A Call to Arms: Del vs Ogre

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

He rose from the bed in the guest chamber he had been shown to in Bast Keep. He had yet to leave this place, wanting to learn more about his Disciple and what happened in this strange yet dripping with history of the Sith and the Dark arts, place.

He felt a calling a calling from someone he hadn’t met face to face as of yet, but he knew of her from the thoughts of his wife. Delirion was a kindred spirit in his wife’s mind and Ogre gleaned a great deal of information regarding her from being one with Dale’s thoughts, as she was with his own.

The calling he heard was from Delirion. She wished to test her skill against the green Sith Master, in an effort to improve her own prowess and sharpen as many aspects of her skill as she could. Ogre was never one to miss the chance of tasting fresh blood and dealing some pain, tempered with a little eager instruction, as few could do as he did.

He stood next to the bed and gathered his weapons, which sat next to it. He strapped his weapons harness over his chest. It contained his crystal daggers and his Sith Sword, Lucifer, as well as the harness for his Enchanted Axe, which only those of his blood could lay hands on without suffering incredible pain and agony. That was next, he lifted his axe from the ground and laid it upside down in the harness. Then came his belt, which contained a medium sized pouch and his double bladed saber. Strapping the saber to his leg, Ogre looked rather like a small armory carrying so many weapons.

Now with the handle of his axe protruding directly vertical, while the hilt of his sword was diagonally sticking up just above his left shoulder, he turned and walked towards the door, having to crouch down to keep his head and the handles of his weapons from impeding his exit.

Once outside the Keep, he looked to the sky and wrinkled his nose as the fumes of sulfur and burning magma cluttered his keen senses. The sky was strangely clear at least for the time being as the Sith Master made his way down the steps, seeking the place where he was to meet and impart his own doctrines upon Delirion.

<IMG src=http://thesithempire.clanpages.com/Sig4.gif width=500 height=215><FONT size=1>[ <font size=1>Ogre's Cave</FONT> (http://pub55.ezboard.com/bogrescave)] [ <font size=1>Irentios</font> (http://pub31.ezboard.com/birentios)]</FONT>

[Delirion]

As she slowly walked up the corridor to the outside, her fingers fingered her master's old saber nervously. She was clad rather simply, in a black combat suit for this occasion. Her old and now almost tattered cloak covered her shoulder, trailed on the ground behind her, enveloping her head in its darkness.

She felt very curious about this husband of her once-sister. Heard of him, she had - heard of him, and come to fear him, maybe. Yet were the tales she had heard truthful?

As big and tall as a rancor, she had once heard him described, yet how could that be true? Of skin-colour, he was said to be green, with horns and tusks of every description.

A creature to be feared, indeed. Yet how had he come to be the beloved of Dalethria? A tale worthy to be told once upon a time, she guessed. She did not know enough of her sister to be in her confidence completely - nor had she any wish to be. If there be tales told, it would needs be after this challenge.

Remembering only too well her last time in a fight, with Anbira Hicchoru, she could not help but doubt her intentions now. Was she so bent on losing her life now? For that she easily could - Anbira had shown her the foolishness of her thinking, the danger she could unwittingly put herself into.

But she had a goal, had a reason. That goal was soon to be reached, yet only could it be so with the aid of many an hour of relentless training and studying - and who best to train with and study but those who were Masters at all the appellation of "Sith" stood for. And to be victorious over a Sith, over this particular Sith, she would need to learn to be, to feel, to see, to fight, to think like a Sith.

Thus it was that she had sought out Ogre now. He was waiting for her in the inner circle of the ruins, standing there tall and towering over everything in sight. Green he was, indeed, and tusks he possessed. Armed to the teeth he was, as well.

It was clear that her fighting prowess, as much of it as existed, would not be of much help here. No, she had to fight this a different way.

What would he expect? For her to bow to him and acknowledge his presence? Yes she could do that.

But it was her old master's silver blade that sprung up first, arching out into the sky. Yet she did not make any offensive move with it, but bent it to the ground before him.

"I greet you, Sith Master Ogre Mal Pannis. I trust your wife, my sister in spirit, fares well?"

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

He watched her step forward and greet him, drawing her saber and igniting it before even speaking. She seemed eager to get right to the meat of things and Ogre was not one to decline such a desire, because his lust to cover his hands with the blood of any combatant was so strong that it sometimes led him to make poor choices. Those poor choices had only been costly once or twice and usually turned out in his favor due to his overpowering ferocity and unrelenting battle spirit.

Before her saber was even fully ignited, his Sith Sorcery laced sword was in is hands, difficult to make out in the light that Vjun offered. He started to approach her slowly and methodically, a grin spreading across his face as he did, the sword he carried, tilted at an angle towards the ground at his side as it was in front of him, but kept lowered for the time being.

Her initial question to him was curious. Was it some kind of ploy to attempt to make him relax and feel a shared kindred-ship with her as his wife has, so that perhaps he would be easy to manipulate into doing something foolish or not keeping his guard up? If it was or was not did not concern him much, his senses were keen and alert. As his tusked face smiled at her, his presence touched the Force, driven by his lust for blood and battle and his absolute distrust of anyone or anything except the few that were closest to him.

“Greetings Delirion, she is well. Are you ready to bleed for me?”

