Jedi Insurgency 332

On his way to reinforce Neutra Four-a planet hosting an Imperial base merely a day away from Umbara-Corvus was busy training. 

The holocron he had first felt a connection to nine months ago during his arrival into the galaxy far, far away was still of great value. Entering the device with his mind, his psyche was transported to a desolate wasteland. There he faced one of the strongest people in the verse. Right hand to Exar Kun, Sith Sorcerer, and ultimately redeemed Jedi, there weren't many who understood the Dark & the Light as this badass. In the past, Corvus was one shot by this guy, barely able to hold on for a few moves. 

Looking at the cleft chinned, pale faced brunette, Corvus inclined his head, his heart yearning to learn. Whilst he may wear the mask of Revan, or the label of Order Master, he did not let these epitaphs to blind him to reality. He still needed to get stronger. 

Not only that, but from a place of pure curiosity, he wished to learn more, to push his body to the absolute limit, and surpass the boundaries that any System had placed upon his shoulders. If [Heal] could advance to a tier higher than was ‘possible’ due to his own understanding, then nothing was impossible. 

Resting upon a dusty hillside with grey clouds overhead, Ulic Kel-Droma's robes were dark as midnight, whilst his hand rested upon the hilt of his blade. Unlike every other time they had met, this memory of the dead did not attack upon their meeting. Preserved by the holocron at the height of his strength, this apparition possessed not only fighting skills, but wisdom. 

“You have improved, very good. However, I sense a great deal of resentment clouding the air about you. Do not lose yourself in the slaughter. Take it from me, this path leads only to madness.” Ulic shared in a sage tone. 

“I understand this concept perhaps better than you.” Corvus replied, having long read many different Jedi falling to darkness. 

“Perhaps you do. I pity you, Order Master. That millenia later, our mistakes still carry unto your generation.” Ulic clucked his tongue in disappointment. 

“What wisdom shall you dispense today?” Corvus asked, igniting his twin red & blue lightsabers. 

“You will have to pay attention.” Ulic faintly smiled, igniting his green blade. The former Sith then lunged forward with powerful Form V Djem-So attacks. 

Clad in the [Shadow Valor Wrath State], Corvus was like a blur as he met the man who could easily earn a spot amongst the top 20 strongest Force Adepts in history. 

Ulic's first cut came down in a hard diagonal line, trailing green after images. Corvus barely kept up with his speed, meeting it with the side parries of Makashi, giving ground by inches and turning the strike aside with a death defying parry. He redirected Ulic’s wrist and thrust toward the opening beneath his shoulder.

Ulic slipped past the blade. Their hilts struck together, and the impact drove Corvus’s forearm back to his chest.

“So eager to end the fight.” Ulic easily remarked, finding time to banter between attacks. 

Corvus, meanwhile, was giving it his all, and didn't have time to speak between Pause-buffering. He then pivoted, let Ulic’s next swing pass to the side, and answered with a short cut toward the ribs. Ulic caught it and turned the exchange into a series of quick, heavy strikes. Corvus stayed with Makashi, wanting to firm up his mastery of this artificially learned skill, keeping his movements narrow and his blade under control. Ulic made him work for every inch of ground, yet the more they fought, the more the wasteland around them became scorched due to the fierce psychic energies weighing the world down. 

A feint drew Corvus’s guard high. Ulic followed with a low cut that nearly opened his thigh. Corvus caught it just in time and shifted into Soresu. He was much less practiced with this Form, but had received pointers from Kenobi, and now was the time to practice. 

His guard tightened, and his pair of blades traced small, controlled arcs around his body, eliminating several insta-kill fate lines he read in his own shadow. Ulic attacked from every angle he could reach, but was countered 0.1 seconds before he could land a strike. 

Un-pausing in his unrelenting offense, Ulic pressed him toward a shallow ravine. Corvus slid backward step after step. Corvus’s shadow coiled along the ground like a snake, and lashed toward Ulic’s wrist. Ulic twisted away, then caught the ribbon of darkness in a telekinetic grip. The air stretched between them, taut and trembling, before Ulic ripped a piece of the shadowy cloak away from Corvus as one would tear a piece of clothing. 

Having never experienced or expected such a thing to be possible, Corvus was astounded by the sudden decrease in power, and excruciating pain that accompanied it. [Shadow Wrath] was, by itself, an incredibly unstable technique. To be so thoroughly countered like that, was like to go face first into a shotgun blast of bird pellets. It may not be lethal, but it hurt like hell! 

“You add shadow to every Force strike, this is a novel approach, but not unbeatable. I believe you have developed an over reliance upon this technique.” Ulic calmly intoned, gesturing at Corvus's inhuman form. 

Corvus nodded in agreement. What had been a time limited, ultimate technique to be pulled out of the pocket in a moment of crisis, had become his default setting. Now that it could last for over an hour, there was literally no point not to spam this broken ability. However, if he met someone who could tear into it, like Ulic, then this so-called ultimate ability could become a liability! 

