The last Gamble (Attention TSO, Open challange)

[Darth Abyss]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hHKp1GL2tY

Korriban, The Valley of the Dark Lords

The valley of the sleeping gods was as silent as the graves build inside of it, as the sun was about to touch the horizon in its downfall. Darth Abyss, the Mindeater, stood in its center, his ragged old robe dancing in the slight wind that blew through the desert, the sulfuric yellow of his eyes hidden behind his eyelids. This was his last gamble, the moment he staked everything on one last card that had been dealt to him. The sith were once more planning to rise as one, but this time he wouldn't bow, he would not submit to the orders of others. He was done compromising, he was done being a servant to anything but the force itself. It was to rule or to die. Success or death, as his master always said.

To him it was clear which lords would be the ones to rule once their rise had begun, and he was not one of them. Not yet. But a sith that believed that they could rally under one banner without blood being spilled in the process was not only a fool, but a heretic. Conflict was in their very nature, and only if the strong were allowed to stand above the weak then the sith could flourish. Peace was a lie, and so was equality.

His challenge had been announced on Malachor V when the sith had gathered on his world, and he didn't knew who would come to take it. Would they refuse entirely, it would only tell him that he had been right about them all along, that they were as weak as their words of unity and order. It was not control he sought over them, it was the right to stand for himself in the war to come. If they wished to adhere to the foolishness of an empire, then who was he to deny them. But if he and his world were to be part of it, he would not sit idle while others were in command, he would not allow them to risk all he had build for himself while all he could do was watch and follow.

As the wind died down, the sith lords eyes opened, their unnatural glow piercing through the rising darkness of nightfall, reciting the code that he dedicated his live to out loud for one last time before it would begin.

OOC

Spoiler

With everything going on right now I decided to take a gamble and try to bring Abyss in a position where he can claim a position inside the sith without anyone doubting him. So yeah bring it on, I hope this will be fun.

 

[Darth Voracitos]

A danger lurked, in the eyes of the Dark Lord of Gluttony, golden as his desires, and crimson as the blood he demanded. Cloaked in violet, to demand his royalty, and to hide the darkness which twisted his dead white flesh, so. A great swelling shifted the stiff airs of Korriban, and the dead trembled as Darth Voracitos... Pillar of Knowledge, Shadow Emperor, and Lord of Lorrd... returned to his birth place. Four spider-like legs, struck the earth slowly, one at a time, ferrying above them a Throne of unparalleled structural resilience.

Lord Voracitos casually made his way through the Valley of the Dark Lords, admiring the ancient architecture he grew up surrounded by. They now stood in the presence of dead giants, and Voracitos felt right at home. Except, this was not exactly a homecoming - Voracitos had come with a very specific purpose in mind, and that purpose sat before him some distance away. He recited the familiar code he knew too well, and as darkness fell Voracitos prepared for a battle of all varieties - mind, spirit, even to some mild degree the body - Voracitos was no longer an idle beast, but a being of weight and madness. He brought nothing with him, except the terrifying annals of his mind.

Voracitos was determined to put this absurdity to an end, and welcomed any Sith who would dare to join him. This was an opportunity for Voracitos, to expand his influence further, or extinguish a potential rival. He knew almost nothing about the figure before him, but knew he was a Sith Lord of secrets, and knew not to underestimate his opponent.

"You have chosen an excellent site to meditate upon, I have done the same many times in my youth." Voracitos rumbled into the void, observing the sky and the structures around him.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The shadowy figure of Darth Abyss watched as the master of gluttony made is entrance into the valley, his body devoid of any motion. In the past he would've felt fear, or at least a push of adrenalin when faced by a powerful enemy, but today there was nothing left but pure, cold determination. Measured by sith lord standards the mindeater was young, merely 22 years had he walked the galaxy, and yet he had accomplished much in his time. His ambition had made him stand out between his peers more than once, his obsession had kindled the flame of passion within to burn bright enough to defy even death.

"[member="Darth Voracitos"]. Normally I would now give a speech, web a net of lies and deception to break you before the battle has even begun. But I am done talking."

His opponent was powerful, but he was so in mind and spirit, not in his body. Weight and age had buried what once probably had been a strong and fit man, while Abyss was on his physical peak. He was not nearly as strong as the true warriors of the order, but his speed, strength and endurance was still that of a man in his early twenties that had trained his body every day and every night. That was an advantage he would make use of, instead of exhausting the strength of his mind and spirit already.

