[Music] [Applause] so the two moved in artistry one step countering the next air pounding concussions raining away from their blows and parries each one a vain trumpet each one seeking to be the sound of victory yet only sounding to call attention to the display the librarian and the jedi dueled ferociously blade and stave casting shadows across light and spearing blinding eminence through otherwise still darkness yet for all the glory and wonder of their conjoined skill the pace of their dance
was clear and the song which made their rhythm was more and more rapidly singing one and only one man to victory safran but it did not yet play loudly enough to overcome obi-wan's ironclad discipline which once more tore away such meanings from the sheen of his own thoughts leaving his mind clear to continue the contest the jedi master still fought to win contending in order to strike him down and if possible strike him dead but even the goal of his battle was fading from his conscious thoughts
as he found himself sacrificing and dedicating all of his being to the contest before him body soul and thought all were being consumed by the fire born of his fight and his need to simply keep it lit obi-wan was losing himself in the precise and lethal flow of combat sinking further and further into the core of his guardian training becoming the stone upon which the ocean must crash in the center of this melee deep within his zone as it were kenobi had become one with his blade and the lines be
tween him and his environment had blurred nearly beyond recognition against any foe of his past he would have been triumphant and perhaps easily so but as the jedi master rallied himself against the foe he now faced all he could sense was a sickening sense of growing clarity for he was forced ever to be on the defensive ever the stone and never the ocean always the shield but too rarely the sword it was not a pace he could keep up forever obi-wan was performing feats he'd never attempted before
stringing new maneuvers into old techniques as the need arose and yet he was countered every time not always easily but effectively enough to give the master a sense of his opponent's depth of experience the jedi master came to an innate realization through this coming to understand that even while he himself invented techniques and strategies that were new to himself perhaps new to the entire jedi order they were not new enough how many times this astartes creature performed exterminations like
this no matter the answer kenobi now understood that it would be unbearably high and were that his only issue it still would have been a nearly overwhelming hurdle to overcome in the fight but it was not they were both matched in many ways but obi-wan born no strength enhancing armor had no force repelling talismans and could draw on only a fraction of the combat experience of his foe obi-wan gave everything and more but so too did this warrior who contended with him who threatened all he stood
to defend obi-wan put all his decades of battle behind his blade reliving his life in subconscious cycles his soul studying his memory to writing every last possible lesson it could from it in response the librarian answered with his own centuries of warfare and with his memory made perfect he did not need to reach his edge to access the full breadth of his knowledge the jedi master blocked a horizontal swipe spinning like a dervish as he absorbed the force from it and struck cleaving shadows w
ith light grunting spraying sweat from his moist hair as he was brought up short by a sharp parry bending back and avoiding one counter strike then parrying another all the while his mind also dueled not against the towering form of the astartes before him or against the intrusions of his doubts and flaws but against the slick shark-like form of the librarian's own attacking mind it drove for kenobi psychically assailing the jedi in moments where even the slightest mistake or maligned decision c
ould spell disaster obi-wan had thwarted each attempt thus far and it even struck back with his own mental attacks yet even these small blows struggled to be called victories even small ones for the space marine had not been so much as required to personally address kenobi's psychic counters hiding his own vulnerable thoughts behind mind wards born of technical or ritual production all of which were built directly into his armor obi-wan found that psychically attacking was incredibly taxing and
it left him far more vulnerable forcing him to abandon the tactic and therefore seeding one battlefront to the imperial yet in spite of that loss clarity was his and it did not lie the flow of this battle was against the jedi and he soon found himself unable to do much more than fend the librarian off waiting and watching for a mistake or flaw in his opponent's technique yet no matter how much he fought no such in his armor seemed forthcoming around them the jedi grew scarcer and scarcer escapin
g or helped to escape by other jedi as the two combatants did their dreadful battle yet in spite of the obvious danger most of them fled more slowly than they should have bogged down by the sights and sounds and senses before them the display put on by the two vying adversaries was a feast to the warrior's eyes and many could not help but take their taste while it lasted each swing of saffron's stave rippled the air like roasting flames the librarian using both hands to whip about with the broad
head of his bewitched weapon across from him obi-wan was a ceaseless spinning disk of blue energy whirling over and then under and then over again he avoided the first flurry of soul-smashing strikes before catching saffron's flame with his blade and driving his body thrown by the force of the swing the jedi was sent away before landing and rebounding gracefully off a pillar and then the floor shards of broken armor and the robes beneath trailing in his weightless wake obi-wan had become transc
endent he had become grace he was the definition of power and yet he was also not enough the librarian matched his speed driving deep molten footprints as he tracked the jedi's evasive legwork mirroring the movements of the live jedi he shifted about and stepped as though the armor which enveloped him did not restrict or reduce his movement at all and the slight of it constantly threatened to cast an uncanny net of fear over any observer those knights who had lived by the saber and its forms dra
