Hokey Religions and Ancient Weapons

[Zef Halo]

Mok's Cheap Eats, The Works
Coruscant


In his last brief holo-communication with his mentor, Vitor had been instructed by the whipid to find Darth Imperia. That had been his 'advice' after Vitor had confronted him about the weapon the former miner had scavenged from the remains of a Jedi that Velok had cut down on Yutan. The delicate weapon that it was made Vitor reluctant on activating at all.

He was safekeeping it with him all the time. More like a wrench than anything else.

Dressed in casual spacer clothes, Vitor had ventured forth into popular among working class Coruscani food chain and scanned the place for anyone answering the description Velok had given him of this Darth Imperia. He locked onto a woman that sat further away from most and was enjoying the food she had ordered. With a stride of confidence, the banker hurried down towards her stopping right next to her table.

"A Whipid told me you could help me out with an ancient weapon." Vitor looked at her with a neutral facial expression before whispering. "[member="Darth Imperia"]."

 

[Darth Imperia]

Darth Imperia had given up most aspects of her old life. She never returned home, she never contacted her family - they probably thought she wad dead by now, in fact, if she thought on it. She'd cut ties with her old friends, taken on a new name, a new face - there was little left of Mala Arar, save fond memories and fashion sense. But there was one thing that Imperia simply couldn't resist, one thing that kept her tied to her old life.

And that was the fact that Mok's Cheap Eats made fething good burgers. The knight didn't know what meats, exactly, were used in said burgers, but she figured it was best not to ask.

So there Imperia was, minding her own business and, for once, not doing anything even slightly nefarious, when this man, around her age, approached her. Just as she was about to brush him off, maybe throw in a bit of a Mind Trick and make him do something degrading, he spoke - and then she recognized him.

He was the man Velok had brought with him during the raid on Yutan. Vitor, if memory served Imperia well - and it normally did. The 'ancient weapon,' then, was a Lightsaber - something Imperia was skilled enough in the use of that she could, perhaps, show Velok's pet a thing or two. The Sith Knight's scowl turned into a smile, and she nodded her head. Then, after finishing off the last of her meal, she rose from her table, and began walking away. If Vitor wanted to learn, he'd follow.

---

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]

 

[Zef Halo]

Laconic.

Darth Imperia could be described so judging by her actions as she calmly left the establishment without a word. Her body language beckoned him to follow and with no other choice at hand, the young man followed her. If it wasn't for their ties to the Sith Order, it almost seemed like an invite for something else. Vitor cleared his mind from these ridiculous thoughts and hurried back after Imperia. Leaving the establishment, he realized he had no idea where these 'training' would occur.

It was fething Coruscant.

But then again Coruscant was the perfect place to escape, surprisingly. Exactly the core of the Galactic Alliance and the galaxy was the best place for a Sith to roam. Trillions upon trillions of citizens made finding someone as easy as a needle in a ton of hay. Vitor considered whether that was the reason she was here. Was she running away ? He couldn't help but try and learn more about the people he met, especially those that had ties to the same Order he did. Vitor thought it'd be a good idea to break the ice, just as he did between Thengil and Velok. He swore Sith had some odd attachment to acting enigmatic.

"You never asked for my name." He stated thinking that was a good start but then the banker thought she also might've been mute.

Feth.

[member="Darth Imperia"]​

 

[Darth Imperia]

"You're an acolyte. Your name is irrelevant."

Darth Imperia wasn't mute. She was, however, quiet. She said nothing else for the longest time, guiding Vitor through the works and into the twisting, narrow corridors of the undercity. Down here, in these tight, cramped quarters, Imperia visibly relaxed, the stern expression on her face slowly shifting into a small smile. The Knight led the Acolyte down to some place that looked like an arena, if that arena had been abandoned for the last century; boxes and other debris littered the ground, creating obstacles for any sort of physical activity that might take place in the area, and the benches surrounding the 'ring,' if it could be called that, were in various states of rust and decay.

Darth Imperia turned around to face Vitor, that same serene, calm smile on her face - and then she raised her left hand, throwing a blast of telekinetic energy at the banker's chest. With her right hand, she drew one of the quartet of sabers carried beneath her robes, engaging the meter-long crimson blade and twirling it casually with a flick of the wrist.