As the last syllable escaped his lips he lunged forward and engaged her saber with his sword, his strength catching her somewhat by surprise as the blades met. As they did an open claw swiped at her face while he bound her saber with the protruding hilt blades of his sword, swiveling his wrist so that the plasma weapon would be caught within.

Red painted claw tips lashed at her face with speed and power matched by almost none in the entire Universe. Ogre intended to have her blood on his hands immediately, to see how she reacted to pain and ferocity.

[Delirion]

Yes indeed - he was as hungry to battle as she had heard. Barely had her greeting words escaped her lips, and barely had he thrown a reply back at her that he engaged her saber with his sword.

Somehow, she did not know how it happened, her blade got entangled, caught between the hilt blades of the sword. A clawed arm lashed out at her face, and she could barely get a moment's thought of defending herself before the claw drew a deep gash into her cheek.

Painful it was, and she bit down on her lip, not admitting herself to cry out in pain. Blood welled up, streaked down her cheek, and sharp tears stung in her eyes as she fought to concentrate.

He had set the pace of this fight, and she would have to comply - unless she could somehow take control over it herself, push him into a different direction, make him think instead of giving in to his battle-lust.

Her cheek throbbed painfully, blood running freely down her neck and staining the collar of her tunic. With an effort of will, she shunted the pain aside, shut it into a box in her mind and kept it there. The box she made bigger - more pain would likely follow, to fill the box. She would use it then. But not now.

Her saber remained locked between the hilt blades, and he had snatched his claw back to smell her blood on it. For a moment, she looked at him, stared back into his eyes as he seemed to loom over her, and steeled herself against what was to come.

There is heat. There is fire. The planet is fire and heat. The planet is liquid fire. The planet is a source of energy. I reach out with my senses and I can feel its burning energy. I can feel energy. With the flow of the Force, I feel it, and pull it towards me. It flows over my skin, into my body. My link to that which you call the Dark Side grows through the force of the energy flowing through my veins. It grows. It grows. It grows...

It seemed time had slowed - even though only seconds had passed. Her eyes still set on his, she switched off her blade with a double-flick of her thumb, and stepped back, now free of constraints he had previously had on her. She threw the saber over her shoulder, negligently, all the while staring at him wordlessly.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

Her blood smelled sweet to his olfactory glands and he smeared a bit of it on his cheek just before she disengaged her saber. What followed was most surprising. She disarmed herself of her physical weapon, though Ogre could sense the shift in the Force, he could sense her drawing and storing power within, but it didn’t make him feel uneasy or relent in his drive to spill blood and cause fear and pain.

As of now she looked as if she wasn’t very afraid and she was plotting something, but Ogre had seen such things in previous battles, confident warriors with great skill over different aspects of the Force. The surprise of her actions was instantly replaced by confidence, perhaps too much, but the tide of the battle would tell that tale.

Just as she stepped back, he stepped forward, lunging at her with his still ready sword, impaling her in the side to be sure that he would cause a great deal of pain and blood loss, both external and internal after he removed the weapon.

With his free hand, he reached out and took her throat in his clawed grip, while turning the sword in the wound he had inflicted. His grip on her throat was strong and tightened quickly as his eyes fixed on hers and he savored the pain he saw welling within.

Choosing to disarm herself of her physical weapon could perhaps prove to be a big mistake as he cut off her air flow with his strength, claw tips beginning to pierce the back of her neck, his gaze fixed and his senses extended checking to see if her concentration was now broken by the agony and lack of air he brought upon her.

“That’s right, you will continue to bleed for me. Before this battle is done, I will be covered in your life’s fluid.”

[Delirion]

What had to come, came. The moment she had thrown her saber away, the moment she had given up her chance to physically fend off his attack, all she had been able to do was steel herself against what he would do to her. That he would bring pain, was inevitable. Once before, when she had lain upon the stone and let the lightining bolt strike her body, she had deadened her nervous system, seen deep within her mind and body to feel where the pain was casued - and shunned it aside, wrapped it up, used it to give her strength.
So she concentrated inwardly and opened that box in her mind again, the box containing the pain. Concentrating only on the knowledge that pain would come and shake her nerves, she separated that part of her mind from her other senses. Feeling pain, it would be shunned into that part of her mind where it could do the least damage, leaving her other senses able to react without restriction. Or so she hoped.

Ogre rushed at her and she stood there, without motion, calm. As he rushed at her, she stored that image in the other part of her mind - a giant green beast in all its battle-lust, eyes full of eagerness to kill. The part of her mind who had heard the tales of him, the fearful tales of the bloodthirsty warrior coming to kill everything standing in his way, swinging his great sword and his axe over his head, added that to the already existing image as she now experienced herself.

Then the sword he held entered her body, cutting through her flesh, opening a path into her that she could do nothing to stop. The second before the pain could even register in her mind, she looked down on the sword sticking out of her side, and saw blood spurting out of the wound, running down along the sword's blade, gushing onto the ground...

Then she felt the pain, yet at the same time it was remote. It ran through her body, made her shudder as he reached for her throat and turned the blade around. The agony she felt was enough to make her eyes water again, to shock her senses, yet... what she had done before, binding her inner senses of her own body to one part of her mind helped. As the pain ran through her body through her nervous system, it was caught and pulled into that box of pain in her mind, locked in. And instead of pain, she felt energy, renewed and fed by the adrenaline rushing through her at the shock.

It was that energy, that thin strand of power that kept her strong, that kept her concentration steady as his claws seemed to throttle life out of her further.

