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: 2475260" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 261: Defense...Offense...DefenseWith Jyren held back(not gone, Shadow had to continually kick her brain into not using that word), the entire situation changed. While Jyren relied on his lightsaber far more than any of his other talents, both Shadow and Ket had far different training ingrained in them. For the two of them, the weapons were simply methods of distracting their opponent, and rarely used for any actual attacks. And so their grips naturally shifted from the necessary two hands when dealing with Jyren’s way of fighting to a one handed, more open grip.    And things only got more dangerous. Shadow knew Jyren was alright, and doing his best to catch up, and so she forced herself to focus on the task at hand. The door had opened up to a much wider corridor, with no openings except the one they’d entered from and another a great distance on the opposite side of the room. But they were moving that direction.    Shadow quickly ducked under a swipe from Ket’s claws, spinning to the side to avoid the sweep of his sword that followed it barely a second later. Her own hand then lashed out for Ket’s face, but was blocked by a quickly moving forearm. Shadow reacted by taking a couple more steps back before parrying a sword strike at her side, batting the metal blade away before kicking at Ket’s torso.    This time, he wasn’t there to defend himself, and took her foot full on in the breastplate. There was a short snap of bone and he planted his feet to hold his ground before the wound was quite definitely remorphed. But it had provided at least a second, and it was a second that Shadow took advantage of, thrusting the point of her glowing lightsaber at his midsection.    Ket sidestepped being skewered(not that it would have killed him), and instead was cut across the side. A long burn mark appeared for a half second before being immediately healed, and there was no recognition of pain crossing Ket’s face. Using his momentum, Ket swung around and kicked at Shadow’s face. Instinctively, Shadow ducked, but then let other instincts kick in when she got a quick idea.    Before his leg had gone completely over her head, Shadow’s free hand shot up and grabbed Ket’s ankle, reversing his momentum and throwing his leg back the direction it had come from. The shock of this sent Ket off of his feet, spinning so that when he hit the deck, he hit face first.    And then Shadow hesitated.    Despite the fact that he was face first on the deck with no way to defend himself for that tiny fraction of a second, Shadow did not act. It was an almost worrying proof to her of just how much she had changed. She should have lopped his head off and been done with all of this. But she didn’t. She waited. She waited, and Ket took the chance he was given to roll over and swipe at her feet to send her to the deck, too.    Thankfully, Shadow jumped back to avoid this, but the damage was already done, and her advantage was gone as quickly as it had come. As Ket quickly got back to his feet, Shadow growled over the link to Jyren. [You’re a bad influence.]    There was a response, but Shadow didn’t hear it. She was too busy jumping back onto the defensive, losing ground with every strike she ducked under or parried. Each time, she stepped back. Catching Ket’s fist with her free hand, Shadow attempted to retake the initiative and push him back, knowing Jyren was close to breaking through the door. Her other hand spun the lightsaber around and she tried to thrust it straight though the arm she was holding.    Before her blade reached Ket’s arm, though, a heavy wall of the Force slammed into her. Shadow resisted the full brunt of the blow, but her arm was thrown back and she lost her grip on the lightsaber. The safety kicked in, and she heard the sharp hiss of the blade deactivating before the hilt bounced across the deck plates and hit the wall that was no longer very far behind her.    Ket smiled that cold smile he seemed to have developed in the last few years before forcing Shadow to release her grip on his fist by kicking her back roughly. She took another step back, and then the metal sword came slashing at her neck. Instinct taking over, Shadow ducked again, but Ket had been prepared for this and her face met with his knee.    Her nose made a noise that should not have been possible, but she ignored that and remorphed the broken bone as her head snapped back. But her awareness didn’t simply fade away with that. The Force screamed at her and Shadow pulled to the side to avoid a vertical slice from the sword. Now Ket was focusing on the blade again...    Shadow held a neutral expression as she blocked a kick meant to push her back another series of steps. Again, she sidestepped a swing of the sword, but this time purposefully stayed on the defensive despite the many openings Ket was leaving...though he likely knew they were there. She avoided another slash meant to cleave her into two before taking her last step back before reaching a wall. Or rather...a door. Part of her wanted to reached around for a switch and open it, but the rest of her realized this was exactly the right place to jump back on the offensive.    Ket thrust the metal blade at her chest with lightning speed, but Shadow did not move out of the way this time. Instead, her hand shot out and, with at least some help from the Force, she grabbed the metal sword. Everything froze. Ket looked from the hilt of his sword to the edge being held by Shadow...thick, blue coloured blood was leaking from the unseen palms of her hands onto the blade an the deck at their feet. His eyes then looked up to see there was a grin on her face.    “I believe you forgot that I do not fear metal,” Shadow said in the sarcastic tone she’d heard far too often from Jyren.    Ignoring her words, Ket lurched the blade free of her grip and then slashed across to remove her head from the rest of her body. Even if she could remorph metal, it would kill her. Again, Shadow did not move, but instead of catching the blade again her arm shot out and hit his wrist hard. So hard, in fact, that the swing was shot off in another direction, digging into the bulkhead neck to Shadow’s face. There was a flash, a shower of sparks, and then the door lurched open.    Shadow lost her balance and fell back through the door just as Jyren finished cutting through the one on the other end of the corridor.</blockquote>

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