[center][h2]Keenan vs. Vasha[/h2][/center]
[hr]
Keenan almost lost his balance as bombs shook up the place but he managed to steady himself by grabbing hold of a small nook just above him. He was perched on a ledge close to the top of the ruin, not quite the highest point but above the large staircases, that overlooked almost the entire area. The reason for this was because he had his own order: while everyone else defended the temple he was to find the Togruta, subdue her, and bring her to Ideon. So here he was, keeping himself hidden with the force and expecting to spot his target somewhere in the battle below. It was to his mild annoyance that he spotted her leaping from a shuttle to the one point that was higher than he was. 

He was climbing from the moment she was out of the transport, the short distance between him and the top thankfully meaning he was peeking his head up there by the time she'd finished dispatching the snipers. With her seemingly distracted for a moment he threw himself up over the edge aided again by the force, his stealth dropping at this point, extending his staff as he landed and sweeping her legs out from under her which he followed by attempting to follow up with a blow to her head.

Vasha had been in fact deep in thought, but her mastery of force sense brought her some measure of fast reaction to the sudden underhanded attack on her person. As her legs were swept out from under her time seemed to slow if only for a brief moment before she was suddenly twisting in mid-air and landing on her feet, her lightsaber spinning as it moved to block the oncoming blow for her head. She stared at Keenan almost placidly, as if there wasn’t a wish for ill will in her mind. However that split second with which she looked at him would end quickly.

With grace and acrobatics Vasha spun once more, flipping up and over the pole arm, her staff saber spun so that it would not connect with anything around for for a moment, but from the flurry that was her spinning body and weapon her leg would kick out aiming to strike into the Dark Force user’s protective facial covering. Regardless of the connection her movements would cease little as she continued her aggressive moves forward, having mixed different maneuvers from both Niman, and Makashi in her attacks as she incorporated a more aggressive tendency with them being quite effective with a staff saber as such.

The togruta's foot collided with his face but rather than knock off the mask it sent him stumbling back, however, he carried through with the momentum to get away from her as she launched into a flurry of attacks. She was good with that staff, taking it away might be a good idea. Avoiding her attacks for the moment he waited for an opportune moment before thrusting his staff forward to block her saber, the cortosis-weave enough to withstand the blow but not quite enough to short the blade but with her saber stopped he threw a punch with his gauntleted toward her middle to stun her then he stepped forward into it to grab further down his staff and try to twist her weapon away or pin her arm, whichever he could manage.

Surprised for a moment as her flurry came to an end Vasha didn’t quite have enough time to dodge the punch coming her way, which sent her stumbling a bit, the sudden disarming of her lightsaber causing her to huff loudly as her arm was pinned for the moment. Though rather than give into this her hand suddenly shot out releasing a large blast of the force to send Keenan away from her, and create some space, her free hand would be reaching to use the force to bring her staff back to her palm once more.

Keenan was thrown back by the force, landing a short distance away but quickly scrambling back up to a crouched position. His staff was knocked out of his hand but rather than go for it he rushed her, seeing that her blade wasn't reignited yet. One hand grabbed for her saber to keep it pointed away while he again threw a punch with the other, this time aimed at her face.

Once more the Dark Jedi continued to surprise Vasha, the sudden fight to keep hold of her staff, and the strike to her face caused her to reel backwards. She groaned as she stumbled for a moment, her nose now bleeding, though she would stand and extend a hand the polearm saber belonging to Keenan shooting to her palm as she ignited it. She spun the weapon a bit before beginning to jab at the dark side user with it, making quick short slashes with the pole weapon.

Keenan was surprised when she used his own weapon against him and narrowly avoided being impaled by her first few strikes until he deflected one of her jabs with his own hand, his cortosis gauntlet shorting the blade on his staff, he grabbed the end of his staff then and pulled, counting on her having a firm enough grip that she would be pulled toward him and he could go for a grapple again, if not he'd spin the weapon around and try to strike at her.

The opportunity presented itself, and Vasha was not going to let it pass, she let go of the polearm, both her hands coming together as she concentrated harder than before, using the force she brought a blast of it upwards under Keenan’s feet sending chunks of temple soaring into the air that could possibly strike the dark jedi as well as possibly send him flying. Her hand would stretch back out and reach with the force once more to retrieve her lightsaber from his hand, hoping to have ended this duel as she knew she would be needed further in the assault on the temple.

Before Keenan could land his blow his opponent sent pieces of the temple flying up from under him. He was able to create a barrier fast enough to block most of the debris but that didn't stop him from being thrown off the top of the ruin, crashing back down on the side and sliding down until he slipped off the ledge and plummeted down to the wall next to the main stairs where he thankfully stopped. He groaned from the painful landing, his barrier saved him from the worst of it but it was going to be a bit before he got up again.

Watching the Dark Jedi get thrown from the top of the temple she would turn with a heavy sigh, and watch the battle taking place. For but a moment she was motionless till she saw missiles being fired from the corsairs towards some transports, reaching out with the force she quickly turned them, her teeth gritting from the exertion as they changed directory and flew back into corsair lines.

[@Frater Jeremiah]