"Disgust still? How can they stay so consistent? I couldn't keep Fear and Curiosity long enough to even use them?!" Hou dodged backwards, thinking of memories.
'Happy...happy...' he tried to rush himself, in turn Anxiety welled, would be better able to do this?
On his shoulder, a black spot appeared. It grew to the size and shape of a hand, then further on and up. An inky created stood behind Hou, holding onto his shoulder.
His Anxiety fuelled the creature which placed a heavy burden on his mind, he felt his eyes droop. The enemies took advantage of his lethargy, they quickly moved forward.
Bile. The other, fingers curled with only the pointer finger and thumb extended, locked onto Hou. Their finger directly toward's Hou's face.
He stared it with his droopy eyes, it recoiled up and backwards, though while he remained staring he saw the air shifting.
The bile spit beside was sucked into it's vortex, now it shot towards Hou with speed. A spark of fear ignited, but still Anxiety was the main emotion.
As it got closer, his fear grew and grew. The Anxiety, the inky creature, pressed down on him more. Even if he wanted to move, even thinking was tiring.
Hou's Fear neared the level of Anxiety until...he closed his eyes fully. With the supposed inevitability of being hit, he felt a sense of peace.
Boom! The peacefulness reached an apex and the anxiety which had pressed upon his emotions dissipated, he opened his eyes and by instinct moved out of the way.
For a split second, he saw the "bile bullet" had frozen in front of him, but soon after peacefulness was replaced by relief and it pitched once more.
It splattered onto Hou's waist, the force pushing him down while the bile bit through his 'skin'. An specific feeling and emotion shot through his body.
Pain. But emotions give power, right?
Pain is special. It's an emotion, yes, but it is not like the others. In the mindscape, physical pain should have been impossible, that is why instead what Hou was feeling–
Damage. His consciousness cracked, the battle of the mindscape was not a fun thing to do, it attacked the consciousness. The very deepest part of what makes someone someone.
Before, Hou had felt it. That slight pang every time he got hit, but now with a hit of significant damage...he felt the seriousness of the situation again.
One would have thought that this experience would bring about Fear, Anxiety, Unpreparedness, but not this time, not in Hou.
His galaxy-like skin bubbled at the surface, his eyes glared upwards. Already, they had shot another combined attack. Bile spun in a vortex shell.
Determination was the sole emotion that had been brought up, ever since he had entered the mindscape everything felt unreal. He had to be given a real reminder, everything was at stake.
Hou felt that he needed to target something, not knowing what Determination would do he targeted the figure shooting bile.
At the same time, no longer burdened by his Anxiety, he moved out of the way of the bullet while maintaining his determination. His target had been chosen and while moving, the effect began.
He froze midway, as his stubborn Determination which had felt like bedrock unable to be moved, was drained to nothing.
The bile-spitting figure began launching another spit when the Determination had hit, the Disgust that fuelled the bile was replaced by that very Determination of Hou's.
The ability to give his Determination to another, that was the power of Hou's Determination; in the process it stopped the opponent's ability.
But that was not all, the other still launched a barrage of air bullets. Their frustration steadily unaffected by the partner's Determination.
Three spinning vortexes shot towards Hou in a spread out pattern. He tried to dodge, but unluckily, while doing so was hit by two of them.
One hit his chin, pushing it upwards and making him dizzy. The other hit the right leg, bruising it. Pushing through the dizziness, he felt embarrassed.
Inside his mind, he started to tally the Emotions he knew the effects of, "Anger, flames. Happiness, dunno. Pride, sword. Frustration, body enhancement (?). Disgust, shield. Surprise, repulsion. Fear, a black void? Curiosity, dunno. Anxiety, a creature? Peacefulness, freezing? Determination, stop an ability?"
'Arghh, I don't kno– That's it!' he felt frustrated and angry at himself, he needed to do something. And that was when he found what to do, anger was easy to sustain, he thought.
He had spent the war through a bird's-eye perspective helping the little fighters with Hamar, he had seen their pain and anguish. He had saw many die, it made him Sad of course...
But Sadness was something underlying, at the surface it was anger that bubbles. It was anger at his own useless, he channeled this anger.
Flames burst from Hou's fists, he launched a fight towards the opponents. One had been given Determination, Hou did not yet know this and thought he had disabled their powers.
He launched a fist towards them, a burning ball of fire towards their chest. All the whole, the other figure sustained their slight anger and launched bullets of compressed air towards Hou but it did not stop him.
They hit, pushed him back, caused welts, bruises and pain. But it was manageable, enough for him to get to the other figure and collide.
Occasionally, the flames would flutter, frustration would overwhelm his anger and his multi-coloured galaxy skin would turn red. Instead of burning, he would hit with pure unadulterated strength.
All the while, the figure which had been gifted Hou's Determination stood in Awe. The Awe was weak though compared to Hou's Determination.
'This is what they feel...' it thought, 'It's beautiful' they felt something that they had only had in miniscule amounts. That was their difference, something even Hou and noticed unconsciously.
They were not human, not exactly. They didn't feel emotions the same way, they were dull and weak BUT they were consistent because of that. They did not get bursts of uncontrollable emotions, but in this mindscape, that could be a weakness.
Their strength was constant but weak, could they win against the emotionality of humans?