What doesn’t kill you…

[Corvus Raaf]

It wasn't just hat he lunged at her, it was the power behind hit. Parrying in the inner circle was always risky but she had little choice. She used her saber to deflect the blow and her shoto as back up, the two blades travelling in parallel, two violet blurs sweeping a crimson one aside.

But her focus was too much on his primary attack. Too late she realised his long and powerful leg was bearing down on her own. On the basis the blade carried the greater risk, this took most of her attention still, and her clumsy effort to jump over his leg meant he clipped her ankles and she landed awkwardly. Again. And the landing sent a jarring sensation up her body and her broken rib flared in pain, causing her to wince involuntarily.

This time she kept her feet but was back on her heels and he definitely had the upper hand. She needed to gain the initiative and so waited for his next move. He'd shown some impressive moves - and now it was time for her to show a few of her own.

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Asterion couldn’t help but smirk a little at his deceptive movements, happy to see the Jedi land with a sickening wobble that was evident in her face it was a bad landing. Flexing his shoulder blades back and forward, he was ready for more acrobatics, and it really was a show of grace against strength.

Side stepping up to a pile of rocks, Asterion jumped onto them and knelt, hand palm down feeling them under his skin. It was warm, and that signified there was activity below.

He rose again, and flicked his left hand out in an attempt to bat her shoto away, leaving an opening to take her arm with a following slash down with his blade, pushing off from the small pile of rocks beneath his boots. His face contorted in a perverse snarl, relishing the fact he was letting out his frustration to the ones who had taken away everything – this was what he lived for.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

One of the benefits of having Soresu as a primary Form is what it taught you. Not the ability to prolong a fight indefinitely – but the key aspect to focus on your opponents attacks. To identify patterns and weaknesses. So giving up the early part of their duel was no great loss to Corvus. At worst she knew more of how he operated. At best he would start to underestimate her.

She was familiar with almost every Form by now. Not so she could use it, but so she understood it. It’s strengths and weaknesses – its standard moves.

So she let him deflect her shoto – giving him the freedom of movement to follow up. This time he put a lot of force into a downward slash onto her arm. Cho sun. Every Jedi was taught the standard corresponding counter was a vertical parry position.

But of course, she had no intention of going through with that. Pass the Blade. One of the first moves she ever mastered. And now to see if her Sith adversary knew of it – or was ready for it. She threw up the standard parry and ensured her arm was pulled back out of the way. Just as the blades were due to touch, she deactivated her own. As his momentum carried him forward, she reignited her saber – behind his defence – and now perilously close to his still forward travelling chest.

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Power over practicality was one of the Sith’s disadvantages when faced with a Jedi using practicality over power. Her stance changed in a second, and her blade was killed. Asterion felt a Force tremor around them both in the danger coming; he was open for a mortal wound as her violet blade spat into life.

Digging his foot down, all he could do was push outwards with the Force in a desperate blast of Force energy to either knock her back or create a shockwave to push him away from the danger – it was a clumsy, desperate move.

He didn’t know if he’d been stabbed by the blade, but he felt a great heat over his body – it had come from a vent of steam erupting from the ground behind them both, rock seemingly to disintegrate as the pressure of the heat below came to the surface thanks to Asterion’s shockwave.

Falling to the ground, he rolled over twice and felt the breath knocked out of him, his saber de-activated. With a deep breath, he pushed up on his knees and re-ignited his crimson saber, left hand holding his side, face looking more than a little bit annoyed.

He stayed still for a second, breathing steadily, raising his hand to the side to have the blade facing outwards. Another wild slash, this time in a S fashion, swinging from the right and pushing forward as he did.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

The blast if steam caught them both by surprise it seemed. And the force of the vapour was enough for him to avoid her blade – for now. But the attack had buoyed her confidence and for that she was grateful. But she would not get cocky.

This time it was him that hit the deck, albeit he rolled back into a recovery position and reactivated his blade. But he seemed…winded. Her Soresu grounding said this was the time to press her advantage. This is where, once upon a time, she would have waited. The fear of failure holding her back.

