Determination Vs Pride. Hou's emotions had turned against him as they were nurtered in by figures in front of him, "what do they do? Do I attack?"
He was facing an enemy with an unknown power–
'Your Determination is admirable'
A memory of what they said before he had attacked came to mind, "My Determination is gone but so is their abilities, the bile, the air bullets, is it connected?"
Before he could conclude what to do, or what even was happening, he was attacked again. Fist flying through the air, Hou raised his blade to deflect.
He corrected himself, not just moving the blade he moved his entire being, creating a flow by which the sword moves; for that is swordsmanship.
The flat edge of the blade slapped the fist flying towards himself, the figure slammed it backwards, "You too!" They shouted.
Hou glanced behind the figure, the other one began moving too with the same look of–
"That's it, that looks of...Determination. my Determination...it started when I used that...they are using my own Determination somehow!"
Before he could use the information, the figure in front of him had ducked below and threw a right hook at his torso.
Calculating the speed of the other approaching figure, he determined he had time to be open. His fingers slid across the sword of Pride, switching directions and grip.
As the right hook slammed into his side, he threw down the sword into the figure's shoulder, stabbing through the flesh.
Boom!
Instead of hearing the pain of his enemy, Hou was slammed into his other side. From the right hook, into a left hook, knocking him both ways right after the other.
He looked down, the figure which threw the right hook was no longer on that side, instead they were on the left throwing a left hook.
***
From the figure's perspective,
In their vision, they saw two worlds. Their mind was filed with determination and that determination split i to two paths. Each having the same goal but go about it in different ways.
Throw a punch towards Hou. Kick his legs.
Both realities overlapped within their mind and vision. They miss, Hou dodged out the way.
He continues to fall backwards with advanced footwork, throw another punch in each reality in slightly different trajectories.
One of the fists is deflected, the other gets cut by Hou's sharp blade. Their eyes flash.
"That one." Calmly, with Determination, they pick the realty to move on with themselves. Both realities are real and happen in reality, but only one continues with them.
The hand that was cut in the discarded reality 'heals', they look sharply at Hou. This was doable, they will kill him then search for a way to leave this world, return to the Sea of Worlds and report back, they could–
While thinking, they had continued the approach. Right hook, left hook; at the same time. Sharp pain stabbed their shoulder, he had hit.
For a moment, Determination wavered until the blurry body shivered and their mind regulated automatically. This was their advantage in the mindscape, they were not human and did not have such fickle emotions though that was also their downside until Hou had accidently passed down his emotions.
"Switch!" The right hook in Hou's observed reality switches, they had thrown a left hook now. But both realities had occured, the damage from the right hook still hit Hou.
***
Hou spat out blood, the accumulated hits had caused internal injuries. Inside the mindscape he worked like a mortal somewhat.
His Pride wavered, he couldn't understand what happened. It must the the work of his Determination but that doesn't help.
His Determination, which had been an underlying power pushing him forward, was no longer his. He was replaced with emptiness. Without Determination, what brought him to continue this all.
Pride, clearly not just one hit and he felt it waver...what kept him going–
His sword of Pride vanished, no longer fuelled by his emotions. The two figures convened, both throwing punches at Hou. Not even using any powers, just pure fist to body, head, legs, arms.
He was bruised and battered, pain overwhelmed his mind. It was nothing really, he had always felt pain. From the very start of his life, he was constantly brought into pain.
It was a life of torture, how could he continue despite it all? He had friends, he had family, was that the force he needed now?
...
Hou's eyes fluttered open, he looked around.
"Wake up!" Zhou Tian shouted back, "What happened?"
Hou was back. What happened? What about the mindsca– he fell to his knees and clutched at his heart, then his head, peeling flesh.
A pain deep inside, his consciousness, sprang. But in that pain, another emotion came to mind. Determination.
He was relieved, it was back. He must have been "defeated" within the mindscape. Hou funneled some Causality into Zhou Tian, "Thanks for protecting me."
'I didn't think of my body' Hou thought as he stood up, "Stand back. Take this mental packet, it should explain it all. I need you to figure out your own abilities and then out then to use." Hou packaged his exam action of the mindscape and threw it to the confused Zhou Tian.
Then he stopped forward, "So you two are awake too, I don't suppose you want to go for round two?" He squinted and initiated a mindscape, instantly it was shattered by the other party.
"We have already figured it out. This special ability of this world had been formed now, the Qualia. You must be quite hurt now, the consciousness is as fragile as it is strong; peculiar isn't it?" The figures responded as one, each of them saying a few words before moving to the next in line.
Hou held his chest, feeling his beating chest, 'Maybe three more times...I can't afford to lose in a mindscape...' he looked to the three figures in front of him, 'But that means they can't stand much either. If I can just get them inside a mindscape long enough to do more damage....'