AA Ladder: Mazer vs. Walker - Round 1

The air was crisp and cold upon the plateau of the Citadel. It was eerily quiet in the courtyard, the familiar silence of dawn that seemed to sap the energy from anyone unlucky enough to be up at such an hour. The vivid hues of daybreak were somewhat sullen this sunrise, though; drained by the thick dark clouds above. The customary moistness of morning added a cool humidity to the climate inside the courtyard’s low walls, but it did little to wet the dry throats of the three Arconans perched above Estle. The courtyard was a picture of beauty: luscious grass, marbled walkways and flowerbeds that decked the opening to the Citadel. All of it a wonderful façade for what went on behind the onyx walls.

Wuntila stood in front of the Citadel, garbed in a heavy black cloak that fluttered mildly with the breeze. Mazer and Walker Boh looked at their Proconsul and knelt, bowing their heads as they did so.

“You are both here because you chose to look fate in the eyes. Remember the rules, don’t get ahead of yourselves and fight like Arconans.” Wuntila turned on his heel, his cloak billowing, and disappeared into the shadow of the Citadel.

Both fighters looked at each other and rose. They marched off in opposite directions and faced each other, waiting in anticipation for their signal.

They didn’t have to wait long.

“Begin!” The Proconsul barked. The two combatants heard the heavy stone doors of the Citadel echo across Estle.

(Walker to Post First)

As the echoing of the doors shutting faded away, Walker Boh let the breath he had unconsciously been holding leave his body. Even after all his time in the Brotherhood, it seemed as though interacting with anyone higher than himself made him nervous.

Walker Boh looked down at the unfamiliar light saber he held in his hand, feeling the texture and weight of it. The handle was almost completely black, its smooth surface broken only by the deep blue button at the top. The crystal situated at the top seemed to contain an inner fire as the light bounced off its various facets. Seeing the simple beauty of the saber made him remember how long he had to go before he earned a saber of his own. Remembering this, he knew he should enjoy this time as much as possible.

Tightening his grip on the handle, he raised his eyes and tried to quickly take in the area in which they stood. The marble walkway beneath their feet seemed as hard and cold as a wampa's den. The grass moving as the breeze blew between its blades, shifting as though a crowded audience anticipating the battle that was about to take place. Flower beds next to the Citadel’s entrance, appearing simultaneously to belong and not belong.

Pushing the button on the saber with his thumb, he felt a shiver course through him as the near silence was further broken by the snap hiss of the crimson blade extending forward. The low humming that followed the blade as he gave it a practice swing made him smile. More and more the simplicity and deadliness of this weapon made him want to earn one of his own, although with several modifications.

Looking past the blade to the fellow Chiss standing before him, Walker couldn’t help but be slightly disturbed. Since being taken as a slave when he was very young he had not seen very many of his own kind, let alone faced them in combat. This Chiss in particular he knew next to nothing about aside from his name, Mazer. While both shared the same blue skin and the red eyes, their similarity seemed to end there. Mazer appeared to be cut from the typical mold of their species, the perfect soldier. Walker in turn knew he probably appeared as a joke, scraggly hair below his shoulders, jet black uniform, and scar along his face.

Recalling that the best way to learn about an opponent was to face them in battle, Walker lunged forward towards his opponent. As he did so he swung his saber down and across, hoping to end this relatively quickly.

It was to his great surprise then that the chiss blocked the attack with apprent ease, using a move that had not been covered in his limited practice of form 0, banlath.

Mazer was glad that he had practiced adapting his Kartranin sword skills to the lightsaber. After all he had only just recently been promoted to an Acoylte and able to use a training saber, but rules still said that he couldn't learn banlath, the basic lightsaber form, just yet. So he had resoned, why not use a practice saber for his Martial Arts form, allowing time to practice adjusting for the gyrotations of a real lightsaber.