I am helpless. I am a willing victim too terrified to move or defend myself. I have no power, no strength to stop this beast. I am helpless. My life is flowing out of me, as the beast takes pleasure at my suffering. I feel pain so greatly that it shocks my senses and mind to numbness, feeling nothing but fear, nothing but shock. Nothing but fear. Nothing but fear. Fear. Icy cold and hard fear as the beast will use his sword to stab deeper into my body. Fear. He will run his sword through my body, cutting through tissue and vital organs, and his big bloody claws will choke my throat, crush my neck until the last second, when he will stop and devour his kill alive. The last second of my life I will look upon his face, see the raging bloodlust in his eyes, and all I shall feel is... fear.

Delirion stared back into his eyes as she saw him taking pleasure in her condition, as she could see his growing triumph at winning so easily over her. Her senses slowed as she grew tired, weary, lack of air and blood dimming her vision. Yet her concentration on the image and sensation she was building in her mind held, her entire remaining strength flowing into that concentration.

He is a great green beast killing to still his hunger for battle and blood. He is the embodiment of evil as he comes rushing at me with his axe and his sword, teeth gnashing, claws extended, tusks lowered at me. I am helpless in my powers. I have no power. I am helpless. My life is forfeit. I am panic. I am fear. I am full of fear. I shall die at his hands, his bloody hands as he rips open my body with his fangs, feeds on my dead body. Fear. Fear. Fear...

Suddenly, the grip on her throat strengthening even more, she felt him extend his own senses, opening himself to her thoughts to see how she was faring, his thoughts full of triumph.

Delirion struck out with her mind.

And the entire imagery and sensations she had stored in her mind, everything she had made herself feel and fear, flowed into his own mind, overflowing his own senses with confusion, then fear. Fear of a great beast coming at him, hungry for his own life as he himself was helpless before it, fear at seeing his own life destroyed at one stab of that beast's sword, fear of dying in a terryfing manner, eaten alive.

Her eyes bore into his, their intensity strengthening with every second she felt him give away more and more under the image flowing into his mind, filling his senses. And when she saw them widen with something akin to the fear he had to feel, she lashed out with the other part of her mind - the part that had held in the pain.

She let everything go - her entire hold on that part of her which held the box of pain contained in her mind, and it flowed through her... and through the Force, and the link he had made to probe her senses, into him.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

He was no stranger to the images she shunted into his mind. He was a master of fear. He had seen such horrors when he was young that he had learned to make fear and pain his brethren he found the sensations she fed him empowering, they fueled his strength in the Force, made his aggression and anger multitudes upon multitudes stronger.

The widening of his eyes she saw and believed to be fear and pain were misread, for his eyes widened in amazement at what she was doing, providing him with even more resolve to throttle the life from her frail form. Soon there was a demented smile on his lips and gleam of evil in his eyes.

“A poor choice upstart. Fear is my ally and mine to master, pain only serves to make me stronger, for it is what has made me what I am today.”

The link she established with his mind suddenly reversed in its flow of imagery and sensation. He feed her all the torment he had experienced watching his entire race, save but one, slaughtered on his home planet of Kashir. He showed her the horrors that followed as he slaughtered the one’s responsible, after having used the feelings from what they had done, which drove him to become what he was, when he returned to the place of his birth so many years later as a Master of the Dark Arts of the Force, the Dark arts of the Sith.

The whole time his cold green eyes focused on hers, alight with cruel intent and satisfaction, his grip on her throat leveling off in its intensity, almost crushing her windpipe, not allowing any air to enter her lungs. He shoved his sword in deeper allowing the hilt blades to penetrate her flesh surrounding the already profusely bleeding wound. Blood gushed from it and splattered his green face with its dark crimson color as his arm and chest became covered in its warm flow. A roar slowly built up within the pit of his lungs and sprang forth, echoing in Delirion’s eardrums, resounding in its volume and ferocity.

“RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! “

[Delirion]

The grip he had on her throat did not grow weaker, but stronger instead. Panic drowned out her last strength - had she erred so much that her life was now at stake?

Weakly, the noise in her ears growing into a loud roaring sound, she heard him speak her doom out aloud as he announced triumphantly how she had erred.

Then her mind, her thoughts, her entire being was suffused in images of death, of mindless slaughter, of brutal killing. And her senses rang with the emotions, with the pain and lust for revenge that he had felt once. Unable to guard herself against the onrush of images and emotions, she let them wash over her, into her mind, taking it all in... and she was too near death to shun them away like she had shunned out pain before.

She could see the satisfaction and triumph in his eyes as there was no air left in her lungs to sustain her, as she could not force her tired and dangerously weakened body to breathe in once more, even if it had been able to. The cruel glitter of his eyes was the last she saw before pain struck her again in her side, as the sword was pushed further in.

She lost consciousness.

And found another.

<font color="#c0c0c0">What's he DOING, my child? Killing you? KILLING YOU??? Who GAVE HIM Permission to DO THAT???? I DIDN't - I CertAINLY DIdn't!!!

