Silver

[NightSister]

Aria took that as a forewarning, and momentarily turned her attention to staying in the air. At this point it was coming naturally, but it was likely that with one slip the continuous flow of Force power supporting her weight would crumble. She let her energy merge with that of the Force, strengthening it as it continued to keep her in the air, and felt a surge of power as the Force swirled around her. This would be the optimum time to strike. Closing her eyes as she absorbed the power around her, she pushed it towards the Jedi Master in a downwards spiral.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu stayed there watching while she focused the force and the force of will was working on many of the things and she knew how to work the force from it. Staying higher up and looking down before her boots were doing the work. The force energies allowing her to stay up in the air and now she could maintain it. Few masters she had met could keep up with her in terms of force skill and even less who she hadn't taught like Sati and Sorel knew how to mirror some of the things she did but they were her padawans and showed restraint working to not overextend and cause harm from matching her.

 

[NightSister]

Unsure how to react, Aria shut her eyes for a split second to concentrate. In a real-life situation, her opponent wouldn't be so passive in her sparring and it threw her off a bit. She supposed the best thing would be to ground the duel, but that was proving rather hard. It would hardly work to float down and hoped the Jedi master followed - or wouldn't it? Aria wondered. Any attacks would be easier to deflect, her energy wouldn't be consumed with staying airborne and if Matsu followed her down it could turn into a proper sparring session.

Figuring all of that out in less than a second, Aria let the energy supporting her gradually bring her back to the surface, where she assumed a fighting stance, her lightsaber at the ready.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu watched her go back down towards the ground as she followed, staying at the ready with her attention on some of the things while she stood there. Moving her hands from behind her back while she looked over some of the things there. Her hand coming out with the silver hilted sabers while she waited for a moment taking a stance that was neutral with more balance. She didn't activate the blades yet but holding them while switching the grips to a reverse for a moment as the snap hiss came to her from the blades turning on. Pearl white blades at her sides for a moment as she kept her black pools trained on the padawan with a small nod of her head. "Ready."

 

[NightSister]

One lightsaber against two was never a great position, especially when the Jedi master would already have quite an advantage in Force and lightsaber combat. With that in mind, Aria took a step to the side and brought her lightsaber blade swinging into the crook of the master's right elbow. She had not gone for the lightsaber hilt because that would be too easy to dodge, but if now the master pulled her arm back the lightsaber would hit the hilt, levelling the playing field slightly.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The padawan moved to strike at her as the jedi master remained still, letting the force move her instead of just reacting to a strike. Bringing the hilt around in her palm to catch while hollding herself there as she pushed with the force energies back. She turned her head a little and moved to stay with the saber lock while her free hand with its saber moved to strike. Switching it more into a low handed makashi style to defend and parry the blade as her footwork maintained its stronger base.

 

[NightSister]

Aria never stayed still for more than a moment, ensuring that the Master wouldn't have time to find weak spots before they changed. After blocking the Force push with fluid ease, she swung her lightsaber to where the master's defending blade wouldn't reach - her feet. The Jedi was staying firmly rooted into the ground, which made her a clearer target but also a harder one to topple, so if she could break the balance perhaps she could give herself an advantage.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu remained there focused an ready while she was staying grounded, works and some of the thoughts there for some of her attention. The movements of the lightsaber as she squeezed it and the blade extended with the duel phase option built in to make her blades long to cover what small gaps there were in her stance. She could work on many of things while staying there for a moment with her attention on some of the strikes. She remained focused with little expended effort as this was her groove with a few of the things. "Careful, others will be trying to harm you. THey won't be as passive and defensive as me." She could remain like with with djem so spilling over from her niman and keep it going for longer then most masters could let alone knights or padawans.

 

[NightSister]

"It'll be pretty hard to defend against more aggressive attackers if you're passive and defensive, though," Aria said as she fought. Although Echani firedancing tended to use swords made of metal and not plasma energy, the principle was the same and so she danced, like the Echani, gracefully meeting every attack and bringing her blade to every weak spot she could find - which wasn't that many. Hand-to-hand combat may have been where she was most at home, but the fact of the matter was that Aria loved the mental and physical challenge of a duel and bringing the Force into it didn't diminish from that. She wouldn't ave become a Guardian otherwise.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu watched her while her body remained passive where she was prepared. Her blades moving as she worked with them to move and block. "A jedi does not need aggression to attack, they need to only trust in their skill and in the force." Switching to let her blades work in a makashi style with defense against sabers better while she moved a little walking around to walk carefully. She watched the girl and kept the force senses trained on her while wondering about her need for training if she was able to continue standing against a master. It was starting to seem like she was being pranked.

