By Winged Wolf
How To Conduct A Vamp Attack
If you need to weaken an opponent quickly, one of the most effective means of doing so is to deny them the energy they need to launch their own attacks. First, you need to cut them off from any outside power source they might be using, by cutting their links, and blocking them. Once that’s done, you send a line in to them, and draw out their energy. More explicit instructions are detailed below in the section on psychic vampirism. If they’re using outside energy sources, dump it directly into a ground, without taking it into your system. Otherwise, you can use their energy to strengthen your own attacks.
If conducted slowly, a vamp attack can be difficult to notice, and you may make off with a considerable portion of their energy before they are alerted and take any defensive action against it. Needless to say, it’s a great deal easier to vamp an unaware opponent. If you conduct the attack very quickly, you can shock their system, and do damage as energy channels “collapse”…this will give them a drunken, disoriented feeling, mental confusion, and extreme lassitude, similar to what an overload may do. It may also induce a depressive crash.
How To Defend Against A Vamp Attack
Preventing a vamp attack can be somewhat difficult, as most shields can be drained as easily as a person’s field, and once reduced, break easily. However, if you design your shield to ward off attaching links, this can make it much more difficult for a person to link to your shield in order to vamp it. A “slippery”, or sharp cutting surface are two possibilities.
Most vamp attacks are conducted by people who are actually after your energy, rather than using it as a tool in combat. These attacks can usually be warded off simply by pulling energy back down their link…the ensuing struggle isn’t comfortable, and in the vast majority of cases the vamp will cease the attempt and look for easier prey. If you happen to be stronger than they are, reducing their own level dramatically seems a suitable “lesson” to teach them.
A persistent vamp attack in a psychic combat situation can be dealt with by overloading the vamp….rather than sending a large quantity of energy down, which they may be able to capacitate, instead send the energy in alternating very large and very small quantities, alternating with great speed. This rapid change in quantity may often overwhelm their own speed in adjusting to the energy flow, thus creating an overload effect based on speed rather than sheer quantity–the effect is the same, to shock their energy channels.
Another interesting way to deal with a vamp attack is to create an offshoot link from the line they are using to draw energy, and hook this offshoot up to a ley line. Blocking the link at your end, open the link to the ley line wide, and watch the reaction. If you want to drive the point home particularly hard, HOLD the link when they attempt to break free. It’s important to block your end firmly, so as not to have your own system inundated by earth energy.
Psychic Vampirism
Some folks, for various reasons, have a need to take energy from others. This may either be psi energy, or life energy, or possibly both. Psy-vamps suffer ill effects if their energy reserves fall too low, in fact the same effects suffered by someone who has been a victim of a vamp attack–depression, lassitude and fatigue, depressed immune system. While many of these individuals take energy from others without being entirely aware of what they are doing, more are becoming aware and learning to control their abilities. A fair number of these individuals choose to restrict their energy feeding to willing donors. Some may behave in a more malicious and predatory fashion. With this in mind, below I’ve placed some explicit directions on how to pull energy from others, which should serve both for those who are taking energy from the willing or conducting an attack. This sub-article is a how-to FOR psychic vampires, both those who require psi-energy, and those who require life-energy. I’m not suggesting that psis pull life energy from others as an attack, but explaining how and why it is done, and what the differences are, as well as providing a how-to for those who may actually require it.
How To Vamp Psi-Energy, How To Vamp Life-Energy
To pull energy from a single target, make a conduit–a hose, a line, something like that–and drive it through the outer layer of their energy field. You do have to have enough energy to make an effective line–if you don’t you really need help, you’re in trouble. Most folks have a definite “boundary” to their aura, you want to impose your line past that boundary, otherwise the minor resistance might cause you to simply pull ambient energy from around them, instead of energy from their field.
If the target isn’t consenting, and is shielded, don’t try it…you just might have your arse handed to you, if you aren’t very experienced. Unless you have some very good reason to be specifically attacking that individual, of course–I’m not going into shield-busting in this article, however.
If the target is consenting, and is shielded, simply tell them to open the shield.
