Darth Vupua vs. Darth Abyss

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

It was a several millennia year old paradox that had affected the Sith Order. The dark side awarded individuality, and yet the individuals that came to be known as Sith Lords- individuals who had ascertained certain strengths that were rewarded with power- sought the subjugation of those who believed they were lesser than them. Two such Sith Lords believed that one was weaker than the other, and whilst there was a philosophical debate of what defined strength from the likes of [member="Tirdarius"], it was known that the purest form of domination was the lethal and often methodological arts of combat.

The Initium sat somewhere in First Order space, cloaked and concealed from the regional governments Star Destroyers. Stood before the holographic projector, Darth Vupua summoned the Sith Lord known as Darth Abyss and waited for the Sith to reveal himself to her. The two would set up their arena for their challenge and fight until the other was defeated.

Folding her hands into her sleeves, Darth Vupua felt the pommel of her Saberstaff sheathed beneath her left sleeve as she coiled her right hand around the weapon. Hooded, Vupua focused on her hate and felt the beast inside her lift it's snout to the promise of blood. She would award it with the corpse of Darth Abyss.

 

[Darth Abyss]

The holographic projection of Darth Abyss appeared, a man shrouded in a long dark robe, his face hidden by a odd looking wooden mask and his right leg replaced by a cybernetic prosthesis. With a cold, emotionless calm the sith lord said five words, before the projection faded away again.

"Valley of the Dark Lords."

Abyss himself was already there, as he had chosen a place that was close to him, both in the physical and the metaphorical sense. It was one jump away from his second home on Malachor V, and he had visited the valley countless times. He knew the tombs and graves in and out, and while that was something that many sith had in common, it was a perfect tactical option for a shadow like him.

Many sith only carried their blades with them, but they were fools. Abyss was armed not like a lord of the sith, but like a bounty hunter, always looking for that one edge over his enemies to balance out the lack of finesse in his fighting style. His robe drifted slowly in the wind of Korribans desert, as the mindeater awaited the arrival of his opponent.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Korriban. As Vupua walked away from the projector, she thought about the ancient homeworld of the Sith. It was a husk of a planet, she had been told. What power had once existed on the planet had been hollowed out over the millennia, as Jedi sought to destroy the relics and legacies of the Sith, whilst Sith Lord gutted out the tombs in search for knowledge and power. Lost in her own arrogance, Vupua presumed Abyss had chosen the Valley of the Dark Lords for sentimental reasons.

Engaging the hyperdrive of the Initium, Darth Vupua departed the First Order and left behind her calculative, cunning mind and replaced it with a form of barbarianism that only those who had practiced and studied the dark side could achieve. She literally wanted to feast on Abyss, to taste his rubbery heart in her mouth and swallow his flesh as a tribute to the dark side. Vupua left the First Order to consume her opponent and subsequently increase her own powers through the trial of challenge and pain.

It took the Sith Lord a standard week to arrive in the Horuset system, during which she had practiced and honed her Lightsaber skills; meditated on the dark side of the Force; and gathered her hatred for the upcoming tribulations she would face on Korriban's ancient surface. Using the Sith Infiltrator's cloaking device, Vupua arrived on Korriban unnoticed to anyone but Abyss himself. The two now shared a focused bond created from a mutual hatred for one another, and as the ship touched down on the ancient runes of a hollowed out, empty tomb, Vupua departed the ship knowing that her opponent would know she had arrived.

Walking confidently through the dunes, Darth Vupua kept her Saberstaff concealed beneath her left sleeve, whilst focused on her powers to create a Force Shield. A necessary precaution when dealing with a strong, yet vulnerable Sith Lord.

 

[Darth Abyss]

The valley of the sleeping kings was silent besides the sound of faint steps in the sand, as his opponent made her way through the desert. Other than her he summoned no shield around himself, it was a overvalued practice that only served those that had enough predictability to fear the art of precognition. He had no reliance on studied sequences, or common techniques of the 7 forms, he was far beyond that by now. There were those who could swing their saber faster and more precise than him, but only very few could keep up with the sheer chaos that came with his every move made in a battle.

