1st GBA Tourney - Vrag vs Jardo Snow

[Eralam]

The sands are hot and dry, constantly shifting underfoot.

Tatooine is no one's first choice of home, but the poor or the criminally inclined have managed to eke out a miserable existence under the blazing heat of the twin suns.

Our fighters find themselves in a rare oasis, surrounded by dunes on all sides. A spring bubbles gently in the center, the mud it generates making footing treacherous. Where the ground is dry, it's soft sand.

A tribe of Tusken Raiders looks on. Should either fighter try to leave before their opponent has fallen, they will be captured and mercilessly tortured for the amusement of the strange aliens.

[member="Vrag"]
[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[Vrag]

Equipment:

Spoiler

Lightsaber
Chom-Huun
Vulcan Blaster Rifle + disruptor
Vonduun Skerr Dhaladii
Vonduun Skerr Ygdris
Blorash jelly, Firejelly, Magma pebbles, Plasma eel
Thud bugs, Razor bugs, Blast bugs, Snap bugs

Tatooine is no one's first choice for anything, ever, period.

Karking boiling in this piece of chit backwater good for nothing schutta of a planet.

Vrag felt a sudden, overpowering urge to kick a rock. Alas, there were no rocks to kick, because they were in a karking desert, and all the rocks miles around had long been reduced to fine-ass sand that she'd spend the next ten campaigns against the Republic picking out of her armor.

So she frowned instead, a near-petulant grimace that would go utterly unnoticed by the Galaxy at large by virtue of the skull obscuring her features. Neat things, these helmets. Useful for a whole load of crap, chief among which was protection from all sorts of damage.

Including a heat stroke, in this particular case. Thank the Force — because the Gods were all dead — for the thermal insulation. And the oasis. Especially the oasis.

The shade helped some, and the steady bubbling of water some paces away provided a much-needed breath of fresh air in the face of the overpowering heat of the arid environment. Instead of wasting time wondering what drunken escapade had brought her here, Vrag focused instead on analyzing her surroundings with the full gamut of her senses and the enhancements provided by that same neat helmet, taking note of any peculiarities that she'd have to either avoid or utilize to bring down her elusive enemy.

Wait… what?

And then it all came back, and the urge to slam her forehead against a rock erupted tenfold in intensity. Alas, still no rocks to be had as far as the eye could see (or as far as the eye could see with some additional help from advanced space technology). No dice for the second time in as many minutes.

You see, the Hand of the Dark Lord had placed a bet. She had gambled, and she had lost, and now she was here, on this sun-blighted day, on the surface of this Gods-forsaken, schorched planet, to settle that damn wage.

If they would only show.


[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Spoiler

Lightsaber (link in sig)
Assassin Armour (link in sig)
Sith Hidden Blade (will get link if need)

His eyes darted around, never stopping on one thing. He'd learned more in his time away from the Sith. Never stop looking, always look for a way out or a weapon dotted in the sand. So much sand, the sand never stopping for miles. The baron wastelands of Tatooine just kept going closer and closer to those twin suns.

Those suns were evil, lets be honest. They bombarded the planet with heat, all live species roasting lightly in the sun. He was lucky he didn't have any skin on show, fear of burning in the heat was always an issue on planets like this. Perhaps the old Assassin Armour wasn't the best idea. The suit slowly baked it's owner at the best of times, the sun was just making it worse.

He spotted more sand to the side of him, nothing really of use. He had followed a trail of the force to this location, unaware of anything going on around him. He had packed light, only his lightsaber and the trusty Sith Hidden Blade. He knew it was time for said blade to claim a life, and perhaps one of these god forsaken tusken raiders would be a fine example.

He had stood still for a while now, eyes darting and thoughts inside his twisted mind. He could feel the female opposite but he never looked, he never once looked at her. He was allowing the force to guide him, to help his attacks and to block all those made towards him. He was a master of swordplay, he knew that, yet he still had much to learn in the force.

He slowly opened a force barrier around himself, a small bubble containing his entire body. He didn't want to start the fight that was sure to follow from any small talk, he didn't want to waste energy. He knew that waiting was the only way to win this fight, he knew it was the only way to win most things.

"You stand there, waiting. I do the same, I do not blame you. The heat here, the sodden moisture in the air!" he spoke, the words louder than if he were talking to someone next to him however. He wanted this female to hear.

His eyes stopped moving and narrowed in.

It was time.

[member="Vrag"]
[member="Eralam"]

 

[Vrag]

Ah, there he was at last. Her elusive dancing partner.

Vrag would've smiled, but she wasn't in the mood. In fact, she hardly ever seemed to be in the mood. Then again, who could blame her in this hellish excuse for weather? Sun bearing down on them from all four corners of the sky did nothing to alleviate the slight headache that still lingered from yesterday, and it wasn't like she was the nicest of people on her best days.

In fact, Vrag wasn't nice. At all.