After the succesfully defending the Protector's intial assualt, Mazer realized that the other Chiss while only slightly stronger, was much faster him. "But most importantly," Mazer thought to himself, "he is just begining to learn form 0, and as such performs it poorly, while I have nearly mastered Kartranin."

Invigorated by the thought, Mazer gazed at the other Chiss with those, same glowing eyes that had unsettled many a foe before, attempting to do just the same to the Chiss that had grown up away from his own kind. After another flurry of blows, both Chiss disengaged, and in the final moments of darkness, they both stood, out of combat range, staring at each other with the piercing red eyes. At the same instant, the two blue-skinned aliens reached into the force, attempting to draw the other's lightsaber away from there respective owners. [PUL] Boh, realizing at the last possible moment that Mazer could reach into the force faster than he could, switched tactics, and instead of pulling his adversary's lightsaber towards him, pushed his lightsaber to the right, which had been hurtling through the air toward his adversary. [TEK]

As his saber veered to the right, Walker gave up his attempt to pull his opponent's saber from his grasp. Reaching out with the Force, he instead struck Mazer across the throat[STK]. While Mazer grasped his throat, attempting to recover from the attack, Walker quickly moved over to where his light saber lay on the ground.

Kneeling down to pick it up, he rolled the handle across the palm of his hand, feeling the nearly unbroken smoothness of it. Pausing there for a moment, he looked across the space to where Mazer stood watching him. This was the place Walker was meant to be, he could feel that within his soul, but he wondered what had brought Mazer here. What trials and tests had he gone through to bring him to the Brotherhood? Sighing quietly, Walker tightened his grip on his saber and stood, holding it before him as though it were a shield.

Advancing towards his opponent, Mazer's hand twitched slightly, causing a rock lying along the pathway to hurtle towards the Protector's head[TES]. Seeing it out of the corner of the eye, Boh launched himself forward into a roll causing the rock to fly harmlessly over his head[DDG]. Coming out of the roll Walker stayed low as he launched himself towards the Acolyte before him. Tightening the grip on the saber in his right hand, he swung the saber across in front of him, attempting to cut the legs out from under his opponent.

As the glowing crimson blade sliced through the air towards him, Mazer scrambled backwards and watched it pass inches from his legs. Swinging his own saber downwards towards his opponent he felt a twinge of inner satisfaction as it descended towards his opponent's apparently undefended shoulder.

Seeing the blade coming down towards him, Walker instinctively reacted, pushing all the light away from the pair of duelists[TWL] in an attempt to confuse his opponent. Though not causing complete darkness, it did cause the immediate area to dim significantly and surprised his opponent enough to cause the descending blade to freeze in place as Mazer took in this new attack. As the Acolyte froze, Walker moved as quietly as he could out from under the blade and stepped behind his opponent

Unsure of how long this dimming of the light would last, Mazer threw his senses out in a wide circle to locate his opponent[SNS]. Finding his opponent rising behind him, The Chiss spun around, angry at the trickery that had just been used against him. As he did so he swung his light saber across towards the Protector, intending to decapitate him.

Bringing his own light saber up to block the incoming blade, sparks flew as the blades connected. Holding Mazer's saber back, Walker stared into the glowing eyes in front of him, smiling as he felt the blade attempt to push in towards his throat.

It was a surprise then to the Protector when Mazer's leg kicked him the stomach, doubling over in pain. Boh looked up just in time to see the Acolyte's Lightsaber make a line for his neck, and successfull doge it, but by the smell of the ozone, only just barely. Both combatants disengaged yet again, and both nodded in respect towards the other, Mazer for Walker's speed, and the Protector acknowledged the Acoylte's brains in adapting a martial art form to combat.

