Will to Power (Sith)

[Caulder Dune]

@[member="Mikhail Shorn"]

Shorn had been a duelist- a Makashi user or something of the sort. Tyrin had looked into as much since Shorn's first attempt at a usurping had ended in an anticlimax. Subtle, fancy moves with the blades were his strong point when it came to locking lightsabers. Tyrin perhaps would have gone into Makashi if he hadn't already had settled on Juyo. Wherein Makashi was elegant, Juyo was primal. Tyrin was polite and amiable in his spare time. If he was in lightsaber combat, he wanted it over quickly. Preferably with his opponent buried under an avalanche of violent strokes. When Shorn's blade came down from behind to intercept his, Tyrin had no desire to stick around to see what delicate wrist-flicking would bring him into an unfavorable position. He'd hit his mark- good enough for him. He pushed himself back, putting a good foot or so of distance between himself and Mikhail before the man could sever his hands. He needed those, no way he was losing them at this juncture.

"Hah! Got you, you arrogant little- Glrk!"

As per usual, Tyrin had spoken too soon. Tyrin's immediate response was not borne of calculation or even a thought process. It was instinct. The kind of instinct that kicked in when there was little to no other option. Tyrin would not be slammed about like some kind of rag doll without a fight- not at this range. Any option was preferable to having his face become overly-familiar with the cold, hard stone floor of the throne room. The moment Tyrin felt the Force encircle around his neck, lightning blossomed from his free hand. Raw energy borne over mastery of the Force and pure fury.

And at this moment, a little bit of desperation.

 

[Lord Ghoul]

Time seemed to slow as tendrils of blue leapt out from Tyrin's hand, filling the air with a hot crackling. Mikhail's blade moved with practiced ease, catching the lightning upon that violet length. The zapping cascade of energy seemed to feed into the Soulsaber. For this was no ordinary weapon. Perhaps if it had been another, lesser blade, Shorn would be dead right now, unable to block the blow. Even so, the torrent of lightning coursing through Tyrin's fingertips could not be denied. The scent of ozone filled the air, soon followed by another stench of burning flesh to join in the first as tendrils of blue crackled around the violet blade and struck Mikhail. Each bolt passed through him like a javeiln, leaving large exit burns upon his back. The pain was incredible.

The flash and flicker of lightning reflected in Shorn's eyes, yet he felt nothing. No fear. No panic. Just pain... and anger. Endless, world-burning anger. The kind that would leave entire cities razed to the ground, whole populations slaughtered. It was not what Mikhail wanted to feel, but at least it was something. Better than the cold, empty void inside of him. The pain was that dulled sensation one received when injuring a numb limb. Mikhail was conscious of the hurt, but the enormity of the pain failed to register. Coils of smoke rose from the burns in his flesh and sweat beaded his deathly pale face. Yet, he stood proudly in defiance of the Emperor's might.

His grip still held upon Tyrin's throat and he squeezed so very tightly in his anger. The Soulsaber's whisperings urged him to kill, to crush, to destroy. "Let me taste his flesh," it crooned. And oh, how he longed to.

Mikhail spoke, his voice, like ice, cutting through the crackling lightning.

"I am Mikhail Shorn, Defier of Nations and Rulers, Wielder of the Soulsaber, Thronebreaker. I fought Grandmaster Wraith, brought Darren Shaw to his knees, flayed Jacen Cavill, and held Anaya Fen's life in my hands. I dueled Sith Lords before you even activated your first training saber. You cannot defeat me. And now... You. Are. Mine."

Then Shorn threw all his might into slamming @[member="Tyrin Ardik"], Emperor of the Sith, into the ground. Again, and again... and again.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Took Sam a moment to register what the over articulate alien was trying to get at. She ignited the saber staff and reached to attack him after her frustration fueled her lack of understanding. Though it seemed in that instant he decided to leave and do something else. Raising an eyebrow she shrugged and decided to not pursue him. Then another walked to her mentioning rehab. The woman raised an eyebrow and then laughed, how foolish he was thinking that the glitterstim was something of a downfall for her.

