Apotheosis (Pre-Dawn of the Republic)

[Tsunami]

Ryu was disappointed to find that his fake attack had not paid off, Siweo had quickly entered a more classical defensive stance and it allowed he to effectively defend herself from the upwards strike. The jump back however was unexpected and Ryu had not been used to people creating distance between him and them.

Regardless, he wasn't going to have much time to think, his opponent began to close the gap once more, he could feel the force channeling through her as the she sprinted at a non-human speed. Never the less the position of the saber, and the target area would leaver her legs open for attack, his second blade had ignited as she began her approach.

Ryu bided his time and crossing his blades across his chest slightly he began to move forward also and as the blade became positioned for the upward swing he slid down onto his knees, his body leaning far backwards allowing the blade to pass over him before he quickly sat upright, his crossed over blades extending outwards (so a blade was either side of the legs) and slashing horizontally through Siweo's upper thighs (outer thigh - inner thigh).

If she attempted to re-direct the blade, the cross over position that Ryu had during the slide would more than allow him to defend an attack, while still having a blade free to slash through her legs. If she was foolish enough to jump, the blade would just cut through the legs at a lower position.

 

[Korvo]

It was once said that warriors of old would adopt and embrace the eccentric and uncanny, the strange and the bizarre. Where one would fight with finesse and grace, the other would fight in a way that to most eyes, it would appear as clumsy, ineffective or even counterproductive. So too was it when it came to the Seventh's Form. More aggressive than Ataru, more open and sweeping than Djem So, but without the grace of either... or so it all-too-often seemed. But to those that devoted themselves to the form of ferocity, there was naught but clarity and structure.

Calm within, hurricane without. But more important, it provided a natural shield against the opponent, while at the same time divulging that which was unspoken. Either in training or adoption, Sena was using fundamental elements of Makashi. There'd been little evidence of Makashi influence beforehand, but at the very least, it now appeared Sena had at least a superficial knowledge and application of the dueling form.

The more Anastasia saw, the more she fought, the easier it was to embrace the calm. It was paradoxical on all accounts, but then, so too was Juyo itself. Her concentration came more naturally, and her countenance eased and mellowed. But inside was a raging storm, scarcely contained were it not for the benefit of her channeling her own darker impulses out.

With the delivery of her right-armed lunge, Sena caught and locked blades with her own dual sabers, using Anastasia's momentum against her. It was a clever tactic. Clearly not Makashi in nature―it was much too physical, too dependent on counter-attacking force against force, using an opponent's power against them. While there certainly could have been Soresu elements within, there was no longer any doubt than Sena was a Djem So user. And with that knowledge came understanding.

As the locked blades of the Sith manipulated Anastasia's momentum, the Jedi Knight changed her style. Chaotic, unpredictable, ferocious; these were her guides and her aims. With the 'pull', Anastasia allowed her right arm to be drawn and projected her motion into a barrel-roll Force jump, leaping just a under a meter overhead Sena. With her left arm, Anastasia would swipe at the back of Sena's head.

Deflected or not, it would keep the Sith woman on the defensive. Anastasia landed less than a meter away from Sena, behind her. By this time, there was little doubt that the Sith would have turned about and readied herself, but it didn't matter. Not to Anastasia. The moment her left foot hit the ground, Anastasia charged her leg with the Force and lunged herself at Sena Rhen, swinging her left blade at the Sith's throat and the right at the lower torso. It would be a dual strike, and at two separate locations.

If blocked, Anastasia would lock the blades downward and take the opportunity to headbutt Sena, stunning her for a follow-up attack. If avoided, Anastasia would execute a large Force leap, back-flipping a good distance away before preparing for a second charge, or avoiding a counter-attack.

 

[Spud]

Success, partially... Sena did manage to redirect Anastasia's momentum but instead of it tripping her up she simply went along with it and shifted it back into her control. The Torch was undeniably skilled in the seventh artform... As Anastasia flipped overhead Sena responded with a shoulder roll, deactivating her blades as she tucked under the flipping Jedi and rolled back to her feet just past where Anastasia had leaped from, ducking under the aerial swipe at her head and effectively reversing their positions.

