Private Sparks and Steel

[Aedric]

Was Aedric prepared to spar? No, probably not, but nevertheless he was excited. He was excited at the thought of a fight, whether or not he'd win didn't really matter, just the thought of getting to fight excited him. His parents had told him stories of how they'd grown up fighting and training, which had oddly made him jealous, despite having about as comfortable of a childhood as possible.

It was hard for his mind not to drift as he stood alone in the training room, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor as he waited for his opponent. In his excitement, he had arrived 45 minutes earlier than the time he had been told, which he now realised was a rather stupid thing for him to have done. He idly shifted the hilt of the training saber around in his hand, trying to get used to its feeling in his hand. The thought of eventually making his own light saber also excited Aedric, as he would be able to design it perfectly to his hand, to his wishes and to truly be his own, and not a standasized training saber.

Eventually, he heard the doors swinging open behind him, and Aedric turned, backing up further into the room. He was unfamiliar if there was any kind of traditions to Jedi sparring, or if they were to simply attack each other on first sight. In a sort of preparation for both, he unsquared his shoulders, tightening his grip around the hilt before offering a simple nod of his head, and saying "Hi, I'm Aedric."

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

"Hi, I'm Aedric."

"Hi!" Loomi greeted back, a warm smile on her face. "I'm Loomi."

The Godoan stood there for a moment afterwards. Wordlessly, almost seeming to zone out. She hadn't properly sparred anyone before, even after she had her fare share of run-ins with the galaxy's riff-raff (though she had never gotten far in any kind of duel). To say that she was unsure of how to start was an understatement.

"Oh yeah," she continued after snapping back, "I guess we gotta fight, huh?"

She drew her familiar, a strange creature that she had bonded to in the force. It seemed to be a plant-based slime of some kind, which could change it's hardness and shift to her liking. Ultimately it didn't have the strength of a lightsaber, so there would be no wall-cutting, but the flexibility was nice. Loomi assumed a very basic sword stance, greatly contrasting against her bizarre weapon. It assumed a very non-lethal form, resembling a bat far more than a sword.

Her inexperience was very clear.

"So... uh... how do we do this?"

 

[Aedric]

"Nice to meet you, Loomi." He returned the smile for a moment, but his stance continued to indicate that he was very much prepared for a fight.

However, upon noticing her rather confused seeming demeanour, he seemed to adapt a similar stance, also quite confused by the situation. He had half-assumed she would have been a bit more knowledgeable than he regarding how to proceed with this spar. Should he just lunge at her? It seems like a rude thing to do, but it'd certainly start off the spar.

"Yeah, we do." He nodded along with her question, before his eyes became fixed on her familiar. "What is th- Oh wow." He cut himself off, gasping as it formed into a weapon. He shifted the hilt of his blade in his hand, suddenly quite self conscious of his comparatively boring weapon.

"Uh, like this I suppose.. Go!" He suddenly dashed forwards, thrusting his blade forwards towards her throat in a stabbing motion.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

"Golly!" Loomi exclaimed as the boy rushed in.

She hadn't expected everything to happen so fast. A thrust came, aimed at her throat. With a real lightsaber that would be a lethal blow. That seemed a bit overkill for even a real battle. They weren't supposed to kill first, right? Whatever the case was, Loomi was quick to react, swatting away his blow with a graceful yet uncertain swing of her own, though it had come uncomfortably close to it's target. A frown came to her face.

"I-I... gosh," she stammered, taking a moment to rub at her throat. "Th-that seemed a bit too intense..." The Godoan quickly grew flustered. "S-sorry, I just thought this was gonna be a disarming deal, y'know?"

Loomi certainly didn't feel comfortable doing the same, but she still wanted to see the duel through. If not because of the pressure of those looking on, anyways. Soon enough, she had readied her blade again.

 

[Aedric]

Aedric frowned at her reaction, failing to understand her shock from his attack. He felt some relief as he felt his sword being knocked off course, and he instinctively tensed up, expecting to either be hit, or have to block an oncoming counter attack. However, when none came, his own frown mirrored hers, and he quickly backed away to recreate some space between them.

He opened his mouth, about to speak, but she beat him to the punch as she stammered through her sentence. "Too intense?" He frowned, but quieted back down, allowing her to finish. A disarming duel? Aedric failed to see the point in that, as in any form of actual combat, when would the goal ever be to simply just disarm? Silence hung for a few more moments, a mix of confusion and concentration on Aedric's face as he tried to piece together this puzzle. Finally, he simply said "I don't get it, why? I always thought a spar was like an actual fight, just with safety stuff in place."