Other than his opponent, his power was not fueled by simple hate, but by obsession. All emotions could fuel the dark side, and obsession was no exception. Twisted by the dark side it became hunger, that could only be satisfied by devouring the knowledge of those who opposed him. He was not called the mindeater for nothing.

As she came in sight, the sith lord made a ever so slight bow, while his right wandered to his belt and to the hilt of his saber, but he did not reached for it just yet. Again with no audible emotion he spoke to his adversary, his voice echoed through the silent sands of Korriban,the small, visible part of his face only showing the cold, forced calmness that he had learned from his master.

"Welcome to the place where sith finally find their rest."

He had picked the place for both tactical and sentimental reasons, but not in the way she probably thought. It was not Korribans former glory that draw him to the valley, it was the symbol that it represented. The place where all great lords had found their rest, followers of the rule of two, one or any other alike. What could better serve as theatre when sith lords decided to test who deserved to live and who not.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Vupua smiled when her opponent came into view. It pleased her that he had not decided to conceal himself, or laid some form of trap for her to trigger and subsequently survive. It proved that Abyss did possess some form of strength to meet her challenge directly, rather than circumvent or find another way to kill her. Normally, Vupua would acknowledge the use of a calculative and cunning mind when it came to dealing with an enemy. She would use others to kill Abyss, or draw him into a trap, or better yet to misdirect and manipulate him into a critical mistake. But this was a direct challenge.

Only the weak sought to surmount the strong in any other way than a pure, lethal combat in a scenario such as this. What if Abyss had somehow managed to murder her through the use of cunning? It was not a true test of either abilities. It was possible for a weakling to murder the strong and subsequently replace them in the grand scheme of things. Such things had happened in the history of the Sith Order for several millennia. But there stood Darth Abyss, ready to fight her to the death without such weakness tarnishing either of each others victory. "It is good that you met my challenge directly, Lord Abyss. It shows that you possess strength."

Hanging from her right hip was the Lightsaber she had constructed with [member="Sochi Ru"] as a Padawan learner. Vupua needn't limit her own calculative and cunning mind during their fight. Drawing the Lightsaber into her left hand, Vupua ignited the weapon of [member="Ella Nova"] into the air and pointed the tip of the blue light at Abyss. "Nobody will be put to rest today," the Sith Lord stated, walking forward with the weapon and air of a Jedi Knight, moving forward to engage Abyss in Lightsaber combat.

 

[Darth Abyss]

Her words were only answered by a dark, inhuman laugh that actually had no hint of amusement in it. She had said so little, and yet so much. Words were more powerful than most people realized, they revealed strength and weaknesses alike. Hers told him one thing already: That she was a fool, one that believed that strength was purely revolving about ones ability to strike another down. The reason behind such thinking could be one of many thing: Arrogance, pride, or simply stupidity. No one who could truly see the bigger picture would disregarded an enemies ability to set a trap, and use deception to kill another. Intelligence represented strength as much as actually physical strength.

In his right the crimson blade came to live, resting loosely on his side, as he wouldn't be the one to make the first move. His tactics revolved around counters, around ruses, evades and deception so the only reason to make the first strike would be an obviously, easy opening, something that wasn't given in this scenery. His left hand was held behind his back true to from two. Normally this would be an obvious giveaway, but he was had made an effort to mimic the stance of makashi with his feet, both acting over the real reason for the position of his hand and giving the pretence of being far more advanced with the blade than he actually was.

