~| The Jedi Temple on Coruscant |~
~| Day 1, 11th hour |~
~| Day 1, 11th hour |~
Khan vs Anaka, Heart of the Temple Room
Anaka proudly smirked when her lightsaber found its target. The blade’s tip grazed and sliced into the robes, the smell of burning flesh whiffed into her nostrils as she followed through with the slice and then blocked Khan’s attacks. She secretly hoped it would’ve been deeper because the padawan’s reaction unsatisfactory and very predictable when he tried to rein in the pain. She inhaled sharply while she continued to gain the upper hand.
Her sixth sense kicked in when the first pebble came darting from the ground and at her. Her blade whipped up and sliced through the air, severing numerous pieces into dust or smaller pebbles. What little that wasn’t incinerated fell to the ground as Anaka’s eyes narrowed in anger at the padawan. Her blade reached in to slice at the padawan’s left shoulder to the right hip, using his split focus to try to get a harsher score at his expose figure.
Khan could see the anger growing in Anaka’s stance as she sliced the small rocks he’d launched at her to bits, noting with satisfaction that she seemed to have ignored or not noticed the others he’d shifted around on the ground beneath and around the two of them. With his body-reading abilities and the knowledge that she’d slowed his movements no longer tripping him up, splitting his concentration between controlling the pebbles and defending himself was less difficult for the Padawan than the Sith might think. He feigned desperation however, flailing backward in a seemingly panicked retreat as he continued flinging small debris at her face and arms while making the ground beneath her increasingly treacherous. Let her think the little cut across his chest had made him afraid and careless while stinging her pride more than her face.
Anaka held her hand to cover her face, the untouched pebbles bounced off and fell to the ground. A light layer covered the floor from dust and chunks not disintegrated were scattered at her feet. Her blade whipped about in a sort figure eight to cover one side then the other. Any pebbles or chunks that touched were immediately vaporized on contact. Her fury heated off her in waves as she tapped into the dark side, her eyes became a deeper yellow hue than normal. Upon seeing the twerp quickly retreat in panic, her lip curled into a snarl and her right foot stepped forward. A few chunks made a crashing sound while she approached toward Khan’s fleeing form.
Her head tilted upward for a moment then the wheels of her mind churned. She snapped her attention to the pillar that fell when Xid and Shiri shoved a droid through it, the thing crumbled and toppled into floor nearby. The Sith came to a stop after two steps and shielded her face from Khan’s fruitless attack, her eyes still fixed on his helpless form. She extended an arm to the largest pillar chunk’s direction and seized it with the force. It rose after a few moments as her voice spoke through the fight ringing out throughout.
“I’m going to crush you like the insect you are.”
Khan stopped flinging the rocks about as Anaka gave up her advance. He could read her easily enough and his attack was having exactly its’ intended effect of getting her to rely less and less on the cool-headed detachment that helped for Makashi and precision Force effects like Slow. On the down-side, it gave the Sith plenty of raw aggression and reason to just say, drop a big hunk of pillar on top of him. Fortunately it wasn’t exactly a subtle attack even without an Echani’s talent for body-reading and tactical prediction. While he didn’t have the raw power to shove the pillar away, Khan was just barely able to shift it as it hammered down and hop back from it to land in a crouch behind the chunk of stone.
If he’d read his opponent right, she had definitely gotten overconfident along with angry, and the shift had been slight enough that she could easily believe him smashed underneath the debris. It was a gamble to hope that her guard was down, but it was also the best opening he’d had so far. He cut a chunk of the pillar free with his saber and flung it in Anaka’s direction, then bolted out from behind the stone at full speed to re-engage her up close and personal.
When the pillar came crashing down with a loud, deafening rumble, Anaka smiled in satisfaction. Her arm recoiled to her side as she turned on her heel, her figure’s back turned to walk away from the corpse of the worthless padawan. In the back of her mind, she knew the Darth would’ve been angry at her if it was discovered she failed to capture a Jedi and instead crushed a potential subject, but Jedi deaths happened in confrontation. What the Darth didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt Anaka at all.
