Let It Ride II

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar stepped up to the table. He waited for another game of chance. He knew Lady Vader would give him a challenging night. Maybe a game of chance, maybe a game of death...

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the table, cowled and Force-masked. His hand, half-buried beneath his cloak, flicked out. A heavy silver coin thudded onto the table before Dalamar.

A second hand emerged from the cloak's shadows, and together they pushed back the dark hood the covered the Sith Knight's face. The Force-masking faded into oblivion, letting his presence be felt. Black eyes bored into Dalamar's.

"I've made arrangements. We won't be disturbed."

Magor leapt to Je'gan's hand and snapped to life, its blue flame illuminating the Sith Knight's face.

"I do believe it's my turn to see some blood."

[Dalamar DeSang]

"I do believe it's my turn to see some blood."

"Your own fool! I see the dog pup disciple of Vega has found his courage again. Where is the Crimson Veil? It's mine and I want it back!" Dalamar's growled between his teeth.

The room grew dark and cold as the vampyre called the dark side of the force to him. A purplish glow emananted from him as he pulled his saber resistant Katana's. The silver dragon head hilt gleamed in the dim light.


With a move almost to fast to follow Dalamar struck the table. The two halves of it fell in two. But there at the tip of his blade the silver coin. "Show me! Lets see if you can regain your honor thief!"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan's face maintained its feral grin, but his eyes suddenly went icy.

"I believe I should be the last person to speak of honour were I you."

The coin exploded, throwing razor-sharp debris into Dalamar's face. The momentum had to be compensated for; the explosion was perfect, destroying only the side of the coin facing the vampyre. The remaining chunk, still firmly embedded on the tip of the sword, shot down and forward and took Dalamar's blade with it. Je'gan was already in motion, leaping forward over the descending blade with Force-enhanced, nigh-invisible speed and striking out in a flying side-kick to the upper chest. His leg was between his lightsaber and his opponent, preventing any real strike - obviously.

The flapping cloak still enveloped much, but beneath it, in his left hand, Je'gan held the deactivated hilt of his first lightsaber, bowl-hilted Azubah. There was a decent chance that Dalamar - or any opponent, really - would duck such a high kick should they manage to react in time. Should he not duck, there were of course a dozen other things he could do.

But few of those could prepare the ghost-pale Sith Lord for the instantaneous activation of a second sky-blue lightsaber blade, aimed directly at him as Je'gan flew through the air at speeds not many eyes could even track, let alone react to.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar was struck in the face by the silver coin fragments. His hand moved up in reflex to protect himself. He didn't even see Je'gan move he kicked him in the chest knocking him back into another table. Poker chips and cards flew all over the room.


Blood trickled down his face from the cuts. Rage grew in his eyes and they glowed a deeper red. He wiped the dust from the boot print off his chest as he scramble to stand up.

The tip of his blades had a scorch mark on it. Dalamar had both his blades in his hand. He ran and spun making a deadly whirl of blades aimed at Je'gans legs...

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan touched down lightly in something beside his usual delicate fencing pose, something strong and low. With both blades out and his danger-sense fully engaged, he was fast enough to block that insane flurry of something that wasn't quite steel. The problem was twofold: that Dalamar was considerably stronger than him, and that his blades carried more mass than the plasma of Je'gan's lightsabers. His wrists began to ache, and a line of blood appeared on the outside of his right calf from a parry that was driven back. Hissing, the Sith Knight took advantage of a double attack with a double parry that momentarily immobilized both of Dalamar's weapons and shot forward with his rear leg in a front kick to the vampyre's gut.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar grunted as he was kicked. He then Grabbed Je'gans leg and gave him a kick to the groin!!

The vampyre heard a sickening crunch. "Ooh, I know that has got to hurt!" Dalamar said with a smile. Dalamar finished with an uppercut to the jaw.

"Ohh, come on don't give up please, try harder." Dalamar was enjoying himself as he sheathed his weapons and decided to fight hand to hand.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

The crunch was more than half the breaking, clean in two, of the armoured codpiece that Je'gan wore habitually under his clothing.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt.

