GBA: Sinistra vs Eralam

[Eralam]

Naboo.

When it's not water and Gungans, it's sweeping grassy plains and elegant cities.

In this case, Eralam found himself on a grassy, windswept plain in the middle of nowhere. The terrain was level, with nothing in the way of obstacles for miles around.

On his belt was his usual assortment of weaponry: the trusty LeMat, his silver-bladed lightsaber with the eralam crystal, and a long phrik dagger to serve as a main gauche. It was a pleasant day, not too warm, not too cool, with light cloud cover to keep the sun from being oppressively bright.

The perfect weather for a fight, in other words.

 

[Sinistra]

It was a lovely day, there was a slight breeze. She was keeping it simple, just her Sith robes, knee high boots, and 2 sabers; red and silver. Her long hair was braided out of her face and she rolled her shoulders back with a deep sigh.

The iron knight. Two powers, one saber and a whole mess of headaches. This should be a fun one. He'd whoop her here and then they would drink themselves stupid and argue about sides of the Force. Just like old times.

She pulled her silver saber hilt to her right hand, thumbing the ignition switch on. With a thrush, the silver blade sang to life in her hand, but instead of rushing the tall, lanky robot, she threw a Force push right at his chest.

 

[Eralam]

The push was a good one. The slight of hand with the lightsaber was nearly enough to distract the Shard. A rush from Sinistra would have been a very her thing to do. In the face of an immovable object, she did a pretty decent job of being an unstoppable force. Against a normal soldier, or even a less proficient Force user, it would be more than enough to send them shebs over tea kettle. Eralam had been around the block a time or two, however. He stepped back with his right foot, providing a wider stance, anchored his feet with the Force, and leaned into the push. It rocked him back a little, but not enough to throw him backwards.

"Hey, Sin! It's been a while," he said, waving like a maniac. He and the diminutive Sith were old friends. Had he been organic, they might have been more, but he was as asexual as the newly driven snow, and she wasn't geosexual. Instead, they had the sort of fast friendship that came from being able to get completely hammered together without having to worry about waking up to regret. Some found it odd that a Shard who believed the notions of Light and Dark sides of the Force to be ridiculous and a Sith would be friends in the first place, but as far as most people were concerned, the real head scratcher was the fact that a Robot Space Ninja could get drunk in the first place.

Despite their friendship off the field of battle, this was the GBA, and if Eralam didn't take it seriously, he'd get his ass handed to him by a woman half his size.

So while the greeting was genuine, it was backed by a Force push of his own, focused on a six inch circle just above Sin's solar plexus. It wasn't a world beater by any means, enough to crack ribs should it land, but not enough to kill her outright. He was counting on that actually. He hoped that Sin would be busy enough trying to counter his counter that she wouldn't be able to try anything funny while he snatched the LeMat out of its holster with his left hand. He only needed a fraction of a second worth of a chance, and that push should be enough to buy it.

 

[Sinistra]

When you have two masters of TK and Absorb fighting each other, things are bound to get a little repetitive. In so much that they were like best friends, as much as a Sith Lord and robot can be, she knew exactly what his tactics were likely to be. He pushes to give himself time to draw, he absorbs what ever you throw. Well, so could she.

By the time the push touched her, it was no more than a tap. However, that absorbed power was channeled into a very quick back flip, increasing the distance between them two of them to over a hundred yards. She could still throw attacks at him from this range, but she was outside the effective firing range of the LeMat.

Silly antiques.

 

[Eralam]

Eralam grinned. Or he would if he had a face. Which he didn't. Well, he sorta did, but it didn't really move. So no grin, however much he wanted to.

He probably could have gotten a shot off before Sin moved out of range of his pistol, but he only had a limited number of shots, and the chance of a miss was too high to be worth the risk. Instead, he decided to introduce her to a problem that had plagued tacticians since the first primitive apes realized that you could throw rocks as well: if the enemy is in range, so are you.

Her landing would, in all likelihood, carry a lot of energy. That was the problem with all those fancy jumps and backflips: they got you out of the way quick and gave you a lot of options to move, but you had to land somewhere. Eralam wasn't going to attack Sin directly, as that was a losing proposition. They could hurl Force attacks at each other all day without so much as scratching the other. No, this would be handled in saber range, he'd wager.

But until he could close, the best he could do was try to hobble the nimble Sith. To that end, he used a bit of Force energy to create an angled barrier between her and the ground. It wasn't a steep angle, barely 15 degrees out of parallel from the ground, and only about a foot above it, but there were two things going for him. One, since it was an adapted defensive method rather than an attack, he was hoping she wouldn't pick up exactly what he was doing. There was no lethal intent behind the move. Assuming she didn't pick it up, the early, awkward landing was likely to catch her by surprise, and would hopefully be enough to hobble her.

 

[Sinistra]

When you practice gymnastics, and tumbling a fair bit for agility training and fighting, a few things become like second nature. Like landing a high jump. Most people think you land flat footed, but that only works in low tumbles. If you are leaping, aided by a spring or speed, then you land on your toes to help absorb some of the momentum. Sinistra had leapt quite high in order to open the distance between the two of them.

Therefore, when she touched down, it was as if she was landing a spectacular display of artistic skill. The balls of her feet contacted the artificial surface first, and she did what any trained acrobat would in her place, and jumped backwards to a sturdier footing. Fifteen degrees and a foot off the ground wasn't really enough to throw off her sense of balance or cause her to stumble. However, she knew now that in addition to keeping out of bullet range, she would need to stay grounded as much as she could.

She grinned darkly, raising the palm of her left hand and encased her opponent in a bright blood red Force bubble, her gaze locked on the form of the robot chassis. As long as she could keep her concentration on him, everything would bounce back inward to him.