‘We were marching through the corridors in a heavy silence. He was dragging me along by my arm, not giving me even the illusion of the possibility of escaping again.’
‘Thankfully he was not that angry anymore, I don’t know why he was so irritated last time, but his injured padawan was not the sole reason for that pent-up anger that he was about to unleash on me if I didn’t get away in time.’
‘Well, I don’t really care about his personal problems, at least until the moment he starts to lash out at me.’
‘I don’t really know why he even came after me now? It must be some kind of revenge to show his superiority as a master and to teach me a lesson. Where are we going? I wonder, is he bringing me to the infirmary to meet with Tano?’
‘It was a ten-minute long silent march when we finally arrived at our goal.’
‘Wait, he can’t be that petty, right? Is he really... I looked at him for confirmation. He didn’t react. Is this some kind of joke? Does he seriously want to duel with me?’
‘He let go of my arm finally, only to show me his lightsaber he turned it down to the minimal energy level. At least he didn’t want to kill me anymore. That’s some progress we've made, I guess. I showed him that my blade was on the lowest energy level, too. He nodded.’
‘I looked around the training field. There were a few other masters and padawans around us occupied by their own training session. Hmmm, at least there are other people around, in case if things got out of hand.’
‘I took up the same form as before, Niman.’
‘While he had chosen a more aggressive combat form, form five, Djem So, or in the urban dictionary; the way of the Krayt Dragon. Next time I will choose that dish for myself.’
‘Heh, but I couldn’t imagine any other combat form that would suit him better. Aggressive, unexpected attacks built on a solid defense. Well, I guess I will be able to warm up properly after all.’
‘I gave a slight bow to him as my master and I always did towards each other. It was a show of respect that our order in duelling events since ancient times.’
‘It was derived from a sith greeting. The dark lords of Korriban used it when acknowledging another dark lord’s presence with superior power, but never in case of someone that was weaker or an equal.’
‘The gesture was simple, two hands put together in front of your face while barely bowing your head in their direction.’
‘It was a sign to your opponent that you will give your all. He didn’t bow towards me, not that I expected, since he didn’t know what my greeting meant. Yet he at least nodded, indicating that he was ready.’
‘The duel started, yet we were still standing in our original place, observing each other. A heavy pressure fell upon the room, making some of the other masters and padawans stop their own activities. They began to watch our duel with obvious interest.’
‘I already activated my force shield that would weaken the effectiveness of any type of force attack. I also used my standard speed and power enhancements. They were almost instinctive to me.’
‘About thirty seconds passed from the start of our duel when I saw a change in his expression, he realized that I will not attack. Instead, he decided to do it himself.’
‘He rushed at me with a powerful uppercut aimed at my neck. This was a too straightforward attack for a Djem So user.’
‘Therefore, I decided to roll to the side instead of countering it with my blade. It was the right decision. At the last minute, his attack turned into a half pirouette that ended with a kick which would have hit me in the stomach if I countered his blade with mine.’
‘Now it was my turn to surprise him. At the very moment my roll ended, I trow my lightsaber at him in a spiraling way, controlling it finely through the force. He blocked my blade with his saber at the last second, yet my blade, instead of stopping, suddenly started to turn counterclockwise, aiming a cut towards his other shoulder.’
‘Sadly, it missed too. He ducked under the silver blade and I decided to pull it back to my hand. The moment I grabbed the hilt of my blade, a powerful force push hit me.’
‘It was sent by my opponent to unbalance me, or even topple me over.’
‘The force shield around me did his job quite well. His interruption attempt failed as I took up my fighting form again.’
‘Now he didn’t hesitate anymore. He charged at me immediately. This time, he used a different approach. To stop me from rolling out of the way of his attack, he launched at me with a powerful force pull just before I wanted to make another roll.’
‘I realized that his raw force attack had already begun to weaken my shield. This guy is a damn monster, just as I thought...’
‘Without any other choice, I blocked his saber with one hand, thoroughly reinforced with the force, yet his two-handed attack against my much weaker arm felt like I was trying to stop a battering ram.’
‘He also tried to kick me simultaneously, but I was ready for it. With my free hand, I struck him with a powerful force push from close range.’
‘His kick never reached me as he stumbled backwards since he was standing on one leg at the moment, but instead of falling flat on his ass, he turned his fall into a natural-looking backward roll.’
‘As the pressure disappeared from my right arm that held the saber, I realized that it become strained from blocking that one attack.’
‘I immediately began to channel healing energies into my arm, but it will take at least a minute for the strain to loosen.’
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‘Therefore, I switched arms. Some of my masters were left-handed, some were right-handed, and some had more than two arms. It didn’t matter that much to me which arm I used.’
‘The moment he finished his roll, he also noticed that I switched hands. He looked at me, somewhat annoyed. Then he charged again, not giving me much time to rest.’
‘He came at me the same way as before, force pull, to block my roll. The only problem was that I didn’t try to roll away this time. Instead, I charged at him at the very second he used his force pull, which accelerated me even further and I was in front of him in a fraction of a second.’
‘I aimed my attack to his knees, as it was the most unprotected spot at the time, but he was able to jump up and at the same time he attempted to cut my left shoulder, but the moment I saw that my attack failed I turned it into a forward roll effectively rolling out of the way of his improvised attack.’
‘Damn, what a mess. I hoped to catch him off guard with that attack, but this tactic would not work another time. I reinforced my force shield, then watched my opponent land on the ground a few meters away from me.‘
‘He did not attack me immediately this time.’
‘He was lazily circling around me, inspecting me. Act all you want. I will not let my guard down.’
