systems/KIT_BE_0002.md
CANON SUBORDINATION — this document is PROPOSAL-TIER: it serves canon and never outranks it.
The canon: the CVD · the T1 foundation docs · the T0 registries (registries/) · the spine
(docs/spine/CH_*.md) · the region pages (_source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/). Authority order:docs/DOC_MAP.md§ 0.
Canon served (structural — the registries this kit's canon rows live in, plus its chapter's spine node):
T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry·T0_Character_Index·docs/spine/CH_02.md
READ THAT CANON FIRST — open it and derive from it before you build anything from this document.
If this document disagrees with canon, CANON WINS and this document is the defect — fix the
document, never the canon. Nothing here is applied until it is ratified into canon.
PROPOSAL-TIER. This kit serves canon and never outranks it. It writes no registry row.
The law it obeys: docs/proposals/combat/KIT_SCALING_TABLE.md. The intelligence scale:
docs/proposals/combat/INTELLIGENCE_TIERS.md. The body it fights with is the bestiarylane's: docs/proposals/bestiary/BESTIARY_ELEVATION_DOCTRINE.md and its sheets. This file
describes the FIGHT; it never restates the BODY. Authors no magnitude -- no damage, no
health, no timing, no coefficient. Those are Phase-5M's behind the tuning firewall.
| field | value |
|---|---|
| band | B4 (CHAPTER BOSS) |
| kit class | ELEVATED |
| intelligence tier | sapient (evidence rule A1) |
| canon rows | BE_0002, CHAR_0008 |
| chapter | CH_02 |
| canon verbs | dodge / strike (row's own primary / secondary) |
| authored abilities | 15 physical + 3 non-ordinary = 18 (band floor 18, ceiling 28) |
| phases | 2 (canon: 2 phases (BE_0002 phase_breakdown_object -- jungle stalk; cornered frenzy)) |
| counter classes | any, cover, dodge_only, neutralize, parry_only, trigger_interrupt, weak_point |
Silhouette read. The best tracker on the island, moving like he is still one.
Opener (MHM-G10, the cheap lesson first). THE STEP THAT ISN'T THERE -- he closes three metres and makes no sound at all, then stops. No attack. It is the cheapest read in the fight and it establishes the rule the whole encounter runs on: you will not hear him arrive, so you have to watch for what he displaces instead.
| phase | name | what it PUSHES (nothing pops) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the jungle stalk | he is hunting and you are the animal. Sightlines, sound and patience; his tells are all approach tells and none of them are attacks. |
| 2 | cornered frenzy at the Kelimutu waterfall caverns | the row's own words. Nothing from phase 1 is removed -- he still breaks line of sight, still repositions, still stalks between exchanges -- and the lunge grows feint follow-ups, the telegraphs shorten, and the hold that is riding him starts spending him. The escalation is the polo's, not his, and the fight shows that. |
| # | ability | phase | kind | body origin | tell shape | counter | element | lore ground + mechanism | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Step That Isn't There | 1 | physical | the whole body, weight rolled through the outside of the foot | foliage moves at knee height where nothing is | any | -- | -- | MHM-G10's cheap lesson, and the root every dangerous move below is a variant of. |
| 2 | Sightline Break | 1 | physical | a lateral push off the lead leg into cover | he turns his shoulders away before his feet move | any | -- | -- | |
| 3 | Thrown Spear | 1 | physical | hip and shoulder, from a low crouch behind cover | one shoulder drops and the opposite hand comes back past the ear | cover | -- | -- | |
| 4 | The Lunge | 1 | physical | a straight drive from the rear leg, blade leading | the rear heel lifts and the blade drops below his waist | dodge_only | -- | -- | The root of the phase-2 feint chain. Taught here clean and unpunishing so the variant is readable when it costs something. |
| 5 | Snare Set | 1 | physical | hands only, at a chokepoint he has walked you toward | he breaks contact toward a lane rather than away from you | trigger_interrupt | -- | -- | He is a hunter and he uses a hunter's tools. Cutting the snare before it closes is the interrupt; walking into it is a phase-2 opening for him. |
| 6 | Rain-Cadence Read | 1 | physical | no body movement -- he is listening | he goes completely still while you are moving | neutralize | -- | -- | He is reading YOUR sound. Neutralize is moving on the water's beat, in the fall's noise, or not at all. It is the first fight in the game where standing still is an action. |
