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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1908833" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 96: DrawBy the time Landau had walked out to see what the two Alraxians were doing, they had already finished five ‘rounds’. He’d caught them during a short break, which he soon realized only lasted a minute or so. But at seeing him, both Shadow and Akan had allowed themselves a slightly longer rest. This was provoked by Landau questioning the amount of blue liquid that he’d learned to be blood that was now fairly thick across the sand. Despite this, both Alraxians looked just fine, if not a little tired. They had just laughed and when he realized that he was in the way, Landau stepped back and found a comfortable spot to lean against on Haladin’s wall. And he watched.    To him, it was mostly a series of blue-green and violet lights colliding after bouts of quick motion. As the moon rose in the sky, though, it provided more light and allowed Landau a better view of what was happening. From what he could tell, Shadow was just using the lightsaber to keep Akan occupied, while her free hand(or claw) lashed out at him. The first few ‘rounds’ that Landau watched saw Akan getting beaten fairly quickly, but that didn’t seem to last too long. It wasn’t long at all before the lightsabers were held away or deactivated all together and the fight devolved into old fashioned hand to hand combat. Landau saw that Akan was not nearly as adept at this as Shadow, but he was doing a good job of moving out of the way and taking a few hits without trouble. Of course, through all of this, Landau still wasn’t sure how the two of them were keeping score.    In fact, neither Shadow nor Akan really knew. Every so often, both of them just knew who had lost. That was mostly from a mix of the link feeding emotions between them and the occasional loss of a body part. How long this lasted, even Landau had lost track of. But it was enough for the moon to now be high above them and shining straight down. Both Akan and Shadow were breathing heavily, exhausted but not even thinking of giving up. There was sand all over them, along with the blueish blood and a good amount of bruises and smaller scratches that neither of them bothered to remorph. The original target number had long sense passed.    “Ten all...” Akan said as he calmed his breathing and planted his feet again, “One more?”    Shadow nodded, bringing her own lightsaber up in front of her and looking at him past it, “One more.”    Nothing else needed to be said. Boasting and taunting wasn’t necessary anymore, as they could both feel each other’s thoughts more clearly. Amazing how this fighting had cleared up the link and gotten them both used to the strength of it again. But they just stood there for a few moments, waiting to see if the other would make the first move. Waiting...    Shadow broke first, not able to simply stand there and allow him the chance to catch his breath any longer. With her left foot, she kicked up some sand at Akan, and then pushed off towards him with her right foot. Though the sand bothered his vision somewhat, the lightsaber she held gave away her position. His eyes following the violet blade, Akan easily brought his own weapon to block the strike aimed at his left side. But even as the two blades met in a crash, he still saw movement. This was not the first time she’d done this. As Shadow held their blades up and to the side, she arced inwards and delivered a strong kick towards Akan’s other side.    Having seen this before, Akan had already learned how to hold the blades away and move. This meant he had little trouble slipped to the side, away from her foot, and at the same time batted her lightsaber away. Using his momentum, Akan spun around on one foot, swinging the lightsaber in a long, low arc. Shadow saw this out of the corner of her eye, and quickly leaped up and over Akan and his strike. Landing behind him, she lashed out with her free hand, backhanding him hard across the back of his head. Akan stumbled forward for only a half second, then recovered his footing and reacted to the sudden spark through the Force. His lightsaber went left and low, barely catching Shadow’s blade before it lopped off his ankle. However, he was still facing the other direction and reaching across his own body to hold the blade there, and the awkward angle made it extremely difficult to hold her blade where it was.    Seeing this, Shadow grinned and suddenly pulled her lightsaber away. The force with which Akan had been using to hold the blades steady no longer had any resistance, and Akan’s arm, along with his lightsaber, went high before he could compensate. This provided an easy opening for Shadow, and she took advantage of it by sweeping his feet out from under him. Akan hit the ground face first, but the fall didn’t seem to phase him or slow down his reaction. A forward roll avoided a follow up strike from Shadow’s foot, and easily got him to his feet again, though he was still facing the wrong way. Shadow made an attempt at a similar attack as before, swinging his towards his other side and a little higher with her lightsaber. This time, Akan reacted differently.    Instead of using his own lightsaber to deflect her attack, Akan spun to the side enough to put them only inches apart. The move sent Shadow’s strike past him, and he batted her arm away with his free hand. It also surprised Shadow just enough to give Akan another opening. Pulling around again, he planted a strong kick of his own to her stomach. This time, it was Shadow who ended up on the ground, but Akan didn’t attempt to follow up with a strike. Mainly because Shadow had landed on her hands, and easily flipped up to her feet again, facing him with a grin. He didn’t even notice the same grin on his face as he planted his feet again.    