Aurelio La Valette
Had that last flurry of blows he held at bay really been his opponent holding back? Impressive. And problematic. The mere force behind the blows now hammering away at Jaidan's guard was not, in and of itself, that much of a problem. He'd dealt with bigger and harder hitting opponents many times before. But this was raw power married with precision. Aurelio had clearly trained to the point of knowing how to apply
just enough brute force to be overpowering in his momentum without over-committing himself to a swing and sacrificing balance. In other words, the current exchange left Aurelio firmly in control of the engagement, and that
was a problem.
As for how Jaidan might go about shifting the momentum back in his favor...well, there were actually an array of choices, all potentially viable. But they were pretty much all mutually exclusive, and he had to pick one immediately or court "death".
The first option he considered and immediately rejected was to mirror Aurelio's approach. Meet the larger man blow for blow, and push directly upstream against his offensive. He was familiar with Form V, of course. He'd faced it often enough in training, and experimented with making it his own default once before deciding on a different path. It was, in many ways, an ideal all around performer, an outgrowth of Soresu which incorporated a solid guard while encouraging a far more proactive and expedient approach to conflict resolution. He'd even obtained permission to handle the weapon of a few accomplished practitioners, and gleaned some valuable insights...enough, perhaps, to give Aurelio a nasty shock with another rapid tonal shift which he could capitalize on if he moved quickly enough. But from what he'd learned of this man, he suspected Aurelio would recover too quickly for that approach to really pay off, and Jaidan would just be matching styles with someone who was better at it. Worse still, Jaidan would have to draw on the Force to contend with brute strength here, a resource just as available to Aurelio, and the resulting escalation would have Jaidan depleting his reserves at a far greater rate.
No, interesting as the prospect was and curious as he was to see what the bigger man would make of it, it was foolish to play to another man's strengths. Alternatively, he could just keep doing exactly what he was now. It was hardly the most exciting option, and would only achieve a sort of stasis in the near term, but he could maintain this defense for some time. Yes, Aurelio had dialed up the intensity, but he'd also shifted his focus. The fact that these attacks were aimed at his blade, a target away from his body, meant that he had a bit more breathing room as far as he chose to defend himself. With the proper footwork and distance control, a boon of his cross-training in Form II, simply keeping himself in the fight was still manageable. And prolonging this fight
could potentially work to his advantage. It meant more time to study Aurelio's technique, while at the same time testing the depths of his endurance...and potentially his patience, if Jaidan was continuously outwardly unbothered by the onslaught.
Or he could go for a balance between those two extremes, and really employ his finesse to answer Aurelio's strength. He assumed the large man's strategy in attacking the weapon rather than the man wielding it was to wear him down before moving in to attack a depleted opponent, and there was merit to that, but Jaidan also perceived a vulnerability it opened. He could switch back to a one-handed grip, allow one of those power strokes to blow right through his guard, and still be safe so long as the blade was held away from his body. And while Aurelio's movements were controlled power, they were still full-bodied, two handed strikes. Following up a strike like that with more of the same was mechanically far slower than a simple flip of the wrist, which is all Jaidan would require to bring his own blade back up into attack position, theoretically inside Aurelio's guard. It would mean returning to something Aurelio had already seen, thus showing him a pattern he could plan around, but that kind of smooth flow back and forth between serene defense and sudden offense was where
his strength lay.
They could all work, admittedly with varying degrees of likelihood. But ultimately, suppressing the smile he'd allowed himself just before this little match began, he decided to gamble on a fourth approach. He did so with some regret, for in truth, he was rather enjoying himself. It felt good to give these old skills he'd worked so hard to gain a proper dusting off, against an opponent with a different approach who, win or lose, would give him a nice and proper challenge. But they were here to train for real war, and their enemies would not confine themselves purely to conventional tactics, so neither would he.
He opened, seemingly, with the first and weakest plan. Squaring up his stance, he began putting some real force into his swings, meeting Aurelio's assault and fighting him for ever inch. Her didn't fake the effort, he
couldn't fake the speed of the exchange. To put the proper needed force into this, he even drew a bit on THE Force, now attacking with both a speed and a strength which his initial appearance had not suggested. He would give himself this last bit of satisfaction, indulge his curiosity, and see if Aurelio had expected to find a creditable performance of his own style used against him.
And then...a bit of play acting. Jaidan let the grip on his hilt slacken just a little. Nothing too obvious. It didn't take much with this kind of strength at work. A great and resounding crack sounded as the two blades met, and then Jaidan's lightsaber went spinning off to the side out of his hand...just before the open palm of his left hand came up and produced a brilliant white light that totally obscured everything while a great keening whistle like a tea kettle boiling into a megaphone rent the air. It would do no real harm; it was a simple sensory illusion, its utility based entirely in its capacity to surprise and disorient while Jaidan backed off a couple steps. Hopefully it would give him the moment he needed to reach out with his other now free hand and summon his innocuous walking staff over from the corner where he'd left it atop his robe.
New weapon in hand, he now brought it down in a great, two-handed overhead swing.
Mahsa
