SO Tournament Round 1: Darth Abyss vs. Avedia Lacroix

[Darth Ophidia]

N'zoth, ruins in the sea of sand.

The sun was about to set on the horizon of N'zoth's desert landscape. The dunes spread like a vast ocean, interrupted only by the occasional jutting rock-formation, like the bones of some ancient leviathan. Its three moons crested high upon the twilit sky as two airspeeders cut through the silence and the dry heat with twinned roars. In either one was a Lord of the Sith, waiting to prove themselves against their fellows in the field of combat.

The speeders slowed and descended to allow the two fighters to exit onto the sandy dunes, each placed on either side of a shallow rift. Symbolic, perhaps, of their inherent dichotomy. Their arena was a vast open space. Here and there were broken walls from some long forsaken settlement, much akin to the jagged rock-formations they would have seen from the sky. Each wall was just enough to offer temporary cover, should it be necessary.

Their transportation would not linger, but left the two champions to do battle there among the sand, stone, under the setting sun. The sun still baked the sand sweltering hot still, but soon night would bring with it a deathly cold.

Only one could walk away the champion.

Welcome to the tournament.​

[member="Darth Abyss"] vs. [member="Avedia Lacroix"]​

 

[Darth Abyss]

Darth Abyss, black assassin and aspect of famine, rose from the speeder that had transported him to the place where he would face against another that claimed to be a Lord of the sith. His black robe drifted in the wind, as he stepped forward, closely observing his surroundings and the battlefield in front of him. It was a bit to open to find his approval, but at least there were places to take cover behind sprinkled in the desert once in a while. That wouldn't be very helpful in a fight face to face, but soon the night would come and shroud the battlefield in darkness, and it was that darkness that would be his greatest ally.

There were quite a few that he could take on in a fair fight, but he would rather not take that risk when pitted against another sith lord. If he intended to win, he had to be smart, always one step ahead of his opponent. The first thing he did was to shrink his presence in the force, until there was only a small, barely if at all recognizable glimpse of power around him. Then he checked his load out one last time. Everything was where it had to be. His sith sword, his gun, his knife and a handful grenades were stored on his back, a second lightsaber and a few throwing knifes were hidden in his sleeves, and a knife was placed in the boot of his left in case everything else would fail.

Not even his mask could hide the anticipation he felt for the battle that was about to come. Slowly he moved forward, using the few pieces of cover as effectively as he could. Every time he reached something that could serve as cover, he descended behind it, planning the best way to the next one. It was a very slow way of moving, and he was still near the place where the speeder had dropped him of, but it would probably help him to obscure his exact position, especially without a force aura to reveal him.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"] [member="Darth Ophidia"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onZMS1di6Mc​

Like a specter rising in the night sky, Avedia Lacroix rose from the dust and hailed the victory that was to come, embracing the anointment of victory that was set to be hers at the end of this. Falling off her arms and the slender frame that belonged to her, the Sith robe soared through a small gust of wind, carrying itself off to the side and landing upon a desert dune, awaiting the moment that it's owner would return to take it back. Eyes closed, Avedia opened herself up to the full power of the Force, awakening the torrential storm that existed deep inside her.

As she opened her eyes, Avedia felt the venom that was the dark side spread out through her veins, supplying strength along to the recesses of her mind, adding definition to her seven senses. She could feel the small beads of perspiration roll themselves across her brow; taste the congealed blood that she would feast upon coiling itself through her opponents body; and saw the small traces of dispersion along the sand, where Abyss had moved, ducking and dive out of sight as his cunning, calculative mind drew strategies to undo her.

A smile crept along Avedia's features. She would look forward to denying him his victory.

Reaching low to the Saberstaff that hung from the bicep of her right arm, Avedia grasped upon the pommel of the weapon and swung it out into the air, a roaring heat bursting forth from inside the dark crevice that held the synthetic crystal within, as a crimson light engulfed her in a red glow. "My body carries a great many scars from our time together on Korriban, my Master. But by nights end I will ensure that my servitude will end, as the Sith Order itself learns of your loss. Through victory, my chains shall be broken."

Coiling both her fingers around the Saberstaff, Avedia begun to twirl the twin-blades before her, expending little energy in the rotation of each blades in a refined and much practiced Soresu technique. As she kept her weapon ready, her attuned senses keeping her ready for what her opponent had up his sleeve, Avedia moved around, eyes peeled for the Sith Lord she was facing.

 

[Darth Abyss]

Her words echoed through the desert, a battlefield that mirrored their fight on Korriban. It had to be fate that the blood and bones of one of them would be buried under sand, after they cheated death on the sith homeworld before. The sound a two sabers being activated cut through the silence that followed her words. Based on both noises, that of her weapons and her voice, he was able to get an general sense for her position. The last time they had meet in the open, and it had almost cost his live. This time would be different. Crossing blades was something she was far better at then he himself, so he would take her out another way.