Her sixth sense snapped to Khan’s incoming attack. Her peripheral vision caught the white marble color as it rushed at her, her eyes widened and expression widened in surprise at the unexpected attack. ’He should’ve been dead!’ Anaka screamed mentally, her body twisted on the ball of her left foot and then kicked back to avoid it. Meanwhile, her left hand struck out to sever the already smaller chunk into a more manageable one on trained instinct. By the time the Sith realized what had happened, her right side opened briefly for a quick and precise attack.
Khan sensed and saw the opening as soon as he came around from the pillar, then lunged forward trying his best to seize on it. He ducked low as he came in and tried for a quick cut to Anaka’s knee, hoping to slow and debilitate her in battle. As soon as he made his cut he pulled back into a more guarded stance, ready to fight again and with none of the apparent fear or weakness he’d shown before.
The strike landed as flesh sizzled and burned, the blade tip caught on the knee side. However, it didn’t go deep enough to sever it completely thankfully. As the pain flooded her mind, her hand closest to Khan raised than jerked outward. Force lightning rippled from her clawed hand at the young padawan on impulse.
Khan’s ability to read his opponent and his now unhindered reflexes saved him once again, allowing him to duck and roll aside from the Force Lightning attack. He stayed in close as he tried to use the dodge to reposition himself to come at her from behind as he got back to his feet, attacking with a small cut to her left arm. He doubted he would really be able to outflank her, but the second point of the tactic was to force her to turn quickly on her injured knee and the unstable, rock-littered ground he’d created before as they fought.
Anaka tried to stay as stationary as possible. Her balance already wobbled upon the collection of rocks under her feet and unable to scatter them without splitting her focus, a dangerous thing at this point. She growled when the padawan rolled and ducked from her attack which ended abruptly. Another sting erupted across her arm when his blade darted across it, searing the flesh underneath, and caused her fight the impulse to cradle it. She twisted her blade about then stepped forward with a slice at just below his ribcage and if she struck true, it would carry from his left side to his right shoulder.
Khan stepped back into profile and twisted slightly to parry her low-line cut away from himself. He put more force behind the parry than he normally would, hoping that the damage to her sword-arm would make the shock of impact more painful. He stepped back from the Sith’s attack and quickly flicked his lightsaber up so that the point might cut a line across her body and face, though he was mostly trying to control her movements with it.
Anaka jerked back to avoid it, but felt the tip sear her skin. It clipped her face, leaving a charred and black line across her cheekbone and over her eye. She cursed as the pain hit her fully. Her figure wobbled a bit but managed to catch her balance over the pebble debris hindering her footing. At this point she wanted to choke the life out of the little twerp, the emotion battering and growing stronger in the back of her mind, while she inhaled to keep them at bay.
She was about to slice back at the padawan when something large and moving caught her attention. One of the larger chunks of roof was moving at her as Iblik, Shiri’s and Cerria’s master, tossed it at her. Impulse overrode her better logic in that moment.
Her figure twisted, exposing her side to Khan, and her lightsaber hissed on impact with the stone. It cut it easy into two causing them to crumble. Her arm swing back in hopes to protect herself from any attack the padawan might take in her mistake.
Khan was ready to take his chance and make her pay for her momentary lapse in concentration, flowing into a low crouched, fully committed thrust through her side in the hopes that her fractionally-better speed would be delayed enough that his last-ditch strike made it through. It wasn’t quite as suicidal as his initial training was screaming at him that it was, considering he could see her lack of focus on him and gauge the delay in her response due to her smaller injuries.
Anaka’s eyes widened in disbelief as she stood there, frozen in place. Her fingers loosen her grip before her lightsaber fell from her hand and her head tilted down to see the padawan’s lightsaber embedded deeply in her side. Shock entered her eyes when she realized she was already dead. The moment Khan’s blade retracted, her knees gave and crumbled underneath her causing her to fall into a heap at the Jedi’s feet. Any breathe she had left quickly departed in one last exhale while she died.
When Khan looked toward Iblik, the Zabrak held a tense posture and something red was sticking out of his chest. The end of a lightsaber. During his attempt to help Khan, the knight had left himself open to attack and the sith had taken advantage of it. When the lightsaber retracted, Iblik fell forward and landed hard on his knees as the sith smiled at his own win. Catching eyes with Khan, he promptly noticed he was outnumbered.
Quickly he retreated back down the way he came, hoping to escape being killed like the other foolish sith.