Taking her readied blade as a sign to proceed, Aedric began to stalk forwards once again, not lunging in with quite the same intensity as before. He began to circle slightly off to her left, before he finally made his attack, which was a simple lunge and stab towards her shoulder.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

"I-in an actual fight that would kill someone," she frowned.

That just didn't seem right. Taking a life was a last resort. Sometimes it was necessary, but it should never be the intention. Still, she wanted to see the duel through, and thankfully Aedric seemed to ease up his intensity. The padawan circled around her left, lunging with the intent of hitting her shoulder. Loomi was quick to intercept the blow, far less surprised this time around.

The form of her strange blade held, maintaining it's curved bat-like shape. It had recently been rather fluid, yet now it was indiscernible from durasteel. Loomi didn't entirely understand how it did this, but the bond she had formed with the creature was a beneficial one. This time it was the Godoan who would go on the offensive, throwing off Aedric's sword-baring arm with some effort and quickly spinning with her blade lowered. The hope was to sweep his legs.

And to keep her composure. She wouldn't be going for lethal blows.

 

[Aedric]

Aedric frowned at her comment. Was an actual fight not kill or be killed? Maybe he had attacked too hard for a spar, he could concede that, but why had his move itself been such an issue?

There was no time to dwell on these matters, however, he could always ask a Jedi later. For now, he had to focus on this spar. Despite her disapproval of his intensity, she appeared more than capable of defending against his blows. As his blade was thrown off, somewhat unbalancing him, his eyes stuck to her like glue as she span, watching intently to follow the blade. Whatever the blade was made of had thrown Aedric for a loop, as he was confident he could take a blow from a training saber, and it may hurt, but it wouldn't instantly debilitate him. This, however? He had no clue, or any kind of reference for how it'd feel.

He simply backpedaled as quickly as he could, the blade within a hairs width of his shins. "Wow." He muttered, not yet reassuming any stance. In fact, he seemed extremely open to a second strike, should Loomi follow up. However, Loomi may also notice how the boys grip around the hilt had significantly tightened, as well as his whole body seeming to tense up slightly, as if waiting to pounce on any movement made.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

Loomi took notice of how Aedric reacted to what she said. He seemed so... conflicted? No, it was more confusion than anything. She was sure she hadn't said something stupid. Jedi were supposed to fight to preserve life wherever they could. Taking a life was a serious action, one which held great impact. It should be avoided if possible, right?

She was almost distracted enough by this to go in for an attack when he left an opening, but Loomi noticed the tightening of his grip on his training saber. A drop of sweat trickled down her brow as she stopped herself, instead shifting to a more defensive stance.

A sigh escaped from the Godoan. That, she reasoned, was almost a very stupid mistake. She couldn't let her mind wander like that, not if her own life was at stake. It wasn't here, but it would be one day.

 

[Aedric]

Aedric frowned when she didn't fall for his attempt at a bait, as it had likely been the only opportunity he'd of had to pull it off. Facing off against an opponent who was clearly intent on fighting more defensively confused Aedric, as it left him with few options. Either, he could attack fast and hard, but this would likely lead to him slipping up, or they could enter a stalemate, and a battle of patience. This, unfortunately, was a battle that Aedric knew he would loose before even entering it.

He glanced around for a few moments, taking note of her stance, and trying to find an opening, and his eyes eventually settled on the scarring surrounding her left eye. Sure, an eye could scar without having any effect on the persons vision, however, it was the only thing that stood out to him.

He dashed forwards towards her left, once again thrusting his blade forwards towards her left shoulder.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

A wave of uneasiness washed over Loomi as her opponent stepped into her blind spot. Anxiety came over the Godoan. Her weakness was so clear it was basically written on her face, and not once had she even stopped to consider it. She couldn't help but feel some level of shame as her view of Aedric became less clear.

Just don't panic, she thought. There were other senses to rely on, right? Loomi let her biology see for her, her antennae picking up on movement in the force around her. It was still somewhat unclear, but she could at least make out where the blow was going. With some level of anticipation, the Godoan moved to intercept the blow, trying her best to deflect it away from her shoulder. It did, much to her dismay, graze her, the warmth of the low-power blade rubbing against her skin. Her opponent had a blow.

