Duel Galactic Kaggath Round 1: Jonyna Si vs The Madclaw

[Razmir Tezhyn]

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Jonyna Si vs The Madclaw​

The arena floor rumbled and shook, the entire surface sliding open like a missile silo to reveal… an enormous Wroshyr tree rising up from the lower levels. It towered so high that its upper branches crested the arena and stood nearly eye level with the skybox. It sat upon a grassy, fern littered field. Amid the ferns, shapes prowled. Dangerous predators. Vornskrs. Force hunting beasts.

The boughs of the Wroshyr tree criss-crossed, forming limbs as wide as Coruscanti skywalks that the combatants could duel upon.

Droids hovered in the air around the tree, some with cameras, but many projecting interlinking rayshields so that the duelists could not interfere with the duels of the others. Of course… ray shields could always fail.

If any of the combatants fell to the ground far below, they risked being set upon by the vornskrs.

The announcers’ disembodied voice cut through as the combatants took their places on the boughs of the tree. “Honoring those who fell in the Battle of Kashyyyk between the One Sith and Republic, so many years ago, I give you the FIRST ROUND of the GALACTIC Kaggath!”

“Wait, do Cathar live that long? Oh, we’re live! From the New Jedi Order, fighting on behalf of her…wait she’s expecting? Is it even legal for her to compete? It is!? Alright then, if you say so. Everyone, please join me in welcoming into the ring: JOOOONYNAAAAAA SIIIIII!”

“And competing with the home turf advantage here in the first round of the GALACTIC KAGGATH TOURNAMNET, there is but one thing to do when you face this Wookiee exile, and that is to let him win! Welcome, MADCLAAAAAAAW!”

“CHALLENGERS! BEGIN!”

 

[The Madclaw]

He knelt in the boughs of the wroshyr. Eyes closed. The hilt of his greatsaber lay before him on the bark. A dark and oppressive aura radiated from the bands holding back his white fur, enough to make those around him nauseous with the hate spilling forth. An ancient alchemical ring sat on the finger of his right hand. And other beads glittered in his fur. He wore no armor, nothing but for a dark skirt, his upper body bare chested to the open air. The breeze stirred his fur.

The roar of the crowd washed over him.

It was time.

Yellow eyes snapped open.

He stood, great saber in hand, and activated its blood-red blade with a snap-hiss, fixated on his opponent. Jonyna Si . A Cathar Jedi. The same species from whom he wrested these amulets and trinkets so long ago.

"Come. Die."

In the distance, he barely made out an Ithorian waving a sign. Jerec Asyr

• Earrings
• Ring
• Amulets
• Lightclub
• Cloak of Hate

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

The reality was, Jonyna had given birth only a few weeks ago. She still felt the fatigue of it, but she knew better than to show. She sat, zoning out the sound of the crowd. As the arena rose, she did as well, hand drawing her mother's blade.

She had something to gain. Something to lose.

Three kittens, waiting for her at home.

"You first." She said in a calm, practiced tone. Her own saber ignited with a flick of her wrist, as she took a form I stance, right hand over left, stance shifted to her right as always.

This was not the rebel knight that had once stalked the outer rim, picking fights she could only partly win.

This was a jedi master, waiting to strike. Her blades weren't hidden, two katanas on her right side, waiting to be drawn.

Still, she knew what came next. The wookie would outclass her in strength, that was for sure.

But she knew this terrain better than anyone. She grew up in the jungle, in the savannah.

And she knew how to use it.

Before either could move, the wood under Madclaw suddenly became like that of a viscous liquid, before Jonyna charged forward, saber bared to strike, only for at the last moment, dropping a hand, and drawing one of her katanas with a speed augmented by the Force, too fast for any normal person to perceive. The Cortosis lined blade swung to meet the wookie's greatsaber, intent on finishing this fight as quick as possible.

 

[The Madclaw]

But she knew this terrain better than anyone. She grew up in the jungle, in the savannah.

Anyone, perhaps, save a wookiee.

The bark of the wroshyr undulated, became as quicksand for a moment beneath the feet of the silverback.

His feet sank, but he did not move. Not an inch. As stalwart as the roots of this tree. A type of tree he knew so very well.

"Really."

Madclaw's brows knit together as the Jedi drew her sword and leaped for him in a cutting slice, faster than the eye could track.

Almost as fast as thought.

Almost.

Before she reached him, his clawed off-hand extended and he channeled his will. Raw, telekinetic power rippled out from his palm in a shockwave of the Force of such strength that it stripped the first layer of bark from the tree and sent it flying.

It might send her flying too. Such was his intent.

She'd sought to use the tree of his homeworld against him.

"Foolish."

Then he stamped one of his feet and the wood of the wroshyr remembered. Remembered that it was not a liquid. Not quicksand. It was the mighty soul of Kashyyyk. King of the forest. Taller than the tallest trees. All kneeled before it, until it too kneeled in time. It remembered this as well. Decay. Rot. All things kneel before time. Even kings.

