Knighthood...Skill Trial

[Tynian]

Tynian stood facing his master and mentor Kane.

The older Jedi had gotten permission from the Jedi council to administer the Trials of Knighthood to the young Ysanna, and now had brought him to large rocky area just south a few miles of the Jedi Temple on Tython.

The area itself was very suitable for any kind of duel, with different leveled grounds, huge boulders scattered all around, and trees that had been planted sporadically here and there.
It basically gave every kind of high or low ground with room to maneuver, and was designed for any style of combat one would use.
Tynian had already taken his outer robe off and had set it aside, so it wouldn’t get in the way. He also held his double-blades lightsaber in his right hand as he waited for further instruction from Kane.

The rank of Jedi Knight would be his if he could pass this and one other trial...
He took a deep breath and smiled... He was ready.


@Kane @Nefieslab

 

[Kane]

Kane stood not far from Tynian, his outer robe also set asside with his apprentices -revealing the armor he had begun to wear again-. The assassin droid that had attacked him had taken his lightsaber, luckily for him he had bonded with another Kyber at the same time as his apprentice found crystals of his own and the old Sentinel had built a new one after his original was taken. He gestured to a very large stone spire that was probably as tall as the messa that Jedha City had sat on with the hilt of his saber, the spire was wide and had many ridges and areas that could be stood on and it was scored in spots with old marks from lightsaber blades in duels long completed.

"Well my boy, this is not going to be easy for either of us. The trial of skill is generally split into three parts, Combat, Concentration and Acrobatics. Combat will be simple, we will duel. Our sabers will be set to the non-lethal training power level but this should be taken as if your life is on the line. The acrobatics part will be simple in theory: during our duel we will be racing to thentop of the spire. The third part, concentration, will be also theoretically simple. At intervals during our race training monitors will deploy and fire non lethal rounds at you to attempt to break your concentration."

Kane paused to let his apprentice absorb everything he had said. The old Jedi was asking alot of Tynian, he knew this, but such were the trials. They could not just hand out knighthoods after all.

"We will begin when you are ready, I know it is a hard test. Though considering the fact that you have passef three trials without even meaning to I am confident in you."

That said Kane took a position by the foot of the spire and waited for Tynian to be ready.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian looked up to where Kane was pointing. The top of the spire was quite a ways up... the trail itself was well worn by those who had gone before, although Tynian was sure that it still held some surprises.
It was fairly easy to pick out the main path, yet he scanned it quickly to see if there was any places for an advantage against the wiley older Jedi.
"Are there any rules to this Master?" The question was an honest one... Tynian wasn't one to be devious or try to cheat at anything. He simply wanted to know what the limits would be... As he waited for the answer, he knelt down to take some of the dirt from the ground, and rub it into his palms so that his grip would be a tad better on his lightsaber, as well as giving him time to plan his route up the hill...

Since the trail appeared to go up in a long zig-zag pattern, establishing the high ground was essential to Tynian's success or failure. He knew Kane was thinking the same thing, they had fought together, and the Jedi had pretty much raised him as a son, so there was going to be no surprises in how they both would react or what they would try to do... so the young Ysanna figured that he would have to rely on uncanny speed to get a jump on the race, which meant using the force.
He began gathering up the force around him, not enough to tire him, but just to give him an edge to start with. He also knew full well the older Jedi knew exactly what he was doing.

Standing up he smiled, "Ready when you are Master."

 

[Kane]

"No special rules, though I would reccomend not using the force for anything but jumping up the spire."

Kane watched as his apprentice rubbed dirt onto his palms for better grip, and felt the slight shift in the force around the boy as he gathered it to himself. The old Sentinel was more inclined to let the calluses from over sixty years of fighting and other Jedi labours help his grip, but he definitely respected Tynians methods as he would have used them himself were his palms not practically leather.

