Duel Galactic Kaggath Semifinals: Mercy vs Arris

[Razmir Tezhyn]

x

The ruins of a city broke the surface of not-Manaan's seas as the water drained away. A massive wall of duracrete ran down the middle, splitting it into two sections. On either side stood an identical layout of buildings. Unfinished, multi-story skycutters that were all sharp angles and depressing, grey duracrete. Pre-fab husks of proper homes, constructed in secret under the water's surface during the quarterfinals. A large plaza served as the central starting location where the duelists would begin their battles, one for each side of the wall. The streets spread out from that plaza in all directions. Some were wide and open highways while others were labyrinthine and narrow alleyways. More walkways connected the skycutters above the ground floor level, like bridges between islands.

To truly sell the illusion of a city, the organizers released mock inhabitants into the city. Droids, scattered around the arena in small groups of six, stalked through the city's guts. These weren't ordinary inhabitants, however, but hunter-killer droids armed with blaster rifles and grenades. Their singular purpose was to find the living and put an end to their existence. They would slowly make their way toward the central plaza from the outer areas of the city.

The announcer's voice rang through the arena, echoing ominously through the brutalist structures of the city.

"This arena has been generously sponsored by the Du Couteau family. It commemorates the brutal city battles between the Sith and the Mandalorians on Empress Teta many decades ago."

"THIS CITY WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A HOME FOR THE LIVING. IT WAS BUILT TO HOUSE THE DEAD!"

"HUNTER DROIDS STALK THE CITY FOR OUR DUELISTS. THEY WILL HAVE TO CONTEND WITH EACH OTHER TO BRAVE."

On the holo-feed, the announcer could be seen casting a glance skyward, as though searching for something. After a moment, a wide grin spread across his visage and he continued with the announcements.

"AND THE BEST IS YET TO COME..."

The duelists were ushered into the central plaza. Small duracrete barricades provided minimal cover, but most of it was wide open. The hunter droids along the city's outskirts prowled the streets towards that central plaza. They'd be closing in soon.

"PLEASE WELCOME INTO THE ARENA MERCY, THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, FACING OFF AGAINST THE UNBREAKABLE BRUISER, ARRIS WINDRUN!"

"LET THE SEMIFINALS BEGIN!"

Mercy Arris Windrun ​

 

[Mercy]

MERCY, THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE
​

She didn't hate that.

Didn't hate that all.

In fact, one might say that Mercy was quite happy with that description. They were both led into the central plaza and it seemed suspiciously safe. No boiling lava, no poison lake, not even a tree to crash down from. Then the explanation came. They'd be hunted by droids. Mercy sighed as she studied her opponent from the other side.

Of course there would be droids. Why wouldn't there be?

They didn't specify what make or model they were, but Mercy assumed they wouldn't be a push-over. Otherwise they wouldn't be presented as a sort of organic (synthetic really) time-box.

Finish off your opponent on time or you'd be liable to get shot in the back while you were busy with them.

She might be able to take over one or two droids with her arm. Corrupt them from the inside with the eldritch influence. But it sounded like there were a lot of them... so finish off Arris Windrun quickly. That was the only solution. But something told Mercy it wouldn't be so simple. You didn't get this far into the tournament without being a severe pain in the arse.

"Are you looking to scrap, Windrun? Or are you another run'n'gun type?" One step after another, slowly starting to close the distance between them, until she either made a move or made her pivot.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris sauntered off the droid platform and stepped into the war-torn urban locale.

She wore Allyson Locke 's infamous leather jacket. Her new right arm, courtesy of Kyric , had been modified by the aforementioned Sith Shadow into an armblade out of her former sword. On her left hand was a glove, and on her back a quiver full of arrows, though the bow was absent from the ensemble. Wrapped around her waist was a gunbelt with spare ammunition and Tai Corde 's own holsters. One empty, the other weighed down by a weathered pistol.

"Are you looking to scrap, Windrun? Or are you another run'n'gun type?" One step after another, slowly starting to close the distance between them, until she either made a move or made her pivot.

The cyborg drew the weapon as if inspecting it. She ran her blade along the frame, then glanced at Mercy .

"Oh, I have my toys." She reholstered it.

At no point did she stop sauntering towards her opponent, though the distance remained comfortable. She drew, lit, and dragged a deathstick, then flicked the still-lit smoke across the distance between them. "I wouldn't want to die sober... You?"

