Round 1: Blood and Sand (Lord Ajihad vs Jareth Johnathon Holst)

[Darth Pyrrhus]

Location: Desert, N'zoth​

[member=Lord Ajihad] vs [member=Jareth Johnathon Holst] ​

​

The arid planet of N'zoth became the arena for one of the fights in the first round of the One Sith tournament. Home to the brutal and xenophobic Yevetha, and one of the Sith's war machine's most recent conquests. N'zoth had been quick to fall. Aside from its merciless and warrior-like native species, the planet could offer little else than sand. It had no shortage of that.

The two combatants would find themselves on either side of a wide valley. They weren't too high up. The path down to the centre of the valley was only moderately steep, although loose rocks and sand made for unsteady footing. One slip was all it took before they would be set on a tumble down to the very end. At the bottom, it levelled out to a flat, sandy field, with the occasional spiky rock sticking up from the ground. A little to the side, there was also a small oasis.

Each combatant would find themselves inside of a box. The space was not for the claustrophobic. Inside, it was completely dark, with no vision of the outside. They had been left in isolation, and no information in regards to their final destination. Their surroundings, as well as the climate, would come as a surprise to them. The unforgiving sun of N'zoth was burning hot above. Finally, one of the walls fell down, and both of the acolyte's gained a path out into the open. Round One: Begin.


OOC Info

Spoiler

Official rules are here
OOC thread is here

 

[Lord Ajihad]

While Lord Ajihad was waiting for the wall of the box to come down, he shrunk his force signature down to a miniscule size. He also used Force Sight to look at the surrounding area. Even though he was in a box, the force had no such confines. As a Miraluka, he was naturally a master with this ability. He looked across the valley, gazing upon his opponent's location in another box. He searched the valley some more, until he came across an oasis, the only source of water in the area. He grinned, knowing that if he waited there long enough, [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] would be forced to go to the location to get some water. Then, he would vanquish his prey.

As soon as the box opened up, Vi'kas made a beeline for the watering hole, for it was there he would set his trap.

[member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth was not the biggest fan of enclosed spaces. Despite his relatively slim athletic build; Jareth was relatively tall for a human. The box procured sight as well as hearing, but as he was moved into the atmosphere of the planet his well honed abilities in altering the environment around him, by manipulating the living force in everything from water to wind to electricity, allowed him to get a feel for the planet around him. This allowed him to begin preparing weather phenomena to aid him, first of which was to utilize the living force in the wind to coax two steady currents against each other in opposite directions. For now it would seem calm, but as the wind began to naturally follow the pathing he gave it in the area it would grow in intensity forming a sandstorm in around 15 minutes due to the parallel currents impacting each other in opposite directions (The phenomena also known as a tornado, but on a slightly smaller scale with the effect of obscuring sight with sand.) Jareth also used stealth to hide his force signature as emotions from the living things around him started to reach him through force empathy. He felt nothing, someone who was very capable of hiding his signature in the force.

As the box opened, Jareth noted he was on one side of a valley on an expanse of the desert with an area that had water. The sand and rock beneath would make treacherous footing, even for a relatively skillful person, so rushing down the valley to him was not an option, and the body of water was relatively far from him. Gareth could only assume if he was on one side of the valley that his opponent would be on the other, but from what he could tell the other side was closer to the body of water than him. Based on this Jareth assumed his opponent would for the water, perhaps out of great thirst, or perhaps for another reason. Whatever the case, he could not feel the person in the force: only assume his actions, and that made it dangerous to go to the oasis, So Jareth didn't. He had trained for a vast amount of time in the unforgiving climes of Iridonia with his original Zabrak master. This training included being shocked by force lightning for extended periods of time while deprived of both water and food, so he was adept at enduring the desert temperatures. This meant he could, with the great distance between them, take his time and use his abilities to change the environment to his advantage. The wind was being coaxed further and further, draining little of his own force energy to utilize the vast amount of the living force within the environment, and soon the sand tornado would begin. Though he did still have to pay attention to the environment nearby, noting abnormalities in the air around him which could potentially be his opponent.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"] [member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

[member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"]
[member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

Not knowing his opponent had suspected his location, Ajihad continued towards the oasis. Then, that's when he felt it. The wind had started to pick up, seemingly out of nowhere. Just minutes before, there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Now, the area was beginning to darken as heavy clouds began to roll in.

