Rhissai'arckan [v] Sellah Bellae

[starwarsgirl008]

This pathway has seen, well, better days. Years of ware and tare from storms and what not have left nothing but vegetation, bacteria, and a giant tree trunk blocking the way for any visitors. The pathways many visitors give it a large history, along with a massive force connection. Beware what lies beyond the paved ground...

Rhissai'arckan [v] Sellah Bellae
Jedi [v] Jedi
4 rounds

[Kella]

The rotted bark was soft like charcoal as Sellah's claws dug into it. She crept slowly across the fallen log, watching the path below, golden eyes unblinking. Her small ears swiveled as she listened. The twill of an avian far off. A rummaging boar. The light cracking of branches as something moved nearby...

Every fiber of every muscle was under complete control as Sellah peered around the bend. A large beetle glistened in the undergrowth, its blue-green shell shimmering iridescent. The source of the noise.

All around, small sounds struck the heartbeat of the forest. Shuffling ants. A buzzing insect. Sellah did her best to make her movements follow this beat, to compel her sounds to match perfectly with the rhythm of the forest. She was not always perfect... but she knew her quarry would most likely be attempting something similar. Shadows clung to the ferns below, slicing shapes and disrupting lines. Things were not always as they seemed, and several times Sellah's eye was caught by a humanoid shadow, devoid of source.

Sunlight filtered down, warped by the trees above, dancing on the dark-brown fur which blended so very well with the shadows. Sellah was betrayed only by the glint her bracelets threw, and the sparkling array of her bandoleer. But stealth was not the objective this day.

No, today the objective was amusement. A training exercise. She was to treat it as a Dark Jedi encounter, of course. Sellah could do this well. She took such things very seriously. Even so, a tingle of excitement ran down her spine, for she would be facing off against a Master. Somebody much, much more skilled than she. It would be a challenge. Sellah wasn't likely to win, but winning never mattered much to her. She sought to learn from her mistakes. Such was her approach.

A light breeze managed to push through the trees, and Sellah raised her face to the wind, whiskers flaying as her nostrils flared, accepting the offering of a thousand scents. Many she could detect, but had already learned to ignore. They were irrelevant. The musk of sporing mold, the sweet scent of rotting flesh, the sharp tang of arbor sap. The Avian she had heard earlier. And then... the smell she had been waiting for.

Rhissai was close. Rhissai'Arkan, Jedi master. And she was upwind... Sellah turned her head in that direction, moving slowly down the fallen log to better peer between the trunks of the trees. Her ears swiveled as she listened for any sound, any sign of the master, while her eyes flitted back and forth, trying to glean any clue as to the master's position...


ooc// I hope the training exercise approach is alright. They'd both have sabers tuned down to burn, but not slice. If not, then Rhissai would probably be testing Sellah's skills somehow... if that's the case, then I can amend the previous post. //

[Dire Wolf]

((its fine))

Crystalline green eyes sat perched high above the forest floor, gazing out at their surroundings on a limb from one of the great trees that sprang out from the fertile soil. The form that held those bright green eyes in its head was a woman, one with a cascade of midnight black hair that flowed down to her waist. This woman had temporarily forsaken her normal attire, a simple tunic with a brown leather pseudo-corset, in favor of something that blended in with the dark green and brown hues of the woodlands.

This outfit covered covered every inch of her well tanned skin below the neck, flowing down in the distinct woodland camouflage pattern used by the Galactic Republic Military. The flesh above her neck was covered by a balaclava of the same color scheme so that the only patch of skin that showed was a small horizontal slit the zenith of which started at the middle of her nose and reached the area just below her eyebrows at its apex. The width of the slit spanned across her face so that there was very little impact on her peripheral vision.

The green eyed woman shifted her hunched position slightly as she sensed outwards for her “quarry.” She was playing the Dark Jedi in a training exercise, one that was aimed at teaching the Selonian Knight more about fighting Dark Jedi. She had worked with Knight Bellae once before on the cesspool entitled “Balosar,” and the woman only had praise for Sellah's performance. She only knew that the Selonian would put one hundred and ten percent into this, so the woman would be sure to do everything in her power, minus killing her, to defeat the furry Jedi.