His yellow eyes rested on her, observing, analyzing. The blue color of her blade was a bit confusing, but not enough to jump to a conclusion. Ferox often wielded a green blade, but he was one to carry one of the traditional red colored ones hidden from his enemies eyes. Maybe it was the same case with her, maybe not, but even without that little hint he wouldn't allow his mind to slip away form her. Sith were treacherous by nature, and there was no reason to think that this one was an exception.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Vupua read the use of Form Two, from the way Abyss positioned himself and the way he held his blade. Immediately, the Sith Lord that approached him was cautious to Makashi, knowing that the form relied on swift parries and counters that served to create openings to attack her. She had seen Jedi Masters and Jedi Knights use the Lightsaber form from an early age, and had studied it as rudimentary background information to use as a Jedi Knight herself.

She noticed that Abyss was not well trained in the form, however. His stance was not as well refined as the Jedi she had seen use it before. He had also adopted the wrong positioning to her approach. The Makashi Salute, dubbed by the Jedi, would have been the correct position to take to counter any attacks that Vupua would use. Instead of holding his blade in front of himself for this, Abyss held his behind him, leaving himself opening to a frontal assault. He was also not moving, another rudimentary mistake for an inexperienced duelist. Makashi was described as a dance, as the user glided through the sequences of battle with an ease and grace. A well trained duelist would not be standing still, as her opponent was doing now.

Involuntarily deceived by Abyss and his opening stance, Vupua held her Lightsaber in front of her, raised just above her shoulder at an angle that pointed the tip at Abyss as she moved forward. Trained in the ways of Shii-Cho, this had been the Lightsaber form that Ella Nova had perfected when she has ascended to the rank of Jedi Knight. When she closed the gap between the pair, Vupua opened with a stab forward into the chest of Abyss, aiming to sink the blue blade that she held deep into his heart and end the contest before it had truly begun.

 

[Darth Abyss]

He could feel her eyes on him, even without the force he could almost look into her mind and watch as it tried to work out what he was doing. His stance was far from perfect, but it didn't had to. There was little difference between an enemy that deemed your skills higher to one that deemed the lower than they actually were. The only thing that would change was what weakness would be revealed about her, if it would be arrogance or fear.

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards for just a second, barley noticeable if at all, as the blue blade danced towards his chest. So arrogance it is. What followed was crude combination of several thing, combining creativity, dishonorable and his tendency to carry a fair number of gadgets with him. Instead of bringing his blade up to block hers, it almost mirrored her attack, sending a simple stab towards her. Other than hers it was not aimed at her chest, but at her left upper tight. He had no illusion that he would end this battle that quickly, and his only remarkable strength rested in his endurance, so landing strikes that would hinder her abilities over time were the far more effective approach.

At the same time as his thrust, his left pushed forward from behind his back, a small knife in it that cut upwards towards her saber, a trail of sand following it, tightly gripped by the telekinetic grip of the dark side, aimed at her head. The knife wasn't simply resistant to a lightsaber, it was made out of cortosis, a substance notorious for its ability to short out most saber on contact. Sometime his enemies noticed their mistake fast enough, but more often than not they simply lacked the mental capacity to see through his trick so quickly. In combination with the trail of sand to further distract her he perceived it as a quite effective maneuver.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Vupua, guided by her attuned senses in the Force, felt Abyss blade move. It took her a split second to realize that he was not moving to intercept her with with his Lightsaber, but was rather using the momentum of her own attack to stab at her shoulder. At the same time, she saw the glint of the knife reflect in the Horuset sun that shined down from above being thrown towards her own Lightsaber. Then, she felt the sand that had been flung from the same hand that had thrown the knife go into her eyes, momentarily blinding her.

Instinctively closing her eyelids so as to shield her eyes from the sand, Vupua also instinctively ducked and subsequently pulled out of the stab, so as to avoid Abyss' Lightsaber attack. She felt the Cortosis blade impact her Lightsaber as she duck, and was surprised when she heard the sharp fizzle of her Lightsaber being turned off as the Cortosis caused a feedback loop in her weapon that made it shut off. Without her weapon to protect her, Vupua felt vulnerable for the first time in months, since her last duel with [member="Darth Veles"].

