Training Let the Past Die: The Final Trial of Zareel Jhenan'doka

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The echoes of the roar continued to reverberate through the chamber as Zareel voiced her conviction. In that moment, the air seemed to freeze around them, as if time was holding its breath in anticipation of what was to come next. The hum of Lord Catalyst's saberstaff faded away as he extinguished the orange blades. In the brief speck of time before darkness overcame them, he shot a quick wink at his apprentice. And then he faded from sight, becoming one with the shadows.


Rumbling footsteps broke the heavy silence. A guttural growl rumbled behind the sound of plodding feet. The familiar stench of rot permeated the tomb long before its source became visible. The floor shook with each echoing stomp.


And then the wall burst. Chunks of volcanic stone, spiked with durasteel rebar flew towards where Zareel now stood alone, threatening to end her final trial prematurely.




As the dust settled, a monstrous amalgamation of flesh stood within the freshly made hole in the corridor. Corpses stacked in grotesque fashion, limbs twisted and braided together with yellowing bone jutting from various places. Atop the pile of bodies roared the head of Catalyst's former apprentice, no longer anything resembling a human. It bellowed a challenge into the darkness, glittering eyes searching for more mass to add to its undead body. For the time being, it seemed like it could not see Zareel yet, giving her the advantage. She would have to act quickly to capitalize on it though, as the beastial undead was sure to spot her soon.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

As a final confirmation, Zareel turned to look at her master; however, a wink from him was the last thing she caught a glimpse of before he disappeared, then she was left alone in almost absolute darkness. A wink... she opened her eyes wide trying to get used to the lack of luminosity; meanwhile, she thought of how she was inevitably developing a natural apprehension whenever she saw him make that gesture.

The answer to her concern came swiftly; as did an overwhelming stench that made her pass saliva a couple of times to get rid of the nauseous feeling. Her hands, moved up to the grips of each Tonfa, while her feet took a step back, starting to echo each approaching footstep.

The sound gave the impression of being something much bigger than what she had faced so far.

Suddenly, the violent explosion of the wall in front of her made her draw her weapons; igniting them instantly and with a responsive movement of her wrist, her tonfa spun around in an attempt to intercept to cut or deflect the debris coming at her.

Her eyesight was playing against her in this environment, but it was almost impossible to deny what she had come across; that was undoubtedly not like the other reanimated bodies she had encountered and faced before, that was... that was...

The apprentice tensed the grip on her tonfas, forcing herself not to overthink and as stealthily as she was capable, she brought both behind her back. First Zareel needed to hide the dim glow they provided to her as she continued backing away; but didn't want to be caught out of guard, so she barely kept sliding her feet along the ground, trying not to let her movements attract the creature's attention yet.

She needed, at the very least, to limit its movements. Perhaps by getting rid of its limbs as with the previous ones; but as far as she could see, it seemed to have plenty of them.

@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The monster's eyes scanned the dim chamber slowly, seeking out the trespassers to its treasure trove. Its gaze settled on the faint violet glow of Zareel's lightsabers and the silhouette they provided from behind her. A growl rumbled from the mass of flesh as it lumbered forward on its misshapen, muscular legs. It was not charging yet, but there was no denying that it had noticed her. Its path was not a direct one, though. It kept its leering stare upon her, but was walking towards one of the many alcoves. A tangle of limbs reached out and grasped for one of the proudly displayed treasures, in this case a gigantic axe. It hefted the massive weapon with one twisted arm, and a faint blue glow emanated from the center of its darkened metal head. Another arm reached in, taking hold of a large, spiked sword that seemed to be shedding a frosty mist as it moved through the air. A third, smaller limb unwound itself from the back of the undead's torso and picked for itself a significantly shorter blade that crackled to life with electricity upon being held. Brandishing its arsenal, the monster roared a challenge once again at Zareel before plodding forward. She had a precious few seconds to move before the beast would be within striking distance.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

Zareel allowed her gaze to roam over the creature in detail until her eyes met those of the abomination. The apprentice had been spotted, it was clear, but the creature had not impulsively rushed forward as others had before; it proceeded slowly. Without losing sight of its movements, she continued moving backwards, aiming for the door through which she had come. It was equipping itself, the kriffing thing was more capable of thinking than she had considered up to that point; and like the bodies that shaped it, it was looking for its biggest toys to attack.
She did not have much time on her side when the beast gripped the last weapon in its extra hand; the apprentice hastened her steps to the edge of the entrance meanwhile thinking of a possible response. From there she gave one last quick glance at the debris that had been flung across the chamber when the hideous creature had burst in.
Then, she heard it roar again.
Her hands, previously behind her back, now shifted to a defensive stance in front. Now, the violet blade of her tonfas parallel to her arms and her legs slightly bent; maintaining a low stance and her muscles tensing to react at the slightest sign of attack.

