The meeting of master and apprentice. (JACK MIRRIKH)

[Shaddi]

Location: In orbit Above Csilla Galactic Grid coordinates: F-8 Physical Location: Within his personal apartment in the control spire of the Zuguruk-class station In orbit over Csilla (Training room)

​

Erebos paced in place as his frustration showed quite clearly on his face, it was one of the rare moments that he wasn't in his armor and simply in a sleeveless training robe. In the middle of the room was the holocron of Karness Murr, a famed Sith alchemist and master of force lightning and sorcery. Only once before had Erebos managed to open the holocron and through it he had learned sith barrage, a skill he thought to be among his most useful when it came to combat. However the gatekeeper was an exceptionally fickle creature and seemed to give it's knowledge only on it's own personal whims, this frustrated the Sith knight to now end.
"I said open Damn you!" He screamed as he poured force lightning from his fingertips, putting his full power to bear against the object. As the Empowered Lightning hit the holocron it simply skittered along the smooth surface of the floor and stopped when it hit a corner of the room. It had been a chore to open the holocron the first time as well but over the past few weeks it had been quite an ordeal to open a feat he still hadn't managed yet, the opportune word being yet.
He walked barefoot towards the holocron and picked it up harshly as he stomped out of the training room and into the library next door to it, there in rows were lines of copied holocrons and texts he had gotten from the sith Library on Coruscant, before it had been sacked by the republic, and at the temple of pain on Freisa. The holocron in his hand was one of his most prized possessions and it held a special place in a pedestal that the rest of the library seemed to pour or emanate from, that had been the design of the room to begin with. Placing the holocron on the pedestal he looked to one of the two other pedestals that flanked the middle one but were a little lower than it. On one was an ancient tome of alchemy and the other a tome on sorcery both found with the holocron.
Taking the one on Sorcery he moved to his private study and office that had a grand viewport over the stations inner ring, were a large transport frigate was currently being constructed. Sitting at the large table with his back to the view port he began to read through the tome, written in the ancient sith language which had taken Erebos months to learn enough of to read the book. It hadn't been an hour before a small light began to blink on the side of the table and a chime of an incoming com could be heard.
"Sir there is a shuttle inbound from the one sith that says it is carrying the apprentice assigned to you, should we give them permission to land?" A young officers voice said, filling the silent air with his voice. With a raised eyebrow Erebos responded. "I give permission escort the apprentice up to my office once he lands I wish to see him or her immediately." Once the communication was cut off, Erebos leaned back into his seat as he brought his hands up to level with his mouth. He hadn't heard of an apprentice assigned to be under his tutelage but then again he hadn't paid much attention to the one sith as a whole for a while now, but this interested him quite a bit. With a slight movement of his finger he made the book float up into the air and moved it gently to be placed back where he had initially took it from.
Now he'd simply wait and see the young acolyte that was supposed to become his apprentice.


[member="Jack Mirrikh"]

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Jack Mirrikh tried to meditate on his way to a mysterious station over Csilla. It mainly consisted of him sitting cross-legged on the ground and stewing in his thoughts. He would occasionally flinch involuntarily as certain mental pathways of thinking lead to other paths which lead to emotions that triggered memories that weren't his. The "memories that weren't his" was the way that Jack explained the strong neural pathways that had been scoured through his mind when he would experience powerful emotions and memories left behind from his use of psychometry.

It helped when, at some point during his meditation, he took out the Baoding balls he kept in his travel bag. At first, he worked his hand muscles and circulation by shifting them around in his hand. Then, he tried focusing on making them turn around each other while being lifted in the air. The rotation speed was slow and he couldn't manage much distance between the balls and his hand. When the shuttle came in to dock, he packed up his Baoding balls and waited by the door.

From there, it was one shuttle point to the next one to an elevator to a tramway to another elevator to somewhere else that someone guided him to and he EVENTUALLY got into the final elevator that lead up towards his new master's place. Throughout the journey, his face remained passive and emotionless. There was a nervous energy in his bones and a single butterfly in his stomach, but, other than that, he was okay.