With the power of the dark side flowing through her body, increasing her reaction times, muscular strength and endurance, Darth Vupua reached out and caught onto the hilt of the Cortosis knife as it glided past her through the air and turned with it in her hand to meet the blade of Darth Abyss, aiming to glance the knife off the Sith Lord's own weapon and cause the same feedback loop he had made in her own Lightsaber.

 

[Darth Abyss]

It worked, at least halfway. The stab didn't found its target, yet his knife still forced her to not only stop her own assault but also forced her to compromise her own position. His trick with the sand on the other hand had worked exactly worked out the way he had it indented to, blinding her for a second. Then a surprise followed, as his own knife was pushed into the plasma stream of his crimson blade, also turning of his lightsaber after a second of electric buzzing. It took his mind a second to adjust himself to the new situation, but by now he was in the tunnel, everything outside of the fight faded into the background.

Live was simple when looking at if without emotions. When there was an action, then there was also a reaction. Something bad could easily turn into something good if one knew what to look for. In case of this situation it was the fact that her arm was very close now, and that she had probably figured that his saber was useless without its blade. No one ever figured that someone would hide a knife in a lightsaber.

His reaction followed with a second of delay, but once it was executed it was as swift as his first one. With a quick motion he pressed the two extra buttons on the hilt of his saber, again combing two things into one. The first one activated the light absorbing cell inside the top of the blade, a device build by an alien race with the purpose of hunting animals. This wasn't so different after all. It worked a bit like a smokescreen, but instead of smoke it utilize electromagnetic fields for photokinetic light bending, sucking in any light in a range of three meters. Like smoke it would fade quickly, but as soon as she would open her eyes she would be still blinded, while Abyss could see easily in the darkness, empowered by a old nightsister spell that made sound become a picture in his mind.

The second button pushed the small, 15 centimeter long blade that was hidden in the lower side of the hilt out in the open, the second as said knife danced down towards her right hand that had reached for his knife. Best case was crippling her swordhand, worst case was getting the control over his knife back.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Opening her eyes, Vupua was immediately disorientated by the flash that scarred her vision. She let out a gasp as the searing blaze of the flash burned into her eyes, forcing her to close them once more. Wanting to flip away from Abyss, in an attempt to escape the flash that had blinded her, Vupua leaped into the air, gathering the Force into her feet to leap and back flip away from her opponent. As she leaped backwards, Vupua screamed as she felt Abyss' blade seep into her hand, clawing away at her flesh. Forced to drop the Cortosis knife, Vupua landed two meters away from Abyss, clutching her right hand as she felt the blood seep out of the wound and down into her good hand, the crimson blow intertwining itself between her palm, fingers and the pommel of her Lightsaber.

The dark side of the Force coursing through her, Vupua used it to purge any toxins, poisons or debilitating effects that might have affected her. In that confrontation alone, Abyss had been revealed to be a calculative and cunning opponent, using several tricks in order to undo her. Seething in pain, Vupua opened her eyes again and experienced the same, blaring flash that was blinding her. Having never encountered such an attack before, Vupua felt her vulnerability increase as one of her senses had seemingly been robbed from her by her opponent.

Focusing on her hate, Darth Vupua lifted her bloodied hand upwards in the direct she felt Darth Abyss and focused on the Sith Lord. Reaching out with all hate for him, Vupua clenched the invisible coil of a hand around the Sith Lord's Lightsaber and begun to squeeze the power of Force Crush.

 

[Darth Abyss]

As the fairly quite sound of blood dropping on the desert sand reached his ears, a picture formed to inform him about the success of his attack, as she leaped herself out of his range. But the feeling of triumph was short lived, as he heard something in his blade crack, and the energy field that had blinded them faded away in a matter of seconds, followed by a few sparks coming from his weapon. He wasn't entirely sure if the weapon would work again, once the effect of the cortosis would be gone, but he did not intent to simply wait until he knew. Without a second thought he dropped the weapon in the desert sand, his right reaching into the sleeve of his left arm instead.

