Let's Do This, Karr!

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

So the Master of Shadows thought he and his Shien style of combat could compete against the dancing extraordinaire and Ataru master?

A snicker and a grin came from Seraphina as she docked her A-Type with the Gnost Dural somewhere on the fringe of Republic space. A fight most promising, and would finally settle the bet the two had going on for a while now, once and for all, who was the better warrior. Not that she needed the proof, but she wanted to hear Kian's voice as he yielded to her superior fighting style. Perhaps then she might train him on the glory that is Form IV and even perhaps Jar'Kai, for single-bladed combat was simply inferior. Why have one blade when you can have two? Sillyness, she thought, stepping between the dock of Kian's magnificent ship. She would undergo the typical security procedures that she had become accustomed to now that she had visited a number of times.

The Twi'lek would wait where she had been instructed by his fellow shadows, many of whom she had never met. But that was typical for Kian, keeping many of his own in secrecy for their own safety.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

What in the force was "byzantium" anyway? Kian thought as he crossed from his quarters out into the main hall and down the corridor toward the turbolifts. I mean, I've heard of pink.....and I've heard of purple...

"Master Shel'tah has arrived." said the young padawan before him.

"Thank you Heather." Kian said bowing to the young girl and entering the turbolift. The lift went down toward the central most training room and when he got there Kian wasn't entirely surprised to see that many of the Shadows were lingering around the periphery of the training room. They had heard the talk....they had heard of the debate that had gone back and forth between Kian and Seraphina.

For some time now, Kian and Seraphina had found themselves head to heard over what was the best form of lightsaber combat, Shien or Ataru? Kian favored Shien over the more aggressive but also more tiring Ataru, while Seraphina felt that the acrobatic form was a more potent style.

"Looks like we have the beginnings of an audience." Kian said chuckling as he came to the center of the mat where the byzantium Jedi stood.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera smiled, bowing her head towards Kian as he emerged from his cave, or shady meditation room, or coat closet, wherever he liked to hide about on this ship. She stopped questioning what he did in his free time, as he was always so secretive. Perhaps he just liked to play Pazaak alone with his friends? Who knows. What she did know was that today the Kel-Dor would taste that blue mat he had prepared for the match.

"Are you sure you want all these witnesses here when I take you down, Kian? It might be a bit detrimental to your appearance." A sly smirk graced her face as she teased her fellow Jedi master.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian glanced around the room at the gathered Jedi. Kian was glad to see that the majority of them were younglings and padawans, but also noticed that there were a few Knights lingering in the crowd. Turning back to Seraphina, Kian cocked his head to the side and smiled. Kian unclipped his lightsaber form his belt and ignited the silver Solari crystal and adopted his typical opening stance.

​

"I have found that those who tell you they are going to win.....hardly ever do." Kian said inclining his head to the Twi'lek Jedi Master. "But by all means, show me something new." Kian said taking in a steady breath and centering himself. An uneasy silence had settled among those watching and Kian realized that they were more nervous about the match than Kian or Sera appeared to be.

"I wonder if they have credits riding on us." Kian said with a chuckle.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera smiled with a wolfish grin as she watched Kian fire his lightsaber. She hadn't seen his blade since its upgrade, and cocked her head to the side with a nod.

"Silver now, huh? Must be to signify your old age. Don't worry, I'll show you something new, old friend."

With a cordial gesture she reached to her side and removed her own two weapons from their resting place, her fingers slowly sliding over the activators, releasing the bright green and purple plasma swords within before adjusting her own stance. Knees partially bent, the left hand with green saber crossed horizontally across her midsection, the right, purple hued blade held low to the ground, with her palm facing towards her opponent.

"If they do, you'll know once this is over who has the most faith in their leader, if nothing else." She giggled softly before focusing herself. "Your move, Master Karr."

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian dropped his head back and let out a hearty laugh at her comment regarding his new lightsaber crystal. The Solari Crystal had called to him in the force when he was on Rhen Var with a number of students, including one of his own, and this was why he had chosen it.....but perhaps it had because he was "old." Kian, a man of only thirty-six, was hardly old, but compared to the many young Jedi Masters, such as the one in front of him, he supposed he did seem it.

His move huh? Kian considered the stance of the Jedi Master before him. Kian had trained, at least partly, in the use of Jar'kai under the guidance of his Master, Talon Vosra. His Master had preferred Jar'kai and Niman over all other forms of lightsaber combat. However, Kian knew that, while Seraphina utilized Jar'kai, she preferred the more acrobatic and aggressive style of Ataru. Kian had seen her once, as a padawan, practicing her acrobatic form when they had met to train in telepathy.

