Private Top Dog

[Alina Tremiru]

The High Sith. Alina was still learning plenty about them. Their goals, their desires. Their leaders. Whether it was something she could support or not, she wanted to know. Would they have the strength to survive? More and more Sith were seemingly rising from the ashes, bringing armies, fleets. And the Maw was far from finished. What better way than to fight he who would be second in command?

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact she just wanted to fight. Not at all.

The Sangnir stopped outside his supposed fortress on Malagarr, staring up with her golden eyes shadowed by the black hood she wore.

No, it had nothing to do with her spoiling for a fight.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

The great tower stood upon imposing rock. Approaching it left one entirely exposed to anything and everything around them. It was impossible to approach without being noticed. So it was that when Alina Tremiru approached the tower, she was watched by a guard within until she reached the great doors. At that point, the guard went and informed the tenant of the place as to the presence of a guest. Vastitas was not accustomed to entertaining guests, but he could sense the intentions of this one, and, being it was a woman, decided to entertain their proclivities for reasons that would remain unknown to the woman. He nodded his head to the woman across from him and she left his presence, descending to the front doors.

Presently, the doors to the tower opened and a dark-haired woman stood there, dressed in a bra top and black slacks, exhibiting her muscular form, which glistened with sweat as a result of the heat within the tower. It was not a cool place, but an exceptionally warm one. She looked over the woman before her and then turned around.

"Follow me," she said, before leading the woman into the tower. "Be warned: if you lose, you become food."

The two were equals in rank. Fortisia was built for strength and endurance, but this other was a mystery for now. Neither had met, nor had Vastitas met the woman who had come to visit. As Fortisia lead Alina into the tower, Vastitats descended from his quarters at the top of the tower and down to the steamy combat chamber, with steam pushed up into it every so often through vents in the floor. It was a place of warmth, of strain, of forced endurance. The perfect place for combat and training. He removed his outer robe and armor, leaving only his inner robe and mask in place as the two women approached. His student bowed her head and then turned to leave them.

"You come to challenge me," he said, voice sounding altered behind the mask. "Why do you wish death?"
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina perked a brow.

And smirked.

"That's usually my line you know." The Sangnir flashed her fangs, obviously amused. But the smile soon faded. Her gaze turned, scanning through the halls of the fortress with some interest. Mostly taking note of guards. Exits. The amount of hearts beating throughout. Her inhuman ears could hear all of it. The shuffling of footsteps, the pulse of blood.

She really needed to double down on getting her own fortress again.

Her golden gaze shifted to the man once they reached his training room. The warmth of the steam never truly reached her deathly cold skin. Curiously though, her gaze followed his apprentice as she left.

"You're a very arrogant man, aren't you?" She let out a sigh, turning her glowing eyes back to the figure in the center. "Why let me in here if you know what I'm here for? That assured of your own strength?"

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

"Arrogance would be to boast without the ability to back up the boast," he said calmly, arms hanging at his sides. "Confidence is knowing your limitations and knowing that your skills surpass that of your opponent."

He did not believe there was anyone within the entirety of the High Sith that could challenge his strength. Not because he thought he was exceptionally strong, but because none of them had shown him otherwise and they were far too eager to become subservient to another. It was not the way of a Sith to throw themselves too readily beneath the yoke of another. While he had offered to assist Megarea, he had not made himself her subordinate and he would not allow her or anyone else to control him. That was why he knew he was better. Only Megarea could possibly be a threat to him, as she was the one who took charge.

Allowing this one to enter was reasonable. Not because he wished to destroy someone. Honestly, he didn't care about her or anyone else. If she wished to throw her life away by challenging her better then that was her prerogative.

"I let you in here because I will not allow a challenge to go unanswered. Those who challenge the strongest must be taught the error of their ways, lest they err again. If you wish to challenge me then so be it. I will refuse no challenge."

It would also be a bad precedent to refuse a challenge. He knew that to other sith it might portray weakness and, since he was not weak, he would not allow that rumor to spread. There was also the fact that Alina Tremiru was female and he viewed all females the same as he had the ones that had imprisoned him after his birth. Even though Fortisia was one of those, she had been younger than he was and had not been part of the decision to imprison him. In fact, she threw herself at him and desired his presence. Because of this, and her strength and assistance, he tolerated her presence and even assuaged her desires.

