Name: Mountain Monastery.

Size: Varies. Court Yard 200 feet long, 75 feet wide.

Properties: None.

Player Capacity: 2.

Description: This Monastery in the mountains is home to a peaceful order of religious monks. It is beautifully kept with sand gardens and banzai trees. There is a small 25x25 foot raised platform in the center of the court yard that is often used for meditation.

Flavor Text: Soft chanting often fills the narrow winding mountain paths that lead to this secluded monastery. In the winter the paths are full of snow, making travel all but impossible. It is in the spring that the true beauty of this divine place becomes apparent and life blooms all around it.







She had come here to rest and to meditate, having found the discovery of new worlds existing entirely outside of her own reality quite unsettling and in need of answers. It wasn't meditation and answers that she found, however, when a man who appeared no older than herself had approached her and requested a duel. She could not fathom his reasons for such a request in this place, but she had recognized the years in his eyes, knowing he was far more experienced than his appearance indicated, just as she was. There was a familiarity in that, something recognizable even amidst all the chaos of her recent past and the journey beyond the borders of her own realm.

She had accepted the challenge with a smile, glad to be given the opportunity to stretch her muscles and hone her skills, as she often found meditation easier in the midst of action. Moving meditation, she'd heard it called. The ability to use physical activity to further one's closeness and connection to the force. It was an elusive skill for most, but she had always found it far easier than sitting cross-legged and falling asleep.

Stepping up to the raised platform in the center of the courtyard, she placed her left hand atop the saber on her hip and closed her eyes as she waited for the man to arrive, drinking in the sounds and smells and feel of the beautiful spring around her. It was all so very peaceful.

He hadn't exactly come to his wondrous place of relaxation hoping for a match, or even looking for one. He had heard a master swordsmen had resided here for sometime; and well, he needed all the help he could muster if he hoped to find a way to kill Liaison.

Yet, when he stumbled across the woman his chi imbued eyes sensed a strange manifestation of the chi around her. It was one unlike any he had seen before. Still, what possessed him to challenge her was an unknown. The challenge passed through his lips, and she accepted. His eyes went to her weapon, it was odd. A simple hilt. Perhaps it wasn't a weapon at all.

He knew the universe, and yet still the Multiverse, was full of technological achievements. Liaison's lobby of the tournament had so much technology that it was baffling.

Alphonse approached the raised grounds, oft used for sparring and exhibitions and was delighted to see his opponent was already there. Punctual.

He placed his right hand on Geoffrey, and stroked the hilt.

"I make no plans to kill, mi'lady," he said across the twenty five foot distance, "but I will use exceptional force. No teacher I am, but your type of Chi invites caution." He gave a smile and let his left hand brush the edge of his hat. A brisk wind blew and his scarf danced.

"Ladies first."

He readied himself in a defensive stance, after pulling Geoffrey free; both hands on the hilt, sword pointed upward, legs loose. He knew she would have to cross a considerable distance, more than enough to allow him to react.

Assuming she didn't first use her Chi as a means of attack.

"Exceptional force?" She opened her eyes and smiled at the man, then began crossing the distance between them. It was a peculiar choice of words, and indicated something beyond the capabilities of normal men. "I would have it no other way." What she felt from him was even more potent, a presence so strong that she could not remember meeting more than two jedi masters that would count among his equals. She halted her progress a mere half meter shy of the center of the platform, left hand still on her hilt while her right simply hung by her side. Her left thumb twitched almost imperceptibly, toggling the weapon from its usual mode of operation to the setting reserved for training matches. It would still be wholly capable of defending against her opponent's blades, but would leave nothing more than light burns on his skin should she land a strike on him, though that is not to say it wouldn't hurt. The blade's paralytic properties would still be in full effect.

