Private Tribal Hunt

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

Ko listened and took in the words shared between his master and fellow padawan learner. Hearing them speak of nature and their own homes. He got to see Cathar well enough with his own eyes, back when he still had them. He had not seen Rayia’s own world, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that it was similar in some ways.

For himself however, his homeworld was by comparison quite barren. In many ways the natural world there demanded a separation from it and the Kel Dor, or they’d all be destroyed from the violent storms that could tear a civilization apart. Where simple acts of hospitality between Kel Dor to protect one another from the climate became matters of life or death.

Beyond mere biology, Jonyna and Rayia were quite similar. But Ko couldn’t help but feel like more of an outsider next to them, a black sheep of their own little family. Also unlike them Ko didn’t judge Coruscant and those who forged it into the urban world it was to today too harshly. Recalling a little mission he and two other padawans did by needing to journey deep into its underworld. Even a planet like the galactic capital was teamed with natural life adapted to live in the concrete jungle. Life always seemed to find a way.

As they traversed the ancient pathways Ko wondered if soon enough the trio would begin to see signs of the Kiltiks effect on the ecology here. Perhaps Jonyna and Rayia could already see things getting more barren and lifeless…​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

The land indeed started shifting to a more desertified landscape, plants becoming more sparse, and animals becoming non-existent. Great bones scattered the landscape, as dirt beget sand, and sweeping fields became hills and valleys of barren wasteland.

"...we're getting close." Jonyna warned, grabbing Liz's hilt. "Prepare yourself."

Off in the distance, it could be heard. The chittering of massive insects, the movement of sand and soil under rapid fire steps.

Tag: Ko Vuto Rayia Si

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Rayia shivered as she noticed the waving stalks of the savannah starting to thin out. Instead of the vibrant, golden hue the plants had undertaken in the sun, the group was instead left with skeletal, desiccated stalks and rumy, corpse-veil leaves. Rayia reached down to assess one only to have it crumble to dust and scatter in her palm. On Weik, they would take this as a sign of a harsh drought to come. A test of survival as the environment of the planet leeched the water from the bones of the earth, and redistributed it elsewhere. Bleeding the savannah dry over a period of moons like prey exsanguinated for the spitting. Rain always returned. But those that lived there knew such signs meant a period of scrapping for survival. The tribe usually would move on, finding shelter in the mountain range to the north. A site of particular importance to the Felacatians.

But here, as even these well-preserved bones of what once had been fertile, verdant life began to wither and rot, an abject emptiness remained. It was unsettling, as Rayia felt her steps sinking into the soft sand. '...They couldn't have eaten all this, could they?' she thought to herself, horrified at mentor Jonyna's understatement of the issue. 'Or did she understate it? I think Jonyna basically called them apocalyptic pests. I think...I understand now,' Rayia commented. She could understand why they had to be culled regularly now.

Rayia's tail was already bristling from the vibrations of dozens of feet. Stirring the earth. Ever hungry. Digging a ravenous path under the earth that subsumed all it touched. Rayia's eyes shot wide and she grew very still. Like some sort of magic trick where one pulls an inordinate amount of rope or cloth handkerchiefs from a pocket, her fluffy tail spooled from its sheath at the base of her spine growing larger and longer as it furled through the air. Then darting back into its protective sheath nearly as quickly as all the fur on Rayia's body stood on end. Her perked ears caught the chittering hovering on the wind. "...Wow, they are really big... like really, really big." She said simply, and mirrored Jonyna's action. Wrapping clawed fingers around Light Fang, she tried to ignore the feeling of sweat pooling in her palm. She wasn't relishing the thought of descending into the earth's maw already, and it was irritating the beast within. But the thought that she'd be fumbling around with Ko and Jonyna in the dark with bugs of this size drew the trepidation into a spike of fear that wriggled deep within its paw and sent it tossing and turning. She couldn't afford to let the beast out. It would rip through the bugs as easy as paper sure... and her friends... and the cavern walls...