He shifted his hand on the leather wrapped grip of his saber and opened himself up to the force to let it flow through him, reminding himself that he could not help Tynian through this. The boy had to do it on his own, and after their time training together he knew that they both knew all of eachothers moves.

"Then let us begin."

Kane activated his saber at it's lowest setting and without waiting for a response from Tynian he leapt up onto the first ridge of the spire, though there were semblances of paths and switchbacks this race would require quite a few acrobatic feats from the two Jedi and Kane was forbidden from holding back.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian leapt up to a place only a few meters away from Kane's position. He hadn't activated his lightsaber just yet, as he was taught, by Kane himself, that doing this kind of movement and acrobatics with a powered on weapon, may not be the best choice ever in one's life. Besides, he could activate it in the blink of an eye, so he wasn't too worried about an attack.

As he ran, jumped and climbed, he kept glancing over toward Kane's location to get a sense of where the old Jedi was at any moment...which was not far behind him.
Not long after the initial jumps, they came to a small clearing with a sheer rock wall on one side and the pathway going off to the left. Tynian took a brief moment to catch his breath and as he glanced around, he figured that this would be a good place to ambush his master. But the question formed in his mind... does he keep going, or does he fight?
Thinking better of using up energy too early, he headed up the pathway, foregoing the idea of attacking his own master, figuring there would be better places for the confrontation further up the way... and his master may be a bit more tired the farther he went, which would be to Tynian's advantage, as long as he didn't underestimate him.

 

[Kane]

Kane watched as Tynian sailed over him, he could feel his apprentice moving up the spire as he lost sight of the boy. Crouching slightly he leapt up to where Tynian had landed and -seeing the path the young Ysanna had taken- he leapt again to where he knew the path reached from his time preparing the area for their duel/race.

The old Jedi waited for Tynian to round the corner and as soon as he saw the boy he swung his yellow blade at his apprentices left side, he knew that he would not hurt Tynian with his weapon on this setting so he wasn't too concerned with hitting him.

"Gonna have to be quicker than that my boy." he chuckled.

As much as he had been dreading having to fight Tynian and aim to win, as soon as they had begun Kane was excited to test the boy. It had been a long and hectic few years and he had realized that the two of them had not had a sparring match in quite some time.

 

[Tynian]

The snap-hiss of Tynian’s lightsaber being activated rang out as the white blade caught Kane’s attack just in time. He pushed back at Kane’s yellow blade and brought up the lower blade of his own lightsaber in an upper cut. He knew his master would either block or step back, so he stepped back, but still staying on the defensive just in case his master tried anything different.
“I’m just giving you a sporting chance Master.” He grinned... He knew the seriousness of the trials, but for some reason he felt it may throw Kane off by throwing a bit of humor into it...

 

[Kane]

Kane brought his blade down to intecept Tynian's woth a loud crack as they connected before jumping back a couple feet himself, Then chuckled a little at his apprentices quip.

"Well you have my thanks."

He had admittedly not expected Tynian to banter during the trial, but he was glad that the boy remained himself under this level of pressure.

Kane jumped back farther and up to another ridge in the rock spire as a small hiss could be heard, the first training monitor whizzed towards Tynian and fired three shots in quick succession and the boys legs. The shots would sting if they hit but do no real damage, and Kane watched to see how his apprentice handled the sudden attack.

 

[Tynian]

As Kane jumped up to another ridge, Tynian heard a “hiss” from something coming up behind him.
As he turned, the first shot of the training droid grazed the side of his thigh sending a stinging pain up and down his leg... Then as if on instinct he brought his lightsaber around in a spinning defense catching the next two bolts with each blade, sending one harmlessly away into the air, and the other into the ground... As the droid neared Tynian reached out with the force, grabbed it in mid air and smashed it into the ground.

Making sure his leg was all good, and looking to see if there were any other droids coming at him, which there wasn’t yet...he resumed going up the path and soon had jumped up to where Kane was.

As he reached his master he winked at him and then kept going...

