The Ticentec Times

The Nullborn are the human’s primary foe. They are slaves to the Halion that they are permanently infected with, and this makes they require as much human energy as they can find. They are similar to wolves in the way that they hunt. Organized by their leader and once the leader has been eliminated they are disoriented and easily defeated.

Nullbus

Precursor of the Nullborn is called Nullbuses. They are not infected with Halion crystals, but still humanoid and blade limbed like their nutated varient.

DIET

They are omnivores, feeding on fish, small animals, and vegetables. They hunt by scent and vibration, often lurking near water sources. They prefer plants with a high sugar content but will strip the bark from trees if they can’t find better forage.

PHYSICAL TRAITS

They have thicker, fatter bodies then the nullborn. Their skin is tough and gray-brown. They have large dark eyes that are good for the low light. Their arms are long and have sword like blades that are used for attacking prey or digging down to roots in the ground.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

They are very social and move in groups with a rare few venturing of on their own. They are territorial but not in a vicious way. They use low growls to communicate when they are in low threat. High pitch screams are saved for attacking prey or scaring enemies.

Nullborn Nature

Precursor of the Nullborn is called Nullbuses. They are not infected with Halion crystals, but still humanoid and blade limbed like their nutated variant.

DIET

They are only focused on energy. Their traditional diet does not consist of high energy food sources so they will venture from their areas to hunt humans and guardians. They hunt primarily by vibrations from the energy in these sources. They will still consume energy from fish and small animals or even Nullbuses.

PHYSICAL TRAITS

Their bodies have been consumed by the halion so they are far thinner and have less visible muscle mass. The skin is covered in jagged, asymmetrical shards of solid Halion. Their skin is toughened without the hydration from the fat. Their eyes have shrunken and glow a bright light teal that matches the halion. Their blade arms have been infected with halion and become sharp and resilient. Their bones are brittle due to all the energy going to their infections.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

They still relay on hunting in hordes to find their prey. They are even more likely to stay in a cluster due to the pull of the halion. They will attack anything with high energy whenever it is presented. They will growl and scream at each other or at their target without no real clear communication.

Energy collection

To harvest the energy from their prey the Nullburn have to pierce their body with any of their many Halion crystals or a limb blade. These act like conduits channeling energy from the victim into the nullborn’s crystal matrix. A human can feed anywhere from 20 to 50 nullborn before they are killed. A guardian can only feed around 5 to 8 nullborn before they expire. Humans have no natural defense against their attacks.

Tactics

Once prey has been located the Nullborn will attack in hordes of 5-10. One or two will start the attack by creating diversion. The rest of the horde will spread out at attack from all the sides. They will switch back and forth with the attacks to keep their target occupied.

Like a game of chess each horde will bring a different spin on the same main theme. Some hordes will be more desecrate and will hold some nullborn back until the victim in weakened. Others will create two diversions before the main attack. A rare few ill attack in very small hordes of only two to three. These are some of the most challenging as they are high skilled and might all attack at once. The guardian will allow the horde closer to the human they are defending believing that this is only the diversion when really, they are the main attack.

The leaders of the hordes will often hang back and only attack if the horde is in great danger. They are powerful and will consume the members of the horde if they lack energy.

How to Defeat a Nullborn

Nullborn are fueled by Halion and that Halion requires constant energy. The safest way to kill one is by fighting until all their stored energy is used up. This requires isolation each member of the horde and keeping them moving for varying amounts of time depending on how much energy they have stored.

The nullborn have brittle bones due to the energy required to feed the Halion. This is their primary weakness. The guardians use a whip made out of the skin from nullborn corpses. Used with enough force it will break the nullborne’s brittle bones.

In their other hand the guardians hold a dagger made from a nullborn limb. They will use their whip to pull a nullborn closer and then use the dagger to slice through the tough skin of the nullborn. Energy will escape through the lacerations and further weaken the monsters.

If the beast is large enough a guardian can even use the whip to pull themselves on to the creature and slash around all the halion crystals till the spine is vulnerable to a strong whip lash.

– Arona Primli