The door finally opened and he walked into the next chapter of his life. He would walk inside and try to find his new master, of which he knew little about. If he couldn't find anyone, he'd stand still in the middle of the room and look around. If he saw someone who looked like he owned the place ([member="Darth Erebos"]), then he would walk into casual conversation distance, stand easy and wait to be spoken to first.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos had seen [member="Jack Mirrikh"] arriving with the elevator before he had even reached the apartment that took an entire floor of the station, one of the benefits of seeing with the force instead of regular eyes he mused. He waited until Jack had arrived before him and made sure his face was facing jack though his eyes were blindfolded in the fashion of his Miralukan ancestry. 'Hmm he's strong in the force and hasn't fully immersed himself in the dark side yet.' Was the first thought to pop into Erebos's head.
"What is the source of your power?" Were the first words uttered by him as he stood up from the chair and moved to stand within easy striking distance of Jack, his own lightsaber was packed neatly away in his sleeping quarters along with his armor so besides the force he was unarmed. His first question was fallowed up by another. "What is the source of a sith's power?" Erebos wouldn't waste any time with this acolyte and would begin his training immediately as well as his testing.
If Erebos was to part with his knowledge and power he'd make sure that Jack was worthy to receive enough knowledge to become his successor or at least be able to train Erebos's successor in the future should the need ever arise.
Beginning to circle around Jack, he feigned disinterest and if Jack answered wrong he would use a slight force spark to zap him though it was only enough to cause minor pain it was enough to convey that wrong answers or mistakes would be punished in some form or another, that was how he was trained and that is how he would train jack.
"Do you have a lightsaber already?" He asked then as he completed a circle and put out his hand to receive the lightsaber should jack have one on his person.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Jack was the very model of disinterest as he stood there before his new master. Such was Jack's way, as he rarely showed emotion unless he felt strongly about something.

"The source of my power...is the will to survive. Emotions, such as pain and fear, drive my will to survive." In reality, Jack wasn't all too certain about the answer to this question. If someone hurt him, he was going to make darn sure that they felt his pain, too. His mind was scared with the powerful negative emotions of at least 7 women; victims of his rich, predatory father secret hobby. Sometimes, those emotions mixed with his own subconsciously, heightening his desperation.


"I supposed that any Sith's source of power is the collective Dark Side. However, it is different for each Sith on how deep or which part of the Dark Side they draw from. One may take piece in gluttony; another in the coursing rush of rage. You rarely find a Sith who draws power from engorging himself furiously, though..." Was that humor? Was it funny at all? Jack didn't know, but he couldn't help but let a ghost of a smile touch his lips. It didn't last long before his face returned to being passive.

Jack obediently took his lightsaber from his side and offered it to [member="Darth Erebos"].

Spoiler

This is my lightsaber, but the blade is purple and can be seen in my Profile Avatar.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos took the lightsaber and moved it around in his hand as he examined it, felt it's weight in his hands. Then he placed the saber on his own belt, as he pressed a button on the table behind him and took out two identical sabers. "Here while we train we will use these and you will leave your own ligthsaber in a location of my choosing each time we train, understood." It might sound like a question to some but it was an unequivocal order to his apprentice. Handing one of the saber hilts to [member="Jack Mirrikh"] and then walking away with the other in his own hand, Erebos headed towards the training room. "What you hold there in your hand is a training saber of my own design, it will make sure that the area hit with it will only go numb instead of a wound this way I don't have to hold back as much and you can go as wild as you please without me having to fear you'll cut yourself to pieces."
Erebos moved into position near the middle of the room as he turned his saber on, pointing it down at an angle away from himself but not showing any other sign of readying himself to fight his student. "Attack me, if you can get one hit on me then I will move on to force powers otherwise I will continue at a harder pace with you in saber training until you manage a hit on me." This would ultimately be Erebos's way of making sure his student could handle himself if pressed into a situation were mustering up the concentration to use force abilities ever arose, the lightsaber would be as much an extension of Jack as his force abilities.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

So, Jack took the lightsaber and got a hit on Darth Erebos. lol. God modding's fun.