As she rose back to her feet Sena quickly reversed her left hilt in her hand, reactivating her blades with the left reverse and the right forward. The decision to visibly reverse her hilt rather than deactivating the forward blade and activating the reverse one was made to keep her opponent in the dark about the nature of her lightsabers. So far only she has only used the two same blades, it may still be possible to catch Anastasia by surprise...

There was no reprieve, as soon as Anastasia touched down she launched into another offensive. A dual strike this time... Opportunity? Perhaps... Blades approaching from both left and right, Ana's right aimed at Sena's lower torso and her left aimed at Sena's neck. Sena would meet these blades simultaneously, her right raised to block the attack from Ana's left blade and her left brought forward with the blade angled back to block the attack from Ana's right blade.

They were in a lock once more, and just like last time Anastasia launched a third attack with her body after pushing their blades down towards the ground. Opportunity... A headbutt? Even better than a kick to spring what she had planned. As the Torch brought her head forward to concuss her Sena ignited the forward blade of her left hilt. Second phase ignition... piercing red blade climbing swiftly towards the Torch's core, aiming to pierce her through the center of her chest and carry through to the spine at the base of the neck with a sixty inch blade.

Should Anastasia react in time to avoid her surprise attack Sena would take a few steps back, deactivate the forward blade of her left hilt, and fall into another defensive stance. In this stance her right foot would be forward with her left hilt held back to the side, blade running diagonally upwards behind her, and the right hilt held low to the right, blade extending diagonally up to her left. If Anastasia were to carry through with her headbutt there wouldn't be enough time to escape Sena's blade, even if she tried to frontflip over her with the momentum of the headbutt the angle was steep enough that it would surely catch lower abdomen, pelvis, or leg.

 

[Warmonger]

Her lightsaber's amber blade sailed comfortably over Kadeous' head as he ducked her slash. Time slowed down for her. The fight wasn't going well for her. Kadeous had gained the upper hand in the duel and she wasn't focused at all. Despite the temple's calming aura, the rage and hate inside her hadn't subsided. If anything it had grown as Anastasia and Rhen moved their fight inside the temple entrance. It had grown as Kadeous' arrogance was displayed in his fighting style. She had to put some distance in between them and clear her head.

As her lightsaber sailed over Kadeous she could see that he was already on the attack. Both of his blades were rising up. Quickly redirecting her blade, Siweo blocked the attack from the left. Unfortunately, that left his second blade free. Her options were limited. Jumping would just get her foot lopped off so, instead, she delivered a force-assisted kick to his shin. He stumbled backwards, his blade cleaving through a couple of her toes instead of her leg. Wasting no time, Siweo took a few steps back and threw another force-assisted push at the Sith, this time with both of her hands. The pain from losing her toes was intense.

As he was knocked back, Siweo delved into the Force. Thinking back to her time as a padawan and the lessons her master taught her, she quieted her mind and pushed the dark thoughts, her rage and her anger, back into the deep recesses of her mind and her soul. She let the flood of the light side wash over her and brought her saber back into defensive stance.

 

[Korvo]

Nimble, if not cunning. Most warriors would never sheathe their weapons for even a moment when in the midst of combat. Tactically speaking, it made little to no sense, and there was even less, if any, philosophical values attached to it. However, the lightsaber was no ordinary weapon, and this was not as the battles of old, between physical blades. Trakata, it was. At least, some of its base elements. Under normal circumstances, such tactics did not mesh with Anastasia's own patterns of attacking, but she knew enough of it to recognized when its principals were in use.

Deactivating her blades before she performed a brief retreat, rolling to avoid the overhead slash, before reigniting her blades. Anastasia did not cease her charge, and would not hesitate, but she was now more watchful. Sena's lightsabers were a danger factor in and of themselves. It was the practice of some warriors to perform without the betrayal of their intentions written on their faces. Against such ones, some found it more advantageous to watch the weapon of the wielder, as opposed to the wielder themselves.