With a quick, barley noticeable movement Abyss chucked a small throwing knife into her general direction. He was good at throwing knifes, without the need to even call to force to keep them in the air, but doing it this quick would always cost him his precision. It wasn't meant to be more than a ruse after all. His left was still tightly clinging to the cortosis knife, his best line of defense once her lightsaber would return to power, should his own weapon be gone.

Following his knife was another attack, one that was not visible in nature, one that was nothing more than a thought amplified by the force. The knife was only meant to distract her focus, so he would have an easier time once his mind would hammer against her mental barriers. To her it should feel a bit like a abyss had just been opened, a all consuming darkness that tried to devour her thoughts, memories and feelings until nothing would be left of her but an empty shell, fueled by his obsessive hunger. Darth Abyss had left, and the Mindeater had truly emerged for the first time of the duel.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Feeling the crack inside Abyss' weapon confirmed Vupua's suspicions that the debilitating flash that had momentarily blinded her was not an attack made by the Force, but from some technology that her opponent had been using. She would have felt the attack if it was from the power of the Force, and she had yet to encounter a technique that a Force Shield could not defend against. Opening her eyes for the third time as in many minutes, Vupua's vision was blurry, her eyes bloodshot and painful from Abyss' clever attack. But she could now see, if only faintly.

Seeing Abyss through her blurry gaze, Vupua swerved to the right to avoid the knife, which passed her and embedded itself into the sand just behind her. As a Jedi Knight, Vupua had been taught about the vulnerabilities of the Lightsaber. Cortosis, a rare and banned mineral, had the ability to withstand a Lightsaber blow and occasionally created a feedback loop inside a Jedi's weapon, causing it to fizzle out and deactivate. Now that Vupua was aware that her opponent was using knifes made out of this precious metal, she was cautious to Abyss' attacks and would be more wary in her engagements with him.

Fueling her powers with the pain in her hand, Vupua marched forward again, her gaze cold and determined. As she walked forward, the Sith Lord felt a build up inside her opponent and paused cautiously to prepare for her mischievous opponent. Feeling the power of the dark side warp around Abyss, Vupua was thankful for her precautions before the duel went on. Protected by the invisible dome of her Force Shield, Vupua stood and watched Abyss for a moment long as she felt his powers trying to coil themselves around her, attempting to break into her mind and reveal her deepest, darkest fears.

Reaching out with the dark side, Darth Vupua used the Force Supression technique to sever Abyss' from his powers. By aiming to trick Abyss into thinking that his powers had been somehow cut off, Vupua aimed to stop Abyss from attacking her mind and subsequently engage the Sith Lord in Lightsaber combat, which if her suspicions were correct, she was superior in than her crafty opponent.

 

[Darth Abyss]

The attack on her mind was with no effect. A shame really, but nothing out of the ordinary. He would simply try again once she had suffered a bit more, when her mind would be easier to influence by the void he could summon around it. Then something fairly strange happened, as he felt his connection to the force fade away from one second to another. He knew that some gifted with the force were able to cut others of from the force, but he had never heard that someone was able to do it so quickly. The only explanation he could find in the short time was that it was some kind of trick, a poison or mind altering drug that dulled his senses.

Now he had to with what he had, until the effect would fade. Panic was never a good option in a fight, and luckily he still had a few aces up his sleeves. While training as a sith he had learned more than just the ways of the force. He had made an deliberate effort to fight not like a sith, but like a common solider, including sparring sessions when cut of from the force. Now these skills would come in fairly handy. Again it was just a matter of perspective if this was a good or bad thing, depending on how he would play it. Ever the actor, no the lair he had been since he had chosen the name of Abyss, he began to shout, his voice filled with what easily passed as fear.

"What have you done to me. I .. I can not feel the force."

