The Ouroboros Effect [PvP]

[Kibagami]

On the beaches of an alien world, two ancient 30-story tall Milesaurs are gearing up to due battle for territorial domination. They fill their bodies with as much water as they can possibly hold while their long necks prep to spew thousands of gallons at ultra high velocities at their rival. These bouts can last for days and have been known to entirely drain small lakes. A Milesaur's fight for the right to survive typically devastates the surrounding habitats leaving the smaller creatures of the area exposed, predators often gather at these events for exactly this reason.

(This is practice, no need for a reason or motive. Intro & Go!)

@Marcus​

 

[Marcus]

Marcus had been here. Once. And it was not pleasant. General Brax had brought him here for training and to focus on the world around him. It was full of nature, beasts in all their splendor, life in all its power. The Jedi somehow found this off-beat place and used it to toughen up his pupils. Perhaps it was passed down from his master, or perhaps he had been in a fight here. But without many sentients around or any cities or technology, it could not have been much of a target for anything, especially during the Sith wars.

A hide-out? Marcus wondered to himself. And indeed it would make a great place to stow away, and few Jedi in the order knew of the place. Marcus would have to make a note of this place when he got back to his ship.

But that was later, for the here and now beckoned and it was not his master this time, but someone with whom he had little interaction but much respect. They were about the same age, but Jubei had about three times as much training as a Jedi and combatant as Marcus. They were both skilled, but it was for this comparative reason that they agreed to meet.

Marcus stood on the shores of a small lake - large pond maybe - looking across the way as the Milesaurs began to gather. Well, two of them anyways. And it was not that far away... nothing a charge by the beasts couldn't turn into a few yards in an instant. But closer to him than the beasts a glimpse of a cloaked figure approached, and it was obvious Jubei has made his arrival.

The slightly-older Jedi, not yet a Knight in the Crusaders, smirked as they came within earshot. Marcus lowered his hood and slowly bowed his head in a formal greeting. "Of all the places..." Marcus already had his two saber hilts in hand, as the spar was the sole reason they were both here. Well, and to hopefully not get marred by one of the many creatures in their vicinity.

@Kibagami

 

[Kibagami]

A soft, cool breeze carried with it Marcus' words, to this he replied "...to host a challenge, none could be more exciting." Spoken with vigor as the chonin-gasa hat was rolled off his head and tossed aside with little care, though he valued it greatly. He then paused at a 10 meter distance and pulled the satchel from his shoulder, setting it at his feet. The satchel weighed on him and there was no current need for it's contents. "These creatures.." gesturing towards the two giants while unbuckling the belt that held his katana and wakizashi around his waist "..are fiercely territorial and will trample anything in their path." The brother blades were set next to the satchel. "I'd suggest staying away from the tail, it alone weighs about as much as an AT-AT" He grinned, obviously exaggerating some, though still quite serious about avoiding it. From the other shoulder he took the 4foot twin-bladed Souba off his back. "Keep an eye on your 6 oclock too.." The Souba, his prized possession, was given a bit more of a gentle touch when he laid it softly atop the satchel. "..the carnivores are fearless and will attack anything that moves." From his wrists he unstrapped the bracers that housed several throwing knives each. "The Grex are particularly viscous. Large and fast and with extra thick skull casings that make them difficult to defeat." Then the bracers at his ankles, housing an equal number of throwing knives each, tossed aside as well. "Be thankful we're not here at night.." two of the three lightsabers at his right hip floated from him under his influence for a similar destination. "..that's when things get real exciting." While the third saber, and last remaining weapon on his person, took it's place in the palm of his right hand, simultaneously pulling the facemask of his Enviro-armor from his collar and over his mouth and nose with the left hermetically sealing the body-glove suit from the environment. "Heh!" he huffed, coming to within 10 feet, his voice now muffled. "Of all the places..." Jubei finally met the bow with one of his own. His saber silently ignited in a pale white-grey sheen of silver, hence it's name Silver Silence. He poised himself in a right foot forward, left shoulder back Fencing base and extended to point at @Marcus with friendly taunt.