 

[Mercy]

Arris Windrun

Eyes flicked down to the gun and then to the sword and then back to Arris.

Oh, lady got attitude, Mercy was into it.

The woman lit up a deathstick, took a puff and flicked it into her direction. Mercy smirked and caught it mid-air once it reached her way. She took a soft puff herself with a little mm for accentuation.

"I don't think about death at all." She murmured casually before flicking the stick right back to Arris. "That's for others to worry about." She enjoyed the ozone slowly sinking into her lungs. After being gassed with every known poison known to the Galaxy during the stretch of this tournament it was a pleasant alternative.

"Have you been enjoying the tournament so far?" At one point she'd have slowed her approach, still a sizeable distance, enough that it would take a hard leap to clear it.

Instead beginning to circle.

Stopping entirely could be a death sentence, but she wanted to see how much she could get out of Arris. From what she heard, the cyborg had gotten it hard in the last round especially. None of them would get out of here unscathed, but the fact they got this far, meant a lot. At least that's what people kept saying.

Mercy wasn't sure she agreed. If she didn't win this thing, did all the effort even matter?

 

[Arris Windrun]

The Talusian kept walking.

"I don't think about death at all." She murmured casually before flicking the stick right back to Arris.

Caught between the fingers and returned to her lips. Arris burnt it to the root in a single drag, and put the roach out on her thigh. It was funny, as death was all Arris had been thinking about. Fear of death drove her from victory to victory, to victory. Each fight took pieces from her and added some back.

It felt like she had died in that last round. She looked down at her body, scarred and scorched, with synthetic parts fused to her flesh.

Am I alive? She still wondered. The cyborg didn't stop her casual march even as the Sith brutalist circled like a beast of territory. Her gaze didn't shift, as if Mercy hadn't moved from where she stood at all.

"Enjoying?" She chewed on the thought aloud and chuckled dryly. "I want wealth. I want fame. I want a babe on each arm and ten more in my hotel room."

She stopped where Mercy had originally stood and faced away, though her fingers fondled the grip of her gun. This tournament made her, but Arris still felt incomplete.

"C'mon, add some fire--my embers are getting cold."

Her co-processor bit into her brain and emanated all that hate and fear that drove her this far. She drew the gun in her left hand and held it upside down. She didn't even bother to turn around and blind fired the damn thing behind her at where she thought Mercy was. No precognition. No assurances. Didn't matter if she missed.

"I want to fucking win!"

Mercy

 

[Mercy]

"Enjoying?" She chewed on the thought aloud and chuckled dryly. "I want wealth. I want fame. I want a babe on each arm and ten more in my hotel room."

"Gal to my heart." Mercy said with a chuckle. "If you survive this... let's go for a drink together."

Slowly rolling her shoulders, slow and deliberate, like a predator limbering up.

Then Arris Windrun spoke about fire and Mercy couldn't help but agree. This was the first duel she herself had started with just... talking. Having a little chat, all friendly and helpful. Or maybe she had wondered what a woman like Arris sounded like after cutting her way through Sith and other monsters just to stand here.

Difficult to say if Mercy was satisfied, because Arris' pistol was suddenly out as she made the first move. It was a surprising one. Mercy could only twist her head away from the line of fire. She could practically see the trajectory of the energy-encased bullet rushing towards her. A smear of lightning coming her way and before she even blinked it sped away again.

If she had moved a moment too slow it would have run straight-through her skull and Mercy doubted even hers was thick enough to stop it.

But instead it carved a slice through her cheek, blood splattering warmly.

"Mm..."

Her thumb dragged through the wound and slipped into her mouth. She sucked the blood from it like honey from bone.

"Let me be your flame then."

The air hissed as it met the friction of a body suddenly accelerating. Metal tore violently, screaming. Duracrete cracked open behind her as Mercy blurred into motion. One breath, two and she was back again. A blur of forward momentum and loving aggression. In her hands, a ragged, half-torn traffic sign wrenched from the artificial street mid-sprint.

Her goal: Smash it right along Arris' back and send her flying into something nearby.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris holstered about as soon as it fired.

She took two steps forward, considered a witty retort to keep the flame metaphor going, and then...