"Show me what you can do, acolyte."

---

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]

 

[Zef Halo]

Rude.

But he kept that to himself. What would he accomplish anyway ? She'd probably retort in some similar undermining way so Vitor kept it to himself. He turned his attention to what was revealing itself in front of them. Imperia had led them to probably the most abandoned reaches of the Coruscant underlevels where a former pit rested. Former was softly said. It more looked like ancient and the banker was fascinated with seeing something this old.

Before he could look into more details of the abandoned fighting pit, Vitor's eyes locked onto Imperia turning around to face him with an odd and malicious smile. The former miner was about raise an eyebrow at the moment of awkwardness before something invisible sent him flying backwards and taking the air out of his lungs. The man crashed into a pile of dusty boxes and felt his whole body ache. It was a bad fall, he also found hard to gather his breath. She'd knocked the air out of him and had just challenged him.

Her words reached him before he could see the product of the mysterious and recently familiar hiss - a red blade of plasma. A lightsaber. Vitor hurried with his hands along his hoodie to find the lightsaber but he could not feel it. With a side glance, he found the neat hilt of the lightsaber lying next to him. He figured that he'd definitely need to do better than keep it in the pocket of his hoodie.

Grabbing the hilt desperately as if it held the key to his survival, and it may very well hold it, Vitor frantically stood up and made a weird posture. He really had no idea how to use this or any sort of swordsmanship. His posture resembled by far much more that of a miner about to hit the rock with his pickaxe. No surprises here, what other experience would Vitor have wielding a melee 'weapon.' He swung it around dangerously and was amazed at how light it was. His childhood spent in the mines picking ore with the heavy vibroaxe could be identified in his quick but heavy and aggressive slashes. Robust and raw but would do the job.

On the other hand, Imperia was demonstrating some twirling and art with her red blade. His own blue blade still remained static and Vitor was certainly not going to try anything fancy. Battle still filled his veins with adrenaline, just like on Yutan. And just like Yutan he had been hit by this invisible force that sent him flying once again into nowhere.

Seeing that Imperia clearly would await him to make the first move, Vitor dashed forward and horizontally slashed at her. Wary and cautious he still kept his distance and due to his meager swordsman skills, the edge would most likely not even reach the torso of the target. His precaution and fear of getting struck of the red blade made him jump back immediately after as if he had touched a flaming hot oven.

Terrible, terrible human instinct.

[member="Darth Imperia"]​

 

[Darth Imperia]

Raw. Wild. Unrefined. Not in the malevolently graceful style of Juyo, either. No, this man was simply a poor swordsman. His slash wasn't even going to reach her. But still - best not to let him get away with it.

Imperia countered his horizontal slash with a simple, forceful parry, swinging her blade against his. To her surprise, he wasn't so easily batted aside - the man had force behind his strikes. Impressive, if not all that helpful without the proper training to utilize that strength.

Then Vitor backed up, and that gave Imperia an opening.

The Knight's stance shifted, and she gripped the bottom half of her saber hilt with her off-hand. At the same time, she seemed to loosen up, her body relaxing. She took a single step forward - and there she was in front of Vitor, quick as the wind, with her blade in front of her, guarding her chest and face. Speaking of her face - it was contorted with primal, animal fury, all hint of humanity drained from her now sulfurous yellow eyes. Her next strike was from the wrists, a simple, high speed flick of her saber aimed to slice diagonally into her opponent's shoulder. Should that attack succeed, she'd draw her saber back into the aforementioned guard, and follow up with a snap kick to the right kneecap.

---

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]

 

[Zef Halo]

Was it his generally cautious approach to this or the Force that aided him, he did not know nor did he think about it. Hardly any combat experience behind his back to able to think when a plasma blade-cut-it-all was being swung wildly at him. Almost seeing her double as she bolted at him and with grace landed her strike upon his shoulder. The burning sensation almost made him drop his blade and he felt his whole body tighten in reaction to the pain. Vitor was durable but a lightsaber hitting him was something new.

It pained him as much as it build immense desire to seek vengeance for her strike against him with a strike of his own.

