and walked all the way to her room in the spire before pointing at the long unused bed.
"Have sweet dreams. You deserve it after unleashing that nightmare into the world."
"What nightmare? It’s cute."
Rembering the Ogre doll, the father said nothing more while pulling her door shut. Certain she wouldn’t remain there for very long despite playing along... for now. But as busy as she’d been trying to finish the main essence collection and power area, she also recognized that she was pushing herself. So she actually did sleep quite well, picturing lots of monts of clinging onto Qat when she returned.
As well as a few here and there throughout the dream cycle, of hugging her father and mother... and one of her combat constructs.
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