The green eyed woman that squatted on the thick branch high above the forest floor was known by many names and titles. The first of which was Jessa, the name that no-one, short of Grand Master Beleren and her long dead master knew. The second was Rhissai'arckan; the name that really isn't one. The epithet is what most people think of when they see her face, though in reality its meaning is sinister... and it hurts her slightly every time she hears it. But it serves to remind her of what she did, and how she fell to the dark side three meager decades before. The “accolade” meant Ferocious Wolf in her native tongue.

A soft ruffle of cloth and the soft rustling of leaves was all that could be heard as the woman shifted her weight off of the tree limb. Rhissai could only see a blur of motion and hear the roar of the air in her ear as she plummeted towards the ground. It was nearly impossible to move around in the forest without making some kind of noise, let alone landing a sixty plus foot fall and even rolling to boot. Which is just what Rhiss did; she used the Force to soften the impact of hitting the ground at near terminal velocity, then she threw her weight forward in a somersault to lengthen the time it took for her to slow down.

Tendrils of the Force snaked outwards from her mind, they slithered along the forest floor like some kind of snake... and their target was none other then the Selonian Jedi. Once upon her the little invisible serpentine tendrils slowly probed Sellah's mental barriers for any kind of weakness. If the chink in the Selonian's mental armor was found her thoughts would proceed to try and sneak into the woman's mind, but not to it down. No. They would attempt to put any of the advantages that Sellah had, like smell and sound, and lock them down.

A light breeze rustled the Jedi Master's slightly loose cloth camouflage as she squatted behind a tree in an attempt to keep the line of sight between her “target” and her own form broken. Rhissai cautiously crept outwards, hunched over, she took care to slowly let her feet contact the ground, touching first with the tips of her toes then slowly rolling backwards. This considerably reduced the sound generated from walking, mostly because it lessened the likelihood of breaking a twig. If there was a bush in the way she would slowly grab the main branch and move it out of the way as she passed rather then letting it drag across her cloth top.

The woman continued to stalk along the forest floor until she came upon Sellah, again taking care to keep her line of sight broken with the woman, and slowly crept up to a thick and sturdy tree. Once there she prepared her opening barrage. She called an envelope of the Force slowly curled around an old rotten log until it grew strong enough to pick up the object without it falling apart in its ethereal grasp. An invisible wind ruffled her clothes slightly as she called a maelstrom of the Force to whip around her form, this storm amplified the strength of her muscles to super human levels... and it would in turn make her move and act significantly faster. Once all was ready she ordered the pocket to lift the log off of the ground and hurl it at Sellah, hopefully it either distracted her... or hit her. Either outcome was more than acceptable.

Even as the log was flying through the air Rhissai launched herself forwards towards a tree, her blood rushed as the wind roared in her covered ears once more, and she twisted her body around so that her legs could adequately use the coming object as another staging area for the jump. It took but a few short moments before the soft pads of her cloth-covered feet contacted with the hard bark of the tree, her legs coiled inwards with the Force of her flight and prepared to put the same energy to drive her forwards into another giant Force enhanced leap. Once her legs coiled in as much as they could she sprang them outwards once again, launching her towards the Selonian.

She her fingers wrapped around the katana pommel of White Fang mid-flight, which came off of its hook with a quick jerk, and held it so the emitter was pointing out at her left. The quick flip of the activation button released the sword shaped fury of the white sun into the green atmosphere of the planet with the all-to-familiar snap-hiss. Once in range she lashed the blade out with a swift horizontal stroke.

It wouldn't kill her if the strike connected, this was a training exercise after all... it would do the order no good if their knights ran around killing each other.

[starwarsgirl008]

Round 1

Kellaishleya:
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 4/5
Bonus: 1/2 (for detail- you described everything perfectly)
Comments: Amazing post! If you continue to write like this we may have to combine your posts and form a novel!

Dire Wolf:
Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 1/2 (this is sort of ½ for one category, ½ for another; the beginning seemed to focus on detail, but the end was action-packed, so another ½ for coolness, in the end equaling one point)
Comments: I like your last line!

Total:

Kella - 20
Dire- 21

Keep up the great posts!

[Kella]

Another rustle in the trees... and then Sellah could feel a presence, feel the Force bend as it pressed toward her mind... Sellah was quick to erect a stone wall, impassable. Her thoughts formed a dense callous, roiling concentration that lashed out every so often like solar flares, keeping the intrusive tendrils of Force at bay. Offense of the immaterial kind was definitely not a skill of Sellah's. However, defense had become a blaring necessity after a lack thereof had almost cost Sellah her life. She'd never make that mistake again.

