Unlike the Gungan’s submerged capital below Naboo, Jan-gwa rests partially underwater; the majority of the city rests above the water’s surface. A waterfall runs along the cliffs behind Jan-gwa, creating a veil of mist around the base of the city’s rounded platforms. Nocturnally illuminated, domed structures encompass the center of each platform and are home to Jan-gwa’s Gungan inhabitants. Some of the these structures extend below the water’s surface, creating an anchor that keeps Jan-gwa from floating with the currents and provides shelter to hundreds of Gungans.

Etched into the cliff walls are several faces of unknown origin. Resembling a humanoid with unembellished features, these carvings are not reminiscent of the city’s Gungan inhabitants—perhaps an indication that some other civilization might have resided near the floating city.

Interesting place the clan leaders chose for a duel, Ringer thought to himself as he jogged along the edge of one of the intriguing Gungan platforms toward the duel’s appointed location. It was a time to keep sharp and well-trained, what with the brewing tensions between clans. The leadership of both Odan-Urr and Taldryan, respecting a tentative, though likely temporary, alliance, had been arranging these practice bouts for their members in preparation for the inevitable conflict with the Iron Throne.

Glancing at the time on his datapad, the Wookiee let out a low Shyriiwook curse and picked up the pace, his heavy footfalls thudding dully through the cave. Late again. I knew I shouldn’t have stopped for that second lunch, he thought. At least I’ll be warmed up when I get there, he joked to himself, his typical levity surfacing.

Reaching the designated platform, Ringer slowed to a brisk walk as he entered the dome at the center and took stock of his surroundings. Descending a set of stone stairs into a sort of amphitheater, the Wookiee sized up his opponent, a somewhat imposing human in an ivory set of clone trooper armor, helmet clasped under his right arm as he waited impassively. Ah yes, Tarvitz. Klang had heard of the Jedi who apparently was almost never seen without his armor on.

“Nice of you to show up,” the Odan-Urr Peacekeeper remarked with a wry smile. Ringer just shrugged with a toothy grin as he drew his lightsaber, igniting the blade with a hiss. Tarvitz donned his helmet and then followed suit, his crimson blade presenting a marked contrast to Ringer’s sapphire weapon. Both combatants dipped their heads in a shallow bow to each other before readying themselves for combat, the human sliding his right foot back and extending his saber toward Ringer, who simply lifted his blade to the ready. The Wookiee’s smile was replaced by a look of tenacity as he steeled himself for the battle.

Not wasting any more time, Ringer leapt toward his opponent, striking down vertically as he descended. Ringer fully intended for the combination of his weight and velocity to set the lighter human staggering backwards a few paces, but as his blade struck Tarvitz’s raised saber, the Wookiee was the one set off balance when Tarvitz’s body did not budge a single centimeter. The Taldryan Knight leapt backwards to put some distance between himself and his opponent and shook his head in amazement. I obviously won’t be relying on my strength in this engagement. Fortunately, Ringer had been forced to learn to rely on agility and speed during his upbringing on Kashyyyk, where he had often been considered the “runt” of the family.

Ringer began a pattern of cuts at his opponent, searching for opportunities to catch the human off guard as he spun and twisted, first slicing at the left, then the right, alternating high and low. Each time, Tarvitz’s burning blade bluntly intervened, battering Ringer’s saber away with such force that it caused his fingers to tingle slightly. The Taldryan found himself gripping his saber hilt more tightly to avoid losing the weapon entirely. This, of course, had the downside of limiting the flexibility and variability of his strikes and especially his deflections of the Equite’s counterattacks. Already beginning to sense the early signs of fatigue, Ringer glanced around the room, searching for anything he could use to gain an advantage. That slight break in concentration cost him, however, as Tarvitz attacked with a particularly powerful sideways cut.

Only a slight nudge from the Force saved the Wookiee from an early defeat as he leapt backward, attempting to deflect the blow with his lightsaber. The force of the blow, combined with his own lack of balance, caused him to lose his grip entirely on his weapon, the blade extinguishing as the hilt soared to the right. It bounced twice before coming to rest against the amphitheater’s stairs.

Before the sound of the lightsaber clattering to the ground had even faded to an echo, Tarvitz brought his own weapon to bear against Ringer's throat. While close enough for the energy blade to illuminate his face from below with a vermilion aura, Tarvitz consciously kept the lightsaber's point several inches away from the Wookiee's hazel coat. The last thing either of them wanted was for this friendly bout to end with one combatant accidentally setting the other alight.

