Elevated over a ravine, the Massassi Arena has withstood the tests of time. It is arranged in a circular formation and made by a slab of stone that connects the opposite slopes of the ravine. On its eastern side, the floating arena leads to a staircase and into a near-vertical cliff face. Because of its nearly unsupported vantage that overlooks a several hundred-meter fall, even the smallest creatures can feel the occasional motion the platform makes as the breeze brushes across its cold surface.

Adding to the adrenaline rush of standing within the slab’s concentric patterns carved into the rock, barriers and obstacles echo the Massassi’s commitment to taking every advantage over their opponents. Pillars ring the outer edge without guardrails linking them, some remaining intact and others having toppled into the arena or over the perilous heights to the ground far below. Weeds and other flora cover each surface as nature seeks to reclaim the ravine and eventually send the arena itself to the depths.

A creaky rope-bridge leads away towards another ancient suspended platform with the same weathered, upturned stones. Mossy footing, and uneven ground make each of these platforms unique in small subtle ways. While there is no seating for formal spectators, the ancient stones of the Massassi Arena hold an omniscient, aged wisdom that speak to the things they have seen and the battles fought through history.

A third rope-bridge leads to yet another platform, completing the triad of battlegrounds that make up the Massassi Arena.

Warrior Draugan slunk his way through the Massassi ruins, stalking his prey. His massive frame only caused a slight stir in the foliage, a vague shimmer not unlike a mirage being the only true trace of his passage. Despite the insects buzzing and tree leaves shivering in the wind, the Dashade-Barabel hybrid's focus remained tightly reined to the task at hand. During Clan Plagueis' assault on the pirates fortified at Kyriseema, a small band of them had gotten uppity. Performing a surgical counter-attack, the pirates had managed to briefly board a Plagueian vessel, nab a command code log, and make a run for it. Draugan knew the Dread Lord wouldn't want the log floating around outside the Clan, especially in the hands of pirates, so as soon as he heard the transmission, he had given chase. It hadn't surprised him when an official Plagueian task force had been dispatched on his heels for assistance, but he had every intention to resolve this before they even got involved. He wouldn't have given chase if he couldn't handle it himself.

Why the pirates had chosen to hole up in these ruins, he couldn't say, but the Sith knew he was close. Draugan's anticipation of the upcoming slaughter was mounting, but he wouldn't let it distract him. One slip, one errant thought, could break his focus. To do this right, he needed to maintain that focus. One breath later, however, it nearly broke. The sound of loud conversation began to cut through the jungle. Quickly making his way towards the sound, Draugan came to a massive ravine. Suspended over the ravine, a dozen meters away, a platform connected either side. A Chiss in fine clothes stood in the middle of the platform, with a trio of disheveled looking pirates on either side, blasters at the ready. The logo of Clan Plagueis on the breast of the man's cape gave Draugan a clue who it might be. Though they had never met, Draugan had heard of a high-ranking Chiss in the Clan, a former Right Hand of Dread named Khryso Mallus. The Chiss must be leading the task force that had come to assist him. With a quick sweep of his gaze across the Arena, Draugan began to formulate a plan and ducked back into the underbrush.

Khryso couldn't believe he had gotten himself into this mess. Separating from the rest of his unit had been a bad enough idea, but how he had managed to get himself trapped like this was beyond him. "I don't want to kill you," he said, keeping his eyes trained on the pirate in the center of the group in front of him, but his senses trained on the group behind him. "I will, though. Just hand over the log and we can discuss what options might be available to you."

"I'm not stupid!" The pirate yelled back, waving his blaster emphatically, "you'll kill us either way! This is your final warning: Drop your weapons and surrender!"

"I'll kill ya if I see ya make a wrong move!" The pirate to the leader's left yelled, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.

"Don't kill him, moron, just maim him or something," the leader said, smacking the bugging pirate on the back of his head. "We'll need him as a hostage or they'll never stop chasin' us."

Khryso was fairly certain he could take the pirates, but he was in a disadvantageous position and couldn't be sure there weren't more of them hiding out of sight. The boarding party would have had to be more than six to take on a Plagueian vessel so quickly and easily. Nonetheless, for the time being, he decided to cooperate. Once he was out of his current predicament, he could more easily find a way to escape. The Chiss reached into his cape and pulled out his LL-30, holding it by the butt of its grip between his forefinger and thumb moving slowly and deliberately as he bent down to put it on the ground.