Adalric was, frankly speaking, more than a little put out that someone would just come along and take a stab at killing his source of entertainment. Now that he didn't actually need to be bound to her mind alone, it had given him a whole new perspective of her. From outside, she looked much more like the weak and pathetic fool than he had seen from the inside. That was truly appreciative of her. Well, of course she would think she was stronger now - idiotic, really. Thinking just because he wasn't there to tell her what to do, she could go off and be free of him. Bah! What humbug. She'd never be free of him - even if he'd ever find a suitable body to carry his own mind, he would still be there to remind her of the fact that she was HIS - and HIS ALONE! NO ONE else.... NO ONE! HEAR ME???? NO ONE!

And if anyone would be allowed to do away with her, then that was his own right and privilege. After all, hadn't he to thank her for his own present state? Well, so he wasn't quite sure anymore whether it had not maybe been even more pleasant to live in her mind alone than actually been alive - she was so much more entertaining if seen from that particular viewpoint.

He was going to have to do something he really detested. But now really wasn't going to be the time to complain about that. No - if he was going to do things according to his plan, this vain blunderer of death would have to wait to get his fill. The damned girl would die soon... but not this soon.

ah folly - why not now? She's going to die anyway - kill her off! Kill her off! What's a few days more or less? The girl's as good as dead anyway - no amount of saving can magick those wounds away-------SHUT UP

He hated this, he really hated this. Damned foolish woman to go off and get herself into a state like this. It was all her fault - she was forcing him to do things he wouldn't do otherwise.

a trap. She's trapping you - trying to make you weak, yes, weak

</font>Delirion's head suddenly wrenched itself free of a little of the restriction Ogre's claw had on her throat, and shook, as if irritated at something. But it was as if her head had suddenly taken on a life of its own, as the rest of her body hung limply from Ogre's grasp on her neck.

<font color="#c0c0c0">There wasn't going to be any other way, apparently. She's made him do this - he'd make sure that she'd know that later on. He was going to tell her how grateful she should be that he was around to save her precious skin.

didn't you want to kill her?

Not caring what his better sense told him, Adalric stretched out his other senses and entered the rest of Delirion's mind. He'd have to take full control over her mind and body - whatever was left of her - and make her do things.

Oh how he detested that. But well, it had to be done.

Sight was first. He wasn't going to be any good if he couldn't see what that brute holding her was doing...</font>

Delirion's eyes snapped open with a suddenness that startled Ogre. There seemed to be no life in them. They just stared ahead of her, straight at him, but not exactly at any particular point. Instead, they rolled from one point to the other, as if quickly taking a look around.

Then they snapped shut again.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

He watched her go limp in his hold and then her head shook as if she were saying something to herself or to someone else. His mental connection with her told him that her mind shut down when she went limp, but he could feel that something was still alert within some of her senses, what it was he could not tell, for her mind was nothing but a sea of black thoughtlessness to him.

It was quite surprising to him to see her eyes open then close, especially since the quiet state her mind was in remained unchanged. It confused him as to what was happening, but his hold on her throat didn’t relent, not yet. Opening eyes meant that there was still some fight in here somewhere, even if he couldn’t figure out how.

He twisted and then pulled his sword from her side, the hilt blades and serrated edges of his mystical weapon doing even more damage to her body as he withdrew it. He began to lift her from the ground, a simple task as she was small and frail in comparison to him. His eyes began to glow with a dark energy welling up within him as he suspected more to come from his, but was curious to learn more about what she could possibly have to offer in the way of a challenge to him.

His senses stretched and probed her mind and the waves in the Force, waiting for a sign of change as he held her almost a half a meter off the ground.

[Delirion]

<font color="#c0c0c0">Heigh ho - that brute was ugly. And quite strong if he could lift her as long as that. Not that she was much to lift, but still.

He wondered what she had done with his saber. She'd had it at the start of this, he was pretty sure of that.

threw it behind her, fool

Ah yes. The foolish girl had thrown it behind her. He wondered if he could manipulate the Force through her now. He'd tried that before once, and it had been a bit of an effort. But he was stronger now again - freed of her mind, he had been able to get back some of his former hold over the Force. Would he be able to do anything with it now?

quit the jabber and try, fool</font>

Delirion's right arm lifted into the air, as if drawn by a string, her hand hanging limply at its end, fingers pointing down. Then one after the other, her fingers stretched out, her hand lifting also with a final jerking motion.

<font color="#c0c0c0">That worked, then. His control over her body was strengthening.

you didn't accomplish anything with that, fool - try to get the saber

Ah yes, the saber. Now that was a tricky thing to do. Would the damn thing come to him if called? The restrictions on her own body would probably be the same for him now, no?

No, that wasn't wise to think that. Anyway, the brute was still there and her precious body dangling from his hand. Was he puzzled?

</font>Her eyes snapped open for a second, looked at Ogre with a direct empty stare, and shut again.

<font color="#c0c0c0">Well, at least he wasn't doing much else but holding her. Adalric was guessing that that hole in her side had to be pretty much lethal. Nothing he could do about that now - would have to be something for later.

He could still take care of that later.

The brute needed to be taught a lesson in manners, so he thought. Then again - green big and ugly probably didn't have an ounce of sense in his head, so there went the manners. Aliens never did. That was all the fun one got out of them.

Well, he'd at least removed that sword. Nasty piece of work that was. Had to be hurting a lot. Hopefully it hadn't turned her inside into puree. Wasn't much chance of her surviving that then.

so what? she's going to die anyway - you're going to kill her someday, or are you just saying that to entertain yourself?