@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The glittering eyes of the monstrosity reflected the violet glow of Zareel's lightsaber blades, and focused them like two laser sights trained on her comparatively frail form. It stomped forward, shaking the chamber as it stepped. The great sword came singing through the air. Zareel would be able to feel the heat being sucked away from her as it came close. It was being swung in a horizontal arc towards her midsection. At the same time, the axe was barreling down on her location from above, its cerulean glow illuminating more grotesque details in the undead's flesh. The creature's immense strength would make blocking both at the same time impossible; Zareel was faced with the difficult decision of how to avoid both of the likely lethal strikes.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The ground under her feet shook in a disturbing way, but this time it was not because the place was collapsing, but because the beast's colossal proportions were shaking everything with its movements. As she inhaled, she could feel how her lungs filled with cold air and how her skin bristled at the abrupt drop in temperature; an eternal second led her to notice how the greatsword caused it and advanced in her direction. Without giving her time to think too much, already the axe was falling on her as well, it was doing or die.

In one impulse, shrinking in on herself, her body leapt backwards through the opening with all her strength; no door could hold her opponent back, but at the very least it gave her enough space to attempt to avoid those powerful attacks, and she was counting on the fact that its size could work against it as the opponent tried to advance after her.

Zareel would have to push herself to keep going if she wanted to be able to fight this beast, but her own body would not be capable to cope if the combat went on for too long; for that perhaps she could acquire something to feed on, something this thing had to feel... something could provide. As she tried to pull herself up from the other side, allowing her connection to the force probe around the amalgam, looking for what was preserving it there, some corrupted craving, some of its previous instigative desires, something that might help her.

(Abilities used: Feed on the dark side - 1 )

@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

Waves of greed and rage sloughed off the monstrosity, siphoning away towards Zareel and reinvigorating her with dark energy. The undead seemed to realize what was happening as well, and did the unthinkable: it backed away, scuttling back to its room full of treasures. From another tributary plinth, the monster plucked a strange looking blaster, pulling it towards its fleshy mass with the mangled remains of what looked like it used to be a wing. The blaster was quickly integrated into what passed for the shoulder of the beast, and it fired a quick shot towards the opening that Zareel had retreated through.

Continuing to pepper the entry way with suppressive fire, the undead backed away further, covering itself as it retreated through the entrance it had created on the other end of the chamber. It disappeared through the darkened hole, and the blaster fire ceased. An almost abrupt silence fell over the chamber, belying the chaos that had just taken place. And then, bouncing from the darkened end of the chamber, a small, silver sphere, ominously beeping and flashing with bright red light, sailed towards the entryway that Zareel was hiding in. A thermal detonator, primed and set to blow, with only a few precious seconds left on its fuse.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The apprentice opened her eyes wide as the dark energy flowed through her body; the heaviness the balosar had started to feel on her eyes disappeared quickly, and the numbness which had begun to creep up on her after so much motion was fading. More she wanted, though she always craved more of whatever it was that gave her a good feeling; stupid old habits that were hard to get out of.

Clearing her head from the dull sensation that this refill had been for her as she noticed how the mass of bodies was moving away; it was avoiding her attack. "So you do really think..." Zareel muttered to herself, as she witnessed how once again it reach for its trophy wall to find something to attack her with.

There was no attempt to suppress the disgusted grimace that formed on her face as she saw it assimilate the blaster with one of its appendages. Nor did the instinctive reflex to move backwards; she was trying to gain space, keeping in mind covering herself with both blades as she moved away from the target of the blaster. By the time it finally stopped, she had raised her antennae; the heavy stomps were walking away; was it playing the same game and looking for space to attack?

