Hunter and Hunter

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Continued from Togoria Invasion...


Location: Togorian Wilderness
Duel: Private
Allies: Galactic Republic
Enemies: One Sith, [member=Xavka Duquo]
Gear:
Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber
Utility Belt:
NN-14 Blaster Pistol
Grenades::>3 x Thermal Detonator; 3 x Flash-bomb
Miscellaneous::>Scanner; Datapad w/ Holoprojector; Comlink; Fibercord w/ Grappling Hook; Rebreather;

Alyona felt the danger coming before it did, catching the sense of intense malice build, which tipped her off. She remained within the river's great depths, dozens of meters from the surface of the water, loose strands of ashen hair whipping lazily around her face. As the Zabrak's attack leapt from the surface of his hand, Alyona was turning in the water and drawing her lightsaber, instinct spurring her reaction time, knowledge and experience guiding her actions. She activated her lightsaber under water, the blade intercepting stray tendrils of electric power as they disseminating throughout the river. The river was far too fast moving and murky for her attacker to see the pale light of her blade so deep under water. Quickly noting the angle of the attack from her position near the river's bottom as she deactivated her blade, Alyona turned forward once more and continued swimming swiftly, dissolving her presence in the Force and transplanted it throughout the wildlife in the area, giving the immediate impression she was everywhere all at once. Thus, even the pieces of herself that the Zabrak had been mentally tracking sprouted in a sudden uprising of consciousnesses as Alyona's mental presence was assigned to the myriad creatures and living organisms capable of projecting it. A wave of mental senses would crash throughout the Force, giving Alyona the distraction she needed to distance herself from her attacker.

Several long minutes later, Alyona could see and feel the shift in the river's path; the depths ahead grew tumultuous as the water roiled beneath the crashing downpour of the nearest waterfall. A series of such falls cascaded down from the bluffs above, fed by a massive, nearby river that cut through the higher plains in the region. The forest had grown quite dense and thick, and the undergrowth was no longer dusted with the ash of the valley slope. The soil here was soft and moist, and the wood was full of life. Here, Alyona maintained her mentally disseminated presence as best she could as she took to the waterfall pool's deepest part, coming up to the surface only once she'd successfully passed under and behind the curtain of water. When she finally broke the pool's surface, Alyona wiped the water from her face with a hand and stowed the rebreather in her belt pouch. Water spray filled the air around her, peppering her face with condensation that began to bead and drip from her chin and jaw. Alyona looked back toward the forest from behind her wall of water, seeing nothing. The fall itself was nearly fifteen meters wide, and several times that in height. The rock wall behind the fall was curved outward away from the pool. It continued up several tens of meters until it reached the ledge where the water poured out from the rock. Roughly a dozen meters above that the bluff reached its peak. Alyona remained still in the water and considered her next move. The time to turn the fight against her foe was now.

Alyona slowly pulled herself out of the water and onto the rocks behind the fall. To her own mind, the hiding place was obvious as it protected her from sight. However, a tracker might not necessarily think the same; water falls protected little true cover, only concealment, and they also drowned out your hearing. Alyona had to stretch her senses to their limit to glean brief hints of sound from the banks across the river.
Thankfully, the rocks provided her a path to continue along the bluffs, one that was not visible from below, across the riverbank. A stone pathway was worn into the side of the cliff wall, rising up above the river below and overlooking the forest. It's height was not great, once the pathway left the cover of the waterfall it only rose perhaps a dozen meters on a gradual slope. The walking space was plentiful, the pathway was room enough for five abreast to walk and just over two meters in height. Native Togorians used the pathway for travel from the nearby settlement deep within the canyon, bypassing the dense forest. The outer edge of the pathway was riddled with rocky protuberances and shrubbery, providing Alyona with plenty of concealment as she snuck along Northward, following the wall of the canyon. The river continued to run below, following the same path. As Alyona looked out at the forest on the other side of the river, she noted that the canopy rested just below her height; the trees were thigh and broad-boughed, but short, due to the more limited time the local star had to provide light to the depths of the canyon.
Alyona rested for a moment shortly after beginning her climb, the waterfall continued to roar nearby. She watched the forest below, minding in particular the treetops along the river's banks, knowing how arboreal her foe seemed to be. Alyona held her presence amongst the wildlife, at times using their eyes and ears to keep watch on the forest. Suddenly, there he was, seen through the eyes of a native mammal as he rushed passed. Alyona caught him through the eyes of another close by, and through the ears of a third. I've got you, Alyona thought to herself, noting her attacker's general location within the forest.

Alyona prepared herself to take control of the fighting area. The pathway upon which she stood was wide and tall, but would not allow for acrobatics of any real kind. The fighting space would be limited and a fall from the edge would be dangerous. The pathway continued to slope upward the further North it went, reaching a peak height of nearly forty meters. The rocks jutting outward from the cliff face would tear apart anyone unfortunate to fall from its height. That's my objective, Alyona decided. To force our combat here. She looked around, ready to catch the attention of her would-be hunter, and looked down at a head-sized rock resting along the edge of the pathway. Crouching down behind a human-sized boulder, Alyona pushed the rock out from her hiding place. It scraped off the edge of the path and tumbled down below, striking lips and protrusions along the cliff side's surface before splashing loudly into the surface of the river below. A shower of smaller rocks and minerals fell in a light shower into the water.

