Another Padawan of Nobility

[Jericho]

The sun shone brightly even as dark clouds rolled in, the ominous sound of thunder echoing. It was sticky, the humidity causing sweat to clump and roll down bodies. There was the sound of deer quickly rushing to shelter. Most were moving... except a lone warrior. He stood next to his akk dog in the middle of the road, uncaring that others had to move around him.

"One day, I will....One day...."

Was Jericho a benevolent or malevolent force? In truth a little bit of both. He looked up and face the two paths before him one of true light and one course of darkness stained with a mixture of bright and blood red. The hooded figure that was he, thought to himself even as his jet black hair blew, in a brutal burst of wind. The warrior didn't move. Not yet. A smile came across his face hidden under his battle mask as he began to walk down the middle of both.

He could feel both light and darkness course through him as they made battle for his mind. The teachings of the jedi spoke of purity and no emotion while the side of darkness called for him to give into his emotion his need for power and knowledge. The light called out to him showing him all the good he has done all of the healing he has given. Only for the darkness, show his fallen master, those he had killed and the pain of losing two of his padawans. He gripped the top of his head and let out a scream, "No! NO!" He shouted and he went into a ball as the darkness circled around him.

Flames took hold of his body and he stretched out, his eyes filled with a white light. "Everything must balance there is light and dark in all. One must not fall into extreme as it's not my way."

Jericho woke up from his trance of meditation with the only light being the stars and the moon. The rain must have stopped, he didn't hear or feel it anymore. He opened his eye slowly and realized it was most likely close to midnight. The sound of animals rose up, even stepped down from his levitation. His feet made no sound as he descended onto the ground. But could feel the presence of another person deep with in the woods. Instantly the giant of a man raised his one of his hands and force pulled whomever to him.

As he felt the warmth of the person's neck on his hand he looked over to see that it was a woman, white haired, attractive, well off and clean. She was like no villager he has help around here and her presence was stronger than the rest around him. Most knew about him and where he liked to enjoy his peace as he basked in the force. Was she directed here? Was she a friend or foe? As he made many enemies of the sith and dark-siders being famed as a sith hunter he had to take precaution.

"Who are you?" He said tightening his grip on her throat, but allowing enough air for her to breath and speak. "Why are you here?"

[member="Kitsune"] (hopefully this was good enough, I stink at intros)

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"] (it was perfect! Minus the choking :/)

Kitsune simply stared at Jericho and scoffed, "The name is Kitsune. And I was seeking tutelage in the knowledge of the Force."

Using her right hand, she grabbed Jericho's thumb and peeled it completely backwards, neatly dislocating it and freeing Kitsune from his grip. She then dropped down to floor and unsheathed her vibroblade and immediately sliced downward toward Jericho's neck, intentionally giving Jericho a slight cut on his neck.

Almost immediately, a squad of ten heavily armored samurai arrived, equipped with Kiyohime-class Blaster Rifles and aimed them at Jericho. Not that it was going to deter Jericho significantly, as he could most likely force push them all away, but simply a show of force. Kitsune stood from the ground and sheathed her vibroblade, and touched the bruises on her neck. "And now we are even. Please keep in mind that you may attempt to kill me on the spot here, but I'll guarantee that you will be continually hunted for the rest of your life."

Kitsune dismissed her guards with a flick of her wrist and simply waited for him to respond.

 

[Jericho]

[member="Kitsune"] (liking her already)

Feeling his thumb be dislocated, followed by the elegance she showed with her blade, it seemed that she was skilled in the styles of unarmed combat as well as the blade. Despite the two being close she was able to cut his neck. Not an easy task to accomplish. Normally he would of anticipated he movements but given that he just got out of his meditation and given his more dominate position it let himself be unguarded. That wasn't going to happen again around her, he snapped back his thumb in the proper position and raised a hand to heal his wound. The moment he lowered his hand there was no longer a cut only a scar left from and previous fight from a former friend turned sith lord.

He watched closely as men surged through the woods and quickly analyzed them, well armored and well equipped. She was indefinitely not a villager from the nearby village, it seemed that he came across all kinds of nobility and politicians. He looked to them then back to her, the woman stood merely a couple inches shorter than he. But could feel a strong presence, not bad, though it was going to take more than a show of strength to impress him. He looked her in the eyes his light brown in contest with her dark eyes when she threatened that he would be hunted. It seemed she knew not of whom she was facing and need not know more, so he ignored it and broke the gaze between the two.

