Duel &nbsp; Galactic Kaggath Round 2: Mercy vs Jacen vs Switchblade vs Koda (4-way Special)

5-WCH (Switchblade) |

Koda Fett

The fight continued on without Jacen. An exchange of blows between the remaining three contestants caused uproarious applause from the audience. Those not being actively murdered, at least. And Jacen lay on his back, a mixture of his and Mercy’s blood covering his face.

It all had seemed like a bad dream. A tournament he never should have entered that led to a fight he never should have won that led to a fight he never should have been in. What fool would volunteer for this? To take part in this contest of champions? That wasn’t him. Wasn’t who he was, who he’d ever be. He wasn’t a god. He wasn’t a hero. He was just a man. Men died…Let the Locke girl fight for their Empire. Let 312 fight for the people. Just…Just let Jacen rest here.

‘Beep beep…beep beep’ a faint noise Jacen couldn’t pinpoint, a slight beeping. He ignored it…it wasn’t important.
Get up.
His head screamed at him. Some faraway voice through a crowd urged him forward. Urged him up.

Get up!

The voice was louder now. Approaching. It sounded angry. It frightened him.

GET UP!

The voice was here. It was Jacen himself, bloodied and shattered.

You don’t get to give up. You’re breathing, you’re fighting, Jacen. You don’t get to rest. You don’t get to sit it out. You don’t get to put this pressure on anyone else. You’re not just a man. You’re a dead man. You’re just still walking. Make them regret that. Make her regret it. She didn’t kill you, make her wish she did. Get. Up. You’re not done.

‘Beep beep…beep beep.’
That noise again. Less of an annoyance, now. Now it sounded like a call to action. It made Jacen want to keep fighting, want to try.

Get up.
Wake Up.
GET UP.
WAKE. UP!!!

Jacen’s eyes shot open. His head pounded in a more intense pain then he’d ever felt before. His bodyglove was injecting him with stims, keeping his system working, but it was doing nothing for the pain. He wouldn’t die…but he was wishing he had. Slowly and groaning, Jacen turned over onto his front and got on his knees, ripping the shattered helmet off of his head.
He gagged, and retched, and a stream of blood mixed with teeth spewed out of his mouth and onto the platform floor.

Jacen tried to push himself up to his feet, but collapsed back to the ground, back on his front.
I can’t.
I can.
I won’t…
I will.

He raised his head again, ignoring the negativity his head was trying to force on him. Every fiber of his body was screaming at him to lay down. Raise a hand, signal his withdrawal. But he couldn’t. He was still breathing…so he was still fighting. Even if it meant weakly grasping at Mercy’s ankles. He looked around. Unsurprisingly, Mercy wasn’t in a crumpled heap next to him, neither were the grenades. But she must have inhaled some of it, he thought. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it just needs time…Maybe it just did enough to even the playing field.

They were quite some distance away, all three of them. Not a care in the world about Jacen. Why would they have any, after all? They must have thought him defeated. Hell everyone would. He couldn’t stand. The stims weren’t getting him up.

‘Beep beep…beep beep.’
That noise was still here. Not something he’d imagined, it was real. He groaned as he turned his head, trying to identify the sound.
A crate was nearby, a few feet away with the Bespin Gas logo smacked on the side.
“Hnrg…” Jacen groaned and pulled himself to the crate, his fingers grasping the side of the crate, pulling it over. The top popped off, and inside lay a new helmet for the Halcyon, a stimpack, and a smaller box.

Jacen stared at the items and grabbed the stimpack, slowly and deliberately stabbing it into his neck and administering the stimulant into his system. The adrenaline washed through his body, and he felt strength return to his legs as the throbbing feeling in his head diminished slightly.

He popped open the smaller box as he lay and looked inside.

Sand? He thought, his mouth in too much pain to speak, They sent me…sand. He grabbed a handful of it in his left hand and let it slip back out.

