-- song of the dead sun [closed]

[Icaro]

“Keter, focus,”

“Keter, focus,”

He sat alone, waiting in the dim arrows of crepuscule light spewing from the halogen lights of the waiting area. It was almost time to step out into his sparring session, something inside Keter told him he was about to be severely disappointed. He sunk his head to the floor, eyes closed and face hidden by his straight mane of ebony hair; black gloved fingers dug deep trenches in amidst the mess. He was not feeling well enough for this.

Keter had not been sleeping well, his dreams plagued by nightmares of a cryptic nature. Visions of a black orb surrounded by whiteness. Thick black rings had formed under his deep crimson eyes, he looked tired and unwell. The teenager inhales sharply, ready to step out to spar, as was the training exercise for today.

He stood slowly, raising his head to face the arch of light before him, post-human ears picked up the roar of the temples duelling chamber systems, and he knew that sound well. He walked with a confident stride, heavy footfalls of booted feet placing him quickly in his corner of the ring. To his opponent, upon arrival, he would look like someone ready or a fight; black gloves wrapped tightly around wraithlike fingers, standard white Jedi Padawan robes clothing his lithe form.

His sparring opponent was another Padawan known as Vei Hettoran, a Jawa with a predisposition towards dual wielding, a more advanced lightsaber technique. Keter had accepted, even relished this opportunity due to the fact someone with that style would likely be skilled in use with a saber, something Keter felt desperately he needed to prepare himself for as he performed jobs for the Order on his path to Knighthood.

Keter sat on the floor of the sparing chambers and crossed his legs. Within moments the Padawan was levitating in the centre of the room, awaiting his opponent. Ethereal, psionic tendrils drifted from his mind, feeling across the room, sensing the presences in the force outside the chamber. He breathed deeply.

When the Jawa would enter, Keter would know it, and be ready.

…”Focus, Keter,”

 

[Orphen]

It was a soft quiet day for Vei as he woke up tot he sound of rushing water, the fire he lit to keep the creatures of this place away had gone out, though his time out here was worth it. He had been training for days on end, and this was the first rest out of meditation he'd had in a long time... Though something was amiss, in the serenity of this place he'd forgotten something...

The Duel!!!

Vei Hettoran found himself running exceptionally late, running full bore toward the temple he could see the open window of the dueling arena. Huffing, such a sleep it seemed could only be experianced in that secret place of his own. In the vacinity of the small waterfall and the small clearing somewhere amongst forests of Tython.

Wrapping the force around his feet and legs, Vei decided to take a chance... Using force jump and calculating his angle, he jumped, crossing his arms over his head, arching gracefully through the open window and falling onto the sand covered floor, he turned his downward momentum into a gaceful series of rolls before outstreatching a leg and kicking to his feet, taking the last of the momentum airbourne he flipped and landed. Panting from the effort, though remarkably unscathed from the half story fall.

"I apologise for my lateness." The cold translating mask of the Jawa translated, ignoring his pants. "I woke up late. But i'm ready now, I'm Vei, Vei Hettoran." The sound of his Jawanese could be heard muffled beneath his mask if one listened har enough. The setting sun outside cast a golden glow upon the arena making the scenery seem churchlike and holy.

Drawing his two lightsabers from their clasps on his forearms he bowed to his opponent in respect. "I wish you the best of luck, i hope we can learn a lot from each other in this bout." Standing he braced in a wide stance, not extinding his blades yet. In his right hand, held outstreatched, was his offensive saber. The other held behind him in parallel with his spine.

Vei was nothing if not humble...

 

[Icaro]

lion's teeth

Keter felt the presence of the Jawa’s force powers before he was in the ring, he sensed, through his focus, the pounding of the Force on the ground as the Jawa ran, he could see through his mind as his opponent flipped and fell gracefully through the air to stand meters before him. This other Padawan, Vei Hettoran, was relatively sensitive, his mind was strong, unconsciously reaching out to Keter’s own empathy, and he could feel everything around him.

The boy’s mind began to quickly work in overtime as Vei spoke to him, tethers attaching themselves from his mind, rooting deeply into the force around him; he gathered his strength remarkably swiftly for a Padawan.

Keter nodded solemnly, his eyes never opening, mouth never moving.

Around him the air thickened, something like psychic humidity quickly built up around him, filling the surrounding area with a fog of aetheric Force energy.