Most Acolytes would probably become really angry at the prospect of having to forfeit their own lightsaber. Jack wasn't that way, though. Sure, he liked the lightsaber and he certainly didn't like the idea of replacing it with a generic lightsaber. However, it made logical sense for him to do as [member="Darth Erebos"] said and switch out. So, he respectfully nodded his head and accepted the training saber. He tried to get a feel for it in his right hand by twisting and spinning it around and around. He needed to buy some time while he acclimated to this new saber.

He kept turning it around and around in his hand and started pacing back and forth in front of his master. He, too, kept his lightsaber un-activated. He said,

"What manner of being are you, Master? Human? Near-Human? A special species that I haven't heard of yet? Is there something wrong with your sight, Master?" He stared intently at his master, but his mannerisms remained neutral. He squeezed the hilt and adjusted his grip on it. Now, Jack knew he was unlikely to gain all of the familiarity that he was going to need to maximize efficiency. However, the little that he was learning at the time was much more helpful than not.


(I'm basing what Jack sees of you off of your bio's unarmored pic.)

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos seemed to smile as he moved his free hand up and removed his blindfold, opening his eyes which were pitch black. "I'm a half breed of a miralukan and a Sephir, through that union I am physically blind but I can still see through the force thanks to my miralukan father." He said with a slight smirk growing on his lips as he brought the blade up to chest level, with the lightsaber pointed up as he ignited it and then brought it into a makashi dueling salute as he moved his other hand towards [member="Jack Mirrikh"] in an inviting gesture. "Now apprentice quit stalling and show me were you stand so I can see what will need to be learned and taught."

​

His smile suggested he was going to thoroughly enjoy dueling his apprentice, a little humility and being faced with a vastly superior adversary was the fire that lit under Erebos the thirst for more power and knowledge and he hoped that would also be the case for Jack. With another wave of his free hand a blue ring of flame appeared around them, defining an arena ring to show his student there would be now backing down on this, the flame was a shimmering blue with red streaks running through it every so often. The flame was as close to plasma as Erebos could bring it to without actually making it into plasma.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Jack was taken aback a little by the eyes. They were black like his own, except that Jack actually had whites on his eyeballs. When he saw the arena of fire form around him, he thought, Frell. Any and all of this was probably going to hurt. At least he wasn't going to decapitate himself, though.

Now that he had laid a foundation for Dun Moch, he would try to press it. However, Jack wasn't an idiot. When you wanted to establish a positive relationship with a man who would be your master, you chose your words carefully. Even though Jack's initial efforts at Dun Moch may not be effective in this duel, he would gain more understanding to find the fine balance that would unsettle his master's concentration, but not alienate him in the long term.

The butterfly in his stomach had populated since the final elevator ride. He wanted to learn, but he didn't want to be seen as completely incompetent. He decided not to try to distract his master with excessive lightsaber movement. He needed to keep it simple and minimize mistakes. He advanced at a walking pace, his Tsaber drawn, active, and pointed diagonally from his body at the ground. As he walked, he said,

"I'm sure you've had plenty of time to cope with the idea of not being able to ever see color. It's not like people can use words to describe the color bl--" and that was when he struck.