Anastasia would not devote her attention to the weapon, but now she was aware of it, and it would never stray from her notice. As the Knight charged in, striking with both of her blades, the predicted clash came. Her line of vision widened, as she took in the scope of her opponent to watch for follow-up attacks. Almost inevitably, Anastasia's eyes focused on Sena's lightsabers. Turned about for a reverse-grip, the Jedi Knight noticed a band of metal near the end of the Sith's lightsaber... a stabilizing ring. A magnetized stabilizing ring, even? It was a common enough component, one that all lightsabers required to keep the energy blade from burning through the hilt. But it was on the wrong end, they were only attached to emitter matrices.

In truth, Anastasia was in disbelief. She'd neither seen nor heard of a lightsaber as needlessly modified as such, but it took only one happenstance for a fatality. In that moment's contemplation, Anastasia altered her pattern of attack yet again. She needed something different. Something unpredictable, unprecedented. With her thumbs tagging her knuckles, Anastasia ended the lightsaber locks in a Trakata maneuver.

Much of her strength went into the lock and it was repelled, which meant Sena had been forcefully holding her own. The sudden loss of force against force would be unbalancing to say the least, which was all the Knight needed. Even if her worries were unjustified, as she suspected, it motivated her to adopt an alternate pattern of attack, something she always welcomes.

Taking advantage of the sudden absence of force Sena would experience against her lightsabers, Anastasia would reach out with her right arm and grasp at Sena's left wrist, forcing it upwards with her own, attempting to lock both hand and wrist in an upward position. With her left arm, Anastasia kept her thumb on her knuckle, reigniting her lightsaber after 'passing the blade' to impale Sena through her mid-torso.

 

[Spud]

This Torch was proving to be a rather keen opponent, much to be expected of someone that was chosen to keep the shadows from entering one of their temples. Rather than go for a physical attack after their blades locked she instead deactivated her blades, keen indeed. Trakata practitioners that actually knew what they were doing were rather rare, typically because one poorly timed maneuver spelled disaster. Most swordsmen she knew either didn't want to risk it or died trying to use it in combat for the first time.

Anastasia's use of trakata was unexpected and deceitful, just how she would have done it herself actually, but the odd movement of her thumbs just beforehand tipped Sena off that she was planning something. Had Sena not known much of trakata herself then that probably would have been the end of her, but with every action there is opportunity. Instead of stumbling over her new found lack of resistance Sena went with it, mustering as much strength and speed as she could to perform a powerful shoulder tackle with her left shoulder.

Sena would abandon her left saber, dropping it to instead reach down and hold Anastasia's right gauntlet to keep it down and out of the way. At the same time she would bring her right blade forward, just as she would with a dagger or a short sword, aiming to impale the torch through the lower abdomen, under the rib cage, and through the chest cavity to the spine at the base of the neck. She wouldn't have been able to recuperate in time to avoid the passing blade technique entirely, so instead she would try to bypass it as much as she could before Anastasia reignited her blade.

Hopefully this sudden shift to heavy offense would catch Anastasia by surprise, as it was practically the opposite of how she'd been fighting this entire time, and act quick enough to pass behind her left arm enough to catch the reignited blade in the right shoulder or arm. However, if she couldn't get close enough to avoid a mortal wound then she would at least bring her killer with her. Ideally the sudden impact of a force empowered shoulder tackle combined with severing Anastasia's spine would prevent her from being able to re-position her left arm in a way that would mortally wound Sena, causing the arm to instead trail behind Sena and off to the side once they connected with the ground. Though this was far from an ideal maneuver...

 

[Tsunami]

It came as a surprise that his opponent escaped with only a few missing toes, as he got to his feet, he locked eyes with Siweo once again. Her blade now rested in a defensive stance. "Impressive" Ryu stated, his blades held tight as he began walking towards his opponent. He was not a fast man, but he would be embarrassed if the Jedi somehow out manoeuvred him now.