However, the concentration required to turn her mind into a barrier took its toll, and Sellah could not sense the exact proximity of the Master until her ears and nose brought her awareness arrowing upwards toward the trees... but by that time, it was too late, for Sellah whipped around at the whistle of air to see a log barreling toward her. The fight had begun.

Time seemed to slow as Sellah processed the situation. The log, coming from twelve-o-clock. And then another rush of sound as the air parted behind her. No doubt it was the Jedi herself. Every millisecond was a precious as Platinum. Sellah hardly had to direct the Force, so familiar was the feeling of it rushing through her veins like adrenaline. In her muscles, her eyes, her ears she felt it, as everything came into intense focus and her movements quickened. And then her plan was formed.

Sellah whipped around toward Rhissai and leapt forward. She had to time this exactly right... Rhissai's feet were connecting with the tree, she was coming around...

Ah! The log connected with airborne Sellah's rear paws, and her muscles tensed knowingly. For a moment, she contracted, absorbing the impact. The log carried Sellah's rear half, bringing it around faster than her top half, making her angle vertical. Now! Sellah's coiled muscles snapped like a drawn bow, and she shoved down on the log. It shattered under the sudden pressure, sending flecks of rotten wood showering down below, the larger pieces thudding as they fell.

There! The angle of her leap was changed, and she was moving up, over Rhissai. However, her timing had not been perfect, and the horizontal strike caught her at the tip of the tail, searing fur and sending an acrid stench into the air. There was no time to recognize the pain. Sellah was more aware than ever as she sunk her claws deep into the bark of a tree, stopping her flight. Another miscalculation resulted in the pain of shock radiating up Sellah's right leg. She grimaced, but the pain only sharpened her senses, and she would soon forget it. Her heart pounded only as fast as was necessary, her breathing just enough to provide proper oxygen. Such things could easily get in the way, especially when it came to listening.

And now it was time to get back on the offensive.

Sellah turned herself into a moving target. She coiled her back paws by her front and leapt to the next-closest tree, then again, back-front leap! back-front leap!, until she had traced 100 degrees of a circle, climbing ever so slightly with each bound. Two seconds passed from her landing to her next take-off, as Sellah connected only her pack paws and vaulted herself into the air, igniting a saber which hissed gleefully. Half-way through her flight, she threw her spine around, moving toward Rhissai tail-first. Sellah brought a swift back-swing toward the master, with enough restraint that Sellah could recover from a parry. Immediately after, Sellah's rear paws dug into the ground, tracing troughs in the forest litter. A third paw she dropped, and now-horizontal, Sellah raced forward again, staying low to the ground until she threw herself upward at the last possible second, saber whining as it arced diagonally upwards...

[Dire Wolf]

Nothing. That is all that her gleaming white blade struck as it passed through the empty space where Sellah had been but a few moments before. While it was no doubt that the space otter was amazingly cute, she was certainly a good duelist. Far better than Rhissai was when she was her age. A small smirk appeared on the chronologically old woman at the thought; back when she was in her twenties she could barely hold a decent Soresu stance.

Emerald green eyes tracked the giant ferret's movements as she ran along the trees, using the Force as a means to make such a herculean feat possible. Even with the Force augmenting Rhissai's body, she couldn't effectively attack Sellah again however, as she was already airborne towards Rhissai before the raven maned woman could blink.

Again, there was no real counter attack possible. Not with the way that she was flying through the air, and Rhiss' own defensive mind set. The black maned woman's diaphragm expanded suddenly, causing a new space for the air around her to rush into. As the oxygen rushed into her nose, it also carried various particles along with it. These particles fit snug into the overly sensitive olfactory receptors that her species was known for... and caused her mind to snap awake.

Her mind quickly picked up on all the scents of the forest. The soft scent of a bouquet of forest flowers was the first to whisp into her nose, it caused an almost girlish smile to crease her lips behind the balaclava. It quickly made her regret sniffing. Next came the pine needles, and the honey in various hives... sniffing was definitely a mistake. It wasn't until that vicious, but controlled swing was thrown that her did her mind thrust itself back to the task at hand.

