Foundations

[Apollyon]

Audroti always seemed to be in a constant state of training, of learning, a continuous state of near self worship. He understood that presently he was nothing more then a simple acolyte, an insect in the eyes of his betters; however if Audi was forced to be an insect he would become a Devaronian fur-spider. The spiders were notorious for hunting the most challenging of prey, preferring a rewarding kill over an easy one. This is how Audi would be, he would seek to accomplish the most satisfying of goals no matter the difficulties he encountered in pursuit of it.

Perhaps that is why the young Pureblood had been sparing with training droids for the past three hours tirelessly, he sought to better himself in pursuit of a unspoken goal. Thus far his efforts had been met with limited success, the pair of training droids he activated for this exercise had numerous burn marks on their chassis from Audi, he however held more burns from their electro-staffs. Something he was doing was incorrect, and quite frankly he was growing tired of tasting the business end of their staffs, the numbing sensation on his jaw a testament to that much.

Currently both droids were deactivated, Audi was taking a moment to recollect himself, to rethink his approach against the droids, to find a weakness, a point of friction in their cohesion, anything that could secure a victory. After a few moments Audi activated his lightsaber and the hulking droids flickered to life and assumed their combat stance. The sound of a beeping countdown was heard in the training hall at the final beep the pair of droids split to attack him from both angles and assaulted Audi with inhuman strength and speed.

Audi held off their assaults for a few brief minutes but slowly the pair began to overwhelm his defenses, this seemed to happen each time. Audi incapable of finding a moment to strike at either of the droids would quickly become overwhelmed and succumb to a defeat. The droid to his right swept Audi's foot out from underneath him, while the left brought his staff down harshly on the young acolyte as he fell.

"Match concluded, Audroti: 3, Training Program: 7" A feminine voice rang out with the training record as Audi had ordered her to do.

Audi had risen his head to listen to the score, almost hoping for a fluke in the system, but none was heard. Instead his head dropped back onto the warm temple tile, he laid still for a moment, allowing his body to recoup from yet another beating. He slowly stood shakily to his feet.

Prepare for the next round. Audi called out.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Yuunda had forsaken his robes and mask today, he was finding them to be rather cumbersome and he liked his mobility. He had on a regular sleeveless tan tunic showing off his normal, heavily scared left arm and cybernetic right arm. His Krayt claw lightsaber swung at his waist as he walked down the hall and he heard someone yelling from one of the many training rooms that dotted this section of the academy. Something about the voice sounded vaguely familiar to him and he decided to look in on it. It was a Pureblood in the room, he could tell from the one previous Pureblood he had met before, however, this one was younger and obviously male. He stood and watched as he tried to tackle the training droids, with little success. He couldn't help but laugh at how familiar this was, he just hopped it didn't lead up to another hunt.

Yuunda walked up to the young pure blood and said, "You're doing it all wrong, you need to learn to watch your opponents. Study their movements and match them with your own. Tell me Pureblood, do you wish to branch out from Shi-Cho? Or do you think you're up for learning some of upper echelons of the form?"

 

[Apollyon]

The sudden disturbance caught Audi off guard, as such his grip on the lightsaber tightened, it ignited. The pair of training droids soundlessly activated and instantly set upon the young unaware acolyte. Audi had turned to face the source of this disturbance, an middle aged man stood in the doorway, he called out an offer to Audi. It was a chance to gain power, an opportunity Audi never passed up.

It would be an hon- Audi's respectful words were cut short as an electro-staff smashed into his back, throwing him to the ground.

"Match Concluded, Audroti: 3, Training Program: 8" The feminine voice rang out yet again.

Erase that last match, it does not count! Audi shouted in frustration.

"Yes, Audroti." The feminine voice replied as it deleted the results of the prior match.

As I was saying, it would be an honor my Lord. For now I seek only to further my understandings of the most basic of forms, before I attempt to conquer another. Audroti replied, unabashed by the droids ambush.