| 7 | Blade Draw-Cut | 1 | physical | elbow and wrist, a short pull across the lead hand | his lead hand turns palm-down | parry_only | -- | -- | |
| 8 | Shoulder Displace | 1 | physical | a check with the leading shoulder into your guard | he closes to inside your weapon's length and stops | any | -- | -- | |
| 9 | Torch Kill | 1 | physical | an open-hand sweep at your light | he reaches for the lamp instead of for you | cover | -- | -- | The counters cell names lighting the torch from the geothermal vents as an answer to him. This is the move that says the light is a resource he can spend. |
| 10 | Ledge Drop | 1 | physical | a controlled fall from an upper cave shelf | he stops being anywhere at your eye level | dodge_only | -- | -- | |
| 11 | Feint Lunge | 2 | physical | the same rear-leg drive, aborted at the halfway point | the rear heel lifts and the blade STAYS at his waist | dodge_only | -- | -- | The row's own evolve-not-swap clause: feint follow-ups on the lunge. Same root as ability 4, one detail different, and that detail is the whole answer. |
| 12 | Double-Beat Lunge | 2 | physical | two drives off alternate legs with no reset between | the rear heel lifts twice before he travels | parry_only | -- | -- | |
| 13 | Cornered Frenzy | 2 | physical | everything at once -- shoulders, blade, weight, no economy left | he stops using cover and comes down the middle | cover | -- | -- | The phase-2 name from the row itself. It is the least skilled thing he does and the most dangerous, because a man being ridden does not pace himself. |
| 14 | Grapple to the Pillar | 2 | physical | both hands, driving your back onto stone | he closes without a weapon out | trigger_interrupt | -- | -- | |
| 15 | Pursuit Sprint | 2 | physical | a flat run through water at ankle depth | he crosses the pool instead of going around it | any | -- | -- | |
| 16 | The Emptying | 2 | non-ordinary | no body origin -- the vital force under the body | his shadow lags a beat behind the movement that cast it | neutralize | none | LORE GROUND: CR_0151's attested Nage/Lio account, carried on the row -- an ata polo is not a separate species but a person whose soul (mae) has been displaced by a harmful essence (wa) taken on through an illicit pact, human in outward form and non-human within (Forth, SRC_00469 / SRC_00457). MECHANISM: what is being spent here is Rangku, and the vril-trace reads DRAINED-NOT-FULL. Element none because the tradition names no elemental character and inventing one would credit a claim nobody made. Neutralize is the read itself -- a Neophyte VRIL_TRACE, never a tier-gated polarity. | The reveal discipline binds hard here: the player perceives an emptiness, never a pattern, never an origin, never a name. |
| 17 | Borrowed Speed | 2 | non-ordinary | the hold, pushing a body past what the body can pay for | a strike arrives without the wind-up that should have preceded it | parry_only | none | LORE GROUND: the same attested wa-displacement account carried on CR_0151 (Forth, SRC_00469). MECHANISM: the hold is not making him faster, it is removing his self-preservation -- the wind-up is missing because the protective load-and-brace is missing. Element none; nothing elemental is claimed. The parry works precisely BECAUSE the strike is unbraced. | Deliberately not a speed buff. The fiction and the mechanic agree: this costs him. |
| 18 | The Hold Refuses | 2 | non-ordinary | the whole body arresting mid-motion against its own momentum | he stops in the middle of an attack and his own arm shakes | weak_point | none | LORE GROUND: BE_0002 restore_target -- 'the hunter's vital force freed' -- and win_condition = REDUCE;FREE. MECHANISM: the man is still in there and he is fighting it. The weak point is the grip talisman named in the row's hitzone_parts, and hitting it during this window is the non-kill path's actual mechanism rather than a menu choice. | This is the ability that makes FREE reachable through combat instead of despite it. |
ELEVATED, AND NOT ELEMENTAL BY DEFAULT (KIT_SCALING_TABLE 3.1b). 3 of the 18 moves
above are non-ordinary and each names its element family, its lore ground and its
mechanism. The rest are a body doing physical things, and they are marked physical rather
than dressed up. An elevated kit is one that CONTAINS the non-ordinary; it is not one in
which everything glows.