What the man obviously didn’t know was the fact that the glitterstim provided the user the ability to sense emotion to feel it more freely. It was an addiction that had some use to it. Foolish, he was utterly foolish to face her, but it was what he wanted and she could pick up bits of doubt through his gathering of the dark side. Her saber staff spun in front of her as she stepped forward planting her foot into the ground, the woman quickly pushed the force from her aiming towards the man.

“Rehab? You should be looking into finding someone to cremate your body after this.”

The one thing Sam never lacked was confidence and moral – was just something the young Countess was born with.

@[member="Garoth Do'Urden"]

 

[Olom Grihk]

(OOC: I kinda jumped plans and ad-libbed here, shoot me a message if anything seems out of whack.)

Olom was going to help the emperor. Thankfully, the large and in charge man know as Shorn was busy venting his aggression and gloating. Unfortunately, Olom only had one choice to succeed, as he jumped not a small ledge carved into the ceiling. He ignite his lightsaber, and sent one last mental order to his repulsor lift, deactivating it. It would fall on Mikhail's head if he didn't move. he then focused all of his inner hate on a telekinetic maneuver, channeling raw anger at the incessant prattling and posturing. A true leader wouldn't gloat until the battle was over!

He grinned as his ignited saber flew towards Shorn, aiming to quickly strike at his left side while the repulsorlift fell down towards him. He knew full well this two-pronged assault wouldn't kill Mikhail. Feth, it wouldn't even injure him in all likelihood, but it would buy Tyrin enough time to counter attack. Or run. Whatever passed for a plan right now. He just hoped Tyrin's reaction would be quick. He didn't want to have engage this guy in a fair fight.

@[member="Mikhail Shorn"]@[member="Tyrin Ardik"]

 

[Arage Bao]

It seemed Garoth had made a miscalculation, the woman was unfazed after his remark. Never hurts to try though. He was still considering his next move when the woman used the Force, blasting him off his feet. This was a common fault of Garoth, he thought too much during a fight. And as such, had trouble reacting to quick assaults of the enemy. Using the Force, he pushed himself off the ground and gritted his teeth. If the girl wanted to play this the hard way, she would get exactly that.

He drew upon his sword for more power and then dashed forward, towards his opponent. In a pure power versus power match, he would certainly fail to win. So he had to play it smart. The girl was high on something, it may just be enough to cloud her judgement. Making her more arrogant, so she would expose herself to an unexpected attack. Drawing closer near her, Garoth used the Force to push air against her legs.

It would not be enough to blast her off her feet completely, but surely she would lose her balance for at least a second? There was no time to consider what would happen if he was wrong. Getting even closer to her, Garoth feinted to her left and quickly lunged at her shoulder a split-second after. With a direct-hit he should be able to disarm her..

@Samanthe Quiwl

 

[Darth Vazela]

| @[member="Marcus Faust"] | @[member="Circe Savan"] | @[member="Krag"] | @[member="Kiara Alanna Decoix"] | @[member="Dranok Lussk"] | @[member="Kaine Zambrano"] | @[member="Mikhail Shorn"] | @[member="Tyrin Ardik"] | @[member="Anaya Fen"] | @[member="Olom Grihk"] |

The beast was almost ready to be unleashed. Much like the content found in the Sith Code, chains were broken through victory and Darth Vazela had the power, strength and passion to break those chains. The Sith Lord had all the necessary passion to fulfill himself with his deepest, most darkest of emotions. Anger, hatred, pain all flowed through him and he was the conduit of it all, as the dark side grew around him. He could heat the cheers of inauguration of an Empire that spanned an entire galaxy. The promises of the Order of Sith Lords would be fulfilled again.

And the death of Mikhail Shorn and his allies would be a stepping stone to that end.

