Two towering, tinted, transparisteel doors slide open to grant you access to the central chamber of the Combat Training Halls. The main room is wide and open and as large as as a holoball field. Tall walls stretch towards a domed ceiling that is made up of rows of ambient lights that spread out and fill the room with soft even lighting that eliminates any shades or shadows. Those same walls are lined around the perimeter with racks and stacks of varied weaponry: everything from swords and polearms to rifles and flamethrowers.

There are two signs that hover over each weapon rack to create an alternating motif in the Combat Training Hall: “No Explosions” and “Accorded Neutral Territory”. While the first is fairly obvious, the second speaks to the single law of the Training Halls: all members of the Brotherhood are welcome, and no member is to be killed or maimed without incurring the wrath of the Grand Master and the Inquisitorius.

A trio of training dummies are statically set up and spread out in a line, each made out of a blend of alloys and padding that can withstand blows from any standard weaponry with the exception of lightsaber blades. To the side of the dummies, a large sparring mat has been stretched out to create a larger footprint than the typical shockboxing ring. The padding is good for helping teach new combat students how to take a fall without injury and offers firm footing, but the hard rubber mat is hardly forgiving.

Behind the sparring area is a door that leads to a small archives that combat students can use to view holorecordings of fights and duels from the past as well as relevant information on combat tactics, techniques, and forms. On the opposite side of the archives at the far end of central room is the locker room that members can safely store their equipment.

The final and probably most important element of the Combat Training Hall is the onsite Med Ward. The maglock door is sealed off and can only be opened by an attending Medic. The Medical facilities feature state of the art bacta tanks for recovery and aftercare. A combination of observation and waiting room rests adjacent to the recovery center and features two large monitors that display a live feed of the central room.

The Combat Halls are staffed around the clock, allowing combat students and mentors alike to come and go as they please at odd or regular hours. It also available for members looking to prove their worth to compete in the Antei Combat Center.

[Venue Note: Weapons incorporated into your match are allowed to be used, even if not listed on your Loadout for the match itself. Skill usage and all other ACC rules and guidelines still applies.]

Etah watched the Consul’s personal champion stow his gear in a locker from where he stood across the room, on the matt. The Warlord assumed that he would be stowing all blasters and grenades since he heard the sound of metal clanking and those would clearly violate the rule of not maiming or killing in this arena without the Grand Masters permission.

The training area looked clean but smelled like a gym. Stale sweat undoubtedly lay across the Inoxium surfaces. ‘I guess they can’t afford a janitor,’ the Warlord mused to himself.

The human wearing inquisitor armor slowly walked toward Etah and onto the fighting matt. ‘There is only one weapon to use when harming or killing your opponent is out’, Etah thought to himself. ‘A more civilized weapon, for a more civilized age.

Etah and Cimozjen simultaneously looked each other in the eye, produced a lightsaber and ignited it. Almost as if they were involved in a synchronized dance; the two went through their practiced motions. Etah assumed a high Soresu guard while his opponent chose a tight Makashi guard.

The Sith Warlord stepped cautiously toward the Augur. The human threw a shot straight forward that brought Etah’s guard down to block. The sabers clashed and sizzled against each other.

Etah threw a looping backhanded shot across his opponents’ midline in an attempt to wrap under his opponent’s ribs with the blade of his saber. His opponent was able to bring their guard down and catch the block but before the blades could rest on each other, Cimozjen attempted to slap the blade over Etah’s guard and into his forearm.

Etah was thrown off balance but he was able to step backwards and catch that shot on his present guard. He expected the rigidity and fluidity of Makashi, but the aggressive parry and repost of Djem So, caught him off guard and somewhat unprepared.

Etah once again moved his saber into a high, protective guard. Fear floated around him like a cloak. It always did. But now Etah gathered the fear around him and concentrated into that cloak and imagined it expanding around him and then slowly circling around his opponent.

He looked his opponent in the eyes, as if he wanted to steal his soul. As if he could force a sense of fear into his opponent’s eye sockets.

With his off hand Etah made a slight hand movement and then used the powers of telepathy to whisper in his opponents’ ear ‘Tell me what you are, are terrified of.’ Cimozjen could feel the weight of the force borrow into his mind as it attempted to compel an answer from him.

At the same time, the human felt the Sith Warlord continue to skip through his mind as if he were monitoring his thoughts and he also felt fear wrap itself around him like a boa constrictor. The Augur attempted to resist the fear and the question using his training, but this was not a state secret and he was starting to get flustered.

‘Tell me what you are, are terrified of.’ Etah skipped through the back of his mind and whispered again. The weight of the force borrowing into the humans brain seemed to become heavier and sharper.

"My name is Cimozjen Kurios." There was more of a quiver to the man's voice than he cared for. It seemed as though each word took greater effort to utter than the one which had preceded it. "I possess a fear of many things. I have also seen many fearful sights." He drew a shaky breath. Drawing his lightsaber up, he bent his knees into the traditional stance of his form and nodded at Etah. His lightsaber twitched slightly as he studied the face of his opponent.

You are not the only one who can poke into the minds of others. The Sorcerer projected his own words through the Force and into the mind of the Sith. I saw your visage in a dream several nights ago. Once such visions are granted by the Force, they must been seen through. must see it through to completion. Failure is my greatest fear.

