Despite recent appearances, Sith will be Sith. Especially if that Sith is a hungry Anzati.

[Vinn Esper]

The party was finally winding down and many of the patrons were beginning to make their exit, including the blonde man The Nameless One had been asked to munch on. He had politely excused himself from his company and begun to leave also. The exit was rather congested and Nameless lost sight of his target for a short period of time before finally getting outside. Fortunately he caught the briefest of glimpses of him as he rounded a corner.

The Nameless One hurried in that same direction, hoping to close some distance between them. He didn't intend to barrel around the corner where the man had turned. That would be quite stupid. He peeked around it and located his target, walking further down the street. Nameless continued to follow him.

Soon enough they were the only two living things traveling in the same direction. If the man hadn't made Nameless by now, it would be almost impossible not to now. Nameless moved his good hand over to the activator of his wrist saber. Then he sent a telepathic message to his target. "You know, it's rather impolite to ditch your date at a party. I wonder, is the culture you hail from a brutish uncivilized people, or do you merely lack the appropriate personality traits? If it's a cultural problem, I feel powerless to correct it. You, however, I believe I can fix you."

The Nameless One activated the red blade of the wrist saber on his right arm, and pulled his gold saber from his belt with his left hand, activating that blade as well. He then paused to watch his opponent and gauge his reaction. Nameless didn't know what kind of weapons this being possessed and had long since learned his lesson on blindly charging into danger.

@Ecclessey

 

[Eccles]

The ancient Anzati that had been Malak Regnus' invitation to the Dark Lord's debutante ball had served her purpose and her companion felt no obligation to stay with her any longer than necessary. Therefore, he had left the ball on his own and walked the streets in isolation. While he hadn't taken extra precautions in terms of making sure he wasn't being followed, the disciple of the Shadow Conclave still noticed a dark presence closing in and when an unknown voice interrupted his line of thought the hairs in his neck stood upright and all protective barriers quickly closed. The stranger clearly stated his reasoning and intention, which made Malak feel like he had an upper hand in this fight, knowing more of his opponent than his opponent knew about him.

"Likewise," he said, focusing the Force in preparation. "-it is considered rather impolite to accost strangers in dark alleyways in the middle of the night." A mischievous smile appeared as Malak turned around and saw the man igniting his two sabers. "Have you come here to strike down an unarmed man?"

 

[Vinn Esper]

The Nameless One slowly approached the man after he turned around. The man said, "it is considered rather impolite to accost strangers in a dark alleyways in the middle of the night." The Nameless One paused to reflect on these words for a moment. During which the man asked, "Have you come here to strike down an unarmed man?"

The Nameless One was no fool, and recognized bait when it was thrown at him. He responded to the man's original statement, "Well, the culture I hail from is a brutish and uncivilized people." The Nameless One began to run in a zip zagged manner towards the man. Nameless didn't believe this man to be unarmed, but had no idea what weapons to expect him to employ.

He intended to close the distance between them and strike out with his left hand gold saber aimed to relieve this man of his legs.

 

[Eccles]

Malak Regnus offered no rebuttal. In fact, Malak Regnus ceased to exist the second his attacker began to run towards him. Instead the mindset of the disciple changed altogether and in an instant the Force manifested itself as the defender joined the sides of his hands together and pushed a powerful shock wave forward that curved to the right. It was timed together with his nameless foe's zigzag into the same direction and if the Force Push hit its mark the dual-wielding attacker would slam right into the wall a couple of feet to his left.

If somehow the attack missed and the disciple was still in danger, he would jump backwards at the last second with the help of focused reflexes to evade the swinging sabers. Lester Lorso could pretend to be someone else all he wanted, but he was at a real disadvantage here and with the murder of the Malak Regnus pseudonym so would the life of the master also be extinguished. With such an intense fear for his own life and the failure of his initial attack, Lester would channel the Dark Side and conjure a jet of flames to engulf his opponent at close range.

 

[Vinn Esper]

As the Nameless One began to charge his victim he noticed that, the aforementioned victim moved his hands together. The Nameless One recognized the motion as a precursor of a force attack, and immediately tried to roll to the left. It didn't work. The air currents generated by the target caught him just as he began his roll and pushed him back and into the wall.

He collided with the wall with some force and then fell back to the ground. He landed on his feet and rose to a standing position. The Nameless One was faced with a dilemma now. It was clear he wouldn't be able to close enough distance in this narrow space to strike with his light sabers let alone stick his proboscis up the man's nose to suck out his brain. The Nameless One revised his attack plan.

It was now two phase. The man had raised shields around his mind with the force. The Nameless One began to assault these shields by projecting a thought repeatedly with his own Force powers. That thought was "Surrender to Xerex" he was hoping to focus the targets concentration on defending his mind and the second phase was to try his previous attack plan a second time with minor changes.

