Chapter 35 - Mustafar (2)

After eying the building for a time and elaborating a plan, he resumed his search of the droid.

Flying low, near the molten ground was really tiring, everything was the same on Mustafar and the radars didn't find the crashed ship even after hours of searching.

T3 was behind him, in the cockpit and trying to improve the range of the radar at Layan request, but it wasn't really working.

It continued for some time, until the radar beeped which finally gave Layan hope. Heading toward the structure located by the radars, he saw ruins.

Before he could look closely at the structure, he saw blaster fire being shot from inside the ruins and a bit farther away, apparently a fight was ongoing.

He landed the ship a kilometer away from the fight and hurried at the top of a hill overlooking the fight.

What appeared to be bandits were attacking those inhabiting the ruins, which were appeared to be of Jedi construction.

In a normal situation, he would be drawn to this ruin to explore it but the defenders were intriguing him even more. Around thirty persons were defending the ruins, most of them were using blasters, but a small group of five attracted his attention as they were swinging red blades lightsabers to kill their opponents.

All of them were wearing black robes and masks covering entirely their face, add to that lightsabers, all of them with a red blade and an idea come easily to the mind.

(Their skills are far too lacking to be Siths trained under Sidious as a secret group. Maybe a lost group of Siths or Dark Jedis in hiding.)

While watching them fight, he was using Force Stealth to hide his presence, and as he saw them fighting, he realized that their skills were lacking in almost every aspect, they were strong but not masters.

Soon, the fight ended with the defenders group victory. Most of them headed back inside while the others were scavenging the dead bodies before throwing them into a river of lava.

(What are they really?)

Layan was really intrigued by this group as their presence in the force was similar to his, neither fully light nor dark. Nonetheless, they weren't balanced, the dark side was stronger than the light side inside them, which was the opposite of Layan as he was lacking the teachings of the dark side.

(I have to unravel this enigma and maybe recruit them as our interest may align.)

Layan used an ability he loved but which was rarely used by force-users because of its difficulty and the focus needed to use it. It was extremely taxing and a natural talent is necessary to learn it, because of the extreme difficulty of this technique.

Fortunately, ever since he reincarnated, it was like he got talent in every aspects of the Force, making of him one of the most versatile force-user in history.

Force Cloak was a good ability for infiltration, but coupled with Force Stealth, he was virtually undetectable, even to force sensitive individuals.

After bypassing those keeping watch and taking care of the dead bodies outside, he made his way stealthily inside the Jedi ruins. The inside was like the outside, damaged, but repair have been done to make it more habitable.

As he was walking, he was hiding exploding devices in dark corners just in case something goes wrong as they were more than 30 while he was alone, the only backup he could count on was the training droid and the MagnaGuard still inside the Phoenix.

Following the strongest force signature, he stepped inside a large room where was seated a male human with four red bladed lightsabers floating around him.

He was bald, his physical appearance was around forty maybe more and was wearing a brown cloak over the black clothes they all wore. He was apparently meditating or training the movements of his lightsabers in the air.

(Telekinetic lightsaber combat, like Traya?)

Layan himself tried to recreate this technique in the past, but it was really complicated to reach her level as she was said to be able to fight without raising a hand, and to kill her enemies only while telekinetically manipulating her lightsabers.

"Ambitious, I tried to recreate it too in the past. How are your progress?"

The man was stunned by the sudden voice and raised on his feet and took the lightsaber at his belt before activating it; he was now armed with 5 lightsabers. The intruder must be strong in the force as he, San'sii, the Kursk of the Blackguard was unable to detect it even with all his efforts.

"Show yourself, intruder!"

"How, pretty tense. Don't worry, I'm not here to fight but to talk."

In front of the blackguard leader appeared a man out of nowhere, a Mirialan in his twenties with a beautiful golden skin. He was standing nonchalantly, not disturbed by the 5 lightsabers no pointed at him.

"Who are you? Why did you intrude upon the temple of the Blackguard?"

Even if the intruder was now visible, San'sii stay on high alert as he couldn't feel the force in the man, but the lightsaber hanging at his waist was indicating that he was trained in the ways of the force.