She’d almost won there...almost, though, didn’t cut it. The mental equivalents of taunts flowed through the link, wordless but in no way difficult to translate. It had only been a half second before Shadow dove at him again. Akan sidestepped her charge, avoiding a combined vertical lightsaber strike and high claw slashing. That would have been his face even if he’d blocked the lightsaber. The speed of Shadow’s charge had sent her barreling past him when he’d moved, and Akan had spun around and his arm swept out towards her. In a slightly off balanced spin, Akan’s lightsaber left his hand and flew at Shadow. She had noticed this just as her charge was stopped, and ducked under the flying blade just in time, feeling a few hairs get singed by the weapon. Seeing he was without a weapon, Shadow grinned and went after Akan again. Only a few steps out of reach, she heard the wobbling sound of a spinning lightsaber coming at her.    Her eyes then noticed that while both of Akan’s hands were held in a defensive position, his left hand looked to be directing something. Shadow’s mind realized what was going on just in time. Again, she ducked. This time, she lost a few more hairs and nearly part of her ear. Easily, Akan caught the weapon he’d called back to him, stepping forward and striking down at Shadow. Already coming back up, Shadow didn’t have much trouble getting her own lightsaber above her head to block Akan’s blue-green blade. For a short half-second, the two put all their strength into winning that lightsaber grapple. And then Akan used Shadow’s trick, only altered slightly. She didn’t see him thumb the switch of the lightsaber, but she did have time to watch the blue-green blade of energy sink back into the hilt of the weapon. The energy that Shadow had been using to hold his blade still was suddenly released, and her lightsaber arm went high and out of the way. She wasn’t an idiot, though, and knew how to counter her own trick. Lashing out with her free hand, Shadow’s fist slammed into Akan’s face. Her surprise came when, just as her fist hit him, a knee drove into her gut.    Akan stumbled back from the blow, while Shadow bent forward. Neither of them had a chance to counter, as both had been sent into a short shock from receiving a blow so in time with their own attack. They recovered at the same time, however, and dove at each other. Shadow hadn’t even heard Akan’s lightsaber reactivating. It was a blur of motion as the fight became a swift series of lightsaber strike followed by lightsaber strike, each parried and followed by a series of vicious attacks. Akan was amazed at how fast Shadow was, and despite her lack of intense training with the weapon, her improvising and other skills made up for that. An elbow caught Akan in the cheek, and as the pain shot through him he wondered if it had actually been broken. But no. This wasn’t the time to think. Just react. He did just in time, as Shadow had been spinning around to deliver a lightsaber strike aimed to slice off his legs. Akan’s blade batted her’s away easily, and then he slashed at her with his claws extended. Because she was moving, the sent long gashes across her shoulder and back, and he quickly recieved another fist to the chest as a response. Somehow, Akan didn’t lose his breath, swinging low with his lightsaber.    The blade was caught by Shadow, and they were frozen again in that grapple of strength. Even. So cheating was necessary. So close together, Shadow had no trouble head butting Akan. This got a cry of surprise out of him along with him taking a few unsteady steps back. After letting go of her lightsaber, Shadow charged at Akan again. This time, though, Akan got a new surprise. He’d brought his lightsaber up in an unstable parry to an attack that never came. Instead, Shadow was at his leg, taking him down after biting hard into his leg. The teeth dug in deep, and Akan was brought down by that large panther like creature that he knew was Shadow.    Just as he hit the ground, Akan kicked at her with his other leg. His foot hit Shadow’s torso, getting a pained yelp out of her before she dove to pounce on his chest. Being almost larger than he was, this wasn’t going to take long. Shadow pounced, diving on his chest and holding his body down with heavy clawed paws. Her head dove in for his neck, but she held back, simply resting her teeth on his neck.    [HA!] was all she ‘said’ to him, a strangely loud purring noise emitting from the creature’s throat.    Akan didn’t dare speak, as it would be just the kind of movement to get his neck torn apart. Sure, he could fix it...but it would still hurt. So he replied through the link. [Ha...?]    The way he said it seemed to kick in the rest of Shadow’s senses. Her ears twitched and one turned back towards the low hum that had to be a lightsaber. Still keeping a careful ‘hold’ on his neck, Shadow tilted her head to look back towards the sound. Just over her tail, and positioned in a way to cleave her in two, was Akan’s lightsaber. The purring stopped. For what seemed like an eternity, both of them just waited to see who would give in first. It was Shadow.    She flopped down on him, nearly crushing Akan in the process. Fatigue washed over both of them, and Akan just lay back, deactivating his lightsaber and letting his arm fall down to the sand. By the Force it felt good to just lay down...even though she was laying on him like he was some kind of pillow. Akan then noticed that she was breathing heavily, almost like a panting sound from the feline throat. He didn’t seem to realize he sounded even more winded, but Shadow did.    [...draw?] sounded Shadow’s suddenly exhausted ‘voice’ through the link.    Closing his eyes, Akan felt the adrenaline rush of the fight fade. [Draw.]</blockquote>

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