He made sure that he kept his eyes peeled as he approached, he didn't want any funny business and even a Jedi who would struggle to fight, is still a powerful wielder of the force. Not to mention she had hundreds of allies on the battlefield who could run to her aid.

If he got into melee range without something stopping him, he would bring his right blade over quickly sweeping it across is opponents upper body from her right to left, in the same fluid motion he would attempt a stabbing motion with the left blade, aiming to cut into the hip area of his opponent. In order to protect his body best he would rotate slightly around as his first blade swept towards the torso, causing him to initiate the stabbing motion closer to the side he was attacking. This attack pattern would only happen if he was not forced to defend himself on his way to his opponent.

 

[Korvo]

It all happened so quickly, beneath the fear and beyond the fervor, behind the anticipation and above the tipping balance between dread and determination. It was almost ethereal, surreal, experiencing it all at once. The rush of emotion and will, intertwined as they were in conflict with each other. The will to live, the passion to survive, two sides of the same coin. Two halves of one veritas.

In truth, Anastasia knew it would never have ended so simply. How could it? Sena adapted, she moved like the fluidity of mercury. But even with her methods in mind, Anastasia was still taken by surprise. Of course, the Jedi Knight was well acquainted with the hand-to-hand engagements of martial combat. But she made a crude observation of Sena. She saw her thin frame, tested her wiry strength, and made the baseless categorization that the Sith prized weaponized finesse over physical attacks. She never considered a charge, a tackle, as ever being an option. Not with one so combatively defensive, so reliant on using the strength of others against them.

As Sena grappled Anastasia's right forearm, keeping her gauntlet out of the fight, her eyes caught sight of the Sith's executionary move, her left hand tightened into a fist. Her previous attack had been broken off, the earlier shoulder tackle had taken care of that. With a split second to react, Anastasia pulled her left arm upwards to her defense as quickly as she could, deflecting Sena's crimson blade to the left.

"AAAAGGHHH!!"

The sensation of the searing pain was both unlike anything Anastasia had ever felt... but was also a burning impact, all too well known to the body. She'd never before been maimed or even grazed by the lightsaber's blade, but it was as if her body recognized it. As if it were scarred by it and knew its touch. For while her spine remained intact, her body was far from unscathed.

"AAHHHKK!! EEUUGHH!!"

Anastasia gasped in pain, sharp gasps for breath, as if she could not breath in quickly enough, scratched her throat like shattered glass. Her teeth began to grind as she bared them in pain, clinching shut her eyes in the most sudden of all feelings. Her vital organs and her bones were spared of harm. But Anastasia had not fully deflected the attempted deathblow in time. A few inches of the Jedi Knight's abdomen bore the unmistakable carving of a white-hot glow. The far side of her abdomen had been sliced, bored through with heat. It was not life-threatening, but the pain was undeniably severe.

Pinned and locked again in a standoff, beads of sweat rolled down Anastasia's face as she struggled to collect her senses to their proper focus. She was wounded, but she was not dead. She was disadvantaged, but she was not defeated. Her blade was inner-most compared to Sena's. She could use that to her advantage. She could deliver a deathblow herself... if she risked the same to herself. It was a stalemate, but one she could break at equal potential expense to herself. Sena's blade would no doubt end Anastasia's life if the Jedi relented to attack, but if she attacked, she had Sena's exposed body ahead of her.

"Anastasia?", the Jedi Master asked, watching the Jedi Knight's expression fall into discomfort, "Princess, did more happen? Were you slain? Was the Sith? What did you do?"

"It was not what I did, Master," Anastasia finally continued, sharply inhaling as her head pointed upward, holding her breath before exhaling as she slowly began lowering her head, "It was what I saw."

"Then go on, and please, tell me what it was you saw."

Time slowed to a terrifying halt as Anastasia's mind raced back and forth. All the Jedi Knight could see, all she could focus on, was the eye of her enemy.

