“This!” Areticus proclaimed with a dramatic arm gesture, “My old apprentice, is where it is said that the Sith used a massive kyber crystal to-”
“Do not call me that,” Lo-Kain interrupted.
“Pardon?”
“I am your apprentice no longer. I am your equal, and will not be addressed as an inferior.”
Areticus turned to the Zabrak with a moment of pause, “Although you have been knighted, you still have much to learn. Which is why we are here, in fact. Now, as I was saying, the Sith used a massive kyber crystal as a conduit for dense Dark Side energy-”
“Didn’t you say during my knighting that you had nothing else left to teach me?” Lo-Kain interrupted again.
Areticus took off his helmet to give Lo-Kain a look of annoyance, “Can you not? You agreed to come here for a reason. I’m trying to explain that very reason.”
“I agreed to come here because you promised a source of great power in the Dark Side, not a lecture. If I wanted a lecture I’d have gone to the Shadow Academy,” Lo-kain quipped with a fold of his arms.
“Wha-I, how dare you!” Areticus replied with a stomp on his foot. “This place IS a source of great power you dolt! If you would just stop and listen to me, you’d learn that the area itself its seeped with Dark Side energy. Although the kyber crystal had been eradicated during a skirmish with the Jedi, as you can well see by the petrified corpses, the residue of the dense Dark Side energy it contained is still permeated in this temple. Take a moment, open yourself to the Dark Side, and you’ll know exactly what I mean.”
Lo-kain did as such and opened himself to the Force. Areticus was right, the Dark Side was very strong here. It felt as if the energy was attempting to pull towards him like a magnet, and the Zabrak Sith allowed it. The wave of power poured in abundance into him, with a feeling of power that surged through his veins like none other! Raw, concentrated, nigh-infinite power of the Force came at his fingertips! It was delicious…
“Now don’t draw in too much Lo-Kain,” Areticus added, “When one attunes to the Dark Side, they not only get its power but also the irrational emotions that follow with it. Anger, fear, hate, and passion; all of these feelings become intensified when exposed to a higher dose of its power. If you don’t learn to control and master it, it will control and master you.”
Lo-Kain gritted his teeth at hearing Areticus’ words. He was sick and tired of being talked down to by this worthless bookworm. A real Sith should embrace those emotions! “You sound like a Jedi,” Lo-Kain growled and spat between him and his lecturer. Areticus may have read about the ways of the Sith, but he had never put those teachings into practice. He was no better than the trash who call themselves Dark Jedi that littered Plagueis. Lo-Kain decided it was he who was going to fix this, one way or another.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Areticus replied sternly. The Zabrak’s veins along his throat up to his forehead grew in a pulse. The chest raised and lowered faster, which revealed an increase in heart rate and breathing. “Lo-Kain,” Areticus commanded, “You need to calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Lo-kain roared with an ignition of his lightsaber. Areticus saw his old apprentice’s yellow eyes subtlety change into a different shade of the same color. The soft hue of flaxen converted into a fiery molten gold. On the surface, those eyes were the trademark identifier of a Sith. However, Areticus knew better; it was the result of one consumed by Dark Side. The irrational emotions that come with its power now ruled over Lo-Kain’s reason. This made Areticus sigh, knowing full well Lo-Kain would no longer heed anything he had to say. Areticus tossed aside his helmet without looking away from his new opponent, “It seems I was wrong. You still have one lesson left to learn.”
It was fast, but Areticus was able to sidestep away from the bum-rushed downward strike from Lo-kain’s blade. Before Areticus could draw his own saber, he was hurled off his feet by Lo-kain’s push of the Force. The flying Knight’s body crashed into several fragile statuettes before he tumbled across the ground. When he finally skidded to a stop, he remained idle until the pain faded from an inner dose that numbed his whole body. Slowly the human rose, being careful to check for any serious injuries that would impede him. Aside from the surface skid marks on his limbs and torso, he was fine. It wouldn’t be long, however, till the painkillers would delude. He too would need to give himself to the power around him if he were to fight Lo-Kain of this caliber.
Areticus took in a deep inhale and allowed the Dark Side to sink into his being. It felt so exhilarating and exquisite to him. It was like a rush or a high that no narcotic substance could ever compare. The power flowed through every fiber and caused the wounds on his body to revert as if it had never occurred.
Sensing his old master’s submission, the Zabrak grinned, “Good. Now this will be a worthy fight!”
Areticus’ locked his steel blue-eyed gaze at Lo-kain, with swirling anger at the audacity his former apprentice had for thinking he could usurp Areticus’ authority. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath to muster as much of the Force as he could handle. Areticus’ blade was then drawn as a signal to his enemy that he was ready.
Lo-kain paced a slow approach with an orbiting field of sizeable stones that were drawn from the ground. With a bolstering battle cry, the Zabrak commanded the rocks to rise and shower down on Areticus. In following his instincts through the Force, Areticus was able to avoid them with ease. While he weaved and darted past the hail of stones and dust, he kept his focus on the sound of Lo-Kain’s footsteps. They accelerated from a light walk to a hard and enhanced dash. As the final stone missed him, Areticus brought up his blade and summoned a bolster of strength that crashed down in a vertical arc. The attack was met with equal force in an upward slash that caused a sonic ripple around them. As Areticus finally opened his eyes, Lo-kain saw the same golden shade of hatred returned from his old master.
Areticus slowly shifted his feet in the direction of the centered pyramid while keeping eye contact, and Lo-kain mirrored his movement in kind. The two Sith then bolted off together and both used the Force to aid in keeping their momentum in a dash up the base incline of the pyramid. Without losing upward momentum, the two then zig-zagged each other with exchanged blades in attempts to throw the other off balance. The contest came to an end when Lo-Kain hurled his saber in a fan, used the Force to duplicate the spiraling blade’s appearance, and took another dash at Areticus with a fist fueled with rage. Areticus couldn’t tell the blades from another, instead, he came to a halt and took a small leap back in the air. With the blades out of range, Areticus realized he had become vulnerable to Lo-Kain’s point-blank confrontation midair. With a roar, the hulking beast slammed his fist to Areticus, who summoned a barrier in return. The impact from the punch onto the barrier sent Areticus flying towards the landscape of peppered pillars below. Areticus willed yet another barrier into existence just before crashing into a fragile pillar. He landed on its surface and tried to hold balance as it slid along the dust-covered ground. When the sliding pillar had stopped, Areticus fell off with wobbled legs. He took the time with the distance made to recover and draw in more of the energy around him. However, when he looked up to find his opponent, he was shocked by what Lo-Kain had done next...