Then you create a vacuum at your end…pull your energy away from the line, so energy flows down the line to replace it. Be sure you maintain the integrity of the line itself.
Ok, so, you’ve done this, it’s worked, but it just isn’t RIGHT…it’s not satisfying the need you have, even though you can fill your field with enough power to light a small nuclear plant. What the heck’s going on?
A person carries two basic types of energy in their field. They feel very different, and they have different properties. The bulk of a person’s energy field is made up of a “light”, staticky energy referred to as psi, or auric energy by most folks. Psi is highly reactive, dissipative, volatile, and it’s the stuff the vast majority of people use when they’re using psychic abilities instinctively. Psi is easily generated, and quickly replaced. So long as a person isn’t drained to the point where their energy channels collapse, losing psi will do them no harm at all. Psi generation seems to be linked with nervous system activity to some degree, so listening to stimulating music, strong emotions, or other mental activity will ramp up production. Collapse of energy channels causes confusion, dizziness, headache, lassitude, and reduction of psi abilities and perception. In extreme cases, sleepiness, fatigue, and depressed immune function result.
The warning sign for excessive loss of psi energy is a chilled feeling…continuing beyond the point that this becomes apparent stresses the energy system.
The core of a person’s energy field is a lot more stable, and is comprised of life,or soul energy (pranic, chi, etc). This energy is “heavy”…tends to be dense, stable, non-dissipative, almost solid-seeming in some ways. It’s very non-reactive, and quite neutral. If the above method just doesn’t seem to work, then perhaps you don’t have a need for psi energy, but instead require life energy. Most sanguinarians will find this to be the case, if they’re able to energy-feed.
Losing life energy is a bit more serious for a person than losing psi. Life energy is replaced much more slowly, and while certain practices can renew it faster, these aren’t that commonly known. (Tantra, some types of chi-working). Sexual activity can also boost life-energy levels. Loss of life energy can cause depression, depressed immune system, sleepiness and fatigue, lassitude, and general malaise. Care should be taken not to drop a person’s energy level to the point where they become ill or sleep excessively.
Core-tapping is often a great deal more difficult than taking psi. First, you have to get an energy line completely through the person’s psi field, intact. You have to pierce their core, and maintain the integrity of your line so that there isn’t leakage, or the lighter and easier to move psi will be all you’ll get. I would recommend aiming for the point just below their navel, where the energy concentration is strongest. Assuming you manage to get a line in deeply enough, and you are able to prevent leakage along the line, the next problem is strength…it requires a lot more force to pull this energy unless the target is actively cooperating. Keeping the line from collapsing or leaking is the primary challenge, and it can be tiring to pull life energy from someone who isn’t helping.
Like any other ability, however, some people find it ridiculously easy to do any of the above, while others find it to be a near-impossible (or even impossible) challenge. Practice is the best way to improvement, and perseverance.
Effects of Losing Psi Energy
Prior to the point of system stress, losing psi-energy does a person no apparent harm at all. However, it will reduce facility with psi functions, simply because there is less fuel for them–this can affect shielding, and all active abilities. Psi reserves are fairly easy to replenish, and most will find their energy level returning to normal within two or three days. Listening to active music, or engaging in other energy generation exercises will restore energy levels faster.
Once system stress occurs, it can cause a minor pulling or cramping sensation that may or may not be localized in various areas of the body. It’s generally a good idea for a person to immediately work on intensive energy generation and charging, or pull energy from a battery or other willing individual to alleviate this strain, otherwise it might result in minor damage, or cause channels to collapse.
More severely, collapsing energy channels can damage a person’s energy system, causing longer-term reduction in abilities (which continues after normal energy levels are restored) and the symptoms already mentioned as typical of a vamp attack. If channels are collapsed, energy should also be immediately restored, but SLOWLY, lest further damage be caused.
Effects of Losing Life Energy
The amount of life energy a given individual can safely lose is reportedly extremely variable. Some individuals seem able to release very large quantities of this energy without system strain, while others may not be able to lose much at all. The person’s health and predispositions factor into this. Sensing the point where harm may start to occur is a matter of paying attention to the effects on their body’s and energy system’s general health and stability.