Lord, what fools these mortals be! [Auden Sykes]

[Coci Heavenshield]

There is so much beauty in the galaxy, Abaigeal had had the pleasure of seeing some of it, whether it was nature at its best, or the indescribable view of a cloud nebula with colours not seen before or physical beauty of a sentinent being that was attractive to the eye, Abaigeal even had the ability to see beauty in something were others could not, but what lumbered toward them even she was bereft to find beauty in this ugly creature, and it smelled bad. She flashed a look toward Audren, at least in all this darkness and horrid place, she could find some light, and beauty with his presence. She saw him grip his baton once more, adjusting it to full setting she supposed and his mind ticked over for a plan. If the worse was to happen, at least she had her lightsabre at the ready gripped firm in her hand.

There was no way for him to convey what this plan was of course, she waited to see what would transpire before reacting and as the lumbering beast of a being came close and through the open doors, Audren sprang into action and before she knew it, the smelly creatures was splayed on the ground. Abaigeal moved to help Audren pull the body through the doors, quite frankly she did not even want to touch his boots but there was nothing else for it. Once the creature was knocked out or even dead, Abaigeal looked around for Puugie, but she was gone.

It was near impossible to location her anyway, unable to use the force to find her let along ones physical abilities, but there was no time to worry about her now, Abaigeal just had to believe she was fine and .. on their side.

Pulling back to find cover by the door frame, Abaigeal peaked through the cracks between frame and doors, but could see nothing, no sign of the others around the fire. She had a bad feeling about this ..

“Their gone”, she said as softly as she could. But before she could say more, the wooden doors burst open pushing her back against the wall of the dungeons with a hard crunch that hurt like Hades. “I smell humanoid flesh”, bellowed a harsh gravelly voice. Behind him, his men .. five of them.

​

[member="Audren Sykes"]​

 

[Audren Sykes]

Abaigeal was able to help him drag the thing into the room and didn't interrupt as he knocked it out with a single heavy blow. As he bent to rifle through the pockets - a disgusting job to be sure, but unfortunately necessary - Abaigeal turned back to the door and peered through the cracks. He heard her mutter something, too low to be heard, then the doors slammed open.

"I smell humanoid flesh!"

"I'm surprised you can smell at all, given your particular odor."

The reply was almost quick and offhanded enough to be considered automatic. After all, he'd been facing away from the doors when they were slammed open. It was almost as bad as being caught with his pants down. So he acted nonchalantly, firing back an insulting reply and continuing to rifle through the thing's pockets. He didn't dare reach out through the Force to gauge a reaction, but these weren't the subtle type. A growl and thudding footsteps told how at least one of them had reacted. As the footsteps came close, the Sephi moved.

From his crouching position, Audren stood. Not just straight up, he pushed off with his right foot and pivoted on his left, taking him out of the way of the charge with a counterclockwise spin. At the same time, he reached into his left boot and brought out the holdout blaster. With his right hand he reached back and into the top flap of his backpack, pulling out the vibroknife. The whirl was timed to have him face the charging creature while he was beside it. There was a brief hum from the vibroblade, then suddenly the thing's head was flying and the body was sliding. He stopped the spin as intended, a quarter above a full spin, with the blaster up and aimed at the remaining creatures.

It would have been much simpler if he'd had his carbine, but it had been set down for the ambush, behind the door he'd been near. It also would have looked much better if he'd used the Force - he wouldn't have wobbled that little bit catching his balance after the spin and the sliding body wouldn't have a quarter chunk of the head still attached. Even so, the flying head, sliding body, pointed gun, and bloody brain matter dripping off his blade showed how effective he could be even without it. It was also a show, keeping their attention on him while Abaigeal hopefully got herself back into things. She'd been right next to the doors after all.

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

The time for prudence and stealth was over, they had been noticed or rather smelt. How could there not be a slight smile on her face at Audren's comment when the big thug came through the door, which was soon dealt with but hard on his heels are more and they did not know of her location or existence, just yet, but that was only seconds away. What gave Audren and Abaigeal a slight advantage was the size of the door relative to the size of the thugs, only two could pass at one time and as two more entered, standing to face the only being in their sights Abaigeal crept out of her position behind one of them. All Audren would see of this move, or hear for that matter, was the glowing blue blade of her lightsaber sticking through the gut of the nearest foul creature from behind. The thug looked down at the blade uncertain of what just happened before hitting the floor face down with a loud thud.