Ulic had given him some time to think, then resumed the spar. The ancient Jedi lifted his hand, as a result, black sand and fractured stones rose around him, circling in a widening ring. His attention spread across the wasteland until Corvus felt the whole plain become part of the fight: every fissure, loose rock, and even the air he breathed submitted to Ulic's control.

The stones shot forward like hail. 

Corvus’s Soresu blade turned them aside, one after another. With each deflection, a shadowed pulse guided the fragments into a low orbit that crossed Ulic’s path. The first stones forced Ulic to flick his hand, deflecting the attack. The next concealed Corvus’s approach.

Corvus stepped through the screen of debris solely using his lightsaber skills, refusing to teleport behind his foe, honing his own abilities. Ulic caught the blade on his own, rolled their hilts apart, and sent a telekinetic burst into Corvus’s chest. A dark mantle flared around Corvus as the impact drove him backward. His boots dug trenches in the sand before he stopped.

Ulic paused in his actions, then looked out across the desolate plain. “For a long time, I told myself I could use the dark and walk away whenever I so wished.” 

The two men circled each other as Corvus awaited what was to come next. 

“Do you think the Force asks you to choose between the light and the dark?” Ulic suddenly asked.

“No. But they do not ask the same things of me.” Corvus replied after some thought. 

“That sounds right. People want an easy answer. They say the Light is good and the Dark is evil, then wonder what to do when anger or fear grip their hearts. The feeling itself does not decide what you do. The Darkside is like a whisper removing impulse control, like a flood bursting from a broken damn, wild, and seemingly uncontrollable. Whilst the Light…it keeps you connected to the lives your choices will touch. It does not make one's emotions disappear. It gives you a reason to choose carefully while you feel them.” Ulic declared. 

Corvus considered that as Ulic advanced. “An interesting take on ‘balance.” He murmured. 

Their blades met again. Ulic’s next strike pushed through Corvus’s guard and cut a bright line across his sleeve. Corvus answered with a shadow-wrapped thrust, then sent a dark-edged, telekinetic hook toward Ulic’s ankle. Ulic leapt over it and landed within Corvus’s guard. He struck Corvus’s hilt, forced his blade aside, and swept his elbow toward Corvus’s throat.

Corvus gave ground, maintaining a strict stance in Soresu and caught the follow-up cuts in a close spiral. The blows came faster & faster, as Ulic’s skill, awareness, and strength left Corvus little room to think.

Then Ulic’s free hand opened. The wasteland dimmed. A cold pressure closed around Corvus’s presence in the Force, drawing at it with a patient pull. Strength began to leave his limbs, and his connection to the Force waned. Despite his various resistances, it was difficult for him to be fully immune to this high level attack. 

Ulic kept his blade between them while he used a most sinister attack: [Force Drain]. 

“Force Drain does more than take energy. At its most base form, it is the very concept of consumption itself.” Ulic explained. 

Corvus’s knee touched the ground, and he shuddered as he felt his body become exhausted. “How do you resist that?”

“You remember what the Force is connecting you to.” Ulic’s voice remained level. “Not what you take from the Force. The Lightside is the ultimate counter to this ability. I had taught the Jedi this in the past to resist the superweapon, the Dark Reaper, and I believe you can learn this now.” 

Corvus closed his eyes, and entered a brief moment of enlightenment. He thought of the Jedi he had gathered from the ruin of their Order, the students who still looked to him for a future, and the promise he had made to restore the Light without turning its name into another instrument of control. He did not reach for them as a shield or pull upon their connection for power. He let their existence remind him that the Force was a living connection, not a reserve locked inside his body or simply an FP bar meant to cast abilities. 

The cold pull continued to drain his essence, yet it no longer appeared so malicious in his gaze. Corvus opened his eyes, he knew what to do. 

He did not answer with raw power, or ghostly might. Instead, he dropped the [Shadow Wrath State] and opened himself to the Force. 

Ulic increased the pressure, close to fully destroying Corvus's form within the holocron's instance & ending today's session. 

Corvus transmitted his honest desire to become one with the Force out into the ether. And the Force responded. 

The drain faltered, and instead of absorbing the energy from Corvus’s body, Ulic was drawing upon the Living Force, pulling upon so much energy all at once, that a less experienced practitioner might pop like a balloon then and there. 

Withdrawing his palm, Ulic began to steadily clap as Corvus slowly rose to his feet. The pale sky flickered, and the wasteland shivered as the holocron strained to hold its memory together.

“You stopped trying to overpower the drain.” Ulic said. “You remembered what it wanted you to forget.”

Corvus lowered his blade. “I still need to understand the shadow.”

“Then keep asking why you use it.” Ulic lowered his own weapon. “The shadow can help you see what you avoid. It can also hide what you do not want to face. You have to know which one you are asking it to do.”

Ulic’s form then began to fade into the colorless air.

Corvus watched him go, and bowed. The legend's approval radiated in the Force, and he resolved that he would not fail such expectations.