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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2045823" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 155: Human and AnimalAn orange streak was slowly cascading downwards. It had only been a few seconds, but to Shadow, it had lasted an eternity. And then, just as she had expected to feel the lightsaber cutting her in two, there was a bright white flash in front of her eyes. A loud crackling sound was accompanying it, and her eyes followed the white light upwards to see that it faded into that orange. Odd...she looked down, but could only see white. Then, she started to look right, following the constant white until it faded into another colour. Into a soft, blue-green.    It was then that she realized the white light that the two others had collided to create was only centimeters from her head. Wavering slightly...towards her...back...then towards again...and then it was gone. The white was pushed back until she could see clearly again. Voort had been pushed back, now a good two meters away and holding his lightsaber up...but not looking to Shadow. His voice was hoarse, but filled with both pain and anger, “Get out of the way, Akan!”    A figure stepped in front of Shadow. She knew the back of Akan’s head well, having given it a good punch more than once. The white hair and the metallic blue stripe were bathed in the light of his lightsaber, held out in front of him in a way that Shadow could only see its tip above his head. And his ears were flat. Something she’d not seen from him before. But he spoke calmly, in a voice that was far too much like her own, “I’m not moving, Voort.”    “She killed Jen!” Voort screamed, pointing over Akan’s shoulder to Shadow.    But Akan shook his head, “No. She didn’t,” and for a moment, through the link, Shadow felt a strange hesitation from Akan. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and his voice spoke again, sounding as calm as before, “I did. Its my fault, Voort. Mine.”    “Y-y-you...” Voort’s eyes looked Akan over for a moment. Through the Force, the two Alraxians could feel his mind working that out. Convincing himself. Making it true. Yes. It was Akan’s fault. He’d been so worried in the first place he should have stepped in and done something about it! But no...he’d just complained and whined! And he stood right there, almost gloating about it.    It had not been the most intelligent thing to say if Akan had wanted to stop what happened next. But it was too late. It was something that had been building up and waiting to boil over since they’d first encountered each other. A curse escaping his lips, Titus Voort charged at Akan, lightsaber swinging at the young Alraxian’s neck. Akan’s lightsaber was there to meet Voort’s, catching it easily with a loud explosion of energy. The white-hot light of their lightsabers colliding again faded as Voort pulled his blade back, spinning around for another horizontal strike, but this time aimed at Akan’s waist. Inverting his blade, Akan parried the strike with ease, causing another flash of white.     There was a second snap-hiss and Akan caught a quick glimpse of the other end of Voort’s double-bladed lightsaber swinging around at him. But this time, Voort’s blade met no resistance. Akan ducked low, rolling left and out of the way. He got to his feet, spinning his wrist around to bring his lightsaber up into a better defensive position.  Voort reversed the momentum from his missed swing, pulling back and down with the opposite blade. Akan caught it high, batting the attack away before spinning right and catching the second orange blade.     The Force gave a quick warning, and he ducked again under another strike. But this time, a knee met him, catching him hard in the face. Akan stumbled back, ignoring the pain(what was one more pain at this point, anyway?) And quickly sidestepping a vertical swing aimed to cut him two. Under his foot, there was a soft click. So soft, that he barely heard it below the sounds of the three whirring and cracking lightsaber blades. Perhaps he hadn’t heard it...maybe it was the Force. Either way, he reacted to the ‘sound’, rolling to the left again just as a series of serrated spikes shot up where he had been standing.    Voort had been forced to take a step back, staring down at the blades for a short moment before looking back to Akan. He didn’t wait for the blades to completely retract before attacking again, instead jumping over both the blades and Akan, landing behind the young Alraxian. Pivoting around to face the man, Akan had his lightsaber up to defend the strike meant to cut him across the waist. He deflected the strike upwards, forcing Voort’s second attack to come in from a low angle. Instead of blocking it, Akan jumped over the orange blade, flipping to the left and landing in time to bat away a high attack to his head.    Pushing the blade away as he did forced the second, lower one to rise up towards his right leg without Voort even having to force it. Quickly, in conjunction with yet another left step, Akan raised his right leg up and out of the way. His trouser leg was sliced in the process, but his actual leg got only a few singed hairs. With the sidestep, he also pivoted around to Voort’s back, deflecting away a horizontal swing as Voort spun around to follow him. The two blades held there for a long moment, centimeters from Akan’s face. And they had a moment to watch each other’s eyes. Voort’s pained and enraged matching against Akan’s emotionless, yet full of something he didn’t completely understand. Using all the strength he could manage, Akan pushed Voort back, just enough so that the other man would have to take a couple steps forward to attack again.    And instead of standing and waiting, Akan drew upon the Force and used it to assist his back flip. He landed a good ten meters on the other side of the large room, glasteel from the shattered window now crackling as he landed and shifted his weight. Holding the his blue-green lightsaber in front of him with both hands, Akan called out, “We don’t have to keep doing this, Voort!”    The other man steadied himself and held the double-bladed lightsaber low in front of his body, glaring across the room to Akan, “You should have just let me kill your animal friend, then!”    Akan glanced to Shadow, still standing there...but now a good distance from the both of them. She hadn’t moved, though her eyes seemed to be watching the both of them. He couldn’t feel her through the link. Or maybe he was too focused on the task at hand. Voort wasn’t going to back down. Not anymore. Knowing he was at a disadvantage, Akan took his lightsaber into his right hand and extended his left to Shadow.    From her waist, a small object broke off and tumbled through the air towards Akan. He caught the ancient lightsaber in his free hand without any trouble, immediately noticing the feel of the weapon. So very similar to his own...but this wasn’t the time for that. He spun the hilt around until it was in the right position, then thumbed on the activation switch. A soft, purple glow joined the blue-green glow from his own lightsaber. Holding both of them up in front of him, Akan said calmly, “I’m an animal now, too, Voort.”((Been trying to get a piece of art to accompany this and the next update...hand is not listening to brain, so it might not appear until later, though.))</blockquote>

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