Under normal circumstances, the Jedi would have simply parried and/or sidestepped the swing. It was too late for that however, and now the woman had two choices. First: Be hit. While, granted, it wasn't an entirely terrible notion... she preferred not to have energy burns on her midsection. Second: Bend over backwards. Yes, that was quite possible for the limber ataru user. Her shoulders raised and her mouth went agape as she drew in a deep breath, calling more of the Force's energy to her body with each molecule of oxygen.

Suddenly, and with a flash of movement, the woman threw her upper body backwards until her palms were planted behind her feet. It would take and force powered kick to throw her lower body in an odd arch through the air, and one that had her rolling her spine about so that she'd be facing the right way when she landed. Of course, the pads of her feet barely touched the ground before she saw Sellah's crouched from came crawling quickly towards her.

Rhissai knew what was coming.

Small sparks of lightning began to jump from her fist to her leg, the ground, and pretty much anything within a foot or so. She silently thanked Jace for teaching her the downright deadly martial art just as Sellah threw herself into an upper-cut swing. Rhissai quickly whipped her body around, narrowly dodging the furious beam of scintillating plasma, and threw a few lightning fast left-hand punches at Sellah's fur covered torso.

Her fists of fury didn't pack enough charge to do the usual minor explosion, though it did hold enough to have a small numbing effect. After those few punches were thrown out, the woman brought the silver blade of White Fang about and attempted a sweep at the Selonian's feet. She combined this, of course, with a controlled Force Push... as there was no need for her to take unnecessary damage during this training routine.

[Silas]

Round 2

Kellaishleya:
Effort: 4/5 (I thought you have an excellent post here, but I'd like to have a little breathing room for the next few posts, so that if you set the par even higher, I can award you accordingly.)
Fairness: 5/5 (This was well deserved on both your sides. You did excellent at using Sellah to keep up with Rhissi, even if she's a little less experienced then the council member.)
Detail: 5/5 (The beginning paragraph should give a five even if the rest of the detail is ignored. I thought the post was very well described, and you could almost for a second see through Sellah's eyes.)
Coolness: 3/5 (Similar with the effort, while it was a cool post, and you definitely surprised me I'd like to be able to reward something that's epically cool. Good Job, though)
Bonus: 1/2 (This is more for being able to so perfectly describe Sellah herself, and her grasp on the force. Also because you played very well on her weakness too, showing that she can mess up in mid flight. I thought this deserved some sort of reward.)
Comments: Overall a very good post, that I believe was well thought out, keep it up!

Dire Wolf:
Effort: 4/5 (Similar to what I said to Kella, I'd like to be able to reward someone if they gave an effort which is above the already highly set standard.)
Fairness: 5/5 (Obviously Rhissai is a very talented Jedi, and its hard to keep it fair when you have an advantage over someone, but you did it very well throughout the entire post.)
Detail: 4/5 (Kella won this one by just the most slimmest of margins. I felt as though your first post was better described, and so you lost just a bit in that. However, it was still a very strong post.)
Coolness: 3/5 (Kinda low just because there could be epic amounts of cool in the future, which the lightning fists almost got you that, but Sellah did just jump around in the trees, which I found pretty cool too. Anyway,
Bonus: /2
Comments: Very good post, so close to being just as good as Kella's it was hard to really rate. Anyway, keep up the good work!

Total:

Kella - 38
Dire- 37

Kella wins this round, but Dire is still just a small step behind her, and I think he could have no trouble in taking over this duel! Keep up the awesome effort!

[Kella]

Master Rhissai was certainly a match for a Selonian's agility -- Sellah knew this, knew it well. Therefore, it was no surprise that Sellah's uppercut bit nothing but dust. A half-step past the Master, then a quick turn to face her again --

Sellah barely registered the licking flare of lightning before she saw the fist of it. Though her conscious mind could have classified it, her instinct ranked it as unfamiliar, startling, something to be avoided.

But how do you avoid lightning? Sure as the Force, Sellah didn't know.

Dodging the first fist was only delaying the inevitable. Sellah's claws bit against the forest floor, slipping through the wet foliage, but that was all she could do before her side was enveloped in energy.

A tingling hiss ran through her muscles, like a carbonated drink burned her nose. Then numbness. She could see her side moving as she breathed, but it was foreign, alien, she couldn't feel it...

