Tempering the Blade (Asan Vahin's training)

[Will]

((Sorry man, I thought i had replied, then checked it at the hostel, and ate some humble pie))

Asan nodded. Jittery little thing, liking to leap about. That left her vulnerable. He swung horizontally, purposefully making her dodge, using the moment um to drive his shoulder at her chest, to knock her over.

 

[Ols]

As she leaned back to escape the arc of the blade, barely a nano-second after her toes had touched the ground from her previous hop, without a chance for her lightsaber to bear down for a counter, Asan's shoulder connected with her squarely in the chest and sent her reeling backwards, falling onto her back and skidding away. Gingerly, she got up and raised her weapon, looking drawn and tired, waiting for the next onslaught.

 

[Will]

Asan did not give her much time to recover, like a juggernaught, he ploughed forward, bringing the blade in a horizontal sweep, in an aim to bring her lightsabre away from her face, for a headbutt.

 

[Ols]

She flicked her wrists as the strike came, again allowing her defensive form to take the momentum from the blow, and force her opponent off balance. He may be continuing a swift onslaught, but brute strength alone would not crack her. As his strike slid from her blade to one side the oncoming headbutt needed only the slightest lean away from her upper body and Asan would be overbalancing forwards. As Asan's head lent forwards through the air, she pivoted slightly on the ball of one foot and drove the knee of her other, closer leg up into Asan's jaw, ready to land and defend again once she connected.

 

[Will]

Asan drew his head back with force aided speed as his opponent dodged away from the blow. He unleashed a force push as the knee caught his nose, blood spraying onto the floor. As he sought to tumble her across the room, he moved after her, sabre arcing through the air.

 

[Ols]

The burst of force energy sent her flying a split second after her blow had connected with her opponent's nose with a sickening crunch. As she flew backwards, much faster than the attacker could chase her with a follow up blow, her lightsaber disengaged and she skidded across the hard stone floor. She barely had time to compose herself as the red blade came arcing downwards. She rolled to one side, fluidly pushing herself up and taking a crouching position, flicking her blue blade back on as Asan's blade whipped downwards where she had been moments before. She countered as quickly as possible, a quick lunge with the saber towards Asan's side.

 

[Will]

Asan swept the blade aside, throwing a heavy kick to her ankles, whilst pushing against her with the force. As he did so, he brought his blade down, a decapitating move.

 

[Ols]

Asan's blade knocked Syna's away and sent her slightly reeling. She was slightly fortunate that he sent another wave of force energy at her, as, off balance, she hopped and rode the wave back, out of range of both his kick and attack. As she rode the push she flipped and landed slightly crouched a good ten metres from Asan. She raised her lightsaber and threw it, the blue blade spinned through the air, guided by the force, towards Asan's own neck.

 

[Will]

Asan swatted the blade aside with his own lightsabre. He charged her again, bringing his blade swinging in an eviscerating sweep.

 

[Ols]

As Asan brushed the blade aside, it spun behind him. Under Syna's control, as he began to charge, it spun around in a tight arc, returning to her hand, straight through Asan's back.

 

[Will]

Asan heard the hum of the blade behind him, instinctively rolling aside as close as possible to his opponent, in order to try and get her to die on her own blade.

 

[Ols]

As Asan dodged the strike, Syna caught the blade, now in a reverse handed grip so it faced towards her opponent, rather than her having to bring it to bear. She aimed a swipe across his frame, hoping the speed of her attack would catch him off guard as he adjusted from his dodge.

 

[Will]

As Asan rolled, the ghost blade sliced through his leg. He let out a grunt of pain, standing with some difficulty. He reminded himself that this was not real, just an apparition, and the conviction in his thoughts seemed to help some. He entered a defensive stance, a rarity in battle, and sure to throw his master.

 

[Ols]

Nescius smiled, invisible to his apprentice. He had adjusted to cope with the fight, a skill few Bogan valued as it went against the inherent arrogance and stubbornness of their creed. Still making the togruta move, as if a puppeteer, he prepared for the endgame of the encounter. Syna Bastro, deceased Jedi Knight, standing in tattered and torn robes, one cracked boot, one missing boot, cuts and bruises lining her skin, leapt forwards, her blade angled at Asan's head. Her strike was risky, and Asan had a choice, only one option of which Nescius would accept.

The fight so far was clearly a stalemate, and despite Asan's physical strength he would realise his stamina would be waning. There was no clearly stated objective to this task, although the tacit one would obviously be to win the day and overcome this demon.

The way the puppet master had his pet strike was such that Asan had a choice. He could step back, deflect the blow and continue on, his blows becoming weaker against an opponent who could not tire, or he could take a killing stroke, stabbing her, but taking her lightsaber to his head in the process. Kill her, and be struck a fatal blow, or pass over the opportunity to kill her and hope another comes.