"Already answered that. I'm here to talk to you. I came across your peoples by coincidence, and what was not my surprise when I discovered that you were searching a way to reach balance in the force."

The young man told with an even voice and San'sii couldn't detect lies within him but he couldn't even feel him so he may be able to disrupt his perception skills.

"What do you want from us? Becoming allies?"

"Allies? Hell, no! I want you and your group to become my subordinates."

The young man looking at him with derision when he talked about an alliance. In his eyes, he could see it, arrogance, he wasn't considering him the Kursk as a worthy opponent or ally.

"The Blackguard will never submit. Our goal may be similar, but our cultures and ideals aren't. What do you want to do now? Will you fight me?"

"Then you'll die, you and those who refuse to follow me will accompany you to become one with the Force. After this I'll take all the relics and lightsabers you accumulated over the years of existence of your organization."

As he said that, Layan took his lightsaber hilt on his right hand before lighting the silver blade on, ready to start the fight.

Layan rushed fast toward the man and unleashed a fury of powerful blows using his favorite fighting form. His opponent, San'sii was using his multiples blades in a horizontal position to block the power behind his blows.

The humming sounds of the blades and the sounds of their foots on the floor were the only sounds heard in the room.

"Sloppy at best. Believing yourself to be a master and trying to fight while copying a legendary master. All you do is moving your lightsabers around while Traya could use it as if several persons were holding the blades and attacking her opponents with perfect synchronization."

Dun Möch was something he liked to use, but it was useful only against opponents unable to keep their calm during a fight.

As Layan said, the Blackguard leader wasn't skilled at all. This technique may be surprising to someone who never saw it, but to Layan who tried to recreate it and trained in it during months it was easy to read, like an open book.

San'sii used the lightsaber in his hand to attack using the Ataru form while using the other blades in the air as defenses to hold Layan offensive back.

"You are using the surprise to compensate for your lack of skills. Really laughable, and you are supposed to be the leader of these peoples. You know what? Forget what I said, I retract my offer, I don't want trashes as subordinates."

As he said that he send a powerful Force Push which send him collide with a wall, and while he was lacking hold over his lightsabers, he used a Force Pull to make the 4 lightsabers hilts he deactivates in mid air come at him before hanging them at his waist.

"Laughable. I have no other words to describe your fighting style. Manipulating remotely all these lightsabers is taking most of your focus, thus making you easier to read."

At these words, San'sii became enraged and run at him with his last lightsaber left and unleashed a powerful offensive, still in form IV.

Layan suddenly changed for Makashi and started to deviate elegantly every blow with ease and at each opening, he was targeting his opponent's legs, forcing him to retreat and stop the offensive, thus breaking his rhythm and tiring him further.

His strategy was extremely simple, Makashi was based on economy of movements and precision, whereas Ataru was extremely offensive and based on speed and agility, and had the defect to tiring fast its user.

Soon, his opponent attacks became less regular and less powerful. Seeing this, Layan immediately switched back for Form V and re-started his offensive.

With upper strike, San'sii was pushed under powerful blows in a kneeling position, force to protect himself, barely holding his defense as Layan was striking again and again with his frost silver blade.

After a last strike, San'sii arm was pushed away under a forceful blow and Layan finished him off with a powerful blow that bisected him into two, separating his chest diagonally in half.

"Five lightsabers, not bad I'll use the spare piece to build my new twins lightsabers. Now, let's see where are their relics."

After taking the last lightsaber of the dead body, he headed further into the room, from where was coming a red light illuminating the room.

At the end of the room was a bed and several bookcases filled with books from all across the galaxy, but compared to Ossus library it was lacking. Only one thing attracted Layan attention, lying on a bookcase was a small red pyramid emitting red light.

"A Sith holocron."

He murmured under his breath, totally taken aback by his discovery. Layan put it inside his pocket before heading back, from where he was coming, but without hiding this presence anymore. While passing by the leader dead body, he cut the head apart from the body and took it in his left hand and his lit lightsaber in his right.