Sellah stumbled, dazed. The first hit had overwhelmed her sense of trauma, the other contacts had blended into the first... Suddenly, the numbness disappeared, replaced by a pin-and-needle pain. This was familiar. Sellah knew how to process this. The daze evaporated in an instant, the pain like a hot summer sun, eating through night's fog. If something hurt that meant it still worked, and her subconscious quickly caught up. Whatever this unfamiliar thing was, it could be out-waited, it was like any other injury or pain. Moving on.

Sellah's lax muscles tensed to readiness again, her eyes coming back on line just in time to spy a blur of silver -- trajectory sweeping under her feet.

Sellah leapt upwards and towards Rhissai -- dodging into an opponent's personal space was a disconcerting tactic, possibly enough to gain the upper hand. Possibly. With Master Rhissai, probably not.

As she did so, a force caught her lower half, pushing it out from under her. Her inner ear told her body of the shift in balance, and as the Force coursed through her veins, it knew too. Her tail lashed to compensate, simultaneously the Force in her own muscles steadied her horizontal trajectory.

Sellah curled her spine, pulling her hind feet forwards, to push off of the shoulders of her crouched quarry. She drew her saber underneath her body, in a trajectory that, had the saber been tuned to full strength, and the quarry remained stationary, would have sliced lengthwise through its torso. If she successfully completed the maneuver, she would land a few feet beyond the Master.

If. She'd tried her best, at any rate. Something -- the movement of her platform, perhaps her own miscalculation, a tremor in the Force, something, stole her altitude, and Sellah knew only enough to know that the Ground and she were going to quickly become acquainted. She did clear the Master, but landing gracefully was out of the question.

Sellah tucked her shoulder so that it would hit first, rolling across the ground of the clearing, collecting dead leaves on her dense coat. Her limbs flashed out to catch her in a low, almost prone crouch, and she realized she'd instinctively deactivated her saber. Sellah had been taught by her scars to never relax, to never assume a battle was over. Against a certain kind of opponent, maybe that maneuver would have been decisive. But not here, not now -- not where the setting of her saber meant that -- if she'd been completely successful -- she'd only managed to burn the Master's shoulder.

Here, victory was not the objective -- if it was even possible. The goal here was exhaustion before failure. Sellah could not -- and would not -- let any kind of pride interfere.

Perhaps if she had more skill, she could take advantage of her current position. However, now, she had to waste precious seconds acquiring a more advantageous one. Sellah sprung to a standing position, igniting her saber. She swung with power, her muscles straining, filling with the Force to urge the rawness into her blade. She planned to follow this with one, two, three more such swings, exhausting to parry. But that was only the plan, and though there was decision in Sellah's body, there was reservation in her eyes. She knew that at any moment, the cunning of her quarry might force her to switch to the defensive, that the offensive position, in which she was so comfortable, might soon be coyly lifted from her grasp...

[Dire Wolf]

Everything happened so fast. Sellah evaded the swipe as if it had been thrown by a youngling, and leaped high above Rhiss' head. Time slowed to a crawl as a mixture of adrenaline and the Force melted together to enhance her reflexes to a near precognitive level. The forest around her seemed to pop with life in an almost surreal quality. The edges of her vision seemed to blur and the colors grew more vibrant as the master instinctively whirled around and narrowly parried Sellah's lightsaber.

Ozone was perhaps one of the worst smells that had ever been smelled by the Aphithiri woman. It was an odor that she had been forced to grow accustomed to, but had never quite managed to ignore. Her eyes began to water and highly sensitive nose began to burn as the remains of the brief clash of lightsabers attacked her sense of smell. Rhissai's form was a blur as she sprinted forward, legs powered by the force and a desire to get out of the cloud of atrocious air.

Juyo was a wonderful thing to know, even if one didn't have a perfect grasp on it. Not only was it an erratic, spontaneous form but also one that was designed on keeping your foe off balance. While one might expect a master on Rhiss' level to do some immensely clever and out-of-left-field maneuver, her adrenaline filled mind was too preoccupied with her target than creative thought. In that moment Rhissai was more a creature of action and reaction, one in the moment, then a being that fought with a plan. Perhaps it was the ozone. Perhaps it was the sudden rush of adrenaline and precognition. She didn't really know, and she didn't really care.

