Between the Light and the Dark: Shadows (Open)

[Zasabi Ray]

The pressure was intense. Strike after strike, the Sith was pushing Zasabi back toward the demolished shuttle. Blade sparked against blade, their breath heavy with anticipation. One way or another, this fight was about to end in the next few moments.

Spinning with her blade, the Sith hunter swept both ends of her blade at the Shadow's waist, forcing him to drop to a squat to avoid being struck. This was what she had planned, however, and instead of the tight footwork that would keep her pivoting into the next strike she instead had her rear leg already lifted and ready to lash out into a forward kick that caught Zasabi under the chin and sent him back against the shuttle wreckage.

Blinking away the stars in his eyes, he just barely caught what would be the last thing he would see. Fiercely grinning with pointed teeth, the Devaronian Sith had taken to the sky with her staff drawn back into what would be an inevitable plunge to the Theelin's belly. He didn't have space to roll away, and laying on his back as he was he couldn't scramble to his feet fast enough. This was her checkmate.

Zasabi was a stubborn old goat. He had survived these past few hard years of constant flight punctuated with moments of panic and bloody combat. To die here to simple attrition, worn down by constant harassment and pursuit...

It would not do. He could not accept it.

Lashing out with newly awakened resolve, he pointed his off hand directly above him and pushed for all he was worth. The Force answered his call, supplementing his crude matter with power enough to slide his slender form a full meter down the rusted durasteel plating. When the Sith's blade came down, it only caught the end of his coat, burning through it and into the bulkhead.

While a lightsaber was different than a sword in many ways, there was one thing that was similar about them- they could still get stuck. In a material durable enough to resist burning for a time but thin enough to pierce, an unwary lightsaber strike could penetrate the barrier but not be able to burn through it in any other direction quickly. It was simple enough to fix- a lightsaber could simply be withdrawn the way it came in much easier than a blade, or turned off and moved. The Sith's lightstaff was large enough to make it slightly slower to withdraw vertically, however, and she had been so assured of her victory that it took her a second longer to realize what had happened and react appropriately.

A second of inattention was all Zasabi needed.

Twisting to one knee, the Shadow dug into the ground with the balls of his feet. Calling on the Force once more, he sprung toward the Sith's backside, blade already beginning to arc toward the small of her back as she began to pull her lightstaff out. Flesh and metal hissed and squealed as the white-hot heat of his saber carved through the Sith and her lightstaff hilt, the blade detonating violently as the severed circuits fed back into it's crystal matrix and blew the bisected Devorian apart.

Stunned, Zasabi fell back on to his hindquarters and breathed. He was fairly certain the Sith's death had left him coated in substances he'd rather not think about, but given how close the duel had ended up being he decided to instead count his blessings and catch his breath.

Meanwhile

On the other end of the shuttle, Harbringer would find his own fight reaching it's inevitable conclusion as well. The Faust was far from untrained, true, but they had spent much of their practical experience fighting alongside skilled close combat warriors. As such they had adapted by developing their senses and offering a more supportive role. This meant that a direct duel, however, was a deadly weakness.

Simply put, the Faust couldn't keep up with their droid opponent. They didn't have the stamina or skill to defeat Harbringer in a clash of blades, and they couldn't focus enough to lash out telekinetically and gain the advantage. It was all they could do to push back the droid's blade.

Panic stripped the Sith hunter of their environmental awareness. Harnessing their fear, they flung themselves back to gain space to plan a counterattack. Due to Harbringer's maneuvering, however, the only thing behind the Faust was the ruined shuttle. Almost as soon as their feet left the ground they plastered themselves against the bulkhead. For a moment, they were entirely defenseless.

[Harbinger]

"You fight well"

The slash of the borrowed sabre in his hands came dangerously close to the Faust's chest, before being struck to the side in a shower of sparks that served only to add the mixed glow of clashing blades in the billowing dust and debris being kicked up by the noxious winds of Raxus.

"You studied hard"

Harbingers hand that was free of the sabre he was using to push back his opponent struck out with its talons to shatter a rock that was destined to impact his torso, creating yet more blinding dust and stinging shards of stone as he pressed the attack only for the Faust to leap back with the aid of the force fueled by fear.

"You served your Masters to the very end"

An explosion bloomed in Harbingers thermal sensors before the light of the flash and the debris were tossed up from behind the other side of the fallen shuttle's wing that divided the battlefield. There was no way to read into the emotional state of the Shard, but the relaxed posture of his shoulders would almost suggest that the Shard was smirking at the Faust as he closed the gap with slow, deliberate footsteps.

"All for nothing, i'm afraid"

The battle hardened chasis before the Faust became relentless, deftly fending off sabre blows to the left and right before slashing down through the wrist holding the blade in grasp. Reaching for the Faust's throat, Harbinger squeezed and lifted him from his feet, grinding his back against the durasteel wreckage behind him as he choked the life from his defeated quarry. The last thing the poor fellow would ever hear was the whine of hydraulics before his neck snapped, and his windpipe collapsed. Tossing the body to the ground, and rifling through his pockets for valuable's that may serve to give his companion some clue as to what the Sith had in store for him, Harbinger quickly scooped up the discarded lightsabre and its attached limb. Mounting the shuttles wing, he climbed it with ease as his magnetic plates in hands and feet let him climb the near vertical surface and drop down the other side with a screeching of steels against one another.

"Well now... I'm starting to think you're blessed by the force my friend, lets get the hell out of here before more show up?" he asked as he dropped the Faust's hand as proof of his kill and let the souvenir sabre hang from his waist as he offered a hand to his blood and viscera soaked companion. His normally glowing red eyes turned a bright blue for a second, almost twinkling as the data stream ran across them before the light freighter that had been hidden amongst the scrap began to alight and take off, coming to land a few dozen yards from them.