 

[Marcus]

Marcus watched as Jubei slowly disrobed of his equipment. This guy had a lot of weapons - not only was he a deadly Jedi, he was a veritable arms dealer in the making. Marcus almost felt inadequate with his two shoto sabers and utility knife in his survival kit.

The man talked about their surroundings as he prepared himself. Marcus listened, pulling off his robe and setting it aside while he did so. He was pretty much battle-ready most of the time, so he did not have as much prep as Jubei. In many spars he might take off his belt and wear wrist guards, but this was the real deal in a sense. They wouldn't try to kill or maim each other, but it could happen.

"The excitement comes when they are attracted to our colorful blades and clashing sounds," Marcus added as he ignited his right blade. For the time he decided to holster his left hilt and try a single-blade approach. He probably wouldn't last long with this setup, but he could try.

As Jubei's blade came within a few feet of Marcus, the burning air and hum of the saber became obvious. Marcus closed his eyes, breathed in slowly, and exhaled a gradual breath. He soaked in the land and their surroundings, trying to reach out and sense what was about. The animals had not yet taken notice, but that would soon change. He opened his eyes after a couple short seconds and brought his saber up to match Jubei's angle. "Don't hold back too much," he said with a grin, knowing Jubei was overly qualified against Marcus.

The blue-bladed shoto saber tapped Jubei's slightly and then Marcus grabbed it with both hands to do a quick fore-hand slash at the blade. The typical sound of saber clashing could be heard - no beasts seemed to notice the first clash. Marcus then did a very typical rounding of his saber to come across more parallel to the ground in a slash towards Jubei. It would be easily blocked, but it would get them started, and they could both begin to feel the strength of the other based on those two quick clashes.

@Kibagami
((OOC: Feel free to critique here or in PM if I do something completely stupid. I am not a marshal artist, although I would posit not many Jedi RPers are, and thus I'm not going to always do things 100% pure in that sense.))

 

[Kibagami]

"Careful what you wish for." He warned in a jest.
Marcus' forehand slash knocked at Jubei's blade, keeping a flexible wrist his saber immediately circled back around into it's original position and angle pointing straight at Marcus' face. Knowing this was more formality than a strike, he surmised Marcus' next move would be true, which was made evident with the follow-up. There was a clear discrepancy in reach advantage between the two in both weapon and form, a discrepancy Jubei would take full advantage of. Seeing Marcus take his shoto in both hands would further lessen his reach, to which Jubei responded by shifting his weight to his back foot to create a bit more distance for good measure and allowing the shoto to pass under(you didn't specify what you were aiming at so I'll assume it's the torso) his own saber (both being ground parallel) while the tip of Silver Silence, still pointed at the face, would prevent Marcus from moving any closer. He then thrust himself forward, aiming an overhand stab for Marcus' trailing shoulder(if your slash was left to right it would be the left shoulder, or vise versa.) before actively retreating to his previous Fencing base.

 

[Marcus]

Marcus barely caught himself, and somehow knew that the strike from Jubei was most likely an intentional miss. Either that, or Marcus had the Force on his side for that split second. It was also clear, in one move, that Marcus could not try something new. As he recoiled from his strike and his shoulder - which he would later notice had a singe in the fabric - rested itself, his head shuddered. "Point taken," he said, with full intention of the play on words.

Marcus unclasped his other hilt and ignited it. It was time to use his forte, the dual blades. Brax had trained him for this, and worked on this with him. The dual shotos were meant for close proximity, well and in conjunction with use of the Force. Marcus hefted another breath and recalled his training. He recognized the poise and attempted an attack that would be a bit lower, using his left saber to deflect upwards towards Silver Silence and the other a slash towards Jubei's torso again. Regardless of the blows, Marcus would attempt to spin around and form a defensive stance.

 

[Kibagami]

He smirked at the pun, and still with a bit of a grin on his lips he nodded approvingly when seeing Marcus ignite his second shoto. Having fun is great but getting serious was so much more exciting!
The upwards deflection of his saber gave Jubei just enough momentum to use, to follow his saber as it arched up and back by spinning of his rear heel 180degrees counterclockwise which put himself far from Marcus' second attempt at his torso. As the two combatants spun around to face each other again, Jubei took the saber in both hands and hop-stepped forward with a mighty swing of his lightsaber(like a baseball bat) if only to test out @Marcus ' defensive posture.