The Sakiyan moved forward, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "It is quite unfortunate for you then, in this encounter. I am a warrior and a master of my craft. As it is, there is nothing but failure here for you today."

Force Disciple and Sith stared each other down for a couple of moments before Kurios moved forward. Taking his lightsaber hilt in both hands, he brought his weapon around in a purposeful strike. The blow was met in kind by Etah. The Obsidyn had undergone greater training than the human had. His form was tighter, and his actions more sure than those of the flustered Augur. Instead of striking back in retaliation, the Sith seemed content to wait for his opponent to close the distance between them. He was like a great serpent, waiting to strike upon a nearby rodent.

Though he tried to push his fear down, the tension of the situation continued to weigh upon Cimozjen Kurios. He had dealt with many young or haughty duelists over the years, but this man seemed to be something different. He carried himself with an air of both arrogance and surety. The Augur felt like a prey animal under the eye of a predator. Instead of allowing his opponent to make the next move, he took a step forward. With a grunt of exertion, Cimozjen drove the point of his green lightsaber blade forward, aiming for the center of Etah's chest.

The thrust of the Augur’s weapon was weak, and the Sith Warlord easily parried the shot to the side which left the human off balance. Kurios actually stumbled a little bit as he tried to recover. Etah could have easily pressed his attack, he would have in his younger days. But as he grew more powerful in the force, he became much more interested in crushing people’s spirits.

“Tell me your most excruciating failure,” Etah demanded from the mind of the Consul’s chosen warrior, his question dripping with insinuation and power. The human warrior was still attempting to right himself and resume a defensive posture when he was gripped by an unseen presence borrowing into his mind. Memories from his past instantly came to the forefront of his mind but he stopped himself from vocalizing them. He did not want to reveal too much of himself to this demon of a man. As he fought against the intrusion, the pressure in his mind increased exponentially until he thought a god would burst forth from forehead fully armored. But eventually the pressure began to ease and then disappeared before he was forced to say anything. Kurios was proud he had been able to resist the formidable powers of his opponent.

The jagged teeth of the Sakiyan formed into what the human surmised was supposed to be a smile, but somehow made the humanoid look even scarier. “Ohhhhhhhhhh” the condescending voice of the former Questor rippled through his opponent’s mind. “In front of everyone?” Etah asked his voice rising higher followed by a short giggle.

‘How did he know! I didn’t tell him!’ the Human warrior screamed internally, ‘Or did I?’ he asked himself, becoming increase uncertain of what is and isn’t occurring.

‘You don’t have to tell me, I have other means of acquiring information,” the voice of the Sith Warlord again surged through his opponent’s consciousness. The humans face betrayed signs of worry as it dawned on him that his own thoughts had likely betrayed him.

At this point the fight would have looked bizarre had there been any onlookers. Both men had momentarily stopped fighting, instead standing in guard a short distance from one another. They spoke no words but displayed various emotional changes on their face.

“Is that why you became a Sith?” Etah queried his opponent vocally for the first time, bringing a crushing end to the silence and somehow jarring Kurios even further, “To ensure that no one would ever laugh at you again?” The question hung in the air and there seemed to be a tongue in cheekiness to it.

Kurios felt uncertain and instead of responding, he attacked the Sith Warlord with his lightsaber multiple times. He was trying to regain momentum in the fight by refocusing the fight on his strengths, but Etah easily blocked and redirected the halfhearted flurry of blows. The Sith Warlord continued smiling at his human opponent glibly, mocking him silently when he wasn’t mocking him loudly.

“I assure you, no one ever stopped laughing” the Sith Warlords almost super naturally deep voice echoed across the chamber, before he began laughing maniacally. The ripples of laughter tore through the human’s soul. He felt as if he was defending his self-image, as if he was being called to account for the kind of person he has become.

Etah’s laughter echoed and then it continued to become progressively louder and louder. It sounded as if there was a person or two laughing with him, but then dozens. In fact, Kurios was so familiar with the laughter he could identify individual voice patterns amidst the growing crowd. This was laughter from his childhood. Hundreds of images of laughing and taunting shot through his mind in a movements time, each one from his past and each one joined the chorus of laughter.

When the various bullies, crushes and former friends that had laughed at him through the years began appearing visually beside Sith Battelord Etah, he knew there was something up. He knew they were likely fake on one hand but on the other they were so real he couldn’t deny them. By now he couldn’t even figure out if Etah was creating the hallucinations or if he was trapping himself in his own mind.

Slowly the room began to resemble the school hallway this particularly encounter had taken place at. Soon after all the people who laughed at him there were laughing at him, to his face, again. Then other bullies from the rest of his life began to materialize in the hall. The derisive pointing and the spine-tingling laughter began to overwhelm him. The human fell to his knees, losing hold of his lightsaber, which bounced off the ground and deactivated.

Etah reached out into the force and gathered the force around him and then projected that force over Kurios. The force seething with Etah’s power, slipped over the human. It surrounded him and began to constrict him like a Boa. This was not a telekinetic power, however. This was a vice grip of sheer terror. Etah bent down and retrieved the lightsaber of his fallen opponent. “I will notify the consul of your latest failure. You can retrieve this from him.”

His human opponent very likely did not hear his final footfalls as he left the training area, as he had collapsed on the ground, moved into a fetal position and grabbed his head. The laughter hadn’t left him, his bullies still surrounded him. Only now he was convinced that these were not illusions, but that he had well and truly lost his mind.