DOUBLE RELEASE, go back to ch 38
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Corvus, the only noise he registered at that singular moment was the hum of lightsabers.
Jax & Ror were clashing in the background, ever so slowly moving towards the chanting Jedi. Corvus didn't worry about the teen, knowing that Ror was heavily damaged, and being baited into some mines. Moreover, he couldn't be bothered to give his attention to Jax when someone as imposing as Darth Kern was his opponent.
Red collided with twin blue again and again, yet Corvus felt as if Kern was holding back. Meanwhile, Keira seemed happy to maintain this stalemate, and probed for weaknesses.
With Corvus lurking invisibly nearby, Kern could not fully commit without exposing his flank.
Thus, a brief deadlock had ensued, and Kern had settled for maintaining the current pace. Flashing his fangs, and constantly moving so his side was towards Corvus' direction, Kern was like a caged animal expecting an attack.
Despite his confident demeanor, Kern must have inhaled some of that poison gas, and as it wasn't a Force ability, could not be absorbed by that amulet. Doubtlessly, he wasn't at his best.
Furthermore, he had recently unleashed an overwhelming amount of Force Lightning. Now Jedi/Sith didn't have some energy bar, but no one could throw around Force powers willy nilly, and not experience exhaustion.
The ashen Zabrak surely had enough energy in the tank to end the fight, but it was risky.
By this point, Corvus was rather certain that Kern did not have a 100% lock on him, and could only estimate his general location.
Positioned a little more than 10 to 20ft behind the Zabrak-and constantly moving at/away from him-Corvus was in a sweet spot where he could evade any sweeping blows, but should Kern become locked in place, or lose his mobility, Corvus would be in a prime spot to swoop in and end him.
And so a bit of a waiting game had developed.
Corvus was in a dilemma. If he joined the fight this very moment, Kern would stop holding back, and go all out. Without the threat of being assassinated, he would be free to act without restraint. However, simply by being in his blind spot, it pressured the Sith. It was sort of like living in a bad neighborhood, and knowing that two houses next to yours had been vandalized.
With that knowledge, it would be a matter of if, not when your own house was burglarized. With that kind of feeling creeping down your neck, you would want to take defensive measures like putting bars on your windows or reinforcing the door/lock. Which was exactly what Kern was doing. His posture, and economy of motion was all geared towards clinical, searching attacks. At the same time, he was inviting Keira to go on the offensive, BAITING Corvus to strike him. It was a dangerous game of chicken. If he revealed himself, then whether he and Keira could take Kern, or if they would be helplessly slaughtered was anyone's guess.
However, the long con could only play in their favor. This slower mode of combat gave Jax & the Jedi time to finish up on their ends, and combine forces against Kern. But from Corvus's POV, that would be the plan if they were fighting like conventional Jedi.
But since when did Corvus play fair?
From his position, Corvus had slowly-ever so slowly-been siphoning away the darkside energies from both the ashen skinned Zabrak, and his amulet.
What was so sinister about this act, was that Ilum was a lightside Force Nexus. Meaning not only were lightside powers stronger, and cost less to cast, but the inverse was true too! Darkside powers became less powerful, and cost more to cast!
Kern was already under a debuff, but like a slow acting, diabolical poison, Corvus was actively diluting Kern's connection to the Force!
It was as Corvus had taught the kids, and Keira when they had their duel. Not every solution needed to be solved with flashy moves, and full frontal assaults!
Smirking to himself, Corvus watched on as both Keira and Kern met again and again.
Keira's superior form-which could overcome the likes of weaker Jedi Masters such as Paratus-clashed again and again with the single lightsaber in Kern's hands.
Corvus patiently waited, like a shark sitting still. The second he smelt blood, he would become the predator.
During this time, Corvus didn't only let his presence serve as a threat, or focus solely on draining these darkside energies.
Whenever it looked like Keira was struggling, or Kern was about to triumph, Corvus would drop a poisoned dart from his inventory, and [Force Push] it at Kern's back.
Just now, Corvus had launched another dart, and the Zabrak narrowly dodged it, and parried aside Keira's lightsabers.
"Worms! I will feed you to worms!" Kern snarled as his figurative rage meter broke.
The poor bastard reminded Corvus of when he would play a game, and he got juggled 2v1 by two players who were individually worse than him.
Kern's frustration, his rage, and anger at the unfairness of the situation.
It was simply:
Sublime.
Self satisfied smugness aside, Corvus knew that this next part would be the most dangerous.
As Kern's anger began to be unleashed, it physically manifested, and a slight red sheen covered him as a Sith Fury started to occupy his psyche, and pressed down upon any lifeform in the area.
Fortunately, Corvus had cast [Force Aura] on everyone, and this blind rage was nowhere near the focused mental ice pick that Maw had delivered.
"Grah!" Kern wordlessly snarled, and began to beat down on Keira with an unmatched ferocity.
Keira matched him blow for blow, demonstrating her technical knowledge, but she couldn't keep up against his speed and strength! Kern's flow was simply overwhelming.
The Mirialan had been pushed back against a wall, and her room to maneuver had all but evaporated.