Ajihad had duel Jareth before, and therefore knew that he knew how to alter the environment. He also knew that maintaining a closer distance to him would be safer. If he was within a close range of his opponent, it would neutralize his ability to try and hit Ajihad with lightning without frying himself in the process.

Ajihad his behind a rock outcropping, and used his cybernetic eye to scan the valley for significant lifeforms. Sure enough, he detected his opponent in less than a minute. He was a good distance away, but was headed in the rock's general direction. So he sat there, behind cover, carefully watching Jareth. Soon enough, their fight would commence.

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth remained where he was. Still focusing on strengthening his storm and creating advantages in the area surrounding him. The wind was now intense enough that it began picking up the sand, reducing visibility significantly. The oasis would begin to fill with sand, virtually ruining the water for a while. He couldn't have his opponent using that to his advantage. Instead Jareth would rely on one of two things happening. Either he would outlast his opponent in the frying hot conditions by surviving more effectively, or he would force his opponent to seek him out, entering areas where Jareth had set up the conditions to give himself a natural advantage. Jareth would also ensure that he was vigilant, if his opponent got too close Jareth would feel the air currents being interrupted by the other man.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As the wind began to pick up more and more, visibility began to decrease. Ajihad kept the lifeform scanner up in his HUD, so he's always know where [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] was. He took a moment to think about how he could use the situation to his advantage. After a moment of indecisiveness, he knew what to do.

As an assassin, Vi'kas knew how to adapt in situations like these. Therefore, he dropped to the ground and rolled around on the ground. The sand clung to his clothes like velcro, and he was soon covered in the gravelly substance. Luckily, his clothing was skin-tight, so it wouldn't chafe too bad. He stood up, and pulled his ever-present balaclava over his face. He then began quickly moving in the direction of the wind, closer and closer to his opponent. He was currently facing the back of Jareth, but if he were to turn around, he'd find it difficult to discern Ajihad's location. However, the camouflage became less and less effective the closer he got. Either way, the fight approached quickly.

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth was still. The sand whipped around him making the world in front of him virtually invisible; however, he could feel the currents being interrupted behind him. At first there was something humanoid sized coming towards him, then it shrunk down to a signature much closer to a large lizard species crawling along the sand, but he was sure it was the same creature both times. It was moving quickly toward him, it was time to act. He began to raise the temperature directly around the potential opponent, allowing it to climb rapidly and in front of the potential opponent he increased it just as quickly; however, by the time it got to that area, the area would be at burning temperatures. Very much like running into an invisible wall of heat. Meanwhile Jareth pulled out his blade, Voice of the Fallen.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"] [member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As Ajihad started to heat up, he knew he had been discovered. He drew both of his lightsabers, and leapt at Jareth in an Ataru fashion. He would channel both of their emotions into his Vaapad form, using lightning-fast attacks on his opponent. Given the nature of Alter Environment, the heat would not follow him, unless [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] put continued to concentrate on the ability. If he did, he'd open himself up to the lightsaber flurry, risking his own life a great deal.

His attacks were fast and furious. His offhand saber would bat away Jareth's defenses, while his main saber would hack and slash at his unarmored body. The barrage was moving so fast that his opponent wouldn't even be able to see his limbs moving, unless he used force speed to put himself on the same level. However, that would take a couple seconds to kick into effect, leaving him exposed to the lightning-fast attacks from Ajihad.