The nearby waterfall continued to obfuscate Alyona's long distance hearing in that direction, but with her eyes on the downward slope of the pathway, she would be able to catch sight of her prey taking that path. What she expected, however, was for him to continue Northward of the noise, cross the river at distance, and scale the wall before looping back down the path to intercept her. That is, if he even heard the falling rocks. Alyona kept a hand on her lightsaber, maintaining her calm presence within the wildlife of the forest, observing. The Zabrak would see her eyes everywhere, but powerless to strike at her. Alyona's presence was everywhere, in everything with physical senses. The concentration such an effort required was great, however, and the facade was one she would be unable to maintain once battle began. For now, she merely waited, and watched over her prey, emotionless and patient.

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

The streams of electricity continued to pour from Xavka's outstretched hand, the blue arcs cutting through the air with vicious cruelty, leaving behind the stark stench of burning ozone as it burnt the very air it cut through, spitting as it continued its path to impact against the rushing surface of the river that the Zabrak stood over. He watched closely through both the Force and his own eye as the spindly fingers spread out across the turbulent water, the energy of the Force conjured lighting sought to impact against the body of the Echani that Xavka knew to be hiding at the bed of the river, outside of his physical gaze. The lighting that arced from outstretched fingers illuminated the features that were hidden by the shadows cast by the hood that Xavka wore, exposing Xavka's face to any observer that may have been watching him since he landed on Togoria. The crevices that spread their way across his sharp features seemed to look like that had been carved onto his face down to the skull by the harsh light of the Force lightning, making the dark Zabrak look more dangerous, more damaged and more vicious than he normally would; something that Xavka would revel in if her were to know of this fact.

Eventually, the arcs of lightning tapered out, the malicious crackling fading out until only the background noises of the regrowing forest and the roaring of the river reasserted their place as the only sounds to reach Xavka's hearing. A brash chuckle escaped from within the confines of the reasserted shadows, no longer torn asunder by the light cast of by the lightning he had been conjuring. Slowly, Xavka's arm lowered until it was obscured behind the folds of his robes. Every movement and sound that Xavka made was stilled and lethargic as Xavka gazed sharply at the waters that his prey had used to hide herself. Moving with a surprising suddenness, Xavka's head was thrown back as a pure moment of dark mirth escaped Xavka ironclad control over his emotions, gruff laughs being pulled from Xavka's deeply scared throat. Then, with the exact same suddenness as it had appeared with, the mirth disappeared and a cruel smirk made its appearance as Xavka resumed staring at the river bellow.

Only moments ago, his prey had made to make her escape, to thoroughly evade his senses, and had succeeded to do so. When her Presence had first dissipated from his preview, yet the seed of his illusion had remained, Xavka had truly felt disappointment. He had believed that he had finally found someone interesting, someone who had the potential to melt his cold hearts, to destroying the ice that surrounded them by appealing to the dormant instinct of a True Hunter that had been so prevalent in his younger life but less so in his older and more recent years. Then, barely leaving Xavka time to acknowledge the disappointment he had felt, let alone attempt to understand why it was that he was feeling so upset at what had happened, the Presence of the Echani had seemingly exploded, shattering into a thousands and thousands of shards which now littered the Force, shards that carried with them the imprint of the Illusion he had crafted and surrounding Xavka on all sides, invading his senses in an unrelenting stream of information as Xavka sought to find the true shard, the true location of his Prey. However, beyond the fact that he had to acknowledge that the Echani was more resourceful than he had given her credit for (something that poured more fuel onto the steadily smoldering embers of an obsession, born from interacting with someone that truly made him feel alive by appealing to his true nature), all Xavka could conclude from his target's vanishing act was that when she worked her magic she had been half a klick away, for that had been the epicenter of the explosion of her Presence.

Breaking his one sided staring competition with the river, Xavka turned his amber gaze towards where he knew his Prey to have previously been, his eye glazed over in thought as idea after idea streamed through his mind. Eventually, he settled on one conclusion, that if he wished to have more knowledge on where the Echani was hiding, he would have to use the technique he knew as De Tu Res'Edalin - Walk With The Ancestors. The method itself was taught to those that held the title of Ul'Jath - High Jath - within his old Clan of Uigin and was one of the Clan's most prized possessions. Conceived during the time when Iridonia was an isolated planet the Nomad Clans fought in Blood Wars for territory, De Tu Res'Edalin was, during that time, a subconcious manipulation of the Force that was believed to be the spirits of those that had died before interacting to those that would call upon them; as that was how all Force techniques were believed to be done, through the influence of the Ancestors. Indeed, the word Jath translated to Ghost-Wise or Speaker of the Ancients. De Tu Res'Edalin had been believed to be a method where an Ul'Jath would separate their mind from their body and soul, loosening their perception of the mortal coil, before throwing their thoughts to the mercy of any Ancestors that had heard the Zabrak's call. From there, the Ancestor would heed the wish, the intent, that the Zabrak held within their thoughts and direct them towards visions of either the past or the close future, or even events that were occurring a distance away from the Zabrak. When the knowledge of the Force had come to Iridonia, it hadn't taken long before one Ul'Jath within Clan Uiging figured out what he and his fellows were doing. In entering their trances, often achieved by novices by preforming a ritualistic dance, the Zabrak's were furthering their connection to the Force, deepening their skill at receiving Premonitions, their glimpses of the future, at what was most likely to occur. Their gift at seeing event from a distance was them using a bastardised form of Force Sight whereas their sight into the past was the Force feeding them knowledge.