The air hissed as it met the friction of a body suddenly accelerating. Metal tore violently, screaming. Duracrete cracked open behind her as Mercy blurred into motion. One breath, two and she was back again. A blur of forward momentum and loving aggression. In her hands, a ragged, half-torn traffic sign wrenched from the artificial street mid-sprint.

The traffic sign crunched against the cyborg's back and sent her flying down the street. The impact alone damaged a cybernetic reinforcement along her spine, not to mention the cracks that formed in her backside's subdermal armor--which until this point had gone largely unscathed. Her fingertips sparked as she gripped the duracrete street, and she planted her feet firmly to stabilize.

Arris leapt out from a crouch and landed on a street-side balcony. Perks of her cyberlegs. She seethed and groaned as pain radiated from her back to practically everywhere else. The nature of nerves, one might suppose. Thankfully, the pain damper and Tilon's training kept it from the excruciating.

"Whoa!" She glanced down at Mercy and held a hand for a faux timeout.

At the same time, her other hand reached to draw the pistol again. Her cybernetic eyes tracked the target data and fed it back into her co-processor. The damn thing became imbued with the Dark Side in her fight with Allyson Locke , and in some ways, she and it were slowly becoming one.

She unholstered the pistol and fired from the hip. The shot ripped through the thin metal barrier of the balcony and down towards the Sith's chest.

 

[Mercy]

Arris Windrun

Oh, it felt so satisfying to connect hard with her body.

The way the pole bent just slightly in her hands. The crack as it met spine and cybernetics. The way Arris' body sounded when it hit the ground.

Mercy's eyes became slightly feverish. She lingered there, savoring it, watching the other woman recover. It was so enjoyable that she didn't try to press her advantage. But when Arris actually asked for a timeout, Mercy blinked... then barked out a laugh while nodding with humor. She gave a theatrical bow in response, one arm swept wide, her smirk curled sharp at the corner of her mouth.

Trust wasn't her strong suit though. She didn't expect the shot, there was no way to see the pistol and she couldn't sense it coming, not with that distance between them and hardly any effort in sense abilities.

Her skin burned a slight blue because she was just a mistrustful shutta. It saved her life, because even with the shielding up, that shot slammed into her chest with such physical force that it send her back flying into the wall. The slug clattered to the ground, flattened and with its energy spent. Mercy slid down after it, wheezing. No chance of being smug about being right.

"Kark me..." She muttered with her voice thin. Her ribs screamed every time she tried to breathe. Yeah, definitely a rib broken at least. Underneath her, behind her, tendrils formed directly from her skin. Muscle-thick and bone-cored, they pressed silently into the wall and floor beneath her. Invisible from that angle right up until the moment they surged hard into the stone and launched Mercy up towards Arris and her little damn balcony.

Not to leap into her, no, instead those tendrils latched onto the balcony itself to yank it down. Tearing it down with such force that it was breaking apart mid-fall to the street.

Hopefully taking Arris along with it.

 

[Arris Windrun]

She enjoyed the sight of her opponent flying back from the force of the Ambassador. It was a damn good gun. She holstered it again, leaned further into the railing, and opened her mouth to say something.

Only, her opponent had summoned an unbelievable power. Wait, is that her fethin' arm?!

There was barely enough time to process the sheer audacity of such an ability. Truly, these 'Jedi' in the arena were something else. Arris slid back onto the balcony and entered a fighter's stance, expecting the woman to join her. Instead, that monstrous creature of an arm collapsed the balcony and took Arris down with it into the debris.

She stepped out of a cloud of dust with her arm tucked inside her jacket. Arris appeared to clutch her side and limped a little into the open. There wasn't much distance between them now. However, Arris wasn't clutching her side. No, she had the gun drawn again and held it against the inside of her jacket, pointed at Mercy , with its empty holster on the blindside of the Talusian's waist.

The gun roared again and tore a clean hole through the leather jacket. The material actually managed to absorb some of the energy, but not by much, not at such a close distance between barrel and fabric.

Although she faked a side injury, she didn't exit the collapse completely unscathed. A hit on the head scrambled her eyes a little, which meant her auto-targeting was a bit off. It also meant her right eye was a mess of static right now. It annoyed her.

Mercy

 

[Sars Sarad]

War is Hell and so is this Tournament
​

The Guilded Dragonet loomed high in the atmosphere invisible to the naked eye.

On the bridge Sarad, reclining back in a chair would have glanced towards a comms Officer and remarked...

"We've let them play long enough. Lets do what we were paid for."