“Hmmm, I can see why Soka had a hard time dueling you.” — ‘He commented in an unamused tone.’
“In the first place, I never wanted to duel her.”
“Yeah, I know that, she already told me.” — ‘He answered with a lopsided smile.’
“Then what is your exact reason to provoke this fight?” — ‘I asked.’
“Why do I need a reason to duel with anyone?” — ‘He asked back.’
“Last time I checked, it was the prelude of all duels to agree upon a time and way of the duel. If one participant doesn’t give his blessing, the duel should not commence.”
“I didn’t hear you oppose when we arrived here.” — ‘He smirked.’
“That was...” — ‘I began, but was interrupted.’
‘He attacked me the moment I started to speak. Such a disrespectful lad, at least I know from whom Ahsoka learned that habit.’
‘This time I didn’t need to roll out of his way. I could simply step back since he was somewhat overextending. Not that I could counterattack, since my arms were far shorter than his, and he knew it.’
‘The moment I lifted one of my legs from the ground, a sudden smirk appeared on his face.’
‘The next moment I felt a powerful and this time very concentrated force pull sweep out my legs, pulverizing my force shield on the way.’
‘The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back, more specifically on my right lekku. Staring up at the ceiling of the hall and the buzzing blue sight of a lightsaber tip held a few centimeters from my chin.’
‘Ugh, my lekku hurts. There was a strong pulsing pain in the middle section of my right lekku it was stuck under my shoulder blade, which made a few drops of tears instinctively appear on the edges of my eyes.’
‘The blue blade was pulled back as if it burned its holder. There was a friendly palm extended towards me instead. I grabbed it and was easily straightened up back to my feet with troubling ease. This infuriating guy was looking at me with a wide smirk on his face.’
“You know, getting beaten by a master of my caliber is no reason to start crying for.”
‘I shook my head, overwhelmed by his natural humility.’ — “Your humility befitting of a Jedi Master has been dully noted.” — ‘I said with thick sarcasm.’ — “Aside from that, I fell on my lekku... and it hurts like a bitch…”
‘There was a brief silence while he began to scratch his face, somewhat embarrassed.’
“Well, sorry about that, Soka told me once that getting injured on your lekku can be infuriatingly frustrating, and painful. Would you like to go to the infirmary? At least we can visit Soka on the way. She was pestering the hell out of me to find you and clear up our unfortunate misunderstanding.”
“You mean that you are a ga- “
‘A cold palm clasped around my mouth, while his owner was looking around in a panic.’
‘Oh, I remembered, we were not alone. I looked around, and there was quite a crowd gathering around our little duel. Three masters and five padawans, even a temple guard, were watching us from afar.’
‘The masters gave me an acknowledging nod, while the padawans seemed to be more focused on sending me annoyed glares. The little buggers must envy the attention I got, or just didn’t like the fact that their training was paused to gawk at our duel instead.’
‘Hey, it’s not like I was the one to start this duel, but they probably wouldn’t believe it. They were looking at this stupid guy with some sort of reverence appearing in their little shiny eyes. Was he really that big of a deal?’
‘For me, he looked more like a clown right now. I wonder what they would think if I told them about our first meeting. I may give it a shot later... as if sensing my intentions, said the guy turned his head, looking me straight in the eyes. Then whispered to me slowly while pointing his death glare at me.’
“Not a word, don’t forget...” — ‘He leaned even closer and hissed into one of my ear protrusions.’ — “I know where you live.”
‘I gulped soundly, a cold shiver running up my lower spine.’
‘Maybe I will just shut my mouth this time, should have remembered that he is not a force spirit, not yet anyway.’
‘With that, he let go of me. We began our walk to the infirmary.’
‘On the way, we only exchanged a few half-hearted sentences since I was too focused on caressing my right lekku. It was distractingly painful.’
“So, if I understand, you were sent after me to apologize by your padawan, right?”
“No, I decided to go after you and apologize after the misunderstanding was cleared by Soka.” — ‘He corrected my assumption stubbornly.’
‘That’s basically the same…’ — “Humph, so then tell me why we ended up in a duel of grudges?”
‘He smirked again. Then told me with a lecturing voice.’
“No, you are wrong. It was a moving meditation practice.”
‘Moving what? This guy is a pain in the ass…’ — “Obviously...” — ‘I mumbled.’
‘Why did I feel the sudden need to roll my eyes?… I wonder.‘
“So, Soka told me that you are some kind of exchange student from a different force sect. I never heard anything about this until now, since I only got back from a mission before your duel with her happened. On a side note, you are surprisingly well versed in the use of force and even in the jedi fighting styles.”
‘Surprisingly… of course…’ — “That’s funny, you know? I thought the exact same thing about you.”
‘He gave me a piercing glance, then proceeded to ignore me.’
“Your master must be proud of you.” — ‘He said out of the blue.’
‘The compliment threw me off my pace for a second, then I nodded, accepting the unexpected praise.’ — “Yes, I suppose he would be.”
‘He gave me a momentary glance after that, then we become silent again for a while. Until I asked another question.’
“Is Tano, I mean Ahsoka, all right?”
“Yeah, she only got a weak concussion and a few bruises. Nothing unusual.”
“That’s good to hear, then.”
‘We seemed to run out of natural conversation materials, so we wordlessly agreed on not forcing ourselves with further attempts at communication, which would most likely become tiresome anyway.‘
‘At the time we reached the infirmary a purple and yellow bruise was beginning to form on the middle part of my right lekku, I already began to channel healing energies into it, but there was no other twi’lek in my memory line before me, so I was not really sure how to heal a lekku effectively. Luckily for me, I knew of a twi’lek healer lady I could shamelessly rely on.’