He made a stumbling step forward, his facial expression changed for the first time of the duel, his mouth showing utter shock. The knife still rested firmly in his left, while his right made a swift movement, seemingly to balance out his stance. In truth his right had just pulled the pin of a smoke grenade on his back, which would go of in a few second. He didn't had the force to see now, but he was still one with the shadows. The only thing he had to do now was the observant, and hope that her blade would come back to live once more. It would tell him her position, even if they were both shrouded by smoke.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

A feeling of immense satisfaction overcame Darth Vupua as she heard her opponent speak. Calculative and cruel, the Sith Lord looked down upon her open enemy, still aware of the cunning that he had shown since their duel had begun. She could easily turn her Lightsaber on, run the few yards that separated them and cleave Abyss head into a messy pool of flesh and bone from several, powerful, hate filled strikes. But Vupua was not a fool. She had already stepped into confront this man and had paid a price. The scar that she would bear on her hand for the rest of her life would be a timely reminder of underestimating her enemy.

Instead, Vupua lifted her bloody hand forward and allowed her hate to manifest itself. She would not unleash it with powerful blows from her Lightsaber, but instead in the form of a technique that tore and ripped the very fabric of the Force itself. Realizing that her trick had eliminated the equation of the Force, and that she had broken his Lightsaber, Darth Vupua would capitalize on the advantages she had seized throughout the duel and use them. Manifesting her hate in the form of Force Lightning, a torrent of fury burst forth from her bloody hand and out through her finger tips towards her opponent in an effort to further debilitate him.

 

[Darth Abyss]

Smoke began to build up from under Abyss robe, obscuring the exact position of the sith lord as he had no shine red saber in his hand anymore that could pierce through the darkness. Only a second later he could see the glimpse of a fit of lightning being thrown at him, but with his own sight obscured as well it took him a second to long to react. Now not playing weak anymore his right rushed to the gauntlet on his left, but before he manage to active the device there, the attack had already reached him. He could smell his flesh burning, as the electric currents flowed through his body, but even without the force, pain was something he had felt once to often to still really care.

With all his willpower he pushed on his left arm, and a moment later a energy shield was build in front of him. Force lighting was after all still lighting, and the shield was designed to keep out any energy, if was heat, plasma or electricity. It would overheat in exactly ten seconds, so that was how much he time he had to plan his next move.

Not long enough for a full scale attack plan, but this situation required a bit of optimism. Ducked behind the shield his knife switched from his left to his right. Still shrouded in smoke, which as a physical substance simply passed through it, he waited, using the time give to him to further think about his lack of connection to the force. Five seconds now. He knew what he had do to should she continue her attack through the force, but all he could do was waiting for he next move until his barrier would run out.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Through the torrent of evil, dark of purple lightning Darth Vupua drank in the pain of her opponent and used it to fuel her own powers in the dark side. Suddenly, a veil of black smoke erupted from around her opponent, causing her to relent her interactions with the dark side and end the Force Lightning attack. Instinctively Vupua lifted her sleeve to her face, covering her mouth and nose from the smoke as it engulfed them both. She detected no poison in the cloud, quickly figuring out that this was a smokescreen of some kind.

Feeling that she was in immediate danger, Vupua leaped away from her opponent and exited the cloud of black smoke, kicking up dust and sand as she skidded backwards. When she came to a halt, Vupua activated her Lightsaber and was thankful that the feedback loop that had deactivated it had been reset, allowing her the use of her weapon once more.

It hurt to grip the blade in both hands and resume her original stance, holding the blade above her shoulder with the tip faced towards the cloud. She was aware that this duel would not be ended quickly. Abyss was too cunning, too calculative for her to simply end quickly, and she was aware that if she tired herself out before the duel came to a conclusion, then she would surely lose. The objective here was to outlast her opponent. Even if she could make Abyss flea, she would still claim superiority and victory over her fellow Sith, buying clout and political points with the other Sith Lords in the galaxy, whilst hindering the position of her opponent in the grand scheme of things.

But she hoped that Abyss would not give into such cowardice and stay, even after it became clear that he would not be able to kill her. Lost in her arrogance, Vupua called out in a cocksure voice: "I thought you were stronger than this, Lord Abyss!"