The rest of his words, or rather a single one in particular, stood out as odd to the woman. She had never before heard of the notion of "chi", and was immediately curious as to whether it was at all similar to the force. Judging by his association of the concept with her, she guessed that it was. "What is it about my... chi, that invites such feelings?" The word felt strange on her tongue as she spoke it. "It is not a term I am familiar with."

She simply stood and watched him as she waited for his reply, quietly contemplating just how difficult it would be to counter his solid physical blades with her weightless energy one. She had fought only a handful of vibroblade wielders before, but every time the extra heft of the weapon's physicality had required adaptation to overcome. While her blade had always been faster, theirs could strike with far more power. She was confident, however, that she would be more than up to the challenge when the time arrived.

The woman, a strange creature, had begun to step towards the center of the platform. At this juncture, he could tell that she had some type of chi manipulation. Throughout all his travels he has seen nothing of the sort. Matching her purpse, he too began to walk towards the center of the arena.

"You see, mi'lady, I am on a certain quest and for me to complete it I must hone myself," he started to explain. "To do that I have been Christened in Chi, as some in our world would call it. I can sense that you are not famaliar with the term." The distance had closed more now.

"Chi, here, is most often referred to the life force that inhabits all. I sense that your brand may be similar. Those Christened in Chi may manipulate it to aid in combat or a variety of things." He stopped talking, he was a full meter away from the center, leaving a meter and a half between the two. With his quick reflexes, he could parry or block any incoming physical attack from this distance.

Maybe.

He nodded towards the strange weapon at her side. "May I ask the nature of your weapon?" The object was as strange to him as the lobby of the dreaded tournament, and to that of that tiny musical device the Beast King, Kei'taro was ever seeking to return. It seemed technological, far more than anything he had ever owned. The way she fingered it gave him the notion that it was a weapon.

Perhaps it was.

A light blue sheen began to form along the edge of his weapon, as the Chi he controlled was being channeled into it.° With enough Chi, perhaps, he could push this woman to her limits.

"Again, I implore you - Ladies first. Or shall I do the honors?" After all, they had come for a fight

"Oh! My lightsaber." Her eyes almost lit up when he asked about her weapon, she hadn't realized how foreign something like that must seem to a man armed with something as ancient as an un-powered sword. Though if the subtle glow that was gathering along its length was any indication, it wasn't as un-powered as it had first appeared. That, or he was using his chi to affect it somehow. Regardless, she withdrew the lightsaber from its sheath with her left hand and held it out for him to see, then twisted it until it was horizontal and ignited the blade. "The blade is composed of plasma, which is contained by an electromagnetic field. A simple concept that really isn't when you get to thinking about it."

Her explanation finished, she took a single step forward with her left foot and brought her right hand to grip the base of her weapon's hilt, blade angled toward an invisible point just above her opponent's head. "It was you who issued the challenge. I feel it only fitting that you should strike the first blow." Clearing her mind of distraction, she focused her senses on the man before her as she awaited the attack that she had just invited.

"A light...saber?" He questioned, before the woman began explaining the concept and the basic workings of the weapon. Still, it had no point.

Or that's what he would have said, had not a burst of light ignited from the hilt with all the suddeness of a snake strike. Needless to say Alphonse took a hasty two steps back, and away from the weapon of light. He looked upon the woman, and began to understand more about her Chi abilities. What she called it, hd had no idea, but she seemed fairly capable in the applications of it. This would be a very interesting fight indeed.

She angled her weapon of light and technology, and stepped forward with her left foot. As well as offered him the chance to begin.

He nodded, and slid his own left foot forward and brought his sword to bear. He would need to be careful not to open himself up to much in the early goings; not until he had some understanding of her weapons capabilities. His sword glowed still, brighter, as more Chi was poured into the weapon.°

Alphonse timed his breaths, and struck quickly during the second exhale. It was complemented beforehand with a masterful display of footwork that took him two feet away from the center of the ring. He angled the slash from his right to left, diagonally upward. His right foot poised to provide a point to carry him rightward, in either an attacking motion, or an evasive one.