As his tendrils dug into the air around him he tightened his eyes and released some of the stored energy from his mind towards his opponent. Vei would see no sign of the attack coming, except a slight density as Keter gathered his strength in the force. From Keter’s mind he projected a powerful wave of psychokinetic energy towards his opponent, it glided across the ground, invisible, and would quickly aim to knock the Jawa airborne.

As a primary force user, in the air was Keter’s playground, with nothing to fortify themselves against he had found opponents playthings, able to be knocked around at his whim.

Simultaneous to the knock up Force push, Keter would raise his arms up before him timing his second ability perfectly to release a powerful force blind at the Jawa, hopefully this would serve to disorient him as he flew airborne making any possible counter attack much harder than it would have been otherwise.

All without moving from his meditative stance.

 

[Orphen]

Vei sensed the coming of the telekinetic wave, as well as its collection. Running directly at his opponent as a blur of speed as well as the waves coming he felt the force channel through the air before him, though this was his doing. Reaching out and feeling the still potential kinetic force the wave was about to pass through Vei solidified it into a force barrier. Still running he kicked and leapt off the barrier and threw one of his lightsabers in mid activation moments before the completely disorientating force blind.

Vei Fell, misjudging the ground he fell hard. Though the spinning lightsaber was thrown directly at his opponent. Though on training settings, the weapon span like a discuss aiming diagonally for his opponens exposed toreso as he'd raised his hands. Vei stood. Everything seemed white, blurred, and though his vision was returning he found it hard to focus for a few seconds aswell. He could pick up his opponents scent however. The Jawas picked out all spectrums of emotions of their own kind through scent, being able to determine the difference between fear, love, hate, passion, joy as if they were shaking, blushing, screaming, smiling, or laughing.

And so he turned to look at his opponent side on. Bringing his defensive blade to one side he began to spin it upon activation into the cerulian disk like state that was customary for his style. Stalling out the force blind was on the top of his priority list. For even although he had a keen lock on the still jedi, scent was by no means the most acurate of senses. His reactions to his position would be delayed at best for these few seconds. So the young Jawa took an increadibly defensive stance. Planting his feet, and awaiting his sight to return... His senses too blinded to see the result of his throwing attack.

And too disoriented to call back his blade for the few seconds the effects would last... This duel, was going to be his hardest by far.

 

[Icaro]

As Keter’s force push soared outwards towards the young Jawa he felt energy building up, separating the two, and he felt a barrier materialize between him and his opponent, blocking the brunt of the force push. In his mind’s eye he saw the barrier tilt and felt the impressions of the Jawa’s small feet as he jumped heavenward. As Vei did so, Keter’s arms outstretched for his Blind, a resonant light shone from his fingertips sparkling out like thousands of doves clambering through the air, clawing at one another.

Though Keter had his eyes shut, he felt the force of the sabre throw build in the air around his opponent’s hand. For the first time since the bout began he opened his eyes. Drifting out of his meditation his feet shot to the ground along with his right hand, digging trenches in the sand. He grunted and propelled himself to the left along the ground in a roll to dodge the clumsily thrown weapon. As he righted himself, his right hand still planted firmly on the ground, a jolt of psionic force shot from his palm, sending him upwards off the ground several feet.

As the thrown lightsaber hit the ground with an unceremonious clang, Keter would raise his left arm outwards, calling the Jawa’s sabre to his grip, deactivating it mid air and letting it drop. It wasn’t the sabre he was after.

As the half-called sabre dropped, Keter’s hand clenched into a fist, gripping at the force, calling the resonant heat from the weapon’s aura to his hand. The white-hot energy would quickly shoot from midair in between the duo, towards his opponent in a wave of concussive heat aiming to knock the Jawa back, onto, and along the ground.

The technique was a little something he had come up with on his own. While Keter himself had little use for the tool of the Jedi, he certainly had a use for the lightsabers of others. This technique made it a touch easier to fight against duellists such as the Jawa, it tended to give him and edge that many wouldn’t see coming lest they had a hobby for the more obscure archives of the temple’s library which had inspired Keter to perfect similar counterbalances to his biggest weakness.

In his experience in sparring others of his level, these duels needed to be ended quickly before Keter ran out of energy. Expending force powers relentlessly was his only tactic to win in combat, and relentless was what he was going to be.