No. Had to get the saber. Straining to get everything done, Adalric reached out with his own senses for the spot his old saber lay, then concentrated hard on expanding his control over her life-less body.</font>

Delirion's arm swung backwards, at the same time as the saber leapt up from the place it had lain, and landed in her hand. Her fingers, after a second of twitching, finally closed around it as it seemed held in place by nothing. Her finger's grip on the handle was hard enough to turn her knuckles white, then Adalric finally managed to get her thumb onto the switch.

<font color="#c0c0c0">Taking aim wasn't really an option, but it wasn't necessary really. Even without vision, just swinging the blade at him would have to hit him somewhere - if it was to lop off the brute's head, all the better...

what - you're not even alive yet and already killing people again? tsk tsk

ShuT UP!!!</font>

The saber's blade suddenly leapt out into the still air, as Adalric's hold on Delirion's thum exerted enough force to bring it to life. The weapon arced down at Ogre, cutting into his left side.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

His hold on her neck became even firmer as he continued to hold her suspended off the ground and saw her body moving but still sensed no cognitive activity within her mind. Her body’s activity with the saber may have been a strain to the one whom Ogre had no awareness of controlling her senses and bodily functions, but it actually happened quickly enough that the saber blow landed in his side before his sword parry connected fully with it.

As it was, his counter to the strike, struck the hilt of the weapon and cleanly sliced the emitter off of it, deactivating it immediately, rendering it completely useless as a plasma weapon. His action was little more than a battle reflex and it served him well enough that it kept the saber blade from doing much more than cutting into his side only a centimeter or so.

The pain that came with the cut was bad, but it, much like the pain feed into his mind earlier, only served to enrage him more, making his Darkside aura and presence all that much more powerful, connecting him to the Force further.

After disabling the weapon she held he was slightly puzzled as to what to do, she seemed all but lifeless in his claw’s grip, though he could feel the waves in the Force being manipulated, but they didn’t feel to be from what he had sensed as her earlier, they felt foreign and very much so different than her Force signature.

He decided to let her body drop to the ground, and backed up some, moving his empty hand to his side. He knew there was something strange amiss here and that all her actions against him now, could possibly not even be originating from her, but it was definitely a Force user, perhaps someone nearby or hiding themselves. His own sense in the Force told him that wasn’t the case. The signature was coming from where she was and not from any other direction.

His anger at not completely understanding what was going on and his pain from the wound inflicted upon his empowered him so much that the dark glowing in his eyes began to spread over the rest of his body, covering him in a crackling and eerie in appearance energy, It surrounded the majority of his body and leapt and snapped into the air around him, but didn’t strike out at her, it merely continued to grow in intensity.

“What in the name of Kashalla is happening here?” He bellowed, his voice dripping with bewilderment and laced with his rage as he now stood about 3 meters away from where he had dropped her, almost fully enveloped in the dark energy surrounding him.

[Delirion]

<font color="#c0c0c0">well, now we're screwed...

Now he was really angry. Not only did some green giant circus freak come out of nowhere, stab holes into his own intended kill and make him do something he detested doing, but now iT had COST HIM HIS SABER!!! That Had BeEN HIS BEST saBER!!!

The point was moot, however. Now he had no weapon left, and this body he was in wasn't any good anymore either. She had to have about enough life in her to make him transport her back to her room and leave her there - hopefully someone would come by and revive her. He wasn't going to stick around for that, no, he wasn't.

Instead he was going to chop this pretentious fool into bits. Or dump the castle onto him. Whatever worked. He was going to see that.. that... THING... buried and dead before he was finished with him. WHEREVER Had thaT MOnster gotTen THaT SWORD from???

Now the tedious job of getting her out of the way first was falling to him...

well then get to it before big green has a change of heart and decides to chop HER up instead</font>

Delirion was lying in a tangled heap on the ground, the blood still flowing freely from the deep gash in her side. Suddenly, her arms still limply hanging at her sides, she sat up, her head lolling forward onto her chest. Her back stiffened, then her head was pulled up with one rapid motion, her eyes simultaneously snapping open again, staring emptily into nothing.

<font color="#c0c0c0">If he had still had a voice, he would have sworn loudly now. This was taking far too long, and her limp body wasn't being very co-operative at all.

she's half-dead, what do you expect??

Adalric wondered if he could make her speak. The brute out there wasn't going to just stand there and let her walk off - no from the sight of that glow around him, he was planning something nasty if he wouldn't soon get what he wanted.

HOw in SPAcE DoES SOMEThING Like THAT END up As a SITh???

Ah that bunch had never been very selective who they took on. If the ancient Sith Race would have known what was to become of its members in the far future, Adalric was sure they'd have incinerated the whole lot of them on the spot.

make her speak, fool</font>

Still holding her up rigid, Delirion's lower jaw dropped, then shut again.

<font color="#c0c0c0">After a few more tries, Adalric finally worked out how to use her lips and vocal chords, however, her tongue was not co-operating too well.

He decided to leave it for later, and worked on her legs instead.</font>

Pulling her legs in towards her, she slowly, with a little pull of his on the Force, got on her knees, still as rigid as before, arms hanging limply from her sides. The wound in her side had begun bleeding stronger again, as her body had moved.

Setting one foot up firmly on the ground, and pushing her upwards, Adalric managed to get her to stand up, but her body swayed precariously.

