Testing out the new saber (Open Spar)

[Ace McCloud]

Ace played with his newly acquired lightsaber that he had finished a day earlier. It definatly had much meaning to it, maybe not to others, but to him it does. On Ilum, he had run into a little trouble while trying to get a crystal. He had run into the sith spawn Grev Drasen and had a little skirmish whilst in the small cavern. It had been a very interesting battle, he saw it more as sport than a hostile act. He had escaped, with a certain finesse, with a nice blue crystal, in which he mounted in its shell on the way back to the GJO.

The hum of the blue saber twirled around his back, over his head, and through his arms. He was tired of shadow sparring, he wanted somebody to really spar. For a second, the thought of his master crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it as a feeling of weakness.

He put away the droids that had been out for him to practice with as someone walked into the room...

[Shade Magus]

The young Knight walks into the training area. He could sense someone who was growing impatient, and to tell the truth he had been also. He just hoped that he could find that person and they would agree on a spar with him.

He saw a young man twirling a lightsabre and stopped and watched for a moment. Yes this was the one. He recognized the boy as Ace McCloud, A young Padawan here at the Greater Jedi Order. He had neevr had the pleasure of speaking to him directly, but he had heard enough about him to formulate an opinion on him. He might get to see how much of that opinion is true today. He approached the man and waved his hand.

"You there, you are Ace McCoud are you not? If you wish is was looking for a sparring partner and I sense you might be doing the same. I was wondering if you would mind sparring against me?"

[Ace McCloud]

Ace had his back turned to the man in the middle of a slow, wide arc swing. He knew the man was standing there watching him, but as he spoke, Ace stopped in the middle of his swing and brought his saber down to his side. Right before it cut into the ground, it was withdrawn into the handle. He didn't have his black cloak on as he usually did. His face was completely visible in the lighted room, as the hood of his cloak lay lazily in a corner of the room. His never before seen leather armor is wrapped tightly around him, held together by many straps. Straps here, straps there. Some holding this and others holding that. It was a truly confusing site, but looked like a work of art nonetheless.

He turned around, facing the knight. He had a thin beard that stretched from one cheek to the other. His eyes, though hardly visible now, are a beautiful color of blue, swirling brilliantly like blue paint in black water.

"Aye. I am Ace McCloud," he said in his usual raspy voice. He thought for a second. "Indeed. A sparring partner would be very nice..."

[Shade Magus]

Shade reached down to his waist and unclipped the hilt of his lightsaber. As he brought it out to the side, the green blade was activated.

"Then shall we begin?"

The Knight preformed a traditional Jedi bow and dropped his saber down infront of him the blade angled upward. He slowly spun the hlt until he was holding the hilt upside down. Shade brought the green blade behind him and held his other hand forward and motioned for the young one to come forward.

"Good luck to you Ace McCloud."

[Ace McCloud]

McCloud stepped back someways to allow his opponent some room. Slowly he spun his saber in his hand, igniting it as it eventually came upright. His fighting style may be a little to crazy in such a small area, and potentially dangerous. So he decides to just stick with form 2, rather than his normal 4.

"Same to you, my friend," Ace said as he stopped a few feet away from the back wall, stepping into a defensive stance, legs shoulder width apart and his right foot back just a little ways. Both hands on his saber, he waited for Shade's attack.

[Shade Magus]

"If you insist....."

Shade brought his hand with his saber up and smiled. He gave a slight jerk of his free hand and sent a small Force push to Ace, at the same time charging the young man. As he neared the Jedi brought his saber around his side in a low arc towards Ace's midriff.

[Ace McCloud]

Remaining true to style 2, he staggers backwards under the weight of the push. Quickly regaining his balance, he barely manages to block the oncoming attack. He noticed his interesting style of attack. The way he held his saber allowed for oddly placed attacks, but not alot of strength in some moves. Without the proper amount of strength behind his attacks, Ace could not counter how he wanted to.

His blade in both hands, now twisted upside down, he does what comes natural and places a hard kick towards Shade's chest.

[Shade Magus]

Shade moves his hand up to block the kick, but in doing so he loses some of the strength and the kick sends him back a few feet. The Jedi smiled as he regained his balance.

"Very good Ace McCloud."

No sooner had these words left his mouth than Shade had been moving forward again, this time using both his hands on his saber hilt, he ran the blade through the ground as he came towards his sparring partner. The blade left a finely cut line as it came up in a wide arc, but just as it came about half way up he spun on his heel. The green blade nowing coming in low on Ace's right side.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace brought his saber down quickly with a twist of his wrists, blocking his partners saber almost at his ankle. Quickly he pushed it away and brought his saber in a wide arc across his face and brought it back down towards Shade's left shoulder.

