When Leaves Fall

[Omnis]

Participants: Ysamor Velcono, Dawn

---

Deep within the gut of a Korriban mountain, connected to the expansive Sith Academy, a new complex awaited the students of Crusader Nox's next class. The complex was tall, wide, and held many rooms and chambers. Each training room was dynamic, varied from all of the others. Some were multi-layered, others were one floor. The Noghri had built the complex himself, all to his design, with the help of some droid labor.

The chamber that Nox had chosen for his latest class on Ataru was a wide open chamber with a dirt floor that was lush with grass. The sides of the room were planted thickly with large bushes and trees. On each side wall, two well separated platforms extended a few meters over the floor.

Nox waited in the center of the room, both of his lightsabers humming gently as they rotated around him in a slow circle. The activated weapons cast both bright and dark hues of crimson light against the Crusader and his silver mask, giving him a strange and nearly ethereal visage.

 

[LordOfShadows]

Ysamor stepped forth into the room. He had been eager to take another class with the infamous Nox. Today he was to study the way of Form IV: Ataru. This would be his first official class in taking this form. The room was a lot bigger than the room of the last class he had taken. At least there weren't any cages hanging off the ceiling. Ysamor woke up in a good mood this morning. There hadn't been too much to ruin this day. Though, it could have been the excitement and anticipation of taking the class. The insight that the crusader had on the Way of the Hawk-Bat had to be pretty knowledgeable, or so he thought.

Walking up to the crusader, he bowed and removed his hood from his head. Ysamor stood straight up and began to speak, "Crusader, it is an honor to be under your tutelage once more."

He stepped back and began to meditate on the dark side of the force. The time usually spent meditating was spent stretching and warming his body up. Overall, he hoped that the class wouldn't be a disappointment. Though, you never knew what to expect with Crusader Nox.

 

[Kaane]

(OOC: Sorry that this post is a bit short, they'll be better in the future; just trying to get to everything with the short amount of time I have)

Dawn twirled his lightsaber Sunfire idly as he stepped into the room that this Crusader Nox was to hold a class in...he had never met the man before, but became interested in him after he learned of a class he was offering regarding Ataru. Being Dawn's chosen form of lightsaber combat, he jumped on the opportunity, and now found himself looking up and around at the large, open chamber that contained seemingly nothing at first glance...but as was customary with Sith, things were fickle. He rarely took things at face value anymore.

He bowed lightly to both at the other Acolyte in the room and the Crusader to show his respect, his new respirator obscuring his voice through a radio as he spoke: "It's a pleasure to meet you both...I am Radiant Dawn."

 

[Omnis]

After both students had entered, Nox stood in one fluid motion. The two rotating lightsabers deactivated and flipped through the air before sliding directly into the lapels of his dark robe. In a rare moment of open behavior, Nox drew the hood back from his head. While his mask remained and a silken cover still obscured the skin of his head, the new perspective on his visage was somehow altered enough to make the Cruaser appear less intimidating. Just the removal of his hood made him seem more normal, for lack of any better explanation.

Both Acolytes had given him high respect in one manner or another, pleasing him. While there were plenty of Acolytes that were at least formal these days, which was a vast improvement over times Nox could remember from his early Acolytehood, there were still few that were so wise. He was not one for flattery, but honor and respect were rare traits among Sith that could not be called wise too often.

"Ysamor Velcono, Radiant Dawn." Nox's tone was lighter than usual, with less of a hiss behind it than usual. It helped to indicate his better mood. "More than it is my privilege, it is my duty to instruct you both in the way of the fourth Form, the Way of the Hawk-Bat, Ataru. This experience will not be easy for you, nor will it necessarily be pleasant."

Nox was not the kind of instructor to allow his students much time to prepare. Warnings were the basic courtesy that he provided, but students that enrolled for sessions with him were expected to know the risks. A class with the Crusader was a commitment of a higher order.

Blurring into motion, Nox rushed at Ysamor before flipping over the Human's head and lashing out with one heel behind his head. The Crusader landed with perfect grace, flowing into a sideways motion as he sidestepped towards Dawn. As he neared the Echani-Human Acolyte, Nox twisted at the hip and chopped down at the space between Dawn's neck and shoulder. Throwing his weight behind the knife handed strike, Nox leaned in with leverage to drive the strike through the young man as much as possible and drive him down to the floor.

In a strange way, he looked like a leaf on the wind, borne by strong and erratic currents.

 

[LordOfShadows]

Another acolyte entered the room and oddly enough bowed to him. He bowed back to return the gesture. He found it odd that an acolyte would even bother to show respect to him. Most other acolytes would ignore their peers until it was necessary to acknowledge him. From his previous class with the crusader, warnings were not to be taken lightly. It was like one of those things that he hinted what you were to expect to then demonstrate what he was talking about. Ysamor tensed up not knowing what Nox was about to do. Regardless if the crusader sounded in a good mood or not, it was one of those things that you just didn't take for granted.

Sure enough, the crusader turned into a blur and came straight for him. Ysamor had already pulsed the dark side energy into his body. The crusader flipped over him and he became a blur himself trying to remove himself from the crusader's radius of attack. He moved himself approximately 10 feet away remaining in a squatted position. In the midst of trying to get distance between him and the crusader, he felt a small force on the back of his head. It was so obvious that the crusader would greet them with some type of pain. Pain was something he was used to growing up, but he didn't like pain as much as the next acolyte. He said nothing, but retained a face of eagerness. It was almost to the point of laughter. The pain was light and not even worth mentioning. He wasn't sure of how the other acolyte would react. The crusader's methods became something he started to favor and would probably use something similar to it if he ever made it to Sith.

