To Bellow and Dominate

[Omnis]

Nox suddenly felt as if there were only one Pureblood in the room. Strange, that. A breeze tickled his ears, but did not bother him.

"That is much different from everything else I have been exposed to, Crusader. The Jedi do not typically use this ability, correct? Do they have anything with which to answer?" His head tilted curiously as he reached his arms behind his back to clasp his hands. His stance was more relaxed than before.

 

[Radiwalker]

"The jedi have strong mental barriers and if your ability is not strong, not invasive enough, it will never even bother them, let alone achieve the complete desirable effect." he looked around, there was slight disappointment in his look, almost as if he had felt each of the attempts and judged them to be insufficient, easy to counter, or to conclude - simply not worthy to be successful.

"You are too gentle, too slow in activating the power. Force Fear is not an ability that should slowly creep into your opponents mind, but rather a sudden, strong impulse, one that would surprise and before they can react, engulf them and their thoughts, quickly bringing out their fears, allowing only the strongest, the ones with the best self-control to see through the ability and resist it." of course, in their current situation, when all of them knew what to expect, it would be quite hard for anyone to break through the other's barriers, but at least a decent attempt should be made.

"Give it another try and this time, do not relent."

 

[Omnis]

"As you wish," Nox said to Vindict, giving a slight bow of his head. His blank mask turned to the Pureblood Sin, as he was the only one in the room worth regard besides the Crusader. And Nox would not assault Vindict, not without express permission. "This is, of course, only business." That was the only warning Sin got.

There was not just one scalpel this time. Speeding forth like multiple knives sped by the assassin's arms, an armory of sharp surgical weapons of Fear studded the mindscape of the Red Sith. There was no quarter given in either time or space, as the scalpels writhed like snakes and had an edge cutting in wherever they made contact. Once one had successfully wormed its way beneath a layer of defense, it scythed underneath and cut away the tenuous structures that helped keep the other weapons at bay. They all wormed in as fast as possible, wasting no time and making sure to constantly switch direction and maintain an environment of chaos. Once again, as the thoughts reached the level of subconscious thought, they went to work. They left nothing to spare. Instead of making inflammatory cuts, the razors eviscerated everything and left it bleeding chum into the fiery waters of the mind. Finally, at the deepest level, the Fear turned to order instead of chaos. Nox dismantled everything inside like the coldest of machines, as though a grid of lasers simply incinerating every square inch of matter without even a first thought, let alone a second, about its job. At the very end, he let the long reaching razors briefly spiral into chaos to finish with a terrorizing whirlwind again. Just to make sure that anything that might have been left would be too thoroughly mixed in with the scraps to piece things back together.

The Noghri stepped back when he was done, ready to deal with the consequences. For once, he wondered if maybe he could take things too far amongst his fellow Sith. After all, survival of the fittest was supreme, but a waste of potential was still a crime.

 

[Darth Tak]

Tak had the same victim, as he would never harm another of his kin, whether it be physical or emotional. "Yes, of course Crusader Vindict." said Tak as he sped through the Noghri's mind, almost rushing. It was like a cascade of torpedoes, firing in the blood of his fears, quickly finding the most vibrant and juicy fears to exploit to his whim... oh the power.

Then Tak started saying something he had said several times within his career with the Sith... and it fit well. This time though, he repllaced pain with fear, to make it reflect on the scenario... It still made sense, though. "Fear is just a construct of illusions built by the subconscious as an indication of a clear and imminent threat. The Sith are not susceptible to illusions. Therefore we are not susceptible to fear." recited Tak as he continued on what he said with "I am sorry if you wimper in fear" which was directed to Nox.

The quickfire fear was long done with pillaging the fears of the Noghri and exploiting them to their fullest potential. He was happy with his result.

 

[Omnis]

There still seemed to be annoying breeze tickling Nox's ears. Technically, the Noghri did not have external organs for his ears. The sides of his head were smooth, his ears simple holes like those of a reptilian's. Still, something seemed to bother him a bit. In an unusual display of normalcy, Nox reached up to scratch the side of his head through the hood he kept up.

For a moment he almost remembered that there had been another Pureblood in the room. Still, Sin seemed to be the only one he gave attention to.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

"This is, of course, only business."

Was the only warning Sin'ryk had gotten, before the Noghri's mind tore into his. The Pureblood resisted, he would not allow himself to cave into fear. Alas, Nox's attack tore deep into Sin'ryk's very memories, bringing forth the very night his world was torn apart. The voices returned, this time withDark Side enhanced intensity as the images of loved ones, even more mutilated than when he had made their pyre, reached him, beckoning for him to join them. Tears flowed from Sin'ryk's eyes as he was confronted with such personal illusions. They, plus the gasp and his hunched over figure served as the only indicator of the Noghri's success. Before long, the assassin retreated from his mind, the illusions vanished yet the voices still echoed. With anger flowing through him as a result of this psychic violation, the Red Sith spoke only one sentence.