...he'd lift a datapad, sending an encoded message to an unknown source associated with the tournament.

An M22-T Krayt Gunship launched from the Dragonet, descending towards the planetside and the arena. In moments it would hover over the arena, decorated to resemble a city and a warzone and divided into two for either match. Its sensors scanned for the combatants and locked on.

A Concussion Missile launched, targeting a space directly between the two combatants. An explosion was imminent and would be incredibly destructive. Debris would fly, concussion force expanding outwards and of course there was fire.

Heavy Laser Canons fired too, these targeted Mercy specifically. Lancing energy capable of ripping through the armor of a tank and rendering a humanoid dust.

In earnest it had all been decided by the flip of of a coin. The illusion was shattered now, war was hell.

The Gunship, hovering would reverse and begin to bank around the exterior of the arena.

Mauve Razmir Tezhyn Arris Windrun

 

[Mauve]

One minute before the fight...

A Nikto held out an earpiece to Mercy . "From a friend."

* * *

Present...

"Inbound, one fighter. Locked on your position. Five seconds to impact," said a voice in Mercy's ear.

 

[Mercy]

Mercy wasn't one to accept help lightly.

She wanted to win on her own merits and given the choice would refuse any overt attempts to help her. But a commlink in her ear wasn't the same as a nuke to the face. She landed hard just a few breaths away from Arris Windrun and started to move. Tendrils sharpened and angled toward her opponent. But before she could swoop in and tear through the cyborg with her tendrils she shot her point-blank.

The shot was close, brutal and her body reacted too slowly. The tendrils reshaped mid-motion to form a shield, but the carapace was still too thin. The bullet punched through it and tore into her side. It took some of the energy out of the impact, but not nearly enough. She staggered, biting back a cry as pain surged through her ribs and up her spine.

Right before she could lunge in pain-laced fury:

"Inbound, one fighter. Locked on your position. Five seconds to impact," said a voice in Mercy's ear.

She didn't need more than that.

Mercy leaped forward, not toward Arris but past her. The tendrils yanked her into an explosive lurch. As she moved, she hooked more stonework behind her, launching the balcony's wreckage into Arris' legs. All of it an attempt to send her crashing down or keep her focused on avoiding the stone flying her way.

Just enough to slow her down. To pin her in place for what was to come.

A Concussion Missile launched, targeting a space directly between the two combatants. An explosion was imminent and would be incredibly destructive. Debris would fly, concussion force expanding outwards and of course there was fire.

Heavy Laser Canons fired too, these targeted Mercy specifically. Lancing energy capable of ripping through the armor of a tank and rendering a humanoid dust.

The explosion ripped across the yard, a blinding flash followed by fire and shockwaves. First the rockets followed by the lasers that had been targeting Mercy before she launched herself into movement, responding quickly. The force of it cracked streets and flung debris through the air like super-heated shrapnel. Mercy felt it all at her back. The duracrete, the melted iron and all-encompassing heat. She crashed into the nearest building as it rolled over her. Blood leaked from multiple exit points, bullets and shrapnel both marking her path.

She hadn't stood her ground. Hadn't faced the explosion tearing through the street like fiery rage from the sky. It should have filled her with shame, but her body felt like it was burning. Mercy drew courage from that. If she was hurting, it meant she was still alive and for now, that had to be enough.

As the firelight dimmed, she dragged herself behind cover, eyes narrowed toward the ruined plaza.

Arris had been limping, her eye flickering in static, but it could all have been a ruse to get herself close to her. Had she managed to pin her down and trap her in the explosion? Somehow Mercy doubted it. Someone that good? That stubborn? Mercy knew they didn't die easy.

After all, Mercy didn't.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Arris saw the shot hit, but she knew that damn arm was going to be trouble for her in the long run. Though she didn't have much time to think about next steps before Mercy rushed past her and threw at her legs. The Cyborg dodged one chunk, then another, but a third knocked right into her side and sent the girl spinning onto the ground.

She wheezed after the impact. Wind could even be knocked out of artificial lungs.

Her bearings were scrambled between damage and confusion, and she panicked in an attempt to spy where Mercy went--

A missile struck the open space near where Arris slowly stood. The concussive force sent her flying across the street before she had any idea what was happening. The cyborg rolled hard again and impacted a metal pole. When she managed to stand again, she looked down and saw that her left pinkie and ring finger had broken off completely in the chaos.