Now Xavka let his eye slide close as he drew to the forefront of his mind the words of I'Jenorkeyn - his Teacher, from all those years ago when he had been studying to take his position among the ranks of Ul'Jath. Bit by bit, Xavka began to unravel his connection to his body, disregarding his senses, leaving himself only acknowledging the ebbs and flows of the Force as it twisted in turbulence around him. Slowly, Xavka's mind sank deeper and deeper into the Force, losing all awareness of the outside world, leaving him only knowing of the chaotic, intangible storm that whipped around him. As he weather the storm, Xavka held a single intent strong in his mind; to see more knowledge of where his prey was.

Suddenly, Xavka's eye snapped open, his awareness returning with surprising suddenness, as he pitched forwards to land on all fours, his head bowed as his cloak fluttered around him from the unexpected movement. His tanned skin had taken a pallor tinted, more pale than it usually was, as his chest heaved, fighting to take in sufficient air. A drop of stark red blood dropped from the end of Xavka's chin to land on the yellow tinted grass bellow him. Lines of the life providing liquid ran down from his nostrils, leaving twin streaks of red along his face and the taste of iron strong on his tongue. This was the drawback of De Tu Res'Edalin, the large amount of things that the practitioner was attempting to achieve through the Force at once placed the body under extreme stress and had, in the history of Xavka's old Clan, lead to the deaths of overeager novices that had pushed their bodies beyond their breaking points.

Xavka held that position for the next few minuets, his breathing coming in heaving gasps as he did so, while his visage slowly became healthier. Eventually, Xavka had recovered enough strength to push himself to his feet, swaying slightly at first before regaining the grace his training had installed within his body. Breaking into a Force empowered sprint, rapidly eating up the distance between himself and the last location he had felt his Prey, Xavka cast his mind back to what he had Seen. The images had been fleeting, but he had clearly seen the ashen haired woman emerged behind a waterfall and that the waterfall was only a short distance from where the Echani had dissolved her Presence; everything else had been too unclear, lost within the storm, for him to follow as fact.

----------

Drawing to a stop on the bank of the river, Xavka stared at the scene opposite him. The waterfall he had Seen was there, white and blue in colour as water poured down from above, scattering over eroded and water soaked rock to impact heavily against the churning surface of the pool that had formed beneath it. The sound of the rushing water pounding down roared loudly in Xavka's ears, deafening him, as the fresh scent of the water washed away whatever trail the Echani may had left behind. With two of the three senses that Xavka used for hunting neutralised, he was forced to rely on the last; sight. Nothing really stood out to Xavka, no matter how carefully he looked, until his third pass over the scene lay out before him. A small trail of skittering pebbles were jumping down from the path that was set into the side of the canyon; barely visible from where he stood, Xavka had only happened upon the sight out of the corner of his eye.

Leaping across the gap of the river, Xavka landed heavily on the path as his weakened legs momentarily gave out beneath him upon landing from the Force Leap. Xavka's cybernetic hand emerged from the confines of the robes to rest against the smooth rockwall, carved into such texture from gallons and gallons of water pouring over the rock over the period of centuries. Twisting his head to and fro, Xavka tried to call upon two other images he had Seen to determine his next move. His eye slid closed as two images superimposed themselves over each other. The first showed a boulder tumbling down from the edge of the very same path that Xavka now stood on, only further up; most likely the source of the pebbles that Xavka had seen falling. The second had the ashen hair woman hiding behind a boulder of similar size. The only thing that alluded Xavka about these scenes what what order they happened in. Did his Prey hide behind the boulder to rest, only to knock it into the rushing water bellow accidentally before continuing on? Or had she knocked a first boulder off as a distraction before hiding behind a second so as to ambush him? Because, after all, she had already portrayed that she was no average, unintelligent prey.

As the questions and indecision, born from the obsession to possess this intriguing target, warred within Xavka's mind his anger began to build and as his anger began to grow, so did the oppressive miasma of Darkness which began to attach itself to his body. Reaching his limit of agitation, Xavka's anger exploded (both literally through the Force and figuratively through the physical world) as his cybernetic hand pulled back from where it rested against the side of the canyon only to strike the rock as a fist. Sighing slightly in the attempt to calm himself, Xavka made a split second decision, refusing to debate with himself any more.

Launching himself forwards, Xavka scampered up the side of the canyon using the claws that adorned his feet and right hand as well as the abnormal strength of the hydraulic systems of his cybernetic arm. He would make his target His, for she was the first in a long time to stir such a reaction within Xavka, to thaw the ice that consumed his two hearts and tempt his deeply suppressed, primal instinct into the open, allowing him to revel in feeling fully himself. He would not lose such a feeling. If she was fleeing, then he would chase. And if his darling Prey was waiting to ambush him, let her. Then she could prove herself worthy of becoming his to possess.