“Well fought,” Tarvitz nodded with a respectful smile, “Do you yield?”

Ringer quietly growled something in Shyriiwook as he glanced between the lightsaber and the man holding it. Tarvitz frowned and then slowly shook his head, trying to understand if that meant yes. Tarvitz relaxed slightly, shifting and slightly lowering the weapon.

“I’m sorry, I don’t-” he began, promptly realising his mistake almost as soon as the words left his mouth.

Sensing his opponent lowering his guard the Wookiee lashed out with one claw, wrenching the lightsaber free from his grasp and sending it skittering across the platform. A rapid follow-up punch from Ringer caught him square in the chest, sending him reeling backwards.

“I’ll take that as a no then,” Tarvitz said, grinning broadly behind his helmet as he took a number of steps away from Ringer, “And nicely done, by the way.”

Others would have likely called foul at the stunt, but Ringer had just managed to both disarm his foe and fight his way clear of an early defeat. Tarvitz could respect that, and it meant that the Knight was capable of offering him a true challenge. Dragging one of the two swords free from its sheath, he triggered the activation switch. The metal sparked into life, wreathed in blue-white lightning as he advanced forwards, making a horizontal slash towards Ringer. The Knight dived to one side, hurling himself under the blade before rolling to his feet again. There was a similar electronic buzz as Ringer drew the staff slung across his back, electrical bolts arcing from its points. Lowering the weapon like a spear, the Wookiee charged forwards, stabbing out twice with the weapon.

Sidestepping the first blow and deflecting the second aside with his sword, Tarvitz barged forwards, slamming his shoulder into Ringer’s exposed side. He stumbled away, seemingly spinning as he lost balance only to drag the staff about in a wide arc, smashing it into Tarvitz’s right arm. While too close to be hit by one of the electrified points, there was nevertheless an audible crack as the weighted duralloy shaft struck against his elbow. Tarvitz suppressed a yell as agony raced his side, and he barely managed to avoid a second strike aimed at his left shoulder. Sensing an opportunity, Ringer pressed forwards, launching blow after blow as he attempted to wear away at the Peacekeeper’s defences. The amphitheater lit lit up as the two weapons clashed again and again, each strike triggering a cascade of neon sparks under the impact.

One way or another, this was going to be over quite soon.

Sweat poured down both fighters’ faces as their weapons clashed again and again, sparks continuing to fly as neither gained a clear advantage. At first, Ringer intentionally aimed for Tarvitz’s injured right arm, but as the battle progressed, his accuracy quickly gave way to increased speed and power as adrenaline pumped through his muscular body. Utilizing aspects of his lightsaber training, the Wookiee stayed in constant motion, nimbly jumping at Tarvitz from different directions. With each swing, he came a little closer to penetrating his opponent’s defenses as Tarvitz began to struggle to keep up with Ringer’s Marauder intensity, and he could tell that the repeated blocks were beginning to pain the human’s already hurt arm. The Wookiee still had to respect Tarvitz’s impressive endurance; although obviously fatigued, the Equite could still definitely control his breathing. In addition, Tarvitz kept pelting Ringer from all sides with bits of trash that had been left around the amphitheater, preventing the Wookiee from truly sinking into a comfortable rhythm.

Forced to do something to change the tide of the onslaught, Tarvitz lashed out with his sword, nicking Ringer’s right quad, drawing a pained grunt from the Wookiee. Tarvitz leapt backwards to disengage, though not quite quickly enough to completely dodge the last brutal horizontal swing from Ringer’s staff, which had already been in motion when Tarvitz had launched his own attack. The electrified tip caught him on the left shoulder, and although the staff was on the lowest setting, the jolt still caused him to let out a cry of pain as he spun away.

Ringer was paying the price for the intensity of that last exchange as the adrenaline ebbed away, leaving him temporarily exhausted as his body struggled to compensate. He knew he wasn’t going to last much longer at this pace, especially with the cut on his leg. He examined the wound and, finding it to be somewhat shallow, willed the skin to close. It would still throb for a while until he had the strength to treat it properly, but this would keep it from widening through further exertion. He noticed Tarvitz holding his elbow, obviously doing the same thing for his own injury.

No matter the outcome of this match, Ringer was going to be satisfied with having gone toe-to-toe with his experienced opponent. But he did have one gambit left to try as he planned for the next bout.