[Shade Magus]

Shade brought his saber up and the two blades clashed. He then extened a hand and Force pushed Ace back a few steps. He then brought his saber down to a defensive fighting position and relaxed a little.

"Very good Ace."

[Ace McCloud]

Ace, getting fed up with his force pushes, lets the push carry him back to the wall. Using the force to guide his movements, he backflips onto the wall. Pushing off with both feet he launches himself vertically at Shade. As he nears, he slices at his neck hard.

[Shade Magus]

Shade was unprepared for this attack and barely got his blade up in time for the attack. He unfortunately got nicked a little and took a few steps back.

He then spun his blade around his body and brought it back in front of him. The green was held pointed up towards the sky. Shade took a deep breath and exhaled letting the frustrations out of him. He then filled himself with the Force and moving much faster than before, ran towards Ace with his blade high ready to come down on the man's right shoulder.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace caught Shade's blade an arm lenghts away, and now with the right amount of pressure he could manuever how he wanted to. Pushing to his left, he brought both of their sabers around the other way. Now with Shade's saber down to his right side, and Ace's ontop of it, he brought his own saber back up to the gut of Shade's.

[Shade Magus]

The way it was looking, Shade had two options. One was to let the blade go across his abdomen. Two was to drop and get dirty. He smiled.

"Man I didn't want to get these robes that dirty, but oh well........"

Shade spoke under his breath as he dropped, the blade sweeping barely above his head. He reached between Ace's legs with his foot and jerked the man's ankle towards him to throw him off balance. Using the momentum of the pull he put his hands under his head and using the Force backflipped out of lightsaber range. When he landed he went instanteously into a relaxed defensive position with his blade held above his head.

"Very good Ace McCloud. You must tell me who your master is so I can tell him how well you are doing."

[Ace McCloud]

Ace smirked, regaining his balance.

"Nice move," he said as he began to circle to his left, facing Shade. "I am a master to myself. I train myself. Thanks for the compliment..."

Circling for a few more seconds, Ace lept high into the air, feet tucked and saber over head. He was merely inches from the ceiling when he came back down at the Knight, striking downards at him. If he blocked from above, Ace would step onto his open shoulder and backflip off of him.

[Shade Magus]

Shade just stood there and watched the Padawan fall from the air at an amazing speed and waited. He reached out with the Force waiting for the right move and then like a shock there it was. Shade somersaulted forward, just as the man landed.

The Knight rolled on the ground before pushing up into the air three feet behind Ace and spun around, his saber just within striking distance, aimed at his left thigh.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace landed in a crouch, his saber stretched out to his side. He could sense the attack coming at him and he launched himself into the air again, this time in a backflip behind Shade. He landed in a 3 point stance and immediatly bursted towards shade with another horizantal swipe.

[Shade Magus]

Shade reaches out with an empty hand and uses the Force to slightly lower Ace's blade so that he can barely catch it with his. The Knight then pushes Ace's lightsaber blade away and uses a front kick at the man's chest.

[Ace McCloud]

With the two hard momentums meeting each other abruptly, Ace recieves the kick hard and his laucned back across the room. He is a bit taken back by the blow and a little wind his knocked out of him. But he quickly rolls up to his feet in a defensive position waiting if Shade has an oncoming attack.

[Shade Magus]

Shade puts his foot down and out in front of him and relaxes. H then pushed with his back foot and sprinted forward, his blade held back waiting to come around as he closes the gap between him and Ace.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace quickly regained his balance and struck out hard agaisnt Shade's saber. The two blades clashed hard, but Ace's arms gave way as he ducked under them to come around behind Shade. Spinning up to his feet, he brought his saber again at a horizantal slash to Shade's back.

[Shade Magus]

Shade leapt forward and rolled, holding his saber away from him to avoid injury. When he came back up he turned and watched Ace carefully, awaiting for another attack.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace was thoroughly enjoying himself. The heat of battle always seemed to sooth his nerves and thoughts. The rush of adreniline was addicting and he could never get enough of it. Fighting was almost a lifestyle for him. Beads of sweat were beggining to form on his forehead, but he was not nearly finished yet -- he could go for hours.

He bursted forward again, but this time, he strafed to his right, landing parrallel to Shade, then lept back to the left, striking at Shades shoulders with his saber, from right to left.

[Shade Magus]

Shade brought his saber up and around, blocking the blow and also pushing the blade back the way it came. Shade then smiled as he twisted around and brought his saber around towrds Ace's left side.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace barely had time to do anything. It was a bad call on his part to attack that way. It was usually an all or nothing attack. If Shade hadn't stopped his momentum, he'd be cooked right now. But he bent forward, and the saber went humming over his head. He twisted his him, and brought his saber in his right hand up at Shade, from bottom right to top left.

