Senate Building
Remnants of the Grand Convocation Room
A torrent of glass and metal engulfed Cavill's pod and the Sith Lord of Strength went down beneath a thousand cuts. For a precious handful of seconds, Mikhail thought he might have actually killed Jacen. He should have known better. From out of the swirling tornado of destruction, a figure leapt impossibly far through the air, cartwheels of blood trailing off of him. Desperately, Shorn reached into his leather jacket with his hand and brought out the Soulsaber. The violet blade snapped to life, immediately filling Shorn with a flurry of anger and irritation culminating in a red-tunnel rage to mirror Jacen's own. Pale blue eyes watched, shocked, as death landed in the pod.
Cavill's feet slammed into the floor, rocking the whole repulsorpod. The towering man rose, eyes glowing death. His body suit had been eviscerated and torn off around the torso, but the sight beneath sent a shiver down Shorn's spine. The whirlwind of cuts left Jacen's body full of deep-red lacerations. Jagged cuts criss-crossed all across remnants of skin. And from them all streamed blood. So much blood. The thick crimson mess coated Kryptus from head-to-toe, but still he stood tall, a titan, raising his blood-red saber over his head in a two handed grip that came straight at Mikhail. A dolorous stroke.
Desperately, Mikhail moved his own violet blade to counter, only to hear the whooshing hum and see the impossible speed with which Jacen redirected his strike. A cold chill ran through Shorn as he finally saw the feint turn into a very real attack at his right side. The side without an arm. Pivoting, Mikhail threw all his weight into transitioning his guard to parry the blow, his left arm crossing his body to guard the right side. But Shorn had forgotten the hideous strength that Jacen wielded. The crimson blade smashed into the Soulsaber, sending up a brilliant flash. The blow was so powerful, it smashed through the Soulsaber, causing Shorn's own violet blade to hiss through leather jacket and cloth to the skin beneath, cutting two ribs in half and nocking Mikhail into the air, spinning.
Unbelievably agonizing cold doused Shorn at the Soulsaber's touch. He couldn't feel his whole right side. He couldn't feel much of anything. Shorn found himself falling through the air again, trailing smoke from his side. The wind ripped at his clothes and howled across his face, causing a burning sensation. He smelled the acrid stench of his burning flesh and felt the heat from the raging inferno below. A flood of rage crashed through his senses, sweeping aside the pain like an avalanche. The Soulsaber's battlemind fueled his thoughts with images of vengeance and blood. Shorn's pale eyes seemed to glow. With an almighty effort, Mikhail grabbed himself in the Force and ceased his descent. He hung in the air, floating like some spectre of destruction in the middle of the Grand Convocation Room. Blood poured down the right side of his face, where the flesh was missing, torn off along with his ear. The stump of his right arm sent out sparks at intervals. Smoke coiled up from his right side, where his leather jacket had been cut open, revealing the long cut of seared flesh from his own blade.
Mikhail pointed the still lit Soulsaber toward Jacen, preparing some counterattack, when he sensed a series of new presences in the Force enter the building down below. His eyes glanced downward, peering through the smoke and flames of the burning ground floor, where the pile of hoverpods had erupted into an inferno. Not there, where were... A small voice cried up at him from below and he glanced to find some poor girl yelling threats, but he ignored her. She was not worth his time, he had to deal with- A sudden flurry of glass shards shimmered through the air, Mikhail felt a flash of warning and whirled, turning about as he hung suspended in midair with Force flight. Before he could do anything a gout of flames consumed the shards. Shorn reached out and felt the presences below. Someone down there was apparently rooting for him. Then he felt a familiar presence. Marek. He barely remembered the boy. Shorn's eyes grew a furious cold. This was a fight between himself and Jacen, settling old scores. Any idiot who got in the way would wish he or she had just taken his own life instead. Then Marek hurled something else at him, a piece of a repulsor pod. Shorn sneered as he battered it aside with his own telekinetic blast. He really did hate interruptions.
Sweat beaded his brow with the effort of keeping himself floating in midair, so he flew, tumbling into the highest pod left. He rose shakily to his feet, a feeling of exhaustion setting in. Which was precisely when a Jedi Knight bearing a green saber emerged from one of the exits and began leaping from pod to pod, coming straight for Shorn. Probably one of those meant to guard the Senate. A little late. Mikhail watched her with an impassive gaze, waiting like a dragon atop his spoils. The Knight jumped high through the air, still far away from Mikhail's pod. Shorn could wait no longer. He reached out in the Force and grabbed the Knight midjump, holding her suspended in the air. Then he hurled the Soulsaber like a spear. The blade ripped through the air with unimaginable speed, propelled by a master of telekinesis. A look of shock crossed the woman's features as the violet blade impaled her through the chest before she could so much as blink. Then her body went slack in Shorn's telekinetic grip and he tossed her aside, the body falling through the air, like so many before it, to land amidst the burning inferno on the ground floor.
The black and bronze hilt of the Soulsaber smacked back into Shorn's open palm, feeling cool to the touch. At once, he felt a surge of energy rushing into him as the Soulsaber transferred the Force essence it had ripped from the woman into Shorn. Senses came alive and raw power coursed through Mikhail as the stolen energy of another life rejuvenated him. A roiling ocean of anger rose inside Shorn like a volcanic eruption as his pent up rage reached a crescendo. They wanted to interfere with a fight between Kryptus and Shorn? Let them! Rising shakily to his feet, Mikhail reached out in the Force and grabbed the entire vaulted ceiling of the grand convocation room. The furnace in his heart now spewed flames of anger across the black and barren plains of his soul, empty save for that anger. It was all he felt, all he could think of. An enormous, deep crack resounding from the ceiling as Mikhail exerted his telekinetic will upon it.
His right ear still rang with a buzzing noise, but hearing was slowly returning to the left. He could hear the clash of lightsabers below. His dark brows drew together. There was only one true fight today, and that was between himself and Kryptus.
Reaching out, Mikhail sent a telepathic message to Jacen. He knew Kryptus well enough to know how he too would feel about these interruptions. Jacen possessed some miserable sense of twisted honor. Or maybe it was just that Jacen alone wanted to kill Mikhail and wouldn't tolerate anyone else's attempts.
"Jacen! Help me bury these idiots."
@[member="Jacen Cavill"], @[member="Marek S'hadar"], @[member="Morna Imura"], @[member="Jasper Void"], @[member="Yusan Fenn"], @[member="Natol'ine"]