Published at 10th of January 2026 11:00 am

Chapter 318: Technique

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Nicolai followed his words with a vicious lunge that started low, then arrowed up, aiming for the narrow join between the Hornets upper and lower body. Serrin parried easily and flowed into a strike of his own, but Nicolai slapped it aside. In the next instant they repeated the same move again and again, a parry then a counter only to be parried and countered and parried and countered, each time faster than the last, weapons clashing hard and fast.

They sprang apart simultaneously, recognising this wasnt working. Serrin flicked his arm and his sword lanced out, extending on Soul Sense. The lunge was sudden and vicious, but Nicolai had used this trick himself. He blocked the attack and sent his own, unarmed tendril lunging, slashing in a cutting strike at Serrins tendril. If he beheaded it while Serrin was using it to control his sword, hed be able to seize the weapon and win.

But Serrin was too canny, his tendril retracted and the sword handle slapped into his hand before Nicolais was close enough to threaten. The Hornet paused, staring at him, wheels turning in his eyes.

Serrin tossed his sword and it rose into the air, once more controlled by Soul Sense, rising over his head like a striking snake. The Soul Sense tendril was now disconnected from his arm, emerging instead from his head. Unusual.

The Hornet dashed forward, pressed close and the sword lanced down. Nicolai kept hold of his own weapon, looked to stab Serrin while his Soul Sense worked to try and behead Serrins tendril.

But Serrins tendril had an advantage, with the sword, and the Hornet was slipperyfalling back, twisting and dodging out the way of Nicolais aggressive assault. The Hornet managed to behead Nicolais own tendril and then the sword dove in, clashing with Nicolais own, and the Hornet pressed up close behind it. He flicked out a side kick while Nicolai was busy blocking the sword, forced him to raise a leg, blocking with the shin, but that slowed him, now Serrin had the sword needling and slashing above while peppering him with kicks and punches that were sent out only when Nicolais sword was tied up in defence.

Serrin had managed to put him in a position where he was effectively fighting two-on-one. Far from ideal. Falling back, he tossed his own sword into the air, held with his own Soul Sense, and lunged to meet Serrin, mirroring the strategy.

They exchanged flurries of kicks and punches, weathering hits with forearms and shins. Above, their weapons tore madly at one another, always aiming for a beheading or to try and lance an attack down at the enemy below.

The Hornet was very good at this style. Nicolai had never met someone able to control their Soul Sense so completely separate from their bodys movements. Even the Tier 2 Hornets whod attacked before had struggled to do so, their Soul Sense attacks tending to be predictable if they were also attacking with their body or Symbiotes.

Serrin was nothing like that. His Soul Sense could have been controlled by someone else entirely.

But so could Nicolais. Even without the Modules he could have managed it. With them, he was more than equal to Serrin. And yet, the Hornet still held an advantage. He was more practised at this style, knowing all kinds of surprising tricks.

Serrins Soul Sense tendril flicked like an arm, and he tossed his sword high into the air, well out of Soul Sense range. This gave Nicolai an instant of confusion. He attacked the now weaker, unarmed Soul Sense viciously, but Serrin evaded all strikes. The sword was spinning down toward them. If Nicolai caught it, the fight would be over. He jerked his Soul Sense back to grab at it, but Serrin had been waiting for this. Immediately his Soul Sense flashed forward, a cutting slice, faster than hed ever moved beforeand severed Nicolais Soul Sense at the base.

The two swords, unguided, fell toward them. Serrins Soul Sense was active, but Nicolais was reforming.

Nicolai fell upon the Hornet, his physical assault ramping up in intensity, driving Serrin back, away from the swords. Fists and elbows, shins and knees, slamming together in a dizzying blur. The Hornets alien features were tight with focus as he defended himself from the vicious assault, but he retained enough presence of mind to send his Soul Sense shooting up toward the falling swords.

He was taken by surprise when Nicolai broke off his attack and leapt, slicing out with a palm. Serrins Soul Sense was now above him, stretching toward the nearest sword. Within the reach of his arm. His Soul Strike severed the tendril cleanly and it fell back into Serrin.

Now it was the Hornets turn for a desperate assault, pushing into him, but that was just what Nicolai wanted. Serrin twisted and threw a heavy kick to the side but Nicolai moved into it, rising and rotating slightly to take it on the solid, tensed muscle of his upper thigh. The blow was further dampened by his skinsuit, but even so it hit harder than anything a normal human couldve delivered.

Not hard enough. He wormed an arm around that leg and held it tight, shifted back to tug Serrin off-balance. The Hornet was forced hopping after him, used the motion to drive a heavy right fist at his jaw.