On the verge of initiating pain feed, he reacted to the uppercut an instant too slowly and went flying over the wreckage of the first table to skid along an open stretch of floor. Both lightsabers deactivated in midair. As he got back to his feet, steady once more, he noted his opponent's new stance. The lightsabers returned to Je'gan's belt and pain feed engaged.

Je'gan moved in with blurring speed, feinting a left jab. His true attack became evident as his fists touched before his face, shot forward inside Dalamar's guard, and veered out to grab the vampyre by the ears. Je'gan shot in and up to deliver a brutal headbutt.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar simply nodded his head down and let Je'gan smash his own nose. Then gave him a push to the throat with a flat hand.
Dalamar wrapped his arms around his throat and started to choke him.

"Where is the Crimson Veil?" The vampyre Repeated. The vampyre sensed Je'gan tense up. The vampyre wasn't going to fall for that exploding trick again. He shielded himself with the force. Then asked again. "Where is It?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

It's in Shadows' Hold, he replied telepathically, physical speech being a bit difficult at the moment. Dalamar had guessed correctly: his first attempt at freedom had been a try for the explosion of the vampire's wrists. The shield that now covered the larger man handily prevented that from happening.

The second attempt, though...well, he'd like to see the Sith Lord's shield stop that.

His lightsaber Azubah, guarded by a bowl-shaped hilt of an ultradense alloy, was attached to Je'gan's belt. A telekinetic grip snapped it out to point at Dalamar's midsection, and the blue blade hissed to life. Even a vampyre wasn't fast enough to totally evade the blade's instantaneous appearance at point-blank range. The stench of cooked meat drifted up to assail Je'gan's nostrils.

[Dalamar DeSang]

"It's in Shadows' Hold"

Pain!! Dalamar tightened his grip. His side was burning where he had pierced him with the lightsaber. Dalamar's reaction was instantionous and lethal. This was no longer a game. He clicked his boot blade a kicked him behind the kneecap.

Blood splattered on the floor in front of Je'gan and his body slid down pulling the pain with it. As the lightsaber slid down also. Free from the burning saber he place his foot on Je'gans now bent leg and stretched his neck tight close to the point of snapping.

"Seartha Viennte Puska Viennte!!" Je'gan didn't know what it meant but he could sense the vampyre's good mood had drastically changed.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

The shifting danger-sense signature was familiar and unmistakeable: the same signature that he'd sensed last time, in connection with Dalamar's foot, or more precisely his boot. Je'gan's reaction was immediate: his hands, entirely free, dipped to catch the boot dead as the blade began to bite into the back of his knee. As he was forced downwards, he shifted his weight towards the injured leg and rolled to the side, hauling up on the ankle in his hands to send Dalamar flying in the other direction. His upper hand detached and swept up in a perfect Teras Kasi rising block that completed the job of ripping the vampyre's grip free from around his throat. Dal went one way, Je'gan rolled the other, and the Sith Knight came to his feet with only a minor burn on his forearm to show for having left the lightsaber on - the hilt had kept it away from most appendages.

Je'gan's eyes flashed, and the vampyre's boot blade exploded up into the sole and through the housing, scoring along the Sith Lord's ankle and shin, and leaving scars on the floor from the backlash.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalmar's felt a sharp pain go up his leg as his boot blade came out of its housing and stuck to the wall behind him.

The vampyre smiled this was getting good to him. He hadn't had a decent challenge in.... Well actually a long time.

Dalamar kept his moves simple. Combining vampyre and force speed he was on Je'gan in a blink. He palm open he punched him close to near full strength in the chest. He felt some resistance maybe the man put up a shield. He didnt know.