"This chamber is our fighting ground. You may begin when ready."
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"That.. Is a valid point."

Alina chuckled. Nodded her agreement. To know ones limits was always an important thing. But so was knowing the opponent. The Sith raised her hands, fingers curling into fists. She neither brought her usual sithsword or the spear she'd learned how to use so long ago. Instead, just the saber on her hip that she wouldn't use. Not yet. Arrogant for some.

She wasn't that some.

"Don't hold back, Vastitas."

A habit, and a good one she thought. Refuse to use a title, and some Lords would throw a tantrum about it. It was always a gamble, though. Where some would throw a tantrum she could handle, those who didn't throw one but rather put her in her place.. She was still annoyed with Darth Nito . Practice. Yeah, that's what this could be.

Practice for Nito.

Rather than put up airs any further though, she took off. Like a bullet she closed the distance between them. A normal human could never follow her movements, especially since she wasn't even holding back. A fist swung low, quick. A jab, a feint. Her own test to see how he'd react. His saber? His own fist?

Unable to react? Everything depended just on how he'd handle her.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

Theme: Combat Ready - Daniel Deluxe

The way she spoke to him made no difference. After all, she'd already come to challenge him so why should she not overstep her bounds? Truthfully he didn't care about the title. It didn't mean anything to him other than tradition amongst the Sith. He had earned it without ever even having a master so it wasn't as if someone had bestowed it upon him and he coukd draw some memory from that. He really didn't care. Some might, he assumed, but some were focused on such vanity and he was not. He was focused on knowledge.

And she needn't have told him not to hold back. He only held back for Fortisia because he was training her. No one else got that luxury.

She moved like a flash, and he moved too. Directly towards her. While her strike may have only been meant as a feint, it connected solidly with his thigh, but he did not react to it. He didn't even feel it. At the same time his left hand moved towards her exposed chest, index and middle fingers moving towards the space between the fourth and fifth rib, directly beneath her breast, and amplified by the Force which came off of it in knife-like waves. His intent was to jamb it into the soft muscles there and propel the force of it through to hit her lung.

He did appreciate her choice not to go directly to Force abilities or lightsabers. It was an unusual choice.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

The strike connected. Alina raised a brow, pulling back her fist to instead throw it again for his face as his own punch came down. Not a punch, a poke? The brow continued to raise as she felt the impact. And yet, she didn't seem to react. There was a burst of blood that welled in her mouth as her lung shredded.

But it wasn't an organ she needed anymore. She grinned, letting the blood leak from the corner of her mouth as she brought another punch around. And another. A hail of fists at a speed and strength no human should ever have. All the while with a grin.

It wasn't often someone tried to fight her unarmed.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

The strike connected and resulted in a trickle of blood from her mouth but it didn't seem to phase her. Nor did it cause him to gloat at the level of damage he had done. The lesser Sith resorted to gloating over striking an opponent. A wiser person would do no such thing, choosing instead to focus on the totality of the fight. That was what he did. And as her strikes became a fury, some of them managed to hit. When they did they would leave marks, sometimes cuts or scrapes, undoubtedly bruises, but none of the strikes or injuries got a reaction from him.

Many of the strikes were blocked or parried. He wasn't a slouch when it came to speed. He was, however, biding his time as she went full bore. While she expended energy he conserved and drew power into himself from his surroundings, waiting until just the right moment to use it.

And so it was that eventually, he formed blades of invisible energy around his hands, a modification of an ability called spear of midnight black. Throwing invisble spears was more of an assassins technique. This was meant to catch her off guard, cause injury, and get her to think twice about such engagements. So when her blows came in, he went for counters and parries with invisible blades of darkside energy, aiming to slice up or impale her arms and hands.

And still there was no visible response from him. No pain, no gloating, no smirks or smiles (not that she would see the latter beneath his mask), just a stoic combat focus.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

The first cut came as a surprise. Unable to feel the Force in any way, Alina couldn't tell they were there. Not at first. A line of red formed over her arm, splitting flesh in a burst of red that had her blinking. And yet, the grin didn't fade. She pulled her hand back. Skipped farther away as she flexed her fingers. Slowly flesh put itself together. It would take minutes at the rate it was healing, too long for the fight. But it wasn't like she had control over it. Blood dripped down her arm.