((Whichever you choose, just do that action, because either way there's an immediate response from me. Thanks.))

 

[Will]

((We all know what Asan would do))

Asan ducked low, rising up as her blade whispered over her head, blade swinging up in a wide, eviscerating arc. He had to end this now, an apparition had limitless stamina, Asan, however, did not.

 

[Ols]

Asan struck. His blade sliced through the hole in her defence. It slipped through her chest, red blade through the orange skin, coming out the other side. And as he struck, so did she. Her blade, an apparition, but for Asan a real threat, penetrated his head. Nescius instantly dropped the vision, the Jedi disippated before she could groan her last breath. And he turned his attention entirely towards the point of her blade that struck Asan. Simultaneously as dropping the apparition, he forced a burst of the force through the blue lightsaber blade, the dissipating weapon acting as the conduit for what would be an onslaught.

Tired, his apprentice now had a much greater challenge to overcome. Nescius burst into the apprentice's head with a wave of insanity. The pain of apparition's blow alone would be enough to send Asan reeling, lesser people could easily die of shock from such a thing. But Asan did not have time to go into shock. Nescius was inside his head, he had forced his way in. Asan, if he could force his eyes open, would not see his master, as Nescius plunged him into a whirlpool of force fueled insanity. His inner demons would surface.

Syna's voice echoed in his head, as it had when she lay dying on the ground and Asan marched into her ship with the younglings at his mercy.

"What have you done?!"

((Have some fun with this, play around with whatever demons he has, but don't just overcome it too easily))

 

[Will]

''What I was meant to!!'' He screamed at none, a ball on the floor. All the faces of those younglings flickered past, before all appeared before him, the face of Necius, his master on all of them. They were evil, twisted mockeries of their former selves. They all thanked him, in laughing, sing-song voices.

''Not...real...can't-be-REAL!'' He screamed, thrashing at the air. They all fell, bloody chunks of meat, dead, angelic children around him.

Blood. Blood everywhere. He knew it was the blood of not only all those he killed in his previous life on Thustra, but the younglings as well. Orion stepped before him, disappointment riven across his face.

''Killing children, Vahin? Pathetic. You don't deserve to be one of our order. You are still,and will always be, an animal.''

He had to fight this. The small, rational part of his mind was screaming that this was all an apparition, like the woman he had just faced, but Asan's primal instincts could not be silenced. Asan lashed at invisible phantoms, rage becoming his very being.

Nothing has stamina forever. Eventually, after suffering the physical torment of his past, Asan collapsed, mumbling. His life was flashing before him with vivid detail, where before he was simplwy consumed with rage, not knowing the consequence of his actions. The horrors of his life were played back.

Slowly, his mind fought back. Those deaths were necessary. They were weak. The weak deserve not to live. Those younglings were misled, they would now tread the true path of the force, freed from their chains, as Asan was.

Agonisingly slowly, Asan returned. His mind was cleansed in fire. He growled as he rose, unkown pain flaring in his body. He stood in the centre of the dark room, alone.

 

[Ols]

Nescius relaxed his grip upon the force he had just injected into Asan's mind and let it slip from the apprentice's mind. Asan was standing in the middle of the room, as it materialised as it had been before the apparitions began, Nescius standing perhaps two metres from Asan, if that.

"You seem to have banished your demons," he said, "you've made fantastic progress. As much as I could expect of any apprentice, more in fact. When you came here, I didn't question your past, it didn't matter. You were just another being, all that mattered was what you did next. But now, I want you to tell me how you came to be a Dark Jedi, and who you were before, your encounter with Orion...everything."

 

[Will]

((Sorry about the late reply, I thought I already had.))

"I was born on Thustra, but unwanted. I was left in the woods. An animal I was treated, an animal I became. I hunted anything. Rage consumed my being. I learned little snippets of my own language from dying victims. Normally young men seeking to bring my head for their loved one. I was a vengeful creature of legend. They styled themselves as knights slaying the dragon. This dragon was too powerful though." Asan smiled at the reverie. "Eventually, even lost travellers became my prey. All were the same in my eyes. None could stop me. Until the hunter Orion. He found me, and bound me, bringing me here. He taught me eloquence and the code. And here I am." Asan spread his arms out.

 

[Ols]

"Why?" Nescius replied simply, "Why were you unwanted? Why were you rejected? How were you consumed by rage? How did you survive? Why did you hunt these people? Even the most fearsome dragon must survive as a hatchling long enough to become a creature of dread. And even the most base creatures have their instincts for a reason, their modus operandi makes sense. Let me understand what drove you, so I can unleash you."