 

[Darth Abyss]

The smoke had already started to fade, but Abyss was still obscured from her sight enough. The shield had gone out as her words echoed over to him, and he felt the obvious provocation but it simply passed through his mind without a reaction. His master had taught him, and so he had learned to have no ego one could attack or provoke. Pride was a weakness, as was arrogance, two things she seemed to have a lot of. She had underestimated him before, and it seemed like she had not learned anything from it.

She made the mistake to active her weapon, giving him at least an idea where she was standing after she had emerged from the smoke around him. Fighting someone with a lightsaber killer right in his hand seemed like a stupid move, but other than her he was fully aware that there could be more to all this. He would rather give her a bit more credit than less for her skill, and without the force he had to be to keep his awareness as high as possible if he still wanted to win this fight.

Using the fact that he was still unseen in the smoke, his left wandered to his back once more, pulling his solution for the problem at hand. A gun was probably the most dishonorable weapon to use in a fight that was anticipated to be fought with sabers, but exactly that was the point. Like a knife hidden in a lightsaber hilt, a gun was always the last thing someone expected in this situation.

Without the force to aid his sight through the force he could only predict her position based on the glow of her saber, but it should be enough. After all he was no using a common blaster but a silenced slugthrower which would not only make no sound when fired and stay unseen until it left the cloud of smoke, but would leave a bit of burning ash and metal if blocked by a lightsaber. In only a second he pulled the trigger four times, emptied the whole magazine of the small gun at once, altering the angle of every shoot slightly, both to have a higher chance of hitting something important, and to make it harder for her to defend herself from the bullets.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Holding her Lightsaber ahead of herself, Vupua gazed at where her opponent was cautiously, keeping her attuned senses expanded as she readied herself for another engagement. With the power of the dark side flowing through her, she moved to the left to avoid the first shot and lifted her Lightsaber to intercept the second, third and fourth. The fifth, however, was too quick and precise for her to avoid. She felt the bullet pierce through her arm, embedding itself deep inside. Vupua instantly lost her grip on the weapon and dropped it to the floor.

Her reaction to being shot was an immense wave of fury that harnessed the power of the dark side. Reaching out with her bloody hand once more, Darth Vupua seized her opponent with a Force Grip and wrenched her arm downwards to crack his head off a nearby jagged stone that was looking up to him from the sand beneath them, using the Force Grip to flex her control over the Sith Lord and hopefully caved his head in, if not knock him out for the trouble he had caused her.

 

[Darth Abyss]

Again his triumph was short lived, as he felt the telekinetic grip on his body that dragged him on a conveniently shaped stone close by. The impact was stunning, blinding even, numbing his senses. Normally that wouldn't be so much of a problem, but without the force they had been they only thing he been able to trust in. Robbed of his way to see her, and with his mind in a chaotic state that was a mix of pain and confusion he was out of options, and unable to hold a consciences thought. Well there was one thing he still had left still, his instincts. And his instincts which without the force actually shouldn't tell him anything, told him that something wasn't quite right, even if he couldn't place his finger on it.

Without actually thinking about it he did what his instincts commanded him to do, as he lacked the focus to use his mind properly. For the lack of a better word his state could be described as feral. For others that would mean raw, brutal violence, but for Abyss such acts were a deliberate choice, and not part of an instinctive reaction. No, his feral state was that of the mindeater, fueled by hunger, and only with respect for that hunger. His first mental assault had been a failure, and as far as he knew he was disconnected from the force, but right now there were no more failsafe to make sane decisions anymore. Like before the abyss opened up, even stronger than before, a storm that crashed at her mind, this time not with not precise enough to create fear, or steal memories, but a raw chaotic force of nature that was only able to leave her confused and disoriented.

It was only after his attack was launched that he realized that while he still didn't felt the force, he was clearly able to use it as he always had before. On another day he would've laughed. He had been deceived.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]