That was good, because Dalamar thought surely that he would punch right thru the man. As it was the backlash from the blow was awful. Dalamar again pulled his blades and this time he was going to hurt the man.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

As fast as Dalamar moved, though, Je'gan matched him, drawing deeply on the Force. He couldn't raise a shield that fast, so he didn't even try. What he did, was blast an illusion to life inside Dalamar's skull: him, not blocking, taking the full force of the blow and flying backwards to slam into a wall.

Whereas he was still standing in front of the vampyre, executing a perfect and blurring Teras Kasi block to the punch and driving his left hand towards Dalamar's throat as the vampire pulled out his blades. Je'gan's hand sprouted Shadow from the reservoir around his forearm. The black solid streamed over palm and fingers and formed into claws, ripping into Dalamar's throat and still lengthening. They burned - and not only did they burn, but wherever they touched the other man's flesh, white skin turned the sickly grey of necrosis.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Smoke and mirrors blew away as Je'gan grabbed him. He appeared out of no where. Clever little bastich the vampyre thought. He ripped into the vampyre's throat knocking him back with incredible force.

The vampyre fell to one knee. His reaction was automatic he thrust his twin Katana's into his gut. The look on Je'gans face was priceless. He got back to his feet and pushed driving Je'gan back and back into the wall. His throat was on fire. He couldn't see what was happening to his neck but it hurt like hell.

Dalamar jerked the blade sideways in his midsection causing incredible damage. "Make an illusion out of that!" The vampyre roared as Je'gan slumped. The knight had made Dalamar angry. He was breathing heavy not from exertion but from the rage that rippled thru him as the force glowed around him in its purplish hue.

His throat burned but would get better. He waited for Je'gans next move he knew that the knight would not go down that easy.....

[Je'gan Olra'en]

While he did slump, his conscious reaction was somewhat more practical. His left hand convulsed, meeting through Dalamar's windpipe and ripping free with gobbets of greying nerves and blood vessels hanging off the Shadowclaws. His right hand, too, moved quickly, hitting the vampire in the chest and throwing Je'gan back and free of the blades and instant before they diverged.

He got to his feet slowly, Shadow squirming underneath his shirt and beginning to cauterize the massive wounds. That eliminated Shadowlightning as a viable option, which was a pity.

But Je'gan's bag of tricks was far from exhausted.

He sidestepped and began to circle, putting more distance between himself and his foe. His hands clenched and unclenched rythmically as he fought and fed off the pain. The long dirk - a thin shortsword, really - came free from his belt and flipped in his hands, neuronic whip function locking on. Rearing back with Force-enhancement on full, he threw the weapon overhand towards Dalamar's chest.

Dalamar would dodge, or block with his katanas, or perhaps use telekinesis - although that last would have a hard time working with the speed the shortsword was moving. But he wouldn't raise a shield against such a simple attack; it just wasn't his style.

Je'gan was counting on it, just as he was counting on Dalamar knowing enough of Je'gan's own style to assume that he'd never willingly waste an asset, especially one he was so attached to as the long dirk that had been his primary weapon during their first encounter.

A split second before any contact could be made, the dirk exploded - power cell, blade and all - into a shockwave composed of several hundred fragments of superheated, razor-sharp metal and energy from the power cell. At that range, to dodge was essentially impossible, and creating a shield in time was worse. Dalamar's skin and flesh began to peel away under the onslaught.

Je'gan pulled out his lightsabers.

Blood began to puddle around Dalamar's feet.

[Dalamar DeSang]

"BOY that exploding trick of your is old and cliche. You need some new tricks in your repetoire." The vampyre said with disdain.

Blocking most of the debris he was still cut up pretty good. Then doing something he once saw in a holovid he reached down and dipped his finger in the blood. He then licked his finger and a growl could be heard deep in the base of his throat.

Using the force he picked up every sharp piece of metal and threw it at the knight. Dalamar charged at the same time Katana's drawn. His blood trailed behind him.

Unknown to Je'gan behind him a sharp piece of dura steel rose to his level. The vampyre closed the small space between them....

[Je'gan Olra'en]

...and ran straight through Je'gan, right into his own telekinetic projectile, now moving quickly towards him due to a moderate Force-grip.