<font color="#c0c0c0">He'd have to use a lot of control over her. She certainly wasn't being very helpful there. Using the Force to pull and push on her from all sides, he tried making her set one foot before the other, to make it look as if she was walking herself, but he failed.</font>

Lifting one foot slowly up and forward, it almost made her drop to the ground again. Her body was pulled into the other direction, and the foot placed back.

<font color="#c0c0c0">Well, that definately didn't work. What now?

Adalric decided to forego making her exit look natural. Besides, by now, even the brute would have had to realize that something wasn't right about her posture. Time to tell him what to do.</font>

Delirion's lips parted, and sound came from them. Yet it was not her own words, nor the sound of her own voice that spoke. Instead, it was a deep rumbling, growling voice.

"Stay there, you. I'm coming back for you. We're not done yet. Just let me remove this pound of flesh before I get to that."

Her body turned around in one quick motion, to leave.

[Ethereal Ogre]

Still glowing with dark energies, he watched as the body of Delirion seemed to move as if on the strings of a puppeteer, a very poor one at that. Things were starting to fall into place now. She was definitely not the one in control of what was going on, just as his connection to the Force had told him, that much was very obvious by her awkward movements and then clinched by the fact that she spoke.

She spoke! But it wasn’t her voice at all, it was a man’s voice. Could it be? Was it possible, a Dark side user as a spirit? It was definitely not something Ogre had not experienced before, and it was definitely a user of the Dark aspects of the Force, that much was clear by the type of disturbance and signature he sensed.

He body turned and walked away and Ogre knew it was now fruitless to combat her any longer, the threat was without true physical form, but could still wield the Force. The time was now, Ogre would see if a non physical presence could stand up to another non physical presence.

The shimmering glow around the green Sith disappeared as if a light had been shut off, as Ogre began to direct his connection to the Darkside in another direction. He reached into his pouch and withdrew something, but it couldn’t be made out what it was. His lips parted and he started chanting in an ancient language, an incantation he had known for a long time, one that would put him on a more even keel with the one he was facing.

As the chant grew louder, Ogre’s body began to shimmer with a strange purplish and reddish glow, until the last word of the spell was spoken and Ogre’s physical form vanished completely.

He had left the prime material plane and now inhabited the Ethereal one, just as Delirion’s form vanished from sight, returning to wherever the one in control of it had directed it to go.

<img src=http://thesithempire.clanpages.com/EOgre.jpg width=475 height=205>

[Adalric Brandl]

<font color="#c0c0c0">Well, the beast was complying. Must be an intelligent one then, he guessed. Maybe some genetic tampering of some sort. Who knew what those Sith were doing in their laboratories.

As Adalric forced Del's limp body along, her feet dragging along on the ground behind her, he contemplated what to do with her.

dump her in her quarters and be done with her, fool

Not so easy. He wasn't going to let her die that easily, but she'd lost a lot of blood. Leaving her there unattended would sooner or later result in her death.

so what? why do you care? it's her own bloody fault

Maybe he could alert one of the others living in the keep to her condition. There was always.... that man. Jeseth Cloak. He'd care for her. Look after her so she wouldn't end up dead before Adalric's time with her had come.

But no - he hadn't forgiven the man for his actions before, and he would never do so. Force him out? PAH! Foolish ignorant upstart! What had he known about the spiritual world??? Wished to learn from him? FRoM HIm??? Preposterous!!!

No, Cloak wasn't the person he'd wish to speak to, in any way. Who then?</font>

Delirion's unconscious body had reached the gates to her own quarters, and entered it, her cloak leaving a bloody trail on the ground behind her. Yet the stone floor was warm, the blood dried quickly, leaving nothing but an unwholesome-looking dark brown stained line behind on the grimy stone.

As she neared the door in the middle of the seven leading from the circle, and by Adalric's powers the door swung open before her, she stopped.

<font color="#c0c0c0">Belatedly it had hit Adalric that there might be someone inside. Which would not be good if it was the wrong person. Whoever was wrong. There could always be someone wrong. There always was, anyway, with him.

He sensed out and did indeed find another mind inhabiting the chamber. BUt it was that of a small child, hardly worth noticing. He had encountered her before.

Come to think of it - she would be the ideal bearer of the news of Delirion's condition. But he must not let her see his manipulation of Delirion's body.</font>

With more effort, Delirion's body straightened up,, her feet no longer dragging along the ground, but to all eyes looking as if she was walking by herself - if a little too rigidly. The darkness of her chamber swallowed up most of her movements anyway, and he finally reached her bed. Dropping her onto it with no great care for her comfort, he decided that he had done his share in keeping her alive, and hurried back to the place he had left the ugly brute.

It wasn't there anymore. He could still feel it somewhere out there, yet the sense of it confounded him.</font>

[Ethereal Ogre]

Sight was different in this realm. The prime material plane could still be seen but there were many other things that could be perceived as well. All in the scope of vision had a purplish red hue to it and odd mists and clouds swirled about, but Ogre saw something before him now, something he couldn’t see while in the prime material plane with true physical form.

He could see a hovering sphere, much different in color than everything else in this place, and he could sense the Force emanations oozing forth from where it floated. He could also sense confusion as it completed whatever task it had bid with the body of Delirion.

Ogre’s lips moved to form a grin as he sensed the confusion.

<font color=white>”I see you! Whatever it is you call yourself. Prepare to be dispatched.”</font>

Ogre was grinning because he deduced from the confusion that this spirit was feeling indicated to him that he only had vision over the material plane, and that he could no longer see where Ogre was, while Ogre had the advantage now.