"Neat trick."

She raised her fists again, lowering into the stance of a boxer. Legs spread some, fists tight, close to the face. Then slammed down a foot. The floor beneath her cracked as she flipped up one of the tiles. Snatched it from the air. Threw it.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

It hadn't done as much as he would have liked, but again she bled. There was a difference to her that he was beginning to discern. She didn't react to the pain in a way that he expected. The relishing of pain was normal, but even those who did offered up some reaction to it. He was certain that he had more or less destroyed her lung, and yet she acted as if he hadn't. Oxygen was essential for most life to function, at least without some sort of apparatus, and the air around them was primarily oxygen-based. So if she didn't breathe, how did she manage to shunt the necessary gases to the rest of her body and keep the muscles functioning?

Curious.

Something to dwell on later as she sent a chunk of the floor flying at him. He batted it away with a subtle application of the Force to alter its trajectory. It was an odd choice to him to go from their close-quarters combat to throwing things at him. Unless she was stalling for time. That seemed plausible, but he wasn't about to let her do so.

Reaching his hands out wide, he called on the Force and reached deep below them. Steam jetted at an alarming rate through the grates that circled the room until, suddenly, gouts of fire shot through the grates, creating a circle of flame that surrounded the two of them. The room was growing unbearably warm now, and sweat beaded on his skin, but he could not feel the heat. All he ever felt was nothing. Pure and simple nothing. She, however, would feel more, as he reached out and plucked, through the Force, strands of fire and sent them whipping at her. Hoping to engulf her in flame, or, at the least, burn her flesh to make it all the tastier.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Buying time, sort of. She was just all grins at this point. Watching, waiting. His little tricks in the Force were something for her to be warry of. Not being able to see or feel it was always panic enducing. Or would've been if she didn't know about it.

Then heat. And fire.

"No."

The wild grin on her face was gone as she stood straight. Rigid. Fire. The greatest weakeness of any Sangnir. Cuts, bludgeoning. They healed with ease. Burns? No. She took a step forward then. And reached out. Her connection to the Force was broken. Wrong. As she reached out, put her will on it, it simply died. The Force itself disappeared around her, creating a void. Fire sputtered out without the Force to sustain it. She walked forward, pushing that zone further and further.

Pushing it towards the Sith before her to muffle him.

"Fire is no fun."

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

What he found no fun was the void of null force that she projected and began to move towards him. Well, he would have found it to be no fun if he knew what enjoyment was. All he knew was that this projecting was a void in the Force and a place where his abilities would mean absolutely nothing. The tongues of flame he called up from below were not manufactured with the Force, just lifted with it, but they still seemed to dissipate when approaching that void. That was problematic, but it did give him more information than he'd otherwise had. Information that he had to think quickly on and deduce how to respond.

There was little room to think, but he came up with a plan.

The fire swirled around and came from both sides of him in a wedge, driving straight at her in an unrelenting fashion. Even if it didn't manage to strike her, it would obscure her view, though she knew where he was and he certainly wasn't walking through the fire. No pain receptors didn't mean he was dumb enough to burn the flesh from his bones. What the fire did was mask a lot of the sound in the room. As such, he drew his lightsaber and activated it. Then, using the flame as a wedge to hide his actions, he dashed forward towards her with Force enhanced speed, knowing full well his connection would be blocked inside the bubble.

As he neared the convergence of the flame, the point of his saber driving forward, he angled the fire around her, and used his momentum to attempt to plunge his blade straight through her chest.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Oh?"

He adapted quickly. Alina frown only deepened. It was a major reason she never used her little trick. People learned and adapted all too quickly. If it hadn't been fire she would've kept it close at hand to use for one, decisive strike. Ah well. She paused her walk forward as she noticed the flames around him. It's why she wasn't running.

Her power stopped his flames from reaching her, but it didn't snuff them out. Or the heat they generated. Her cautiousness was well placed as a wall of fire erupted before her. It'd never reach her, not in her void. But it did obscure her vision. The crackle of flame filled her ears.