Is it just sand…
Jacen stared, dumbfounded. Then he noticed the substance sticking to his hand.
It can only help. He put the top back on and grabbed the box, then he grabbed the helmet, and pushed it against the floor of the platform, using it and the box of sand to force himself to his feet as he groaned out in pain, finally rising. The sudden urge to retch hit Jacen again, and he doubled over and vomited. A mixture of bile and blood spewed out of his mouth, and Jacen coughed painfully before wiping his mouth with his wrist and ignoring the rest of the blood on his face.

Looking down into his helmet, he felt himself tense. One final attempt at his panicked subconscious to get him to lay down his weapon. With a wheeze, he slipped the helmet over his head. Not while he was breathing. Not while he could still fight. He could win this.

Jacen popped the top of the box open and grabbed his remaining ravenous from his belt, dipping the grenade in the powder. It coated the casing well. Satisfied, Jacen returned the grenade to his belt, Then attached the box of sand to his side as well. Perhaps it would come in useful…

Finally, he bent down to recollect his Maser rifle he’d dropped and brought it up to his eyes, trying to sight Mercy. Just three quick shots. Maybe that’d put her down for good. Jacen looked through the scope, hands shakily trying to acquire the target, eyes trying to focus but failing. His head was swimming, and he saw stars. With a groan, Jacen attached the rifle to his back. If he won, he couldn’t stand to lose that just yet, but it’d be done for the rest of this fight.

Instead, he grabbed the Sunshot pistol from his hip, and ejected the wrist-blade from the Halcyon armor. Range fighting was done. The punch from Mercy must have knocked Jacen’s contacts loose, and he was sure she’d given him a concussion. Either way, he wasn’t aiming anything anytime soon. His best shot? Same as it ever was. Get in close.

Groggily, Jacen began moving forward and engaged his repulsor pack, leaping again from platform to platform on his way to Mercy. As he closed the distance, he shakily raised the pistol and fired a trio of shots, before dashing in close, letting out a frustrated, pained, and desperate war cry while he aimed the wrist blade directly for her midsection.

5-WCH (Switchblade) · Jul 10, 2025

CHAMPION OF THE GUILD

Jacen Breska |

Koda Fett

The smile was short lived as the blaster fired began to attack his cryo-frozen arm.

Whistling birds had made contact against the Mandalorian, stunning him slightly. This allowed Switchblade to melt away even more of the trap holding his arm to the cable. Though the blaster bolts were no longer being directed at the bounty hunter, they were now being aimed at the speaker droid. Not good.

In a small panic, Switchblade began to increase his frozen arm firing, trying to melt it before the platform came crashing down on him. An annoyed look was shot down to Mercy as she shouted off a quick one-liner. He did not have time to engage in her stupidity.

However, the platform sailing at his face, that was a problem.

"You mother kark..."

Before the angered statement was yelled out, the platform, along with Mercy, sliced right through the cable that was holding him in place. However, Koda was still firing, so the speaker droid came crashing down as well. His booster packed fired up in a flash. Switchblade narrowly landed on a nearby platform before the droid splashed into the lava. The bounty hunter was not able to turn his shield on fast enough though. Pillars of lava shot out of the pool, splashing up onto the platform and on Switchblade's legs.

He was not programmed to scream. But if it was a feature he possessed, he would be using it right now.

Servos and circuits began to fry. Any sense of feeling was slowly fading away as the lava melted into his lower half. He would need a long moment to recover. But this left him vulnerable to a potential attack from one of his opponents. He had to get up, now.

Koda Fett · Jul 10, 2025

Mercy was on her last-legs, and Switchblade had managed to lose his. It was all said and done, with Jacen down for the count the last time the Mandalorian paid attention to that business back there. Up in the air, Fett could see the whole arena. It was an awful mess that the four had made of it. In the stands, the people cheered. Of the four names, the one he expected least was Jacen's - that soldier was out, last Fett saw. The T-visor turned and learned otherwise.

An amused huff of air followed.

"Stay put," warned the bounty hunter, "I'll be back for you later."

He rocketed off towards another platform, somewhere behind Mercy and in front of Jacen yet not within his path. Somewhere to the side. His boots came down with a thud on the platform with the magnetic locks forced to kick in, if only to brace himself. As Jacen bound between platforms enroute towards Mercy, Koda bowed if ever-so-slightly and launched the missile from his jetpack. It screamed through the air after Jacen, packing an explosion that dwarfs what those wrist-missiles were capable of.

