NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2442449" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 253: The RoofThe farther up the curved roof of the Palace that they went, the harder it was becoming to maintain stable footing. Jyren quickly figured that it wasn’t because the surface under him was changing, but simply because the curve was becoming much steeper as it reached its top. And the strong, gusting wind didn’t help, either. It was something that, now at least, he knew he should have thought about before attempting this. No, this wasn’t the highest point, but Jyren could still see farther than he liked to be able to.    But none of this was affecting Ket, it seemed. The taller Alraxian was relentless, barely giving Jyren anytime to take a breath. The change in location wasn’t having any negative effects on Ket like Jyren had hoped. That was, though, really not all that surprising.    Jyren was still backing up, parrying the swift strikes from the small blade that Ket held and simply doing his best to stay out of the way. At this point, he realized he needed a new plan. And that was the problem. He wasn’t used to fighting with a plan. He went in, activated his lightsaber, and things just went the way they were supposed to. Even Shadow was never this dangerous in the times the two of them had sparred. But then again, she hadn’t been trying to kill him...well, except for the first time, but that wasn’t the point.    Catching the flash of movement in the corner of his eye, Jyren jumped back and over the attempt to take him off of his feet. He landed just in time to twist to the side and out of the way of the tip of Ket’s blade. Jyren reacted as quickly as he could, backhanding Ket’s wrist in yet another attempt to disarm him. Not that it would do much, but it was something, at least.    At the impact, Ket spun back, and for a half second Jyren thought he’d lost his footing. He was, of course, wrong. Instead, Ket pulled around, small blade switched to his left hand and the right reaching back to nothing. It wasn’t hard to guess what that meant. As quickly as he could, Jyren took a hand off of his lightsaber and used the Force to pull the second hilt from his belt. The weapon landed in his left hand, violet coloured blade snapping to life, just as the larger sword that Ket had held before returned to his free hand.    Jyren instinctively raised the violet blade up to parry the falling metal sword that was now once again in Ket’s right hand. While Jyren did block the sword from cleaving him into two, the force of Ket’s swing nearly knocked the lightsaber out of Jyren’s hand. Instead, he stumbled back, but forced his body and senses not to lose their edge. And not a moment later did Jyren bring his own blue-green lightsaber to parry a quick strike from Ket’s smaller blade.    Again, the two of them exchanged lightning fast blows, but this time it was becoming painfully obvious that Ket had the upper hand. Jyren was managing to avoid taking any hits, but was too busy defending himself to even manage the slightest attempt at an attack. And so he was pushed back, farther up the rooftop to the top of the dome. As Ket’s attacks grew in strength and speed, Jyren knew exactly what the other Alraxian was going to attempt to do. He’d been forced up...now it was time to push him down, and it was much, much more likely that Jyren would slip going that direction.    Jumping over a swing to his legs, Jyren hit the ground blocking another violent strike from Ket’s sword...but this time with both lightsabers. Immediately, the smaller blade flashed in towards Jyren’s undefended torso. The only defense he could manage was to use all his strength to force Ket’s sword back, at the same time attempting to spin to the side and away from the lightning fast knife. It nearly worked. Nearly because he wasn’t completely run through by the blade, but instead it left a long slash across his lower right side.    The pain was disturbingly easy to ignore, to the point that it only seemed to fuel Jyren’s determination rather than slow him down at all. He quickly took advantage of the small lapse in Ket’s attacks to present an attack of his own. Due to how close they were, it was impossible to Jyren to actually bring his arms around and use his lightsabers, so instead he took Shadow’s old advice and used the other things available to him. With all the strength he could manage, Jyren sent his elbow into Ket’s face.    There was a crack before Jyren took a knee to the stomach. Between them, a short moment of pain passed in which they backed off a few shaky steps. It was all the time Jyren needed to come up with one of those absolutely insane ideas that always seemed to work. This time, though, even he knew that it was more stupid than insane. When Ket came at him again, Jyren sidestepped the first stab and ducking under the heavy swing of Ket’s sword. Because of this, he took a knee to the face, but ignored it with the same Shadow-like determination. The strike sent him back a couple of steps, but also gave him enough time to completely step out of the way of Ket’s next overhand swing of the large sword.    As he stepped around the other Alraxian, Jyren deactivated the lightsaber in his off hand and quickly slung it back to his belt in one quick motion. Reoriented, Ket stabbed again and Jyren’s torso. The attack was deflected with a quick swing of Jyren’s blue-green lightsaber, and he immediately ducked under another of those swings meant to take his head off. This time, it was quickly followed by the smaller blade sliding up towards Jyren’s face. Again, he moved to the side, this time using the Force to speed his body up and then lashing out with a leg to kick Ket’s hand. This time, finally, the blade fell out of Ket’s grip and flew off down the long slope of the roof.    Jyren rose up to meet the sword with his lightsaber just centimeters from his face. Still focusing on the Force, Jyren pushed the attack away before taking a strong kick to the chestplate. It sent him back almost far enough to send him tumbling down like the smaller blade had done. But he held his footing, and before Ket could move in for another relentless series of attacks, Jyren attacked.Extending a free hand, Jyren put all of his strength into throwing Ket. The invisible wall of energy slammed into Ket, and despite his own defenses in the Force that were up and strong, the Alraxian was hurled off of the stable roof. As Ket fell away, hitting the hard roof and sliding across it on his back, Jyren ran after him.    As fast as he could, Jyren ran down the roof, sliding at least part of the time and nearly ending up in the same position Ket was stuck in. But somehow, Jyren managed to stay up. Just a second later, Ket left the roof and began to fall out of sight towards the lower levels of the Palace far below. Jyren continued down the sloping roof at full speed. Just before reaching the end, Jyren took a deep breath.    And then he jumped.</blockquote>

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