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

Even Ko could ‘see’ how the land around them was becoming more arid. Actually it was more like he could feel it. Not just the dryness of the air, but the lack of life and growth around him. He knew this wasn’t just going to be like swatting away locusts buzzing around him in the air. The only thing he predicted would be similar between locusts and the Kiltiks was that they were likely swarmers. A nest of a few dozen wouldn’t cause such ecological changes.

He picked up on a bit of unease from his fellow padawan. One of his hands held onto his sword cane. With his free hand he gently raised it to give Rayia a supportive pat on the back. “Big or really big, I’m sure the three of us will manage them well enough. Remember this is something many cathar do at least once in their lives. Plus I’ve faced off against mighty dragons and I’m still standing.” Ko said, trying to sound more encouraging. Not trying to flex and make himself sound super capable. At the end of the day he was also rescued from the dragons too. Or else he wouldn't have been one of the countless casualties to the draconic apocalypse that overtook Chaldea.

He also wasn’t worried at all about wandering into a dark cave with them. Since visible darkness really wasn’t an issue for him anymore…​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

As they came over the next hill, they could see it.

A massive hole, dug out by insectoid means. An Ant-hill the size of a small canyon, 2 speeder sized scouts skittering around.

"...Alright, we'll need to co-ordinate an attack. There are 2 of them. How do you two feel about going ahead? Your sabers should deal with these things easy..."

Tag: Ko Vuto Rayia Si

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Rayia's breath caught as they crested the next dune and saw the network of tunnels that formed a copious maze of a canyon where the Killtiks had made their home. Roughly hewn earth and stone bore the marks of hundreds of insectoid mandibles and legs, leaving it streaked and wore away from its traversal. Elsewhere, chitinous legs shorn through the earth kicking clumps of earth high into the air before they lazily drifted down to the earth and dispersed into faint plumes. Then the legs vanished as soon as they appeared, retracting into the gloom provided by the cave and out of sight. More importantly however were the two speeder sized scouts skittering about.

Rayia's blood froze cold as she saw them. They seemed to be following some sort of pattern as they wandered. 'Perhaps the bugs mark by smell as we do?' she thought to herself. The fur of her tail bristled as she picked up the pattern of thumping feet though the air they displaced and the vibrations they made. A series of six rapid thumps all together. Long and slender, the scout's legs bristled with idly swaying hairs as their antennae swept the area from side to side. A series of dull chirps clacked from a pair of double mandibles as the scouts paused before the semi-devoured corpse of a small sapling plant. The wood had been liquefied around a series of bite marks that had torn open the bark. The result was fraying, floating strands bark peeled back to display an oozing mess.

Rayia glanced at Ko. It wouldn't be their first time in the field together, but perhaps the first time that they coordinated a joint attack instead of trying to tackle opponents individually. 'If the shivers I'm feeling are anything to go by, alerting the scouts will bring a nasty surprise bubbling from the earth below our feet,' Rayia thought and turned towards her fellow Kel-Dor padawan. "How do you want to do this Ko? I say, given we don't know how the bugs would raise an alarm, that we have to tackle both of them simultaneously," Rayia put forth and waited to hear when Ko had to say.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

Initially the blind Kel Dor didn’t notice the two large scouts scuttling around the entrance. Not until Jonyna had pointed them out. He paused for a moment to focus his observation in The Force to ‘see’ them, tuning out more of his surroundings to do so. He listened to what Rayia said and thought for a moment. Much like her, he was unsure about the specifics of their physiology and social behavior.

“Taking them both out at once is likely the most sound approach, So I agree. The nature of how they might alert the rest of them matters as well.” He thought of these creatures much like oversized ants. Many of which were functionally blind. Navigating and communicating almost exclusively through pheromones. Ko believed that noise would be how they raised an alarm if something was wrong. Such as chittering loudly or sending certain vibrations through the ground.