As he placed his blaster on the ground, he felt something in the air. Another presence. A malice, but not directed at Khryso. Someone else was nearby, and Khryso had a hunch they were on his side. As he reached into his cape to pull out his lightsaber, he held it similarly loosely, but ready at a moment's notice to shift his grip. Then, it happened. The familiar sound of a lightsaber igniting. Khryso didn't need to turn around to know what was happening. The pirates he was facing suddenly turned their blasters up at the other group, unleashing a volley of bolts towards the new arrival. Khryso quickly shifted his grip on his own saber, bringing forth its violet blade. Calling on the Force, he surged forward, closing the distance between himself and the leader. The leader quickly ducked away, tossing his formerly buggy ally into Khryso's path. With a quick horizontal slash, Khryso gutted the pirate.

Draugan smirked, satisfied. With a quick slash, he beheaded the third pirate that had been flanking Khryso. The man might have already been dead, due to the bolts his own allies had shot into him as they tried to take out the Shadow, but Draugan wasn't in a merciful mood. The Chiss had given chase to the other three pirates, so Draugan prepared to slip back into the shadows to see if he could flank them. However, as he withdrew his lightsaber, he sensed something coming towards him. Quickly dodging forward and onto the suspended platform, an explosion rocked the ruins where he had been standing. With a snap-hiss, his emerald blade reemerged, easily batting aside another volley of blaster bolts. Draugan's eyes traced the source of the blasterfire back towards the jungle. Another group of pirates had been lying in wait, covering their friends. The source of the explosion he had dodged became clear soon after: one of the pirates had a missile launcher aimed straight at the platform. Calling upon the Force, Draugan erected a wall of energy to deflect the incoming blast. Surprisingly, it came easier than he expected. That was when he realized Khryso was at his side, adding his power to the shield. As the projectile detonated mid-air, Khryso turned to Draugar. "Warlord Khryso Mallus, a pleasure. Thank you for your assistance earlier. Perhaps this might be a bit easier if we work together."

With a swift nod, Draugan agreed to the Chiss's proposal. "Perhaps it would be easier that way, yes. I go high, you go low. I distract, you skewer. Break!"

With that, the Barabel-Dashade hybrid activated his jetpack without waiting for a reply. Twigs, dead leaves, and debris quivered. The jetpack took off furiously. Draugan relaxed his body but held tight to his angry lightsaber.

"Wait! What the...? Barabels...!" the Chiss shook his head and gave the Force Shield around him a renewed focus. Small arms fire merely dissipated on hitting, the force and firepower being absorbed and negated by the almost-invisible shield. He just hoped another explosive wouldn't shatter the protective dome and throw him off his feet. Apart from being very unceremonious, that'd put him in trouble. Khryso took his eye off the pirates to see what Draugan was doing. "I hope he knows what he's doing."

Draugan circled above the enemy's firing position, hovering overhead like a blood-thirsty beast waiting for the right moment to pounce. He was already drawing their fire. While his jetpack wasn't armored, it was fast and nimble enough to weave in and out unscathed. Any fire coming too close for comfort was deflected away by an irate lightsaber.

Whooooosh!

One of the pirates had fired a rocket at the flying Force user. The projectile sped ahead menacingly while some of the pirates cheered. "This one's a goner!" But the next moments were unlike anything they had ever seen. The Force-user up there slowed down suddenly and raised his right hand as if grabbing something, turned around threw something at the pirates themselves. The incoming missile, inexplicably, didn't slow down but obeyed his gesture and was now hurtling toward them.

BOOOOM!

It exploded behind the crew, the force of the blast throwing most of them off their feet.

"Karking star magicians!" One of the pirates rose gingerly and shook his fist at the encircling enemy.

"Bring him down! Focus all fire there!" Cried another.

"Oh, hello." Said a voice from just behind the second speaker. "Need a hand?" Before the grizzly pirate could react short of turning around, he was impaled on Khryso's lightsaber.