Mercy

Mercy · Jul 10, 2025

Koda Fett

Mercy had to hand it to the kid. Somehow he managed to come back from the dead. Later, much later, she'd have to reconsider her policy on not kicking limp bodies into lava when she was done with them. Clearly it was biting her in the arse, because he was almost as crazy as her. Almost. But while he fought with desperation, a hurt animal searching for a way out, Mercy was a nightmare that never let up.

Two of the blaster shots went wide, the third one burned clean through her shoulder. The pain flared up, making her growl, gritting her teeth in hurt as inside of her something coiled. Her body twisted in rebellion, every nerve resisting the poison's grip.

Then something snapped.

The third shot sparked her nerves, and the Force followed like flame to oil. It surged back without warning, roaring through her like a scream. Her vision snapped into focus. The beast inside her, the nightmare that refused to die, was back in control.

She didn't wait. Didn't step back. When Mercy realized he was coming for her, she started towards him in return. Only from the corner of her eye did she see Koda reposition himself, clearly watching the wounded cub with interest.

She read the battlefield like a butcher reading meat.

Then the alarm bells went off. There were still several steps between her and Jacen. That was close enough. Suddenly, Mercy pivoted hard and threw herself to the side, off the platform, before impact. The fire kissed her heels. The explosion was violent. Harsh. And pushed her momentum forward. The metal behind her wrung and cried out as it shattered into pieces, shrapnel digging into her back. Leaving scores of torn flesh.

Mercy didn't care. She was Firrerreo, what was ripped apart, would be knitted back together again in time. She was falling, angling herself toward where she last saw her other good friend. The toaster.

With the sheer force of her leap, she twisted midair and lined up her descent above the droid. It was struggling with its melted legs. She howled in joy and came down hard, elbow-first for its chest. A flying elbow drop, one might say. It was gravity, her weight, and the fury of the Force, all crashing down to try and crush the toaster once and for all.

Jacen Breska · Jul 10, 2025

K A G G A T H

5-WCH (Switchblade) |

Koda Fett

A hit. That got her attention. A blaster burned through her shoulder. From this distance, through his fog, he saw her body language shift. Perhaps the Ravenous had done something after all, but with the shot through her shoulder it seemed as if her desire to kill him over rid the Ravenous' tenuous hold on her. Like the rabid animal he was beginning to understand she was, of course, she came right to him. Right where he wanted.

Jacen dropped the Sunshot, the pistol clattering to the ground before bouncing off the platform and into the lava below, and pulled his last remaining Ravenous from his belt as he and Mercy continued their approach to each other. He had to make this grenade count. They were close now, his moment was approaching. Jacen readied his blade, prepared for what could have been his final attack when...

His HUD flashed a warning. [INCOMING. DANGER. INCOMING. DANGER.] The voice rattled inside his head.
Yes, he thought, Mercy is right there. Of course there's danger.
A new signature appeared, Koda Fett. Finally making another appearance to Jacen. The Mandalorian bent over and fired the missile from his Jetpack. The missile looked as if it was going to pass over Mercy's shoulder, aimed directly at Jacen.

Some part of Jacen was flattered. Most of him was alarmed. In a panic with his head pounding and unable to think clearly, he dropped the Ravenous grenade. The dusty, sandy covered ace in the hole bounced off the platform and into the magma as Jacen threw his repulsors in reverse, slowing his motion again with the mini-repulsors in his hands as he locked his magboots to the platforms.
The missile was coming. There was no stopping it, no detonating it early... not anymore.

Jacen unlocked his Mag Boots and held his hands out, trying to ward off the inevitable explosion as the missile came close, inches, and began to be redirected by the repulsors. The repulsors screamed in protest, light flaring as the warhead struggled against the shift.

Without thinking, Jacen sidestepped and turned into the missile, spinning it around before he fell down, collapsing to the platform below him. The missile turned and flew towards Mercy, detonating then somewhere between him and her. The Shockwave of the blast knocked Jacen's platform back, sending it crashing into the one behind it. The impact of the platforms threw Jacen back onto it as well, and he once again sat laying up at the sky.