“I second your suggestion Rayia. Taking them both out simultaneously should work I believe.” As Ko spoke he took his sword cane and strapped it tightly to his back. So he wouldn’t need to carry it anymore and would free up one of his hands. He gave a gentle nod towards Rayia, to let her know that he was ready to strike when she was.​

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Rayia waited for the Kel Dor's assessment as he turned his head towards the scouts guarding the entrance. She could read off his body language that he either hadn't noticed them, or had noticed them and remained in that frustratingly passive state that seemed prevalent throughout the Order. 'His lack of surprise is interesting. Was he perhaps expecting scouts as I was?' Rayia thought to herself. Not for the first time, Rayia wondered how exactly Ko's new senses worked. 'If my other suspicion is correct, that's...' Rayia's train of thought ground to a halt as an uncomfortable prickle crawled up the back of her neck. Her senses were so very sharp because she was a huntress. It was woven into the fiber of her being. To be placed in the position of remastering one's own senses was a position Rayia did not envy.

Her ears flicked upwards happily as Ko's assessment revealed that he agreed with much of what she had said. That they needed to be dealt with simultaneously and that the method by which they alerted the others was crucial as well. That only left the matter of actually accomplishing this goal of dealing with them at the same time. Rayia eyed the scouts as they continued their slow, meandering walk. Then she said. "I am quite used to terrain such as this. I am fairly confident that I could sneak around them to flank them. If you could somehow draw them closer, without alerting them to your presence, that would be ideal. I could then drop from...." Rayia paused to scan the surroundings. Her eyes lit up as she saw that their was a small outcropping not too far away, where the trail dipped beneath the slope of a dune and created a sort of ledge.

She pointed one clawed finger towards it. "...there. I could pounce atop one of them from there. What do you think?" Raya would ask, before she cautiously began to sidle her way across the sand in slow, steady steps if Ko agreed. Her muscles quivered as she remained ready to pounce, and she crouched on the balls of her feet as she continued to paw her way over towards the spot where she had proposed their ambush occur.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

“That works for me.” Ko said, agreeing with her plan to try and draw the scouts closer to them into a more advantageous position. “Lemme think of a way to draw their attention.” Ko thought for a moment, bringing his clawed hand up to the bottom of his mask. Picturing ways to get the attention of the kiltiks without making them aware of Rayia, Jonyna or himself. Most importantly he didn’t want the bugs to raise any alarms.

Given that they lived underground, and that many bugs had strong tactile senses, he got an idea of how to lure them into the ambush position. Ko held out his hand and manipulated that sandy ground through the force. Telekinetically pressing against it to create vibrations in the hopes of having the kiltiks believe that there was some prey that had wandered close to their hive. It seemed to be working. Ko noticed that the pair of scouts were moving towards where he created the vibrations. Getting them into position for the ambush that Rayia had suggested.

To create some more distance from himself and their trap Ko launched himself up with a fluid jump and used the force to cousin his fall so as to not create any intense vibrations through the ground to distract the kiltics from their trap. Soon enough, the scouts were in position and ready for Rayia to make her move.​

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto
(Computer is still playing hot potato, so this is a phone post. Forgive me~)

---

When Ko signaled his agreement, Rayia started to turn away from him. She stalked off into the dunes, barely making any noise as her shuffling steps brought her slowly closer to the vantage point she had indicated for the ambush. As opposed to the savannah they had left behind, Rayia could not claim any familiarity with the terrain. ‘The savannah which had died the moment we crossed the Kiltiks territory,’ Rayia reminded herself, as she continued to plod her way towards the spot where they would set their trap. Even still, every member of the Felacatian species knew the innards of stealth. It was inscribed in their very being, these predatory instincts that they then harnessed and trained. Deliberately choosing to make her movements glacial enough to match the stirring of the sand, Rayia made few vibrations of her own. She relied on the vibrations in the air that her tail accurately sensed to direct her around the encroaching scouts. And so, Rayia found herself perched upon the rock ledge she had indicated as Ko enacted his plan.

