Built from the shell of an ancient foundation, the Arx Colosseum has undergone renovations to allow multiple new configurations for battle. Its spectator setup remains largely the same, with high walls, tall enough for even the most savvy Jedi to find unscalable that lead up to spectator chairs which are divided into nearly organized sections to accommodate several thousand people. At the center, an elongated platform “box” contains a central throne of stone with various seats of smaller scale lined beside it in both directions. Two large holo-projection screens are set up on each side of the Colosseum, offering different angles of the match bia holocam drones.

Today’s setup is known as The Shanty Town.

Hundreds of shipping containers line the arena floor, some stacked tall, others singular obstacles forming the walls of a complex maze. Each has been converted to function as housing, windows, doors, even furnishments added to further sell the illusion of it being a living town.

While the only real life contained within is today’s combatants, that is far from the only level of danger found within.

Dozens of armed and battle-ready droids hide in wait. Turrets and barricades line the narrow passageways of the town. Expertly hidden mines wait to trigger with every step. Make no mistake, the Shanty Town is ready to kill all who enter it. Embracing its chaos, and surviving is no easy feat.

Declan Roark sat on a pallet of ammunition containers. His helmet rested on his knees as he scanned the arena. His steel-grey eyes, experienced by years of warfare, took in the red and orange rust covered shipping containers that made up the shanty town. Some of the containers remained simply containers, but others were converted into make-shift domiciles and facsimiles of shops and stores. It was a hectic mess of corridors and vertical and horizontal traps.

Roark cracked his neck as he lowered his helmet onto his head and his real world emerged. The advanced military heads up display (HUD), familiar like an old friend, showed Roark’s ammo count and a tactical map of the battlefield before him. The HUD drew distances to ledges high above, marked corridors as potential ambush locations, and highlighted the movements of debris and vermin as they scattered about the area.

The experienced Grand Master reached into an amor pouch and casually began to throw out a half of a dozen small black discs across the open courtyard in front of him. The ricochet discs stuck to the walls of homes, shops, and a poor imitation of a fountain. Roark looked at their positioning and was content that the various heights and angles would work or at least cause enough chaos when the time came.

Still sitting, the Grand Master drew his two WESTAR-35 blaster pistols. The mint conditioned, and highly modified blasters had been with Roark for over twenty years and were affectionately known to him as the Blackhearts. Their name came from a long lost battle that tied Roark and several members of Clan Vizsla together in an unbreakable bond.

Unfortunately, Haro Zylrun was too young to be a part of that bond. Roark did not like beating up on any member of Clan Vizsla in training, but sometimes the younger members needed a reminder of why Declan Roark was Clan Vizsla’s founder and the closest thing the Dark Brotherhood had to a Mandalore.

“Hey kid, I’m too old to come looking for you in this maze,” Roark said with a wily grin over the Clan Vizsla internal communications channel. “I’m going to wait here in this fake courtyard for you to come and find me.”

Haro looked out at the courtyard, careful to keep himself out of sight from the aged Mandalorian. He knew that his opponent would have his HUD set so that it wouldn't give away his position, but he still felt a little nervous. He watched from behind cover as his opponent threw several small discs at several spots in the courtyard, and saw as they stuck wherever they landed. He smiled. He had (temporarily) owned a set of those discs before, and knew enough of their function to use them to his advantage. He reached out with the Force, attempting to adjust the discs to his liking.

"Hey kid," came Declan's voice over the comm channel, startling Haro and making him lose focus. The disc he had been focusing on jolted and dropped to the ground. Haro immediately jumped behind cover and swore. The comm system made it sound as if Grand Master Roark was right by him. He looked around, and made sure that no one was there. Relieved, he let out a sigh, and then reached out with the Force to sense where Declan was.

Finding he was still at his place on a pile of ammunition containers, Haro devised an idea. He reached out with the Force again, and turned one of the discs to a more favorable angle. He knew that firing would give away his position, but it was also his only way to try and get the element of surprise. He carefully took aim and opened fire with a hail of bolts at the various discs, hoping to distract Declan from the bolts headed his way.

After he finished firing, he darted back into the veritable maze as fast as he could. Taking left after right after left, he ran away from the Grand Master he was sure was now in pursuit of him. The Force warned him, and he gave a small burst from his jetpack, just in time to avoid a mine that was hidden underground. He kept running, aware that his steps were giving his opponent a path to follow, and he decided to use that to his advantage. Taking some more turns, he came across a squad of droids, which started firing on him. He dismantled the droids with his lightsaber and kept moving.

Reaching a dead end, he stopped and tried to use the Force to sense Declan again. However, this time, he wasn't able to concentrate as well, and only found a vague sense of...confidence? He leapt up, using the Force to land on a nearby roof. Moving from roof to roof he looked for a good spot where he could rest and reload. Finding a good spot that provided cover from the center, he smiled and said over the comm channel, "Your turn."

The Grand Master watched as Haro fired, ran away, triggered his jetpack, dodged a mine, fought a group of droids, and then force leapt onto a series of rooftops. Roark’s helmet slowly moved back and forth trying to figure out what the hell the kid was doing. Youth, it seemed, came with an overabundance of energy. This was a duel and for some reason the kid was hacking apart the environment and everything in it.