And yet as Vastitas rushed forward under that cover, lightsaber in hand, her golden eyes were already staring at him. She stepped forward to meet his charge, her own blade coming to life in that instance. Swinging up to knock his blade aside as she swung a foot for his chest. She was slower in the void. Unable to fuel herself with the Anima that a Sangnir consumed for power.

Even then, she was still super human.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

Well, he had hoped the flame would obscure her vision of him, but apparently not as well as he had hoped. Her blade blocked his strike, and her leg rose towards his chest. There wasn't much to do in such a situation, but he twisted to take her strike largely in his side and dropped one hand away from his blade so he could clamp his arm down upon the leg as it impacted him, attempting to hold it against him and use her momentum to his advantage to bring her off balance, or at least lessen the impact of the strike upon his body. Not that cracked ribs couldn't be healed, but it would make it harder for him to breathe.

Fortisia watched from above through one way glass, taking note that the woman was physically stronger than she would be. She was curious how her master would get through this challenge, but then she knew his propensity for taking damage and then healing it later. Sometimes she wished she didn't feel pain, as he didn't.

Vastitas deactivated his blade to part them, twisted his hand so the emitter was pointed directly at her thigh, and activated the blade once again with the intent of impaling her, and then slicing. It wouldn't cut off her leg, but it would make it all but unusable to her. He'd noticed she had healing abilities earlier, but he didn't think she could heal swiftly from such a wound. Plus it seemed her wounds weren't healing at the moment, likely due to the negative zone of the Force that she was projecting. How long could she keep that up while fighting in close quarters, he wondered? If she dropped it, even for a second, she'd be at the mercy of his knowledge of the Force.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Alina raised a brow as her leg was caught, but didn't hesitate. If Vastitas wanted to hold on, who was she to stop him? Instead she just lifted her leg. Even in her void, even without access to the bursts of Anima that further strengthened her, he was practically weightless to her and her raw strength. She whipped it around with the sole intent of throwing him from the momentum alone if he lost his grip.

And, well. As his blade went for her leg her own swiped for his chest. Either he'd let go and soar, or he'd carve her leg and get cut down in the process. Either worked for her.

Darth Vastitas

 

[Darth Vastitas]

She was strong, but he was smart. The movement of her hand was never lost on him, his eyes focused on tracking her deadly appendages. So even as she manhandled him, he was adjusting. Even as his blade ignited towards her leg, he was releasing it to let it do its damage without his assistance. And he was releasing her leg to allow her momentum to carry him across the room, outside of her bubble of null Force, to land lightly upon the tiled floor. He didn't need a hand on his weapon when her own momentum was carrying her to it.

Plus he had further plans.

Outside of her bubble he had access to the full extent of the training chamber. The chamber he had buult above a lava vent. She'd already pulled a panel free, but he reached out and lifted more of them, exposing simple beam structure between himself and her, and the area surrounding her, and a drop into lava below. With her null Force bubble the only way she would reach him was across a narrow beam. And he began chucking floor plates at her like they were playing a game of pugil sticks.

Alina Tremiru
​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Her flesh sizzled.

But only for a moment. Her free hand caught the weapon just as it started to burn through her thigh, stopping it all together. She frowned immediately. Without the Anima she couldn't even start to heal it. Not that it would in the span of this fight. No, the burn that it was was simply too deep for her to heal. With him tossed aside she lowered her leg, testing it's weight.

At least she could stand on it. Spring off of it? Not so much.

Her bubble spread. Pushed to the limits, giving her the room she'd need with the panels still intact. A floor of lava below? Well, seemed to fit the theme Vastitas was going for. She swiped her blade up for the tiles tossed her way, cutting them apart without much issue. He'd gotten too used to her snuffing out the Force and knew how to play around it. Fine. Her blade arced up again, this time through the hilt of his lightsaber. Then let her aura drop.

And exploded in a sheet of flesh.

The anti Force zone was her power in the Force. But her blood as a Sangnir had it's own boons. The Warforme of a Highblood was something truly terrifying to behold. To most. Her form, doubled in size, hunched over like a beast, now glared at the Sith Lord. Then she jumped. Blink, and it was missed. The wolflike form was even faster. Stronger. Her blade, now wielded in only one hand, battered down for him as if it was a bat. Sheer strength and speed to dominate.

Darth Vastitas