The spirit was revealed to him here and could possibly even be vulnerable to attack. With his mystical Sword, fabled to be able to cleave through any material, still in his hands, Ogre moved to within striking distance of the hovering sphere. Dark Force energy surrounded the sword as Ogre poured his anger, pain, and hatred for being put into such a situation as this, into the weapon and swung the Sith Sword known as Lucifer at it. He would see if cleaving the spirit’s Ethereal presence in half would indeed send the spirit to another place, possibly even dispel it from every plane of existence, at least for now.

[Adalric Brandl]

The blade passed through, Adalric's sickle spectre form still shinning faintly before Ogre's eyes, but his back was as of yet turned to the immense green beast. Things seemed to move as liquid through the man, thoughts and voices coalescening within the opaque image. The back of Adlric's head slowly began to take a different shape to Ogre now, eyes protruding as the remains of a nose, mouth, and ears began to make themselves prominent... and continued to do so, until the Dark Jedi Master was facing his opponent with a deliciously mad grin.

The green thing was tossed back by a siudden fluctuation of the Force, inverting as he passed through the air and struck against a wall of stone and durasteel. The faint spectre laughed softly beneath his breath, watching as his opponent continued traveling and hit the ground.

<font color=white>"Boy, you cannot harm me."

Or 'least 'tis what I think.</font>

[Ethereal Ogre]

The cut was not effective. It could only mean one thing. This being was not truly inhabiting the Ethereal plane. What Ogre saw was no more than an image of his presence here. Ogre could sense the man trying to manipulate the Force and he was indeed powerful with it, but it was obvious Adalric knew very little of the Ethereal plane and its properties. His Force throw made it appear as if Ogre flew backwards and struck a solid object, but that was only what his mind wanted him to see. In reality Ogre was still floating in the same place watching the orb take on its new shape and think that it had power here. How wrong it was what a fool this Dark Jedi was to think that he was a Master of something he had no comprehension of, this was not the Prime Material, this was the mystical Ethereal. A place Ogre had been thousands of times, since he was a child and had been taught the ways of sorcery by his father.

Ogre’s facial expression stayed stoic and seemed unaffected by the Dark Jedi’s arrogance and pleasure. The green Sith Master had an idea, one that could very well banish this ghost of both the Prime Material and the Ethereal to oblivion, where he belonged.

With a semi transparent hand, Ogre reached into the pouch that hung from his waist and withdrew three small items, they were the components for the spell he was about to perform, an ancient spell, known only to the highest level sorcerers of his now extinct people, which left him as the sole bearer of this knowledge.

The items within his hand were clenched tightly together and Ogre began to murmur in an ancient and unknown to most language. Purple swirls of mist began to build up around him and around the image of the apparition of Adalric. The swirls gaining speed as each moment passed, and their density becoming greater. Ogre’s voice rose in volume with each archaic syllable he uttered and then reached its crescendo at the same time Ogre opened his hand, which held the components.

The final part of the spell to return spirits of the dead, to their physical body, had been cast and the purple swirls of smoke and mist around the apparition completely hid its image from view and began to shrink smaller and smaller. This spell’s effects would definitely be most interesting.

[Rama Sha]

:: Rama looked over the large rock which he snuck up behind, at the battlefeild. No one was left........He had watched as Ogre had fought with the Dark Jedi know as Deliron. Not what he expected to find. He had tracked Ogre here.....He was sure the Black Hand was trying to Spy on the Sith Empire....and when Ogre had headed towards Vjun his huntch was right. It appeared Ogre was the leak......but where was he. He needed to get the info back and then take care of Ogre before he returned. Something like this would just get bogged down in the council and Ogre would get away with it. It need to be taken care of now. Rama rasied his wrist comm up to his mouth ::


I.S.S.A.I...............keep the ships engines hot. You see any ships coming your way bolt, but don't go to far.

"Understood Sir....Engines will be at full burn the entire time you are gone. "

:: Rama reached back and pulled out his blaster, he wished he had time to build another saber since he left his on this planet. "this will have to do" he thought to himself. This was gonna be quick and painless and he had other powers if he got in a bind. " I'll go the way Del went.....If I find her I can make her tell me where Ogre went." Rama steadys himself and then looks over the rock again to make sure the cost is clear. ::

[Adalric Brandl]

<font color=#ffffff>The other one didn't do anything. It just sat there - as much as it could be called "sitting" in this place.

The whole thing didn't please Adalric at all. He wasn't used to this yet - for almost a year, he'd been a part of someone else's mind.... the king of a mind, so to speak. Yes, that was it. But now he was nothing - and with little knowledge yet of the rules of this place.

No, it wasn't pleasant at all. He had no fancy sword - he didn't even know if carrying any kind of weapon could do the other harm. The sword that that creature carried seemed efficient enough to be able to do damage here, but that was just it - he was a spirit; could spirits be "killed" at all? Maybe that was his advantage - contrary to the other creature, he didn't have a body to go back to - didn't have a life apart from this. There wasn't a--</font>

There was a sudden lurch. Something had just happened, and now Adalric felt it pulling at him. The only problem was that he had no idea what it was.

<font color=#ffffff>Something about it was nagging at him. He wanted to find out what the hell had just happened.

