Serratus's Open Challenge

High Mage Serratus

((Where: The abandoned Echo Base on Hoth.
What: Any three melee weapons and Force powers (no Force speed or illusion).
Who: Anyone of Sith Master Third Degree or higher.

A GM will also be needed, naturally.))
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

((I'd be happy to take you on.))
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High Mage Serratus

((Jolly good, now we just need a GM.))
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Lord Aequitas

((Hi))
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High Mage Serratus

((Jolly good. I will make the first post.))

Serratus stepped through the hangar of the abandoned Echo Base. Dilapidated and dusty ships surrounded him, a mere shadow of their former selves. It was here, over twenty years ago, that Serratus had found the Space Dragon and flown it off-planet, albeit after quite a few attempts.

Serratus was awaiting the arrival of Darth Crozeus. He had not had a duel in quite some time and he had not visited his home planet in many years. Serratus knew that several miles away, his family, his real family, were probably resting in the subterranean ice cavern he had called home.

Twenty years.

Those twenty years had changed him. From an innocent but dangerous boy to a purely dangerous man. A man who had killed hundreds directly and many more indirectly. A man who could and would kill again. Every weapon he carried with him had killed at some point. The staff on his back, Arbiter, had decapitated a group of impertinent Tusken Raiders who simply would not stop trying to shoot down the Space Dragon whenever he left his personal residence on Tatooine. He had flattened and pureed Cthon skulls with the crushgaunts adorning his hands. And as for his saberstaff, who even knew where to start?

Serratus wiped the dust from one of the ships. A lot of time had passed.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Prophet Crozeus had not dueled properly in some time. As a result he was a tad concerned about the abilities of his muscles to perform in a combat situation, as most of his time recently had been spent either with his apprentice, at the Moff's Council, or working at the Church. Still, he managed to perform his daily routine of drills and exercises with the blade and without.

He had landed some distance away from Echo Base so as to become accustomed to the environment and to bond with the Force to the life energies around him, a technique that can be most useful. He had started off at a jog across the snowy dunes towards the base, before sprinting a short distance and halting a passing Tauntaun with the Force, mounting it and riding it to the old Rebellion base. After a refreshing ride he arrived and saw Serratus moving around the old ships, looking reflective. Crozeus dismounted and snapped his mount's neck with the Force, relishing the burst of Dark Side energy that was emitted. It was also enough to make Serratus notice his arrival.

Crozeus cast off his robe and nodded to his ally. He did not expect this duel to be too serious or violent, though he was more than aware of the vast weaponry Serratus took pride in his expertise on their use. The last time they had dueled had been a brief battle when Serratus was merely an apprentice under the current Grand Mage, who was High Prophet at the time. That time, Crozeus had won. Both the Sith knew that the other was a great fighter, and Crozeus assumed that Serratus would avoid using a traditional lightsaber, because Crozeus knew exactly how to deal with that.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus acknowledged his opponent with a brief bow before taking Arbiter from his back. He held the staff in one hand slightly behind him, in a combination of the traditional stances of Shien and the spear-style of the martial art of Petranaki, developed by the Geonosians. He lightly tapped the base of the staff off his shoulder blade and a lightsaber blade sprung from its tip. He assumed a battle-ready stance and awaited Crozeus's first move.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus nodded as well and held out a flat palm to his side, and his lightsaber slapped into it and ignited, a source of ruby gold light in the damp hangar. He saluted briefly, twirling the blade around, feeling the familiar balance and weighting. He poised the blade, ready to attack, saw Serratus twitch, bracing himself for the inevitable attack... then he grabbed hold of one of the ships with the Force and sent it flying towards Serratus with blinding speed and power.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus had been anticipating that the ships would not be left to rust in peace and quickly stepped before jumping into the air, spinning and delivering a Force-imbued kick to the ship, sending it right back at Crozeus. As he landed, Serratus crouched low and unleashed a wave of Sith lightning at Crozeus's feet before resuming his stance and then charging forward, keeping Arbiter in the specialised grip he had been developing for over a year as part of Project DarkMage.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus leapt into the air and pushed himself forward, running along the ship as it flew towards him and landing behind Serratus in a crouch. As quickly as he could he stood and span around, snapping his blade around with him to cut towards Serratus' briefly exposed back, though he doubted it would have any effect except delay Serratus for a few seconds and allow Crozeus to get into a proper position.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus stopped as Crozeus landed and turned, bring Arbiter up to chest level and grasping the other end with his other hand, blocking Crozeus's strike. Serratus switched his fighting style immediately to the Rince Bata an Uisce Bheatha style of an ancient martial art called bataireacht that he had rediscovered while researching staffs. Holding Arbiter in a reversed boxing grip, Serratus started simultaneously punching with his fists and jabbing with the ends of Arbiter at Crozeus, his right hand bringing the lightsaber blade with it and his left hand bringing the electrical discharger.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus was fending off the attacks the best he could. He was unfamiliar with the fighting style and so relied on instinct, raw skill, and more than anything else the Force to defend himself. He decided that remaining in close combat with Serratus would not end well for him, and therefore he needed to take the initiative, and get Serratus out of his comfort zone. Therefore, when Serratus attacked with the lightsaber end of his staff, Crozeus batted it down, held it there and threaded his spare arm in between the gap of Serratus' shaft and his chest.