The real Je'gan shimmered into existence on Dalamar's flank, flicking his sabers into a pair of attacks, one for the back of the vampyre's head and one for the back of his right knee. The top one was deflected, coinciding with the telekinetic projectile to thoroughly wreck Dalamar's barely-recovered balance. The second one, however, got through, searing through Dalamar's right hamstring and sending him tumbling away without control of his lower leg.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar fell using his face for a brake. He turned around from where he lay quickly. Twice he had been fooled by Je'gans illusions. He was letting his anger get the better of him.

He called the force to him as he stood up. Using the force he braced his bad leg. He would heal given some time but he knew Je'gan wouldn't give him that time.

Pulling out a small vial he drank it quickly. The cool blood like mixture felt good on his hot throat. His leg already felt better but was no where near healed.

He relaxed focusing on the mans heartbeat his illusions would do him no good now. Sith lightning filled the room as Dalamar pushed it out in an awkward wave. The gambling tables ruptured and chips flew into the air.

Jegan was not hurt but he was pushed back...

The vampyre needed time. His leg was bad he armed his gauntlet and pulled his katana's. The force helped him stand but the pain was excruciating...

[Je'gan Olra'en]

No, he wasn't hurt by the blast...but that didn't stop him from calling the Shadow back from his now-cauterized stomach wounds to form pitch-black gloves over his hands and forearms as if he was going to deflect electricity.

He pressed the assault, raising both lightsaber-wielding hands and infusing the Shadow with a spark of will. Tendrils blasted out from his hands, those from one hitting the Sith Lord's gauntlet - he hadn't missed the shift in Dalamar's danger-web, especially not after getting his feet pinned to the ground last time - and throwing it, and the vampyre's arm, wide; those of the other hand striking Dalamar like a quartet of striking snakes - two to the pectorals, one to the gut and one to the collarbone - and throwing him off his feet. The tendrils of Shadowlightning that hit the gauntlet twined around and under it, burning and inducing necrosis. This was not mind-bound Shadow like that he'd used in their last fight - he'd learned from his mistake. This was anchored Shadow, and its corrosive and necrotic nature was not tied to how hard he concentrated.

His eerie silence continued. Unlike many of his fellows, he didn't talk when he fought. It was a waste of energy. His interpretation of dun moch, the ancient Sith doctrine of total domination over one's opponent, didn't require taunting - just persistence.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar rolled and with a leap enforced jump landed on Je'gan. he bit into his neck savoring the hot blood. Je'gan struggled but the vampyre held him fast.

He locked his arms and legs around him in a rock hard vice grip. Pinning Je'gan in his arms. There blood mixed from both there wounds but the vampyre began to suck him dry. The tendon on his leg snapped as the blood flooded down his throat.

His leg better he threw Je'gan away from him like a rag doll. Swords again pulled he came. Je'gan had dared much but it was time for him to die. His blood was sprayed on the front of Dalamars armor. Je'gan looked like blood red pale death.

His strength renewed from Je'gans blood his wounds where fading where as Je'gan was no doubt weakened from the massive loss of blood....

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Dalamar had made two mistakes.

The first was that he was trying to suck the blood of someone who had been a subject of vampiric feeding before, and had not been anxious to repeat the experience. Underneath Je'gan's high collar was a band of Shadow, and beneath it a thin layer of plasteel. Between the two, Dalamar's fangs, powerful as they were, never touched skin.

What he sucked in so enthusiastiaclly was in fact Shadow, which had healing properties only when it was made with positive emotion. This hadn't been. Smoke began to pour from Dalamar's mouth, nostrils and tear ducts as the Shadow began to burn him alive from the inside out.

The second mistake had been to jump, bare-handed, at an armed Form Two Master. As Je'gan retracted the Shadowlightning, his blades had changed angle to point forward, punching through Dalamar's chest in mid-leap. Now, as Dalamar came again, those sky-blue blades were up and ready, flickering anxiously in tiny little circles. They wanted blood.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar coughed and gagged. The effects from the vial he had taken earlier was the cause of his renewed vigor not Je'gans blood. Steam rose out of his mouth as he ungourged the black filth...