The wood of the branch beneath Madclaw's feet became solid, then began to rot with appalling swiftness, its energy flowing into him.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

A normal jedi would've been sent flying. A telekinetic blast of such magnitude would rattle anyone else.

But she had stood down gods at this point. Spat in the face of Prazutis. Wounded Carnifex. Stared down Star Destroyers and didn't blink.

Her claws extended from her boots, digging deep into the bark beneath her like she had done since birth. Inches, not meters. That was how far as she pushed back, as her coat billowed in the resulting wind. She felt it. The tree crying, and yielding from the Wookie's presence. A fear response.

In defiance, she took a step. The moment her claws touched the wood, a pulse rang through the tree like a bell.

I'm here.

You're safe.

And with that, she swung again. Her blade, imbued to cut right through enchantments of the dark side, fighting the push of his telekinesis not with her own strength, but with another force. The back of the blade, the back of her arm, erupted like a solid rocket booster, pushing with a force towards her opponent's arm that would normally shatter metal upon impact.

All the while, the wind began to sing. The song was everywhere, echoing across the arena. But out there in the seats, it was managable. A soundtrack to an epic encounter.

But in Madclaw's ears, it was like standing in front of the engine of a dreadnaught.

Then a counter swing, from her saber, from below. Two blades, working in symphony to keep on the pressure.

 

[The Madclaw]

A deafening noise in his ears of stringed instruments. He swore if this was that dj droid he would bury him in the Shadowlands. But no, it came from her.

Too much.

She sought too much, energy pouring from the Cathar Jedi to strengthen the tree, to alter the air, and to strike at him with inhuman speed.

The Madclaw brought his lightsaber up to parry, only for it to meet the edge of her katana and crackle and fizz, shorting out into nothing. Her strike carried on, an upward cut that carved a furrow through fur and flesh of his upper chest and shoulder, sending a spray of blood into the air. Madclaw took three steps backward.

The crowd roared in approval.

“FIRST. BLOOD,” screamed the announcer.

The Madclaw’s lips peeled back in a fanged snarl. He looked at the sparking hilt of his great saber and tossed it away, disgusted.

Useless.

Amber eyes full of hate looked upon the Jedi, where she stood over the rotted section of tree limb.

The Madclaw stamped his foot down once more, drawing on the Dark Side as he did. The reverberation rippled through the tree limb and there came a great CRACK and splintering of wood as the bough broke along the rotted fault line he created, just beneath the Jedi’s feet.

The mighty limb of the Wroshyr toppled, spinning near enough to make the crowd scream in panic.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

The roar of the crowd, then of the tree. The first was unfamiliar, but she could zone it out. The second though...

That was as familiar as breathing to a Denik.

As soon as she felt gravity's pull, she went up, not down. Her feet erupted with flame, as her song was cut short on a crescendo, sending her soaring into the air, twirling in a deliberate display for the crowd. She was never an arena fighter, but she knew a stage when she saw one.

All the while, she spilt her attention. While she was certainly not on par with the wookie, Telekinesis was a skill any decent jedi would know. Reaching out, she grabbed the edge of the falling branch, twisting it mid-air to fall away from the crowd.

She could go after her opponent, but she knew better than to split her focus too many ways. She had gotten first blood. She needed to see what her opponent would do now, without a weapon.

Wait. Observe. Keep her distance.

She had made him discard his best weapon against her.

Now she needed to see what he was capable of without it.

 

[The Madclaw]

The Jedi launched herself into the air to avoid the fall and - while there - directed her focus to prevent the giant bough from smashing into the crowd.

All of which would distract her from what came next.

The wookiee, his white fur matted with his own red blood, put both of his hands together and lurched forward in a swinging motion overhead, as if swinging a hammer.

Raw, telekinetic power slammed down with all the weight of a freight, aiming to smash the Jedi out of the sky and send her hurtling down, down, down to the ground so far below.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

What comes up...

Jonyna felt it. Raw, unfiltered power.

Must come-

Down, Down and Down she went. The savannah below welcomed her, as she hit the ground. The horrible sound rang through the arena, as the area around her filled with dust, the ground erupting with it as soon as she hit. But there's another old saying. Another pearl of wisdom that still rang true.

As the dust settled, there she was.

A cat always lands on their feet.

For a moment, her right leg buckled, as she kept herself standing. She wobbled, she winced, she whined. But she did not fall.

Telekinesis. That was his strength. His power. His mastery.

Time to show him hers.

Her hands shifted. Sheathing one katana, and her saber. She wouldn't need them. Not now. Instead, she took another with both hands.

From White, to Black, she put everything she could into it.

And with a single draw...

The crack of a lightning bolt. Not of the Force, but of nature itself. Aimed right at the Wookie. Thunder rocked the entire arena. The light blinded all who watched for just a moment. And the woman watched, waiting to find out how the Wookie would react to Heaven's Wrath unleashing from her blade.

 

[The Madclaw]

There is a satisfaction in seeing a foe laid low, in crushing the enemy into the dirt. A dark and spiteful glee. It raced through the Madclaw like a shot of adrenaline and he beat his bloody chest with one hand and held it out to the crowd. Let them revel in this moment too.