And so she would calmly, resolutely shift her weight into a stance, right leg facing forward as she wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her lightsaber. The motion wasn't discreet, but it wasn't lazy either. Mostly, it was meant to distract the talking man from the small gestures of her left, free hand as it went to settle on her hip in a fashion typical of Makashi. Nothing out of the ordinary there, right?

False.

In truth, the Hand had coaxed a blast bug out of the nooks of her Vonduun, holding it securely now in her palm as she breathed out the spent air in her lungs. Still obscured by her armored body, her intentions would become clear far too late, as the woman would shift her considerable weight again, pulling her front leg back across the gold sand with a twist of the hips and torso, flinging the eager bug at her foe at a low, lateral arc. It would come buzzing and ravenous from the side in the blink of an eye, propelled by the force lent to it by Vrag herself, but also by virtue of its durable, sharp wings that made for that distinct cutting sound.

The distance between them wasn't all that great, and what with the bug being of Vong origin, it would be an inscrutable hole in the precognition of any Force user; all in all, the firrerreo was quite certain her enemy would be blown to bits in the very next moment and conclude this whole sorry affair.


[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He shook his head, allowing the force to guide the next few moments. The bug was from the Vong which made his attacks all but useless against it. He had milliseconds to react to this, he needed to work. Yet, he wasn't ready to die. He knew if he was dying it was upon his terms, his will. He followed the bug as it got closer, watching it. He was almost afraid of mistiming this move, that would mean death.

He had a microsecond to react and he took that into account as he ran. The bug was right ontop of him, he just needed to make a few more steps. He felt the sand shifting under his feet, then he felt nothing. He felt the air around him as he lept into the air, propelled by the force. The bug was behind him, but still following.

His lightsaber jumped to his hand, the blink of an eye passed and he was on the sand once more, lightsaber in hand. He needed to aim this bug towards the female and he made that clear by using the force to aid a run towards her. She launched it, she could feel it's power.

Right?

He was more than happy to admit he was wrong, and he felt it. He had miscalculated the jump and the bug was too close. He threw up a force barrier as quick as he could, attempting to shield himself from the worst of the blast and finally he felt himself leave the ground once more, this time not of his own accord.

Man it hurt.

[member="Vrag"]

 

[Vrag]

Vrag let out an appreciative hum for the man's split-second reaction. As far as running went, it was actually one of the more effective tactics to avoid the flying beasties, and she'd commend the man, if she weren't so dead-set on killing him.

Still, delaying the inevitable eventually meant that the inevitable still arrived, and this particular bug made one hell of a bang when it did.

The man had been running towards her before the creature hit its mark, and as the blast sent him careening through the air, Vrag would seize her chance. She stepped forth and to the left with her left leg, twisting her hips to bring her right foot near-parallel to the other. Even as she would utilize precise footwork to step out of his trajectory, her arm would already be moving to execute an upward slash at his centre mass as he came flying through the air past her.

Given his speed, the Hand wasn't aiming for anything in particular, but a lightsaber was a lightsaber; it would cut just about anything without discrimination, and avoiding strikes while airborne wasn't really an option whether one was there of their own volition or by courtesy of a small explosion.


[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

He was a ball of pain. There was no nicer way of putting it. The bug had taken a chunk out of him from what he could feel. Well actually the only thing he could feel was his grip still around the metal shaft of his lightsaber. The cold shaft deactivated, useless in stopping the pain.

The force reacted. He felt the lightsaber coming towards him and instantly his own switched on, the two blades clashing as they passed. He knew only a few seconds had passed somewhere in side, but it felt like minutes if not hours until he finally hit the ground again.

He took a moment to get to grips. The main body of pain was in his face, the one scrap of skin that wasn't guarded. He could feel the dents in his armor but for the most part it seemed alright. His left arm was numb and probably mangled under his armor but he didn't need it to be perfect, just movable.

He crawled to his feet, the feeling of first degree burns scalding his face. To him, it was just pain. To others they knew the skin on his face was just peeling away, blood and gore was pouring from wounds everywhere.

He thanked the force, he thanked his reckless move he'd made months ago. He was slowly using the force heal to numb the pain in his face. He couldn't cure that much damage, he knew that. He could, however form some sort of basic numbing to keep him moble.

"Bugs" he shouted, groaning. The pain, the burning was getting to him. He had to end this soon and quick.

"Bugs the best you have?!"

[member="Vrag"]

 

[Vrag]

Vrag grunted as her lightsaber was deflected to the side, using the imparted momentum to bring the blade around into the seventh guard again even as she pivoted again, aligning herself with the direction in which the man finally slammed into the ground.

Her opponent was smoldering and in the process of recovering from a faceplant, which was an opportunity if Vrag ever saw one. Even as he was picking himself up, the woman would close the distance to the wide measure, counting on her superior reach to do the trick as she outplayed the man with careful footwork. Funny, how many times a small difference in distance and pace was all one needed to smite their foe; more amusing still, however, was how often the intricacies of footwork and tempo were dismissed as inconsequential.