Now the two Sith were locked in a battle of physical strength, a feature in which the two were evenly matched. However, Crozeus noted the crushgaunts on Serratus' hands and determined that a meeting of them and his head, or any part of his body, would not be a pleasant encounter. Crozeus slammed the Force into the ground in a wave, sending both of them flying, and setting the duel out at square one.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus tried to land on his feet but only succeeded in tumbling backwards. He rose quickly and devised a plan quickly. He deactivated Arbiter momentarily and used it to spear a fuel tank on a nearby ship. Serratus swung Arbiter, sending the tank towards Crozeus's end of the hangar, trailing fuel behind it. Serratus stuck the base of Arbiter into the beginning of the fuel and activated the discharger, igniting the fuel and sending a roaring serpent of fire snaking down towards his opponent and to the three-quarters fuel tank, which was now little more than a bomb.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus' eyes widened at the rapidly advancing wall of flame. He slid a box along the floor into the oil slick, though the oil was simply moved around it and the fire continued. However, Crozeus had bought himself a few seconds, and had already started off at a brisk run. He clambered on top of several fighters and ran up a section of wall to a catwalk which over looked the entire hangar. Just as he got onto the metal suspension, the fire trail hit the fuel tank. Crozeus grabbed the tank and pretty much everything in the radius nearby and hurled them towards Serratus with the Force.
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High Mage Serratus

The flaming fuel tank exploded in mid-air, destroying the two ships Crozeus had also thrown and scattering their debris through the hangar. The force of the explosion sent Serratus flying into a wall, Arbiter flying in a different direction and sent a wing of a ship right through a section of the catwalk, perpendicular to the one Crozeus was on. Serratus knew that as long as Crozeus had the height advantage, he would be prey to the Prophet's superior mastery of the Force. With a Force-imbued jump, he leapt up the wall against which he had just fallen and used the crushgaunts to dig deep into the wall. He rapidly pulled himself up the wall like a demented spider then kicked against the wall and jumped on to the catwalk himself.

He drew his saberstaff and entered the stance of Djem So, his most powerful form.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus immediately sent a Force Push at Serratus to send him back a bit, from his posture it looked like he was waiting for Crozeus to engage. Crozeus had disengaged his lightsaber when he hurled the tank, and now two violet blades sprang from holsters on his wrists. He was backing up rapidly, and when he was as far as he could be he slashed through the pair of suspenders attaching the catwalk to the ceiling in front of him. Then the box with which he had slowed the oil flow rose up, carried by the Force, and was lowered onto the end of the new section of catwalk.

Instantly it started to bend, creaking ominously, and soon the box slipped off, crashing to the hangar floor below. Serratus was now going to start sliding down his section of the catwalk until he fell off, and fell a good twenty metres to the floor.
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High Mage Serratus

((Sorry, but what exactly happened?))
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

((Sorry, I wrote that at 2am so I wasn't exactly clear. We were both on the catwalk, I cut through two of the wire suspensions which attach the catwalk to the ceiling, and weighted the end down with a box. This meant that your end of the catwalk angled down, so you would start to slide down it and you would eventually fall off. Below is a crude diagram. ))

you me
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High Mage Serratus

((Ah. Thanks.))

