High Prophet Crozeus
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Prophet Crozeus vs Marius PraxeumProphet Crozeus once again stood on the hot sands of Tatooine, just outside the Chapter. Another prospective Prophet was being thrown through the rigors of the Candidate Internship Program. Marius was unlike the others in that he had much more combat experience. Crozeus was hoping he would be up to par in their duel.
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Marius Praxeum
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((I've noticed that people like to duel on Tatooine.))
Marius Decimus Trent Praxeum stood in the heat, on the sandy dunes of the forsaken planet of Tatooine. Why the Prophet had chosen this planet was beyond him. It gave nothing towards the mood of prophesy, in fact it detracted from his desire to prophesize.
In his hands he held what should have been a foreign object to his hands. It was a long slender, silver cylinder, with one plate on each end. A lightsaber, given to him by his family once he returned home and explained his predicament. They had been overjoyed to find out that another Force Sensitive was in the family, and had passed down two items, his paternal grandfather's lightsaber and his holocron. Using the holocron, Marius had forced into his mind the knowledge of using a lightsaber. He had trained with swords before, but this was lighter, and much deadlier.
He gave it an experimental twirl in his hands, feeling its comforting weight flow. He stepped off of the dune and headed for the next one, where he could sense Prophet Crozeus.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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((As Dark and Shadow Warrior of the Church, I often train Prophets at the Tatooine Chapter because that's where the main armoury and the Warrior's offices are.))
Crozeus watched Marius approaching slowly towards him. It was indeed difficult to move in sand. He stood in the baking sun, unaffected by the blistering heat. Crozeus could actually feel his saber twitching in expectation of the upcoming fight. Crozeus had spent so long upgrading it, plus it had been created in the Sith Temple itself, which seethed with power, as well as having a Dark Side crystal which was imbued by Dark Lord Praxeum himself. There was so much power in the ruby gold blade that it could respond to feelings in the Force. It was odd, but it also gave Crozeus the feeling that he had a companion at the times he did not.
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Marius Praxeum
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((That would do it.))
The sand flew around Marius as he trudged to Crozeus. He was conserving his strength for the battle ahead. Looking inward, he focused on that point within from which all things flowed, especially the Force. When he arrived at the top of the dune, he saw the Prophet's warrior. This warrior stood four inches shorter than the Corellian Admiral, and was slimmer and less muscular. Marius had always made a point to honing his physical condition, even during long missions filing paperwork.
He was just an apprentice, and did not expect to come out on top, especially if Force powers were allowed. But he believed he could hold his own in a physical struggle, and even overpower the younger Prophet with brute strength.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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Crozeus looked up at the older man. It was intimidating to be training someone so much larger than he, especially a rugged war veteran like Marius. Nevertheless, size mattered not. He unclipped his lightsaber from his belt, but that was all he did. He continued to wait, looking at the steadily approaching Intern.
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Marius Praxeum
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Marius leapt forward into action, his silver blade snapping to life and heading straight for the Prophet's unlit hilt. If he could unarm the Prophet of his saber, that would make a bit of a difference, in fact it gave him a physical advantage.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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Just before Marius lunged, Crozeus had made eye contact with him. The power of Dark Prophecy enabled Crozeus to see a rough idea of what Marius was planning before he did it - although barely a second beforehand, so incredible reflexes were needed. Crozeus saw an image of his writhing lightsaber hilt in Marius' mind and instantly threw it high into the air, stepping back and jerking his arm up to avoid Marius' blade hitting his arm. A violet lightsaber sprang from his wrist and parried the strike anyway.
"Prophets," Crozeus said, cutting hard to Marius' head, where it was promptly parried, "Have a great advantage in sword duels."
Marius tried to feint, but Crozeus read it like a book and parried. He then disengaged. "We can always see," he held his other hand out, palm flat, "what will happen."