Rhissai's arms were a blur and the silvery blade of her lightsaber seemed to lag as she swung towards the oncoming lightsaber's flightpath. A terrible crack and the familiar smell of ozone erupted from the flash of light caused by a pair of lightsabers clashing. The parry was aimed in such a way so that it redirected the attack rather than simply blocked it. This way the strength of the Selonian's attack would work against the sender rather than tire the receiver out. As woman redirected the selonian's swipe downwards, she followed up with a horizontal slash that would have struck between the mantle and the crown of the Selonian's head if she wasn't fast enough to dodge it.

After the blade passed, it traced a backwards "c" pattern to block any counter attacks that would be sent from a lower position in an attempt to redirect yet another swipe by completing a circle instead of a "C". Should a counter attack not come from that angle, Rhiss would simply slash at the space ferret's legs. If the blade was, in fact, redirected then Rhiss would follow the circular motion with an elbow aimed at the center of the Selonian's chest. The sternum was an excellent place to strike a human, hopefully it was an equally excellent place to strike a Selonian, too.

[Dutch]

Taking over as official moderator of this duel

ROUND 3

Sellah

Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: /2
Comments: Had a feeling this duel was also going to be excellent. Glad to see you can still deliver with Sellah

Rhissai

Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 4/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: /2
Comments: Very nice Dire, I see Rhiss is still as formidable as ever. Happy to see!

-SCORE-

Kella - 58
Dire- 56

Round 4 start!

[Kella]

Sellah bent backwards to avoid the horizontal swipe, taking full advantage of her species' flexibility and using the movement to add more momentum to her next attack. She carried each swing all the way through, as she had been taught, but this served to exhaust her more than her opponent. Rhissai could divert her attacks intentionally rather than simply blocking them, Sellah would need a different approach. Did she have a different approach?

Rhissai's blade met Sellah's once more, but instead of diverting it, this time she caught it, looping her own saber around and flicking Sellah's to the side, striking forwards to her chest. Sellah threw herself backwards, feeling the lingering heat of the blade, smelling burnt fur, knowing that had this been a real duel she would have been a half an inch from her life.

Her saber deactivated as she bent backwards, and when her paws hit the dirt she kicked the rest of her body over. But instead of springing off her hands, she stayed low to the ground, surging forward low and on all fours. She reactivated her saber and swiped at Rhissai's legs as she passed, then she rose to her full height, bringing down a slash from above before dashing away again.

Now three yards past, Sellah threw her saber back towards the Master, and it spun rapidly through the air, buzzing like an angry insect in a flash of green. Then she began to sprint, tracing the edge of a circle around Rhissai, and once back on the other side of the woman she leapt into the air, following the course of her saber. Sellah caught the spinning hilt in her hand, her other three limbs pressing into the bark of a tree. Immediately she pushed off again, falling down towards Rhissai with another strike from above.

[Dire Wolf]

A small smile spread the woman's lips thin as she felt the dull thud of her elbow connect against the center of a person's chest. If a selonian's anatomy was anything like that of a humanoid's then she could have been killed with a full power elbow strike. The Xiphoid Process was an easy bone to break, and given the right circumstances it could cut up internal organs. Sellah managed to take the elbow with grace much to the Councilwoman's surprise.

The adorably furry woman used the force from Rhissai's elbow to execute a backwards cartwheel, or what looked like an evasive maneuver anyways. Sellah chose to rush forward while still low to the ground rather than evade backwards. If Rhiss trusted more in her instincts than her vision then the young woman's attack would have only met air. The Selonian dashed forward just as Rhissai had just began to react. No purely physical reaction could have possibly been fast enough.

Her sudden reaction had made a difference, though. The lightsaber connected with her shin rather than her knee. In a real fight she may have been able to salvage her foot in the aftermath. Since the lightsaber wasn't powerful enough to cut flesh, it simply caught her mid-air and whipped her into the ground.

Each foot stung with a light burn as she spat out blades of grass and embarrassment. A Jedi Master of her calibre wasn't supposed to have even been touched by a young knight, let alone notionally dismembered! Fool of a Jedi!