"Well, I didn't use the force", she said a little sheepishly, "I used force". Her eyes widened as she saw the large swinging arm of the next thug coming at her in a round house punch, which she ducked under and as she stood up, her leg lifted in a kick right between his legs. Abaigeal waited for the effect of her strike only to see the thug look down in irritation, the strike did nothing to hurt him. "Oh.. poop".

"Kill them!", came a roaring command from the inside of the room, as the larger one with her mother's saber came toward them. She did not fancy being anyone's lunch or worse, and so she dodged the next swinging arm and ran into the room, it was time to divide them up and have some space around her to fight. The thugs are not the brightest stars in the sky, and she knew Audren would out smart them. She knew he well enough for that, had she done a smart move? only time would tell that, but now she had ability to see with the throw of the light from the fire in the room, the leader of the uglies was very big, at least a good meter or more above the rest.

"You have a pretty glowing stick, just like this one", he said in a deep graveled voice and igniting the White Dragon. "I want that one", he said pointing to her.

"You want it? come and get it". She spat the words, and she could sense the hunger of the Dragon. Her mother's lightsaber is the White Dragon even though those that knew her called her that name. Inside is the pearl of a white Krayt Dragon Iella had killed on a hunt with her friend and Sith Daxon Bane so many years ago before she became Jedi. The spirit of the dragon upon it's death had entered the pearl giving Iella and the saber it essence, so in the presence of the darkside the saber would pulse in a radiant white heat, which would transfer to her mother giving her a strength for the kill. This was not going to be easy, as the White Dragon could sense the darkness in Abaigeal's sith blood.

​

[member="Audren Sykes"]​

 

[Audren Sykes]

There was a thud from near the door where Abaigeal had been, and a glow from a lightsaber blade. Her comment made a grin quirk at his lips, one he had to work to kill. This was not the place to look cocky by grinning. The other one through the door was already swinging at her, which was easily ducked. She retaliated with a kick between the legs, something he winced at in sympathy. It seemed the sympathy was wasted though, as the creature barely reacted.

The roaring order to kill them put a rush on the creatures, and Abaigeal slipped through the door behind them. Probably to confront the big one, as suddenly a second lightsaber blade ignited. He didn't have time to watch however, he had the rest of the spawn heading his way. There was enough power in the blaster for three shots, and each one blew a hole in the head of a target. That still left seven others to deal with though, three of whom carried polearms.

Audren used the vibroblade to shift the head of the first vibrospear that attacked, dodged the second as he dropped the empty gun, then grabbed the third. That one he yanked from the wielder's hands by throwing his vibroblade into the chest. He once again knocked a spear away and dodged a second, but this time poked that second one's wielder through the eye. Blood and brain matter dripped off the vibrating spearhead as he pulled his weapon back. Other than the one remaining spear carrier, the others carried clubs or swords, some vibroblades some just crude hunks. Those four seemed content to hang back and allow the last spearman to fight first.

A duel between two spears was unlike that of two swords, though it had similarities. The distances were all screwed up, and only the tips of their weapons could mortally wound. The hafts could injure, sure, but those were bruises or bones broken rather than lives potentially lost. Not having trained with the spear nearly as extensively as with shorter blades, the Sephi was forced to use it as he would a quarterstaff and thus was conservative with his retaliation. In the end, he simply launched the spear at one of the waiting fighters, then dodged the spear and punched his opponent square in the throat even as he stole that weapon too. He whirled it like a quarterstaff and slammed the butt end down on the dying creature's head, knocking it unconscious. At least it wouldn't die in agony.

The being that Audren had launched his first spear at had been nicely impaled through the chest, but unfortunately his weapon was just sharpened metal with a leather grip. That left three other enemies, two of which carried vibroweapons. And he with a weapon he was relatively unfamiliar with.