 

[Kane]

Kane smirked as Tynian passed and winked at him, the old Sentinel was impressed at his apprentices quick reaction to the first monitor.

"Don't get cocky now, long way to the top yet."

Kane leapt up with his apprentice, catching up and keeping pace with the boy and swiping at Tynians shoulder with his saber as they hopped up the next ridge. At this point they were about one quarter of the way up the spire, and two hisses preceeded a pair of training monitors flanking Tynian. Kane had set them up in such a way as to pop up with little to no warning and challenge his apprentices concentration, so as they flanked him just after Kane's swing they each fired one shot -sending one bolt to the boys left and one to his right-.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian, now running long with Kane, kept up stride for stride with the Jedi... Now that he had an idea that he was going to be attacked at any point in the trial, he hadn’t let his guard down.
So he was ready when Kane swung a somewhat lazy swing to try to break Tynian’s concentration, the Ysanna then heard the now familiar “hiss” of the training droids... two of them, on both sides.
He quickly surmised that dodging to either side would result in being hit by a bolt, or by Kane’s blade... So he gathered his strength and leapt forward about ten meters, barely escaping the Jedi’s Swing...
As he landed he barrow rolled into a position which would face him back at the two droids as well as allowing him to see where his master was.

The two droids advanced and fired quickly upon his landing, so he brought up his lightsaber to deflect the bolts... some of the bolts ricocheted off his blades hitting the ground, but the remaining bolts he tried to send in the direction of Kane.

Tynian then jumped slightly forward, slashing at the droid now on his right, cutting it in half, and then bringing the blades downward onto the next droid.

As he landed he planted his left foot and then spun to his left in an attempt to use his first blade to knock Kane’s lightsaber to the side while bringing around his second blade to jab at the rib section of his master.

 

[Kane]

Tynian continued to impress Kane, evidently he had trained the boy well. The old Jedi was moderately concerned when Tynians blade went through the training drone as it was supposed to be on non lethal, though he figured that the boy had simply switched it to destroy the drone rather than knock it away and he would be safe from the blade coming towards him -not that he planned on getting hit-.

He was hit by one bolt on the left foot and as Tynian came at him and was therefore off balance, which allowed his apprentice to score a hit on him. It stung like hell and Kane was stuck recovering for a moment.

 

[Tynian]

Taking advantage of his master’s momental respite, Tynian turned and jumped up to the next level...

In retrospect, it wasn’t that he wanted to hurt his master, in fact it was the exact opposite. Once Kane was hit, Tynian wanted to check and see if he was alright. But then he remembered it was a trial, so he pushed the concern aside and kept going. He wasn’t being calloused or uncaring, and he knew his master understood that.

Once to the next wall, he planted his right foot onto a small boulder and used the force to catapult him even further up the trail...

 

[Kane]

Kane watched his aprentice sail up the spire and decided to test the boy by pulling out a power he had so far only read about, he reached into the ground and felt the vines around the spire and poured energy into them. They lashed out and tried to wrap around Tynians ankle, though they missed as the old Jedi had never tried this and didn't know how to aim it quite yet.

Leaping up after his apprentice he stayed about two meters away from the boy at all times but slowly gained ground until they were keeping pace, looking over to see if the vines had thrown off his apprentice.

 

[Tynian]

Out of the corner of his eye Tynian spotted something he hadn’t expected. A green vine had sprung up out of the ground and tried to “grab” his ankle.
He dodged it just barely, but then more vines emerged from the ground trying to do the same.
As if he was waking on coals he pretty much danced his way through the ankle grabbing vines.
The time it took him to try to get out of the reach of the very weird attack, made him slow down and also gave time for Kane to catch up.

As he fell in beside the old Jedi he shook his head with a laugh, “Now that’s just not fair Master.”

 

[Kane]

"Ahh but fair would not test your concentration my boy."

Kane chuckled as they continued their ascent, his apprentice had quite the wit on him -a fact he had enjoyed through their time together-.