Silence. Silence quickly became deafening as the sixty year old woman lay there on her stomach. A soft voice whispered to her from afar, too far to hear the words yet she could still understand the meaning. Those crystalline green eyes slid shut as Rhiss threw her weight to the side. The whirling green saber missed her body by mere inches, yet the woman hardly felt the need to stand up quickly. As Sellah leaped towards the tree to retrieve her lightsaber, Rhissai barely rose to her feet. Her eyes may have been shut, but the brilliant threads of the Force were still obvious to her gaze.

Rhissai's feet were spread shoulder-width apart, her knees bent slightly, and her toes moved to face directly forward. In this stance she was all but immovable, which made it easier to then withstand the resistance of moving other people. White Fang's silvery light withdrew into the ancient katana-styled hilt and found it's place on her belt as the woman braced herself against both the earth and the Force itself.

Then Sellah leaped.

It wasn't something that could be seen, heard, nor smelled. The sense she had was only one that could be felt. Vision was superfluous and only hindered one to the small things. The important things. Sellah saw that her opponent had taken a hit. Sellah saw that her opponent was flustered and perhaps embarrassed. Perhaps Sellah didn't feel the Force as it gathered around Rhissai's body like a whirlwind. Perhaps Sellah trusted her sight too much. Rhissai honestly hoped that Sellah trusted her instincts more than her sight, but then there would be no lesson to be taught in their exchange.

Then Rhissai screamed. The shriek was not one that involved taking a deep breath and unleashing the power of one's corporeal voice. This wail was one that was delivered with the incorporeal power of Rhiss' mind. As such it was not physical pain that a being felt from her telepathic might, but rather the type of pain that was reminiscent of an extremely powerful and sudden migraine. Let alone act. The weak minded have outright fallen unconscious to the telepath's mental prowess in the past, though Sellah was a Jedi. This was practice, though, so instead of putting the selonian through immense amounts of mental anguish she simply wailed loud enough for a short stunning effect to be possible.

That wasn't all Rhissai did, however. After that mental wail had been unleashed to the world her hand flung itself towards Sellah, attempting to catch her in a fold of incorporeal power. Movement and control was further enhanced by Rhissai's solid stance.

If the attempt was successful the woman would flick her wrist to the right, willing her Selonian spar mate towards a tree at a frightening pace. Sellah would then stop on a dime, mere inches from the tree, and be released from the ethereal grasp. If, of course, Rhissai managed to ensnare Sellah Bellae in her arcane grasp. If not, well, things would get rather interesting.

[Dutch]

FINAL ROUND

Sellah

Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: /2
Comments: You play a selonian quite well! I could picture her movements so clearly!

Rhiss

Effort: 5/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 5/5
Coolness: 5/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: WOW! Dire! I knew Rhiss was one of your favorites, but wow, you outshone yourself here. Thus the bonus! Nice job buddy!


-SCORE-

Kella - 78
Dire- 77

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW! A one point difference! Close duel! Kella, feel free to end this how you wish.

Now rest! Yoooooooou've earned it! /Oblivion

[Kella]

As Sellah fell through the air, time seemed to slow, as thoughts broke down into instincts and senses. She was confident from her last string of dodges and blows, but something didn't seem right.

A sound unlike any Sellah had ever heard before cut past her ears and straight into her mind. Her eyes widened, her body tensed, but her form did not waiver. Sellah was no stranger to pain. The conscious mind was wiped clean by such shocking agony, but the Selonian relied on something deeper.

However, she was unprepared for the suddenness of the telikinetic grasp, and as the pain abruptly stopped, Sellah's inner ears spun and her stomach lurched, in response to the sudden sideways flight. Her body tensed in anticipation of the impact, but at the last moment, she fell.

Sellah landed on her feet in the thick leaf litter, a puff of wet earth dampness filling her nose. Her mind still felt... odd, altered, exhausted from the attack, and her body begged for rest, coat wet and slicked with sweat. Her chest rose and fell with deep, heavy breaths, and she slowly stood, turning back to look at the Master.

"Well, I got you once, and you got me." She found within herself a rare smile, and bowed to the master. Her mind began to shift back into more conscious thought, as she analyzed her successes and failures. Had she been using the Force to augment the movement of her body through the air, it might have afforded her the solidarity needed to negate the telekinetic attack. She would remember this, and practice.

She and the master, who was becoming something of a mentor to her, spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the lessons of the day, and when that was through, a matter far more grave. The fate of the Jedi.