 

[Marcus]

Marcus would receive the full brunt of the heavy swing from Jubei and be forced to bring down his other blade so that both were a perfect parallel to each other, now touching the silver of his opponent. Great sparks and electrical sounds could be heard from the clash this time. "Nice," Marcus said plainly.

Even if he had intended on saying more, he would have been interrupted as his keep senses picked up on the quirking of heads from the beasts around them. The not-quite-Knight would heft back physically, with a little umf from the Force, with both blades to try to push Jubei back as he kept his gaze on the experienced bladesman. If able, he would backward somersault and try to get a visual glimpse of the creatures across the lake.

Marcus would then do a fancy swirling of his two blades as he stepped back, a sort of kiyup, in preparation for what might hit them sooner than they had anticipated. "The broader game is afoot, master." His gaze would return to Jubei as he said the respectful words, letting him know he was ready for another onslaught.

 

[Kibagami]

He always preferred the sound of cold hard steel clashing, the sound of clashing lightsabers wasn't so pleasing to the ear, but the scent that clashing sabers emitted was, to him, the smell of battle, that ionized oxygen was unmistakable.

He nodded to Marcus to return his comment in kind, and the push from the quick saber lock sent Jubei back a few steps. He hadn't paid any mind to the Milesaurs(I assume that's what you were referring to) until Marcus mentioned a broader game, to which he now gave a moment of consideration.

Spoiler: closer pic for a better sense of scale

I know the 9's are blocking the character but it's the only pic I could find, but you get the idea.

"If we've caught their attention they'll be heading our way sooner or later." Focus turned back to Marcus. "Hopefully sooner than later." A somewhat sinister grin tugged at the corner of his mouth, he was always eager to welcome anything that would make a fight more exciting. As he did so, the Force began to centralize around his left hand, churning the sand directly below his palm, standing motionless with saberhand at ease by his side.

 

[Marcus]

The lesser of the Jedi nodded at the advice but then witnessed the sand and earth reacting to the gathering of Force energy in Jubei's hand. This was not a good sign - probably a Force slam or quake or something of that ilk was headed his way. Marcus stood there and waited for what Jubei was attempting.

In the distance, one of the Milesaurs did notice the distraction or perhaps even picked up on the imbalance of Force use in the area. Nature tended to react in funny ways to the Force sometimes. Although it did not have time to react as the other one butted its huge head against the first, creating a thunderous shake with its steps and an even deeper thud with the head slam. And thus the Milesaur dance began.

But that attracted more beasts - Marcus sensed them in the distance, but closing in at a less-than-brisk pace. Hunters and scavengers, coming in for the leftovers of the Milesaur battle. A bit of fear or angst could be sensed in Marcus. It wasn't the Milesaurs, the predators, or Jubei - well, not alone. And in fact Marcus had sparred here before and knew of these dangers. But it was more real this time, and they were far closer to the danger than before. And, even with just a few clashes, Marcus could tell Jubei was not fooling around.

Marcus breathed in deeply again, sensing the surroundings, trying to calm his nerves, feel the incoming beasts, and focus on the energies Jubei was gathering to, inevitably, throw at Marcus. A swelling of awareness and oneness with the land came over Marcus in those precious seconds.

 

[Kibagami]

Although the current Force application took a great deal of concentration, it was impossible not to notice the thunderous meeting of the two giants down the beach. Milesaurs were not exactly considerate and certainly not discreet, but the quaking of their encounter was a welcome disguise to hide in plain sight what Jubei was preparing. Even if one were to focus hard enough, it would still be rather difficult to differentiate what the two 'saurs were doing from what he was doing.

In the back of his mind he wondered why Marcus was allowing him the time to amass the Force like this, on the fields of battle this hesitation could prove potentially fatal. Perhaps, were it not for the threat of hungry carnivores surrounding them this would not be the case, but even so, it's not much different from the looming chance of death on an actual battlefield. His opponent's decision remained questionable. Maybe there was something he was missing...