Audi then stood slightly straighter, his body bruised by the beatings received from the droids, red blood leaked from his left nostril; Audroti was completely dishuffled. However, his posture overlooked that factor, he stood proudly, each ache, each pain, had been received in the pursuit of furthering his knowledge, his prowess, a noble effort in the eyes of a Sith. Audi awaited his senior to instruct him, he did not move unless he was ordered to do so first.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Yuunda let out a short harsh laugh as the droid knocked the young sith to the ground, "Well now, I think I know what I should teach first, how to see." Yuunda then called his Krayt claw lightsaber to his hand and ignited it, then took the Shii-Cho stance he had once learned a long time ago. "Now let us duel I need to see your skill level before I can teach you anything. Come at me like you mean it."

 

[Apollyon]

A small smirk crossed the Pureblood’s face, combat, battle was his favorite past time. Often Audroti could be found dominating his fellow Acolytes in a small training arena, physical combat was where he excelled, further than most his age. To signify his compliance with the Sith’s command, Audroti nodded.

Audroti’s hand opened as he twisted the Force into obeying him, the Force gripped the hilt of his lightsaber and jerked it from the floor back into his hand. The blood red beam leapt from the hilt, Audroti charged his opponent, his lightsaber prepared to strike his opponent horizontally across the middle section. It was a simple strike but one that would gauge the skill of his enemy, it would allow Audroti to know how to proceed with the forthcoming duel.

Once he was within striking range Audroti sent a telekinetic blast towards his opponent, he hoped that the strike would distract the Sith long enough to ensure success would fall with his push. Their spar had begun, the young Audroti would not kneel until he had nothing left to spare, as hopeless as it may seem the young Acolyte was determined to cause some pain to his better.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Yuunda closed his eye and opened it to the force allowing him to perceive all that was around him. As he sensed the push coming towards him instead of attempting to block it or deflect it with one of his own, he allowed himself to be pushed back out of the young siths range, making his initial swing go wide. He landed nimbly and raised his saber so the tip was pointing at his head, while his left hand was free at his side.

"You must cast aside your sight and learn to see the world around you," he said with his eye still closed, "then you will know how to attack."

He swept it up, releasing a powerful force push towards the sith and lunged towards him bring his blade down with a diagonal slash from the right shoulder towards the left hip, however, his attack would leave an opening on his right side. Should the young sith see the opening he would be taking his first steps down true sight.

 

[Apollyon]

Audroti’s saber strike swung wide as the Recognized Sith was flung backwards by his Force Push, Audroti inwardly cursed himself for his haughty action. Audroti in return leapt backwards to prepare for Yuunda’s counter assault, he landed slightly askew to the Crusaders position. Audroti set his stance facing the Crusader, his left foot set and bore most of his weight as he braced himself for the attack.

By the time Audroti saw the Sith Crusader’s hand raise for the Force Push it was nearly too late, he side stepped just before the Push connected with him. Now because the Push only connected with left half of his body, the momentum caused Audi to pivot. Audroti out of the corner of his eye noticed the Sith Crusader lunging towards him, he quickly augmented his speed to allow him to drop low under Yuunda’s saber. From this point he swung his saber upwards and towards Yuunda’s upper right torso, the momentum combined from Yuunda’s own Force Push and Audroti’s Force augmented Speed brought the saber around at a quicker rate than usual.

Due to the proximity of Yuunda to Audroti and Yuunda’s own speed dodging the strike would be nearly impossible and Yuunda’s own saber would be near the opposite side of his body after his missed strike. Audroti’s own saber would carve through his back, slice through his lung, part of his stomach, and the right side of his spine unless the Crusader could think quick enough to dodge the strike.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Yuunda while he purposely left that opening, wasn't expecting how fast the acolyte was and inwardly cursed himself. He let go of the power he had been gathering and a wave of force erupted from him blasting everything in a ten foot radius backwards. The pain wasn't anything he wasn't use to so he was able to shrug it off without too much effort.

"Not too bad," He said swallowing his pride, "It doesn't look like you need to learn much about the saber as you do with controlling the force. If you had been attacking like that, those droids wouldn't have stood much of a chance. As you just saw, while a basic form Shii-Cho is still a formidable tool in ones arsenal. For one such as yourself controlling the force should come as naturally as breathing to you."