Battle with Darth Marr I

~~~(POV: Nathan Opal)~~~

~~~(Location: Treasure Vaults of the Rakata, Belsavis)~~~

"Darth Jadus is an important figure in the Empire, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill him. But it is clearly seen that I couldn't stop you if you decide to."

Darth Marr is playing his situation to the best of his abilities, and I commend him for doing what he can when he's up against me. Darth Jadus is a wild card to me. He didn't do much in the grand story of this era of Star Wars, but I can't see any outright reason to kill him.

He dies during the time of the Knights of The Eternal Throne anyway, and thus killing him here won't serve many purposes.

"How about we make it interesting, Darth Marr."

I've got a good idea to make this more than just a decision about someone's life exclusively made by me. I think that Darth Marr should be involved in this. After all, Darth Jadus is his ally.

"What do you propose, Nathan."

Darth Marr is always as cool as he can possibly be. A true Sith in the sense of it. A Master of his emotions and power. I could learn a thing or two from him in regards to controlling my emotions, but that's not possible.

"If you can survive a 2-minute onslaught of my Lightsaber Combat, I'll let Darth Jadus live. But if you can't hang for 2 minutes, then he dies. The fate of your ally is in your hands. What do you say?"

I don't expect him to fight for the life of another, and that's the whole point of this. To try making him do something he never would consider.

"And what if I refuse?"

Always looking at all the options. If the Dark Council and the Empire were led by Darth Marr alone, the war would've been won long before I gained all this power.

"Then he dies now, and I leave you with your little plans for whatever's in that Treasure Vault. No doubt some weapon."

The choice to let Darth Jadus die is the right one, in a Sith's mind. Darth Jadus is a powerful rival and someone that could cause Darth Marr problems. In his mind, at least.

"Fine, 2 minutes is all I need to get through, and when I do. You'll let him live."

He surprises me... This isn't the Darth Marr that I know from the games. Not the choice he's making at the moment. But he's called the Pragmatic Sith Lord for a reason. Perhaps he sees Darth Jadus far more needed than I do.

He reignites his Lightsaber, and I do the same thing. He gets into a Juyo stance, and I can see that he'll be giving it his all.

I shift into my custom stance and prepare to fight in my custom form, and it does have a slight intimidation effect on Darth Marr. He's never seen such a stance before. His caution is warranted. I haven't come across someone that can handle their own when I'm using my custom form.

"Let's not waste any more time with idle chatter."

I couldn't agree more.

And with the true nature of Juyo, he leaps forward and starts to unleash some of the most powerful attacks I've ever experienced. But I begin to retaliate.

My constant parrying and flawless attacks show the mixture of styles I've come to master. And it's proving difficult for Darth Marr to keep up with. He backflips away and fires Force Lightning at me.

I hold out my hand, and the Force Lightning bounces off and hits the ceiling above me. The rocks and rubble start to fall towards me, but they stop and gently float down and rest next to me.

"That was impressive, Darth Marr. You anticipated that I'd send your attack away. A normal warrior would've died from such a clever little scheme."

He shifts back into his stance and prepares for me to press forward.

"To bad for you that it's only been 20 seconds since we started. Let's see if you can handle things if I take it up a notch."

I've been holding back till this point, but I think it's time I let some of the restraints I've put on myself off. And push the limits of my Lightsaber Combat.