 

[NightSister]

"It wouldn't be Jedi that I'd be opposing, would it?" Aria said as she kept her attacks coming quickly. She was beginning to tire out - the Master was as capable as she would have expected and more. Battle school had trained her to conserve energy without having to sacrifice power, but fighting with the Force was draining and not something she'd trained for very much. Her only experience with Force duels had been when she'd aided the Silver Sanctum in a fight against the One Sith, but each opponent she'd fought had come very close to killing her. Aria had every intention of continuing to play her part in Sanctum fights, and so she would have to fix that soon enough.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"You never know, many sith are former jedi, many have become corrupted because they thought the only way to attack was with aggression and became frustrated when they could be proven wrong." She remained stationary while speaking and defending, her sabers rotating in her hands to match while she rapidly switched them from standard to reverse grip as needed to really make it into a different defensive screen. "So many forget the basics and the tenets of being a jedi as they pursue power and ability. Wanting title it becomes dangerous for them."

 

[NightSister]

"All the same," Aria replied evenly, keeping a watchful eye on the Master's spinning sabers, "The Sith are dangerous opponents, as are any Force-users that Silver Guardians would face, and they would all attack with aggression. I know that a Jedi doesn't fight that way, but that isn't the same thing as not being able to counter that style of attack." As she waited for her to respond or to switch to a more aggressive form, Aria adjusted her grip on her lightsaber, considering the notion of making it a twin, and took the moment in which the Master switched stance to jab forwards with her blade.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu watched her as she moved her blades, defending and just biding her time. "Not really, they are only as dangerous as you are unskilled. A sith just like anyone has as many if not more weaknesses. You just need to know how to detect them and push through their defenses. A jedi be they guardians, silver guardians, shadows, silver shadows, sentinel or anything are nothing without their skills of seeing the situation for what it is. This for instance I can maintain for days with minimal effort or energy expended. My weaknesses lay in not having mastered some of the more exotic offensive skills which few ever use. This gives me the advantage of knowing how to defend from strong abilities that no one uses that easily stop and negate the smaller scale ones."

 

[NightSister]

"Fair enough." Aria decided to leave it at that and focus on the duel. She had after all been a battle school student back on Eshan - she had knowledge enough of aggressive fighting methods that it would make no sense to push the point. However, her abilities with the Force were not yet at that standard and so she kept moving her saber, letting the glowing turquoise blade dance in time to the fight, all the while trying to summon the Force until it was almost tangible. Once she could nearly feel the flowing energy swirling around her, Aria gathered the Force power, making it snake into a tendril that latched onto her arm in her mind's eye, and reached out with it to grab for one of the master's blades.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Matsu watched her looking at it and let her aura continue to shield her, force of will to force attacks coming towards her within her small bubble and aura as she could work on many of the things. Her calmness allowing her to feel and use the force in stronger levels when she allowed the force to come at her and raised her eyebrows. "The other benefit of calmness within is that a talented jedi masters own will power can be used to nullify force techniques. It is the only way to truly reach a state of emptiness." Her sabers danced twirling within her hands so the force she was using could rotate it in her palms. She doubted the girl would be able to disable them either way. The activation stud was held by her own force energy and aura just using the biometrics to make sure it could be turned on or used.

 

[NightSister]

Nodding at all of the Master's teachings, Aria continued to move through her saber and through the Force. She knew that if she continued to duel simply through swordplay and her limited Force abilities, the duel would be a question of who could outstand who - a trial which she would doubtless fail. She had never excelled at Echani firedancing the way she had with traditional hand-to-hand, but it was her best hope if she wanted to affect the Master in any way instead of simply blocking as she was now.
The principle of Firedancing was that the weapons one wielded were extensions of the limbs, and the limbs had to move in the fluid dance of combat as they would if they were not holding swords. One had to spar as they otherwise would but simply using the bladed extensions of their arms to their advantage in addition. It was more aggressive than the typical Jedi form of combat, but gentle enough not to pass as Darksided and Aria's only shot at levelling the playing field besides, and so with a sudden shift in her posture, Aria began to move gracefully in time to the fight, her saber a blur as she let it become her arm and let her arm become at one with the duel.

[member="Matsu Ike"]