Telepathy? Kian had trained Seraphina in telepathy when she was a padawan. It hadn't been a hard lesson, given her natural abilities in the technique. Kian had to wonder though....if she'd kept up her training. Kian steeled himself for the strike, focusing his consciousness into an almost tangible force and rushing forward with it, his mind colliding with her own in a telepathic attack. It wasn't meant to hurt, or to do any psychological violence but rather to take the Twi'lek by surprise.

Then he struck with his blade, slashing forward in a feint to make it look like he would strike for left side to lure that blade out, but instead shuffled to the opposite side and directed his attack for Seraphina's right shoulder. Kian typically preferred to allow an opponent the first move and then counter-attack, as was the philosophy of Shien....but when necessary he had no problem pressing home the offensive.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera held her stance as she waited for Kian to make the first strike. Though something unusual did happen that differed from the way most of her typical fights began, especially between friendly duels with fellow Jedi. It seemed Kian was testing his training he had bestowed upon her when she was still a Padawan. He would come to find that she had spent many waking hours and days training her mind as a weapon, honing it more specifically towards telekinesis than telepathy, though still far surpassing a typical user of the ability. All of her training within the Force was spent between her mind and her saber, balancing the two to make her a very specific niche of Sentinel.

Her saber training was focused nearly entirely on the Jari'Kai variant of Ataru, with a dose of Trakata for special circumstances, and a backup form of Makashi that her former master had saw fit to train her in, while her Force abilities were generally focused solely on that of the mind. Seraphina had always found the middle ground between a Guardian and a Consular to be a peaceful balance, giving her the necessary strengths to combat a wide array of combat styles, and while she was neither the greatest duelist, nor the most acclaimed Force wielder, she carried enough weight to stand on her own against most opponents.

So when Kian assaulted her mind with his telepathic strike, he would notice a brief moment where her eyes twitched, indicating that she felt his familiar presence, and though where she would typically allow his thoughts and mind to join with hers, she would quickly seal off the walls to separate the two from one another, before focusing on the advancing Kel-Dor as he made his initial strike. As he had predicted, her left saber snapped back and reversed in an attempt to block the feigned strike toward her upper shoulder, while the right scooped up from where it pointed nearest the ground to, at first, make a counter attack, but was then forced to shift that strike to a block instead. Within mere centimeters from her shoulder the purple blade collided against Kian's silver hued plasma sword, hissing, crackling, and snapping as the pair of blades rubbed violently against one another.

The Twi'lek stepped one foot back on the left, and used the momentum of drawing her saber back towards her and allowing Kian's to follow before she pushed forward and extended her arm, driving the two blades upwards and away from each other before she arched her left arm horizontally, slashing her brilliant green weapon towards and across his abdomen in hopes to scare him a bit into a more defensive manner.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian was pleased to see that his telepathic attack was easily dealt with. Had Seraphina allowed her natural abilities at telepathy to atrophy from lack of use, Kian would have been very disappointed indeed. Kian was pleased to see his feint had worked, but as expected the second blade of the Twi'lek intercepted Kian's attack and drove his blade off course. Then she was once more striking out and Kian had to choose between retreating back onto the defensive or going on an offensive of his own.

Kian liked a good offense.

Seeing the attack , Kian pulled his blade back from the saber lock and dropped down swinging his leg around in a sweep at the Jedi's legs. Knowing that Seraphina favored Ataru, Kian was hoping that she would respond in the sort of acrobatics that were typical of Ataru, namely that she would leap into the air to avoid the kick. Coming back around from the sweep so that he was facing the Jedi Master, Kian released his lightsaber with his left hand and thrust it forward, striking at Seraphina with a telekinetic blast meant to throw her backwards.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Within a matter of a single blink of the eye the moment was over, dealt with in an instant. Kian's blade went up and out of reach, Sera's own pushing it away and slashing herself, only to be avoided by a ducking and spinning Kel-Dor. His leg came twirling around in a sweeping motion at great speed to force the Twi'lek to halt her own strike mid-slash and throw herself into a semi-stationary butterfly kick to avoid having her legs taken out from under her.

The female was acutely familiar with the style of tactic to force the user of the Ataru form into the air in order to exploit the momentary weakness, and so when Kian struck forward with his Force Blast she thrust her own hands forward, releasing her sabers into a simultaneous horizontal telekinetic throw, much in the same manner as a boomerang, where the two blades would spin rapidly towards her opponent's mid-section before twisting and returning to her after she landed about 5 meters back, one knee down on the ground with the other bent, hands on the mat to brace her landing from the force of the blast, her eyes still on Kian as the blades twisted back to return to her.