The figure remained motionless for another moment, every muscle of his body relaxed to mask any sign of his next move. Then without any further warning his hands pushed forward, two knifes being thrown at the chest of the gigantic monster of a man with the deadly speed and precision that came from years of experience. Normally the poison of one was enough, but judging by the mans figure two were needed this time. The small weapons were a personal design by Abyss, imbued by runes that allowed them to hold poison in their very molecular structure until they hit a target. As for the poison, it was a personal creation as well. A mix of 3 different substances made with the intent to put an opponent gifted with the force at the disadvantage. By blending a sort of spice, a neuro toxin and a simple, yet highly deadly poison he created a substance that not only could diminish a persons connection to the force while creating rather distracting hallucinations, but which was also very hard to purge from the body as it attacked 3 different parts of it at once.

 

[Darth Voracitos]

To say one is done talking, is a cliche and signature hallmark of one who is about to attack. Voracitos needed no preternatural sense to prepare, or anticipate the opening of an attack. Speed was irrelevant when an opponent already knew what you were going to do next, and Voracitos would take this to his full advantage, the mere moment anything moved. Voracitos would not provide his enemy the luxury of finishing his opening attack, and would do so in the least amount of energy necessary to render any attack moot.

Without outstretching a single hand, or making any movements at all, using only the reaction of his mind, a wave of the force would blast forth through the air with such voracity the blades imperceptibly sent through the air would be caught in the clutches of his mind's blast, and sent tumbling along with the rest of the debris Voracitos ushered forth towards his enemy. It was a tactic of brutality, of sheer will over matter. If his opponent was going to attack like a brute, he would be reduced to a brute. While Voracitos was not particularly known for his telekinesis, one did not grow old, fat, and lazy without first having a means to bend the world to you. This world too, would bend for him as he willed it.

At any rate, the blast Voracitos created with his mind would, if it did as he intended it to, reach Abyss and perhaps cause some cosmetic damage, but most importantly would likely set him off balance - stun him, if you will - for a moment. The less time Abyss had to react, all the more favor for Voracitos.

"A shame, intellect might've looked good on you," Voracitos sneered as he lifted his hand just so, before a Viridian blast of lightning cut through the dust in the wake of his telekinetic blast, the menacing glow magnified by the fresh glass shattering upon the ground, created by the super-heated sand melted as his power arced throughout the air, searching for Abyss through the quickest paths. Voracitos spoke once more as the energy out-poured from his hand, his voice booming so that all could hear if they were around to hear it.

"Except if you had any, we wouldn't be here!" Voracitos continued to boom with malicious laughter.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

While his initial attack was erased without his enemy even lifting his finger, the telekinetic blast offered an advantage to Abyss that [member="Darth Voracitos"] probably hadn't anticipated. He was after all a Lord that traversed the shadows, a man that more than once had been mistaken for a ghost by those not versed in the force. Balancing his stance out with his cybernetic right leg, he allowed the kinetic energy to hit him, leaving a few bruises on his body but not much more. Then he was swallowed by the sand and debris that came with the attack, gone from sight. When the lightning of his opponent followed and the fog of dust and sand was departed by the surge of energy, the Black Assassin was nowhere to be seen as he was shrouded in the art of force cloak, even his steps in the sand masked by the falling cloud that had obscured him only seconds before, and his aura reduced to nothing but a distant echo in the force.

He had heard that the master of gluttony was strong, but he hadn't been aware in which ways and to which extend exactly. The burst of dark side energy that had made sand intk glass had allowed him a slight bit of insight, and now he knew to be far more cautious. Using his physical superiority was still his best bet, but he would rather focus on his endurance than on speed and strength. Using the force needed energy, and if done over an extend period of time it would slowly drain his enemy, giving him an opportunity to strike. But to get so far he had to keep his own energy output as low as possible.

His position hadn't changed that much. He merely moved a few steps backwards and to his right, hiding behind a half broken pillar, one of the many relics left by the sith of old days. Here he felt save enough to drop his visual cloak, but he still used a part of his focus to hide his aura. A sith as strong as his current adversary would've probably been able to find him only by feeling it if he did not.

This encounter would remind him to carry some kind of ion weapon or emp device the next time he was in the field, which would've now been rather helpful at immobilizing his opponent. For now an alternative had to do. His left hand reached for the small gun on his back, a slugthrower with an suppressor attached to it. His right also wandered to his back, where it firmly gripped another tool of his own design. An N25 grenade, a small infiltration device that was stocked with two payloads. One was a simple smokescreen, but the other was a light bending cell. It was basically an anti flashbang, a electromagnetic field that manipulated light to the degree were only darkness was left in a range of roughly 3 meters around it. While he allowed the grenade to cook for a few seconds, he quickly recited an old nightsister spell which allowed him to use sound to perceive his surroundings not unlike a sonar.

Time for his next move. Stepping out from behind the pillar he threw the grenade towards the other sith lord, the device going of mid flight shrouding Abyss and hopefully his adversary in darkness. With only a second delay he took aim, firing three rounds. One at the man's chest, one at his head and the last on towards his shoulder. Some sith were skilled swordsman, others true masters of the force. Abyss on the other hand simply survived because there was no code of moral or honor that he held him back from using absolutely every tool that was available to him, and over time his aim with a gun overshadowed his prowess with a lightsaber.