Be that as it may, with the next calamitous clash of the two Milesaurs that shook the ground underfoot, Jubei let loose his coalescence in the form of a hastened liquefaction of the sands and soils beneath Marcus. With water so close and in such abundance it was only a matter of time and focus to create a makeshift pit of quicksand that could swallow his opponent in moments if he were unable to react accordingly. Cloaked by the quaking confrontation of the Milesaurs and with virtually nothing solid to jump off of, prediction and/or escape would indeed be an ambitious feat. While he had no intention of burying Marcus alive, being rendered immobile would essentially be the end of the fight.

 

[Marcus]

Marcus was surprised his opponent, although vastly more skilled than him, seemed to ignore the fact that Marcus was watching and waiting for the blast from Jubei's hand - a slam or push or quake. Marcus's senses were about as keen as they came and he was not surprised by the attack at all. He was not letting him amass energy so he could just be thwamped, but to better react to the results of the attack. The Jedi leaped away from the epicenter, although he narrowly escaped the reaches of the quicksand, tripping and stumbling a tad on the edges. He caught himself from falling over and looked over at Jubei, still holding his lit sabers, recovering from the clever attack. "Well played."

The dual-wielder quickly turned and ran towards the commotion of the Milesaurs, clashing his sabers together as he went. He could sense smaller and more nimble predators closing in and that was what he wanted. Marcus stopped short of rounding the corner of the lake and looked back. A purple cougar of some sort was making its way out from some cover in the bushes and grasses - and it was not alone. Marcus breathed in, disengaging yet still grasping his saber hilts tightly, and used a power with which he was not very adept, but it wouldn't matter for what he needed. With one hand he grabbed a couple rocks with his mind and shoved them towards Jubei, and with the other hand he tried a Force slam at the feline beasts. It would not harm them much, but it might make them look at Jubei as a meal more than Marcus.

 

[Kibagami]

"Maybe.." he shrugged, impressed by Marcus' ability "..but don't sell yourself short, not many people would have known how to handle that." Said just before the man started running towards the two colossal creatures, Jubei watched curiously, the reason he made such a racket with his shotos was soon obvious when three of the native predators showed themselves. "Well, well.."

First thought was to find some high ground, the closest candidate was the Milesaurs which was not a great choice in safety. Turning towards the direction of the Milesaurs, and Marcus, he only just caught a glimpse of the two rocks headed his way, one of which he barely had time to dodge from being hit right in the face while the other he as able to catch with use of the Force. Initially he was a bit confused on why rocks were being thrown at him but the three cougar-like carnivores seemed to be drawn to this activity and it all became clear. "You sneaky sonova.." Marcus had turned him into bait!

Jubei turned tail and ran for the high ground, a.k.a. the Milesaurs. His quickened jaunt brought him towards Marcus as well, of whom he ran right passed, which now made it a foot race to see who could get to the Milesaurs faster. How exiting! he thought to himself.

 

[Marcus]

Marcus watched wide-eyed as the ninja swept right passed him. Inside his head he was jealous, but the important thing that he would not realize until after the battle was that he was learning. Marcus watched as Jubei made it over to the Milesaurs quickly, beating him to them without issue. Luckily, at least until the two Jedi got there, the beasts were still focused on each other. Marcus would use minor telekinesis to toss some medium stones towards the beasts to hopefully get their attention.

Marcus started to run a bit at an angle from Jubei up towards a small hill and cluster of trees. He could try to get the high ground. Little did he know is that the purple panthers were now chasing him instead of Jubei and they were gaining fast. He arrived at the hill and one panther leaped at Marcus, floating past him as the Jedi ducked. He physically kicked a stone at the second panther's head, hitting it spot on, with a feline whimper to follow.

The third was right on him seconds later, but Marcus ignited both sabers. As the cougar made its landing, Marcus slashed with both blades in a criss-cross pattern. Any onlooker would see a big purple cat laying on the ground... with two glowing rods sticking out of its torso. The Jedi shoved the cat off of him as he turned off the blades, the purple thing dead. He heard growls from the other two as they began to shrug off their head traumas.

Marcus looked over at Jubei to see what he was doing - presumably trying to get closer to the Milesaurs. Marcus went that way, up on the hill, seeing what he could do, and in theory leading the two cougar-like predators right back into the foray.

((OOC: Ok, this separates us, but now we can set each other up for "round two". lol ))