She noticed movement in the corner of her eye. Saw a big silhouette--believing it to be Mercy. Arris stood and pushed herself into a full sprint. That was when more hellfire rained upon the field. She felt that familiar sensation, and did her best to dodge and weave as much of it as she could. However, the street was simply too damn dangerous for her to be. So, the Talusian ducked into an alley for cover.

A mistake. Out of nowhere, a blaster shot scorched the right side of her face. "Aggggghhh!" Arris shrieked in shock and pain.

Hunter-killer droids patrolled that alley, and now they locked onto a target. Arris held her face and threw herself into a window, and scrambled through the narrow halls of a building on the brink of collapse. Chaos, damage, and threats from all directions overwhelmed the woman's emotions. Her artificial heart pounded, and nerve implants began to pump her full of every hormone they could to keep her in the action. Her adrenal system was overloaded.

The cyborg's co-processor began the fight for control. Her meat brain was too karkin' slow, and it said as much with projections of fear and a ruthless takeover of her nervous system and cybernetics.

Arris struggled to stay in charge, even as her awareness began to fade. She ducked down behind a counter and worked quickly to rig her own blaster as part of her next move...

Mercy

 

[Mercy]

Arris Windrun

Once the explosions died down, the arena fell quiet again.

Then came the shouting with blasterfire following close in pursuit. Mercy blinked before she remembered... there were fething droids hunting them too. She'd completely forgotten about those. It seemed that Arris had just encountered them. That told her two things. One: Arris was still alive, because the droids weren't firing at ghosts. Secondly, they had finally arrived into the center of the arena and would be a complete pain in the karking arse from now on.

She slowly pushed herself upright with a quiet groan. Her wounds had stopped leaking, talk about small blessings. But her body still felt like it was actively burning. Every breath hurt and sent ice-fire through her ribs.

"At least she is just as karked up as I am..." Mercy muttered to herself. Then she suddenly heard the telltale whine of blasters powering up behind her. She blinked and turned, just in time to see another set of droids.

"Fu-"

The blasters went off without mercy, pun intended.

The sounds of explosions, blaster shots, and cursing would come closer and closer to Arris. Until Mercy burst through a nearby wall, seemingly uncaring about any obstacle and the reason for that was clear. Several droids were in hot pursuit. Blasters and micro-missiles lit the air as they tried to lock onto the fast-moving mountain of a woman.

"Kark, Kark, Kark." She growled as another explosion sent her flying across the room. Mid-flight, she spotted the counter just to her right, the one Arris was hiding behind, though she didn't realize it. All she saw was makeshift cover. Her tendrils ripped out and tore the counter off of the ground while she flew into the wall on the far-end of the room with a crunch.

The counter snapped back toward her as she slid down the wall, groaning through clenched teeth, vanishing from view. Good enough to hide her from the droids. At least for now, giving her a moment to lick her wounds.

The same could not be said about the cyborg, now suddenly very exposed.

 

[Arris Windrun]

The psychotic scoundrel was far too distracted by the difficulty of rigging her firearm. The missing fingers, lack of a right hand, gunship fire, hunter-killer droids, and one messed-up opponent all made for the worst flow state. Still, she managed to get the job done.

In due time, it would seem, as a lot of sudden noise filled the room she was in. It was hard to tell if it was Mercy , the hunter-killer droids, or both. She stayed still and quiet in her position--maybe they'd leave the room and she could get the drop on 'em. As soon as she thought so, her cover was suddenly ripped off the floor in the same fashion as the balcony had been smashed up.

That is: One creepy fethin' arm.

Every impulse in her body fired up. It was now impossible for Arris to fight the co-processor, who had usurped every right over wire and tissue in the cyborg's body. A fear-drunk eye snapped in the direction of Mercy. Her other, of course, had been obliterated along with the right half of her upper face.

The panicked woman rushed out from her lack of cover and fired her rigged pistol at Mercy, which had forgone ammunition. Instead, it would surge with hot and erratic energy discharge. More bluntly: a point-blank explosive energy shot. As soon as it went off, Arris was forced to drop the gun after it melted what remained of her left hand.

The cyber beast hoped this would prove enough of a distraction to break away from the fight and run. And so she began a sprint down the hall. Pain, fear, and anger born of frustration and impatience swelled inside of her.

Mercy