As the shards were sent back to him, Vazela concentrated on the Force around him. His perception was clear, powerful, sensory. Time slowed for him in milliseconds. He could hear the Whooosh! of the attack splitting the air before him, as it entered the field of Force energy around him. Concentrate on the power of the Force, the shards began to slow from their trajectory. The power of the dark side wrapped around them and inside the field, they began to disintegrate. Pieces of their structure began to fall around him, like dust would in a breeze.

A sharp pain filled Vazela. He searched for the source of the problem and through the perception of the Force, he saw what was the problem. A shard had cut through his exposed, chalk white arm. Judging by the damage, an artery had been cut open. Blood was seeping out in vast quantities, his combat leggings absorbing and soaking themselves in the dark, crimson liquid. The Sith Lord knew that, if he did not deal with the injury soon, he would die.

The other shards had become disintegrated so, that the bits of the structure of the shards that hadn't been disintegrated into dust had impacted his chest. They had cut inside a bit, adding further injury, but compared to his arm, they were minimal. Mere grazes against his chest and shoulders. Those shards too joined the other shard that had cut his arm open, and the dust left over joined the bits of rubble and blood that had begun to rise in the field.

Darth Vazela hadn't had much time. If his next move was not successful, then his concentration would break and so would the chance to utilize the Suppress Thought in this situation. He would have to deal with the artery on his arm before joining the fight once more.

Very, very soon, he would unleash the thought. He would hang in there for a moment longer. He had to.

 

[Marcus Faust]

"Gah!" Marcus exclaimed as his leg was completely severed at the knee. Thinking quickly and rather stupidly, he grabbed one of her shoulders to stabilize him self and plunged the shoto into the area where the arm armor met the chest plate, hopefully a weak spot which would allow him to deal a good amount of damage before he fell backwards onto the unforgiving floor, his head bouncing up. Marcus deactivated the shoto and held onto the now cauterized stump. Reaching back with his other hand and pulling himself back across the floor.

Pain ran through him like lightning, touching every single nerve with it's mind bending agony striking everywhere it could possibly reach. Marcus was pulling himself away using sheer will power, he felt as if he was about to explode.

 

[Lord Ghoul]

A tingle along the spine. Precognition again. Would it never stop? The eddies in the Dark Side flowed and Shorn felt, rather than saw the incoming attacks. Keeping his saber up to parry the lightning and retaining his telekinetic grip on Tyrin, Shorn sidestepped twice. Just enough to move out from under the repulsorlift, which smashed into the ground with an enormous metal clang!

The apprentice, @Olom Ghrihk, made the same miscalculation Vazela had. He threw something at a telekinetic specialist.

The spinning lightsaber hummed toward Mikhail's left side, his good side. Rather than stepping out of the way of this, Shorn, mid-ground pummel, inexorably pulled @[member="Tyrin Ardik"] into the path of oncoming blade, using the Emperor as an Umbaran shield.

 

[Shinju]

Shinju had been watching with finger foods... Literally some of Tyrin's slaves fingers but no matter. It was entertaining to say the least and as she sat there the few strands that came towards her. She ate, darkside or emotions all flowed into her stomachs pit with a laugh. She could eat like this all day and everyone added to her strength or at least topped her off. The minimal amounts of power she knew aside from eating everything brought her gaze up to Tyrin and a smile played across her face. He was the strongest but he also usually paid though not recently. Oh it mattered little while Shinju opened herself up to absorb every emotion in the area for herself. The pain from Marcus being attacked drew her attention to her former apprentice and the blood red saber activated with a screaming snap hiss. The shard in such a state of pain it fed into her. Now the matter of who to fight came.

 

[Caulder Dune]

@[member="Mikhail Shorn"]

Tyrin and the throne room's floor made pleasant conversation. Once, twice, three times. Just as they were exchanging numbers, Shorn decided to introduce Tyrin to Olom's spiraling lightsaber. If Tyrin had a chance to speak to the apprentice beforehand, he probably would have asked him to stay out of the duel. Largely because Tyrin wanted to see this one through to its logical conclusion. Though it was beginning to look like said logical conclusion was not going to be in his favor. Not at this rate. Mikhail's battlemind was far too strong to be conquered. By this point, between the strangulation and being pummeled into the pavement, there was no way for Tyrin to keep up his lightning barrage. Or even stay conscious, for that matter. The Umbaran blacked out, incapable of fighting off the void. He didn't scream when Olom's lightsaber scarred him across the chest, but it would certainly hurt like the seven hells when he woke up.