With an audible slap his lightsaber fell into his waiting palm. He ignited it and his wrist holstered blade shrank back. Crozeus twirled the familiar blade around him in a complex fashion, finally saluting in Form II and waiting once again.
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Marius Praxeum
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"There is no set future. No set path to walk. Prophet Crozeus. One thing you learn from the Military is that nothing is certain. Even with 10-1 odds, you can still lose."
Marius had been studying since he had learned of a duel with the Prophet, and hoped that his ideas would work. The one thing about foresight is that you needed a link tothe future to see it. Some sort of connection with an object or thought that would take you to the future, such as Marius' thoughts, an object, or just the Force. If one removed that link, or made the future uncertain, the Prophet would lose his ability. He would see a future, but it might not be the future.
He was not impressed at all by the complex moves or salute. A true master of a weapon had no need to show off, except to defend himself or obtain a tactical position.
He picked up a rock with the Force and threw it at Crozeus, tweaking it with the Force at random intervals to throw off the prophet's vision of the rock.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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Spoken like a true drone of the Military. The rock's path altered eratically but Crozeus simply placed a wall in the Force large enough to stop the rock no matter where it altered it's course to. When it hit the invisible barrier it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces.
"You see, you believe you can feint me in your mind. Yet I can read the feints in your mind. You Military folk are always guessing one or two steps ahead of your opponent. Prophets guess, no, they know, three.
To be a Prophet, Marius, you must truly understand that the future is always certain. What happens, happens. But it is what we do before that future becomes the present that is interchangeable."
Crozeus brought his hands upwards in a dramatic gesture, like a musical conductor bringing his orchestra to full volume. The sand around Marius erupted, he was catapulted several feet into the air and began to fall back down at great speed.
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Marius Praxeum
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Marius flew through the air, calmly. He was no stranger to abrupt changes in pressure and altitude, having piloted many fighter craft that weren't really ships, but more like big jet-packs strapped to his back. He landed, somehow, on his feet and dug them into the ground to stabilize himself.
Well then, it appears that we need a little chaos. He thought to himself.
"That is funny. Because all the Prophet's I've heard of never won any battles. Being able to know what will happen is one thing, but knowing what to do afterwards, that is where the true power lies. Tell me, Prophet, do you know what to do afterwards? Or do you merely tell the future and let others act upon it?"
One thing Marius knew he needed was to cloud the Prophet's mind, to blur his view of the future. His Military training gave him the advantage with terrain and natives, but that would not beat the Force. He could only hope that Crozeus fell off a dune and broke his neck, got run over by a Sandcrawler or got sat upon by a Bantha.
He charged forward and swung his saber with precision, keeping his movements conservative and saving his energy. One thing he knew he could do was physically outlast the Prophet. He had years in the Military, spending days on end in battle, with little to no sleep, whereas the Prophet was accustomed to the life of luxury and being rested.
His saber was met at all points by the Prophet's blade, but Marius did not anger or become discouraged. He knew that he could beat the Prophet. He just needed a plan.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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Crozeus was deflecting the Intern's attacks with relative ease.
"We may not win the epic land or naval battles, after all we don't possess our own fleet. However it is on a rare occasion for a Prophet to be defeated in single combat."
For some time they sparred, going to and fro, wasting away at each other. Marius was clearly thinking he could hold Crozeus with the blade, and Crozeus was more than happy to let him keep thinking that. However, as time passed by, Crozeus was steadily applying more power to an energy draining Spell he had cast, which was slowly sapping away at Marius' energy. It was an easy enough Spell to defend against - if you know how to, and if you know it's coming.
They continued to spar, while Marius was slowly beginning to feel the effects of the Spell. Crozeus didn't have Marius' strength, but Marius didn't have his ability to combat that with the Force. If Marius did not do something soon, he would be too tired to continue on.
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Lord Aequitas
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((LoES not canon))
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High Prophet Crozeus
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((Sunofa... not even that little bit huh...  ))
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Marius Praxeum
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((And that's not Godmodding at all? "Spell that drains my strength" without me having any realistic chance of defeating it. Ummm... Yeah. So I'll just happen to slip a poison into your system which systematically drains your life, then.))