He was holding his side. It simply looked burned by the steam, but psychologically, if he thought she’d hit him, it would play on his mind. But any thought she could immediately take the fight to him was dissipated by another wild slash. He had a formidable weapon in his armoury – power. But it seemed to be his only weapon.

So she deflected rather than blocked his swipe and again, allowed him to come forward. Draw closer. The move was another standard one. As he advanced, she helped his momentum with a small Force Pull whilst utilising Saber Swarm. Virtually no power but she rained numerous short strikes at him as he moved closer.

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

He was losing his focus and his patience, and lashing out with no air of confidence; just power. It was the only way he had been taught and the only way he had to survive wandering the galaxy alone. Their blades were spinning a dizzying and dreamy dance of crimson and violet. Feeling the enhancing Force pulling him towards the Jedi, Asterion deflected her stabbing attacks to the left, and right, recoiling as best he could.

Utilising Jung Ma, focusing more of his power in an attack, he moved quickly in a 360 sweep coming back around down to take her feet clean from the rest of her body. And as he completed the turn, he was close enough to break the barrier between them. The pain on his side was starting to flare up and he didn’t dare look down to see the wound

He thrust out his hand, hoping the deflection would be enough to distract her, aiming to wrap his hand around her small throat and squeeze the life out of there with a sickening, satisfying pop of muscle and flesh. When forced back against a wall, wild beasts would resort to anything to escape.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Funny how, when pushed into a corner, even the Sith had to emulate the Jedi. Jung ma dated back to the Army of the Light – a period in history she was particularly fond of.

The hand around the throat was, by contrast, not textbook Jedi. But, as before, the saber was her main concern and she just managed to deflect the crashing blow but allowed his grip on her throat to tighten.

Calling the Force to her, she pushed it through her body and into the Sith through the hand that was quite literally choking her. Force Stun. If successful it should temporarily deaden the senses and perceptions of the brute. He may be too strong to truly be overpowered, but it should weaken his grip for long enough for her to escape.

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Asterion called upon his disdain for the Jedi – for outing him as a youth, for not helping him, for casting him out, for abandoning him and now hunting him as the ones who unknowingly made him the monster. His iris’s started to bleed with amber, the Dark Side embracing his rage and lust for blood, his grip tightening around her.

Her resolve was strong, and he felt the wave of energy flow through her into him, sending an electrifying tremor up his arm which felt like a billion pinpricks ripping over his muscles.

Pulling back his grip as she had hoped, crimson blade hanging behind him, Asterion lurched into a hard shoulder barge towards her chest and brought his left arm up and around, swinging to connect with her face and cause more damage than he could hope to do with the blade, which he was failing in.

The Dark Side was raging inside him, and the presence of a real Jedi was only making him see red, mixed with the desperation of losing in a duel of sabers.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus was aware she'd lost the initiative again. Instead of pressing it home when she could, she'd allowed him to become the aggressor again. But in a sense that was OK. Her style was always to wear down the opponent and wait for an obvious opening. Typically those that favoured power needed the fight to be over quickly.

Sometimes Corvus was so caught up in the here and now she fell into a familiar trap. She thought and fought like a Jedi. But she had other weapons in her arsenal and she'd already used the main one. If he wanted a fist-fight, he'd possibly picked the wrong opponent.

Teräs Käsi was designed to fight Force Sensitives. OK, Jedi primarily, but the concept was the same. So she called on that extreme speed and aptitude for anticipating strikes now. After her training, it was ironic that the person she studied most often for style and application was a Sith - Darth Maul.

So he released his grip as hoped and then shoulder- barged her. She took the hit - even though it was a significant blow and her ribs really felt it - but she needed him close to her, to negate their sabers. She felt his rage and his telegraphed swipe at her face. Now this was a blow she had to avoid.

She brought her own right hand up to intercept his punch. Again, no back-swing - just pure pace and she hit his knuckles with the palm of her hand - pushing the blow harmlessly up. With her left hand she performed Slashing Wampa. Her hand snaked at his ribs. Her intention - the intention of the hit - was to break as many as she could with a single blow.

But even as the blow was on its way, she spoke a simple phrase, "Please yield..."