He quickly flicked his wrist to point up and diagonally away from his body as a distraction. A split second after that, he jumped up and kicked his foot out at [member="Darth Erebos"]. He would try to follow that up with a downward cleave with his lightsaber, but the follow through from the lightsaber was sure to be a bit sloppy.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos simply looked at [member="Jack Mirrikh"] as he advanced towards him with his saber lit. When he began speaking however Erebos couldn't help but smirk as he took a step back to avoid the first slash but realized it was a feint as the kick came at him, ducking out of it's way which exposed his back to the downwards slice that followed it. At the last second Erebos brought his saber up to block the slash and turned his head towards jack, his face betrayed nothing, no emotion and no intent.
'So he wishes to try his hand at dun möch does he?' Erebos thought as he moved to the side and brought his blade into a wide arching slash and spun to bring it into a stab towards Jack.
"Is that all you are capable of? Simple and frankly amateurish distractions and sloppy executions of blade work?" He then said as he brought his stab into a slash up wards only to turn his back towards Jack as well and brought his leg into a swift kick towards Jack's chest. Erebos had griped the foundations of Dun möch as he had found it to be a useful skill to have and he was impressed that jack had decided to try his hand at it, the other sith hadn't even tried to even learn about it to his knowledge. This showed that Jack definitely had potential.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Not fazed a bit. Darn. His master's words might have cut him if he actually had an ego to cut. However, Jack wasn't one to fool himself. He was a guppy...but, uh...a guppy with a lightsaber. Yeah. He was a lightsaber wielding guppy compared to the lightsaber wielding Asian carp that was to be his master. He replied,

"Well, to be honest Master, I AM an amateur. That's why I'm here to learn under you. We can be the blind leading the "blind"."

He had to rotate his wrist fast at an awkward angle to deflect the very quick stab.

"I have my strengths, though. I can make a mean ham and cheese sandwh---"

His eyes followed his master's blade as he reared his head back to avoid the upward slash, to which his dialogue interrupted and he was greeted in the chest by his master's boot. He wasn't wearing armor, so he involuntarily gave off a sound that was similar to "GARUMPH!". Instead of backing off, he bent over and clamped the leg to his chest with his left arm. He would then try to swivel his saber arm over to point the Tsaber at [member="Darth Erebos"]' chest. This was a sign that he was trying to trade pain for a winning advantage. Whether he had an upper hand or not would depend on how Erebos had reacted to his actions.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos looked at [member="Jack Mirrikh"] as he was about to be struck, his face didn't display anything but he seemed to simply let Jack hold his leg while the lightsaber was pointed at his chest. "Interesting tactic though there is something you should realize... Force lightning is much more effective when in contact with someone." He said as a slight amused smirk formed on his lips and the the ground behind Jack erupted in red force lightning, though it was just far enough away from him so as to not touch him. "Would you mind letting my leg go now?" He asked as he turned his saber off and waited for jack to let go of his leg.

"You show promise and tactical thinking as well, but your form requires work as is with most things with acolytes. I have an acquaintance I'm taking as my second apprentice though I'm sure that will not last very long as he is much farther along than yourself but it could be a good point to aim towards as a short term goal. [member="Nomkneer artzhul"] Is a dedicated acolyte, in fact I was expecting him for a visit in the near future." Erebos said as he waved his hand and made the fire disappear before he waved his hand again towards a corner of the room and a small droid came out of a compartment out of the wall.

"This is a Zuguruk Tyro Saber droid, it was designed by me and several members of the Zuguruk Tyûk Industries engineering department. It is programmed with all the starting stages of all the seven lightsaber forms, it is also much more patient than I am and has the same lightsaber as you do now. I want you to choose one of the first six forms and learn it through the droid. However if you do not know any of the forms or what they specialize in I suggest the first form, Shii-choo." Erebos said as the droid hovered over and stayed in place as if waiting to be issued a request for training.

 

[Nomkneer]

Nomkneer was on his way towards [member="Darth Erebos"] location in a small orbit over csilla, "requesting permission to enter under direct orders of [member="Darth Erebos"]", Nomkneer smirked as he always loves to get another training, another boost in experience and strenght. "let me check... ok Nomkneer Artzhul? yeah we've been waiting, station your ship on the lower compartment you'll be taken to Darth Erebos from there". Nomkneer flew to the lower part of the station and he went inside, the station opened and he went in, many ships of all types were inside ready to be used in any galactic war.