"Hm..." He said turned his back to her as he notice she called off her men. "Curious, one such as yourself coming all the way out here just to seek knowledge." He said taking a knee then taking off his mask to cleanse is face with the water of the pond. After doing so he took out his virbo-chain scythes. "You seemed skilled and strong, [member="Kitsune"]." He spun his chains side to side only for them to wrap around his arm and the handles to meet his grasp. "Impress me enough and I'll teach you what ever you wish."

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"] (supposedly, I didn't get tagged! Sorry for not responding)

"I assume this a test," Kitsune commented flatly. She slowly redrew her duranium katana once more and slowly lowered it in front of her, holding the shaft with two hands. At the same time, she dragged her right foot backwards and turned her foot to the right. Bending her right knee downward, she lowered her center of gravity and took a firm, stable stance.

Kitsune lunged forward with a downward, vertical slash, and in the process, withdrew a three tantogata shurikens from her right ahnd and gripped them in her fingers, anticipating Jericho dodging. After this execution, Kitsune stepped forward, quickly throwing the three tantogata shurikens at Jericho while at the same time turning the blade upward and slashing again with her left hand. Finally, Kitsune regripped the handle with her right hand as the blade was swinging to her right and jumping midair, striking at Jericho vertically once again.

 

[Jericho]

[member="Kitsune"] (If this seems unfair let me know and I'll change it up.)

She spoke in short term and was focused on the task the moment it was presented to her. She took no time in seizing the opportunity made as Jericho made no stance against. Her moves were elegant, swift, poised and dangerous to say the least. But that was to the majority as Jericho was a master in the force, he was a master in varies martial art styles and these scythe wasn't just for show. He quickly analyzed her as he took he stance and noticed that she took no time to attack, in assumption didn't noticed the armor he was wearing. His armor was made for duel both lightsaber and steel, it was bulky but fit for a giant such as himself. Her movements were similar to his but much for straight foreword and simple.

He saw he shoulder move and the angles of her arm, even though her movements were fast and elegant they were too predictable. Instead of dodging he stood the and as she closed in he merely took a step foreword matching her front foot with his own. With a brisk movement he side stepped her vertical strike stepping to her right as she revealing to be her more dominant side with her stance. He dropped the scythe in his right hand to grab her right wrist while stepping on her front foot with his own. He then aimed a headbutt to her right temple, he then released her arm and allowed her to fall.

He turned away from and took a couple steps away then turned to face her once more. "Come."

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"] (Slightly, but it's not much of an issue since my character didn't just instantaneously die. Also, you have Force Sense, Sight, Battle Precognition, and Shatterpoint so it's a reasonable thing to deduce you could see through any melee attack).

Kitsune instantly recovered and regripped the sword once again. It seemed that against a skilled Master of the Force, melee attacks would not suffice, regardless of her personal skill or ability. Not that Kitsune was angry to any extent. Simply discontent. Retreating backward with her katana up defenselessly to block any incoming attacks with his chained scythes. Content with the distance, Kitsune sheathed her sword and took out three tantogata shurikens in each hand, and turned on their stun capacity, throwing them at Jericho. She aimed them such that they would hit his possibly unexposed joints: two at each wrist, another two at heels, and the last two directly at his exposed neck. Regardless if they penetrated through his flesh, the stun would be enough to conduct through his armor and deal some damage to Jericho's muscles, making them less efficient and more prone to fatigue.

Kitsune instantly ran to the right, circling around Jericho and throwing tantogata shuriken after tantogata shuriken at each of Jericho's joints: his shoulders, his knees, his wrists, his heels, his hips and of course, directly at Jericho's eyes and neck.

 

[Jericho]

[member="Kitsune"] (Don't forget, Echani martial artist as well as Tera Kasi! But no worries, you will learn the ways! xD)


He looked into her eyes, she was far from discouraged and remained focused. She retreated gaining more distance. She used her distance wisely as she pulled out of shuriken and threw them skillfully while keeping her main weapon up for defense but only for a moment as she sheathed and focus on her throws. A smart but obvious tactics, he knew many mercenaries that would do this but with their blasters and sith just with the force. He quickly thought of movements to use, he jumped to the left dodging the one aimed to her heels. The deflected the ones aimed for his wrist with the chains wrapped around his already armored arms. Leaving the last one to just hit down with is scythe. She was already extremely skilled with these weapons. A padawan as her would learn much from him, but how was her attitude, her will, and her standing? He would have to see.