She'd remain for a moment, watching him, feeling his tactics out before she revealed her own little secrets.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

She was fast, faster than Kian had remembered and he realized it had been quite some time since he'd seen the Twi'lek fight. Before his sweep was even half-way through she was in the air and moving, her lightsabers flying from her hands and spinning toward him. Kian was forced to leap to the side, swatting his lightsaber across in a vertical block that threw the whirling blade off target.

That had been a little too close.

Kian watched as the nimble Jedi Master settled down and returned to his ready stance, slowly pacing around to Seraphina's right. Kian wouldn't be able to continue to fight in his typical Shien tactic of defend and counter....for when he attacked he would continue to be forced back on the defensive from a strike of Seraphina's second blade. The only thing Kian could really rely on was the fact that his blows could come in stronger than could the single handed attacks of Seraphina.

Kian took a deep breath and then came forward, switching from Shien to the more aggressive variant of Form V, Djem So. He opened with Falling Avalanche, the powerful two-handed overhead attack that was perhaps the trademark of Djem So. Kian was aware of the precarious position he was putting himself in, as continuing to push the offensive was giving Seraphina opportunities to counter-strike with her second deadly blade. Kian was banking on his strength.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera watched for the subtle shift in Kian's approach. She wasn't entirely familiar with opponents utilizing Form V in any major capacity, so this was actually a rather new battle strategy for her to adapt to. The majority of Sith seemed to favor II, or VI. Still, it wasn't her first dance, so once her sabers arched back towards her, her hands extended upwards, catching the blades by the hilt in either hand and lowering them once more, righting her guard as Kian drove his saber down with a powerful two-handed stroke from head to chest. This was were her form showed weakness, more so than in the acrobatics. She was physically smaller, both in height and weight, but also in muscle capacity. Kian, like many of her opponents, were simply stronger in raw power than she.

The two blades crossed between one another, catching his in the center of the two, the three blades snapping in a violent clash of sound and energy as he knees bent substantially, her height diminishing noticeably as her hands lowered moderately before halting the path of the strike, her lips curling into a bit of a grimace. Blocking against strikes like those would drain her energy far quicker than her dance and gymnastic maneuvers, but she'd needed to gauge the man's tactic and power, and despite its' risk, was able to understand that a few more of those would end the fight rather quickly. Her knees bent a bit more, this time intentionally as the Twi'lek tucked her head and shoulders as her fingers released the activator switches of her sabers while she rolled quickly forward, twisting herself in a 180 degree angle to face the Kel-Dor once more before thrusting both hands forward and releasing a focused Force Blast of her own towards her fellow master's chest to knock him violently backwards.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian's blade connected solidly with the twin blades of the Twi'lek Jedi and he was glad to see that his more aggressive tactic had hit her defenses more effectively than had his more measured approach of Shien. But as quickly as his success seemed upon him it was gone, as the ever nimble Ataru Master darted away with a roll and a little bit of trakata. With the resistance of his blade versus her's gone, Kian found himself coming forward and he instinctively threw himself around in a block, expecting a strike at his back.

Instead Kian was hit full on with Seraphina's force blast and suddenly got the sensation he was flying.....because he was.

Kian, with an exertion in the force, spun himself feet over head and braced his legs so that when he struck the wall it was with his feet. Even with the exertion in the force, the impact was harder than intended and he found the muscles in his legs screaming at him as he kicked off, twisting his body and landing in a crouch on the ground, bracing himself with his left arm and holding his lightsaber out to his right. Beneath the mask his eyes narrowed and he considered the Twi'lek Jedi for a moment.

Telekinesis, huh? Kian thought and a smile splayed across his face. Kian's time with Seraphina on Dorin had been one in which they were struggling to drive back a One Sith attack....Kian hadn't had time to really introduce them to the Baran Do Sages under whom Kian had trained for most of his adolescence. Or to introduce her to the awesome telekinetic techniques that they practiced. Kian decided now was the best time to do that....and hopefully show her something knew.

Rising up to his feet, Kian stretched out his left hand and pictured the twin black holes that surrounded Dorin in his mind. Tendrils of the force before him began to move, twisting as if being pulled into those very celestial orbs. Smiling beneath the mask, Kian thrust his hand forward and the telekinetic blast, focused around those twirling points, released. Instead of a blast of telekinetic energy rushing toward the Jedi though, the blast warped and formed into two visible spinning whirlwinds of force energy, rushing toward Seraphina.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]​

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera looked on with a devilish grin as Kian took his short lived flight towards the opposing edge of the improvised arena. The Twi'lek's eyes perked up a bit as she stood by watching the Kel-Dor contort his body back and spring himself off of the wall with tact and grace. Expecting nothing less from a seasoned Jedi Master, she offered nothing but the quiet grin, acknowledging her elder's maneuver to avoid colliding more forcefully against the wall. With his alien feet back down on against the floor her hands wrapped tightly around the pair of sabers now resting in her hands, contemplating for a moment whether or not to flare them both and engage the man, or to wait and see what surprises he might have in store for her.