Hell. Yeah, that's the right place - you just said it. You've just been plunged one level lower into hell.

shut up, you moron. I don't believe in hell - why would I want to go there?

how would I know? you decided to become rational? I dunno, you--</font>

The last thought that Adalric had was that there was someone else there, not in this plane - and someone he'd not sensed before; then he was plunged into a racing current of Need, of want, of necessity and hate.

<font color=#ffffff>--one of the opponents slahes at his left leg, while another does a whip-over towards his right shoulder. He leaps over the low attack and slices his blade down the semirigid side of the high one. His blade hits the opponent's fingers, and two of them come off. From there, Adalric lunges towards his second foe's eye--

For a brief second, Adalric had been back in his own body, in his own life, then it was nothing anymroe and he was back to where he was now. only that something was different - he was driven by the need to return, return and find his body. Only that his body wasn't available any longer. It was nothing but dust and ashes, long time ago.

Need body. WANT body. Got to find body.

RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! !!!

BODY. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODY! NOOOOOOO Body. NOBODY!!!! Need body! NO..... one body! ONE BODY!!!!

Off in the distance, he could sense it now - the flicker of a presence that he had felt earlier, and he remembered it now. It was there, it was a body. It wasn't his body, but he needed one now, and there it was. There were other bodies there besides that one, but this one was close, was available. He would have this body.</font>

And so it was that seconds later, the one single creature who had been hiding in the shadows about to enter the castle - the one who had been here before, the one who had been spying from afar, the one called Rama Sha - found himself fighting against an unseen pressure that seemed to envelope his head, trying to force out all conscious thought, and replacing it with another.

[Rama Sha]

:: one moment Rama had been about to break into the castel called Bast, and the next his brain was on fire. Rama hurled himself back and onto the ground. He was quick to his feet as years of hard fought battles had made this almost second nature. But the think......the fire was still on him. He could feel it trying to burrow into his brain......no as if to read it, but to control it. Rama's powers Euprted full Force into the Physiacal plane. His whole body burst into an amount of full engery Rama had rarely used. Force lighting engulfed his entire body....Surgeing through every vain. It lite up the battlefeild like as if it were a warm sunny day on his home world of Ord Mantell. Rama struck out wildly, fireing bolts randomly in all directions. The ground began to under his feat began to burn and the ground began to quake slightly. But it was all to noavail, he was attacking something that his phyiscal plane powers could not harm. After several mins of this.....Rama's power left him and he began to lpass out . He felt the "presence" return to it's spot near his head.....and then everything became dark. ::

[Ethereal Ogre]

It was obvious that his incantation was having some sort of effect as he watched the orb that represented the spirit’s presence in the Ethereal plane dart away, moving towards something he could see in the Prime Material plane.

From where he currently was, Ogre could see objects in the Prime Material, but they were not crystal clear. Moments after the orb moved that direction, he saw just who it was and was shocked. Why was the spirit trying to go after an already living being? Was it an error in the incantation? Or was it possible that this spirit had no body left in the Prime Material and it was compelled to find an alternative?

The shimmering of the release of power by Rama was quite dulled from this perspective and had absolutely no effect on the plane of the Ethereal, but it was still a sight to behold. For now, Ogre would remain where he was, casting the incantation he had just performed had weakened him, and he figured that a Sith Master such as Rama, would be able to handle himself, with no aid, and Ogre wasn’t in much of a position to offer any. Even escaping the Ethereal plane intentionally right now would be no easy task and could leave him for half dead on the surface of this harsh planet.

For now, he could only bear witness to the events as they transpired, no physical form, and no opportunity to do any more. His mind and body needed the rest that inaction could afford him.

[Adalric Brandl]

<font color=white>HAH!!!!

Triumph. gOT a BOdY!

HEHEHEHeheheheeHHHEEEEEEEeeeheheheheheeheh!!! GOT YOU! GOT YOU! Got YOu! can never escape me now, you can’t - no - no you never will…

HeheheheheeeeHHHEEEEEE…..

The body was his. The mind was still there, somehow, but he was confident that that was an issue he would resolve soon. Later, later… WHAT????

wOMAN! WifE! …wHat? There was no wife, she was dead… with the worms now. Long time dead… mhmmmmmm… pretty little wife, pretty liTTle woman aLL for MYsElf…. Hee hehehehehe… got no wife… no.

NO! NO WIFE! Wife is DEAD!

no?

Yes. A wife and a Sith. The body. Body had a wife, body was a Sith.

SITH! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr… damned Sith. Sith are bad, I AM nO SITh!!! Yes? NO!!! NOOO!!

Yes. YES!

SHUT UP!!!! Concentrate!</font>

He had a new body, and the mind was still there. But not for long. He would… <font color=white>No! Later!</font> He needed to get away now. The green thing <font color=white>- Ogre! It’s Ogre! Came for him to spy on him -</font> was still out there, but now that Adalric had a body again, he couldn’t see him. Which meant it could attack and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself. Which was definitely not a good thing.

Looking around out of eyes that he still wasn’t quite used to - there was something really weird about this body, but he hadn’t had time to check on that - he saw the outline of the castle’s ruins ahead, and next to it had to lie the landing zone.

<font color=white>- Ship. My Ship! Take my Ship! -</font>

Staggering forward on his new legs, he moved as fast as he could. He needed to get away before that Ogre thing could find the time to attack him while he still had no control over this new body of his.