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

A malicious sickly grin cut the face of the large one with her mother's saber. "I will take more from you then that glow stick pretty one". The large thug laughed thinking himself most amusing. Abaigeal remained still, not show of emotion on her face, but her eyes looked around for anything that might help her in the fight. They could not use the force unless last resort, the consequences of that would not change the situation in the room now, but above? who knew what might detect their presence, or had they already? No time to speculate regardless. However, as the large lumbering oaf came toward her, Abaigeal spotted Puugie out of the corner of her eye, high up on a broken part of the old citadel. Puugie had something in her hand, but Abaigeal could not see what it was, nor did she have time as the thug was in range.

A horrid bellow come from deep within the gut of the creature, spittle and all flew toward her, not to mention bad breath, oh these creature are foul. The thug is not attuned to the force, that much was apparent not only through the gentle whispers to force offers but in the way it handled the saber. Yet, Abaigeal in this moment, was no better.. Oh poodoo. She just had to hope she had enough skill not to take her own leg off.

A double handed grip moved the saber hilt horizontal and the blue blade blocked the strike coming down upon her head, the strength of the thug pushed her downward toward the floor, and already the lack of force ability was telling. No bolstered strength to the limbs. Abaigeal rolled away to the left before she would be pinned and crawled over the dirt floor, with her hands gripping into the soil. Loose soil?! she grabbed a fist full and as she jumped back up threw the dirt into the face of the creature, hoping the blind him, if not for a moment so she could reassess. It worked, the howl filled the room and in an instant, Abaigeal made for the fire with the roasting meat.

She picked up a long log that had partly been placed in the flames, the butt of it was hot but she could hold it and the end was ablaze, now she had two weapons. Abaigeal slowly walked to the side placing her feet one behind the other, as she circled the creature who now could see again, if he was angry before, he is more now and this might be to her advantage. Abaigeal keep moving circling him until she positioned herself directly under Puugie's position. And she waited for the next move.

​

[member="Audren Sykes"]​

 

[Audren Sykes]

For a moment, there was a lull in the fighting. The three swordsmen used the time to circle the Sephi, while he took the measure of his weapon. He found it...wanting. Yet it was what he had, and it would have to suffice. The spearhead was sharp enough, the balance adequate. Yet a single spin of the weapon was all they allowed him before they attacked. The first slash was knocked to one side and down while a continuation of that gave the attacker a solid thwap upside the head with the butt of the spear. The second attacker, directly behind him, found his chest pierced with the spear. A second, added effort sent the tip all the way through his back.

That second effort cost him though. The first attacker had recovered enough to hit Audren's leg with the hilt of his sword, knocking the Jedi to one knee. Ironically, that saved him from the stabbing attack from the third attacker. He was able to grab the sword suddenly over his shoulder, turn it around, and stab behind him and up, impaling the creature. Two of three down. The third was better than he looked though, already having recovered enough to stand and slash down at Audren. The Knight reacted with pure training, his left arm coming up to intercept the blow. But where he was used to durasteel and duraplast bracers, he had just hardened leather. The unpowered metal cut through the leather, then through skin, and scraped along bone for much of the forearm. It didn't cut any arteries, and while the wound itself was painful it fueled his anger. That anger was expelled in a single hammer strike that snapped the last creature's right elbow and left it bending the wrong way. It's single yell of pain was enough time for the Sephi grab the sword and swivel his hips, generating enough power to cut halfway into the creature's neck. A vibroweapon would have sliced it clean off, but this was not that civilized.

As much as he wanted to help Abaigeal, he knew he needed to take care of his arm first. No arteries had been hit so it was unlikely he'd bleed out, but muscle and skin hung loose and his bone had been scraped. Damage enough. Using the sword of the second attacker, he cut the cloth and leather free from his arm and used it to bind the skin more or less into place. He had painkillers and bacta in the medkit he'd brought, but that would take time. The binding would have to suffice.

Using his weight, he pulled open one of the doors with his one good hand. Inside the larger room, he saw Abaigeal facing off against the leader. Both held lit lightsabers, though Abaigeal held a burning log as well. He saw nothing of Puugie. He'd taken the time to draw his lightsaber from the outside of the backpack though, and so moved towards the dueling pair without a word, blade left inactive.