"take me to [member="Darth Erebos"]!" Nomkneer after 25 minutes of waiting around the lower parts was getting him irritated and he was already ready to decapitate some unworthy incompetence, good thing he was in a good mood. Nomkneer was taken through the station and finally was arriving at the training room with [member="Darth Erebos"], he enters the room and sees a small droid waiting to train a new fresh soul for the darkness to take.

"greetings [member="Darth Erebos"], i come here as requested i am here to listen and follow" Nomkneer stood in place waiting for [member="Darth Erebos"] to give him an order or just to tell him something, he knew that integrity means anything to the young kaleesh but for now he was aching to receive his new training with his new master.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

His eyes went wide and he jumped a little when he heard the crackle of electricity sound behind his back. He dropped the leg while his cheeks began to flush with embarrassment. He didn't show it, but a piece of him really appreciated the small amount of praise coming from his new master. As he listened to his master, he was thinking on whether he wanted to be vicious with these droids or not.

On one hand, he could make a bold impression on his master and they would bring more difficult droids...on the other hand, he could actually take the time to learn something and not waste his master's resources. He took the latter, but that didn't stop him from adding in a bit of boldness.

He rushed up to the droid, Tsaber in hand. When he got close enough, he kicked it square in the stomach. This did little damage, as the blow hit much surface area, but it sent the droid hovering back. He pointed his saber towards the training drone, said, "Fight me, droid!" and activated the Tsaber. He didn't waste time here because Dun Moch would be ineffective. Insulting a droid's manufacturers was not going to work one iota.

The droid (presumably) responded. It activated its beam and came at Jack. Jack shifted his Tsaber up and swung against the oncoming blow. He had no idea what Shii-Cho was, so he simply swung. He swing left, right and even spin to add more momentum to his blow. He had to do a bit of back stepping and dodging, but he would come back and shove the droid away with a kick or a blow. He gave the battle his full attention and earnest effort. Not one fueled by his emotions and/or the Dark Side's power, though.

He turned his head at some point and said, "Master? What exactly is Shii-Cho?"

He would not notice the newcomer as he did battle.


(I'm really sorry about the horrendous wait time, fellas)
[member="Nomkneer artzhul"]
[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos watched as [member="Jack Mirrikh"] rushed the droid without any form, it was simple rushing and instinctual flurries of strikes. No form or function but the potential was definitely there. When [member="Nomkneer artzhul"] arrived Erebos turned his head to seem to be looking at him, moving his hand to gesture Nomkneer to come stand by his side. "Nomkneer I requested you here because I wish to oversee the last parts of your training to become a knight. I hope this is satisfactory to you." He said to the Kaleesh as he stood next to him. "However to do that I must know about what abilities you know of so I can know the foundation that you've built for yourself and then proceed from there."
Turning his head to continue watching Jack work the droid into a frustrated frenzy as he went straight through it's programming and was frantically trying to simply protect itself from the over eager acolyte. When jack finally asked Erebos what shii-cho was, he had to chuckle to himself. "Ask the droid and it will go through the first moves to show you, that is what it's programmed for. To train novices and even children in the basics of lightsaber combat and forms." Looking at the droid he spoke the simple command. "Teach him shii-cho basics." And the droid complied and began to project a hologram to show a body, it then went through the basics from the first salute to the very first blocks and attacks of the form. The teaching was aimed to be easy to absorb as it was simply the very rudimentary basics of the form, it could however help correct imperfect executions of the moves.

