Private Sanctuary Unfinished

[Kael Varnok]

Kael's world narrowed to motion, instinct, and the roaring pulse of the Force threading through his veins. Each breath burned in his chest, his muscles alive with pain and purpose. He could feel her — the rhythm of her stance, the small shifts of balance before every strike. The fight wasn't chaos anymore; it was a conversation. Every blow she threw spoke to him, every deflection a word he could almost understand.


When her heel cracked against the side of his knee, his leg buckled — but not broken. The shock ran up through his body like lightning. Pain sharpened him instead of slowing him down. He pivoted on his back foot, using the momentum she'd given him, spinning with it rather than against it.


"You feel that? She thinks she's teaching you control. Show her how wrong she is."
"No… she's testing you. She's measuring what you are — not what you destroy."


The voices bled together, one furious, one calm — twin storms colliding in his skull. Kael gritted his teeth, the faint taste of blood spreading across his tongue as his lip split from the strain.


He pushed forward, his body twisting low, leading with his shoulder before his right fist snapped upward in a brutal hook — fast, close, a strike meant to test her reflexes rather than break through her guard. Even before the swing had reached full arc, he was already moving again, rotating through the motion to bring his leg around in a sweeping roundhouse, heel cutting through the air toward where her jaw might be — if she didn't move in time.


The air whistled with the force of it, the controlled precision of a fighter walking the line between mastery and madness. His momentum carried him forward, dust scattering at his boots as he grounded himself, one hand sliding instinctively into a defensive guard again. His eyes flickered — one heartbeat raw and feral, the next calm and focused, the storm slowly folding in on itself.


Whether the strikes landed or not didn't matter. What mattered was that, for a moment, Kael was both halves at once — the fury and the restraint, the chaos and the order — meeting in the same breath, perfectly balanced on the edge of control.

Lily Decoria

[OOC note: slanted if not specified verbal means mental]

 

[Lily Decoria]

Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Kael Varnok

Lily was learning more and more from every movement of Kael's body and reading the ways in which he moved and contorted himself to fight her. When Lily was fighting others, it was for her, similar to read a novel. Learning the thought process of the person, how they planned out attacks, how they moved their body in accordance and the favoured ways they attacked. Everyone had a preferred style of fighting, certain moves that they used more than other styles of attack. Many assumed falsely that Lily would favour kicking and fighting with her legs, since they were powerful strikes that she did often. But the Echani did such tactics to get false assumptions since she had learned over the years how to hide some truths to ensure her skills in combat were not publicly known so anyone could learn how to beat her.

Seeing the hook that was shifting diagonally towards her as it moved upwards, Lily was preparing the defence for the blow but saw Kael adjust to switch into a stronger roundhouse kick. It was strange seeing the feint being used for a very clear second strike but Lily knew what to do and how to trust her body with the flow of combat. Dropping her stance into a squat, Lily was able to bob under Kael's leg and slide herself underneath him to move behind him. This was only possible because of the fact his leg had to reach high up since it seemed that he was aiming for her face.

It was a bold move but one that Lily was going to be taking advantage of. Using her left arm, she sent a short but firm strike to the lower back of Kael. Aiming for around the kidney area. A hard strike to attempt to destabilize his stance and this gave Lily the chance she wanted to launch her only flurry of blows. Moving fast with a strike to his torso with fast body blows. None of them significantly powerful on their own but Lily was aiming more for a combination that could overwhelm and damage Kael enough into surrendering. Less focused on having a single strike that would do that.

This was also Lily demonstrating that she wasn't just very powerful naturally, but she had built her body to be very fast as well.

 

[Kael Varnok]

Lily's fist was already cutting through the air toward his lower back when Kael twisted—just enough. Not a full slip, not a clean escape, but a feral, instinctive shift of weight that carried him half a step off her intended line. Her knuckles grazed the fabric of his tunic instead of driving into the kidney as she'd planned.

It wasn't luck. It was the split will inside him—one half seeing the strike coming, the other half reacting with the unpredictable sharpness of a wounded predator.