nk in the displays with near wrapped attention for those jedi more inclined towards the mysteries of the force this was no less fascinating a contest the psychic battle which waged between the two was nearly as impressive as the martial contest the warriors were simultaneously engaged in kenobi was a smooth sphere leaving no purchase no place to strike and yet the space marine had formed a lance out of his imperially conditioned mind striking dead center for obi-wan's soul again and again testin
g the very limits of the jedi masters serenity the other jedi around them watched and most would remember whether they carried themselves from that place or were carried by others they would remember kenobi's valiant stand and the strength of the monster which overcame him snap he'd broken his left shin snapped it completely in half he could feel it waving flopping as he fell backwards and away his fingers releasing his lightsaber everything moving in a slow agonized clarity agony coursed throug
h obi-wan's mind and though he shunted it aside his balance was utterly lost impossible he maintained his mental defenses but he had lost control of his muscles the pain signaling the fall ailing of his left shin bones leaving him falling colliding hard with the ground in spite of the pain obi-wan was still calm still collected he was aware of the damage but he was also with still within the center of his serene mind and he worked to remain there what had happened his mind answered him in a flas
h review of the last few milliseconds and taken the last parry too lightly and the space marine had struck with more force than he had rightly anticipated his stance had failed to compensate and the force of the strike had pushed him beyond his body's limit he blocked the falling strike of the stave wrongly and the resulting force had broken his shin in half it had been one mistake just one but it was enough the space marine paused spinning his stave upright and letting its butts strike the grou
nd he loomed tall triumphant coming forward and rearing back a massive boot to stomp on obi-wan's legs the force of the blow shaking all present and rattling the deck but saffron could only growl in frustration as he surveyed his handiwork or lack thereof the jedi was no longer prone beneath the dents under his boots another jedi a zenos woman with dark skin and sporting bizarre head growths and charged across the room towards them and slid past in the final moment grabbing kenobi by his robe an
d hauling him out from dangers closing jaws just as they slammed shut they skidded to a halt barely controlled both facing saffron as they arrested their movement this new woman crouched behind the beaten jedi master arms wrapped protectively around his torso eyes glowing acadian shade in the darkness and the ori obi-wan could feel master ali connecting with him even then transferring her life force into him mending his injuries and soothing his fatigue but he knew that she would not be able to
work quickly enough a fact that became evident as safran began to approach them his boots cracked the floor as he came for the jedi only to pause a moment later when another form stepped between him and them yet another jedi the small willowy form of the elderly master jocasta new revealed itself saber active and poised to defend the members of her venerable order swarming like maggots safran cursed under his breath his brows furrowed betrayed his deep frustration two more how many cycles did th
is fiendish republic have to field the space marine shook the unworthy thoughts from his mind and instead focused on the force standing before and against him the woman was obviously aged straight back though she was her white robes were speckled and red something saffron surmise was not the result of a striking intentional aesthetic a long rectangular box was slung across the bony shoulders and back of the old master held fast by a strap which clung to both ends of the box she seemed an absurdl
y small figure in the shadow of a massive librarian a detail which did not escape the warrior she now faced have i truly passed your order so forcefully that you are bringing old women out of retirement to slow me down it will avail you nothing but further humiliation safran said stepping forward and spinning his stave jocasta in turn raised a single thin gray eyebrow a proper jedi never truly retires besides i have no intention of doing battle with the likes of you she said affecting a distinct
ly unimpressed heir wrinkling her nose of the space marine safran grinned his response a vicious battle lust showing through the expression he sped forward instead of speaking further raising his stave high before swinging it downward intent on hammering the old woman into the floor of the ship like an offensive protruding nail his strike wreathed in psychic force did little more than fan the air before jocasta's face burning some hairs in her eyebrows and little else saffron's feet scraped and
screeched against the metal ground but not towards the jedi woman but away he labored against the sudden pole attempting with all his might to complete his final strides swiping again the elder before him and remaining just out of her range from behind saffron emerging from the cover of two pillars which held up the wide room two more jedi appeared a dark-skinned human man with a purple blade in one hand and a tall bestial xenos holding a glowing blue saber staff both had their free hands extend
ed toward the epistolary fingers curled as they held him just back from his lethal strike jocasta knew broke her stance face remaining a stern mask as she nodded in the direction of the two other masters they however would be more than happy to sate your barbarity the old woman said the air of disdain about her as thick as water as she spoke thrusting her own free hand forward and throwing a pillar of telekinetic might against saffron that act succeeded in driving a roar of defiance from the war
rior as he was suddenly pressed holding his ground for only a few seconds before he was thrown backwards falling toward the two jedi masters and their hungry burning blades we will forge new stories to strike the gods that haunt us you might see me as weak but i will show you what lies behind my eyes we will embrace our suffering soothe our scars of grief and break their siege of our minds you may see them as gods we will show you what lies behind their eyes so you
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