" 'One with the Dark side'," Aria echoed in a somewhat mocking tone, scoffing. "Bah, well I don't like this one bit. This whole set up makes my skin crawl and I grew up with the bloody Dark side." Her eyes moved from one staircase to the other. Yerbol had hit the nail on the head with his observations as far as she was concerned. 

Aria sucked in a sharp breath, spinning on her heels as the block slammed into place behind them. No going back that way, then. That meant they could only do one thing; systematically climb every other staircase until they found the one that got to the top. 

Yerbol used the Force to pull down a measly two step high staircase, aiming her own hand at another the Sith acolyte dragged it down alongside its sibling. The debris had barely touched the ground before the icy wind whipped through the chamber and the emaciated creatures dropped through one of the holes in the ceiling. 

Aria activated her lightsabers, pressing her back to Yerbol's she watched the creatures leap nimbly from stair to stair as they worked their way down towards the pair of initiates below. 
"Finally, something to kill." She growled, hopping from foot to foot as she waited tensely for the right moment to push forward.

In her mind, Aria worked out a plan of sorts. As the last of the five creatures dropped out of the ceiling, she nodded towards the opening they had entered through. 
"I say we make for that hole there, it's gotta go out and up a few levels at least if not all the way to the top...we cut down anything that tries to stop us." Aria breathed, glancing over her shoulder at Yerbol looking for some kind of confirmation. "Stay close, back to back, and then they can't creep up on either of us." 

The acolyte's red sabers hummed loudly as she twirled them in tight circles, dropping her weight into her legs and settling into a ready stance. Another bellow from the pack ripped through the air as the creatures lunged forward. 

The two in the front dropped onto the ground level and ran straight towards them, while a third got halfway down and had a different strategy in mind, launching itself from the two foot or so stairway to drop down on the duo from above. 

Aria's attention snapped from the two on the ground as the third creature's claws sent a shower of small rocks tumbling to the floor, giving away it's position. 
"DUCK!" She hollered out to her companion, dropping down into a crouch
 The creature sailed over their heads, twisting around in midair, it managed to catch the Sith acolyte across the neck with the tips of its claws while the head darted forward to snap it's teeth towards Yerbol. For something that was just flailing clumsily in the hopes of hitting something, the strikes were frighteningly precise. Fear dropped into her gut like a heavy stone. 
"[i]Karkin[/i] hell, these things are faster than they look!" Aria hissed, rolling sideways to create some distance she righted herself and threw one lightsaber towards the creature. The Force guided the weapon to slice cleanly through its middle before it could clamp down on the Jedi Knight's throat, before returning to Aria's hand. 

They had no time to celebrate yet. There were still two of the beasts approaching imminently and the other two would be close to the ground level in a few more seconds. 
"One down." She grimaced.