Before he could muster his strength, a quick hit to his kneecap threw him off balance and almost dropped him to his knees. Being able to hold his balance, he found the momentum and the opportunity of being closer to the ground to launch a strong uppercut with his own blue blade. The lack of weight behind the lightsaber aided him in swinging the blade faster and with greater kinetic impact behind it. If she parried, he would use the clash of kinetic energy as a momentum to roll towards the side and away from her. His rather crouched position from being imbalanced by her kick was not the most comfortable positions one could find himself in.

[member="Darth Imperia"]​

 

[Darth Imperia]

Primal, bloody satisfaction flooded Imperia's mind as her crimson saber connected with the banker's shoulder. The stench of burnt flesh filled her nostrils, and then the satisfying crack of bone connecting with her boot rang in her ears. Her snarl turned into a twisted grin, her saber raised high, and she readied another strike, this one meant to rake across the banker's chest.

But then - a flash of blue arcing upwards. She couldn't parry, not with her saber where it was, and she was in too primal a state of mind to effectively do so anyway. A Force-Imbued backwards step saved her from being disemboweled by a mere acolyte, but it didn't save her from being wounded, not completely - the end of the blue plasma blade sliced through her robes, leaving a thin scar up her midsection, stopping mere centimeters below her sternum.

A howl of rage and pain escaped the Sith Knight. This demanded retribution. She shifted her stance, holding the lightsaber in a single-handed grip, and twirled it once more. It wasn't simply for show, however - she kept the blade in motion, spinning and twirling in front of her. It kept momentum up, for one thing, and made it hard to determine where her next strike would come from. After a dash - although not a Force-boosted one - forward, her next attack came from below, an upwards diagonal slash from her left, aimed to slice across Vitor's hip and stomach.

---

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]

 

[Zef Halo]

When his own lightsaber connected with her, Vitor felt for the first time what hurting physically another one with a lightsaber felt. The young banker had not been one that had ever engaged in some warfare and even on his first actual battle experience - he had mostly followed behind Thengil and Velok. The whipid's apprentice could not even reach a target before the duo had cut them down. At least Vitor had gained a very valuable experience of what it was to be on a battlefield where the gap between life and death was so thin.

He was satisfied, in the sense that the slash connecting quenched his thirst for avenging the pain she had bestowed upon him using her own crimson blade.

Nonetheless, as Vitor rolled away hearing the howl of rage that the otherwise laconic woman, he attempted to stand up and keep his balance only to feel the pain of the kick she had delivered to his knee resulting in his attention being focused on the pain and also unbalancing the former miner.

This gave the perfect opportunity for Darth Imperia to swing with gathered momentum at him. His primal instincts kicked in and like a doll pulled by strings Vitor skipped comically backwards only to fall backwards due to the lack of momentum and imbalance. The slash connected deeply at his hip and luck saved him from a more dangerous slice at his stomach. The gash had cut into certainly something important which made him more than just grunt but yell. Frantically slashing with his blade in front of him as he fell upon the ground, sirens blaring within his head.

Like an animal feeling enclosed by the maw of death and lacking any thoughtful behavior but the desire to give its last breath in an attempt to hurt its killer, Vitor threw his saber at Darth Imperia.

[member="Darth Imperia"]​

 

[Darth Imperia]

Saber throwing, when utilized by someone who had a reasonable proficiency with telekinesis, was an effective, if someone situational, tactic. When utilized by someone with, roughly speaking, absolutely no skill in the aforementioned area, it was a laughable method of assault that did little more than save your opponent the trouble of disarming you.

Vitor Avendahl’s utilization of this technique was most certainly the latter.

The sheer proximity of the two combatants meant, however, that the comical attack still grazed Imperia on her right arm, carving a line in the ivory-and-alusteel shell of her cybernetic shoulder. The Knight let out a short hiss of pain as the blue-beamed saber flew past her, and then, with a quick burst of Dark Side Power, summoned her foe’s blade to her off hand.

With a wicked grin, Imperia stepped forward, raised both of her blades above her head, and brought them down towards Vitor, in a classic two-bladed implementation of the Falling Avalanche. Instead of finishing him off, however, she stopped the blades inches from her opponent’s body.

“You have potential, Acolyte. But there’s still so much for you to learn.”

---

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]