 

[Nomkneer]

Nomkneer walked in slowly and listening to all that [member="Darth Erebos"] said, "well i have some techniques mainly i use for combat dual-wield niman, deadly sight and telekinesis, i would like to learn some new techniques as i only know a few but i am well experienced with them". Nomkneer wanted to rise to knight but it would mean nothing if his strenght is not like one, although he fought Darth Rapax twice and survived with minimal injuries, he still cannot defeat even him. "i have been practicing these new techniques, one i am creating (force zen) and the other is well some old text i found in the Atrisian libraries (force walk)"

Nomkneer told this to Darth Erebos while watching his new acolyte training with the droid, Nomkneers insanity would lead him to do things that not most people would, he has never learned shii-cho before. He took out one of his lightsabers, stood back and watched the droids movements, positions and stance, Nomkneer then started copying the robots movements in order to learn shii-cho, niman is a collective bunch from ever style, but in order to perfect niman correctly, you should know all basic styles.

Straight slash down and then a swift pull and hardened stance for block, the Cho strike as its called throughout the universe. Nomkneer imitated the droid without failure, positioning his arms correctly and always watching his stance, shii-cho may be a pretty basic style, but its a dangerous style nonetheless. Nomkneer had a knack for putting himself where he wants to, he saw free training, the mind of the Acolyte was unstable and tainted by the darkness, great power to overcome and control his darkness is what he searches and he would not stop until he could defeat himself.

Only people who can sense the mind can notice Nomkneers darkness which is impeding his sanity, only a handful of people know about this and none have any idea on how to overcome that wall

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Jack listened to the droid and took in its teachings. Form 1 was known for being wild, raw and dogged. It involved targeting the six zones of the enemy's body in strike patterns that were either horizontal and vertical or strictly diagonal. It also focused on disarming, rather than killing or harming. Jack was fine with that...for now, anyway. He swung and swung at the target zones. This time, he made his blows purposeful, not especially wild. At first, he tried striking the zones in sequential order. Then, when he became familiar with the zones, he started hitting them at random. He tried to quickly think up numbers between 1 and 6 and he would then strike that zone.

Sometimes he was a little too slow and sloppy at it; sometimes he would be quite quick at hitting the next target. A couple of times, his mind would freeze and he couldn't think of the right number. So, he simply hit the zone closest to his blade. This training was starting to become strenuous now. He could only swing this light Tsaber so many times before his muscles burned and begged for rest.

When he decided that he'd had enough, he put in one last burst effort to knock the droid's saber to his left side. He then spun around and swung at the same zone, trying to slice its saber in half. He accidentally cut its arm in two. Letting out a sharp exhale of heated disappointment through his nostrils, he sat down and leaned his head towards the ground. A couple drops of sweat fell to the ground and he wish he wasn't wearing this armor anymore. There was a definite need to improve upon his father's prototype designs...


[member="Nomkneer artzhul"]
[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos's body was slightly rigid as he watched the two acolytes and then when he saw both were too distracted to notice his absence for a few moments he moved out of the room. He came back just in time to see [member="Jack Mirrikh"]'s accident with the droid. Walking up between the acolytes he dropped two very light training robes and another training saber for [member="Nomkneer artzhul"], he then moved to the side and donned his full armor. Once his mask was on he took out a training saber of his own, though this one was like his own a gross guarded one. "Put those on and only those, no armor, nothing to hamper your movements. We will only use the training sabers since I don't want you to leave here without a limb."
With that statement from his masks deepening and distorting vocal filters, he turned his saber on and gave it a slight flurry before he took a very open stance, it was the signal for both to begin. He would now teach them how to pace themselves in battle, this time even though he could beat both of them down quickly he would teach them the art of wars of attrition. He would siphon their power with ease of movement and hopefully in the end show them that there are other way's of beating one's enemy than with simple strength of arms or pure power. Well that and he wanted to face living opponents for a change.

 

[Nomkneer]

Nomkneer never carries any armor, he always goes light for quick and momentous attacks he uses niman with dual-wield, a mix that only one person has ever done before, Exar Khun. Nomkneer wanted to learn shii-cho even though he has exemplary skills with niman, he needs to learn all basic styles in order to perfect it. He grabs the training tsaber, clicks it on and looks at [member="Darth Erebos"] with a glare that you could see the darkness in the eyes. The darkness that shrouded him was controlled by him but until when will that control be loosed?