Even though the darkness was still in effect, both Chiss knew exactly were the other was because of not only there lightsaber, but their respective eyes pierced through the gloom. It came as a surprise then to Protector Boh when Mazer turned off his lightsaber and closed his eyes, making it appear as if he had just vanished. The Shadow Gate member started to stretch out with the force to sense where the other Arcona was, only to be hit with a flurry of blows behind causing his light saber to be flung out of his hands. [SNS] Walker turned around to defend himself of the blows, just as the distinctive hiss of a light saber came on. Reaching out with the force he attempted to call his light saber to his hand as his opponent sliced down at him. Walker stared in shock, and then in anger, down at the ground at his broken lightsaber.

As soon as he had cleaved the lightsaber in two, Mazer knew it had been a mistake. Usage of the dark side came from anger, and having his lightsaber broken had temporarily increased Walker's power in the force. Mazer was just able to get his force defenses in place, but it was to no avail, as the Protector striked Mazer through the force.[STR] The defenses had protected Mazer himself from most harm, but it had, as Mazer found out when he tried to use it, knocked his crystals out of alignment, which had the unfortunate side effect of causing the lightsaber to not work.

Mazer was therefore glad he had taken the time to learn Martial Arts using his skills he charge at the other chiss, shrugging off the force strike that was used on him, went into a seires of rapid blows. [STR] Walker in desperation threw up his hands, having never learned a Martial Arts form. The first couple of blows did not feel that bad to the stronger Chiss, but blow after blow, he felt his eyesight going, till it disappeared into blackness.

When Walker came to, it was to the site of the Acoylte, moving onwards. And not looking back once.

Walker 1 – I liked some of the imagery you used here and you worked well on fleshing out the atmosphere. The main problem I have with this post is that there is literally no combat whatsoever, barring the last line. When it comes to matches as short as these, not having any combat in an opening post is a problem for everyone involved, and it really doesn’t look too good either. There weren’t too many errors in your writing overall and, while the atmosphere was well done, the lack of combat is not working in your favour.

Mazer 1 – Mazer, the combat writing wasn’t terrible, but it left a lot of room for improvement. For example, instead of simply stating that they exchanged a flurry of blows, you could have helped yourself immensely by describing this area of combat; it’s not going to be overly long but it will help to improve your writing no end. Along with this, there were grammar errors to be found through the writing, something that could be eradicated by using a proof reader in the future (if need be, ask your master as he’d be glad to help you out with things like this). A bit on the short side, it’s by no means the worst post I’ve seen, but it could have been better.

Walker 2 – I’ll get the bad out of the way first; you messed up quite badly because you didn’t finish the battle in your post. This was meant to be a deathpost (as described in the ACC exam and in the rules) but you didn’t finish the battle. On to the good, the writing showed glimpses of promise and you managed to carry on the combat well, keeping the reader interested. Not overly many errors, but that error in regards to this not finishing the battle could have cost you the match.

Mazer 2 – Unfortunately Mazer, you finished the battle as a deathpost should, however you did not carry it on from the last ‘main’ post which was your own. With deathposts, both writers carry on from the last main post, and as you didn’t do that it counts against you. In addition to this, your second paragraph isn’t your best, as you cannot simply disappear from view without something causing it, and then you wrote that you had the skill to cut a lightsaber in half in mid-air when you really don’t have the skill to do that. Anger doesn’t really make the Force stronger in terms of the ACC and the AA, so that counts against you. There are some writing and grammar errors around, but unfortunately they aren’t overly important given the aforementioned errors with this deathpost.

Summary – Unfortunately, this battle was not won but lost. Mazer, if you had done your deathpost as carrying on from your last post it could have won the battle for you, but your error negated Walkers and given some of the other problems in your posts, along with Walker’s better writing (marginal, but still superior overall) the win goes to Walker Boh.

You both have potential to do well here. There is skill, you just need to get to grips with the rules and things in the ACC. Always get posts proofread when you can and you’ll be improving by leaps and bounds in no time at all. Any questions, feel free to email me or grab me on IRC, I’d be glad to give you a hand in the future.

Zandro Savric Erinos Arconae
Arcona CON