The Madclaw peered over the shattered bough's edge down at the ground so far below. The Jedi stood on her two feet. Not beaten. Not yet.

He felt a gathering of power from her in the Force, intense energies as she sought to coalesce and alter the environment, shaping it to her will to call forth a blast of lightning that surged up toward him - no ordinary lightning of the Sith this, such would be of the Dark Side.

And yet...

Lightning was destruction. A bolt from the heavens that shattered the kings of the forest and set their broken limbs ablaze. Lightning was death. The judgment of nature, striking down those who grew too high. And as these were the nature of lightning, so it was but a small thing for the Madclaw to reach his paw out and meet the surging energies. The coruscating strands of energy crackled into him, causing his fur to stand on end and setting every nerve ending tingling. He took the power into himself with the life force he had drained from the tree, and expelled both back out, redirecting the lightning with his other hand, two clawed fingers extended, to spray back a jet of white-blue lightning, fully formed and reeking of the Dark Side.


The chain lightning spat through the crowd, tracing a line through the onlookers that sent them toppling and screaming. The line continued on, crackling until he pointed it directly at Jonyna Si , she who sought to use first his home of the wroshyr against him and now this, lightning. As if he had not suffered beneath lightning's lash a hundred times at the hands of his Sith master when but a tyro. Now, he would see how this feline did beneath the crackling torrent.

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

Just as planned.

As the lightning, charged with the Dark Side, rang back at her, her feet ignited once more, and she launched at him like a starfighter. Her sword raised, and the crystal laid within the hilt did what it had been sought out for, the Sith Lightning being absorbed, and gathered as she closed in. All the while, the air sang once more, this time, only for the audience.

But for the Wookie?

The air whispered. Whispered in the voice of the jedi, right into his ear.

"You bend the jungle to your whim. Wound the trees like a slave. I'm no slave. And I'll never bend."

Just before she reached him, she twirled again, flames enveloping her as her sword flashed with a blinding light as she spun around, partly to gain momentum, partly for her own display of flair.

Then came the real attack.

As she came back around at mach speed, her sword swung at the Wookie, unleashing a torrent of golden lightning, charged with not just the Power of the Light, but the energy she had robbed from the Wookie's counterattack, all while the blade swung right for the Wookie's neck.

 

[The Madclaw]

More fool mutterings on the air as this Jedi leaped up and once more fire sprouted from her heels, as if she was propelled by rocket boots.

But no. It was some Force technique the Madclaw had never seen. A wasteful one.

The energy required for such a leap, propelled in that manner… absurd.

Again, the Madclaw’s lips curled in disgust. This Jedi sought to utilize far too many techniques at the same time, overconfident in her sense of victory.

She sought to reach him, all the way atop the now-shattered bough of the wroshyr tree.

Yet she would have to do better to reach him again.

Far better.

As she hung mid-air, helpless - unable to root herself to the ground - the Madclaw once more stretched out with his will. He reached out with his physical hand as well and curled his claws so hard that his hand did tremble.

Telekinetic fingers wrapped around Jonyna Si , seeking to arrest her movement. As the Madclaw delved into the Dark Side, calling on the pain of his wound, the glory of victory, and the hatred for this arrogant foe, he squeezed those fingers tight in a crushing grasp. Such hideous, atramentous might behind those crunching fingers that it would feel to her as if the hand of a giant had suddenly wrapped around her, stopping her mid-flight.

A grasp so powerful that even durasteel would bend before it and bones would strain toward snapping.

“Break now, little lion,” rumbled the true king of the jungle, the ape, roaring and red-handed.

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: The Madclaw

She could feel it, the moment he tried. Tried.

The grip of the wookie, trying to strangle her. Crush her. Like she was a common battle droid.

She remembered the feeling of the first time someone had tried. An inquisitor who had wanted to drag her out of the sky. She had done to same to him that she was doing to this one. Back then, she was a scrappy rebel padawan who punched above her weight class out of spite. Out of tenacity. Out of hope for a better future.

Now, she was a jedi master, councilwoman, and sage of her people.

But most importantly, she was a mother now.

With every tug, she increased her power. She did not draw from within, but from the endless power of the Force around her. And yet, she could feel it. The crack of bone, of skin and flesh, buckling under the strain. The pressure.

But she didn't let it dissuade her. She wouldn't lose. She wouldn't let the Dark win.

She was here for a reason.

To put respect on the name of the Jedi. The tournament was dominated by sith, dark jedi, by those of the dark.

She would shine brighter than all of them.

In the mist of this war, in the middle of conflict, this tournament was a frivolous thing to them. A phallic way to show their strength. None of them would expect a jedi to win. All of them ruled by their own arrogance.

Even as she hung in the air, she forced her blade forward. Still, it flashed with holy lightning, aimed right at the wookie. She couldn't get close enough to lob his head off. She couldn't get close enough to blind him.

She wouldn't need to get close to hit him with the full power of the Light.