Kenobi Padawan Tournament: Round 2 - Jacen Voidstalker versus Ardeo Sophos

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Ardeo Sophos"]

The stones slowly revolved in mid-air and his opponent held them under his control. Perhaps, Jacen thought, the Jedi Order could do with an injection of funds. Perhaps then they could fix up the masonry in their academies, and hire some mercenaries so they stopped having to send children into combat zones.

The flow of the Force shifted a perceptible amount. Even voidstalker, with his limited training could sense Ardeo building power to him. Odd how something so intangible was starting to come naturally to him. An experience that had been intrinsically frustrating on his return to the Order had become second nature. The Force now sat alongside his other primary senses as an equal. Ardeo’s course was clear, the experienced soldier needed no foresight to see what was coming. With no heralding sound or warning of any kind, the two objects accelerated through the air towards his position.

Fortunately for him, Jacen had two advantages. Firstly, Ardeo had given him plenty of time to prepare and secondly, he had the fundamental laws of physics to contend with. Regardless of the path the stones were taking: a force straight vector, or a parabolic arc, they were constantly subjected to the force of gravity. The Force was apparently infinite, yet any individual still had their limitations. Jacen had the weight of the stones added to any downward pressure he applied. And these were apparently large stones. They also had to converge on his position if both were aimed in his direction.

His left hand balled into a fist and came straight down in a symbolic gesture. The Force slammed into the stones from above, applying a quick telekinetic impulse. The stones changed angle down and towards each other. With a might crash they slammed into each other and then into the shoulders of the statue.

The little bugger was quicker than he expected, Jacen reflected as he watched the other Padawan move. Bounding off the floor to the ledge off to his side and launching himself up onto the platform, his enemy was almost upon him. The statue rocked from the impact, almost throwing Jacen off-balance. He lunged onto the railing of the walkway as Ardeo came at him with a strike. Voidstalker almost lost his footing as his saber came down to block the strike, fortunately he was coming from above and use the contact of the two blades to stabilise himself. Sparks rolled across the floor, before tumbling off the rough and broken edge of the crumbling platform.

With a grunt, Jacen stepped forwards off the railing, shoving down with all his strength and then lashing out with a quick probing strike, aimed to push Ardeo back and also hold the middle ground. As long as his blade was between them, the other padawan wouldn’t be able to strike directly at his body without also being impaled. His feet never moved more than an inch from the ground as he slid slightly to the side, keeping the edge of the platform behind him. This was where he had always wanted the other padawan. On the narrow and crumbling walkway he would use his footwork to try and keep Ardeo boxed in and prevent him from using his manoeuvrability and dual sabers to full effect.

 

[Ardeo Sophos]

Ardeo had been blocked with ease. Jacen's defense was impeccable, always blocking and counter attacking. It was rather troublesome. Ardeo practically expected the prodding attack that came after the padawan diverted Ardeo's blade down. It was a good thing he decided to keep his second saber back. He brought the blade across his chest pushing the blade out ward, but taking a half step back, staying just out of the reach of Jacen's saber, but close enough that he could make a quick attack. Ardeo calculated the time it would take for him to attack from his current position, given his fatigue compared to Jacen's normal speed in which he blocks, and can counter. Ardeo knew he was faster, and he had trained long and hard to attain the level of endurance required to maintain that speed, but even so, he didn't want this match to just drone on. He wanted to end this match, in a ballet of blades.

Ardeo calmed his mind, surveying his surroundings, looking for things that he could use to his advantage, while making sure to watch Jacen for any sudden moves. The platform they were on was breaking to say the least. He found the weakest parts on either side of him. With a normal saber he could further weaken those points, but he only had trainers. If he was correct though, a concentrated force blast to the part they were standing on would bring the floor out from under them. That would send Jacen to the floor if he was unprepared. He could also try to force jacen backwards and push him off the ledge with a blast of force energy. Both of these could work, but he wasn't sure how jacen would react to each situation. Probably defensively as that seems to be his nature, but he could always surprise Ardeo.

"No. Enough of this. I will not play into any of his traps." Ardeo thought. With a quick flick of his wrist he reversed his grip on his left saber. He sank down, his left foot sliding forward on the ground. He got into a peculiar stance he had somewhat come up with on his own. he let his front left leg stay straight at an angle, light and relaxed, with his left saber arm running parallel to it. he put his weight on his back leg, prepared to spring forward, or pick his front leg up and jump back. He had a plan for both instances. his right arm held it's saber normally, but parallel to the ground, facing out to the right of him. his blades were in a position that would allow him to move his front blade up or down to block, or quickly rotate and bring his back saber up to block out. He could also rotate quickly on his foot, and create a sort of barrier of blades. He was prepared, and so he waited. He waited for Jacen to make the first move. He was tired of wasting good moves and just having them countered, so it was time for a different surprise. He would be the one to wait, and he was patient. His speed did not mirror his personality. He was no fool ,and he kept a level head in battle. He would wait for as long as he needed. He looked Jacen in the eyes and smiled. He was not going to loose this. He had a goal. He would achieve it no matter what. He would become stronger and achieve power. He had to. So he could protect those close to him.
[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Jacen cast appraising eyes over his opponent’s stance. It was slightly different from a typical back stance. He’d dropped his weight lower than was typical for a defensive stance and placed his weight almost entirely over one leg. It was typical to drop one’s weight a few inches when stabilising a defensive stance, but not by that much. Ardeo’ odd posture, with one leg out ahead of him would almost certainly make it difficult to twist or move without changing his centre of mass a great deal.

For once, he acted quickly. His first two steps were quick affairs, transferring his height to momentum quickly. As he did this, he slightly spread out his grip on his saber for maximum leverage. However, he kept his steps controlled and balanced and on the second step he pushed off to transfer his momentum to the right.

His saber had been held over his right shoulder, but as he moved to Ardeo’ left, he brought it down and around. His right foot planted and he swung with both bodily momentum and a powerful pull from his shoulders and core muscles.

Jacen did not strike at his opponent directly, Ardeo’ left blade prevented that. However, his opponent had put the left blade out ahead of him straight. Jacen swung hard at the middle of the saber, connecting solidly with great force. There was little chance that his opponent’s single handed grip would be able to block the blow, and it came with enough force to risk launching it from his grip, or injuring the wrist. If the blow was parried to some effect, he aimed to skip off the blade and swung up its length towards Ardeo’ head.

As he did this, he called on the Force once more, a simple pull on Ardeo’ right leg. There was no chance that his opponent could bring that right saber to bear effectively on him given his immobile stance; Voidstalker aimed to put him off balance quickly and tear through his defences. If the other padawan went for another acrobatic manoeuvre, either the pull would completely undermine such a move, or voistalker would stay right on top of him and prevent any reorganisation of his defensive posture.


[member="Ardeo Sophos"]
[member="Kian Karr"]