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

She heard a rush of anger from Audren, her eyes flicked to the door but she could not see him. Unable to reach out to him through the force, Abaigeal hoped Audren was alright, he was outnumbered but knowing the Knight's wily ways she had faith he would be successful. Even without the force to aid him, she on the other hand had her work cut out for her.

The thug grinned at her, eyeing the flaming log in her hand, but thinking he had his quarry cornered he charged. Agaigeal stood her ground for the moment, hoping that Puugie had something in mind as well, but she could not rely on that. As the large thug approached at speed, with her mother's saber in hand, Abaigeal jumped to the side and ducked under the arcing white blade. The thug hit the wall, face and head first and at this point a large rock landed on it's head, Puugie had dropped it on him from her position. Disorientated for the moment, the thug shook it large ugly head, but did not stand idol. Unsure of where Abaigeal had gone, the thug lashed out in all directions with the saber. The swishing blade came dangerously close to her, Abaigeal raised her blue blade to block the misguided strike but the strength in the arm of the thug was strong.

Without the use of the force, this tested Abaigeal own physical strength, with her one handed grip it was not enough to hold him for long and she began to be pushed to the ground under the weight. Pulling in her inner strength, she opened her mouth and let out a loud roar, she pushed her saber blade along the length of the White Dragon, the sound of the crapping blades horrible to the ear and in double movement, she thrust the burning log into the belly of the thug, at the same time, her lightsaber blade cut the arm hold the Dragon. The roar of pain that issued from the thug was so loud it would alert anything or anyone above in the old citadel.

The thug backed away holding what was left of it arm, fear in its eyes but that did not last long, the sound of hissing fizzed through the air and a point of a small knife pierced the skull of the thug right between the eyes and only seconds later the thug fell dead. The knife was Puugies.

For now, the fight was over.

Abaigeal picked up the hand which still held her mother's saber and uncurled the fat stubby fingers to release the hilt and let the hand fall to the ground where it may. The pulsing white blade hummed gently for a moment as she looked along the length of it, finally Abaigeal could breath again. But she did not have time to reflect on things, that would come later. Now they had to get out of here and back to the ship. Abaigeal extinguished the blade and chipped the hilt to her belt. She turned to see the doors open again and Audren stood, bleeding?

"Your arm", she said now concerned for him and she ran to him. "We need to go, now", came the soft voice of Puugie as she now stood near them. Abaigeal did not pay attention to the warn, but took Audren's hand and gently lifted his arm to inspect the injury closer. "We need to find somewhere to attend to this".

[member="Audren Sykes"]​

 

[Audren Sykes]

As Audren entered the room, he saw Abaigeal sliding her lightsaber blade up the length of her mother's with some effort. She didn't give the creature holding it time to react however, hitting it in the stomach with the burning log she held. Distraction enough to allow the blue lightsaber blade to slice off the arm holding the white. A bellow of pain magnitudes louder than what they'd run into thus far sounded from the thing, and he backed away from his opponent. Yet a hiss sounded through the air and a knife appeared between the creature's eyes. Skillfully thrown, but it hadn't come from either Jedi.

Abaigeal reclaimed her mother's blade, pulling the creature's hand - still grasping - from the hilt. The white blade seemed to captivate her for a few minutes, during which the Sephi watched Puugie climb down from her perch and reclaim her knife. He clipped his own lightsaber to his belt just before she did the same, he satisfied that there were no others immediately coming, she done with her contemplation. That's when she noticed his arm and made to take a closer look at it despite Puugie's warning that they should leave now. He glanced between the two, weighing the consequences before removing his arm from Abaigeal's hands.

"Put that log back on the fire. Puugie, get your knife. I'll wrap the arm and we'll leave, serious attention can be done later."

