Kaz began exploring in the darkness, able to sense husks as they ran from him. He quickly turned off his light but still couldn't find any husks that were willing to fight.
'Are they able to sense me?'
Kaz then started to think of a way to hide himself, even though he didn't fell as though he was showing his energy. He started to focus on himself, starting with his Nexus Gland. He realized that the energy in his gland didn't just stagnate, it circulated like blood, it was keeping the momentum within the energy alive, ready to explode outwards, but as it circulated, he realized that quite a bit seeped out into his pathways and circulated through his body as well. As he followed the energy, he could see that quite a bit was leaking out from his body. Then he realized the reason the husks were avoiding him.
'My domain, I am able to see them but they can feel my presence looking at them!'
Kaz began to try and control his range by trying to stop the circulation from leaving his body. At first this seemed almost impossible, but slowly he was able to retract the energy to a smaller range. The more he retracted it, the harder he had to focus to keep it contained. He had to focus more and more on himself instead of the outside world, slowly pulling the energy into his being. His domain was down to 10 meters now, and he could feel the strength of his domain raising the air pressure. 5 meters, 4 meters, 3 meters, 2 meters, now 1 meter. The last compression of his range from 1 meter was extremely taxing on his mind, making him feel like it would break. They he remembered.
'Wait, I forgot about my second gland.'
Out of habit he had been only focusing on 1 gland, but now that he had 2, he should be able to focus on both of them, and surely when he doubled his attention, he realized he wsa attempting to control the leak of both glands with just his first gland, once he put into action both glands, the strain disappeared and immediately his range reduced to 0. That feeling he usually had of the domain showing him the surroundings disappeared as he felt like everything was still.
[Skill Level up: {Domain lvl. 2}]
[Skill Level up: {Nexus Affinity lvl. 4}]
Kaz instantly felt it easier to contain his domain. Almost as if someone had shouted out Kaz's location, he could hear a husk leaping at him from behind. He quickly sidestepped and realize, it is going to be a lot harder to kill it without the light. He could make a normal light source but felt that wouldn't be much of a challenge, and he wanted to push himself. He heard the growl get closer again, and could hear a whistle sound of something slicing through the air at him, he pulled his stomach back narrowly dodging a claw.
'Are they able to see in the dark?'
He continued the awkward dance with the husk until he managed to slice at its face, causing it to retreat with a howl.
'Now lets see if he can keep the same pa-'
Immediately another claw came flying at him from the husk. He was sure its eyes were slit. This time he parried the claw with his spear.
'There has to be something. But I don't feel an energy probing me like my domain, only random fluctuations hitting me. Then Kaz realized what the monster was doing. It wasn't looking. It was feeling the energy movements in the air, as they moved, they caused mini ripple effects, and the husk was tracking the origin back to Kaz. Immediately, as he continued to rely on his senses, he started to try and discern the fluctuations in the air. They seemed random, but he could feel a change as something closed in on him and was about to connect with him. Slowly he was better at reading the patterns, able to discern when and where the attacks would come from. Finally he decided to finish the husk after feeling the movements of energy colliding with him and accurately predicting where the enemy was.
[Skill Level up: {Nexus affinity lvl. 5}]
[Due to you being able to discern patterns from interactions with nexus energy, your understanding has depended, while it isn't as reliable as your senses, being able to discern fluctuations could prove useful to sense things beyond your range.]
Kaz felt the patterns in the air become more comprehensible from that level up as if something clicked within him. He could feel some sets of fluctuations coming from his left and right at the same time, as two husks attempted to pincer him. He stepped back, letting them connect as he separated their heads from their shoulders with the spear.After killing these two he realized that he was not getting the energy from the enemies anymore, assuming that his spear was absorbing it.
Kaz continued his assault on husks within the dark, having one Gland focus on the energy patterns while the other focused on energy distribution for combat made this very easy for Kaz, to the point that he got bored of fighting them, then he heard a ear piercing screech causing him to wince before bringing out his earbuds, at this point no longer needing his hearing to predict attacks. He could feel the energy movement, it was something big, a husk mother.
'Finally something more challenging.'
Kaz found this more challenging than that of the weaker husk variants, and was having to focus more intensely on the patterns in order to defend. Though he would normally have the advantage, this situation helped sharpen his other senses besides hearing and sight, so he continued to fight handicapped.
The fight started to push his focus harder as he fell into trance, feeling the rhythm to the patterns, almost feeling like a dance, he started to enter into a trance-like state that he only experienced once before, but this time it was different. Due to his weapon having a persona, he could feel it's emotions as well feel it as an extension instead of a separate limb lie before, he felt more unified. His attacks felt more fluid as if he was on the cusp of something. Just as the trance deepened, he accidentally finished the husk mother, feeling his spear gobble its energy up like a vacuum, before letting out a satisfied feeling.
Kaz continued his rampage, running into husks, awakened husks, and even more husk mothers, all the will Rika continued to gobble the energy up, also seemingly enjoying the fight. This radiation of emotion was also calming for Kaz and he slowly became attached to the weapon, seeing it more as a companion than a tool.
As Kaz took a breath after claiming another life from a husk, he felt an eerie sensation. He felt as if he was in danger, he soon realized it was similar to when the god came down to the planet, except a lot weaker, but still felt dangerous. It was the sense of another creature, but Kaz didn't feel the vibration of a screech. He knew something was off, as he quickly moved backwards at a high speed, feeling a laceration appear on his chest, immediately after removing his ear plugs and turning on his shoulder lamp, as well as extending his domain back out. A few meters in front of him he saw it. A pale human, or something similar to one, if a human had digitigrade legs, similar to hind legs of a dog, a red crystalline set of claws, as well as a few holes through the body, but the upper body and face seemed relatively human, and calm. It wasn't showing anger or screeching.
[Danger! You have run into a being of higher existence: {Husk King lvl. 25}]