[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

OOC Note:

Spoiler

Huh, just realised I could sum this up in a short sentence. Xavka fell for Alyona's trap. Albeit semi-willingly.

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona followed her prey through the forest's eyes as the Zabrak followed her seemingly innocuous trail through the waterfall and onto the eroded pathway. He had stopped for several long minutes, searching for her in silence using some sort of Force technique Alyona was unfamiliar with. Her knowledge of the Zabrak tribes consisted primarily of culture; they tightly held the secrets of their own mysticisms. For a brief time, Alyona felt the Zabrak's consciousness expand, joined temporarily with that of another. Am I pursued by two? She wondered, before realizing the second presence was an ethereal one, a spirit of some kind. A friend? A former mentor? Alyona had no way of knowing, but the implication itself was unnerving. Soon, however, the Zabrak's ritual ended, and he pursued her off-beaten path with a renewed sense of certainty. He had taken the bait, and now was the time for Alyona to go on the offensive.

She withdrew her consciousness from the forest around her, allowing her to focus on the battle that was coming. She stood from her crouched position and continued along the cliff face path. Some fifty meters back another waterfall roared, hiding the path from the forest below behind its torrents. There, Alyona stepped back into the frothy, misty air, obscuring herself from sight within the cloud. Immediately the watery air clung to her skin, wetting her face and drenching her once more. Drawing the ancient Skywalker lightsaber from her hilt that she had made her own on Dagobah, Alyona closed her eyes and centered herself once more. Calm, focus, fluidity, knowledge, these were her strengths. Corvus Raaf had been a wonderful Master to her, but Alyona's greatest mentor would always be the Force itself. It guided her mind and body, allowing her to become the perfect tool. In many ways, the coming battle would be as much a war between to people as it would be opposing sides of the Force itself.

Her prey continued along his path, the Zabrak's emotions marking him in her mind like a beacon, and Alyona stood ready. He made his approach toward the fall, and Alyona crouched, the Voxyn within her coming to life. As she leaped forward from the hidden mists of the waterfall, her lightsaber ignited its brilliant green-white blade and she made a daring, violent cut upward toward her foe.

[member=Xavka Duquo]​

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

The roaring of the water fall obscured his sense hearing, the smell of fresh water obscured his sense of smell, and the fact that even though the Echani had reigned in her Presence within the Force it served more as a generalisation than an exact location (although he was pleased to note that the seed of his Illusion remained). Every fact lead to the tensing of Xavka's body as he prowled along the water warn path. His Prey had chosen a good location, a smart location, for them to fight at for the very environment around them served to weaken Xavka's skill in tracking while, at the same time, robbing him of the very senses that often aided Xavka in his fights. After all, it was easy to spot an ambush when the beings very sent and heart beat gave away their position, it was easy to block a strike from a cloaked foe when the sound of their feet against ground revealed their location. Underneath the waterfall, Xavka may well have been truly blind instead of only partially. And he loved it. The tensing of his muscles was not just from ominous foreboding and anticipation of an attack, for even if her Presence didn't reveal her true location it did reveal that she was settling into a fight instead of fleeing, but also from the shivers of dark glee that ran through his body. Truly, this Echani had proven to be worthy prey, one that gave him a feeling of really felt enjoyment, for instead of fleeing upon confrontation, she had been smart, focusing so that she could flee in a way that would make it hard for Xavka to follow and even then, she had not fled directly to safety, instead deciding to run to a place where she could determine the terms on which they fought.

Creeping along, Xavka kept his emotions on as tight a rein as possible, however, even then, the thirst that the Zabrak felt to test his Prey, the enthusiasm to meet her in battle, began to seep out into the Force around him, leaving behind his exact location for the Echani to track. But, Xavka could not bring himself to care for that fact, the deeper, infinitely more animalistic and primal part of his mind had its head lent back, howling in anticipation and joy as the chains that bound and restricted the suppressed instincts began to slacken, falling loose and allowing the corruptive influences of the dark, purely primal mind set, that existed within all of his species, to leak into Xavka's conscious mind, altering his thoughts and weakening his self understanding as bloodlust pounded within his ears.

As the more animalistic nature, normally repressed to allow the analytic and more stoic part of Xavka to rule his actions, began to become more prominent within his mind, so did it begin to show physically. His posture slumped, back arched as his head whipped from side to side, Xavka desperately seeking to catch any sight or sound, evidence of any sought, of his Prey. His pace changed also, graceful strides that picked their way around errant rocks shifted into stuttered steps and the sound of sharpened claws sliding over wet rock before finally finding purchase. All of it was an instinctive and fully subconscious reaction to the change in Xavka's thought patterns, the beginning of the true appearance of a Zabrak.

When the glowing blade of plasma pieced through the misty curtain of spray, it's pale emerald hue shining upon the dark fabrics that Xavka cloaked himself in, Xavka was momentarily struck still, surprise ruling his actions as his analystic mind, still not fully cowed by the more animalistic nature that was beginning to rule his mind, fought against the instinctive response of the its primal counterpart. Eventually, Xavka moved, for with the cloak, burdened and weighted down with water as it was, concealed any true movement that Xavka made, such robbing it of description.