“Kid, I’m back this way.”

Roark stood up from his seated position on the ammunition crates and patiently walked towards the center of the courtyard. He glanced with a slight hint of annoyance at his expertly placed ricochet discs that were now haphazardly repositioned all over the place. It was infuriating that Haro ruined a perfectly good ambush and then just ran away.

Roark continued to walk towards Haro’s position on the rooftops. The Grand Master was familiar with his Vizsla Clanmate and knew that Haro could sense his movements and intended actions through the Force. It was one of the annoying things when fighting a Force sensitive. It meant your own thoughts could betray your actions before they even occurred. Precognition they called it. Roark called it cheating.

“Kid, you are going to have to come down here to fight me,” Roark said as his left arm casually lifted in the general direction of Haro. It was one thing for Force user to detect an attack at them, it was altogether something different for them to detect random acts of destruction.

The Grand Master’s Configuration B vambrace’s mini rocket launcher fired. Roark did not fire the concussion rocket at Haro, but at the containers beneath him. The structural integrity of the rooftop vanished as the small, but powerful, rocket hit the support pillar holding the structure up.

Through dust, smoke, and confusion, Haro’s heavy jetpack propelled him skyward. The young Vizsla member’s ability in the Force saved him from falling at the last second. Haro scanned the ground looking for his opponent just in time to see twelve Whistling Bird rockets flying directly at him.

Roark watched as Whistling Birds detonated on and around Haro. The Vizsla Force user was unable to use the Force to dodge while suspended in the air but attempted to use his jetpack to get out of the way of the rockets. He almost succeeded, but the detonation of a dozen rockets brought the young Vizslan crashing to the ground.

Haro, stunned, and potentially concussed, looked up from his position on the ground. The Grand Master had holstered his WESTARs and now stood with a vibroblade extended from his left vambrace and diamond sword held in his right hand. Haro could sense the Grand Master smiling from behind his helmet.

Haro got to his feet, his healing skill repairing the minor damage that he had taken. He grabbed his lightsaber and automatically fell into a Djem So ready stance. After some consideration, he switched to Vaapad and began his assault, using the Force to amplify his abilities. After Haro and his opponent had traded a few blows, Haro felt his battle haste kicking in. His attacks became stronger, faster, but Declan still managed to evade injury!

Haro began to lose ground to his opponent, step by step, and his confidence wavered. He began to give ground more freely, edging towards the edge of the roof. He slipped off, and ignited his jetpack, flying up above his opponent. He shot a mini-rocket at Declan, but he deflected it! Declan ignited his own jetpack, and Haro ignited his flamethrower, but Declan countered with his own flamethrower, still gaining on Haro. Haro swore as he felt a fibercord wrap around him, and reignited his lightsaber to cut away the cord, but a blast from Declan's DV-8 repulsor sent the saber flying away.

With his saber gone, Haro switched to his kal, which had been hidden in his vambrace. He flicked his wrist backwards and the blade emerged from its compartment. Haro grabbed it and cut away the cords with a quick slice. Turning to face Declan, he was met by a flurry of bolts from the Grand Master's blasters. He tried to dodge and block as many as he could, but the bolts overwhelmed him. In a last ditch effort, Haro deactivated his jetpack and fell, crashing through the roof of one of the houses. He did his best to absorb the impact, but lost his grip on his blade when he hit the roof.

Standing up on the floor, Haro readied himself as Declan flew through the hole. Haro blasted Declan with a Force push combined with a blast from his own repulsor, and Declan stumbled backwards. Haro then pressed on the offensive as much as he could, shooting at Declan with his blaster while trying to grab some weapons from his opponent's belt. He barely found a grenade when Declan finally regained his footing and pushed Haro back with his repulsor. Before he fell back, Haro activated and threw a thermal detonator behind Declan with practiced efficiency. Declan activated his jetpack and flew into Haro with a burst, getting behind Haro, using him as a shield against his own grenade blast.

The detonator exploded, sending a shockwave through the room and shrapnel flying into Haro's body. Declan let go of Haro, who fell to his hands and knees. Haro stayed in that position for a moment, focusing on getting to his senses and healing, and then quickly leapt to his feet, wrapping Declan with his fibercord before igniting his flamethrower. Declan activated his vibroblade and cut away the cords before activating a gravity grenade and tossing it at Haro's feet. Haro grabbed the grenade with the Force and threw it out the hole in the wall, where it exploded. Haro returned his attention to the battle just in time to feel Declan wrap a shock collar around his neck and activate it. Electricity coursing through his veins, Haro dropped to his knees, paralyzed. After a few seconds of electrocution, Declan cut off the power and Haro crumpled to the ground.

Haro groaned, reluctantly saying, "Ni ceta." Sitting up, he continued, "Gar akaan jahaala. Gal'gala. Me'copaani? Tihaar? Ne'tra gal? Mayen, ni beryc."

Declan replied, "Tsiraki." He offered his hand, and Haro took it, groaning as he got to his feet.

"I see now why you are so respected." Haro attempted a smile, but it came as more of a grimace. "Next time, I think I'll stick to training."