Instead of running in zig zags he charged the target by approaching in a straight line along the wall he had collided with. His goal was to run up to striking distance, and to subsequently strike at the man's right arm with his light saber, hoping to sever it.

 

[Eccles]

"So your name is Xeres?" the disciple smiled just before his attacker charged at him again and demanded a reaction. Without a weapon to defend himself against a saber attack, Lester was keen to keep the stranger away from striking distance. As such he once again employed the Force to aid him and he jumped backwards with a significant height, landing on top of the second floor balcony of the building behind him. Xeres' attack would slice nothing but air as he was now several meters away. "A saber in the darkness," the former student of a Dathomiri witch began, "-is such an unsophisticated way for one whose blade suggests and allegiance to the High Prophet."

Just then a group of guests from the debutante ball began walking down the street in a cantankerous manner as they argued among themselves who would've had the best chances to claim not just the hand of the First Princess, but also a little bit more of her royal personage. One of them, cross-eyed due to drink, stopped abruptly when he noticed Xerex with his sabers ignited. "Oi Sith!" he shouted, "Which one of us do you think will get little Tara to unwind?" he laughed, not knowing that the Sith in question was vying to become Darth Cain's apprentice. Surely a father would not like drunk men talking about his daughter like that...

 

[Vinn Esper]

The Nameless One looked up at the force user who had so narrowly escaped his attack. To make things worse, the being above him was now taunting him. First, by the intentional skewing of his name. Nameless had given him the name as he had given the name to all those he had reasonably expected not live long enough not to repeat it. In this case, he had been wrong.

Nameless was seething angry. His thoughts were flashing to all the wrongs that had been done to him. The loss of his hand, Even a weaponless man could fend him off now. These thoughts only served to make the Anzati further enraged. Despite his rage, what was he going to do? He couldn't leap like the force user did. There was no expedient way to get to him. The Force had denied him his meal.

The Force had denied him his meal. The thought repeated itself a second time and the Anzati only heard a few words of the Man's second taunt. "A saber in the darkness." Then there was a pause in which Nameless couldn't seem to understand anything. Then there was "Allegiance to the High Prophet." The Anzati understood the significance in the split between the two sides of his persona.

He could not keep playing both, the Force wouldn't allow him. The Nameless One heard the oncoming guests with their vile comments regarding Lord Cain's daughter. The being above him taunted him a third time. "Which of us do you think will get little Tara to unwind." He had been about to respond but found cause to pause a moment longer.

Then he remembered some of Lord Cain's first words ever spoken to him, "Devotion over Rage." The Nameless One reached over and deactivated his wrist saber, while still holding his gold saber. He pointed his still lit weapon at the man. He had no intention of participating in such a wager, but this man did not know that. "It's hard to say," he said while pointing his light saber in his direction. "When you next you come for her, bring a sword and we shall see."

The Nameless One looks up at the balcony. He will hold his current stance unless he's attacked or the man leaves. The Nameless One can now plead a reasonable case accounting for his actions. He doubted this other force user could do the same.

 

[Eccles]

The group of mildly drunk civilians seemed to have brought Xeres to a halt and his rage made it easier to look into his mind. For just a moment Lester reached out into the Force and saw how Talia Al'Saif took away his hand. Perfect. "You know who Tara Olpierr reminded me of?" he asked Xeres before applying much focus in the Force to get into the mind of the cantankerous drunk that had spoken before. The drunk looked befuddled for a moment, to which his companions reacted with laughter as they thought he was about to puke the Dark Lord's caviar out onto the street. The drunk, however, suddenly seemed to regain clarity and ignored them as he began approaching Xeres with large strides. When close to Xeres he'd shout "She reminded him of Talia Al'Saif!"

It wasn't an honorable form of attack, but messing with minds and staying out of harm's way himself just was his style. With any luck his attacker would strike down the civilian in a moment of blind anger and get caught doing it by a Legion patrol. Good luck explaining that to the Warlord. Lester's eyes took in his surroundings. He was sure the Reclusiarch was somewhere on Dromund Kaas as well..

 

[Vinn Esper]

The Anzati was experience enough in touching people's minds to know when they touched him back. He knew his thoughts regarding his hand in that moment had not been private. Devotion over Rage, he repeated in his mind. Despite the man's taunts, the mantra was working.

"You know who Tara Olpierr reminded me of?" The Anzati heard the words but immediately recognized them as another attempt to taunt him. This Force User wanted to assault him on an emotional and mental level. Anzati were trained to prevent this, but it was not always well implemented in the real universe. However each string of setbacks had been eroding at his desire to resist these lessons. Cain's sermon's had been reminiscent of the first phase of the teachings.

