"physical shield bashing can inflict a mighty blow, and energy shields can similarly be used offensively, if by 'bashing' one means 'flinging hundreds of nearly-2-dimensionally sharp photic-crystalline shards at the enemy.' it's short range, leaves the attacker exposed, and can be easily countered by an opponent's shield, but when used effectively it can be quite devastating"

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...also here's a preview look at "dark mold," for whom I haven't yet settled on an actual name, slicing and dicing a training dummy in a simulator! While he can often be too quick to choose violent solutions for various seemingly insurmountable problems and has a somewhat twisted sense of justice about things, he probably wouldn't be gloating or grinning maniacally in a real battle where he and his crewmates would actually be in danger. He's a member of a band of mostly-well-meaning outlaws, alongside Ash and Li-Raah the half-orcs, and Doctor Old the warped-genius ship's doctor (...who, notably, is not a real doctor, but changed his first name to "Doctor" and got the job anyway. Has strange methods but is unparalleled in his fields)