Chapter 9: 9. Chapter

We were marching through the corridors in a heavy silence. He was dragging me along by my arm, not giving me even the illusion of the possibility of escaping again. Thankfully he was not that angry anymore, I don't know why was he so irritated last time, but her injured padawan was not the sole reason for that pent-up anger that he was about to unleash on me if I didn't get away in time. Well, I don't really care about his personal problems at least until the moment he starts to lash out at me again. I don't really know why he even came after me now? It must be some kind of revenge to show his superiority as a master and to teach me a lesson. Where are we going I wonder, is he bringing me to the infirmary to meet with Tano? 

It was a ten-minute long silent march when we finally arrived at our goal. Wait, he can't be that petty right? Is he really... I looked at him for confirmation, he didn't react. Is this some kind of joke? Does he seriously want to duel me? He let go of my arm finally, only to show me his lightsaber he turned it down to the minimal energy level. At least he didn't want to kill me anymore that's some progress we made I guess. I showed him that my blade was on the lowest energy level too. He nodded. 

I looked around the training field, there were a few other masters and padawans around us occupied by their own training session. Hmmm, at least there are other people around, in case of things got out of hand. 

I took up the same form as before, Niman. While he had chosen a more aggressive combat form, form five, Djem So, or in the urban dictionary; the way of the Krayt Dragon, next time I will choose that dish for myself. Heh, but I couldn't imagine any other combat form that would suit him more. Aggressive, unexpected attacks built on a solid defense. Well, I guess I will be able to warm up properly after all. 

I gave a slight bow to him as my master and I always did towards each other. It was a show of respect that our order used from the very beginning. It was derived from a sith greeting, the Dark Lords on Korriban used it, as acknowledging another Dark Lord with the same power or higher, but never in the case of someone that was lower on the power rakings. It was changed a bit too, in our order it was a sign to your opponent that you will give your all. He didn't bow towards me, not that I expected since he didn't know what my greeting meant. Yet he at least nodded indicating that he is ready.

The duel started, yet we were still standing in our original place, carefully watching each other. A heavy pressure started to fall upon the room, making some of the other masters and padawans stop their own activities. Some of them began to watch our duel with obvious interest. 

I already activated my force shield that would weaken the effectiveness of any type of force attack, I also used my standard speed and power enhancements, they were instinctive for me. 

About thirty seconds passed from the start of our duel when I saw a change in his expression, he realized that I will not attack, instead, he decided to do it himself. He rushed at me with a powerful uppercut aimed at my neck. This is a too straightforward attack for a Djem So user. I decided to roll to the side instead of countering it with my blade. It was the right decision, at the last minute his attack turned into a half pirouette that would have kicked me in the stomach if I countered his blade with mine. Now it was my turn to surprise him, at the very moment my roll ended I trow my lightsaber at him in a spiraling way controlling it finely through the force. He blocked my blade with his saber at the last second, yet my blade instead of stopping suddenly started to turn counterclockwise aiming a cut towards his other shoulder. Sadly it missed too, he ducked under the silver blade and I decided to pull it back to my hand. The moment I grabbed the hilt of my blade a powerful force push also hit me it was sent by my opponent to unbalance me, or even topple me over. The force shield around me did his job quite well, his interruption attempt failed as I took up my fighting form again. Now he didn't hesitate anymore, he charged at me immediately. This time he used a different approach, to stop me from rolling out of the way of his attack, he launched at me a powerful force pull just before I wanted to make another roll. I realized that his raw force attack had already begun to weaken my shield. This guy is a damn monster... Without any other choice, I blocked his saber with one hand thoroughly reinforced with the force, yet his two-handed attack against my much weaker arm felt like I was trying to stop a battering ram. He also tried to kick me simultaneously, but I was ready for it. With my free hand, I struck him with a powerful force push from close range. His kick never reached me as he stumbled because he was standing on one leg at the moment, but instead of falling flat on his ass, he turned his fall into a natural-looking backward roll. 

As the pressure disappeared from my right arm that held the saber I realized that it become strained from blocking that one attack. I immediately began to channel healing energies into my arm, but it will take at least a minute to be healed back to somewhat normal. Therefore, I switched arms, some of my masters were left-handed, some were right-handed and some had more than two arms. It didn't matter that much for me, which arm I used.  The moment he finished his roll, he also noticed that I switched hands. He looked at me somewhat annoyed. Then he charged again, not giving me much time to rest. He came at me the same way as before, force pull, to block my roll, the only problem was, that I didn't try to roll away this time. Instead, I charged at him at the very second he used his force pull, which accelerated me even further and I was in front of him in a fraction of a second. I aimed my attack to his knees, as it was the most unprotected, but he was able to jump up and at the same time he tried to cut my left shoulder, but the moment I saw that my attack failed I turned it into a forward roll effectively rolling out of the way of his improvised attack. Damn, what a mess. I hoped to catch him off guard with that attack, but this tactic would not work another time. I reinforced my force shield then watched my opponent landing on the ground a few meters away from me. 