At first, Rayia didn’t understand what he was doing. Her tail bristled as she could feel vibrations stirring the ground. ‘What is he doing? Doesn’t he know that will… oh. You smart little raycoon…’ Rayia trailed off as she realized that Ko was using the insect’s dependency on their tremorsense against them. Perfecting the trap by leaping away from the last known position and letting the bugs scurry directly beneath the ledge where Rayia was waiting. Rayia’s muscles tensed as she raised herself to a crouch and prepared to pounce. Rayia’s clawed fingers closed tightly on Light Fang as she lit the blade. Brilliant light and scorching heat bloomed in her hand as small grains of sand started to solidify into glass flakes.

The insect’s antennae were trawling along the ground, clacking and hissing as they scanned the immediate area. Before they could slip away, Rayia launched herself towards them. With Felacatian strength and speed, Rayia blurred through the air. One heartbeat later and she had slammed into the bug’s thorax, knocking it from its balance.

Rayia raised her saber high, driving Light Fang down through its skull. Rayia repeated the motion in a blur until the bug stopped twitching. “Not time for fancy fang work. Savagery will do,” Rayia thought aloud to herself. The bug’s legs under the combined weight of its boiling guts and Rayia’s weight swayed to the side and would have dumped her in the sand had she not rolled the other way. Then she spun around to see if Ko had gotten the other one, keeping Light Fang raised in a warding manner in case the other bug managed a swipe at her.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

As the duo of bugs approached Ko grabbed one hand on the handle of his weapon, and another on its scabbard. Pulled them apart to unveil the blade within it. He moved in tandem with Rayia when she began to pounce on her target. Dashing across the ground to the other large insect. Tightening the grip on his blade he doused it in energy through The Force to heighten its potency and durability.

Where Rayia went above Ko went below. Propelling himself off the ground with each step. Bringing his focus onto his target he saw it through The Force, visualizing its large form and exoskeleton. The young Kel Dor aimed his strike towards the base of its head. Ko went for more of a surgical attack as he peered into the creature, scrying past its carapace.

When his blade connected it cleaved a deep way into the Kiltik. Going just as deep as he needed to sever most of its nerves from the rest of its body. His own maneuver contrasted a good deal with his fellow padawan's more relentless attack. The body of the bug he attacked twitched and spasmed a great deal. As it fell over onto its back.

Ko stood next to the giant bug and turned back towards his Rayia to observe how she fared. Smirking some under his mask to see that she managed as well as he had. “I suppose we’ll get the drop on their siblings now.” He commented, referring to the rest of the hive. As he thought, the giant bug next to him continued to twitch. One of its legs sprung forwards violently towards Ko’s head from behind. Which he casually dodged with a simple tilt of his neck before stepping away further from the convulsing bug. Seemingly unbothered that he nearly lost his head to the corpse’s spastic post-mortem kicks. ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

As soon as the deed was done, and both scouts were dead, Jonyna came up behind the two, smiling with pride. "Alright, that's a taste. Let's move on."

The three could hear it. The chittering of the hive. The scuttling of massive legs. Jonyna couldn't help but growl at it. "We'll need to keep moving. They'll replace their scouts soon, and we'll be overwhelmed if we aren't careful."

Jonyna led them deeper, igniting both her sabers, holding one in her tail, and Liz in her offhand. She knew this was going to be a blood bath of insect parts. That's why it was called a Blood Hunt. Soon, they would understand too. The Cathar had done this for generations, and it served a dual purpose. The first was to cleanse the world of these ravenous beasts, but the second...

It was a rite of passage. A Cathar adolescents' first step into the hierarchy of Cathar society. Many used it as a way to purge themselves of darkness, some used it as a proof of their skill.

Jonyna? She was using it as a way to test her padawans. The Trial of Skill, a test she had encountered in her time catching up on Jedi History. This would be it for her padawans. A test of her ability with a saber, and one where she knew that if they failed, she could keep them from harm.