Instead of resisting the decline, Serratus rode it down before leaping with another Force-imbued jump. He grabbed on to the section of catwalk on which Crozeus was standing but rather than climb up, he used the Force on the ground. As he was most certainly not capable of moving the planet Hoth, Serratus himself was moved and used the pressure this created to pull down on the catwalk, ripping the durasteel walkway from the ceiling and plummeting to the ground.
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus leaped off the quickly falling catwalk just before it hit the floor and rolled. He came to his feet quickly and looked wildly around for Serratus. Spotting him on the other side of the wrecked catwalk he advanced, igniting his two wrist sabers again. When he was in range, he leaped across the catwalk and came down on Serratus, bringing his right blade onto Serratus' head and his left towards Serratus' right side.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus brought his saberstaff up to block the blow to his head and grabbed the blade of the other lightsaber with his crushgaunt, causing it to heat up considerably but being made of beskad, it refused to give way. Serratus quickly tossed Crozeus away from himself and blew a hole through a wall of the hangar with the Force, running out to the freezing snow dunes and pushing his hand into the frozen ice to cool it down. He quickly rose again and turned towards the hole he had created, squinting to see through the snow that was ripping through the air and waiting for his opponent to reveal himself.
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

It was an odd sensation, feeling his blade be held by an other. He sheathed the blades and pulled out his double bladed saber, given to him by Darth Celestial on the eve of his final mission as his apprentice. Then he threw it forward, and let it hover in the air, slowly advancing towards Serratus as if it was being held normally. Crozeus had come dressed entirely in white, as was usual for Prophets, so he hoped this would convince Serratus that he was actually there.

Then he made himself smaller in the Force, to disguise his true attack. He Force Pushed a part of the ceiling, opening a hole just big enough for him to squeeze through. He clambered up and out into the open, taking the cold like a slap in the face. He jumped down and landed in the soft snow and crept up on Serratus, waiting for his saber to come in range. When it was, he flicked his wrist and the saber attacked, cutting at Serratus. Simultaneously, Crozeus leaped from his hiding spot, his two wrist blades shining, and attacked as well. Serratus was now effectively fighting four lightsabers at once.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus knew that Crozeus would try to use camoflauge to attack, but Crozeus seemed to have forgotten that they were fighting on Serratus's home turf and it would not be quite that easy. Serratus used one crushgaunt-equipped hand to catch Crozeus's double-bladed lightsaber by one blade, although the momentum of the blade caused it to jump forward slightly and cut into Serratus's hip.

With the other hand, he erected a Force barrier and then pushed it towards Crozeus. Serratus rather imagined it would be somewhat like a wizard on a broomstick crashing into a brick wall that somehow appeared from the exhaust pipe of a flying motorcycle.

Serratus realised he was still holding Crozeus's lightsaber and dropped it to the ground, where it made a hissing noise as it sunk into the snow.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

High Prophet Crozeus

((I have to admit, I laughed so hard at that analogy.))

Crozeus fell back into the snow, the breath knocked out of him. Instead of simply attacking again Crozeus charged Force energy and smashed it into the ground. The snow around Serratus exploded out of the ground like it was on geysers and dropped him to the floor, the shock of which meant he could not keep his barrier up. Crozeus instantly charged, his main saber ignited again and coming over his head towards Serratus' prostrate chest, accompanied by a burst of Force Lightning.
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High Mage Serratus

((I try.))

Serratus managed to dissipate about a quarter of the lightning, but not being skilled in the area, a sizable charge still shot into him. His vision clouded but the disturbance passed just in time for Serratus to raise his saberstaff in both hands to meet Crozeus's lightsaber.

The two were instantly locked in another battle of strength and were once more evenly matched. Serratus knew a stalemate was not an option.

He kicked off the snow and started sliding down the dune like a toboggan, Crozeus's lightsaber slipping from his and cutting into his leg as he pushed away. Even as he gained momentum he started firing bolts of Sith lightning back at his opponent.

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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.