Sliding backwards over wet rock, the sound of scattering stones loosened by his bared feet lost beneath the dual roar of pounding water and rushing blood in Xavka's ears, his momentarily hesitation while two opposing mind sets warred for control cost Xavka. The tip of the lightsaber cut through the fabric of the hood Xavka wore, shaving off no more than a centimeter, to make contact against Xavka's skin. The smell of burnt flesh brushed against Xavka's nose as a scar was seared into the skin just to the right of his empty right eye socket, adding yet another scar to collection that was already amassed there.

Hissing under his breathe, Xavka's leapt back again, placing more distance between himself and the woman that was begin to ensnare his obsession. As he did so, Xavka's hand dropped within the confines of his robes, only for a curse to be uttered in his native language as skin met the polished wood of a scabbard and not the hardened leather of a hilt, the memory of Xavka throwing his dao towards the fleeing figure of a ashen haired woman while he leapt from tree to tree playing through his mind.

Cursing again, Xavka instead lowered his height, sliding into a crouch supported by his right arm, his left arm coming to rest against the side of his head, just bellow where he felt the outline of one of his orat horns pushing against the fabric of the cowl. A small sound of metal brushing over metal would be heard before a pitch black blade wound extend a scant few centimeters from the shadows of Xavka's right sleeve; the blade hidden within his left arm, his cybernetic arm, being untilised.

Xavka remained in his pose, golden eye smoldering within the darkness of his hood, shining through the shadows as Xavka called the Darkness to his aid, his pupil a pronounced black slit against an amber background. Xavka remained in his pose, eye locked on the Echani as he waited for her to act. Xavka's gruff voice, gravelly from the scars that ran across his neck, would ring out - abnormal behaviour from the normally silent Sith, but then, there was something about the ashen haired woman that was causing Xavka to act outside of his normal behaviour.

"Ladies first."


[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona heard the sound of metal on metal as the Zabrak was forced back and dropped into a crouch. The beast, for he looked like such, glared up at her with a wild sense of excitement in his eyes. The black slits, narrowed against an amber background, burned brighter than she thought darkness could and for a moment, Alyona felt fear. "Ladies first," the beast cooed to her, his voice a rough excursion through his lips. Alyona straightened her stance and remained within her emotional center, the lightsaber burning gently along her side. The smell of burnt flesh penetrated her nostrils and the same excitement in her opponent's eyes began to burgeon within her heart as well. "You are a beast," Alyona declared evenly, her tone bereft of feeling. "I can feel the need in your mind," she continued, stepping back into the swirling mist and vanishing once more from sight as her lightsaber returned its blade. Alyona continued to step backward, feeling the water peppering her naked skin. She felt the Voxyn crying for release, and so Alyona forwent her Jedi training and returned to her Echani roots. This was not an ideological battle, but a fight for dominance and control. They were each of them predators and prey, to one another, locking themselves into a struggle for supremacy. It was a struggle Alyona anticipated gleefully, and her opponent clearly relished. Feeling weighted by her clothing, Alyona rent the cotton top from her chest, casting it quickly from her figure and leaving her skin exposed. She retained her fitted bra, and the bracers on her wrists.
"If you want me...come and claim me," Alyona called into the mist as she pressed her back against the cliff wall within a notch in the rock, once more hidden by the mists...

[member=Xavka Duquo]​

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

As his prey disappeared once more into the mists cast by the waterfall, a minor war was fought once more within Xavka's mind. His instinctive need to claim this woman as she so taunted him to do, the obsessive desire to own her, fought against his more logical side, which championed the ideology that he should end the woman now, cast her down by through the Force, extinguish that so alluring spark of life that flared so brightly, burning with Light and not succumb to his animalistic urges once more, to reject the blatant game and struggle for dominance that she was suggesting. But, the challenge that this woman offered, the way she could stoke flames long through dead and bring them surging back into life spoke so seductively to Xavka, whispered to him in a way he did not truly understand, tempted him in a manner which he had never felt before. And it was within that fact that Xavka lost to his primal instincts. Instead of seeking to cast down his foe quickly and emotionlessly as his creed demanded, betraying the oaths he had sworn to himself, Xavka bowed to the alluring urges that the woman had caused to be birthed within his mind and allowed himself to be tempted into the game that she had proposed.

Straightening his stance, Xavka raised his right hand to his neck, undoing the fasten concealed the fastening that would allow him to shrug off the robes that Xavka wore with the ease of a single motion. Chuckling huskily, not caring as to whether or not his foe overheard his next words, Xavka glided forwards, entering the same mist that his ashen haired enemy had entered only scant second prior, leaving behind the echo of his taunting words.

"As you wish, my dear."