Fools.

Her lightsaber would fall upon the recovering man in a flurry of strikes, her pattern unpredictable and her angles varying wildily as she came at her adversary, playing with the distance all the while. Banking on the fact that his whole focus would be devoted to parrying her blows, Vra g would subtly navigate from the wide measure. Now, at first glance, the woman would look no closer to him than when she'd begun, but the trick was in her lowered stance, which would grant her a longer lunge in turn.

When she'd begun, none of her attacks could reach the man with a single step — that's what wide measure meant — and her burst of slashes served to accomodate her opponent to that distance. Due to the amount of strikes, short-term muscle memory would have grown used to it, and that was exactly when the Hand would spring her trap.

With her muscles and Vonduun flexing in unison to multiply the speed of the fastest possible venue of attack in existence, Vrag would snap forward with her leading arm, aiming to drive her lightsaber through the left kidney of her opponent as that single step brought her in close. Her free left hand would linger close to her chest throughout the whole lunge, ready to redirect any form of retaliation that her foe might attempt at this range.

No.

Bugs certainly weren't the best she had.


[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

To say he worked quick was an understatement. To say his hand worked that quick he couldn't even tell what he was doing would be a better way of putting it. He felt the force pull him as the lightsaber came close and he used his own blade to cut it off in a saber lock. Perhaps this female had another trick up her sleeve, but Jardo had one of his own.

What he was trying was an old Sith trick, one he hadn't used since defacing all those months ago. That's what this female was, just good target practice. Slowly he moved his lightsaber, attempting to keep the female's eyes drawn to it. His face was burning, he had lost vision in one eye, but he wasn't going to lose.

He raised his left hand, the charred glove falling away from the skin. He watched as the female tried to decipher his next lightsaber attack. It all came down to this. Slowly he flicked his wrist, a basic force push attempting to move the female back before the big ending came. He felt the pressure build in his fingertips until a stream of dark purple, almost red lightning came from his finger tips. He wasn't sure what the color was, all he knew was that it was aiming right for his opponent.

Time to finish this and go home. Is what he would of thought if he was done. Instead he used the force to pull a Tusken Raider closer to him, throwing it towards the female with the force. It would serve as an ample disraction if his lightning attack worked. He slowly used the force to lift the sand around him, making him just a tornado shape of sand. He moved quick, hoping not to be noticed.

He needed to get behind her.

[member="Vrag"]

 

[Vrag]

The man blocked her artful lunge with his blade, but instead of stepping back into a basic stance — as was common after a lunge — Vrag instead pulled her back leg forward even as she thumbed the switch of her own lightsaber, extinguishing the red beam in an instant.

Lightsabers were useful weapons in many aspects, but perhaps their greatest advantage over a conventional metal blade was the fact that they could be ignited and turned off at will. It was a feature that was utilized surprisingly rarely despite being immensely powerful. Baffling, really, but the Hand wouldn't bother analyzing others' mistakes, because she had no intent on making them.

As her blade disappeared, the woman would twist her hips and move out of line of attack by striding forward and to the left with her back leg, expecting her opponent to be propelled forward by the sudden loss of an anchor for his sword arm. To have sustained her attack in a blade lock — even if only for a moment — would have taken a great amount of strength and pressure invested, for the woman could break him like a twig despite using one arm only.

Banking on the fact that her foe would be sabotaged by his own inertia, the firrerreo would simply reignite her saber a breath later, when his weapon and arm would have already passed her, effectively poised to stab the blade into his gut at what was more or less point-blank range. To make matters worse for the man, her full-body step would also bring him in direct contact with two hundred pounds of muscle and spiked armor, pushing forward with all the mercy and determination of a freight train.


[member="Jardo Snow"]

 

[Eralam]

Okay gang, let's go ahead and get the fun part out of the way. [member="Vrag"] wins. [member="Jardo Snow"] put up one hell of a fight, but that bug to the back seemed to throw him off, and he never really recovered. This was a great fight, one both of you should be proud of. I've gone through and picked out a couple of little things that might be worth keeping an eye out for in the future.


Jardo

• Initial block of the flying lightsaber strike was a bit sketch. It's hard to get any sort of precise weight behind a block when you're in the air. Vrag had a more stable position, and could have possibly sliced your in half with your own blade.
• Very good job taking damage otherwise. You took hits without complaining, which is rare, and you didn't get snarky.
• Best advice I can give you is be a little more specific both with how you word things and how you describe your positions. There were a few spots where some creative interpretation on Vrag's part could have ended very badly for you, if she were inclined to be an ass.

Vrag

• Nothing really wrong with using bugs, but I've noticed a tendency in your duels to rely on them a little more than is probably healthy. When someone figures out a good counter, you could find yourself in a nasty spot.
• Excellent use of detail to describe what you're doing. The only real criticism I have is you lapse into jargon once or twice, things that someone who doesn't fight with swords in real life won't immediately understand.