The iris, large and colorful. They were cold, almost deadened, but some shade of violet. It was almost something beautiful... but within, revealed a chilling visualization. Within Sena's eye, Anastasia saw herself. And upon herself, she saw her own eye, staring into Sena's. Her own blue eye, like a cerulean sky. And within the center of the reflection of her own eye, within the darkness beyond the bounds of the iris, Anastasia saw a hand. A hand, so Human, and yet, so alien... unknowable.

[fancybox2]

[/fancybox2]​

As Anastasia stared into Sena's eye, and the hand within the reflection of her own eye, a new form began to appear above it.

A blue sphere, vibrant, luminous and fiery, like a star. But it was a star unlike the one before. It was a star born of fire and water. It spiraled as it brimmed, and the blood of the ground rose to it like a black hole drawing all light and life. But the blood was not consumed by it. Instead, it began to envelop it, merging with it like a seal. And the blood came to stain all that it touched, with even the strange hand not spared of it. But even as the blood began to spread, some of it became as mist, burned away by the intensity of the heat within.

As so the little sun within the palm of the hand tremored, and it was as if at war with itself. And within the hand, gazing at the star of fire and water, Anastasia felt as if she saw tribulation incarnate. She saw destruction, and creation. Oblivion, and existence. Death, and life. One bound to the other, and the other tethered to the one.

It was like a sepulchral torrent between. Of what, Anastasia could not understand or comprehend. It was a thing she'd never before laid eyes upon, but at the same time, felt as if it were immemorial. Eventually, the hand and the star stained of blood were all that Anastasia could see, whether she looked to the right, to the left, above or beneath her. It captivated her, consumed her senses until she could feel the star's warmth and smell the burning blood.

The star turned faster and faster, all the while whispers creeped from it. Quiet voices, crawling to the back of the mind. They were heard, but not enough to understand the words. They were always out of reach, beyond the grasp of those listening to it. Finally, the whispers ceased, and a single tone resonated. It grew louder, and it grew louder until it became as a wail. And the wailing grew louder still, until it become as a piercing scream.

At once, Anastasia was back to the present, blades locked with Sena. She'd remember what it was she saw, but at the same time, it was as if she'd forgotten it. Perhaps, even as if she'd never seen it. Her mind teetered back to her dilemma within a stalemate, but everything was still frozen, stilled in time like an echo that wouldn't fade. But something had changed.

The ground shook and the columns cracked. The pavement fractured and the rains burned, as if turned to fire. A blinding light radiated over the battle in the forests and the plains, penetrating well through the entrance of the Jedi Temple's outer sanctum. The feeling was like a cold fire. The shade was colorless, as if all had vibrancy been drained aside from the black and the white. All vanished as the light and the tremors grew until all that was left was the screaming, increasing more and more and more until it became unbearable, and a mighty quake shattered all until everything was smote in a torrent of fire.

Anastasia awoke almost in a seizure. At first, when she tried to breathe, her throat had closed up, choking her as she struggled for air. Almost reflexively, she rolled out of her bed, hitting the floor briefly before vomiting violently on her knees. Her hand instinctively reached for her side, frantically touching to feel the lightsaber wound she'd only just suffered at the hands of... of who? The name... she'd known it, known it so well, but now, she couldn't remember.

The names, like water. Just slipping out of her grasp. Her eyes clinched tightly, grasping for the experience she'd just had, but all that came were faces, dim, fading to black. Names were turned to babel, lost to her. Her body shook, but not from fear. Something else had touched her, dismayed her. She didn't know what it was... if was it of the Force, of the Dark Side or the Light, or even if it was the hand of another. But something about it all, was too real. It was too... something. Was it too real? Too surreal? As her breathing calmed, she desperately searched for the knowledge she'd only just owned.

She had to remember. She needed to remember. Don't forget... she couldn't allow herself to forget. She didn't know why, but at the same time, she knew. It was important that she remember. She needed to remember this.

"..m.. mas... ter..", she groaned out, gathering her composure from the uncanny episode.

Reaching for a com panel, Anastasia signaled the Jedi-commander General, breathing heavily before she finally uttered out in finality, "Master... General. I need... your counsel... please.."