Duel Sangre Por Sangre (Emperor Carnifex vs. Darth Vitium)

[Darth Vitium]

SANGRE POR SANGRE

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Korriban​

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Eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.​

The confrontation in the Panathan reach seemed like yesterday, and yet it was so long ago - so long since the nebulous days of fledgling Sith orders. She had, then, visited the very man she came for now to ensure a permanent future for their shared order, a future that she foresaw him as the leader of. The iron crown he wore now was made from the blood of his rivals and the Sith he betrayed when his destiny was secured, his dynasty built on a foundation made from the bones of those that he deemed an obstacle to his ambitious future, and what had this man the gall to proclaim? "For the future of the Sith." He had said, like any religious zealot that believed their own lies. The only Sith that his future saw in it were those that cowered beneath him, and all were stricken from history if they dared to rise higher than he - such is the fate of any Emperor, of any Empire; to be consumed by paranoia and perceive even the stars in the night sky as a threat to that future.

Before she had came to Panatha to drag him out of his exile, to force him into a role he hadn't wanted, that he believed was above - that he had achieved godhood, divinity. Vitium spat into the red sand as the dark robes burned away around her, leaving the form-fitting red garb of the Sith beneath, the amulet of the old Sith order hanging down from around her neck like a pendant, or perhaps like a cut noose. 'His rise will be mirrored by his fall.' Came the hoarse whisper of her voice through her thoughts, the bright red blade of a curved hilt lightsaber - the sole weapon on her person - jumping to life as she began her slow walk towards the current Dark Lord of the Sith. He was underhanded, perhaps nearly as much as her, but his pride was equal to her own - a duel of fates was a timeless tradition, even between the greatest of rivals in the history of the galaxy, and neither could deny the other their call for blood.

After all, he had taken her daughter - and she, for a time, his wife.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

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Korriban
Valley of the Dark Lords

The sun was beginning to set, the shadow of flames from the receding star bleeding across the barren and inhospitable landscape. Dirt crunched beneath his feet as he turned to look at the approaching figure on the horizon, her form silhouetted against the backdrop of the fading light. Around them were the tombs of the ancient Sith, their gargantuan monoliths looking down upon them with stone eyes, judging, weighing their worth, eagerly awaiting for blood to again be spilled upon the thirsty dunes. The weight of such a legacy, of such destiny, weighed heavy upon his shoulders as he stood in this ancient arena, where the likes of Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh contended in bloody combat for the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, guided by the animated spirit of Marka Ragnos.​

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His lightsaber had flown into his hand and ignited without him consciously realizing it, his body flowing through the motions of impending conflict faster than the synapses could fire in his brain. When in the heat of war he might've worn his impressive raiment of alchemized plates and advanced electronics, for this he wore nothing but modest Sith robes accented with bright aurodium runes along the sleeves of his tunic and the hem of his cloak. At the other's approach, he flicked away both of the magnetic clamps that held the cloak to his shoulders, and the piece of fabric blew away as a gust swept over the landscape.​

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Neither said anything, nothing introductory at least. No quips, no clever one-liners, no insults.​

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They merely stared at one another, circling like two predators in conflict over the same hunting grounds. The Emperor held his blade up with one hand, horizontally with his head and angled to the side. His left hand was left weaponless, though latent power could be felt humming through every digit. Their eyes connected, neither wavering from the glare of the other as their circling slowed to a halt. Standing firm, a battle of wills as each one studied the other's body posture, the slight changes in facial expression as they already fought a mental battle where each calculated their first move and attempted to anticipate the other's response.​

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Such contemplations lasted seconds before the Emperor launched himself at his opponent with frightening speed for a man so large. He swung his blade down, and the battle was joined.​

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Darth Vitium ​

 

[Darth Vitium]

THE ANIMAL

The hum of two sabers, the shuffling of feet in the copper sand, and the hiss of wind in the air as two blades cut through its dusty breath served as the instruments of the orchestra that played as the operatic duel between the two rivals ignited. The downward strike of Carnifex' blade forced aside the air itself as his blade fell down upon her like an avalanche, the signature opening blow of the Sith Lord, and one which Vitium was most intimately familiar - already their dance was beginning to mirror the one which started it all. Wordlessly she fell into action, the darkness within her welling up to the surface and spilling out like a spreading stain with the upward stroke of her blade to shatter that reflection and unmake the image of her he might have recollected.

Disregarding the tenets of graceful combat that she had been taught of Makashi, and ignoring the moderation of Niman, Vitium leaned in full on the ferocity of Juyo - the darkness fueling every fiber of her being, imbued even into the blade itself - and its reliance on a tide of emotion, a tide which she now embodied. The beheading of her daughter had tainted whatever pompous gracefulness she had possessed, and her return from the void beyond had required her sacrifice of whatever restraint she had once been burdened with. Where there had been order, discipline, now there was only unmitigated rage, a fury that threatened to tear her apart from within and to drag down her opponent in her wrath.