 

[Orphen]

The Jawa's ears perked, he felt the resonance of the heat, and now his sight had returned to that of a blur. He sensed a gathering of intense heat. As well as the heat had expanded the wave of heat resonating hit him far before the concussive blast. The warning was enough. Diving to the left and extending his left palm he rolled out of the way of the heatwave. Coming back to his feet he took a low stance running fast enough toward his opponent he caused the image of a blur which made him appear further away than he actually was. Opening his palm he recalled his fallen lightsaber en route to his opponent.

Clenshing his saber in his hand, he retracted it onto the clasp at his sleeve as he closed 1/3 of the distance. At 2/3's the distance he wrapped the force around his legs like before, channeling into the ground and giving the Jawa a burst, though not a restrictive burst of additional speed. Just as he would reach his opponent He would jump and spin on a 90 degree upward angle with both weapons. At the peak of his climb telekinetic force would gather in his hands and send down a crushing wave not to throw his opponent but to supress him and damage his knees and neck.

Vei had a close relationship with the force, especially feats of telekinesis. But it seemed Vei's Ataru variant style was a disadvantage in this fight... He wondered if he could exhaust this jedi though martial prowess. But it really came down to how often he could get close to this obviously force centric opponent... Vei was suiting up for a long, painful, and exhausting fight...

 

[Icaro]

As Keter reached the apex of his jump, the Jawa took off to the left, darting expertly from the path of the concussive heat wave. As Keter landed he watched as the Jawa quickly regained composure from his roll, and then, like lightning, Keter watched at his opponent began darting towards him as dizzying speeds.

He felt Vei reach out with the force to grab his sabre mid air, just before it touched the ground and saw it fly towards his grasp. As the Jawa reached him, Keter could feel the force wrapping around his opponent’s legs, allowing him an impressive jump for his size. Keter grimaced, the little Padawan was quicker than he’d first anticipated, and dodging better and closing in faster than anyone he’d trained with so far.

Keter reacted as quickly as his powers would allow, calling forth a sloppy psionic miasma around him. Dirt shifted and air thickened as Keter’s focus tightened as fast as it could, his mind working in overtime. Keter went low then, from his form erupted a sphere of clear-blue light, blasting away at the general vicinity with concussive, psychokinetic force. This would likely gain him some distance on the Jawa, as with nothing to fortify himself on mid air, he would likely be tossed back a considerable distance, as well as pelted by the force of the Burst.

But there was something Keter hadn’t anticipated. An attack from two fronts.

In his focus of summoning forth the Burst so suddenly, his mind had been too clouded with that to notice the gathering telekinetic wave that the Jawa sent towards him from his position of height. The force Push rained down on his back hard, straining his neck and shoulders with its weight and force. Keter let out a sharp gasp as the pain shot through him, clenching his hand in the dirt, aching from the impact.

Fighting through as best he could, Keter would hurl his left hand outwards, sending forth a series of focused concussive shots for the Jawa in rapid succession, aiming to disorient and wind him as well as gaining Keter more distance from the duellist. Though the rapid fire pushes were strong, Keter’s focus wasn’t all there and his strength was beginning to waver. Several of the shots missed completely, shooting off around the Jawa leaving only three bang on target, one for the general direction of his abdomen and two upwards from there, on his chest and head.

 

[Orphen]

The Jawa used the force from his own Telekinetic wave to lurch himself, arching harshly backwards into a landing stance, thrown further by the force burst, though he evaded most of the offensive force of the attack. only to have a blast go right over his shoulder, followed by others in quick succession. Taking to the wing the Jawa began ran with an initial burst of his unnatural speed, diving over another blast, under another and coming out running. Dropping the force speed after the initial leap he could sense the trajectory of the telekinetic blasts. Making them easier to evade.

However, Vei felt something, the ones that were missing were becoming more of a pain than the ones on target. Vei smiled now understanding the intentions of the attack.

TOO LATE

As one of the shots crashed into the Jawas shoulder, he felt something move, that probably shouldn't have moved. Causing intense pain the popped shoulder popped straight back in afterwards. Not a full dislocation. It was so sudden and unexpected the Jawa almost didn't register it over the adrenaline of the situation. Dropping low He remembered his training. Focusing on the sand at his opponents' feet, he remembered the water he initially manipulated.

