A/N: soooo yea, plans change. Orriginaly I had sent this to my beta, and expected to hear back from him in like a day, maybey two at most. its been a week now. so bear with me and ignore the shitty grammar and miserable abuse of the english language... god only knows how i do.

BTW: I don't own StarCraft or Halo. all those Internet cookies (and money) go to Microsoft and Blizzard entertainment respectively.

BBTW: Also, just a reminder, the stats i put out in the last 'chapter' are more of a general guideline, and not an end all be all guide to who would win. they dont really take into account all of the factors that really come into a fight. let alone the chaos of an all-out battlefield.

So here it is the much anticipated (hopefully) 'Duel" its a bit shorter than the original chapters but the fact that im being as active as i am on this is making me happy so yea...

As always, reviews are appreciated. Feel free to drop a PM along with the review if you have questions or comments youd like a more in-depth answer to.


The Master Chief stood near the center of the dueling ring, across from him was the warrior Tassadar had identified to him as "Fenix". Standing slightly taller than the Chief himself, the gold-armor clad warrior was an intimidating sight.

The telltale double sound of breaking glass heralded the activation of Fenix weapons.

crossing his blades before his chest, he bowed slightly in the direction of the Chief. His odd mental voice ringing out. "May our duel shine within the light of the Khala."

Choosing to remain silent, the Chief simply activated the plasma blade in his own hand.

Both warriors slid into their respective ready stances with little preamble.

The silence within the combat chamber was palpable. But inside the helmet of one spartan II a short conversation was held. "Chief, while we were walking in I got a fairly diverse sample of the combat style your opponents seem to favor. If you'd like I can highlight areas that his attacks are likely to come from, and the probability of the attack coming from that direction before he does so. It should be enough to let you keep up with him."

Short and terse as always the chief replied "Do it."

Immediately the VISOR on his helmet highlighted six different areas around his body, each with a different color representing the likelihood of the incoming attack being targeted at that area. A small index at the top of his VISOR explained each color accordingly, with areas highlighted in red having an over eighty percent chance of receiving the next attack.

Adjusting his stance to cover the at risk areas more appropriately, Chief was treated to the equivalent of a human raising their eyebrow in surprise and consternation.

From Fenix perspective, his opponent had just shifted without external influence, from an armatures stance full of holes and openings just begging to be exploited, into a significantly more effective defensive stance. His respect for his opponent just jumped several levels.

Seeing as his opponent was content to give him the opening attacks of the duel, Fenix wasted no time in crossing the distance between the pair.

Sparks of electricity raced through the air as plasma blades met clashed, rebounded and clashed again and again. Over and under, from angles that should have been impossible for normal men. The Master Chief and his opponent danced through the ring, trading tens of blows in a matter of seconds. After the fist volley of attacks was thrown, it appeared that while Fenix was able to attack faster than the Chief, and was marginally stronger, the Chief had better reflexes and his blade did more damage if it connected.

"Chief, I've got some good news and some bad news." Cortana spoke up as the pair re-engaged for another blitzkrieg of violent blows. "Good news is that our shields seem to be better at dispersing blows than his. Bad news is that his shield seems to be a magnitude stronger than ours."

The only reply she received was a noncommittal grunt from her partner as he exchanged blows with the alien warrior.

"Well, I can see that you are busy so I'll explain it anyways, and hope you were paying attention latter." If the Chief had been paying Cortana any more attention than the audio he was receiving from her, he would have seen her little box window display what looked like a briefing room, full of desks, with her in front of a blackboard style display.

A diagram detailing the information she had aquiered on both shielding systems written on the board. "From what I've been able to gather the alien shielding is composed primarily of plasma, very similar in composition to the covenant elite shielding systems. Unfortunately the similarity seems to end there. Normally a plasma shielding system would be fairly susceptible to plasma weapons, overloading and failing due to the electromagnetic fields both shields and weapons require in order to shape the plasma causing interference with each other. However it seems this group has somehow managed to overcome that. Consequently this means that his shield will not give out under your sword, but at the same time, our shields are not vulnerable to his blades either."

Pointing with what appeared to be a metal pointer stick to various parts of the diagram as she spoke Cortana continued with her dissertation heedless of the violent combat her partner was involved in. "Also, unlike our shields that are able to negate a significant portion of incoming inertia due to non-Newtonian properties canceling out friction. It appears that they are susceptible to all of the inertia they receive from an attack. Meaning he is significantly easier to un-balance than you. Also unlike our shields, it appears that he is surrounded by a bubble of plasma, as opposed to the thin layer of energy we use. This unfortunately means that his shield is SIGNIFICANTLY more durable than ours. But it also means our shields recover that much more quickly."