Zareel could practically hear her own heartbeat. The entire place hadn't really been quiet at any time and only now Zareel could notice it. However, she couldn't get too distracted by its apparent quietness; a soft beeping noise caught her attention and the small light it emitted helped her to detect its location. The apprentice did not have the chance to hesitate, nor to flee. Her right hand was simply raised reaching towards the light, concentrating and focusing the energy she had recently absorbed trying to utilise it; attempting to propel the object back to its owner. Meanwhile, she stepped back and shielded herself with her other arm from the blast that might reach her.

(Abilities used: Telekinesis - 1)

@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The grenade zipped back towards its point of origin, the relatively lightweight sphere easily being propelled by the apprentice's telekinetic power. Half a second later, a massive explosion shook the chamber. A wall of concussive force and heat blasted towards the opening that Zareel had sequestered herself into, hard enough to send her tumbling backwards if she did not brace herself and enlarging the hole in the durasteel hull of the ship she had retreated into. The blast seemed to affect more than just her direction, though. A howling roar echoed from the darkness at the other end of the chamber, one that reflected no small amount of pain and potentially fear. The decorative plinths and memorials were likewise scattered by the blast, and a flurry of stone interspersed with weaponry and armor was scattered about the chamber. Astonishingly, much of the equipment seemed mostly undamaged by the explosion, being held together by a mix of magical reinforcement and sheer strength of material. The echoes of the detonator died away, and once again the chamber was rendered eerily quiet. Above the ringing of her eardrums, Zareel would likely be able to hear the faint labored breathing of the undead that was hiding beyond the darkness, belying the injuries it had sustained. It did not emerge from its hole, and seemed to be on the defensive now. But, like any cornered animal, it still had the potential to be deadly, especially with the arsenal of weaponry it had equipped itself with prior.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

While she had managed to send the grenade away, the apprentice had only succeeded in avoiding the main impact. Staring straight ahead with her eyes narrowed beyond her left arm, she tried, to deal with the shockwave that had spread towards her position anyway. Leaning slightly forward her body, separating her feet so as not to lose her balance. With her right hand still outstretched, she felt the wave of heat reaching her in seconds from the explosion; she had never used this consciously before, but as best she could, she tried to let the energy of the grenade's impact flow through her body as her own.

Once it was over, she took a moment to recompose herself; from within, the place from where the beast had emerged, a wailing could now be heard. Taking a deep breath whilst tightening the grip on the cross-hilt of the tonfa, she crossed it in a defensive posture; leaving her other hand free after securing the other weapon to her belt.

Cautiously, she advanced back across the wrecked room, stepping carefully over the debris and strewn objects.
Before she had to defend herself again, this time she would be the one to attack. Its whines easily may or may not be a trick, but she would not be held back by that; at this point, it was preferable to secure more chances of damage in her favour.
Tuning her hearing, somewhat dazed by the explosion, she tried to calculate the distance from where the moans were coming from.

Drawing ephemeral shapes in the air with her hand, she repeated the action she had used earlier to collapse the hallway; when she felt prepared she muttered "Sutta Chwituskak" again, pointing towards the hole from which the creature had come.


(Abilities used: Tutaminis - 1
Sutta Chwituskak - 1 )


@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The wall of energy from the grenade blast met the outstretched hand of the Balosar apprentice and distorted, infusing itself with her own Force power before being absorbed. Zareel would feel a slight invigoration from the effect, as her reserves of Force power were bolstered by the effects of the Tutaminis. This helped the spell she was casting to find its mark. The Bolt of Hatred shot forth from her fingertip and sliced through the darkness. A roar of pain told her that her spell struck true, and the rumbling of the chamber denoted that once again the monster was on the move.

A hail of debris blasted from the hole in the wall, flung in an arc that was sure to catch Zareel within its pummeling radius. From behind the cascade of stone, the undead came charging forth. There was a large gash in its underside that dripped with offal, and shards of stone and metal were embedded in its flesh. The monster hefted its mighty axe high and swung it in a downward arc, aiming its blow for Zareel's head.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage


The eyes of the Balosar followed the Bolt of Hatred until it was out of sight, then her hearing kept paying attention to any sign of the damage she could have done to her opponent. The heavy roar was the sign Zareel was waiting; without delay, she focused on what the beast was suffering, taking once more all that she could for herself.