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High Prophet Crozeus
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((You are only an apprentice. Your character does not have the capability to defend against that particular Spell yet, it would be the sort of thing you would learn in the later stages of your training.
Bear in mind that this is only a duel to test your combat ability in any circumstance.))
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Marius Praxeum
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[[I believe, from all my readings of Star Wars literature, that Sith Spells took time and effort to create. Not like a Harry Potter or Eragon spell. Just because I am an apprentice, doesn't mean that it isn't godmodding. Otherwise we have a very unfair system here.]]
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High Prophet Crozeus
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((Well it would be god-modding if I said that you died and I won, but I didn't. All you have to do is come up with a way to stop me using this Spell, it's fairly simple really, considering it requires a lot of focus - so while dueling it's easyish to do.
Yes, they do require a long time to be created, but less time to learn.))
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Supreme Commander Alor
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[[Actually, Godmodding is merely when a character "definitively describes the outcome of their own actions against another character". So by stating that Marius' energy is being drained and given to you, can be seen as Godmodding. Its just not a blatant, absolute Godmod.]]
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High Prophet Crozeus
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((Very well, I made an edit to my post saying that unless he did something soon, he would be unable to continue the fight. I had thought that I was conveying that message previously, but I guess I wasn't clear. I appologise, Marius.))
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Marius Praxeum
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Marius felt something was wrong, but he didn't know what was cauing the drain in his energy. After years of pushing his limits, he knew when he was getting tired, and now with the Force, he could even more closely monitor his strength. It has to be the Prophet's doing, he thought. But Marius was still but an apprentice, and knew very little as to countering the Force with the Force. However he did know a few tricks from his days in combat.
He pulled out a blaster pistol with his empty hand and fired off shots at the Prophet, hoping to break his concentration, and thus the spell.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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In all the years he had been fighting other Sith, he had never had a blaster shot at him. As a result he had to withdraw to deflect the bolts fired at him with the accuracy of one who had been firing them for many years, and his focus on the Spell was broken. Crozeus was pleased. Marius would make an excellent warrior - and maybe one who would be able to train Prophets in standard blaster work... maybe even take on one of Crozeus' two Warrior posts.
Crozeus sent a Force Push at Marius to send the blaster aside to give him time to perform his next attack - a blast of Force Lightning and a lunge with a feint to head, the real attack coming to Marius' flank. He doubted Marius would be able to deal with the many pronged attack.
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Marius Praxeum
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The blaster was angled away from the Prophet by what had to be the Force, while blue tongues of energy flew at Marius. He jumped to the right and felt the lightning zinge the elbow on his jacket. He went to block the feint, only to be caught offguard by the real attack. He strained to get his saber up in time to block Crozeus' true attack, but missed with the full length of the blade. The tip managed to deflect the Prohet's saber, which was enough for Marius to jump away from.
"Did you forget that I am an Admiral? I had much more complicated attacks on my units than that."
Marius struck out with his saber, hoping to catch the Prophet offguard from his recent attack. He followed up with a few bolts from the blaster that would keep the Prophet near the saber, and unable to move out of its way without getting shot.
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High Prophet Crozeus
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Once again, Crozeus was forced to back away to deflect the shots fired at him with remarkable accuracy despite the predicament Marius was in. It made Crozeus want to take his own blaster weapons down to the range to try them out again.
He countered with a Force Pull, yanking the blaster out of Marius' grip and sending it into the sand. He had determined he had a good sense of Marius' ability, and that was all the duel was for. He held up a hand and extinguished his blade, which sank back almost reluctantly.
"Well fought, Marius."
The two Sith were sweltering in the sun and if they carried on for much longer they would pass out.
"You may rest in the Chapter. Though I'm sure there are many tasks you have to be getting on with!"
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