The purple hue of the force still surrounded him. He used it to lock himself in place. To cement him to the ground in a protective shield. He grabbed Je'gan around the throat in fierce power. His iron cable muscles dug into the thin layer of plasteel. His fingers making an impression he ripped it free from Je'gan. Then reapplying pressure and strength beyond Je'gans he choked him. His heartbeat sped up. Dalamar looked into the eyes of the man and spoke again.. "No illusion will trick me, no explosion will knock me back. Your black filth cannot penetrate my shield. So Je'gan as you push against my forcefield and see your life fade in my hands. Will you tell me what you have done with the Crimson Veil? Or shall I apply just a little more pressure and end all your concerns..?"

Shall I take your life or hmmnnn? Maybe your hand would be good as a momento a reminder, not to take what is not yours...

Dalamar saw the mans face turn red as the blood gathered there. Not an illusion but Je'gan. His heart beat like thunder under his Dark prescence... then slower... s l o w e r....

[Je'gan Olra'en]

For the first time, there was fear in Je'gan's eyes. His lightsabers, deactivated in his hands, had inflicted a new pair of gashes through the force field as Dalamar chose yet again to rush an armed Je'gan, but suddenly his hands seemed limp, inactive, hanging down by his sides as he appeared to give up. His mouth opened-

Two things happened in an eyeblink. Je'gan's mind crashed against Dalamar's, slicing and stabbing and clawing away. Against anyone of lesser ability, it would have dominated. As it was, Dalamar's force field flickered, just for a moment.

A moment in which the second thing happened. Je'gan's forearms, energized by a truly titanic amount of the Force, swept up in a pair of perfect, mirror-image inside-outside blocks. Dalamar was quick: the Sith Lord blocked one, taking the blow full-force and splintering the bones and cartilage of his hand. The other, however, hit Dalamar's outstretched forearm in the split second before the shield came back up. Dalamar's forearm stretched like taffy as the bones exploded in a two-inch spot. Ruptured flesh sprayed blood.

The shield came back up. Je'gan was thrown backwards as his hands and arms were caught in the shield's matrix. What remained of Dalamar's grip broke, and Je'gan turned a full somersault in the air to land neatly on his feet. Burns covered his own forearms, and something around the cauterized stomach wounds had split to further stain the front of his tunic, but as he flicked both blue blades back online and assumed a new stance, there could be no doubt: he was still deadly.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamars arm was hurt but he didn't care. He came at Je'gan swords slashing down then up...

His blue blades sparked off his own... Sith lightning flew from the tip of his sword. Striking him in the chest. His shields still up he moved in to get the answers to the Crimson Veil... That precious fluid that he had worked so hard to come by.. Its worth incalculable..

Je'gan blocked the lightning but the vampyre was relentless. He lunged and lunged Je'gan barely blocking every time...

Dalamar brought the hard metal tip down hard into Je'gans boot. Pinning him to the floor. With his hand free he again grabbed his throat. His metal tipped black talon gloves drew blood instantly. His durasteel shield now so much crumpled metal on the floor behind them....

Dalamar doubled the strength of his shield this time. Again he grounded himself.. Je'gan would be in his thrall and then the nothing would be hidden least of all the whereabouts of the Crimson Veil....

[Je'gan Olra'en]

There had been options - so many options - for dealing with the first choke hold. As Dalamar tried it again, Je'gan let a feral - if pained - grin seep over his features, replacing the vapid fear that he'd projected there.

Dalamar had only one working hand, and thus the sword now pinning Je'gan's foot to the floor was untended. Both lightsabers still lit, he crossed them and brought them up point-blank, hitting the hilt of the katana at a perfect angle to send its blade scything up for the inside of Dalamar's leg. The lightsabers continued on, hitting Dalamar's extended arm at the elbow, and suddenly that shield was under severe stress. It could stop a lot, but it couldn't fully stop a lightsaber let alone two.