As she ran to the right, he ran to her left doing a complete circle around and she knew even more of those things at him. He dodged and the used his scythe to block the rest. Despite his size he was body was trained to physical peak and he was much faster than he looked. Unlike most Jedi, Jericho was a warrior, a hunter and has been numerous battles and duels. It'll take more than her shuriken to even slow him down. He made his charge aiming the scythe seemingly at her foot but in truth merely to disrupt her running pattern, then threw his second aiming at her torso.

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"] (I'm a master K`thri and Stava artist as well as a skilled martial artist in general too >.>)

Jumping up into the air and doing a flip to dodge, resuming her running. Seeing the second scythe, Kitsune allowed the scythe to dig into her armorweave and silk clothing, taking out a kunai, and shattering the chained aspect of the scythe before turning the opposite direction of the scythe's centripetal motion to reduce the amount of damage it could have. In a fluid motion, she took the scythe and threw it horizontally at Jericho, allowing it to spin in the air before targeting his neck. Then, she directly dashed forward with unparalleled speed, a technique of the Stava martial arts, while wielding two kunai, and attempted to penetrate the armor of his shoulder join with a flurry of successive strikes, concentrating the damage into breaking the armor and piercing his shoulder joint. In other to prevent Jericho from attacking her, Kitsune constantly moved around Jericho, using various parts of body as a base point for her evasive acrobatics, jumping off at various points and utilizing his body as a fulcrum for various swings.

 

[Jericho]

[member="Kitsune"] (Oooo, I have yet to meet anyone with those skills....More stuff Jericho can learn! And we both have blue as a color theme!)


In her defensive moments, she was showing that absolute skills in hand and melee combat. Her moves were fluid, she was making it more than that she was much more than the average mercenary or lady of some noble caste. He noticed that his scythe landed a hit but she was so swift that the damage was minimal if any. His eyes widened as he saw her break the chain of his weapon and throw it right back at him aiming for his neck. He caught the scythe by the blade, his left hand now bleeding. Take some damage to dish out some damage, in that one instance their fighting styles matched. He tossed the blade aside and before he knew it she was up close and personal sending a flurry of attacks aiming for his shoulder. His armor could only endure so much as it was made more for lightsaber and blaster resistance. Though the thickness and bulkness was about to withstand most attacks, hers was too precise and aimed specifically for one area and cause his armor to break. First his scythe and now his armor, not only that she was able pierce into his shoulder joint which instinctively rolled back and retreat in order for her kunai not pierce him deeper.

She made her retreat with a breath, Jericho let out a sight and checked his armor, the man shook his head and took it off. Armor made from akk wolf and it seems they did have a weak spot. Looks like he was going to make armor that makes up for it. He took his jedi cloak and armor off and released his chain wrapped around his arm. A loud THUMP! sound was made and echoed through out the forest showing just heavy it was. He placed a hand on his shoulder where she pierced and healed it quickly as it a was a light wound like wise with his right hand. The man smirked under his mask and rolled his shoulder while popping his neck, he felt a hundred times lighter as he always wore heavy armor to train himself. It has been some time that someone other that a master force user broke his armor. But then again he has been holding back and analyzing her and her movements.

With her attacks thus for she has been aiming for his joints aiming to end him with fast and agile movements. She was mastered her skilled in the aspect of speed not strength relying to precision to take her foe down. His initial perspective changed thinking her aggressive style of fighting was meant to try to overwhelm him with strength. Knowing that having his armor no longer weigh him down his speed may be on par with hers without having to use force speed. He re-wrapped the chain around is arm pulling back his scythe and picking up the other by it's handle. The warrior was still learning how to master his scythes and from this experience, it showed he still had a long way to go. But he wasn't about to fight her at 100% just yet.

It was his turn to strike, he charged at the woman doing a zigzag assuming that she still had ranged weapons to throw at him. So in motion he wanted to keep her guess. Knowing what she was best at now he knew what to expect but still have to anticipated any other moves she would try to do. Now she was going to see how fast he really was without the help of the force. Closing the distance he started off with a flying knee strike as he was still armored. He then followed up with a series of punches but in truth was aiming for a heavy punch to her gut.