But Nicolais arm shot up and he caught Serrins wrist with a slap, chitin-armour on the tough material of his gloves. He stepped in, shifted in preparation for sending a leg slicing out in a kick at the one Serrin had left to stand on, looking to take it from under the Hornet then hed use his grip on arm-and-leg to slam him on the ground. Nicolai knew precisely how to do so with the maximum leverage, so as to use the ground itself as a weapon, multiply the force. The fight would end there.

But there was a fifth limb, one he hadnt anticipated. As he stepped in, so too did Serrin hop a little closer. The Hornets bulbous stinger darted between his legs, angling up, lengthening, squirting venom.

At the same instant Serrins leg had twisted so his foot was hooked around Nicolais lower back, holding him, and he jerked the arm Nicolai had gripped by the wrist out to the side then down, a move Nicolai knew would transition into breaking the grip and seizing Nicolais forearm. Working to hold him tight so the stinger could do its work.

Nicolai simply released Serrins wrist before the motion could be completed, spun the arm he had looped around Serrins leg around to free the foot then shoved it away, and, since he had already been shifting to deliver a kick, continued the motion.

His foot slammed into Serrins chest just in time, sent him staggering away, gave Nicolai the necessary impetus to hop backwards, and the stinger, aimed at his stomach, caught at nothing but air.

Their Soul Senses were reformed and both darted out, Nicolais first but Serrins close behind. He went for the nearest sword and so did Serrin, but on the way Serrins Soul Sense twisted and now the stinger shone on the end, stabbing out.

Nicolai was very familiar with the danger of these stingers. He broke off, dove for the other sword and seized it.

They faced one another, mirror images once again. Your mother said no Symbiotes, said Nicolai.

I wouldnt have actually used it, the Hornet replied, edging closer. I merely wanted you to think I would.

Nicolai laughed, surprised, pleased. Crafty. And that? He nodded to the physical stinger, jutting from where a human would have a tailbone. It was an interesting thing, bulbous now but hed seen it flex and lengthen quite a bit as it came for him.

It can inject a non-spiritual paralysing venom without any need for the Symbiote inside, answered Serrin.

After witnessing Serrins strange principles, Nicolai had half-expected the Hornet would be too honourable to use his natural advantages, or to push the rules with fakeouts.

The rules, he realised, may favour the Hornet. The Queen had said they coud only use what was natural, specifying he couldnt use his arm any more than he would if it were his original arm. He figured he could probably use slightly more strength than his human hand possessed without triggering her, but nothing overt. He was also larger and stronger than Serrin overall. Meanwhile, Serrin had his wings and his physical stinger.

If Serrin had the advantage, he wasnt bothered, and he was glad the Hornet was using what he had. A fight where the enemy went easy on you was no fight at all. Just a sham, fake and wrong.

The Hornets wings buzzed, throwing him forward in another quick attack. Now he held his sword in his hand, his Soul Sense whipping from the side at Nicolais own, angling for a break, shaped for slashing.

Only, that slashing Soul Sense attack became a crushing type, just before it landed. Nicolai was caught out and the hit caused significant damage to his Soul Sense. That forced him into a retreat, on the defensive while he waited for his Soul Sense to recover, and Serrin pressed him.

The Hornet had misled him, foiled his predictive capabilities. When had that last happened? Maric? But that hadn't been on purpose, so it didn't really count.

Serrin had managed it via Intent trickery. His Intent had suggested he would do one thing, but in fact he'd gone for another. Nicolai frequently used the same trick. This was the first time someone had done it to him.

He hadn't been going all out, because one of his goals in this fight was to demonstrate his skills, pass the Queen's test. If the fight ended too quickly, that wouldn't be possible. But now he saw that there was no need to limit himself.

He remembered all his practise against Cyberwarfare and Psychology, in the Infiltrator, and so did they.

The Dark and the Thrill flared with hunger, the Modules merged closer, and he sank into the Zero-Twelve state. His Intent warped and shifted, a confusing mire which wrapped the fight.

He struck again and again, and now he drove Serrin back. The Hornet was struggling, on the back foot, uncertain where the next attack would come from as Nicolai's Intent suggested a hundred different angles, the true strike only becoming clear when it tore out at the Hornet.

And yet, Serrin caught them. At first with difficulty, only barely, but his stance firmed, confidence returned, and then he struck back.

Psychology worked a Delusion, but Serrin caught it instantly, seemed prepared for it.

Serrins Intent was the same. It seemed there were a dozen phantom Hornets striking out of his body all at once. Each hinting at the future, suggesting he would go this way or the other.