That is, if he woke up. By this point, he was completely at Mikhail's mercy.

 

[Matreya]

Ignore.

 

[Judas of Vahl]

@[member="Kaine Zambrano"]

Cold-blooded fury came at him, which he met with his own matching emotions. Djem So against Soresu, it was almost perfectly evenly matched. Dranok had know the defensive art since he was a mere apprentice, learning it under the Knight named Nezuel. By now, he had each and every movement practiced by such an art perfected. Defense meant survival, survival meant power and strength. Crimson sparks flew to and fro as the blood-red blades made contact with each other. A change in tactics felt strange, it was as if Zambrano was specifically targeting lower near the hilt. A strangely long hilt.

Dranok smiled. His thumb inched down to press the activation stud once again, erupting another blade from the bottom of the hilt. That instant, Dranok's tactics shifted. His movements became even more frantic, due to the mobility required to wield a saberstaff.

 

[Lord Ghoul]

Exultation. The pure and sweet adrenaline-filled ecstasy of victory flooded Mikhail's senses. Laughter spilled out from the violet blade in his hand. But that sense of utter red-sighted rage did not leave Mikhail. Simply beating his enemy was not good enough. He wanted to squash Tyrin to a pulp, feel the wet explosion of organs beneath his fingers, grind his bones into dust. Pale eyes seemed to glow white with fury, but then Mikhail felt it, a slow-building power in the room. His head turned slowly toward @Vilox Paxela. And in his stare, behind blue eyes, was death.

"I think I broke your Emperor."

The Emperor's lightsaber floated up from the ground and attached itself to Mikhail's belt with an audible click. It had a ring of finality to it. Mikhail then gestured sharply with his one good hand, tossing the once-Emperor aside with contempt. @[member="Tyrin Ardik"]'s body slid across the floor before fetching up against the dais. In the depths of his soulless heart, Mikhail felt no pity for his former comrade.

"Oops."

Then, the Usurper turned his attention on Vazela.

Burned and horribly wounded, he was a vision of death: dried blood caked his face, full of numerous scratches; sweat matted his raven hair to his head; holes in his robes revealed still-smoking burns on his torso; and the deep, cauterized slash on his back left his entire right arm immobile. But the Soulsaber kept him standing. It filled him with an anger that Mikhail did not fully understand. It was not vengeance. It was not hatred. It was simply the longing to... to fight. To destroy.

Shorn stretched out his will and mentally lifted a pouch from his belt. The pouch exploded as a hundred small metal balls, the size of ball bearings, erupted from it, leaving small scraps of leather to fall to the floor. These ball bearings were roughly smaller than a knuckle bone, but they were fashioned from phrik and would not so easily be turned to dust. Mikhail pointed his violet blade, humming greedily in his hand, straight at Vazela.

"You're next. Time's up, Darth Puzzle."

A silvery flash was all that could be seen of the phrik ball bearings as they hummed through the air in a deadly cloud toward the ambitious Darth.

 

[Shinju]

@[member="Kiara Alanna Decoix"] @[member="Marcus Faust"] @[member="Mikhail Shorn"]

Shinju moved, she saw what happened and got out of the way. Tyrin was dead, Mikhail had done it in quite a violent fashion and slowly she rushed seeing Marcus on the ground holding his stump. Shinju spoke looking down at him while red tendrils came from her hands. "There there my old apprentice, it is times like this.. One must rest before, so dream while droves of devils begin prepat to send you to your rest." Slowly the tendrils arced to try and drain whatever energy Marcus had left, she opened for the pain and emotions to eat them while flicking her eyes to the sight of Kiara.