“Ready to call it?” Ringer could hear the smile in the human’s words, both combatants knowing that neither would give up until they were obviously defeated. You know what happened the last time I “yielded,” Ringer communicated directly to Tarvitz’s mind, flashing his own grin. Both fighters readied their weapons, having rested enough to come together one more time.

Ringer again initiated the battle, flipping forward to land a few feet in front of Tarvitz. The flip had been more than just for show, though. When his body was at just the right angle to shield the action from his opponent, the Wookiee retrieved a small object from his robes. As he landed, he lifted the item, his Inquisitor comlink, and let out a roar as he activated it. As he had hoped, Tarvitz flinched a lot worse than would be expected from the roar. The human’s hands flew to his ears in an involuntary attempt to block them from the roar issuing from his own comlink, embedded in his helmet. The Equite’s grip on his sword was compromised enough for Ringer to easily slam it out of his hands as the roar ceased.

Yield? the Wookiee asked, his staff held at the ready. Tarvitz held up a hand as he removed his helmet with the other.

“I yield. Good thing you can speak to my mind, because I don’t think I’ll be able to hear well for a while,” the human replied, massaging his temples to relieve what must have been a brutal headache. After a moment, he stepped forward, extending a hand to shake. Ringer clasped it with a nod.

“Nice move. I’ll have to remember to switch off my comlink next time I fight. I know the Inquisitorius tells us to keep us to keep them on all the time, but it becomes at the very least a distraction mid-battle, if not worse.” Ringer acknowledge the compliment with a nod and the two fighters exited the amphitheater.

The seconds slowed crawled by as the duel devolved into a furious exchange of parried attacks, stabs and reposes. There was no subtlety to the duel now, no hint of subterfuge or clever tactics; simply the raw exchange of speed and might as one foe sought to break through the other's guard. It was the sort of fight Tarvitz excelled at, the sort he relished, and yet he could feel himself being slowly pushed back. Step by step, inch by inch, he cwas giving ground to the Wookiee as he tried to gain some momentary respite to recover from the attacks. Ringer was evidently determined to deny him this, and every time he felt as if he was ready to break away, Tarvitz found the electrified tip of his staff stabbing from the other direction to cut off his escape.

In terms of raw skill with their weapons the two might have been evenly matched, but Ringer was pressing to use every advantage at his disposal. Tarvitz's free arm was still numb from the earlier strike, robbing him of using the rest of his arsenal during the course of the battle, while also forcing him to guard his side until it could recover. The shorter blade also meant that Ringer could afford to keep him at a distance, and slowly wear him down. Lunging forwards, Tarvitz made a low slash with the sword, trying to catch the Wookiee under his guard only for the Knight to easily step away from the blow. He batted the weapon away with one end of the staff before sending the other end hammering downwards towards Tarvitz's head. It passed close enough for Tarvitz to hear the angry buzz of the weapon's internal generators as he rolled to one side, and instinctively leaned to one side to avoid a another stab aimed towards his chest.

Despite everything, Tarvitz couldn't help but grin at the challenge Ringer was offering. Clearly this wasn't something he was going to win through more traditional methods. Perhaps it was time to resort to some of his more unconventional tactics.

Releasing the grip on his sword, Tarvitz allowed it to fall to the ground before kicking it forwards. It skittered away from him, leaving blackened marks where the electrified blade touched the carved Gungan floor, and directly towards Ringer's exposed feet. The Knight was moving even before it came close, and Tarvitz knew it was too obvious a tactic to so easily defeat him. Yet, for a split-second Ringer's attention was diverted downwards, and that was all he needed. He called upon the Force, channeling it's energies into his palm, and by the time Ringer looked up again Tarvitz was ready with one glowing hand raised before him. The area between them exploded in a white phosphorescent light as Tarvitz unleashed the attack, momentarily blinding Ringer. The Wookiee backed away, clutching his eyes and bellowing in pain at the sudden assault. He offered little resistance as Tarvitz lunged outwards, ripping the staff from his hands before kicking the Wookiee's legs out from under him. He landed heavily on his back, blinking repeatedly as his sight slowly recovered, only to face Tarvitz standing over him, his rapier leveled at Ringer's chest.

"Do you yield?" he asked, watching the Wookiee's response carefully.

Ringer answered with a slight grunt of something in Shyriiwook, before slowly nodding.

"Very well then," Tarvitz nodded with a smile, before sheathing his weapon and offering a hand out to help Ringer up "So, best of three or five?"