When Xavka had moved forwards, his robes had been left behind, potentially revealing his form in more detail than the glimpses his Illusion had shown to the Echani should she look upon him. Clad only in a pair of silk trousers with a pair of pouches, a metal chain and an empty wooden scabbard, which soon clattered to the floor, hanging from the waist, the entirety of Xavka's torso was exposed, his tan skin a pattern of scars, both deep and shallow, and pitch black tattoos that wove across his flesh as if it was nothing more than an elaborate canvas. At his left shoulder, tanned skin transitioned sharply into shiny black metal as the prosthetic cybernetic arm that Xavka wore did not start at his elbow like some he had met in the past had assumed, instead it replaced the entirety of his lost arm, robbed from him by an explosion. With the cloak removed, so was the hood, exposing Xavka's head also. Long, dark grey hair, looking almost black in its wetness, was pulled into dreadlocks that were woven around the jagged and bloodstained orat horns and hung down to mid back. His face, like his torso, was covered in carefully designed black tattoos and a patchwork of scars, however the most prominent feature was his right eye socket. The skin around his was a mess of scars, to the point that no clear patch of skin could be seen, while the outside edge of the orbital bone was pushed inwards, showing where the bone had collapsed inwards and puncture the organ.

His cybernetic arm held in front of him, a stray thought from Xavka lead to him muttering a prayer to Amina that he had thought to make the arm waterproof, Xavka stalked through the mist, his eye flickering from side to side as he sought to find his foe, his tongue running over pointed teeth as he anticipated the fight to come.

"Come on pet, let's not take too long."

Xavka almost paused to consider the question as to why it was he had spoken more than he usually did on a job in the last few minuets alone, but the surge of obsession, of need, to own the Echani beat down the confusion as he anticipated the struggle and fight to come.


[member="Alyona Volkovna"]
OOC Note:

Spoiler

I did describe Xavka's appearance a bit here, but mainly because I wanted to highlight the fact that this would, I believe, be the first time that Alyona would be looking upon him properly.

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

"Come on pet, let's not take too long."

There was a particular timing between speech and cognition within sentient beings that determined the flow of, and response to, conversation. This timing boiled down to, at its core, the simple mechanics of physical interactions between atoms and particles, and the chemical and electrical signals of the sentient brain organ. When a being spoke, or was spoken to, in a certain context, this altered the pattern of signals to meet expected responses. This was a fact that Alyona was keenly aware of when her opponent spoke. The anticipation he felt of the danger he faced walking into the mist of the waterfall's torrents set a tone that Alyona was able to follow by simple intuition.
Thus, when she heard his words over the crashing of the falls that inundated the air with its sound as much as its moisture, Alyona was able to meet this anticipation with a specific timing to her action. She waited a moment after he spoke, during which he might be expecting a sudden strike from the shadows, and then waited a moment longer for that possible expectation to pass. Just after his response would have been an opportune moment to attack, which is why Alyona waited a moment longer...

The anticipatory moment passed, and it was now that Alyona made her move as the Zabrak stepped passed her. Alyona lunged forward from her cranny, the emitter nozzle of her blade lancing forth in a two handed thrust. She waited to ignite the blade, driven ever by patience and emotional clarity, until her thrust was reaching its fullest extent. The blade suddenly ignited once more with its characteristic snap-hiss within a half meter of her prey's vibrantly scarred backside, leaping forward toward his exposed self as she side-stepped passed him and flicked her blade horizontally, aiming to cut him in half from behind.

[member=Xavka Duquo]​

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

Years previous, Xavka had almost lost a leg when he had relied on expectation over instinct. It had been a simple job, the snuffing out of the spark of life within an arms dealer who had crossed a family too rich for their own good. And yet, Xavka had only just branched out into the Galaxy, the wound from the removal of the slave chip that had been implanted in the back of his neck still fresh and painful, so had yet to learnt the truth that had since became imprinted across his mind, that the sentient beings that populated the Galaxy were not so removed from their base drives as the preferred to think and that he should still rely on the instincts cultivated on hunt after hunt within the harsh wastelands of Iridonia. He had expected for his appearance and voice, deep and gruff even back then, all those years ago to disorientate the arms dealer, to drive him into a state of shock that Xavka would leap upon, and yet, the dealer had surprised Xavka by lurching forwards while he was speaking, attempting to separate leg from waist with a poorly cared for vibroblade. In the end, a head had fallen to the ground, neck no longer attached to shoulders and a lesson had been engraved within Xavka's mind.

As the sound of Xavka's petered out, smothered by the damp rock, Xavka's body tensed in preparation of an attack as, while he no longer held the naivety that an opponent would attack exactly during the time that he predicted or feared, past experiences dictated and guided his logical conclusion that an attack immediately after he finished speaking was very much likely. However, when that moment passed and no action had been taken against him, a smirk graced Xavka's lips while his muscles did relax, however minute as he refused to lower his guard. He was pleased, that much he could tell even as a small portion of his mind attempted to puzzle out why it was he felt that, about the fact that his little prey didn't conform to the, honestly disappointing, average of the Galaxy, many of whom had found their lives ending short when they met his blade.

The sound, faint as it was, caught Xavka's attention first. The inaudible scream of danger in his ear from the Darkness that he coated himself in caught his attention second. The sound itself was quiet, almost lost beneath the sound of the waterfall, but he heard it none the less. A shifting of water, the sound of boots, feet, scraping against the wet ground; a lunge. The sound coupled from the warning from his premonition meant that as the harsh hum of the emerald lightsaber once more made its appearance, Xavka's was already spinning.