But it did serve one more purpose for her.

It acted as her padawan's adoption papers...

Tag: Ko Vuto Rayia Si

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Jonyna's clear and evident pride in the pair of them made Rayia feel happy. A overjoyed twitch pulsed through her ears as Rayia bisected her insect's legs from its body. She was all too conscious of the danger that standing too near the corpses in their throes of rigor mortis brought, as Ko had nearly just had his head removed by a powerful twitch of his insect's legs. She could also feel the scuttling of two insects drawing in to their position, as well as hear the clicking of their mandibles as they plowed upwards from deep underground. The tunnels made for a good acoustic system in at least one sense, ferrying the sounds from deep below right to the party's ears. Guessing from the fact that she could feel two Kiltik specifically moving towards them, Rayia guessed that the insects were intent on replacing their scouts as Jonyna had said. Though the speed of their response brought up a concerning question. "Sorry if I missed this in your explanation earlier, but do the Kiltiks operate with a true hive mind? They are responding much too quickly to any leak of pheromones that might have resulted from the scout's deaths," Rayia said, watching as Jonyna ignited both of her sabers. Yet unaware of the hunt's multiple purposes, Rayia followed Jonyna into the caves dutifully.

The flickering, purplish light cast a cold tone over the inside of the tunnel as the trio walked along. A faint chill started to seep in to Rayia's bones as the musty air of the cavern clung tight around them. The faint earthy tones that permeated the air were familiar and soothing, but there was a wrongness buried just beneath them. A scent of rot and decay, as if the very dirt around them were going foul. Rayia's bare shoulders shivered and she dropped to the back of the group so as to not blind them by her next idea. "I'm freezing, just a moment," Rayia said, and flicked the activation switch on Light Fang once more. A flickering, orange blade ignited into light around them like a blazing sun. Stark shadows were thrown forwards as an orange hue danced and mixed with the cooler tones. Most importantly, a warmth began to settle in as Light Fang's tremendous heat was put to good use warming the air, packed sand, and stone around them.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

As Ko walked with Jonyna and Rayia further into the large habitat, he didn’t need the radiant auras of the lightsabers to ‘see’ his surroundings. Perhaps his blindness made him uniquely well suited to an environment like this. He stepped aside for a moment to place his clawed hand against the cave wall. The tactile feedback allowed him greater clarity as he looked past what was around them into the networking tunnels that surrounded.

He could be impressed by the Kiltiks ability to create such large tunnels without having it all collapse in on itself. Perhaps the insects used their own dung to create a natural cement like substance to withstand all the pressure in its construction.

But his attention was brought back to the pair of feline women as he listened to Rayia’s question. “Well I believe they’re certainly eusocial, but a proper ‘hive mind’ is more difficult to discern from what I know so far.” Ko spoke softly as he mused out loud over Rayia’s question. Also whereas Ko could observe his surroundings quite well, he couldn’t quite take in the odors that the other two may be able to. ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"No, but they can sense us." Jonyna added. "Through the Force, I mean." She knew they could, but she didn't want to disparage her padawans. "They'll be coming in full force once we get into the hive. I want both of you to be at the top of your games. No hesitation, no mercy. These aren't creatures looking for empathy, they're pests and detraments to the environment. Understood?" She knew she had already mentioned this, but she needed to be sure. Any moment of hesitation would mean danger. Any second guess could mean injury or worse. And she didn't want to think about worse.

The chittering got louder, the ground starting to rumble. Loose gravel shook on the ground, and Jonyna prepped herself.

"Into the depths of the earth we go, my padawans."