Nomkneer knows that [member="Darth Erebos"] is a force to be reckoned with, and that he can defeat him easily, but he will have to sweat like a hog to do so. The kaleesh saw the skills of the other acolyte and he doesn't need a fresh rookie with unbalanced movements and clinched strikes to slow him down, Nomkneer bows. "My new master, if you need to know my capabilities, lets have a quick run so that you can analize what abilities should i learn or skills to complement my current ones".

he puts his body in the style of shii-cho first, he doesn't know much of the style, just what he saw with the robot and a few texts he has read in the past. The kaleesh was ready for whatever his master was going to dish out "lets begin", he starts running towards Erebos and does a simple basic downward slash to get close inside, he put his leg into the side of Erebos foot for when he would strike Erebos he would disbalance him with his foot and land a secondary strike after that. Nomkneer knew this duel would be difficult but he loves to face challenges because when you beat a challenge is because you have more experience than before.

 

[Jack Mirrikh]

Jack was wearing a black, sleek, skin tight, thin body suit underneath his armor, much like Storm Troopers would wear underneath their armor, but more akin to a part of a pilot's flight suit than part of a ground combat outfit. It was breathable and it had zippers to either trap heat in when shut or let heat out through mesh openings when you unzipped them. He had to give credit to his father for getting that part right...Blech. He didn't want to think about his father.

He shed the armor, unzipped the zippers and donned the robes quickly. When he poked his head through, he noticed his master take a stance at the both of them. He activated and flipped his Tsaber to the ready position, but he noticed the new arrival seem to ignore Jack's presence and continue as though this was his own private session. This filled him with an indescribable anger. He couldn't put his finger on it, but Nom's actions infuriated him. His expression darkened, but otherwise did nothing to betray the turmoil beneath.

He stepped forward and acted on pure emotion, his mind clouded with tunnel vision. He walked towards Nom purposefully, blade activated. He said, "If you're not with me, then you're against me in this exercise." When he was close enough, he swung twice at Nom in quick succession diagonally and then brought his Tsaber in a defensive position.

[member="Nomkneer artzhul"]
[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

As Noomkneer cam at him, alone, Erebos had to smile under his mask. [member="Nomkneer artzhul"] was skilled but Erebos was even more so. It was easy to see through the feint and second attack that would come against his foot. A simple back step took care of the follow up strike and putting his saber diagonally against Nom's overhead strike took care of the first one. "It will require both of you to get through this Nom, That is what I'm trying to teach you. Even a Sith knight as powerful as me requires help every now and then. To recognize this and have allies willing to help is the true test of character."
Erebos had just finished when he saw [member="Jack Mirrikh"] coma charging in, but not at himself but at Nomkneer instead. Moving in between the two he blocked the strikes intended for his other apprentice and then moved to the side, anger touched his mind for the first time in a very long while. "If the two of you cannot realize what I'm trying to teach then..." He began, his voice as cold as ice, Moving one hand up between them and then in a motion reminiscent of pushing something down he brought the full weight of his power down on top of the two acolytes. He would push them down against the floor and hold them there. "What use is there in keeping you two Alive!"
That last part was punctuated with a small force scream that while weak and only sent ripples through the air did have the desired effect, to convey his disappointment in both of the acolytes. "A sith RULES his emotions, He isn't ruled by them. Tapping into an emotion and allowing it to cloud one's mind are two very different things! If the two of you cannot figure this out, you will not survive for very long and I just might finish both of you off to save the galaxy some karking time and effort." At that small bursts of lighting erupted from the ground in front of Jacks and Nomkneer's faces, not close enough to touch or ground them but too close for comfort as well.
Erebos's hand closed into a fist and he increased the pressure both Acolytes would be feeling at this point. "Now are you here to bicker amongst yourselves or are you here to learn?"