With a hiss of sparks, the alchemised metal of the blade attached to his cybernetic arm met the blade of the lighstaber and preformed its duty; it resisted. The power behind the strike carried the blade forwards, kicking off more sparks which showered against Xavka's bare torso as his eye locked gaze once more with the eyes of the Echani. In one smooth movement, the spin he had pushed himself into so as to block the strike to his unprotected his back which would have easily bisected him transitioned into a lunge of his own, the direction of momentum changing along with the movements.

Leaping forwards, Xavka's right arm was outstretched while his left remained locked with blade of the lightsaber. His aim was to wrap his fingers around the slim throat of his opponent, to feel his digits sink into the muscles and tendons beneath unblemished skin, to feel his claws bleed the Echani - spilling her red blood, to pull her close and lock her their - preventing her escape and limiting her moves.


[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona's many years learning at the terminals of the Ossus Jedi Temple had once stunted her practical growth. She went for years without being chosen by a Master for apprenticeship. The lessons learned from her classroom instructions were diffused, less concerned with the variable application of skill than the student body's general capacity for understanding their fundamentals. As such, when the time came that Alyona put a serious, self-motivated effort into her training as a Jedi, she lacked a rudimentary understanding of combat basics outside the realm of her Echani upbringing, which had been cut short by her transition to the Jedi Order at a young age. Her resulting application of Echani skills shocked her peers, as she exercised vibrant and powerful violence of action. Every slash, every thrust, every cut was made with the utmost commitment. She never hesitated, she never held back. As one of the younglings observing her talents had once said, "She kept it 100." This practice never deviated, and eventually bled as much into her defensive maneuvers as it did her everyday life. Alyona embodied violence of action, facilitated by her quick and adaptive mind and ability to swiftly process new information and apply variable tactics to an ever-changing battlefield.

When Alyona's opponent parried her horizontal cut and turned to face her, his reaching grasp shooting toward her throat, Alyona pushed herself forward and across his side, throwing her head and shoulder sideward. The Zabrak's sharp claws missed their overall mark, though they cut into her neck as she used the leverage from their locked blades to force herself against him. This would bring Xavka's back against the rock wall and their faces to bear on one another. Alyona held the feral Zabrak in place, her teeth bared aggressively as she pitted her strength against him. "You'll not kill me, haggard beast!" She declared, wildly, "You will perish long before I!"
Her lightsaber scrrtched against his metal blade, sending a shower of sparks down their legs and against the stone ground as she wrestled against the Zabrak's hip. By now Alyona would feel his groping hand against her back or side, and remained wary of the sharp points adorning his head. Blood streamed down her neck and chest as she bled from his cuts, mingling with the water coating her naked skin and turning their rivers pink. As she looked into his wild, hateful eyes, Alyona felt the sight and scent of her blood would further engorge his lust, driving him ever further from sanity. Swiftly, Alyona deactivated her lightsaber; the hilt was freed of the Zabrak's blade and she pressed her weapon against his abdomen, reactivating it with a single, aggressive thought.

[member=Xavka Duquo]​

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

Xavka grunted sharply as his back impacted against the damp rock wall, small and jagged outcroppings digging into the muscles of his back and threatening discomfort should he focus on the feeling radiating from that area. Instead, he focused on the sight directly in front his own eye. The sight of the Jedi's delicate face twisted into a fierce snarl, teeth bared, as she struggled to surpass his own strength as he held back the blade of plasma that hummed violently as it fought against his cybernetic arm, the curved scar that broke the porcelain skin to reach from under her left eye towards her ear, cutting a red line of badly healed skin across her cheek, twisted as much as her lips were, strands of her ashen hair loose from where she had pulled it back, falling across her face in sparse waves of gray. All of it added up to an image that roused the truly buried parts of Xavka's psyche, parts that he had long thought dead or nonexistent, as a large, new and frightening ember began to flare from within his breasts, beating in time with his two hearts.

'Beautiful.' The lone thought, stray and unwittingly conjured, drifted across Xavka's mind, being paid no attention as Xavka dismissed it as a crazy and unique thought that he would never usually have. Subconsciously he accepted the unbidden musing to be true, but availed to bury such a realisation for fear of what it would truly mean.

Muscles bunched along the side of the Echani's neck, her pulse point twitched in a rhythmic tattoo as the beating of her heart increased, the faster paced sound clear in Xavka's ears due to their close proximity. The signs were small, barely there and only visible if one knew what to look for, but Xavka had been raised in combat, born into adulthood through blood - both his own and his foe's - and the signs were clear for him to see. She was planning something, and was, almost quite literally, about to move.

Lowering his arm, the biological one that had been grasping at the ashen haired woman's neck, Xavka attempted to ready himself for whatever might come next but when the pressure against his cybernetic arm dissipated with a snap and his arm swung wide for a few moments from the sudden lack of pressure he was caught of guard, that fact easy to see in the slight widening of his eyes. Cursing mentally at forgetting about the art of Trakata, Xavka moved as well as he could as the hilt of the Echani's lightsaber began to press against his abdomen.