It seemed however that her decision would be made for her. Kian's talon extended forward towards her, and ever so slowly the Force began to bend to his will. It would take her a moment to realize what it was he was forming. She had used this very same technique, initially by accident, a long time back while she was investigating a droid factory secretly with Venefica. Kian's manifestation was drastically different from her own, and she was initially taken by surprise by the parallel vortexes that surfaced and rushed towards her.

By the time she was able to recognize what he had performed it was too late to avoid the swirling vortexes. Her only option was to take the brunt of them or attempt to use the Force to speed herself into a leap through them. Knees bent slightly, her fingers tapped on the activators to her sabers and she waited only a moment. Just enough. She leaped up, and straight into the swirling tornadoes. Her arms waved back to front, her wrists snapping forward as the twin sabers released from her hands just before she entered into the swirling energy. The blades would circle around, arching towards the Kel-Dor at lightning speed. Suddenly, she lost sight of him and her sabers as her body swirled and twirled inside the vortex. She had made it roughly three quarters through using Force Speed and Jump, but it simply wasn't enough. She was caught in the twisting and at the mercy of the energy.

A moment later her body violently twisted and she was thrown from within. Sera's vision was incredibly distorted, completely unaware of her surroundings as her body flew almost weightlessly through the air and colliding forcefully against the wall a handful of meters away from where she had just been. Bright green eyes snapped shut as head impacted the wall, twitching open again as she felt herself falling almost in slow motion while hands reached forward to brace herself when her body landed on the floor beneath her, however far down that was.

[member="Kian Karr"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian rose up, a bit surprised that his attack had worked as well as it had but glad that he would have a few moments to collect himself. Except those moments weren't coming, for the green and purple blades of the Twi'lek came flying from around the vortexes, swinging toward Kian at exceptional speed. Kian was very impressed with [member="Seraphina Shel'tah"] and while he wasn't her master, he felt a twinge of pride at the skill that the younger generation of Jedi continued to show throughout the years.

But he didn't really have time to dwell on it.

Bringing his lightsaber up, Kian barely had time to intercept one of the blades, the violet one and he sidestepped slashing it off course and away from him. Kian prided himself on his strong defensive abilities, but even he had his limits and the speed with which the blades were coming was simply too much for him. The pain in his leg from the impact slowed Kian's back-step enough that he wasn't fast enough to get himself fully out of the way of the second twirling blade. It hit him across his ribs. In battle Kian would be wearing his Jedi Shadow Robes, recently and fantastically upgraded by Jedi Master Taeli Raaf. These would provide defense against a strike such as this, or at least some defense....but today Kian wasn't wearing them. He felt the burning sensation as the blade contacted and while the burn from the training setting wasn't significant, the force of the impact sent the air from Kian's lungs and he stumbled backward, leaning against the wall for support.

Kian could feel in the force and in the sudden eerie silence that the audience was enthralled with the duel as Seraphina and Kian pummeled each other. Rising back up to his feet, Kian slowly walked to the center of the room and brought his saber up defensively in front of him.

"You done yet girl?" Kian asked, a smile spreading across his alien face.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The pinkish girl raised her head from its' low hang as she slowly lifted herself from her hands and knees to a standing position, lungs filling with air as deep breaths released it again. Her back was sore from the impact, and her stance somewhat shaky, but Kian's comment sent fire through her eyes in a spark of defiance so stern it could likely be tasted throughout the room. For a moment her eyes shifted to the students watching the fight, and could tell they were speechless. Her neck craned and cracked. She noticed the burn mark across the Kel-Dor's chest.

Her eyes glanced about for another moment until she located the spot where her two sabers had fallen. With their task complete and her inability to summon them back to her due to the vortexes, they had simply fallen limp and rolled away from their prior destination. Sera dusted herself off and rubbed her lips between the crease of her thumb and index finger.

"I'll be done when I hear you yield."

Her legs carried her forward, charging saberless towards her fellow master, leaping up and into the air as if she were simply going to punch through his own blades, only to call them both back to her as she descended towards him, activating them in unison as as massive downward slash was made towards his head in the blink of an eye. If nothing else, it was a dramatic re-entry to the fight, and she was all for that.

[member="Kian Karr"]