OOC

Spoiler

Sorry for the long post. Should you ever feel like some action is taking to long or is unbelievable to you in any other way, please feel free to pm me so I can make the changes accordingly.

 

[Ras'kala'han]

It was close enough to see and hear, but far away enough to call it a 'safe distance', so to speak. He had been at the gathering on Malachor V, where he considered himself lucky to get a word in edgewise in a storm of power and ego of epic proportions. He had seen the renegade Darth deny the call for the Sith to once more rally behind a single banner. And he knew that there was only one way this could end. The Sith, the nature of the Sith, the power of the Sith may seem to defy unity, but there was one path that could unite them: fill every valley with blood, stamp every mountain flat.

The nascent governments he saw forming where more formal compacts for the Sith to follow as they ruled their own domains, but if one did not abide by them, they were meaningless. To that end, if the Sith were to truly re-emerge as an imperial power, [member="Darth Abyss"] would need to be laid low.

It seemed that his master shared this sentiment. His relationship with [member="Darth Voracitos"] was a touch... fraught, but they had both thus far profited from it. One might even say that they would learn to tolerate one another, given time, without any threats or scorn factoring into the conversation. They would be wrong, but still - the point where he would need to act against the man was far on the horizon.

Like a circling vulture, Antherion floated in his hoverchair atop a nearby temple rooftop. A flicker of steel became an explosion of debris, which immediately imploded into pitch darkness. It was faster than he could have thought, and he had yet to even discern a hint of effort. The Lord of Lorrd clashed with the Lord of Malachor and all he could do was watch. If the balance tipped one way, he might need to fight to save his master - or if it tipped too far, earn the admiration of the other by helping destroy him. For now he stood in awe of the true terror that was the Lords of the Sith.

 

[Darth Voracitos]

What was this guy, a Mandalorian?

Immediately, Abyss exposed his position by tossing a 'projectile' just moments after Voracitos had lost him as his lightning ceased to find its target. With a slight smirk his hand outstretched to deflect the grenade, before darkness fell over everything. Voracitos was unfamiliar with any technology which did this, but despite the jarring surprise he merely dealt with it in such a way that he dealt with all surprises - violent reprisal. He had already begun to prepare another telekinetic blast the moment Abyss revealed himself, so it required little more focus to pour his present frustration into an even greater blast not only in front of him, but in every direction. If he could not see his enemy, then he would destroy every place his enemy could be. In the resulting explosion of the force, the grenade generating this darkened effect would be either destroyed outright or flung far enough away that it would not longer preside over them.

Voracitos huffed once before his eye's locked with Abyss's form, and noticed his already labored breathing, was just a bit more labored than usual. Also as well, his subconscious focus on maintaining his pain, to prevent his bonds from distracting him, began to moderately degrade with what he realized was a fresh wound in his chest. With a quick touch of blood to his hands, a fury began to grow inside of Voracitos, a hunger, a desire to consume nearly unparalleled by any who called themselves his peers. The golden glow of his still living eye, began to flake into a deep crimson. A great roar filled the Valley of the Dark Lord's, as Voracitos reached out with an all consuming hate, a red tendril of gluttony bent on connecting itself to Abyss's essence, and rip out whatever life he had to offer as recompense for the wound he had cause. A death field grew and flowed outward from the red tendrils hungrily devouring the air between the Sith Lord's, sucking whatever life existed between them, feeding the Dark Lord greedily and without pause.

Voracitos did not operate in half measures, and he would ensure that everything knew, clearly, who here was the Master of Consumption.

[member="Darth Abyss"], [member="Antherion"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The darkness was gone as quick as it had fallen upon them, his little trick device blasted in a wide arc through the valley, landing somewhere far beyond the two sith lords interlocked in a battle of mind and might. Yet his combination of attacks had still been a success, marked by the singular wound that his enemy had suffered. Not a deadly one obviously, but many small cuts could bleed out a man better than a single, big one. That was what he was playing at, slowly draining his enemies body down in a more physical as well as in a spiritual sense.

He was about to fire the next bullet to add up another cut, when he felt the power that gripped at his essence, threatening to rip it out of him with a degree of power that Abyss had not yet faced before. The ability was nothing new to him, but the level on which[member="Darth Voracitos"] performed it was outstanding. If it wasn't for his live being in grave danger, he probably would've found all this fairly fascinating to observe.