Slowly and with great difficulty, Jacen sat up, propping himself up on his hands. Blinking, Jacen pulled his hands forward and studied them, his eyes wide.
Did Mercy punching me make me a Sith? He asked himself, studying his hands and the magical ability they just performed, as the repulsors in his hand flickered, an electrical short signifying their demise. As he was contemplating his newfound powers, a wave of bile rose from his stomach, and poured out of his mouth covering the inside of his helmet as he doubled over to clear it out of his system.
Once able, he raised his head, breathing heavily, and spotted Mercy. She had moved on, the animal found another prey. Koda, however, remained just where Jacen had left him.
Fallen right into my trap of being far away and not in any immediate danger, he thought as he rose to his feet, stumbling and falling back to his knee before forcing himself to stand and steady. He held his hand up at Koda and curled his fingers into his palm, beckoning the Mandalorian as his other hand shot the wrist blade back out.

Come here, Mandalorian. Come do what your missile could not.
He doubled over again and vomited for good measure.

5-WCH (Switchblade) · Jul 11, 2025

CHAMPION OF THE GUILD

Jacen Breska |

Koda Fett

Trouble.

That is what the bounty hunter was in. He did not have the strength to yell at the Mandalorian as he rocketed away. A weak arm was raised in an attempt to shoot at Koda with his pistol, but the droid decided against it. The time would come soon enough.

Somehow, in the chaos of battle, Mercy was now dropping quickly on Switchblade. His legs were torn and beaten due to the lava streams. He had no chance to get up and fight. His rocket boosters might help his escape, but running would only place him at a further disadvantage of being on the defensive. So, he had to attack in any way he could.

Activating the shield on his vambrace, the majority of the impact was absorbed. The remainder of the force crushed the droid into the platform, creating a small divot. The Ysalamiri was still alive, according to his sensors, but he was not sure for how much longer. If the Sith wanted to get this close, then she would pay. Using her own strength and gravity against her, Switchblade held a vibroshank in his offhand. With the force that Mercy crashed into the bounty hunter, it would be nigh impossible to avoid the blade as he aimed for her lungs.

The droid knew that she would already be reeling in pain from the Dioxis gas, so if he did strike a long, it would basically mean game over.

"Tell me, how does it feel to die to a droid?"

With the little bit of legs he had left, Switchblade rammed them upwards into Mercy. In this attempt, any remaining chunks of molten rock and lava would be thrusted into the Sith's legs, causing deep burns. Anything the droid could do to win, he was going to.

As this face-to-face attack took place, the three surviving Tanuki droids began to return to their leader. They were commanded to leak on Mercy and attack her. Clawing, biting, scratching, tearing her skin from her flesh. As the knife was stabbed into Mercy, the droids leapt into the air, hoping to catch her off guard.

Koda Fett · Jul 11, 2025

He was not quite sure what happened in that mix of movement between Jacen and the missile. If his face twisted and contorted in some manner of confusion, it went unseen and remained unknown to all those that could see him. The T-visor stared ever-forwards, albeit with some degree of dumbfounded-ness, even a touch of bemusement accompanied it.

Fett undertook a brief yet thorough examination before the rangefinder rose back into place. There were no concerns, such minimal threats were left now. The Firrerreo was more than likely to scrap what remained of the droid, then be left as little more than a husk to be dealt with later; an admission of defeat was the smartest outcome, Fett assessed, and yet Sith were known for their pride. Breska vomited his stomach contents up and into the arena more than once. That and his status of near-death mere moments before told enough.

The liquid metal grenade was the only toy that piqued some interest. Something to watch out for, or to take with him into the next round. Depends if Breska used it.

The easiest course of action was to remain in place, use the ranged advantage to shoot the soldier to pieces. Though that was boring, uninteresting. Maybe he decided to appeal to the masses and give them something worth watching, or maybe there was some disrespect that came in that little taunt that earned just enough of his ire. He rolled his shoulders, uncertain and uncaring.