He suddenly surged forward, kicking hard off a rock and propelling himself to a large shelf that served as the halfway point up the spire. Had they been doing a normal training excercise he would have suggested they rest hete, however as this was a trial it was where three training drones waited. And they deployed with three hisses and immediately fired one bolt each at Tynian as soon as they caught sight of him cresting the shelf. Kane would hang back and wait to see how Tynian handled the bolts, blocking the boys path up with his saber held in a defensive stance.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian followed Kane up to the rock shelf, but he misjudged the leap and ended up not jumping high enough. He grabbed the edge of the cliff to pull himself up, but as soon as his head came into view, the droids opened fire. Tynian’s only instinct was to drop back down to the lower level and fight them there.
As he landed he grabbed a couple of rocks and threw them in succession at the oncoming training droids. He hit one which sent it careening down the embankment, but the other one he missed. It fired at him As he ducked behind a nearby boulder nearly hitting him.
As it gave chase, he reached out with the force, grabbed it and threw it back the way he and his master had come... toward the still growing vines.
As the droid landed and bounced, the vines snagged it then wrapped around it until it went still.
The third droid was a bit more cautious. It reduced its speed and slowly made its way around the boulder...
As soon as it came into view, Tynian grabbed it and spun it around. He opened the back panel and shut it off.
He then quickly reprogrammed it to follow him and attack any other droids that may be laying in wait for him further up the trail.

Now for Kane... the last glimpse of his master was of the Jedi standing and waiting for Tynian to be attacked by the training droids one level up.
So the young Jedi figures he couldn’t go up that way or Kane would have him quite easily.
Scanning both sides, Tynian ran to his right and jumped... there was a large rock jutting out the side which he used to get up to the next level about twelve meters away from Kane’s position.

He was breathing heavier as he stood facing Kane, so he used the brief time to catch his breath... the trial wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be... and he knew it was going to get even more difficult.

 

[Kane]

Kane watched Tynian drop out of the way of the drones and heard the ensuing battle with them, then silence. Suddenly the boy flew up to a ridge above him. The older Jedi decided it was time to press the attack for a bit, so he charged at his apprentice.

He launched himself into the air and went over Tynian, swinging down at the boy's shoulder as he went by.

Once he landed Kane would roll up onto one knee and spin with a feint at Tynains left calf, changing direction at the last moment to swing up at the boy's left side.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian immediately turned to face his master as he landed, then he brought up his own blades to try and block Kane's attack. Luckily, the first attack at his shoulder wasn't a very powerful swing since Kane was in mid-air flipping over Tynian when he attacked, so the yound Jedi managed to deflect it...
The feint however was a different story.
Throughout the last few years, the Apprentice and the Sentinel had trained together, learning each other's moves, parries, thrusts, and retorts... and Tynian thought he knew all of what Kane would throw at him... but this one surprised him for some reason.
He brought the left blade downward in an attempt to block the attack on his calf, he totally missed the feint and h

e let out a slight​

oomph!​

as Kane's blade hit its mark.
The non-welcomed, but familiar sting of the blade, reminded him of the several times he was corrected by Kane on his style, stance and defense... Although it stung "like the dickens" he also had been trained (by Kane) to recover quickly and not give in to the pain, but to keep fighting.
He also knew that he had better be more careful in the future if he was going to have any chance of passing this trial. So instead of attacking, he steeled his focus and went on the defensive, hopefully ready for what his master had in store for him next...

 

[Kane]

Kane stood as his slash connected with Tynians side, he felt a little bad for the attack but knew that he had to give his all or else the trial wouldn't count.
He spun again and swung towards his apprentices right thigh before dashing away and beginning to jump up the spire from rock to rock, this was a race after all.

In spite of the fact that he was forbidden by honor from holding back Kane seriously hoped that Tynian would beat him, he wanted nothing more than for the boy to achieve knighthood.