Take One/Combat Style
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Here's a more detailed explanation for how Take One's Dark Melee attacks work, considering that he's not actually summoning dark energy from the nether realms.
Contents |
Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Maul
During combat Take One allocates a large part of his mental processes to detect and analyze his target's weak spots. When he punches someone or something it is usually an attack against one of the weak points that he has discovered, whether it may be a mass of nerves, a joint, the eye, throat or groin, or some other anatomical weakness. The pain caused by these attacks can be so strong as to cause motorical difficulties or temporary sensory deprivation. This is represented by Dark Melee's to-hit penalty.
It works just as well on undead or mechanical foes but usually not because of pain - in those cases he might actually be breaking the target's sensors or use aikido-like techniques to turn his enemies' superior strength against them. Zombies and robots have torn themselves apart trying to fight him.
Touch of Fear
Take doesn't need to actually cause damage to make an opponent extremely uncomfortable. Firm pressure applied to certain points on a living body will cause temporary paralyzation, sensory deprivation or even hallucinations. This is sometimes even more effective than punching, because any actual damage may urge the victim to defend itself.
Against some enemies who lack pressure points the same result can sometimes be accomplished through the right combination of words. A robot or other machine may be temporarily incapacitated by illogical statements. The undead will sometimes have an irrational fear of certain religious words or symbols. Take will utilize anything that works, even if it means he will have to carry around garlic or rice to keep vampires occupied.
Siphon Life
A method for channeling chi which will drain the very force of life from an enemy and transfers it to Take, healing him. He only uses it sparingly since it's not very effective. It was a step on the way to learning the dread Dim Mak technique.
Dark Consumption
Another chi channeling technique that Take has learned. This allows him to drain energy from several foes at once to replenish his own reserves. Another step on the path to the Dim Mak.
Soul Drain
When surrounded and outnumbered Take will usually switch from analyzing individual opponents to studying the cohesiveness of the group he is facing. He can perform a nearly instant analyzis and determine things like who the weak links are in the chain of command, who must be defeated first to cause the greatest drop of morale among the rest, etc.
Since this depends on finding the weak individuals in a group it works better the more opponents there are. With the knowledge provided through this analyzis Take One will seem to punch harder and with greater accuracy while his opponents will all seem to have become weaker in comparison.
Midnight Grasp
The Dim Mak, or Touch of Death. With a gentle touch Take One reverses or halts the flow of chi through his opponent's body, causing instant system shock and a slow lingering drain of life. Unless an opponent is strong enough to correct its own chi flow or survive until the temporary reversion fades, it will fall into a coma. Death is almost certain for anyone who doesn't receive quick and proper treatment. Even opponents who are powerful enough to survive the touch will often be weakened to the point that they can't seem to move.