Then those were probably its monstrous stomps, shaking the room; she wasn't going to be the one following it to the unknown, but the apprentice was aware that waiting for him also implied a reasonable number of risks. Her left arm moved across her face again and her wrist allowed her tonfa to outline a semicircle; attempting to shelter herself from the debris flying against her.

With no much time left to shield her body from the soon to arrive strike, Zareel took a desperate option; she wasted no time and followed her instincts, throwing herself violently to her left to dodge the attack. Extending her right arm while falling to shoot one more bolt at the hideous creature from the floor; aiming to its arm, trying to force it to drop the axe.


(Abilities used:
Feed on the dark Side - 1
Sutta Chwituskak - 1 )

@Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

Rage. Hunger. Greed. Fear. The bolstering energies of the Dark Side flared in the monstrosity that was facing down Zareel, and the same power flowed into her, revitalizing her inner reserves. Detritus pelted her body, but the apprentice had taken the time to protect her face from the barrage, and the stone did no damage to her vitals, instead leaving a smattering of cuts and bruises on her lower half. The gigantic axe came crashing down in the spot that she was occupying before her quick dash to the side, and the head buried itself into the stone floor. The malevolent energy leapt from Zareel's fingertips and struck true into the undead's forearm. It's tentacular hand unwrapped itself from the handle of the axe. The monster roared in pain once again.

While it's hand had dropped the axe, the creature was still far from unarmed. It contorted its grotesque torso, swinging the massive sword at the apprentice in a cleaving horizontal arc. A faint trail of frost followed the blade as it made its way towards Zareel's torso. In addition, a faint static crackle began to build in the air. Zareel would be able to feel her hairs beginning to stand on end, and the monster glowed with electric energy. It was charging something, and whatever it was certainly wouldn't be helpful.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

Zareel's heart was hammering wildly on her chest; the attack had struck the exact spot where she had been before; making her shiver, even though she had successfully managed to avoid it. However, there was no time left to celebrate victory, nor to rejoice at a small success; the beast kept on moving, taking advantage of its remaining weapons to continue its relentless attack.

Quickly inspecting the room with her eyes, she could see nothing to protect herself with for the moment; with the new attack approaching, she could not afford any mistakes. Instead of continuing to stand up from where she had fallen before, she shrunk in on herself; part of it was a response to the shivering feeling that started to approach her at the very instant the sword was swung. Then sticking as close as possible to the ground to roll back, the balosar tried to avoid the edge of the sword; getting as close as possible to the creature's legs.

As she moved, Zareel attempted to maintain the flow of energy she had started earlier when feeding on the creature's emotions, constant; keeping her energy reserves as plentiful as possible remain a priority if she wanted to hold out long enough.

Her hands had remained tight against her body as she rolled, the static had added a tingling sensation at the base of her neck; where it was more notorious the bristling of her hair. While finding herself close to the amalgam's form, she grabbed both tonfa's cross-handles; she unsheathed them and directed them towards the injured spot on its lower body, aiming to hit while advancing and igniting them.

(Abilities used:
Feed on the dark Side - 1 continue)

TAG: @Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

A gasp shuddered from the head of the monster as the plasma blades penetrated its underside. Flesh sizzled and spat as it was burned through, and an amalgam of organs spilled from the open wound down Zareel's arms. The energy in the air continued to build and started to crackle. With its last vestiges of its waning unlife, two words rumbled from the monster's throat. "Hassat... Dur..."

Like a thunderclap, the building electromagnetic energy discharged itself in a static burst around the room. Zareel's lightsabers sparked and sizzled before shorting out entirely, and any other electronics nearby would be similarly useless for the near future. The undead was still alive, if barely, and its malevolent intelligence deduced that now was the opportunity for an attack. The greatsword swung in a wide arc yet again, sweeping at knee height. With its much smaller blade, it tracked Zareel's movement, trying to anticipate where she was going to dodge, and striking down with a diagonal slash.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

She had managed to aggravate the horrid creature's wounds, but her antennapalps were up suddenly when she noticed that it could speak; moreover, when she realized what had been uttered. Anyways, she had no time to prevent it, almost instantly both tonfas were turned off along with any device in the room. That static field would be a nuisance, so she needed to get rid of that, maybe it wouldn't be so absurd to think of draining a thing like him; if it could utilize that ability, there was something to take away.