"Nothing personal, Grotthu."

Before long, Sin'ryk lashed back with his own attack; his was illusory, blood-stained shrieking Sith ghosts that sought to drag out Nox's fears and make them a reality. The faux-spirits surged forth, pounding at the door to the Noghri's deeper conscience. Eerily they chanted a single word in whispered unison which grew louder.

Siqsa,Siqsa,Siqsa,SIQSA,SIQSA....

 

[Omnis]

Nothing personal, Grotthu. The statement was made reversed by the insult, but the insult was unknown to Nox and therefore ineffective. The Noghri was disappointed. He had hoped against hope that the other Pureblood would be able to control his emotions better and show some discipline. Instead, Sin was petty and brash. Though Nox only had two examples of Purebloods by which to judge, he did not favor their company so far. Their behavior was especially reprehensible in front of a respectful instructor such as Crusader Vindict.

Siqsa, Siqsa, Siqsa... The words meant nothing to him, so had no effect. Nox could feel the "ghosts," as much ghosts as his scalpels had been real surgical tools, pounding and scratching away at the portal to his mind. Unfortunately for them, what could affect could be affected. The door opened up and the same arsenal that had torn apart Sin's defenses rushed out with no room to spare and began shredding everything apart. Whatever ghosts retreated found in front of them the same crushing lattice defense that had destroyed the offense that had come before them. Trapped between a tight place and a storm of suffering, they were no match. However, allowing the ghosts deeper than before had left Nox a bit less composed than before. His muscles had tensed, as if he was readying to fight, as he fought off the mental assault. Only once he was done did they relax again.

Nox turned and looked to Crusader Vindict, head reared back slightly.

"Let the enemies of the Sith go swiftly into the depths of madness."

 

[Radiwalker]

Vindict was surprised by the outcomes of the training. He had expected to witness the acolytes fall in deep horror and depression, but instead they stood tall and strong. For some reason none of them had succeeded in breaking through the defenses of the others. Those defenses, of course, would be tested in the mission they would soon embark upon, but until then, the crusader wanted to make sure, that they indeed had fears of their own.

"The session is now over. I will contact you with details for the mission, during which you'll be able to advance these abilities." with that the gladiator walked towards the door, but suddenly stopped and turned around. "Oh and one more thing." he raised his hands and used the Force to penetrate the minds of all three acolytes, bringing out their deepest, most sacred fears, ones that would haunt them in nightmares and daytime all the like, he waited a moment to see the results, then turned and proceeded leaving.

 

[Omnis]

Nox, for his part, fell to a knee and appeared to be choking. He fought an invisible attacker for a time, before it appeared that his muscles weakened and his arms gave out. His body listed to one side, about to fall, before his muscles tensed incredibly hard and the cloaked figure stood up. The Noghri had gone from looking like a boy-child to the avatar of Death itself in just one moment. His muscles still quivered, betraying the lasting effect of the fear.

Luckily for Nox, his mask had hid his expressions. They had not been pretty throughout. Sweat began to bead at the bottom of the mask, but did not yet fall. He bowed to Vindict before he left.

---

((OOC: Just to make it clear, yes, Nox appears to be choking even though it was Force Fear, not Force Choke, that was used on him. He is not actually physically choking during this scene. This is a character point. I just wanted to clarify.))

 

[Darth Tak]

Tak heard. Tak observed. Tak was to be tested. He knew it would come; to see if we have massive defence or little offence. As the Force Fear began to pick at his mind, his got ready. The thing about Tak's deepest darkest fear is that he isn't scared of it anymore. Thinking of something over and over and over builds a resistance. It was no longer his deepest darkest fear, just his deepest darkest. Long ago, that flooded all other fears. Physically, Tak wasn't hiding it, as he had nothing to hide. He was also disappointed in his kin, Sin'ryk, but that was not important. "Fearless."

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

As soon as the Crusader raised his hands into the air, the horrors that Sin'ryk had faced before once again resurfaced. Determined not to lose his composure again, the Preblood remained resolute. The only outside indication of the psychic entities he was facing was a slight, but noticeable twitching of Sin'ryk's face. Once the veil of terror vanished from his mind, the Acolyte bowed before the Crusader, then raced after Nox. He had owed the Noghri an apology for his loss of control.