The thought of taking a sith lords power was intoxicating for a moment, just a moment but there was more needed for this fight. She had chosen a side now and it meant. Shinju's hand flicked out while she pushed the gathered force energy in her body towards the woman. To recharge her, to share the essence she was consuming. The more energy had brought her into a state of charge, she wanted to send it out but did not know how to exactly. She hadn't been trained in the upper echelon of force techniques. Then her hand drifted to Mikhail and Shinju shouted holding the saber while she fed on the shard to send it to the new Emperor.

"Emperor for you." Shinju poured her own energy into it to help Mikhail and reached out to feed on more sources. On the blove that pulsed with the darkside, on the energies being collected, on the servants screaming in the hallway while they tried to move around on their stumps, on the ancient holocrons hidden under the empero's bed with his diary on all of it. She would eat it all up and empower her allies. Including Dranok who was fighting Kaine. She poured it into him as well as Samanthe with Anaya. "Feed."

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra had been watching the bloodbaths silently, her eyes scanning over each fight until she found the one that she was looking for. @[member="Kaine Zambrano"], King of Thule, standing there and fighting for his own life. It looked so easy, she had been taught to take power, but this was a Sith lord and master she was thinking of attacking. How could she beat such a man, but she had fought that Zaiden person, and Kaine was already fighting another master, she had a chance for Glory. She checked her com-link one last time, hoping that her master recalled her, ordered her not to strike but no such thing came. She breathed in and dropped down to the ground, her battle armor showing as her robes fell to the ground at her side. She would allow for both Kaine and @[member="Dranok Lussk"] to see her, letting Kaine see her face and know who she was before she put on her battle mask and straightened up with her blades in hand. "Kaine Zambrano, i am here to help you pass on to the pits of hell." She charged forward and cut at Kaine's back in an X pattern strike while Dranok attacked his front. After this she would either pay for her actions or gain glory, either way this was the most important moment of her life.

 

[Kiara Alanna Decoix]

With a satisfying smell of burnt flesh, Kiara knew she had defeated her enemy. As such a certain flare of confidence washed through her, enough that she didn't realize what @[member="Marcus Faust"] was doing until too late. She watched in disbelief as she watched him slam his saber into her chest, it seemed as if her armor would hold for a second before she noticed it had struck her Sith Amulet. She looked up at Marcus before cursing "For kark's sake!" Energy began to spill forth with the first crack, and behind that an explosion of Force energies that would envelop them both. Kiara's body jerked back as the momentum sent the Sith Lady flying across the room. Pieces of her armor flying in any direction, the only thing that kept her from dying was the fact she had wrapped her force shield around her body and not her armor.

She landed on the ground her body lying there limp as she lost consciousness. Things were looking bad for her being in a room full of Sith and being unconscious; she knew that as soon as the other battles ended it would surely be noted. However, personally she couldn't do anything while she was incapacitated but really just lay there and hope for the best. Her mind in a dream-like trance began to reach out toward @[member="Ashin Varanin"] speaking "I've failed you. You once told me that you saw a potential in me but here I am surely soon to be dead. I guess in the end you were wrong about me. I don't doubt you know about the small squad of Sith assassin's I've been training for the last couple of years but their worth is small compared to my secret apprentice in Kiyala Demont. If you saw potential in me, then their is surely a greater destiny in her. . . please protect her if you can." And with that Kiara stopped fighting for a consciousness and instead allowed the force to do what it willed with her.

That was the plan until a sudden surge of force strength enveloped her. It was no where near enough to bring her back to full form but it was enough to awaken her from her short slumber. Kiara gasped coughing up blood and burns literally covering a good percentage of her body. She struggled to sit down with her back against the stone walls of the throne room, she began to attempt to draw energies from the force around her. Luckily for her @Darth Vaezla was channeling Sith Magic into the air which was akin to super charged dark sided energies, it would still take much time for her to rise to her feet but her small wounds began to slowly knit themselves utilizing her dark sided healing. She knew for whatever reason her time was not yet over, and when she felt @Shinju channel energy into Mikhail she figured the woman must have done the same for her. She sent the most thankful feeling she could manage to wash over Shinju letting her know her compassion would not be forgotten after this.