Focusing on an orblike shape a 'rock' for lack of a better term of sand rocketed upward for the Padiwans core. Intending to wind him and completely shake his resolve to its foundations. His opponents' force reserves were increadibly deep for a Padiwan. But although Vei was battered and bruised. This wasn't over yet... though Vei's force reserves were now almost rock bottom.

The humming of his second lightsaber exploded from his other hand. Spinning both weapons for a quick moment. He began make a fast walk in for his opponent again. There were a few others watching the Duel, though most were just studying.

 

[Icaro]

Keter’s Burst quickly propelled his opponent a sizeable distance from him, knocking him through the air. But it seemed because of the sloppy execution of the attack that Vei had managed to right himself somehow, landing in a stance instead of toppling to the ground. Keter stared at his prowess in disdain, he was running low on energy now and the Jawa showed no signs of stopping.

The Padawan’s back and shoulders strained to lift him through the pain from the force push, he grunted as he came erect.

The rapid succession force pulses flew in twisting arcs towards the Jawa, many missing, but it seemed they were the ones catching him off guard. He watched Vei intensely dodging the invisible projectiles, no doubt focusing enough to sense their rough trajectory, surprising considering the relative intensity of the sparring match.

During this time Keter took his chance to gather some of his focus, reaching outside himself with his mind and calming his mind to alleviate some of the pain. Pulses of psionic energy drew inwards as he tugged upon invisible strings, strengthening his resolve to continue, trying to allow himself another push back before he was completely drained. Through this focus though, Keter was visibly exhausted, panting, his body drooping. He looked like a ghost, any semblance of colour drained from his face due to the rapid fading of his reserves.

Suddenly he felt a surge of force energy beneath him.

Instinctively Keter’s hands snapped up, spreading a violent whirlwind of force from their epicentre. The hardened sand projectile flying towards his sternum was quickly thrown away, and Keter opened his eyes.

From the centre between his palms came another burst, pushing at the world around him as he readied his last ditch effort. If this didn’t work he would be in trouble.

The heat from Vei’s sabres would erupt around him in a violent cascade of energy giving birth to an area around the Jawa in which even his species would have trouble withstanding for an extended period of time. While not overtly offensive, this attack was more visual. A miasma of red energy and the intense heat around him would me more an attack on his morale than his body, but it would hopefully catch him off guard enough to make it hard to function in, for lack of a better term, the heat of the moment.

 

[Orphen]

As his focus honed in on his lightsabers. He felt the force gather around them. He was going to use them like before. Thinking quickly he turned them off before he had much of a hold or source on the head. But again it was too late. Suddenly the orb of flame had encircled him. Vei felt pain all over his body. even his fireproof robe was no defense from the intense heat.

"Yyyyyaaaaaaaa!" The Jawa screamed under extreeme duress. His entire body felt like the fire was beneath his skin. This attack was more torturous than detremental to his health, the quich thinking of the Jawa had given him less heat to work with. Bu finally with explosive control of the force he used force push to hurl the hot air away from his body. channeling the heat up in a wave. Though the shock bought the Jawa to his hands and knees.

For a second... The Jawa looked up, the air around him felt like determination. He lifted his body with all of his strength. He bought one of his shoed feet up to rest on one knee. He stood, erecting his body, but it looked like the Jawa was swaying slightly. He looked up at his opponent making eye contact.

Now, the deciding factor...

Heat, even extreeme heat, Vei had experienced the two blaring suns of tatooine at the heat of the day... his master had broken his arm on their first training, he was no stranger to pain... and were the pain of the heat the only impacting force, then he could have kept up the fight.

One of his lightsabers fell from his hand, but the other ignited as he took a step forward, his determination willing his body to run straight at his opponent in his moment of weakness. Feinting a leap, and dashing past his opponent with a slash that were his sabers set to lethal would disembowel him in a single strike, ending everything in a suprise.

But it was the rapid wave of cold that followed up his force push that dealt the finishing blow. Had he not used force push, he may have been able to conclude the attack that ran so vividly through his mind. He took another step triumphantly. Though that was the last he would take in this duel, shock from the rapid change of temperature and the breeze felt too good on the back of Veis' neck.

His body carined down until his face hit the welcoming sand... for a second he thought he was home. Maybe another day soon... he would have been able to repel such an advanced force technique. But this early in his life as a Jedi, not quite. He lost this duel. He never thought he'd ever meet a Jedi who wouldn't use a lightsaber... against him and his force prowess, his saber technique was useless, and even deremental.