Duel A Dance Among Friends

[Vulpesen]

It had started with a friendly visit. A couple glasses of wine and some reminiscence. Business talk as well as friendly discourse. Then the question was asked, "When was the last time you and I sparred?" Vulpesen and Ra'a'mah had been allies and more for decades. He trusted her with his life and he had saved hers on more than one occasion. It was inconceivable that in all that time that they had never pitted their skills against each other.. and yet. What followed was a flurry of movement to and in the armory. Vulpesen was suited in his usual loadout for the battlefield. His guest was furnished with whatever she needed as well as anything she had happened to bring. Then, it was down to the palatial garden where a wide sparring ring had been erected to replace the previous one which had been wrecked by a trial with a certain cathar elementalist.

Vulpepsen stood calmly on one side, his saber hanging unignited on his hip while his tail lashed out to betray the anticipation he felt for what was about to happen. How had he never fought with Ra? Among the Zorrens it was one of the first things someone did with someone they had an interest in, and considering the intimacy they had once shared, he had most certainly had an interest in her. What's more, they had shared battlefields at each other's side, another reason to meet in the ring. In short, today was long overdue for a myriad of reasons.

 

[Ra'a'mah]

Ra'a'mah stood opposite him for a quiet moment, her gaze resting on the familiar figure across the ring while the sounds of the gardens settled around them. A smile, small but unmistakably genuine, found its way onto her face as she folded her hands loosely before her.

"You know," she said, almost more to herself than to him, "we've fought beside one another for decades."

Her eyes drifted briefly toward the ring beneath their feet before returning to Vulpesen.

"We've planned campaigns together, escaped more disasters than I care to count, saved each other's lives often enough that I've lost track..." A soft laugh escaped her. "And somehow we never stopped long enough to discover what the other actually fought like."

The realization was amusing in hindsight. Two veterans who knew each other's judgment, temperament, and resolve almost instinctively, yet neither had ever stood opposite the other with a weapon in hand.

Her fingers settled around the hilt of the golden saber at her hip, drawing it free in one smooth motion before resting its weight comfortably across both palms. She made no move to ignite it.

"I suppose there was never much reason to."

The statement carried no regret. If anything, it was gratitude. Every battle they had shared had been fought shoulder to shoulder rather than face to face.

She inclined her head ever so slightly.

"So..." The corner of her mouth lifted. "Do we pretend we're strangers for the next few minutes, or do we acknowledge that you already know half my habits and I know at least as many of yours?"

There was warmth behind the question, the easy familiarity reserved for someone who had earned her trust long ago.

"I should warn you," she added with quiet amusement, "I've had a very long time to observe your footwork."

With that, she thumbed the activator.

The golden staff sprang to life with its familiar snap-hiss, casting warm light across the polished stones of the sparring circle. Rather than taking an aggressive stance, she settled into a relaxed Jar'Kai-ready posture despite holding only the staff for the moment, balanced lightly on the balls of her feet with the unmistakable ease of someone who viewed combat less as violence and more as conversation.

"Whenever you're ready, old friend."

Vulpesen

 

[Vulpesen]

"I feel like to be strangers would be to take it easy on each other. I don't think either of us would care for that injustice." His eyes were bright, not just in their golden hue, but in the pleasure of a good match to come. They met here's with joyous expectation while he gathered the force to himself. It built somewhere deep in his core, a churning whirlpool that readied itself to roar like a raging river. Outwardly, winds began to whip around him as a cyclone of air. "If you'll offer me the first strike, then I regret to say you'll have some difficulty from over there." Their last time at each other's side had been a friendly match against the Diarchs. At the time, he'd swung his saber as a challenge to himself. Now, he intended to fight in a way that was true to himself.

While the winds swirled around him, picking up grass and leaves, Vulpesen's hands rose to add lightning to the growing storm. The golden forks of electricity that launched at Ra'a'mah were an introductory probe of her skills, a test to see how she reacted to the first long range attack. His saber stayed where it was, the weapon being a last resort in life or death situations or a tool against blasters and other such attacks. His feet shifted as he fell into the stance of a fighter. Similarly light on his feet, Vulpesen was the sort to work in concert with the force, letting it strike for him while his feet carried him to safety to act as its conduit.

 

[Ra'a'mah]

Ra'a'mah's smile lingered as the air around Vulpesen came alive. The growing cyclone stirred the gardens into motion, grass bending beneath the gathering winds while leaves spiraled upward into the forming current. She had stood beside him often enough to recognize the signs long before the first bolt ever left his hands.

"So we're beginning there."

There was no disappointment in the observation. If anything, it carried quiet approval. This was Vulpesen fighting as Vulpesen always had, allowing the Force to become as much a participant in the duel as either of them.

The first arcs of lightning sprang toward her.

Ra did not move.

She remained exactly where she stood, her golden saber humming quietly before her as one hand lifted away from the weapon. Rather than meeting the attack with a barrier or attempting to evade it, she simply opened her palm toward the oncoming current. The electricity struck her hand with a violent crack that echoed across the sparring grounds, dancing wildly over her fingers and forearm before its fury began to diminish. The brilliant forks fragmented into thinner strands, each one bleeding harmlessly away as Tutaminis absorbed and dispersed the energy until nothing remained but a few fading sparks that drifted harmlessly to the stones beneath her feet.

She flexed her fingers once, as though shaking away the lingering warmth, before lowering her hand again.

"I've spent far too many years around Sith," she said with quiet amusement. "If I hadn't learned how to deal with lightning by now, I would've deserved every scar."

Only then did she move.

Not with a charge, nor with any great display of speed, but with the measured steps of someone closing distance one careful stride at a time. Her saber remained in its double-bladed configuration, held low and relaxed rather than threatening, while her eyes never left Vulpesen. She wasn't looking at the storm surrounding him anymore. She was watching the man at its center, studying his footing, the rhythm of his breathing, and the subtle shifts in weight that preceded movement.

"I've watched you fight beside me for years," she said as she continued her deliberate approach. "Now I finally have the opportunity to see whether you were always this dramatic... or whether you're simply putting on a show because you have an audience."

The corner of her mouth lifted into a familiar smile.

"I rather hope it's the former."

Vulpesen

 

[Vulpesen]

"Had to try it," Vulpesen's voice was infused with a laugh as he watched her walk forward. Bold and brazen as he had ever known her, he admired the steady pace in her advacne, even as his arms began to swirl about, taking advantage of measured walk. "As for a show or effect, a bit of collumn A," he spoke while his abilities carved out spheres of earth from the ground, separating dirt and rock from the terrain. Once carved, the spheres lifted up and compacted, crushing into dense cannon balls of earth, "little bit of column B." Three spheres in total and Vulpesen pushed his hands forward.

He kept it light to a degree, in that the makeshift shot didn't boom in the air by breaking a sound barrier. Rather, two massive stones with half a meter diameter hurled forward with a whoosh of air, sailing towards Ra by the flanks. Even a near miss could be inconvenient as they were bound to burst the ground up in a rain of rocky debris and shrapnel. It was one of those tricks that was born from decades of warfare, but had never quiet found a time to be used on a battlefield. A wonderful little trick that he was happy to show his companion, even as another sphere, a bit larger than the previous two hovered ominously beside him.

Ra'a'mah