[member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth felt a sudden disturbance. His opponent was leaping at him. He turned around, using his foot to kick up sand and rock which he used ballistakinesis to launch the small debris at his opponent with lethal velocity aimed at the apex of his opponents jump. All this he did while Voice of the Fallen hummed to life. Once his opponent found purchase to attack Jareth he would note that channeling Jareth's emotions was difficult, as Dust (the personality which is primary) is incapable of feeling emotion.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As the debris shot at him, Ajihad twisted out of the way to avoid being killed. However, a few pebbles hit, causing him minor pain. However, this really didn't divert his attack at all, so he continued with his strategy. With [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] having wasted his window to block his attack, Ajihad's secondary saber would bat Jareth's away, opening him for an assault. Regardless of the boy having nearly no emotions to use, Ajihad still had plenty of his own. His main saber would hack and slash lightning-quick, leaving blurs in the air where the saber one was. It was show time.

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth watched the other twist out of the way, he saw the secondary lightsaber coming at great speed, it hit his own lightsaber and would knock it aside; however, Jareth would control the strike upward with his saber by twisting it 180 degrees and bringing it up against his opponents saber. Jareth expected the second blow from a two handed fighter and predicted where the second strike would come. Using his reflexes he elbowed against the second strike halfway up the upper arm of his opponent and then Jareth sent a force enhanced headbutt at his opponents throat.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As he finished his jump, his secondary saber managed to knock Jareth's aside. However, [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] had decided to block his attack. He immediately began to slide his arm downwards, and then saw his opponent rushing at him with a head butt. He rotated both his arm and wrist a bit, bringing his saber diagonally downwards across his body. It covered most of him, but still leaving his lower leg area exposed. With the current path of Jareth's headbutt, it was on course to intersect with the humming blade.

At the same time as he was rotating his arm and wrist, he would unsheathed his primary hand vong fighting claws. He grunted in pain as they came out, but it was worth it. The claws were just inches from Jareth's forearm. If he somehow managed to avoid the slice, then the claws would be on a direct course for his upper back. If he decided to pull back the headbutt, then the claws would be going for his head. The most important part of the attack was that Ajihad guessed the claws were out of Jareth's field of vision, given his progress on the headbutt. Of course, he could be wrong, but it seemed the claws were in his blind spot from Ajihad's point of view.

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth slid his elbow block back and grabbed his opponents wrist with his hand and pulled the wrist and arm up and away from his body while using the grab and pull to redirect his head underneath the opponents arm and around behind his opponents body turning off his saber to remove it from the lightsaber lock it had been in and re igniting as he came around behind in order to slash at his opponents back.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

Lord Ajihad had studied melee combat under Darth Ferus, arguably the best bladesman in the One Sith. Even besides that, the assassin had spent years training his hand with a blade, which gave him quite a bit of knowledge on the subject. Therefore, when [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] deactivated and reactivated his blade, the assassin had a general idea of what was happening. The move was very similar to the Trakata technique, which relied on quick deactivation to catch an opponent by surprise.

He would take his secondary lightsaber, and quickly turn it around to the point where it made an odd sort of block across his back. This would make it so if Jareth's arm continued on it's path, it would run straight into the lightsaber. This would most likely result in the loss of an arm, but there was a chance that right beforehand the strike would hit the assassin.

With the other arm, Ajihad would sheath the claws and deactivate the saber. He then did a bit of a deviation on force lightning, using it more of a taser. The electricity would electrocute Jareth's hand that was grasping his wrist. He would also to use a little Tutaminis, in case any of the electricity came back to him. The most probable result would be that the powerful jolt would spaz out his opponent's hand, making him let go of the wrist. If this happened, then he would move his arm around the bottom of Jareth's head, which was now under his arm. He would then put him in a guillotine choke hold, hand towards the middle of his chest. That being said, he would ignite the blade again, sending the blade through his chest.

If he somehow managed to maintain a strong grip on the wrist as lightning coursed down his arm, then Ajihad would simply snap his wrist backwards, and send the set of claws through the other man's wrist. After the grip was broken, he would do the same thing, putting him in a guillotine hold.

If neither of this worked by some miracle, then he would need to find some other way to react...