| part | moveset subtraction on break | legibility gain | material the economy wants |
|---|---|---|---|
the grip talisman (hitzone_parts, mult 1.5, break_threshold 0.35) | The Hold Refuses (18) stops being a rare window and becomes a state: Borrowed Speed (17) and The Emptying (16) both leave the live set | the row's own break_effect -- 'weakens the polo hold' -- reads as his shadow catching up with him | corruption-residue reagent, the crafting seed the Ch-69 lineage wants |
the stalk cloak (hitzone_parts, mult 1.4, break_threshold 0.3) | Sightline Break (2) and The Step That Isn't There (1) lose their concealment; the row's break_effect is 'slows the feints', which lands on Feint Lunge (11) | he becomes visible in the understory at the range where he used to disappear | woven bark-cloth |
| the lead hand | Blade Draw-Cut (7) and Torch Kill (9) both leave the moveset | he switches guard, and the switch is visible from across the cavern | nothing harvested -- this is a person, and the part economy pays in legibility only |
EG_0005 Cave Pillar and Karst Column -- ENEMY: the row's counters name breaking line of sight behind a cave pillar as YOUR answer, and he uses the same geometry first. PLAYER: cover against Thrown Spear (3), and the anchor Grapple to the Pillar (14) is aimed at.EG_0003 Fumarolic Vent Field -- PLAYER: the row's own counters cell -- 'expose stalk tells with a torch lit from the geothermal vents'. The vent field is where the light comes from, which is why ability 9 exists.EG_0008 Waterfall Curtain and Plunge Pool -- BOTH: the fall's noise is what Rain-Cadence Read (6) is listening through, and it covers the player exactly as well as it covers him.EG_0009 Waterfall Cavern Pocket -- ENEMY: the phase-2 arena named in the row. CONSTRICTION class, D1_COLLAPSE armed: the frenzy happens where there is nowhere to give ground.EG_0011 Tiwu Ata Polo Crater Lake -- CARE-BOUND, GEOMETRY ONLY: hard_blocked, protected_care_ref = HL_0001, enemy_usable = FALSE, attack_verbs = none, toxic. The lake that shares the polo's name is a boundary this fight is staged AGAINST and never in, never weaponised, never entered. The proximity is thematic and it costs the encounter nothing to keep it that way.| channel | what the player sees or hears |
|---|---|
| posture | the hunter's economy leaves him -- the low, efficient carriage straightens into something that does not know where its own weight is |
| breath | his breathing stops matching his exertion, and keeps going when he is standing still |
| vocal | the tracking calls he was using to place you stop; phase 2 is silent except for him |
| opener | The Step That Isn't There is retired; The Lunge becomes the opener and Feint Lunge is now live behind it |
HE ENTERS from outside the player's sightline, always -- awareness_category = UNAWARE means he does not know what he is hunting, which is why he opens patiently. HE RELOCATES constantly in phase 1 and stops relocating in phase 2, and that change is the clearest single read in the encounter. HE LEAVES only by being freed or by being put down. WHAT HE DOES TO THE ARENA: he takes the light. Phase 1 is a fight over torches and sightlines; phase 2 happens in a pocket where neither is available.
care_tier = standard, target_type = corrupted_individual, has_nonkill_path = TRUE. The antagonist here is the BARGAIN and the being that offered it, never the hunter and never his people -- CR_0151's register is explicit that the record of modern accusation and lethal mob violence against accused neighbours is precisely why the game never offers an accused villager as a target. Rangku is a victim who is currently trying to kill you, both halves true at once, and ability 18 is the mechanism by which the player can act on the first half. The red-eye stigma stays on the spirit form and is never a physiognomy laid on real people.
This kit is authored ONCE, at Fading. The five modulators of KIT_SCALING_TABLE section 4
express it across the ladder: active_ability_set grows upward through reserved follow-ups
on roots the player already learned, window_class tightens, answer_tree_depth prunes
toward the single true answer, hazard_concurrency rises with the arena rows above, and
phase_overlap interleaves the phase cycles. No second kit exists and no number here changes
with the tier.