Her first reflex was to retreat, to get space to figure out another approach while taking its force stock; but just before she took a step back the giant sword came again looking for her.

That thing was trying to block her way, but it wouldn't run her out of options fast, the beast was heavy and she was small; eventually, that would have to play in her favour. The apprentice threw herself rolling, the same way she had dodged before, but this time pushing through the entrails that had spilt from the wound; aiming to get to its back.

Moving and staying focused on what she wanted to do was challenging, but there was no better teacher than extremely pressured situations; she had no choice but to be a fast learner. One of her hands had simply dropped one of her weapons as she spun forward to aim more freely at the creature's lower body once again. "Sutta Chwituskak."

(Abilities used: Force Drain - 1
Sutta Chwituskak - 1 )

TAG: @Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

A stream of glowing Force energy wrenched itself from Zareel, tethering her to the beast and siphoning a revitalizing dose of its power to fuel her inner reserves. Though it was no longer living, at least in the conventional sense, there was a massive reservoir of Force power that lay mostly untapped within the stitched together spirits that made up this horror. The massive blade sang through the air as it missed its mark, and Zareel managed to burst through the curtain of entrails that hung from the monster's underside.

But this time it was watching her.

As she raised her hand to cast her spell, the much smaller sword wielded by the creature's malformed arm that had sprouted itself was already in motion. By the time she had finished the incantation, the blade found flesh. The bolt of hatred had barely left her fingertips before her hand was severed at the wrist. All at once, a jolt of electricity coursed through the Balosar's nervous system, igniting her body's pain receptors and causing her muscles to reflexively tense. The spell struck true though, plunging itself into the already open wound. The undead roared in pain as what was left of its internal organs was shredded by the malevolent powers of the Dark Side magic. Then it became quiet. Its ragged breaths grew shallow, and its eyes became unfocused. Slowly, the monster fell to its knees, then forward, collapsing in a rotting pile on the ground as the bodies that held it together fell to pieces. The menace was no more.

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The apprentice was so focused on how and where was she moving, that she missed the trail of the third arm; the bolt left her hand and then the same hand left Zareel's wrist. The descent of the sword over her was so abrupt a desperate scream was formed and died in the depths of her throat. The sudden electric shock ran through her body without any warning; her eyes opened wide, every sensitive nerve ending in her body was shaking and now, nothing stopped her from screaming, small tears welled up as a reflex and she began to blink to clear her vision; her legs and arm stiffened like a spring, her heart began desperately to race in her chest and her breathing became laboured.

The Balosar felt as if her whole body was shaking, her own head twitched nervously in short bumps; her remaining hand, somewhere between the amputation and the electric shock, had dropped her weapon. While propelling herself with her weakened legs, she desperately tried to press hard around her wounded wrist to reduce the bleeding.

A loud thump made her look back at the amorphous beast, she wanted to get up to stand on guard but there was no point in doing so; more than fallen it was decomposing. It had collapsed, her blow had struck the creature at the right moment, or very close to the right moment. Zareel returned her gaze to her bleeding wrist, which she still horrified couldn't stop pressing; she had to attend to the wound before she could move, but she didn't want to let her guard down completely either. Forcing her legs to move, she began to crawl until she had her back against a wall, if anything was approaching she would be able to notice it with some time left.

Trying to control her breathing, which was almost composed of nervous gasps at this point, she manipulated the small first aid kit in her belt; there she had enough to improvise a bandage. After the fourth layer of bandages had been applied, the blood seemed to have stopped and a tourniquet just below the elbow helped to control the bleeding.

As she tried to remain calm, it became a little more noticeable how dizzy she felt now, had it been the electric shock or the bleeding? It was better to take her mind elsewhere, and it was not a suitable place to rest; her gaze turned towards the spot where the amalgam had come from, for the moment nothing else could be heard from there approaching, but nothing was a certainty.

She inhaled deeply, controlling her breathing as a way to regain control over herself, as she let the air out she pushed herself against the wall to stand up. Taking a couple of shaky steps at first, she approached what was left of the beast she had faced, looking at it still with slight mistrust; with one foot she poked at where she suspected the weapon that had snatched her hand had fallen. Perhaps picking that up was a better idea than picking up her hand.