Sparing a moment from the duel the chief quickly asked. "How much faster?"

Cortana adopted a 'thinking pose' for a moment before she began again. "Well our full recharge time is just under three seconds, after a five second break from incoming fire. Their shields seem to recharge at a constant slower rate. If I put a time to it, I'd say he would be back to full shield in about two minutes without taking any fire."

Knowing his enemies strengths and weaknesses was always comforting to the experienced soldier. To learn that his equipment held such a difference in performance was mildly comforting. Still, he didn't let the minor education on his opponent cause his attention to waver, or his ego to inflate. There wasn't a quicker death in combat than that, and despite the difference in shield performance Fenix was an absolute master with his chosen style. Only the intervention of Cortana, and his own absurd affair with lady luck let him stay in the ring.

The fight had been dragging on for nearly a full minute hundreds of blows and counter blows had been thrown, the lighting in the hall shifted constantly from the clashing blue sparks of the blades meeting, to the ghostly illumination of the plasma shields the alien wore, to the brilliant gold of the Chiefs own shields.

Off on the sides of the ring, spectators had gathered to watch. Tassadar and his boarding party chief among the spectators. Aluris one of the youngest Zealots on the expedition stared with blatant incredulity at the display before him. "Executor, how is this possible? No Terran should be able to stand in the honor ring against even the least of our number, let alone against a master of Templar Fenix's experience."

Turning to the young Templar beside him Tassadar gave the alien version of a smile. "And that young Templar, is exactly why I put him there. If he can hold against Fenix for this long, then there is hope for his species to hold out against the Zerg, is there not?"

"As you say Exceutor... Still, this duel seems odd..." Aluris continued to watch the duel between what he now considered two blademasters. "It seems that as the longer this duel continues, the less Master Fenix seems to be able to hit the Terran."

"So, you noticed that as well?" Tassadar's attention was back on the ring where the two combatants were still continuing their dance.

Despite the situation, or maybe because of the situation, John found himself enjoying this duel very much. The stakes were high, the pressure was on, and it all fell to him. As usual. And as usual he never failed. Despite the duel entering its third minute of near constant activity, John had managed to maintain his shields near half strength almost constantly. He had taken to using his shield strength as a measure of how well he was doing. With the attack recognition routine that Cortana had set up for him at the beginning. And his own lightning fast reflexes, John had managed to consistently block or outright dodge eight out of every ten attacks.

Unfortunately Fenix was as previously mentioned, and absolute master of his blades, and because of this only one out of every twenty attacks that John threw managed to make any kind of noticeable contact. Still, with the performance difference between his and Fenix shields, if the duel continued in this manner he would win within the next three minutes.

Another lightning fast exchange of blows left Fenix near the opposite side of the ring from John, while he himself was completely bereft of shields. Standing from his combat stance Fenix regarded his opponent.

"You are a marvelous combatant. Are you actively learning my style and adjusting to it as we fight?" Seeing no reason not to indulge his opponent. John merely nodded his head, as he watched his shield gauge register a full charge. "Absolutely marvelous. And I assume that wave of static was your shield returning to full?"

Again seeing no reason not to indulge his opponent, John nodded his head in confirmation. "Amazing... Truly Tassadar chose wisely. If every Templar had an opponent of your caliber to spar against none would be capable of standing before us. However, I do belive your case has been made yes?"

Turning towards Tassadar for his confirmation of satisfaction, and receiving a nod in return Fenix sank back into his combat stance. "This has been a most enjoyable duel. Unfortunately I have duties to return to, and must bring this to an end." Unlike the opening salvo of the duel, Fenix closed the distance between them at a slow and guarded pace. As he approached, The Chief sank into his own defensive posture.

John was glad for the privacy of his helmet however, as he watched dozens of areas across his body light up in flashing red, indicating that the area in question was in danger of an immediate attack. And from the stance he was in, Cortana couldn't accurately predict where he was going to strike.

"Cortana! What happened?" his voice was still the same level baritone he always used, but a hint of urgency laced his tone.

"He changed his stance. And from his previous patterns and habits of movement, he could strike on any of those areas just as easily as anywhere else. Chief, if what I'm seeing is right, he was toying with you this entire time..."