'I have to go now!' Corvus sharply inhaled, and sprinted at Kern's back.
As he bore down on the Sith, Corvus ignited his lightsabers, and lunged at Kern's side, but the damned Zabrak had been prepared!
Unleashing a brief shock from one hand-just like when Dooku zapped Obi-Wan-Kern forced Corvus to block with both his lightsabers, and pushed him back.
This act of physical contact revealed himself to the world, and had such a concussive power to it, Corvus dragged his feet in the ground before he was able to disperse the lightning.
Brandishing his blades, Corvus was going to rejoin the fight, when he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Kern slipped underneath Keira's guard, and stabbed her clean through the chest. Crimson light exited the green beauty's back, at the same time, twin blue bars winked out just as they cut through Kern's amulet, and were about to pierce his torso.
Corvus wanted to shout, or snarl, but instead he silently gripped his lightsabers tightly, and gave Kern a death glare.
Kern smiled at Corvus with a mouthful of black teeth, and then one of Keira's lightsabers flew out of her lifeless hand into his grip.
Entering Pause, Corvus checked [Revitalize] and double checked that he only had 5 minutes to resurrect the dead.
With her dying act, Keira had broken the chain that would set Corvus free. Free to murder this fuck.
Un-Pausing, Corvus took immediate action, and shot out both [Slow] & [Force Suppression].
Twin red orbs the size of basketballs flew towards Kern, but unlike Maw, this Dark Adept was not so arrogant. Dodging one, and then batting the other to the side, Kern licked his lips as he lunged at Corvus.
Lightsabers could interact with Force Lightning, so this wasn't exactly a surprise, but Corvus was undeterred.
Faster than him the Dark Adept may be, but Corvus had stopped holding back, and began to absorb as much darkside energy as was possible through his Jedi Shadow ability.
"You must be a Sith Assassin. Did Sidious train you to slay my master?" Kern snarled as he came in for an attack.
Corvus remained silent as all his focus went into Pause-buffering, and registering each attack that came at him. Every split second, it was something new.
'Overhead' Parry.
'Sideswipe, no stab!' Jump back.
'Diagonal into flourish at my foot then upward swipe at the left arm.' Straight stab at his chest, test his focus.
That's it, make him work for it!
Corvus channeled Form VII to his best, and moved like a Vornskr, wild and unpredictable.
Clashing sabers, Corvus and Kern then pulled apart, and briefly caught their breaths.
In that moment, Corvus decided to take the Zabrak's words, and turn them into a deceptive ploy.
"Dooku is dead. Slain by Skywalker's hand. Serve my master, and you will have a place in his new order." Corvus bullshitted in an effort to buy time.
"Lies, Tyranus would never-"
"Skywalker is Sidious's apprentice. The Chosen One cut Dooku's head and hands clean off. Join the Emperor, and you might just live." Corvus said in a 100% truthful tone, and channeled the very best of his Persuade trait.
'Come on asshole, buy the bait already!' Corvus thought to himself, and eyed Keira's rapidly cooling corpse in worry.
"I sense no falsehood in your words. Yet why should I bow my head to a lesser being like you, worm?" Kern spat to the side, and held his lightsabers at the ready.
"I have quite the silver tongue, if you hadn't noticed. I fear death, but could convince the Empire to take you in." Corvus said with a wide smile on his face.
"...yes, yes I can see that. A lesser being using words to live longer." Kern said, and slowly prowled closer.
Corvus smiled in a disarming fashion, and disabled his lightsabers. If Kern acted like a typical darksider, then there was only one expected course of action left to him.
"Die!" Kern suddenly yelled, and went to pierce Corvus's chest with a double thrusted attack. It was a move he had done against Keira, and was soundly within Corvus's predictions.
Corvus maintained his smile, and took the lightsabers directly onto his Cortosis-Weave robes.
Kern's blades short circuited, causing the ashen Zabrak to stumble towards Corvus. He wanted to pull back, and was a second away from doing so, but his body's momentum had already been moving in Corvus's direction.
Fear colored the Zabrak's eyes as blue azure ignited with a snap hiss, and reflected off his ashen colored face.
Twirling his blades, Corvus cut off Kern's arms, and then swiped at his legs.
[Force Pushing] Kern roughly onto the ground, Corvus turned his back on him.
"You're less than worms, less than dirt, Sith." Corvus sharply intoned, then snapped his fingers.
Emerging from the tunnel, the pair of mating razhak worms that had been lying in wait dropped down, and began to wriggle on top of Kern, and began to super heat their bodies as they got down to business.
Corvus had been luring Kern to this spot for an ambush, and had been buying time with words. However, he knew how predictably backstabbing darksiders were, and decided to rub some salt in his wounds. If Kern had somehow dodged that point blank, over-confident attack, the razhak's would've fallen on top of him like they were now.
"Worms!" Kern howled his final word, and then proceeded to melt like the Nazi's from Indiana Jones who opened the Ark.
[+0exp]
Zero exp never tasted so sweet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: Read up to chapter 114 at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
I update there every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Th
Publicly on Fridays