TAG: @Catalyst

 

[Catalyst]

IC Lord Catalyst
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

A slow, monotonous clap echoed through the silent chamber. A sinister chuckle followed, seeming to come from everywhere all at once. "You have done well, my apprentice." Lord Catalyst stepped forth from an empty shadow, striding towards Zareel and her kill. He wrinkled his nose at the pile of bodies laying next to his apprentice and nudged a corpse with his booted foot. "You have proven yourself adequately skilled in the field of combat, and your resourcefulness and quick thinking was most impressive. But your final trial is not over yet. I have but one last test for you, in order to prove your capabilities as a Knight of the Sith Order." In a flash, his saberstaff was in hand, and the deep orange blades crackled to life, notably not affected by the lingering static charge of the cavern.

"The Empire has no place for weakness or stupidity," Catalyst continued, stalking around the Balosar like a nexu preparing to pounce. "I offer you a choice: you may try your hardest to strike me down, and invariably lose your life in an act of stupidity, or you may submit here and now, displaying your weakness." He leveled one of the blades to point at her, inviting the challenge of combat. "Choose wisely."

TAG: @Zareel Jhenan´doka

 

[Zareel Jhenan´doka]

IC Apprentice Zareel
Location: Mechis III, Wreckage

The soft clapping echo caught her attention, though it did not alert her senses. There was something particular about the way her master moved, or perhaps just his force signature, but it was familiar enough to know that it was not one of those strange beasts. No, he was not a strange abomination, but a familiar one... Zareel held back a nervous giggle, it was shocking the thought that her master's immortality came from the same source that had created the beast that now lay at their feet.

The apprentice lowered her eyes to Lord Catalyst's presence, still listening to his words and following his movements with her hearing; she made no interruption to his congratulations, there was something else of course, neither was she in the best of spirits to speak or thank him. Though she had treated her wound, the throbbing sensation would not stop, or the pain. She had been nodding almost automatically before she paid more conscious attention and slowly stopped the movement. "Not... yet?" Rather than uttering those words she merely moved her lips; only then did she notice that they were dry and somewhat cracked.

The orange light illuminated her face, allowing her to see her surroundings clearly again. She looked, pausing every now and then, back at her master as he moved around her. "Are you really doing it? Are you really giving me a choice?" She gently squeezed the handle of the sword she had picked up, weighing it, trying to judge how manoeuvrable it was; with the blade in front of her, she tilted her head to the side and giving the weapon a firm grip raising it and pointing it at the lord. She silently stood staring at him as her lips began to slowly curve into a smile.

"I came to this kriffing planet, I wandered around killing those creeps, I went down to the most embarrassing place I can really imagine this house ever had." she said, chuckling more and more on the verge of laughter; she kept pointing at him while moving forward until the orange edge was almost too close. "I even took care, somehow, of that thing." Indicating with a shake of her head at the decomposing mass on the ground.

"What am I still missing?..." The balosar asked more to herself than to him. In an almost automatic gesture, she tried wiping the thin layer of sweat from her forehead before remembering she couldn't do it. "Oh right, I'm left-handed now" A sudden burst of laughter escaped Zareel's mouth, almost as if the funniest thing in the world had just been said; with her bandaged stump she covered her mouth, coughing to regain her composure.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry; my master."Inclining her head once more in a curtsy before continuing. "Please, by no means think I am boasting of my accomplishments, just..." If there was one thing she would truly feel, it was the surprise of having come so far, of having pushed herself so hard without running away before finishing. "I'm surprised." She filled her lungs with air, with the stench of the place and exhaled quickly; just to release the sword from her hand to the ground and drop to one knee.

"Our empire truly does not tolerate weakness and it's indeed something I am determined to work with for the rest of my life. On the other hand... " The apprentice giggled before continuing. "I would be utterly and irredeemably stupid to even consider confronting you now." Her face had regained its calm smile as she spoke, although she still paused wincing a little when the pain became more intense. "Since what happened at Odacer-Faustin it has become clear to me that winning or losing doesn't actually go hand in hand with my own success." Zareel gently shook her bandaged wrist in front of the Lord as she said the last.


TAG: @Catalyst