Tag: Rayia Si Ko Vuto

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Rayia blinked, not entirely sure that she had heard Mentor Jonyna correctly. 'If these insects are Force-Sensitive, would that not mean...?' Rayia thought to herself, trailing off as she realized she didn't want to understand the full implications of that sentence. It also started to give Rayia a full understanding of their opponents, so to speak, and she wasn't sure she liked the full picture. A budding sense of wariness started to settle in as Jonyna went on to explain that the hive would retaliate at full force once the trio had descended into the hive. '...This is going to be a bloodbath,' Rayia thought to herself, and was quite certain of it. She was quite familiar with fighting Warlocks and other servants of the Dark, after all. She had been doing it since before she had discovered she was Force-Sensitive even. Most of Rayia's teenage years had been spent following one of her few friends outside the tribe. A Paladin, in charge of opposing the fury of the Darkness on Weik. 'But... thinking back, most of those fights were in the open. And we still weren't able to avoid all the nasty surprises they'd set up. I doubt the bugs have anything so sophisticated, but...,' Rayia thought, and glanced towards the confined space of the tunnel ahead of them.

Feline ears perked up as she heard Jonyna ask them if they could fight without hesitation. "Yes, Jonyna. I understand." Rayia replied aloud, in hopes of reassuring her Mentor of her determination. 'In all honestly, it won't be too different from back home,' Rayia thought. Unspooling her tail from its sheath, Rayia kept track of the bug's movements. She knew she could alert the others if any came too close, because of her ability to sense the vibrations of movements. The tunnel ahead of them sloped downwards steeply and Rayia carefully picked her way along so as to not slip. She was tempted to simply skid down the tunnel to the end, but knew that was a bad idea. So long as the three were together, they could guard each other's backs. Whilst Rayia could see, she couldn't suppress the sensation that the walls were closing in on her. The loose gravel skittering about the floor didn't help matters, as it gave the impression that the tunnel would collapse at any moment. "So, how long did it take you to scrub the sand from your fur the last time you did this, Mentor Jonyna?" Rayia said, trying to blunt her fear's teeth with humor. That, and well... Rayia's scalp was starting to grow positively itchy.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

Were these Kiltiks really Force Sensitive? If true then it was no wonder the Cathar struggled against them. But Ko also wouldn’t hold the insects in higher regard if they were Force Sensitive. Similarly to what their masters reiterated, Ko understood the mission and what they would need to do. This was the cost of having a healthy and prosperous ecosystem. To the Kel Dor their role as sentient individuals were to be stewards of nature and use their intellect and sentience to be responsible and mindful. With great power comes great responsibility. “Of Course Master Si.” He replied along with Rayia.

The cathar tradition didn’t really play much of a role in Ko’s presence here. Considering that the kiltiks exhibited clear eusocial behavior he took an educated guess that there was a queen in this hive. If he had the honor of encountering her majesty he wondered if there was a possible solution that might be better than merely exterminating the hive. Even having the idea of possibly beelining to the queen's chambers with his earth shaping and geokinesis. He'll keep that extra-aggressive strategy in the back of his mind in case he needed to employ it.

His attention was taken back to Rayia as she asked Jonyna about cleaning afterwards. Something he hadn’t given any thought to. But now that she pointed it out he did feel a tad more dusty than he had before. He was lucky enough to not have fur that could get caught up in like the two of them. Although Ko still made a mental note to complete a more thorough cleaning afterwards and to scrub his wrinkles extra well.

Sensing more approaching Kiltik, Ko carefully grabbed the handle of his blade and unsheathed it once more. Saturing the weapons in his Force energy and bestowing a gentle green glow from it. Not too dissimilar to his lost lightsaber.​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

That last comment got a chuckle out of Jonyna. "I'll show you a trick I have for that when we're done."

And thus, the horde came. 30, no, 40 Kiltiks coming out of the hole in the ground all at once. Jonyna didn't hesistate, charging forward with vigor and immediately quick drawing Liz, channeling the force through the blade to let out a violent arc of flame to ward the horde back, before she shot forward with a burst of flame, and impaled the sword into the carapace of one of them, immediately killing it, before leaping off it onto another, slicing the creature straight in half. She wasn't worried about sand in her fur. She was more worried about blood.