 

[Kaane]

Dawn studied the masked Sith for a moment as he waited. He was intimidating to say the least. He wondered what he hid behind that mask of his...at least, he assumed he was hiding something. But he wasn't one to judge...Dawn hid his own fair share of information that could be manipulated against him. He listened silently as he began to speak.

"More than it is my privilege, it is my duty to instruct you both in the way of the fourth Form, the Way of the Hawk-Bat, Ataru. This experience will not be easy for you, nor will it necessarily be pleasant."

Well then...that sounded somewhat ominous. A typical sort of warning that Sith teachers seemed to give their students. But in his experience, they had never acted on it unless totally necessary...it was all just a show to look intimidating.

At least, that's what he believed until the man rushed both the Acolytes unarmed, with a visible intent to do them some kind of harm. Dawn tensed and smiled under his respirator: finally...a Crusader who made good on his threats...getting right down to business and throwing them right in the action...using his words rather than hiding behind them... He liked him already.

But he was fast too...Dawn doubted he'd have been able to keep up if he wasn't Force Sensitive. Within less than a moment he was already upon them, engaging the Acolyte next to him. He seemed to manage to dodge the attack, noticing him slip away out of the corner of his eye...but the Crusader was coming for Dawn next.

He landed and chopped directly at his neckline...surely a strike that with enough force behind it could break his neck or rupture a major artery. But Dawn had too much pride to back down...he faced the strike, prepared with nothing more than his Echani instincts and the Dark Side feeding his bodily strength, as he took a wide stance to augment his balance and formed an X with both arms over his neck, catching the Crusader's hand in its upper crook.

But the power behind this man's strike felt unstoppable, and he hadn't bolstered his arms with the Force nearly as much as he should have. He barely held the block for a moment before he was sent off his feet and rolling to the ground. The force behind that attack...it was even more powerful than Dawn had expected. But more startled than hurt, he recovered as quickly as possible, lithely getting his feet under and his hands under him and skidding on all fours to a stop.

He winced as a dull, throbbing pain in his forearms let him know that he'd been bruised somewhat badly. He chuckled and brushed himself off as he returned to his feet, his body tensed up in case his teacher decided to dish out some more punishment.

A smile peeked out behind his respirator as he looked back at the man he'd just been shown up by. "Damn...what a way to start a lesson..."

 

[Omnis]

True to form, the Noghri kept the pressure on and sprinted after the silver haired Acolyte even as the young man tumbled across the room. As he closed on the quickly rising Acolyte, Nox threw himself into a forward flip, landed on one leg and brought his other leg around in an axe kick headed directly downward for Dawn's head. The force of such a blow would be devastating, as it was aided by the Force, gravity, and an array of gyroscopic movement.

As his descending leg swept down to the ground, Nox shifted his weight seamlessly onto that foot as it leveled onto the floor and leaned to the side as he threw another arching kick to Dawn's side. The Crusader was being relentless, using wide motion arcs to throw as much power into each strike and make them nigh unblockable. Even if the Acolyte could manage, as he had with the admittedly superlative cross block, he would be just as badly punished for it as he had with his bruised forearms.

Such was the way of Ataru, falling with the grace of a leaf and crashing with the weight of the tree.

With Ysamor having maintained distance, Nox knew that he had time to pull of the dual strikes but swiftly returned to a more neutral stance as he judged the reaction of both Acolytes.

 

[Kaane]

Dawn barely had enough time to react as the Crusader continued his assault. He wondered if he was meant to attack back, or if this was just a rather "hands-on" demonstration. But he would have to make a decision soon; defense was not his strong suit, and since the option of blocking these powerful blows seemed to be out of the question, he could only evade them until he either messed up badly, or found out a way to counterattack. For the moment, he would let the masked man keep control of the flow of the spar, but he was far from ready to back down.

The axe kick to his head came as quickly as he had gotten back onto his feet. Rotating his torso and pulling himself backwards from the waist while repositioning his feet and legs, he got himself out of the way just in time, and was now fueled with some momentum of his own. Not nearly as much as the Crusader had built up, of course, but enough to remain in motion.

But as soon as he had dodged one of the Noghiri's relentless attacks, he was met with another. He sensed it before he had the chance to see it; another kick, this time sweeping in horizontally. And Dawn, whose body was now positioned in a line in relation to the Crusader, had his back wide open to be smashed by the attack. He couldn't allow that to hit him...his lungs already failed him, he didn't want his spine to go next.

Using the small amount of momentum that he had from the earlier dodge, he redoubled the efforts of his Force reserves and entered a low backflip over the Crusader's leg, his head missing the strike by mere inches. Landing on his hands, he let himself fall until his body was around 60-50 degrees off of the ground, then propelled himself off to the side, attempting to escape and rethink this. Thankfully, the Crusader seemed to have backed off for now...but he had been quite vulnerable during his acrobatic dodge. If he had pressed his attack farther, Dawn would surely have been pulverized. He breathed hard as he landed gently and eyed the man, glancing over to see that his classmate had been keeping his distance. He smiled in admiration under his respirator; "That was beautiful..." he said half to himself, half to their teacher.