247. Sith Saga: Proving Grounds - Trychon

Anya and the Admiral circled each other around the center of the room. Daan didn't strike first, and Anya was afraid to strike too quickly, and accidentally wound him mortally when all she needed was to distract him for an opening to stab him with the dagger.

Finally, she attacked with a feint that would have barely scraped his side, just to get a feel for his defenses. He sidestepped and stared at her. "I thought you were here to kill me. Are you playing some game? Who sent you?"

Annoyed, she made a lazy horizontal swing at his midsection, which he blocked. "Quit toying with me. Why are you here?"

While there was some truth to his perception of her actions, she couldn't help but think to herself I hate not being taken seriously!

She lunged at him at full speed, knowing she was risking the wrath of her master. Daan sidestepped again, and was in perfect position for her next swing as well. He spun around and made a light kick at her legs. She managed to move her front leg out of the way, but before she could reset her stance, she felt him push her.

She had somewhat felt it coming, and was able to deflect some of the energy, but not all. She stumbled two steps back and managed to compose herself. He was merely watching her reaction to his maneuver, so she sent a push back at him. He stumbled back half a step and held his position.

It wasn't much, but she used his momentary adjustment to close the gap between them again and strike. He managed to block the move, but was less stable this time. She brought around her saber twice more, and he regained composure in that time, her advantage lost.

She kept her attack on, now wondering when she'd have an opportunity to get the dagger out and wound him with it. He kept meeting her blade squarely, allowing her to rebound off of it to carry momentum around for another attack. Until he didn't. After a dozen attacks, he sidestepped and allowed her to move her body around. She started to spin around to bring her attack back to bear on him, when he met her side with his boot.

As she sprawled sideways from the blow, he spoke to her again. "A battle is no time for games or playing, girl. Now you've already started to lose this one. Tell me who your friends are that are causing all the chaos today, and why you're here. I'll take you safely to the council to be dealt with."

She turned to face him. She could feel that she was already becoming sore in her ribs on the one side... the same side as her hurt leg. She felt it was very manageable though, possibly due to the left over effect of the stims in her system.

She said nothing, but she let her anger fill her as she pushed her attack again. She felt almost refreshed overall and was making headway against his blocks, which had become more varied than before. As he sidestepped one of her blows, she anticipated it, and let go of her hilt with her right hand as her left followed through with momentum. She planted her fist directly on the cheekbone of the Admiral, who fell backwards. She moved in and was about to bring her blade down to his throat when he spun a bit, bringing his legs around to tangle with hers. With a bit of luck, or perhaps very keen observation, he managed to get her right where the blaster had earlier.

She kept the shriek she felt inside her lungs to herself somehow, as it felt the stims and kolto were completely gone in an instant.

He was getting up, so she rolled away from him and got up as well... although obviously not as quick as she'd like.

Now, Ralyc Daan took the offensive to her, and was swinging more aggressively at her as she retreated backwards with her blocks. In between the effort of his attacks, he spoke again. "You're running out of chances, girl. I am not a Jedi and I don't know that I can simply subdue you and take you for custody." He held their blades together for a moment to gauge her response. All he got from her was a glare and a feeble attempt to push him away with the force.

He pressed his attack on her further and had her backed into a corner, when he swung his lightsaber at her head. She ducked under it, but the blade seared some of her hair off as it passed. As she brought her head back up to look at him, he pushed her into the wall. He followed up with two more swings, which she blocked fully and seemed to be steeling for a counter when he pulled back and lunged forward with the blade, piercing through her left shoulder and into the wall.

This time, she couldn't withhold her scream.

-----------------

Ralyc watched as she writhed in pain, but held to one spot against the wall. She had dropped her blade immediately and was now holding onto his wrists with both her hands.

He took no pleasure in her pain, but was glad that he had disarmed and disabled her without killing her. She could be very valuable. He wanted answers. Something wasn't right with the attacks from that day, leading right up to this would be assassin in his office. For a while, he really thought she had been toying with him. Why would someone who wanted him dead send an assassin so close to his skill level?

She maintained her grip with one hand, but released with the other, reaching down to try to pull her lightsaber back to her hand. Ralyc put his foot on the hilt on the floor and shook his head. "Too late."

He didn't see her reach instead into the pocket in her pants, and wasn't ready for the dagger that pierced into his lower left flank.

He didn't scream as she had, but did let out a moan of pain as she pulled the dagger back out of him. His lightsaber powered down as he lost his grip on it, and they both fell to the floor.

Ralyc tried to contain the blood coming out of his side with his one hand as he tried to crawl along the floor to get back to the comm unit on his desk. He tried to use the techniques he had been shown to help slow the pain and undo some of the damage. He didn't feel that he was being overly successful.

He did feel that somehow the girl had managed to get back to her feet, and retrieve her lightsaber. She caught up to him slowly, and the last thing he saw was a dagger land next to his face, then her boot.