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Ajihad may not have known this, but an electric shock of a constant nature would not cause a grip to loosen, instead the high electricity would cause the muscles of Jareths body to tighten but as his muscles tightened Jareth would use his own ability with tutamenis taught by one of the sith lords of one sith to block of the electric flow and continue his motion albeit slightly more slowly. Because he was slowed he was unable to make the strike across the other mans back so he stepped back to reset the fight at a distance.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As Jareth stepped back, Ajihad was upon him like a wraith. He dedicated his offhand weapon to preventing attacks from his opponent, and used his other saber to hack and slash at his body. He was again using Vaapad, using any and all emotions to grant him supernatural speed. His slashes were aimed at his opponent's arm for the most part, but occasionally deviated more towards his chest.

[member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"]

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*Jareth saw the flurry of blows coming toward him and he knew the style of fighting that was being used. Juyo, or perhaps Vaapad. His opponent seemed to be very skilled; however, Jareth knew one thing, and that is Vaapad had a tendency to leave the opponent open to attack with the force. Jareth blocked a couple of the blows against him, one of Ajihad's sword strikes managed the clip against his right arm and burn his forearm giving him a bit of weakness in his defense from the right side, after that a strike ran across the robes on his chest leaving a burn streaking across his chest. That being said, Jareth was spending this time defending in order to prepare his offense, Jareth swapped his saber to his left hand between enemy attacks and used a technique shown him by his master, Raien Keth. Two force pushes were sent forward, one colliding into the other causing a shockwave which would likely send both men backward with the intent of surprising Ajihad so that Jareth would have the footing advantage. Jareth needed to prolong this so that the more exhausting Vaapad would take its toll on the other man, all while Jareth took advantage of the vulnerabilities it caused against force attacks.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

Ajihad knew he had managed to land a blow, and immediately pounced on the opportunity like a starving dog. As he began to attack the injured arm, something... unexpected occured. It seemed like an explosion took place between the two competitors, sending them both hurling backwards. It had come out of nowhere, surprising the assassin. He groaned, as the force of the blow had managed to hit his ribs pretty good. He sat up, and saw [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] was also knocked down. He used a small bit of telekinesis to knock down Jareth as he tried to get up (if that's what he was trying to do), and made a desperate dive towards his opponent. His two lightsaber flew into a downward strike towards his legs, which were facing Ajihad. The assassin could tell it wouldn't be long before the fight ended, for both of the duelists would begin to feel the wrath of the baking sun.

 

[Aster Jen'allé]

*When the blast happened, Jareth had prepared for it, expecting the wave and rolling through the backward tumble back to his feet; however, he had not accounted for his opponents quick recovery. A wave of telekinesis had hit him as he rolled to his feet and forced him back to the ground, this time in a seated position. As he recovered from the unexpected attack, Jareth noticed his opponent flying toward him and realized blocking the strike directly would be difficult for him in his position, instead he would try to use the weakness of vaapad against the force once more in addition to trying to take advantage of his opponents focus on attacking in order to focus on his opponents lightsaber, using the force to excite the molecules within it. This technique, known as force combustion, could cause the lightsaber to explode in Ajihad's hand after rapidly heating up. It was a heavy use of energy; however, it was one of the only ways he could avoid the disadvantage of his current position and help give himself an advantage.*

[member="Lord Ajihad"]

 

[Lord Ajihad]

As Ajihad closed in on [member="Jareth Johnathon Holst"] , his lightsaber began to heat up in the palm of his bare hand. It took a moment or two to really get hot, causing the assassin to yelp in pain and drop the searing piece of metal. He had managed to get it out of his hand, but he didn't quite get it far enough not to affect him. The blast sent shrapnel flying outwards, coming right at both Vi'kas and his opponent. Some of the wayward metal pieces would hit him in his leg area causing another shout of pain. The shrapnel would have most likely hit Jareth as well, but Ajihad couldn't tell.

Even as one saber was destroyed, the other continued somewhat on its course. The blade was almost to Jareth, but not quite. The blow was,t still on its accurate course, due to the distraction. However, Ajihad still maintained enough mental discipline to keep the lightsaber on its same general course, about to make contact with his fellow Sith's lower body.