Abaigeal was right, the arm needed to be attended to, especially if they were heading back out into the forest. However if there was anything in the fortress above that interpreted the bellow as a death cry, they would be on their way. A wrap would hold it over for the meantime. The less evidence that the Jedi had been present the better; there wasn't much they could do about the blaster bolts, but leaving weapons behind was easy proof that offworlders had been there. For his part, he went back into the original room where his backpack was. A wrap was pulled out, the expired holdout pistol was tossed in, as was the vibroblade. The stun baton went back to his belt and the carbine was slung over his shoulder before he began wrapping the arm. It wasn't going to be neat, but the drab-colored stericloth would be enough to cover the forearm entirely. As he stood, he pulled the backpack over one shoulder. Time to go.

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

Had they had time, Abaigeal would have 'fixed' the area to make it all look like the thugs had turned on themselves and killed each other, however one would have had to be left standing for that to work. The saber cuts could have been squared away since the leader had one in his possession, but there was no time. Audren was now the priority and she had to get him out in one piece. She kind of liked his pieces as they are.

She threw the log to the fire and Puugie retrieved the knife from the skull of the leader and wiped it clean as best she could on his cloths. Abaigeal smiled at the small being, and "Thank you Puugie, you did great back there".

She turned to Audren now ready to go, but before they would, "Give me your bag I will carry it for you". She took it off his good shoulder and arm not waiting for a reply as she believed he would protest as most men do. Silly creatures they can be sometimes. Yet, she smiled and raised her hand to push back his hood and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you", she simply said. After all he had come to help her get her mother's saber back and placed himself in much danger to do so. This she would never forget.

Even though she felt a little awkward with her own actions, she turned attention back to Puugie, "Is there another way out of here?, it might not be prudent to go back the way we came in". For a moment, Puugie stood thinking before her face lit up with a smile. "Yes, but it is some distance from where I met you both and it leads into the marsh lands". As if the solidify Abaigeal's thoughts, a echoing noise traveled down the tunnel from where they entered, something or someone was coming from that direction. "Okay Puugie lead on, quickly".

No further encouragement was needed for the three of them to move. Puugie guided Abaigeal and Audren through to the back of the place and into yet another tunnel. It was the sewer of what was once the grand citadel.

​

​

[member="Audren Sykes"]​

 

[Audren Sykes]

"Give me your bag I will carry it for you."

Before he even had a chance to register the statement, let alone disagree, the pack was off his shoulder and onto hers. Contrary to what was apparently popular belief, it was not his shoulders that were hurt, just his forearm. As long as it didn't involve using said forearm as a brace he should be fine. Well, or using that hand to grip something tightly, that might hurt. But his shoulders were fine. Then she gave him a kiss on the cheek and thanked him.

And people thought males were the odd ones.

Whatever the case may be though, he strongly supported getting out of there by another route. The original might have been hidden, but if more than one person knew a secret, it wasn't really a secret. He would not be at all surprised to find something waiting for them in there, and though the walls would help channel his blaster bolts, he knew they would do the same to any looking to find the three of them. Marsh lands didn't sound so nice, but they were much better than taking a blaster bolt. Speaking of which, a noise echoed down the way they'd entered. Definitely not going back that way.

It was a sewer they took instead.

"We go to the nicest places."

There was standing liquid - water, they'd call it water - in the sewer, just over ankle high for the humanoids. Which meant it was somewhat higher for Puugie, but she was the one who'd led them there. Piles of refuse made occasional islands and moonlight filtered through the occasional opening two to three meters above their heads. To say the place stank was a slight bit of an understatement, but it was more or less constant. The important part now was staying quiet, not an easy thing to do when moving through liquid. If they ran, the splashing would carry. If they moved slowly there was a good chance any who decided to search in this direction would catch up. They needed to move as quickly as possible while slogging through the liquid, not breaking the surface. It made noise, yes, but less than running and it was comparatively faster than walking.

Here and there were deeper patches of liquid. They were usually near an opening, something he could see as being stairs or a ramp down further. The liquid wasn't draining down those though, it was staying level. He knew that meant there was more water below, but he couldn't tell if there was anything else important about it. But there were some deeper pits in the main sewer as well, characterized by floating rubbish. He avoided those, getting his arm soaked with whatever this stuff was wouldn't be good for its recovery.

[member="Abaigeal E'ron"]