[Shade Magus]

Shade took a slight step back and brought his saber around, locking the two blades together and slowly bringing them both up so that the two combatants were facing each other in a classic pose. Both of the faces framed by the X their blades now formed.

"Again, my complimants. I had no ida that you would be so far along Ace."

Saying this, the Jedi pushed his foe back and stepped forward to thrust at Ace's mid-section.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace quickly blocked the saber, sending it on its way and attacked Shade's right shoulder.

[Shade Magus]

Shade ducked under the oncoming blade. When the blade flew over him, Shade came back up and brought his blade down on Ace's and moved it down the length towards his knuckles.

[Ace McCloud]

With his saber pinned down, Ace rotated his saber upwards and lept over the two so that now his saber was ontop. Once free of the pin, he removed his saber from Shades and came with another barrage of attacks. One from coming from the top right to top left, swinging it around and attacking low with an upward swing, then spinning and attacking his mid section from left to right.

[Shade Magus]

Shade, bloced the attack, and continued with several of his own. Slashing at the left, thrusting a the right, his movements wild so to be unpredictable. He lost himself in the Force, letting it move him. This was turning out to be an interesting afternoon, he thoguht to himself as he smiled.

[Ace McCloud]

The battle was getting pretty intense as both of them were fully envoloped in the cloak of the force. Both of their moves flowed gracefully, the most skilled obvisioly being the Knight. Ace was losing himself to the heat of battle. It made him fight harder and better, but Shade was still better than he was.

Ace blocked the attacks swiftly, with a little trouble. His weight back, he was in a vunerable position. He sent a pulse through the force to collide with the area around them. The push was not all that strong, just enough to throw someone off balance slightly.

He backflipped away after the push to regain his balance. He attacked again, going back to form IV. As soon as he landed he launched himself at Shade again. Right before landing, he struck hard from top right to bottom left. Then, he landed right infront of Shade and leapt into the air, flipping over and around to attack from above, then landing behind him.

[spada]

Spada entered thr room in which the two were fighting and watched in awe at the two Jedi's skills. He may have been able to swing harder than the 2, but when it came to tecnique and speed, he was greatly outclassed. He entered the room and decided to sit and watch the battle for a while to learn a thing or two.

[Shade Magus]

Shade wavered slightly fom the push, but it was enough to make him let the attack go through. The young man's blade swept by just enough to singe his robe, but it was only cloth and could be replaced.

He watched as Ace lept over him, but before he could land, Shade had taken a step forward and twisted, his saber coming in a motion from bottom to top, directly in the center of Ace's body.He then jumped slightly to the left and fiented an attack from right to left, instead going for something left to right.

Any onlooker would have to give credit to btoh of these Jedi today. Each of their moves were played as if in a Chess game, each being a check and only allowing the other one possible move.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace grunted as he barely managed to block the upward attack. He blocked down hard with it and landed and ducked as Shade's saber went over his head. In a lower level position, Ace twisted his saber around and stabbed at Shade's right side.

[Shade Magus]

Shade dodged to the left, narrowly missing the blade and brought his own down hard on it. He lifted up slightly as he swung his right at Ace's midriff.

[Ace McCloud]

Ace blocked the first attack, standing up. With the second, he sucked his gut in and shifted his feet back, the saber slashing through his robe. He quickly passed it by with his own saber and regained his balance. He didn't have time to attack again before Shade would.

[Shade Magus]

Shade kept the momentum gong and as he finished his twist he snapped his foot out and towards Ace's saber weilding hand.

[Ace McCloud]

Shade's kick connected and Ace's saber went flying out of his hand and across the room, clinking agianst the wall and floor a few times. Ace smirked.

"Very good fight, my friend," Ace said, bowing slightly. It seemed that finally the fight was over, Shade as the victor.

[spada]

Spada, seeing that the two were finished, clapped his hands.

"That was some impressive fighting, I must say. I wish I could fight like that."

He was very impressed indeed. He thought on many occasions that one was in check, and time and time again the opponent found a way out of the situation.

[Shade Magus]

Shade nodded trying to catch his breath.

"Yes indeed...you really had me going there a few times."

Shade bowed slightly.

"Well...if you are ever in the neighborhood, I would love to spar again sometime. There aren't quite that many that could get me going as you did."

[Ace McCloud]

Ace grinned, he felt alot more comfortable around this man now.

"Indeed," he said. He didn't know the knights name yet, but perhaps he would find out later.

Ace reached out to the saber and it quickly came to his hand, then stowed away at his belt.

[Shade Magus]

Shade smiled.

"Very well then young Ace McCloud."

Shade then started to walk away, heading towards his room where he hoped to relax and cool down from that extraordinary spar when he remembered something. He turned around and faced the Padawan.

"By the way. My name is Shade Magus, incase you are wondering."

Shade then turned and walked away to his room.