Using the momentum of her committed strike, Kael rolled his shoulder forward, letting her own extension become leverage. His arm snapped up, elbow bent, driving backward toward her jaw in a tight, vicious arc—not guaranteed to land, but close enough that Lily would feel the rush of displaced air brush her cheek. He wasn't aiming to break bone… but the warlord within him certainly was.

Before she could fully readjust her footing, Kael added a second threat. His leg swept out, heel cutting low toward the side of her supporting knee. It wasn't a clumsy kick; it was precise, timed to hit the exact moment her weight was shifting forward from her flurry.

Two attacks—one high, one low.
Both avoidable.
Both demanding split-second instinct.

Lily would have to choose which danger mattered more… or find a way to evade them both in a single unified movement.

Kael's breath came rough, controlled yet edged by something untamed. One eye burned with that feral slit, the other steady and focused. Both locked onto her as if daring her to keep up.


Your move.

Lily Decoria

 

[Lily Decoria]

Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Kael Varnok

Watching the man contort his body in order to face her with the speed he would need to ensure that Lily could not begin her hammering attacks was impressive. However, it opened up too many weaknesses, he had no time to gather himself. To ground his stances firmly enough to ensure that Lily would be set back by the two attacks that were flung her way. Desperate attacks to prevent Lily from continuing to rain down her punches. It demonstrated only one thing to her. That he could not handle to idea of her having the momentum to launch attacks. He was not going to have the defences to survive her aggressive moves.

Otherwise he would have focused more on protecting himself that throwing out attacks that were not concerning to Lily. She grabbed the elbow and threw it back. Aiming to create space between them so that the kick sliced harmlessly through the air. Lily looked unfazed by the attacks, they were predictable, rushed and gave Lily the mindset to focus on attacking.

It was her time to show what an unrelenting force looked like.

Pushing forward, Lily moved into the offensive position just as Kael would have the chance to land his foot after kicking. Thrusting a fast reverse punch straight to the core, a blow hard enough to knock the wind out of him. A fast jab was throw towards his nose as her reverse was pulled back and then punched upwards in a strong uppercut to the chin. Lily was taking a hard boxing stance. Launching punches fast, hard and towards the body and face. Her mind was focused on attack, relentless and pushing forward. It was a demonstration of how she planned to handle threats like the Sith, like the Imperials.

She would be a flurry of blows that pushed them back. That made them regret attempting to manoeuvre out in the galaxy.

 

[Kael Varnok]

Lily's strikes landed cleanly.

Her reverse punch drove the air from Kael's lungs, and her sharp jab caught him across the nose, forcing his head back with a brief flash of red at his nostril. The uppercut came immediately after—fast, disciplined, and carrying the weight of her momentum.
But just before it connected—
Kael caught it.

His hand closed firmly around her wrist, steady despite the impact she'd already dealt him. Lily felt the strain in his muscles, the two sides of him—controlled and instinct-driven—both present in the way he held her. His eyes reflected that battle clearly: one sharpened with intense focus, the other carrying that flicker of raw instinct.

He drew a breath through his nose, stabilizing himself, posture tightening rather than wavering.

"Good," he said, voice low but steady.
A mix of challenge and acknowledgement.
"Show me your full strength."

No taunting.
No malice.
Just a fighter pushing another to rise higher.

Then he moved.
His grip on her wrist shifted—not to trap her completely, but to redirect her momentum. His core tightened, and he drove his knee upward in a swift, powerful strike aimed at her midsection. The angle was sharp, the timing precise enough to threaten her balance if it landed—

—but not inevitable.
Kael's footing wasn't perfect from catching her punch mid-motion; his stance carried just enough imbalance that Lily still had room to slip free, twist, or turn his attack against him if she reacted quickly.

It was a dangerous, decisive counter—
yet one that respected her skill enough to leave a path open.
The knee cut upward through the space between them, the fight sharpening once again into pure technique and will.

Lily Decoria