Tag: Rayia Si Ko Vuto

 

[Rayia Si]

Jonyna Si Ko Vuto

---

Rayia blinked in surprise. Her ear twitched in curiosity as she heard Jonyna hinting that she would show her a trick for removing sand from her fur later. Rayia had mostly been joking, but if there was a way to do such a thing... Well, she wanted to know it. 'It would save me hours, I would bet,' She thought, growing slightly miffed that Jonyna hadn't shared this trick with her before. "Mentor Jonyna, that's cruel... To think you'd know such a trick and not show me. Do you know how long combing this takes?" Rayia said, emphasizing her words with a wave of the hand in her own general direction. The glint of mischief in her eye indicated that the words held no real venom.

The fur on Rayia's tail bristled and immediately the playful expression on Rayia's face vanished. She could feel the bugs closing in, burrowing through the granite stone. '...There are a lot of them. I guess this is what we get for kicking over their rock,' she thought to herself as she identified thirty or forty distinct vibrational tremors indicating movement around them. As the bugs began erupting from the ground, the trio would soon find themselves in a literal bloodbath. Rayia could see Jonyna hacking and slashing with wild abandon, dissecting the Kiltiks and sending insectoid body parts hurtling through the air in a shower of noxious blood.

For Rayia's part... well, burrowing through the walls was a tactic best employed if the enemy couldn't sense you coming. Using her tail, Rayia located the one emerging nearest her and darted over to it with full Felacatian speed. Within a heartbeat, Rayia was standing before its exit point with Light Fang leveled towards it. Rayia ducked low as the bug emerged and lunged forwards, allowing it to impale itself upon the fiercely burning blade. Light Fang struck the bug between the antennae, scorching its way through chitin and brain matter. The eyes bulged and steamed at Light Fang's touch as the incredible heat caused them to pop with a hiss. Boiling brain matter spattered the sand below, flecking Rayia with green spittle.

The bug convulsed and collapsed twitching to the floor. Rayia leapt back as her tail twitched picking up on movement from the stumbling corpse. Her feline reflexes saved her as the massive scythe like mandibles of the bug swathed through the spot she was in just a moment before. Remembering the bug's powerful death throes, she brought Lightfang around in a short, blurring, chopping motion and severed the bug's "arms" at the elbow. As the bug hit the ground and kicked up a small plume of sand, Rayia was already darting away. Using her Felacatian speed, she'd position herself at the entrance to yet another bug's emergence and repeat the process of having them run onto her saber.

 

[Ko Vuto]

Location: Cathar
Tags: Jonyna Si | Rayia Si

Very quickly Ko had managed to sense a large number of independent force signatures rushing towards them. Observing them through The Force helped him anticipate where they might show up next. Something Rayia also seemed more than capable of as well. Even without The Force the two padawans seemed to have naturally good reflexes.

Ko sensed a small number of Kiltiks were going to make a breach in the ground close to them. Rushing through the ground towards them rather quickly. Just before they could surface Ko forcefully stomped on the ground and. Channeling the energy in himself and the ground and the earth to suddenly harden it. Making the dense dirt and soil as solid as bedrock found deep underground.

Causing the still unseen group of kiltik rushing towards them to rapidly bash themselves against the hardened soil as if they were slamming and battering themselves into a mighty boulder. Ko felt a bit of a strain as he tried to hold them back underground. To alleviate the burden on his end he was harnessing the latent energy in the very earth to work with as well.

His little trick cost the kiltiks about have a dozen lives as they collide into solid earth one after another. Behind him however, one of the oversized bugs had approached. Readying to strike the seemingly unaware Kel Dor. But Ko quickly snapped back to the kiltik and raised his hand to the giant insect. Generating an ‘explosive’ telekinetic shockwave to blast it away and onto its back. Exposing its vulnerable abdomen as its legs scrambled about in the air trying to get back onto its feet.​