He did not attack me immediately this time.

He was lazily circling around me. Act all you want, I will not let my guard down.

- Hmmm, I can see why Soka had a hard time dueling you. 

- In the first place I never wanted to duel her. 

- Yeah, I know, she already told me. 

- Then, what is your exact reason to provoke this fight?

- Why do I need a reason to duel with anyone?

- Last time I checked it was the prelude of all duels to agree upon a time and way of the duel. If one participant doesn't give his blessing the duel could not happen.

- I didn't hear you oppose when we arrived here. 

- That was...

He attacked me at that moment, such a disrespectful lad at least I know from whom Ahsoka learned it. This time I didn't need to roll out of his way, I could simply step back since he was somewhat overextending. Not that I could counterattack, since my arms are far shorter than his, and he knew it. The moment I lifted one of my legs from the ground a sudden smirk appeared on his face. The next second I felt a powerful and this time very concentrated force pull sweep out both of my legs from under me, also pulverizing my force shield on the way. The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back more specifically on my right lekku, while the ceiling of the room and a buzzing blue lightsaber a few centimeters from my chin filled my entire view. Ugh, my lekku hurts, there was a strong pulsing pain in the middle section of my right lekku it was stuck under my shoulder blade, which made a few drops of tear instinctively appear on the edges of my eyes. 

The blue blade was instantly pulled back as if it burned its holder. There was a friendly palm extended towards me instead, and I grabbed it and was pulled up to my whole height with troubling ease. This infuriating guy was looking at me with a wide smirk on his face. 

- You know, getting beaten by a master is no reason to start crying. 

- I fell on my lekku... and it hurts...

There was a short silence while he began to scratch his face somewhat embarrassed. 

- Well, sorry about that, Soka told me once that getting injured on your lekku can be infuriatingly frustrating, and painful. Would you like to go to the infirmary, at least we can visit Soka on the way she was pestering the hell out of me to find you and clear up our unfortunate misunderstanding.

- You mean that you are a ga- 

You are reading story Star Wars: The Way of the Grey at novel35.com

A cold palm immediately covered my mouth, while his owner was looking around in the room in a panic. Oh, I remembered, we were not alone. I looked around and there was quite a crowd gathering around our little duel. Tree masters and five padawans even a temple guard was watching us from afar. The masters gave me an acknowledging nod, while the padawans seemed to be more focused on sending me a glare. Little buggers must envy the attention I got, or just didn't like the fact that their training was paused to gawk at our duel instead. Hey, it's not like I was the one to start this duel, but they probably wouldn't believe it. They were looking at this stupid guy with some sort of reverence appearing in their little shiny eyes.  Was he really that big of a deal? For me, he looked more like a clown right now, I wonder what they would think if I told them about our first meeting. I may give it a shot later... as if sensing my thoughts he turned his head looking me in the eyes then said slowly to me while also sending his own death glare towards me. 

- Not a word, don't forget...

He leaned even closer and hissed into one of my ear protrusions.

- I know where you live. 

I gulped soundly, or maybe I will just shut my mouth this time, should have remembered that he is not a force spirit, not yet anyway. With that he let go of me then we walked to the infirmary. On the way, we only exchanged a few half-hearted sentences while I was too focused on caressing my right lekku. It was really frustratingly painful. 

- So if I understand you were sent after me to apologize by your padawan.

- No, I decided to go after you and apologize after the misunderstanding was cleared by Soka. 

- Humph, so then tell me why we ended up in a duel of grudges? 

He smirked again. Then he told me with a lecturing voice. 

- No, you are wrong, it was moving meditation practice. 

- Obviously...

Why did I feel the sudden need to roll my eyes... 

- So, Soka told me that you are some kind of exchange student from a different force sect. I never heard anything about this until now, since I only got back from a mission before your duel with her happened. On a side note, you are surprisingly well versed in the use of force and even in the jedi fighting styles. 

- What do you mean by surprisingly?

He ignored me.

- Your master must be proud of you.

- Yeah, he would be. 

He gave me a short glance after that then we become silent again for a while. Until I asked another question.

- Is Tano, I mean Ahsoka, is she all right? 

- Yeah, she only got a weak concussion and a few bruises, nothing unusual. 

- That's good to hear then. 

We seemed to run out of natural conversation themes so we silently agreed on not forcing ourselves on further speaking, which would most likely become tiresome. 

At the time we reached the infirmary a purple and yellow bruise was beginning to form on the middle part of my right lekku, I already began to channel healing energies into it, but there was no other twi'lek in the order before me, so I was not really sure how to heal a lekku effectively. Luckily for me, I knew of a twi'lek healer lady I could shamelessly rely on. 

 

You can find story with these keywords: Star Wars: The Way of the Grey, Read Star Wars: The Way of the Grey, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey novel, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey book, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey story, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey full, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey Latest Chapter