Draugan's distraction had proved more than effective. The chaos the Shadow had wrought with the redirected projectile was all the cover Khryso needed. After felling the first pirate, he was able to move on to the second, slicing them horizontally through the chest before the group realized he was in their midst. As the pirates realized the Chiss was in their midst, they began to panic. One of them turned their blaster on Khryso, his rapid release of blaster bolts being met with a swirling violet blade. A second bolted off into the forest, abandoning the missile launcher he had been wielding after it had been used against them. The third continued pouring seemingly pointless suppressive fire into the sky towards Draugan.

With their opposition diminished, it didn't take the Sith long to turn the tables. Constantly pressing forward towards the pirate shooting at him, Khryso pressed quickly through the undergrowth, his blade in constant motion. The pirate tried to keep the distance between them, but after only a few seconds of stumbling backwards, he tripped, his blaster flying askew. Khryso took the opportunity to surge forward, launching his saber through the air with a flick of his wrist. The blade found purchase in the pirate's abdomen. It wasn't a killing blow, but it left the man in shock. It gave Khryso the final moments he needed to finish closing the distance. As the Chiss took hold of his saber's hilt, he dragged it upward, cleaving a canyon of scorched flesh through the pirate's upper body.

Meanwhile, Draugan had also taken the opportunity to move in. Rather than a direct approach, as Khryso had taken, the Shadow launched himself into the canopy, using the foliage and superior mobility of his gear to confuse his target's line of fire. The moment the pirate was no longer able to draw a bead on the Barabel-Dashade, Draugan rocketed towards him like a blaster bolt, cleanly severing the pirate's head from his shoulders.

The two made eye contact as both of their targets corpses fell still. "The captain slipped away from me earlier," Khryso said, gesturing back towards the platform with his sword, "I believe he has the log, or at least knows where it is. Which means we'll need him alive."

Draugan frowned slightly but nodded. "He won't slip away again." Without further conversation, the Shadow took a few steps and launched himself into the sky.

Khryso pressed his lips tightly together, turning towards where the final pirate had fled the scene. Pausing for a moment, he reached out, allowing his senses and awareness to flow out into the jungle like a wave crashing on a rocky shoreline. The pirate's lack of care and sense of panic made him easy to detect and, after several moments, the Sith had an idea where he might be. Turning his power inwards, Khryso paused for a moment to focus his energy before sprinting off into the forest, weaving in and out of trees and underbrush. As he drew near to the pirate, he no longer needed to rely on the Force to track them. Their path was evident, their presence noisy and disruptive. It didn't take long for the Chiss to lay eyes on the pirate stumbling through the jungle.

With a stern exhale, Khryso tucked his deactivated lightsaber into his cape, raising his hands in front of him. He began to quickly zig zag through the forest as he closed the distance. By the time the pirate realized someone was behind him and began to turn, Khryso was on top of him, striking the pirate in the chest with his elbow. Quickly locking the pirate's left arm, the arm holding a blaster, between his own two arms, the Chiss forced the weapon out of the pirate's hand. As the pirate struggled to react, Khryso hooked his foot around the pirate's leg, forcing the leg out and the pirate to his back. With his left hand held firmly on the pirate's chest, Khryso poured the intensity of the Force into his gaze, waving his right hand across the pirate's face. "You will tell me where the command code log is."

"I would, but I don't know..." the pirate said, equal parts panicked and earnest. "Last I saw it, Captain Tarrel had it." With one swift motion, Khryso drew his lightsaber and placed it against the pirate's temple, thumbing the activation switch. He stood up, dusting off his clothes as he caught his breath. He would just have to rely on Draugan to retrieve the log.

Draugan was happy to be back in his wheelhouse: tracking down his prey by himself. He had already done it once, the Shadow knew he could do it again. The captain hadn't been careful at first, retreating sloppily to distance himself from the fight. However, the trail became less obvious as it moved further into the jungle. Fortunately, Draugan didn't need to rely entirely on traditional tracking methods when he had the Force. A combination of following clear disturbances and tracks in the jungle and tracking the captain's concern and frustration made it fairly easy to catch wind of the pirate.