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"]

As Kitsune retreated from her barrage of strikes, she saw Jericho remove his armor. During this Kitsune threw one of the kunai directly into the ground, which was now was connected with a chain to grappling hook launcher and unsheathed her katana once again. She gripped her katana with her right hand, angling it diagonally, while holding the kunai downward with the blade resting slightly above her forearm. The kunai was held just in front of her face to shield it from any sources of possible attacks. She stood directly in front of Jericho and took a Forbelean defensive stance, a technique from the Forbelea system and created by the Chiss, which allowed her to intercept and deflect any attacks. Coupled with her adept knowledge in the martial arts of Hijkata, a martial arts discipline that focused on deflecting and countering attacks and turning their maneuvers against them, Kitsune prepared an iron wall of defense in response to Jericho's offensive tactics.

As Jericho charged forward, Kitsune timed her swing of her katana so that it would intercept Jericho's flying knee. Well knowing that was merely a feint, as soon as her katana was swung, she released the katana and instead, simultaneously slammed her kunai in Jericho's knee to direct Jericho's momentum horizontally to the left and dodged to the right. Quickly reforming her Forbelean defensive stance, Kitsune's heightened proprioception, martial skill, and agility allowed her to respond to Jericho's punches. Relaxing all tension from her muscles to allow for faster and more powerful movement, Kitsune amalgamated her defensive redirections of Jericho's punches with offensive punches of her own in a simultaneous attack and defense. Instead of simply doing one attack and defensive maneuver at a time, Kitsune chained her attacks in uncommitted techniques and maneuvers, allowing her to flow from attack to defense seemingly effortlessly. For Jericho's final heavy punch to her gut, Kitsune quickly tensed her gut muscles and quickly released tension after impact, dispersing the blunt impact that was not absorbed by her armorweave and silk clothing. In response, Kitsune took the grappling hook and wrapped the wrist of the fist with the chain of the previous kunai, and quickly lunged forward, tightening the chain around his wrist. Then, she grabbed her impaled katana and sliced Jericho's back.

 

[Jericho]

[member="Kitsune"] (Sorrry for the wait annnnnnd the crummy post, I just assume you want to actually get your training in)


Her attack made their mark, she feint with her katana only to switch for a direct attack with her kunai to his knee. His thick armor was able to keep the short bladed weapon from impaling his actual knee. She did maneuvers once more as skilled as she as was she was becoming more and more predictable. Kitsune had a balance of switching from her offense and defense with inhuman speed. Her attacks aimed for vitals and joints to weaken or slow down her opponent and revealing for her last few attacks she is more reliant one more speed and the angle of her strikes and not her strength. It is highly doubtful she can stand up against him when it came to that, her last move was her mistake.

With his wrist wrapped he pulled on the chain and turned taking the slice of her blade on his chest but now she was now much closer. He grabs her by the throat with his free hand and choked her followed slamming her on the ground full force. While she was on the ground he mount her and using the force summoned his saber to his hand placed the handle to he side of her neck but he doesn't turn it on but showed if he did, it would have ended right then and there. "Enough." He stated with his low and stern voice. He stood up and put his saber away and unwrapped his wrist and tossed the chain to the side.

He walked away leaving her to get up on her own and place his hand on his wounds and began to heal them. "You're physically and mentally strong. You'll need that for my training, my padawan." He said his words showing his acceptance of his new student.

 

[Kitsune]

[member="Jericho"]

She cracked her neck with two swift and sharp movements with her head to the left and to the right. Her hair bounced with this motion and she rotated her entire neck to release the tension of being choked once again. Not appreciated, she thought to herself.

Taking a syringe from her sleeve, she plunged the needle into her jugular vein and sighed as the bacta flowed through the system. Jericho had given her severe damage to her cartilage: although her bones did not break, they snapped. The snapping of cartilage was much more painful, both in terms of being snapped and the process of healing. In addition, although cartilage allowed for flexibility and the greater absorption of systematic kinetic shock damage, it was still a massive enough force to induce slight cracks and snapping of minor cartilage bones. She took a deep breath and sighed.

Walking over to her thrown katana, she picked up the blade and placed it back in her sheathe before returning in front of Jericho. She bowed before taking a few steps back and taking a seat on the ground. She meditated for a moment, focusing her Force on restoring her health once again and assisting in the healing process already initiated and executed by the bacta injection.