His right arm, still flesh and blood, wrapped around the female's forearm, sharpened claws biting into skin and spilling more blood just as he shifted ever so slightly before a searing pain stabbed through his sternum. His shifting of weight had saved him from a serious wound, directing the blade of the now activated lightsaber to pierce through the medial area of his abdomen, but that did not do anything to dampen the pain. Still, he pushed through it as he had been trained, clamping his cybernetic fingers around her wrist (the blade that had extended from the interior of the arm once more hidden after a brief and subtle manipulation of the force), the hydraulic systems working so that inhuman strength was applied to the joint, preventing her from worsening his wound by twisting the lightsaber horizontally across and through his body unless she wished to have her wrist shattered. As he did so though, a constant, drawn out growl of pain was grumbling out from the back of his throat as his teeth were bared in a snarl.

Beneath his hands, sparks of blue electricity would form as he channeled the maelstrom of anger and pain into producing the Lightning, but that was not what he was focused on. Instead, an arc of Darkness would arc from Xavka's Presence to the Echani's, the corruptive Darkness seeping into her like a poison as it fought to spread throughout her systems, to impede the functionality of her body and begin to slow both her reactions and thoughts.


[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona stared fiercely into the wild eyes of the beast of a man before her as her blade ignited with a vibrant and visceral snap-hiss. The brilliant green-white light shone against their features, amplifying the ferocity they both expressed. Blood mingled with water and steam rose from the wound Alyona gave her opponent. She moved to wrench the blade outward but was halted by the impossibly strong grip of the Zabrak's mechanical limb. Claws dug into her skin, piercing her and drawing blood that ran in rivulets down her arms. They struggled against one another, a display of raw physical power. The Zabrak outmatched her in this, and Alyona knew she was risking her life by remaining so attached to the man.

The Force between them began to swell and build, and Alyona felt a great pressure in her mind as the Zabrak contested her might. In this, she outmatched him, halting the poisonous temptations of the Dark Side that he attempted to drive into her psyche. Blue tendrils of energy began to coalesce between them, leaping across her arms and chest and face. As she focused her mind, further honing her presence in the Force to a knife's edge, Alyona found her moment to strike. With a monstrous, guttural roar, Alyona drove her head forward, colliding her skull against the Zabrak's nose. The Light and Dark energies building between them were unleashed in a forceful torrent of power and the Force detonated between them. The Zabrak was enveloped in a blanket of blue-white, as Alyona herself was thrown utterly backward and into the open sky. She felt her body encased by the cascading waters of the fall as she flew through the air, falling from the cliff face and across the river itself.
For the time being, Alyona's strength was spent, her mind scrambled by the ill-fated energies her opponent had poured into her mind and body. She felt her limbs slacken and her lightsaber fall from her grasp as the air roared in her ears. She was in free-fall, drifting in and out of consciousness as she was thrown into the forest below. The Jedi woman held no memory of time or space, and it seemed she had fallen, defeated. Her last thought was of the man she had likely killed, a memory of having seen something in him that she felt she could come to trust. His strength, his ferocity, they mirrored the Voxyn within her heart and soul. She saw herself in him, and for that, she felt naught but gratitude.

[member=Darth Lykos]​

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona woke with a start, throwing her hands up to halt the advance of an attacker that didn't exist. As her mind reeled, she wondered if she had been dreaming, but the pain that pulsed throughout her body reminded her of the events that had transpired. She looked up at the sky, which had darkened significantly, as she attempted to garner her bearings. She remained in the forest, as expressed by the trees that surrounded her, and she heard the river nearby. But when she looked to the cliff face, it wasn't there. Alyona forced her sore body into a sitting position and looked about for her lightsaber. She could not see it and would have to tune into the Force to locate the treasured device.
She looked behind her, seeing the wall of the canyon rising above the river, but did not recognize the placement of the falls down its face. She concluded in surprise that her last confrontation with the Zabrak hunter had sent her across the canyon, toward its other side. The river she heard was to the East, confirming this suspicion. As Alyona stood (poorly so with shaking thighs) she glanced around the darkening wood for her foe. She saw nothing, heard nothing, and expected that he had died. Still, she wanted to confirm this, and if possible, return his remains to the Republic Order. First, however, she had to locate her lightsaber, and thus opened herself painfully to the Force. The forest itself seemed to reflect her pain, having suffered as the ill-intended use of the Force had affected the life within it. Alyona lamented the wood's suffering, understanding how fragile nature could be to such influences. She apologized silently for her opponent's transgression, hoping against hope that his actions might somehow be redeemed.
Alyona more finely tuned her presence in the Force, reaching out for the crystals of her lightsaber and locating them some distance away, to the West. She began her hazardous, staggering trek, moving from tree to tree for support along her way. Her body ached, and her wounds remained blooded and swollen where the Zabrak had slashed her. She cupped a hand to her neck, feeling the dried patches of blood on her skin and clothes amidst the fresh liquid there. The wounds pained her greatly, more so as they had been inflicted with hate and intention. She carried herself as best she could, remaining guarded against further threat without giving herself away through the Force.

[member=Darth Lykos]​