The captain didn't seem to realize the danger he was in, having paused to lean against a tree and whisper urgently into a commlink. Draugan resisted the urge to jump out and end the pirate before he even realized the Sith was present. Instead, he called upon the Force, gathering up energy before reaching out towards the captain. He wrapped the Force around his target like a blanket, as if he were smothering the pirate. The man stiffened up as if he had been completely paralyzed, unable to move. Draugan stepped out form the shadows, allowing himself to become visible as he walked casually towards the pirate. With a slight smile on his face, Draugan grabbed the pirate's blaster and tossed it behind him. Ripping open the captain's jacket, he searched for the log. The pirate began to loosen up as Draugan's focus shifted. As soon as his arms were mobile, the pirate reached for his back, pulling out a small vibroknife.

Draugan, easily noticing the movements, grabbed the pirate's wrist and pinned it to the tree. He clucked his teeth as he pulled the command code log out of the pirate's jacket, holding the small black cylinder up in front of the captain's face. "It appears your stay of execution is at an end." The pirate's eyes widened as Draugan twisted his grip, forcing the pirate to stab himself in the neck. Draugan tucked the log into his robes and slid the knife across the captain's neck, finishing him off. The Shadow shook his head with a sigh. "I hate having to share." He turned and began to jog back towards his ship, opening up his commlink to report the retrieval.

Some believe that when a group fights as one man, it is far more effective in bringing down an enemy. Acting as one promotes cohesion, efficiency, and more often than not, gives victory. There is another point of view, popular in some military circles, academics and historians, that individual bravery is just as effective as acting as one. When acting out alone, they say, it forces one to survive at any costs. All faculties of an individual is focused on survival of the self and on annihilation of the enemy. Acting thus throws even a cohesive force in disarray due to fury of the assault, and also due to the different fighting styles of different fighters. For instance, if every person in an army wields only one sword, they become more predictable. But it's not so simple when every fighting style is distinct and unorthodox. It's not so simple when one Sith is using a blaster and lightsaber while another is zooming around on a jetpack and lopping heads off with a lightsaber.

"Where the kark did he come from?" "Who cares? Fire you fool?" "Aaaaaah!"

It was pandemonium. The pirates outnumber the two of them, but it was chaos. Everything was happening so fast that no matter what they were doing, they were almost always too late. While the Chiss was busy cutting down the now-surprised pirates, Draugan was flying around the perimeter to lop off heads of cowardly deserters. There was no mercy coming from him. Both of them were slaughtering the pirates, but there was a marked difference in their fighting styles. While Draugan's style was more chaotic and deliberately violent, Khryso's style was more precise. Besides, for the Chiss it was enough that the stolen artifact is recovered. In this, he even looked down as his other Sith.

However, the fight was far from over. Some of the pirates tat remained were the best of the lot, and also the most experienced. From the way they were firing and acting as one unit even in the chaos, it was evident they had seen no small amount of fighting. The only thing keeping death away from the Force-users was their years of training, experience, and zeal to succeed at all costs.

"Fire on that blue guy! And you...keep a lookout for the other one!" said one who was their leader, shouting above the din of battle to make his voice heard.

Almost in desperation, two men with repeaters started focusing their fire on the Chiss. It was a bad situation for him. Kryso was in the open and very vulnerable. The remaining one was drawing beads on Draugan in a frenzy.

The Dashade-Barabel hybrid know he had to get away from the line of fire. His jetpack was lightly armored at best. He tore forward, hearing the cracking sounds of the repeating fire's bolts just behind him. Suddenly he feinted to his left, changed direction to his left and landed on the branches of a nearby tree. From there, shutting off his jetpack, he focused now on the Force. He leapt from one tree to another, using the large trees and their thick branches as cover, getting ever nearer to the remaining pirates. It was starting to work! The repeater fire was pealing off only the bark off the trees, but only just that. Now he was very near them. It was now or never! With the Force flowing through him, he raged forward down on his lightsaber raised high, driving his knee down on his chest. Even with the sound of heaving firing, Draugan fancied he heard the sound of ribs breaking, and a squelching noise that he particularly liked. The remaining pirates didn't get a chance to react. Within the next few moments, Draugan had lopped off their heads.

He glanced forward to where the Chiss was. He was still there, breathing heavy, but very much alive.

Draugan and he next started to search the bodies. Sure enough, they found the stolen log with the fallen pirate leader.

"Well, it's still a Plagueis victory."

"Aye, that it is."