Nicolai could no longer predict him easily, but nor could Serrin predict him. The fight became more passive and probing, a matter of reaction and consideration. His reactions were very fast, but so were Serrins.

And yet prediction was still possible, it simply required a deeper level. Serrins Intent was unreadable, misleading. But his actual moves weren't. The fight returned to the fundamentals.

Nicolai was easing himself into Serrins mental state, aided by Psychology and Simulations. He was learning the Hornet's way of thinking. Serrin liked to be surprising and aggressive, liked to use physical attacks and Soul Sense together.

Within his mind a model called Serrin was being constructed.

He closed in. He felt the Hornet's moves, drove sword and Soul Sense wide. Not long now.

But Serrin's wings buzzed and the Hornet leapt backwards, gaining space. As he went he switched his sword to his Soul Sense. His stance shifted, bladed, arm and Soul Sense extended, sword on the tip.

Nicolai mimicked the posture, curious. A new kind of intense focus burned in Serrin's eyes, steamed from his soul.

What are you planning? he murmured, moving forward in gliding steps.

You are very good. Better than me, in some aspects. But there are some tricks you do not know. Come, and I will teach you. Serrin actually twitched his fingers in a come-hither gesture, like in a movie.

Nicolai burst out laughing, delighted by the ridiculousness of it. From the way Serrin stood he had the impression the Hornet wouldve been smiling, if he had a face capable of doing so.

Nicolai slid forward. His own fingers twitched, and his sword rose for a strike. It was obvious Serrins plan hinged on blocking the next attack. The question was why.

He could have needled and feinted, refused to allow the weapons to clash. Could have tried something tricky to slip around the block entirely.

Instead he slashed out, simple and direct, aimed right at the Hornet.

He wanted to see what would happen.

Serrins sword darted up, intercepted his own, threw it aside in a parry. But there was something different about this parry. It was smooth and perfect like he'd never seen before. When Serrin's Soul Sense and the sword it held knocked his own aside, a ripple that felt like a bell sounded was released.

His Soul Sense tendril was flicked up and away, and the ripple rolled through the tendril in a shocking wave. His Soul Sense stuttered, frozen.

Serrin slashed with his arm, and his Soul Sense repeated the movement. The sword blurred towards Nicolais frozen tendril, angling for a beheading, after which hed seize the sword.

Nicolai dashed forward, the world seeming to slow. His Soul Sense was unfreezinghad only been froze for a secondbut still that wasnt fast enough. Serrin would behead his tendril, then grab the sword.

So he slashed out, chopping with his palm, striking with his Soul, and severed his own tendril.

His sword dropped from the air just before Serrins own slashed through where the tendril had been, earlier than the Hornet had anticipated.

Nicolai arrived just in time and snatched his falling sword by the handle. He was badly positioned, body all stretched out with his arm leading. Serrins Soul Sense turned and dove for him, the sword on the end stabbing.

But he remembered that strange stance Serrin had settled into. He recalled the strange, bell-like ripple that had been released when Serrin parried his attack. Knew that this was some kind of technique hed been unaware of, but which, in fact, hed managed before himself.

Back in his fight with the four Tier 2s, when the one called Drekhul had attacked him. There had been a moment where a similar sound was made, and hed seen the Tier 2s Soul Sense strangely stunned.

He knew he could do it, because hed already done it, and hed just been shown by Serrin how to do it.

Serrins sword flashed down at him and he curled to meet it. He lashed out with his own, infused with his Soul Sense, recovered and bursting out from his Soul.

The Dark and the Thrill and the Modules came together with him, and he felt the moment, felt the shape of the technique. A method of parrying so perfectly, the angle and force just right, so as to reflect the force of the opponents attack back into their Soul Sense. So that it would be like his Soul Sense was a rock and they were striking it with a metal bar, the jarring reverberations shocking their hand.

He slashed out, caught the weapon at a mediocre angle, but only physically. Spiritually, the parry was perfect.

Serrins Soul Sense and the sword it held were hurled away, and Nicolai bunched his legs to leap after it, to sever the stunned tendril and seize the Hornets sword.

But Serrin was already moving. Perhaps hed felt it coming. His wing blurred as he leapt.

There was no spiritual add-on aiding his wings. Just the physical wings themselves. It was enough for the Hornet to perform a great leap, and snatch his sword from the air, before he fell to the ground. Nicolai stored away the fact that without Soul empowering their wings, Hornets could not properly fly.

He edged forward, this time keeping the sword in his hand. Serin did the same. No risk of having Soul Sense stunned by a parry, that way. The surge of exhilaration he felt at having learned something new, at adding a new dimension to combat, jolted wonderfully through him.

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