The woman moved with the abrupt, unrefined, staccato of the seventh form, and as her blade connected with his an explosive force of telekinetic force rippled out from her blade against his to even the odds of his superior brute strength with her resourcefulness. Sand erupted around them and shimmered like specks of orange fire in the light of the setting sun, and the Sith lord pressed on and transitioned to the offensive by bringing her blade down and forwards in a similar, yet shorter, stroke to the cleaving manner the Dark Lord of the Sith had attempted just moments before without hesitation, as if a puppet on strings tied to a force beyond her, in her bid to push him on the defensive.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Sparks flew from every stroke, the sand beneath their feet briefly catching alight before a shift of the foot smothered the flame before it could anchor. The Sith Emperor was strong, yes, and physically imposing as well. He moved faster than one would imagine him moving, partially from the aid of the Force and partially from his own dedicated training. The woman, if she could still be referred to as such with what she had been through, was faster than he and counteracted his tremendous strength with the Force just as he improved his speed. ​

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Grace and pose were disregarded as their dance grew progressively more brutal, little being held back between them as they spun, slashed, disengaged, and then rushed back with renewed ferocity. The Emperor's face was defined by grim determination, the furrowing of his brow with every connected strike lined by the illumination of their clashing sabers. ​

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Carnifex blocked the imitation of his opening strike, pushing the blade away and to the side to deliver a sai cha slash. Instead of meeting flesh and bone, the Emperor's blade connected with the woman's weapon again. Slapping his blade against hers, he attempted to swing down and deliver a clean cho sun but was again blocked as the woman's weapon flashed out like a viper to hinder its downward trajectory. Taking one step back, the Emperor thrust his blade forward to pierce the woman's torso with a harrowing shiak but found his weapon slapped aside as she rushed to thwart his latest attack.​

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Without warning, the Emperor found himself on the defensive as he swung and spun his blade to block similar strikes, particularly a nasty sai tok that would've bisected him clean in two. A sweeping mou kei at his legs prompted the Emperor to propel himself into the air, soaring over the woman's head and landing a short distance behind her. Twirling around, the Sith Emperor attempted another shiak aimed at her exposed back.​

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Darth Vitium ​

 

[Darth Vitium]

AENEMA

The bright burst of plasma erupted right before her very eyes with every clash of their blades, and with every consecutive strike she could feel the darkness continuing to build, the momentum of her attacks picking up their pace to meet the tempo set by the beat of her heart. His movements were plain, naked, before her shifting eyes, twin orbs of red and orange fury that followed the path of his saber as her own hands struggled to keep up with her perceptive gaze - preventing well-placed attempts on her life made by the Sith lord, but only just. She was talented, skilled even, but the experience he'd gained since their last bout was beginning to show, although she was emboldened by the fact that it seemed to still not be quite enough to stave off her wrath.

Yet even as she'd begun to see the gap in practice cause her to slip, continuing to press the offensive was all it took for the Vahla to catch the Empire's Dark Lord off of his guard and push him into the defensive - which she'd nearly saw herself sliding into mere moments before - as he began to block her strikes rather than the other way around. As she had on Panatha, a strike was aimed at his legs - though he seemed to find it in himself to lean on acrobatics, rather than stand his ground as she had anticipated to - but rather than her blade making purchase in his flesh she was greeted with an impressive show of mobility on his part, and an equally impressive counter aimed at her back.

In the split second it took for her to register the chain of events that were happening Kaine was already spinning to lash out at her. Adrenaline began to set in as the implicit fear of failure sent a jolt through her nerves, aware of that the strike was largely unavoidable - and the world seemed to drag on longer as her heart raced. Relying on instinct she released the saber from her grasp and allowed it to continue its path out of her hands in the direction she had swung her blade, only for it to whip back around like a lanvarok and clash against the Dark Lord's saber as it reached her back, managing to push it slightly off track and prevent it from cutting her too deep - a bright red burn marking the width of her lower back while the scent of burning flesh and fabric filled the air.

With her jaw clenched Vitium turned the direction opposite that Kaine swung, her hand reaching out to pull her lightsaber back into her grip, and lashed back out against him, drawing on the pain of her fresh wound in order to channel the dark side with a fervor that outpaced her unfocused rage of minutes prior, tunnel vision taking her and concentrating every ounce of her fury like a magnifying glass - and Kaine the metaphorical ant that her rage was let loose upon.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

A less experienced duelist might have laughed and boasted about the meager wound he had inflicted upon her, but the Emperor was as silent and stony as he was when their bout began. Though Dun Möch was a staple of Sith warfare, using verbal barbs to whittle away at an opponent's concentration and resolve, the Emperor willingly abstained from using it against Vitium. Instead, he continued to press the fight against her, trading large slapping strikes from either side as they maneuvered around one another in the dirt and dust. They had locked sabers again, each pair of hateful eyes glaring into one another with barely constrained anger, before the Emperor pushed away and disengaged his own weapon from Vitium's. Swinging his weapon low and then up in an arcing motion, he sliced through a section of the sandy outcropping nearby and sent a shower of vitrified particles into the air between them.​

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Without a word, the Emperor propelled himself backward with a well-timed backflip right as Vitium's weapon emerged from the cloud of sand towards him. His trajectory took him high and far into the air, his body rotating back into the correct position as he landed near the cavernous mouth of an ancient and derelict Sith temple. Flourishing his weapon, he performed the Makashi salute before sliding back into the engulfing shadows of the temple with only the crimson glow of his saber to illuminate his features. Then he was shrouded in darkness as his blade disappeared.​

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He wouldn't reappear until Vitium had followed him inside the decrepit mausoleum, the weather-worn statues of ancient Sith staring down at them judgingly. He struck from the darkness and lashed out with terrible ferocity. The duel reignited within the halls of the temple blows traded in chambers where no living soul had trespassed in untold centuries. The Sith Empire had made it their mission to explore and catalog every temple on Korriban and the other Holy Sith Worlds, but through some form of oversight, deliberate or accidental, this temple had gone unnoticed until now. The terrain was foreign to them both, but their consciousness compensated for their lack of familiarity with their spatial location inside the temple.​

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And the crumbling ruins provided the duelists with a new source of weapons, as the Emperor ripped free some fallen masonry in an attempt to smash Vitium's body into a bloody paste against the nearby wall.​

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Darth Vitium ​