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

With his blow now blocked, his saber deactivated and fell to the ground below to allow his free hand to come up and grab her robe. But she was free for an attack, and it came out of nowhere and crashed into his ribs.

The impact was sharp and dull and it was on the same side as his burn, and the moment he breathed in, it hurt – a piercing pain that made him wince. Her words were somewhat threatening, as if she was lining up for a series of blows to finish him off or render him unconscious. As she hit, Asterion collapsed to one knee, gritting his teeth and pushing her back feebly with his hand, devoid of real strength due to his lack of concentration.

”I’d rather die than yield to a Republic assassin.”

Hand on his side, each breath in made his body convulse, sharp pains that seemed to prevent him from taking a full breath in our out. He manipulated the Force around him to sooth his ribs, meekly, but with pressure applied via his palm helped to dull the pain of broken bone.

Looking up at her, he was ashamed of himself. She was someone he had under-estimated, and his lack of guidance was evident. He spat out a small amount of blood – brilliant. Internal injury.

Reaching down with his hand, he started to feel the earth beneath him with the Force, and applied all the strength and disruption he could manage to rupture the layers of rock and plates that built up the volcanic terrain around them.

”Question is – will YOU yield in time? I will find you…make no mistake.”

Wisps of steam started to bleed from the small sinkholes that started to appear, and Asterion nodded, returning to hold his side.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

'Why won’t he yield?'

It was one thing to press an advantage, quite another to take a life. In self-defence it could happen but as the Sith slowed, so did Corvus. She felt her energy levels rise almost as fast as she felt his diminish. They’d gone a proverbial mile now and the marathon runner was just warming up whereas the sprinter was blowing hard. Unless of course he was fooling her?

She felt the impact on his ribs and knew instinctively it was where he’d already been burned. That’s gotta hurt. And it will impact his breathing and range of motion. He fell to one knee. Were his words meant to taunt or is that truly what he believed her to be? Some silent assassin? This hurt more than her ribs that he’d clearly cracked.

No, he wasn’t feigning it – he was genuinely hurt. And that made her feel uncomfortable. As he spat blood she knew he needed medical attention. Funny how these thoughts flashed through her mind. Others might be working out how to use his injury to their advantage. She was hamstrung by it.

“Please yield…” Her voice was now imploring him.

And then she felt it, he’d accelerated the process but mother nature was going to win this particular encounter. They were both lifted slightly as the ground under them started to rise before a sudden jolt placed twenty feet between them. And a gap opened up – full of molten lava.

Steadying herself, he considered leaping across. To arrest him or to save him? She wasn’t sure herself. But now liquid lava started to spew up to twenty feet in height between them.

And defiant as ever, he demanded she yielded. She smiled. “I hope there will never be a next time. But if it happens, I shall arrest you – you have my word.” And picking up her robe she turned her back on him and walked back to her ship.

[member="Asterion"]

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Resting on his knee, he simply stared at the one who had arrived, dared to fight him, wounded him and was now willing to leave with a smart remark. Breathing was laboured and his tunic was now sticking to his flesh from what looked like a burn on a glance.

As the lava kicked up between them, her final words goaded him and his knuckles grated on the rock below, the heat almost absorbing into him as much as the Dark Side flowed like the lava.

With a final roar of frustration, he threw a mighty burst of Force energy as hard and erratically as he could through the geizer of lava that sent a large portion of it spraying out towards where the Jedi was walking to.

He only imagined the fact she was now going to and police somewhere else, to try and provoke an attack and to kill with a feigned reason.

The bone in his kneecap cracked slightly as he stood, backing away from the lava now dying now to form a steady flow out to the ocean below. Asterion blew out a breath and relished the pain that would teach him the error of his ways – he wouldn’t forget her face either, and now she was high up with those he would extract vengeance on.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Well he was a man, and he was a Sith. So he wanted to have the last word. She didn't look back but threw up a quick Force Barrier to take the few pieces of lava that reached her as she departed.

Shaking her head she picked up her pace and hoped her ship was still there. She needed to tell the locals their problem had been...moved. Not resolved, just passed on to another planet.

[member="Asterion"]