Devotion over Rage. "She reminded him of Talia Al'saif!" It was an effective jab, but rather then acting in a directly hostile manner, the Nameless One decided to compete against the Force User. He reached out to the same being the Force User had touched with his telepathic abilities.

At the same time, he transitioned his golden saber to point at the drunk man while retaining eye contact with the man on the balcony. He spoke in his shrill regular voice "It's easier to talk than to fight, is that it?"

Midway through his spoken sentence, he sent a telepathic communication to the drunk man in his whispering voice. In his drunken state he wouldn't be able to differentiate it from his own thoughts. "The Lighthouse being pointed at you isn't real. You are being possessed by the Force. It wants to use you to attack Tara Olpierr. Seek Darth Cain and tell him about this Nameless threat. Someone at the ball will know how to reach him."

The drunk man shouted "I have to save Tara Olpierr!" and began running back through the crowd shouting variations of his original phrase. He might not make it back to the ball to warn lord Cain, but he wouldn't go unnoticed either.

 

[Eccles]

What a strange creature, Lester thought as he observed Xerex together with the civilian. When the drunk suddenly seemed to forget about his cantankerous mood and rushed back to the palace screaming about how he'd protect the daughter of the Dark Lord, the disciple of the Shadow Conclave shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "I have yet to encounter someone who finds it more difficult to utter a word than to master the martial arts," he said looking at the group of befuddled bystanders that had just seen their companion run away in hysteric fashion. "So yes-" he smiled as he shoved one of his durasteel gauntlet to his fist and readied it to strike, "it is easier."

With a loud crack the glass of the window behind him shattered as it came into contact with the durasteel gauntlet and providing Lester a means of entering the home of unknowing Imperials. Xerex might be able to get to him by way of the stairs on the ground level, but not in time to retain a visual on his target.

 

[Vinn Esper]

The Nameless One thought of using his special sensory organs to track down his target in an attempt it to continue the fight. He remembered Cain saying he wanted him alive. Even when you are trying not to listen, small pieces can be overheard. The Nameless One had plenty of evidence he could share with Cain and he had multiple opportunities to clearly see his face.

Why not allow Cain himself to have the pleasure of the hunt and merely request the honor of killing the man who had just escaped him.

Even if he didn't get it. The Nameless One felt he had successfully obtained enough information to impress the Dark Lord. Nameless thought he had employed his teachings very well in this incident. He could only hope he would be pleased with the results.
@Vinny

 

[Eccles]

Not knowing that Xerex wasn't coming after him into the building, Lester pondered taking extreme measures to shake any pursuers. Fact was that many of the Dark Lord's followers were hunting for him tonight and in order to get off the planet he had to put them on a wrong trail. Determined to make a statement he channeled the Force into his hands and created a jet of flames with which he set the room ablaze. Quickly as to avoid catching fire himself, Lester dashed out of the room and further into the building.

The building was ten stories high and occupied apartment homes for the upper class, which meant plenty of flammable luxury goods that would accelerate the fire's growth. Lester shamelessly set fire to door consoles, preventing inhabitants to leave their apartments on the second floor as he moved upwards to the garden on the roof where he encountered a stray couple who had chosen to wrong night for some moonlight cuddling. Smoke rose up from the sides of the building and slid from underneath the door behind Lester. The couple seemed confused and scared, fearing for their immediately safety.

"Lord Xerex set fire to the building!" Lester cried in fake panic, "Lord Xerex doomed us all!"

The multiple uses of the Force, and their intensity, had tired him out. Luckily his symptoms could easily be explained by the panic a normal person would have to seeing his building go up in flames and the couple before him had no suspicious thoughts regarding him. How could they? He wasn't armed nor armored and seemed more dressed to attend a debutante ball than to judge the citizens of the Empire in name of the Sith Order. "Quickly Didee!" the woman cried to her partner, "-call the Legion office!" and he companion nodded as he took his datapad from his bag and quickly dialed a number. "Legion? This is Didee Loppa from apartment building 3458-A." his voice was unsteady, tembling with his shaking hands, "The Sith, Lord-" he turned to the stranger, who without uttering a word seemed to repeat the name to him, "Lord Xerex set fire to our building!"

A smile crept onto Lester Lorso's face. This would no doubt discredit his attacker in the eyes of the Empire and slow down his pursuit of the Shadow Conclave's disciple. An explosion down below had the couple turn their heads towards the street and when they turned back the stranger was gone. Aided by the last bit of the Force his body could muster the disciple jumped to a balcony on an adjacent building from where he disappeared.