For now she needed to rest and meditate, she began chanting into Sith tongue spells of empowerment to those on their side of the coup most notably @[member="Mikhail Shorn"] and Shinju. For now that was all she could manage to do in the form of help.

@Vilox Pazela

 

[Marcus Faust]

Marcus couldn't fight back, he couldn't move, he was helpless as @[member="Shinjū Aÿasha"] drained him of his energies. The Assassin only stared defiantly up at his former master. Tyrin was dead, @[member="Mikhail Shorn"] and @[member="Kiara Alanna Decoix"] had won. The Knight's allegiance was to whomever sat on the the throne. But that was something for another day, right now he really needed to not die. Ramming into Shinju from behind was one of his saber guards two others grabbed Marcus and dragged him from the room with haste, they needed to get him to safety.

The one that remained activated both of his sabers in a reverse grip and swung at Shinju's head with one saber and across her gut with the other to begin, then launched a furious flurry of strikes across Shinju's body. The guard was enraged, two of his brothers had fallen, and his commander, the man he was supposed to protect, stepped in and likely saved the rest of them, only to be horrendously injured. He had one purpose now. Hold off the cannibal.

 

[Shinju]

Shinju moved, back as she raised the blade letting its blood red beam block the slash to her gut. It screamed and fed into her while without giving the other energy Shinju was able to use it herself. Swirling all around her in a cascade of rage, of power and of darkside energy. It fed her, fueled her and now while her lips came back into a sadistic grin the saber guard fed her. His own rage at the deaths of the others would feed her while red tendrils snaked around her hand before she sent them out to lap at his energy. He would feed her in more ways now, then she would rip into his throat with her teeth as she took a ready stance to defend.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The moment Tyrin was thoroughly defeated by Mikhail Shorn, Kaine cut off his next attack and leaped away from Dranok. He had only engaged due to his duty to defend the current Emperor from any and all usurpers, unless he himself took the throne, and that obligation was now void with Tyrin's defeat. Kaine's eyes met Dranok's and he nodded, "Enough of this, Dranok. Ardik has been defeated, my duty to defend him is no more." Kaine inclined his upper body respectively and began to deactivate his lightsaber when @[member="Alexandra Shadowstalker"] appeared and threatened him with death. Kaine was in no mood for such tricks, and as the young apprentice began her assault towards him he calmly moved his lightsaber into his left hand and pointed his right directly at her. Darkness quickly flared from the gauntlet, and in a burst of shadows a beam of pure Dark Side energy erupted from the palm of his gauntlet. The beam traveled in a vertical line towards the center of her criss-crossed lightsabers, which would strike the center of the crossed blades and continue on past them due to the beam being constructed of the Dark Side and not any type of conventional energy.

Only two people had been able to escape this attack, Ashin Varanin and Dranok Lussk. The former had managed to create an energy shield that withheld the brunt of the blast, but nearly eradicated her entire arm and set her clothes ablaze. The latter had used one of Kaine's soldiers to intercept the blast and dodge, the blast killing the soldier instantly in a burst of explosive Dark Side power. How Alexandra hoped to survive this, Kaine couldn't very well see.

@[member="Dranok Lussk"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra, in a uninjured and unfatigued state could easily feel the massive amount of darkside energy and dived to the side as the energy was discharged, her robes catching flame as they were caught in the blast and forcing her to throw them off less she recieve her own injuries. Though due to fact that she had been so close to man anyways she had been forced to abandon one of her sabers as she rolled due to the energy using it in the same way a lightning rod conducts electricity. Leaving her with only one blade as she stared at @[member="Kaine Zambrano"] then @[member="Dranok Lussk"], She had miscalculated and now she may pay with it for he life if she couldn't prove she had enough worth to be still considered worthy of life. She held her single blade and resumed her Makashi stance, waiting for Kaine to dispatch her.