But instead of studying his opponent he had to find a way to beat him. First step. Break his concentration, the one thing needed for displays of the force above anything else. He could already feel as his live force was drained out of his body and into his enemy, when his right reached for another grenade from his back. Instead of an anti flashbang it was simply an actual flashbang. Nothing special, but fairly effective anyway. Maybe the sith Lord had to break his concentration to redirect the small explosive, only to be at least partially blinded by the weapon from a distance, or he would allow it to reach him where the flash of light would very temporarily confuse him, while Abyss could simply continue to perceive the world through sound, unaffected by the visual deceptions he carried.

Yet his attack didn't ended there, it merely had just begun. Step two, retaliation strike. Voracitos might was the master of gluttony, but Abyss was the mindeater. If the other sith lord meant to steal something from him, so he would steal something Form him as well. Trying to shield himself as far as possible from the drain of the the other lord, an attempt with little to no success, he opened up the abyss that was his mind. An uncontrolled maelstrom, ready to devour any memories, thoughts and emotions that his opponent held, in from of a mental attack that felt like a void had just opened, a strange, unnatural pull that tried to break down the walls that guarded a mind, until nothing but chaos, confusion and pain would be left.

[member="Antherion"]

 

[Darth Voracitos]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGIu6-WtwEs​

​

Tricks will not save you from the maw of my gluttony! Voracitos thought as [member="Darth Abyss"] reached for yet another grenade, as he succumbed beautifully to his carnal delight. The wound Voracitos suffered sealed under the oppressive authority of the dark side, and the stolen essence of his combatant drained out of his body. Yet even so, a burning bright sun erupted in the air, and a sound... oh, a great singular booming sound stung at his ears in ways that would have made his stomach roil in unbalance had they been enclosed in a tighter space, while the momentary pressure on his skin increased in a brief instance as the flashbang detonated in the open air. Yet even still, the effects were dispersed over the wide open terrain, and while his eyes experienced a general white blindness enhanced by the darkness of nightfall, the deafening sound was least of his temporary discomfort. The ringing for the both of them would certainly be a distraction from conscious use of the force...

... but hunger, hunger was not something you chose to feel, it was not a conscious thing to decide to be. Though Voracitos was never hungry, that addiction to consume, the everlasting need for consumption, was an innate instinct which fell beyond the horizons of conscious use. Though perhaps the terrifying effects of the death field Voracitos had created would not be so direct and willful, it existed and persisted beyond his loss of concentration. The devil would be fed, and those who stood against him, would wither to join the dusts of Korriban.

Voracitos would then feel a pull towards his enemy, a great assailing wind upon the walls of his powerful mind. The winds assaulted from all directions, tearing down the tiles of the mental palatial dimension of the Dark Lord's mind. Windows into his thoughts would shatter, and rooms of memories - his own and of others - would find themselves twisting, bending, and sometimes breaking apart into tiny fragments which eluded the protection of his great walls. It was indeed a maelstrom, a void collapsing mental reality towards it, a drain of thoughts, knowledge, and consciousness existed before him while he, the Pillar of Knowledge himself, stood firm against the weathering storm. Yet even time could erode the mightiest pillars, and dilute the most sacred and arcane knowledge.

So then, the dead Dark Lord's of the Valley watched on as their descendants fought at a mutual point of equilibrium... the Mindeater tore down the sacred walls of his Palace, as the Colossus of Corpulence severed the connections of life itself, a field of death and madness enveloping the two in an epic struggle neither would sensibly win. The Mindeater would parish, but leave the Master of Gluttony without a mind, an open wound without consciousness. This was not something with which Voracitos desired, and thus the tables must turn...

... or something new be placed upon it.

With all of his conscious effort, and not without considerable exhaustion, taxing upon his control of the pain which now permeated every fiber of his being, Voracitos sought to end the maelstrom with immediacy. With what strength he could gain from the connections to the force he consumed, Voracitos drew within him pressure, pressure in the air, pressure in the force, a pressure of energy, and held it there for as long as he could withstand the madness eating at his mind with greater strength as time moved on. Voracitos' mental fortitude was among the greatest of many Sith Lord's, but had been diminished by the bonds which weighed down his spirit with their pathetic pain and suffering, and to his fellow Sith Lord's credit Darth Abyss proved to be a considerably powerful colleague of formidable mental ability. So, eventually, Voracitos could no longer maintain the pressure inside of him burning like a furnace as walls began to weaken to a point of no-return.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Voracitos bellowed as a wave of dark side force energy, telekinetic and electrifying in its awesome power, blasted through the valley with surprising voracity. Dust rose high into the sky in a plume, and some microscopic shards of glass might graze across the skin, as the expanding pressure wave pushed everything away from the Sith Lord in a terrible fury. Voracitos had not used everything he had, but what he had left to bring to bear was a middling of what he originally came with. The weaknesses which he had divulged to [member="Antherion"] were indeed taxing upon his strength, and for Voracitos to truly rise above his peers... he would see them removed with immediacy.

It was to be hoped, such an offensive would bring the duel to a stand still, or at least a pause.