Private Duellum de Fata

[Darth Carnifex]

CONTINUING FROM THE BATTLE OF BASTION​

Sword poised to deliver the finishing blow, the Emperor's eyes beheld the small spherical device that was thrown towards him by the smaller Mandalorian.​

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There was a flash of light, and the world went dark.​

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Sonic vibrations rattled across the Emperor's body, unprotected as it was from specialized attacks such as this. Though he could no longer experience the physical sensations which roiled about his being, he was acutely aware of the pressure building up through his outer, then the middle, then the inner ear.​

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At once there was a pop of liquid sound, and within an instant, the Dark Lord of the Sith could hear no more. ​

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But that was not all. The vibrations of sonic energy that engulfed him also rattled the jelly of his eyes to the point of breaking, and in a hideous explosion of blood and viscous the Emperor lost both of his eyes as well. ​

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Rendered immobile for those few scant seconds, the Emperor stood still and silent with his sword lowered into a guarding posture in front of him as he allowed the sonic sensation to at last abate from his body. Blind and deaf, any other individual would have been utterly hapless and at the mercy of his assailants. But the Emperor was no mere man, but neither was he a God as Vilaz Munin was trying to disprove. Gods were ephemeral things, the subject of myth and of superstitious devotion. There were those subjectable masses who believed him to be of God-like statue, for their minds could not comprehend the power he wielded with such ease as anything other than divine or otherworldly.​

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But he was no God, he was no man. ​

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He was a Lord of the Sith.​

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And he would not be humbled so easily.​

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Stretching out with the magnitude of senses he had developed over his storied career as a Dark Lord, the Emperor could visualize his surroundings through the Force and through picturesque memorization. He could sense the advance of one of the nameless Commandos which had joined Vilaz and Koda on their journey into the Emperor's sanctum, his weapons raised to take advantage of the Emperor's lapse in movement. A spin of his mighty blade amputated the Mandalorian's arms at the elbow, which a second spin relinquished the Mandalorian of his head from his shoulders. Spectral corpse-light was drawn away from the body on the killing blow, absorbed into the runes riven into the flat of the blade. ​

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The Emperor's head inclined in the direction of Vilaz Munin, bloodied sockets staring blanky. ​

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"I do not need eyes or ears to hunt you, woyunoks."​

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He reached out with his weaponless hand, an orb of brilliant light blinking into being in his palm. At his gesture, the sphere of light was thrown into the middle of the room and immediately expanded to over four times its original dimensions, filling the room with such ferocious light that it was capable of oversaturating normal vision sensors. The Emperor then again made his move towards Vilaz Munin, his thunderous footsteps ringing out through the confined space they all occupied. Then, about halfway between them, the Emperor seemed to vanish.​

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Only to reappear a few meters behind Vilaz's position, sword coming down to deliver what could be a finishing blow.​

Vilaz Munin | Koda Fett ​

 

[Vilaz Munin]

He couldn’t help but smirk behind his helmet to see the Dark Lord’s immediate wounds from the Sonic Detonator. Blood poured from his eyes and ears, although Vilaz did not expect the eyes of the Sith rupture from the sonic vibrations. Blood clogged his eyes, face painted with crimson. It was a small victory for the Mandalorian, but the battle was not over.

Even now deaf and blind it wasn’t enough to incapacitate the Zambrano as he showed precision in his movements when he killed one of the Mandalorian warriors accompanied with Vilaz, but in a way that the warrior’s spirit was trapped in the sword used to kill the man. Chilling and eerie.

Blinding light eclipsed the throne room from the palm of Kaine’s hand for a brief moment. The polarized visor of his helmet dampened some of its effects, but not completely as it stunned his vision. A groan of annoyance escaped, a free hand lifted up to block the obnoxious light. Like Carnifex, Vilaz didn’t need eyes to track him as the sensor systems and HUD of his armor did the job. He vanished definitely under the veil of the Force only to reappear suddenly behind him for another killing blow.

There wouldn’t be time to retreat or deflect the blow of the strike. He’d have to take the strike with a block. The portable deflector shield on his arm activated, his arm making a rising block to meet the blade. His momentum would meet with Carnifex’s, dissuading some of its power while absorbing some of it; however, once shield and sword met the kinetic energy of the sword transferred over which would bruise his left forearm and bring him down on one knee. Perhaps another or two strikes would do the deal in fracturing the bone of his forearm, although a bruise would make his arm more sensitive if pressure is applied.

His spear was still in hand and the Mandalorian would use to the strike at the ground the two combatants shared. Both would receive the backlash of the kinetic power wielded in spear due to its Force properties. It was meant to create distance between them, ideal for Vilaz as he was in a disadvantage from the position he was. Close quarters against the Sith wasn’t something he feared, but it would require calculation and ingenuity from his part.

Darth Carnifex | Koda Fett​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Dark Lord's blade strained against the portable deflector shield which narrowly saved the former Mand'alor from becoming another of the Dark Lord's victims, his soul enshrined in his insidious blade for all eternity. Power roiled off of the blade's surface, washing over the shield which was just barely keeping the weapon at bay, cracks already beginning to form along its shimmering surface. Then Vilaz struck out with his spear, and the Dark Lord was forcibly pushed back several feet. The sheer size of the Dark Lord and the immense control he exercised over himself and his surroundings forbade him from being toppled over by such a move, but the distance had grown between them nevertheless.​

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Leaving the blinding orb of light where it was, the Dark Lord of the Sith took the brief lull in their fight to flex more of his unfathomable power. Through the willpower of the Dark Side, he stretched out his grasp to the inert bodies which dotted the chamber, those Mandalorians slain by the barest displays of his vulgar power. He seized them with a thought, lifted their bodies into the air, and began to enact a terrible form of magic upon their decaying flesh.​

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The dark words which left his lips, which seemed to emanate from every corner of the room, infused a great and terrible evil into the bones of the slain Mandalorian warriors. Their flesh liquified in their armor, pooling down in their greaves, as their bones hardened and morphed with errant tumors. Corpse-light sprung to life in the empty sockets of their eyes, and as they settled back onto their own two feet, they moved rigidly as if tugged along by the strings of a marionette. In their hands they wielded the weapons they bore in life, now turned against the comrades they had spent their lives in service of.​

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The dead had risen, shambling to the vile crooning of the Dark Lord of the Sith.​

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"Even in death," spoke the Dark Lord in Basic, "Your kinsmen serve the Sith." The Dark Lord of the Sith rose up into the air, levitated by his own power over the Force. He held his sword in his right hand, the tip angled down casually at his side, while his left was raised in a prophetic gesture. Regardless of what was happening on the rest of war-torn Bastion, all that mattered to the Dark Lord was what lay in front of him. The rest was the prattling of toy soldiers as they moved about, directed by the hands which moved the dejarik pieces to where they wished.​

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"Vilaz Munin, ever the rogue pawn. Knocked from the board early in the game, brought back to serve yet another master."​

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The risen Mandalorians surged towards Vilaz in that moment, their weapons firing or swinging towards him with reckless abandon. They cared not for their own safety, for what did the dead care for but to serve whatever insidious will that reanimed them?​

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Vilaz Munin ​