He jumped onto Jacen's platform and let the flamethrower roar, that arc of fire bridging what distance remained as it clawed with curled fingers to latch and stick onto whatever it touched.

Mercy

Mercy · Jul 11, 2025

Koda Fett

She broke through the anti-force bubble and suddenly everything went quiet.

Silence before the storm.

The fire burning clean through her nerves, cleaning her from the inside out, assisting the healing factor she naturally possessed. It went out as if it was doused with sand and soil. Choking it out. She had the momentum, the gravity and the weight, but it wasn't enough to shatter the shield that Switch brought up right in time. It absorbed much of the force, but somehow Mercy still managed to crush the droid deeper into the platform. The shock running straight back into her own body. She felt her shoulder pop. She felt her ribs shudder and creak. But she held and she crushed the toaster deep into the metal.

That ought to have made her proud.

But it didn't, because Mercy was no longer fully there.

The Force was gone and something else opened its eyes. It had waited, lurked, hungered. In the previous fight Mercy had accidentally unleashed it for a moment, projecting power and corruption straight into the soldier and the tree branch they had been fighting on. It had left rot and decay behind. The scream tearing from the apparition had quieted the audience for just a moment. Then this round it had worsened. The first time she entered one of these fields it had stirred on its own. A pulse beneath the runes, a ripple beneath her skin. But she had left too quickly for it to consciously react. Then came the anti-force grenades, that had made her presence in the Force so erratic and violent. The doors had cracked open wider. Shapes beneath her skin had started to shift. But the Force had always snapped shut behind her, slamming the door just in time.

Not this time.

The nightmare had been waiting for its moment and it arrived when Mercy fell into the bubble. It acted immediately. Forcing itself through the pulsing runes in her arm. It ripped open doors and carved gateways instead. The corrupted flesh of her right arm detonated. Not in light, but in rot and birth and hunger. A wet explosion of necrotic mass tore from within her limb. Tendrils, thick with pulsing black veins, burst into the air like limbs desperate to claw the sky. One of them whipped across the vibro-shiv meant for her lungs and sent it sideways, embedding it into her side instead. Deep, sharp, and burning. It glanced along her hip, carving through, but it was not a death mark.

Too late now.

The eldritch mass kept coming.

It screamed out of her arm, growing, reaching, devouring. The three Tanuki droids leaping toward her were caught mid-air. Tendrils tore through them like paper, shearing through metal and servo in a flurry of clawing motion. The smell of ozone and rot, of metal and marrow, filled the air.

Switchblade would see it from below. The wound on her arm ripped wider, a tangle of meat and otherness spreading down her shoulder and into her ribs, merging with the wound on her side as if it welcomed the blade in.

Mercy looked down at him.

Her eyes were black. Bottomless.

She smiled but it wasn't the Mercy smirk, cocky and self-assured. This was teeth and intent and hunger.

"That which is not alive..." she rasped. Her voice was layered. It came from somewhere else. As if it reached past a horizon, through Mercy and painted its vision straight into this world.

"...cannot die."

The eldritch arm came down. Not with Force. It was something older, from somewhere else. Raw and living nightmare. A mass of slick tendrils, armored meat, and jagged bone crashing toward Switchblade's head, to pulp whatever was left of the droid that dared to ask her how it felt to die.

Jacen Breska · Jul 11, 2025

K A G G A T H

Koda Fett |

5-WCH (Switchblade)

Worked like a charm. The Mandalorian jumped his way over to Jacen’s platform, an answer to Jacen’s challenge, and immediately began to bathe Jacen in flames. Instinctively, Jacen brought up and activated the Ancile Shield, keeping the flames from directly torching him. His body moved, remembering the plan, even if his brain didn’t.

[TARGET LOCKED.] Jacen’s HUD reported, jarring Jacen’s memory. He’d gotten close. This was the plan, he remembered. Jacen just had to get a little bit closer, just a few steps through the flames. As the fire began to heat up the armor, Jacen forced himself forward. No slow, methodical steps. Jacen forced himself to move with haste, to close that distance, groaning and screaming out in pain as the armor began to glow red, and the bodyglove threatened to give way. His body began to scream in protest, the stimpacks in the bodyglove injecting whatever remained to keep Jacen upright, but doing nothing for the pain.. Step after step, Jacen advanced, quickly moving forward, not wanting Koda to get away from him, making sure this one shot was all it took.
As he moved ever closer, his brain began to scream at him. Am I dying? No. Later. He screamed, charging into the fire, not even sure if it was real. Not sure of anything except the plan:

Shoot.