She couldn't give him any momentum. With some effort, Loomi would attempt to keep his blade locked on her left side, moving to sweep his legs with her closest mechanical leg.

 

[Aedric]

A grin appeared on Aedrics face as his blade made contact. His hunch had been right, and now he had he momentum to push forwards in this spar. He drew his blade back, intent on slashing it down once again towards her shoulder, however a sudden movement at the bottom of his vision deterred him.

He falsely assumed it was a kick, and not a sweep attempt, and he also failed to consider that her legs were mechanical. He turned his leg outwards quickly, as if going to check the kick, intending for them to connect shin to shin, or foot to shin more ideally. Instead, he was met with a splitting pain up his chin as the mechanical foot hit much harder than he had anticipated, as well suddenly being knocked off balance. Any momentum was ruined, as he found himself scrambling to the left. While he did not fall over, he had very much been caught off guard, and his eyes widened as he replanted the kicked leg.

He went to step forward, intending to once again go on the offensive, however as he planted his lead foot, a flash of pain passed over his face. Instead, he settled into a notably more defensive stance, visibly very tentative when placing weight onto his lead leg.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

Loomi admittedly felt rather bad when Aedric attempted a leg check. Her legs were mechanical, so it was no surprise when he wound up forced back to a defensive position. Was that an unfair advantage she had? It wasn't like she had chosen to have prosthetics, far from it in fact, but she couldn't help but feel that the edge was undeserved. Still, it was a turning point in the duel, one which she very much intended to capitalize on.

The Godoan clasped both hands onto her blade, swinging for her opponents wrists. It was not to dissimilar from the Shii Cho disarming strike, which was very much her intention here. Hit hard, disarm her adversary, wrap up. Theoretically, anyways. She didn't predict such a maneuver to win her the duel here, but she was prepared to try.

The padawan was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that she may very well lose if Aedric got a second wind. He had already landed one blow after all. She needed to at least try to close it out.

 

[Aedric]

This certainly was not ideal for Aedric. He didn't feel confident in making any fast dodges, or readjustments of his position as it would simply further hurt his leg. He would just have to hold his ground, which never seemed like a good idea against a much more mobile opponent, especially when he was naturally much more offensive than defensive. His opponent certainly would push this sudden advantage, and their momenteum had been reversed.

As Loomi grasped the saber with most hands, Aedrics eyes narrowed. A second hand on the handle often would imply that a strike with some force would soon come, but where to? Her reactions to his more 'deadly' strikes lead him to doubt it would be against his head, or likely upper body. Coupled then with comments about a disarming duel, and he had a solid theory in his mind as to what to expect.

Aedric wrapped his second hand around the hilt of his saber, before slashing his saber as hard as he could, intending to lock the two sabers up. His weakened base would likely quickly lead to him loosing the lock, but it bought him a few more moments.

Loomi

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aedric

She actually had something. Aedric chose to meet the blow, resulting in a saber lock. All she needed to do was hold it and apply pressure. Loomi leaned in, keeping up the force of her two-handed blow, which was really just a glorified push now. Her focus was completely on winning the duel. Nothing could distract her.

Until there was a tearing sound. Loomi glanced down, realizing that her mechanical feet had dug into the dueling mat and were beginning to rip it. A wave of panic ran through her as she attempted to keep her cybernetic grippers from causing any more damage. The Godoan lost her grip. With high upper-body momentum and a loosened hold of the ground beneath her, the teen slipped and fell forward, landing face first on the mat and jamming her nose.

Loomi was far too embarrassed to move.

 

[Aedric]

He'd lost. His saber was being forced back, and the downwards pressure was causing a splitting pain up his weakened leg, but there continued to be a look of determination, and almost frustration on Aedrics face as he pushed back, best he could. He had so few options, but he wasn't willing to simply concede and surrender, he'd lose fighting.

Confusion washed over his face as the tear began, he half assumed it could be his clothes tearing under some kind of strain. However, the Godoan suddenly falling forward, revelaing the teared mat beneath her, cleared up his confusion. Still very much in the fighting mindset, he lifted his weakened leg, intent on stomping on the back of her skull.

However, before he did, he caught himself with a frown, simply setting the leg back down. "Are you ok?" He asked, offering his hand out to help pull her back to her feet.

Loomi