No words answered hers, this was not the time for speeches. Everything had already be said between the two, there was no new web of lies and deception he could shroud her in. Instead Abyss asserted his position, eyeing another piece of cover roughly eight meters from his position. If he was right it would allow him to flank her from the right from there, at least if he used his skills right and masked his movements. It was a choice between being fast or being silent, but with the sand she would sooner or later figure out his path anyway. So fast would be the way to go, but not without a distraction. His left reached for one of the grenades on his back, a weapon of his own design which could also be used as a mine. Attaching the device to the wall he was ducked behind, he activated the timer, and waited for exactly two seconds.

Making a quick sprint towards the half faded wall, he rushed through the sand, ending his way in a roll that erased his figure from sight once more, while his mine sprung of where he had been only seconds before. It wasn't an explosion, but instead smoke mixed with a highly toxic gas was pushed in the air around the mine.

His hands each pulled for one of the throwing knifes in his sleeves, ready to throw them any minute. From where he kneeled, he would have a good line of sight at her, at least if she would investigate, or at least move towards the his little trick. Since their last fight he had been working on ways to beat her next time, and the small steel blade in his hand was one of them. A knife forged with alchemy to absorb poison, and release it once it cut into something, imbued with a mix of three different substances. One that reduced the ability to draw from the force while inducing hallucinations and paranoia, one that reduced mental capabilities and lastly one that was simply lethal. Each of them acted differently, aimed for different parts of body and brain, making it rather hard to cleanse them out of the bloodstream completely, both with the force and conventional means.

[member="Avedia Lacroix"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Darth Abyss"] |

Robes fluttering in a breeze that washed over the landscape, Avedia continued twirling her Saberstaff before her, feet moving through the sands towards where she had spotted the subtle dispersion caused by her opponent's movement. Heat seared through the air, a combination of the desert heat and that of the Saberstaff's blades whirling before her. But with the dark side coursing through her veins, supplying strength to her honed body, Avedia did not feel the fatigue that lesser individuals might have felt.

She paused as the explosion went off. Pitting her cunning and calculative mind to the test, Avedia analyzed her circumstances and what she knew about her opponent. Abyss was tricky, perhaps the trickiest opponent she would ever face in armed combat. He had knowledge of the dark side that it was so that he could easily misdirect an opponent into a trap. During their fight on Korriban, Avedia had realized through hours of meditation on her loss that Abyss had tried to avoid direct combat, instead luring her into a battle of attrition that he had ultimately won through the arcane ability he possessed to continue clinging onto life itself.

Avedia would not be fooled. Instead, the Sith Lord hurriedly made her way backwards, away from the explosion so as to not be lured there by Darth Abyss. As the mist of poisonous gas begun to rise up into the sky in a cloud of bellowing smoke, Avedia smiled at her clever use of intellect. Quickly lowering her right hand off the pommel of her Saberstaff, Avedia removed a respirator from her belt and attached it to her mouth and nose. It was a standard issue respirator that was given to all Jedi Knights when dispatched by the Jedi Order, compliments of her seminal life before she had fought Darth Vornskr and fell to the dark side of the Force.

Although she was now defended from inhaling the gas, Avedia realized that the gas might have a severe affect on her eyes. It was even probable that Abyss had designed the gas to interact with her body in ways that standard poison gases could not. He was a Sith Lord, a man who had studied the dark side far longer than she had, and as such, it was far more likely that he had designed a poison capable of bypassing the respirator and interacting with her skin that would consequentially poison her, regardless of the device that she was currently breathing through.

So I should avoid the gas. Maintaining her distance, Avedia continued to circle around, analyzing the battle closely and waiting for the most opportune moment to strike at Abyss.

 

[Darth Abyss]

From the sound of her lightsaber moving away from him, and not towards him he could conclude that she had seen through his first trap. That was unfortunate but nothing that really surprised him. She had seen what talents he possessed and how he used them, like he had with hers. It called for a more subtle, and more complex approach to deceive her then. Hiding his presence was the key to it, as with the sounds she made and her aura he could rather easily predict her movements while his own were masked by being silent and unseen both physically and in the force

Sand was a wonderful element. Most people only saw stone that had been forced by nature to become dust, but he saw a never ending series of tactical options presented to him. It was light, and therefore easy to shape or use with the art of telekinesis, even for a comparable untalented user of the more physical side of the force.

He leaned slightly besides his cover to look for the next one. Again it was only a few meter away from his position, but this time he wouldn't make the run for it, or move towards it another way. It was only important that she believed that he did. His left reached for one of the grenades once more after placing the throwing knife on the ground before him, this time activating the remote control linked to his come. Instead of throwing it he rolled the small device towards the cover as fast as he could, creating a trail in the sand that became blurred and obscured form a slight force push that could easily pass of as wind, but was still barley visible as something that could also be persevered as footprints.

With a slight noise the device touched the other wall, not enough to wake someone up, but certainly enough to alert someone already keeping and eye and ear out for a potential threat. His left reached for the knife on the ground, and once more he got ready to jump her once she would give him an opportunity.


[member="Avedia Lacroix"]