Nothing else mattered. Mercy, Switchblade, they didn't exist anymore. The tournament wasn't real, Jacen wasn't real. The only things that were real were the pain...and the shot.
[TARGET LOCKED.] his HUD repeated, and Jacen raised his Wrist Mounted Arc Pulse Generator as he lowered his other arm, taking the full front of the flames as the lock on the weapon confirmed his next move. His special counter to the Beskar the Mandalorian used. His answer that would fry Koda Fett in the armor that was supposed to keep him safe.

He fired the weapon through the flames, screaming in pain, and the energy pulse left the small APG and shot directly towards the Mandalorian’s armor, specially attuned to the materials makeup. Once the weapon fired, the move made, Jacen collapsed, writhing to the ground trying to pry the armor off of his body with the sounds of the screaming reaching his ears three seconds too late.

Koda Fett · Jul 11, 2025

His emergence in the galactic underworld was swift, violent, and seemingly from nowhere. Bounties that first earned a name for reliability, then lethality. Gorba the Hutt was the first to invest and reaped rewards until his demise. Then-Emperor Darth Carnifex came soon after, hiring Fett to become commonplace in opposition to the Galactic Alliance and their Jedi. It seemed no matter where he was, he was there to collect; an infamous reputation ensured the man had become known as the greatest, the best, and all without a face to place to it - the weathered, worn Mandalorian helmet made do. The Mandalorian people lured him into their conflicts, their civil wars, even whispered for him to claim the mantle of Mand'alor. He refused. Fett fought Jedi Grandmasters, Dark Lords of the Sith, Mandalorian warlords, and now this tournament... it paled in comparison.

He pursued credits above all else and the tournament could provide that. He was told there were Force Users, Sith, other such foes to face. Thus far, Fett saw one. The flesh, bone and determination of a soldier disinterested him. It could be admired, but it could never provide the same satisfaction. Droids, at times, could be made in a manner that could surprise their foe.

Fett hungered for more, though it seemed his efforts and motivation were incomparable in this moment.

In a continued and violent roar, the flames crossed the space between himself and Jacen. It was a wet, heavy coat that stuck and seeped with an intense, terrible burning. Fett had scars of his own to prove that first-hand experience. The flames erupted from his vambrace, while the other gloved hand grasped for the holstered blaster pistol and fired another deadly salvo of shots. To get around the shield, under it, in whichever manner could put this target down more swiftly.

Even as Jacen edged closer, pressed against the scorching flames, the bounty hunter took a step back with each step taken towards him.

The internal HUD informed of a lock, of an incoming target, and the targeting system was even quicker to identify it. He shot flames, still, while the blaster pistol's barrel snapped towards the fired device with robotic precision. He fired once, twice, three times and it detonated in the air between them. It was lightning and the arcs reached out, touched him, shocked him, and Fett winced as he felt his frame tense. His armour systems felt it the worst, with static on his HUD and the weapons disabled for the time being, with his armour left with trails of smoke and steam. The helmet shook, as if that could restore the HUD.

From that distance, the projectile could do that much damage. It must have packed quite the punch, even more of one should it have landed. He supposed that was a reminder of the difference between Force users and the rest; the tricks, deadlier than some blast from the Force.

"Not bad," he said with some amount of admiration. If nothing else, Jacen was determined. In time, he might be someone to watch out for. If he survives.

Jacen had risen from a once-seeming grave before and Koda was not content to allow it to happen a second time, even in this state. He doused the flames with cryoban, as a courtesy, and then fired two shots from the blaster.

He should live.

Though as Fett turned to the other two combatants, he found the fight he wanted.

Mercy

5-WCH (Switchblade) · Jul 12, 2025

CHAMPION OF THE GUILD

Jacen Breska |