[Dalamar DeSang]

Je'gan underestimated Dalamar's power. His sword bounced off his leg. He then in his desperation tried to strike him with his lightsabres. The Vamprye modulated the strength of his personal field to the intended strike zone.

Je'gans color was fading from his face as the blood was blocked by the crushing choke hold Dalamar held on him. A rasping wheezing sound was all he heard as Olra'en began to breathe his last.

Slamming his boot down on the wounded foot he put Je'gan in a more painful position. He squeezed even harder as the mans eyes seemed to bulge in hazy death.

"Where is the Crimson Veil? Speak or I will take your thieving hand and your life."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Once again - almost surprising, really - Dalamar had screwed up.

The vampyre's original shield hadn't been enough to stop a lightsaber's blade. Though this one had twice the power, there were two lightsabers, each cutting at the same place - the shield was taking twice the energy in a very localized area, and it failed. Je'gan's blades snick-ed neatly into Dalamar's elbow, removing much of the structure of the joint and leaving the vampyre's remaining forearm hanging by little more than a few tendons, some muscle, and some skin. The bone, for several inches both above and below where the joint had been, was gone.

Je'gan fell back, smiling triumphantly as he jerked his foot out from under Dalamar's. His blades pointed forward once more as he stepped away, balance perfect.

"You've messed up one too many times...and I've won. Accept that and I'll give you back half of your potion."

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar was bleeding again. He flung his arm down locking the joint back in place. Grimace of pain covered him.

"You've messed up one too many times...and I've won. Accept that and I'll give you back half of your potion."

Dalamar laughed inwardly. This man did not know the meaning of a true fight. DeSang would never surrender never yield. He would come after Je'gan until he had what was his or he was dead. Him or Je'gan.

As for making a mistake? Yeah he made a mistake he let this man get to close to his prize. That was the only mistake. The man though a formidable fighter was only human. He would tire, he would grow weary. Where as Dalamar was a Death Dealer. Powerful, unyielding. He would crush Je'gan against his Dragons heart.

But time was running short and half of the potion was more than what he needed. He mulled over his options the time for the door to open was coming and if he didn't have the potion he would never find out about his past.

So in a crushing blow to his pride. Dalamar who had never lost shamed himself. "I Yield." he said to Je'gan. His face twisted in pain again but none of it had to do with any wounds that he had received.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

The Sith Knight barked a laugh, but did not lower his guard. He could almost taste the truth in Dalamar's reluctant words; nevertheless, should Je'gan show himself anything less than totally prepared, he knew the situation could be reversed in an eyeblink.

"Give me an address, then," he said. "To where do I send your half of the Veil?"

[Dalamar DeSang]

Dalamar sheathed his weapons and walked over to his. Gauntlet. It still mostly worked. Punching a few buttons a small disk slid out.

He then handed it to Je'gan.

Rapidly his strength was returning but still his arm and leg hurt. It would take a 3 or 4 days for the arm to be normal again. Maybe a 2 for the leg. He was wounded pretty bad. He had 6 days until the door opened. It would be cutting it close. But what was done was done. He took the vial out of his pocket and took another shot of fresh blood. It helped very little in such short supply but it still felt good on his dry throat.

Dalamar had to trust that Je'gan had some honor. If he did not fulfill his part of the 'bargain'.

'Well lets not go there until we had to'.... he thought
He then left the bar with his bruised pride.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

To tell the truth, Je'gan had very little honour in combat. He would do whatever he deemed necessary. There was, however, no reason to be dishonourable in the other aspects of his life - or at least not right now. Half of the Veil would be sent to the address on the disk.

He was cautious about accepting the disk, doing so by telekinesis only after he was sure that his danger-sense associated nothing with it. As Dalamar left, Je'gan flicked his right blade up in salute, then left in another direction entirely. He only slipped once on the blood.