The room was massive; a giant hall with a ceiling so high, you could barely see it in the pitch black that was the Hall. They could see high platforms with seats in a rough circle around the edge of the room, and as they entered, lights lit up on two giant floating floors in the middle of the air.
Macu's mouth tightened as he saw the Jedi lining the seats of the viewing platforms. They were being watched, and that was rather intimidating. Macu, however, was feeling quietly confident. He would do well in one on one matches, depending on who he was matched against, of course.
"This competition will be based on a point system. You will be given a certain amount of points out of five, depending not on the outcome of the match, but how well you perform during the fight. At the end of today, the people with the bottom four scores will be eliminated from this singles competition."
Determination settled in Macu's mind. He wasn't going out today. No, not today.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Crawen Tu Darchi sigh and dump his head in a hand in a strange mixture of exasperated despondency. The friend of Corrie was quiet but funny; the kind of guy Macu could find himself liking if he got closer to the other Initiates, which he had an inkling that he would be doing. Provided, of course, that he made a Padawan…and they did too.
"Please board the platform." Master Windu ordered, and the whole group surged forward onto a platform that then rose and met the viewing seats and areas where the Masters and Knights were sitting comfortably.
Macu quickly looked around, taking in the sheer amount of Jedi in the room. As well as those looking for Padawans, there were dozens of other Knights and other Masters, and even older Padawans that seemed to have come along for the entertainment.
Again, Macu spotted Crawen, Arak and several other Initiates pale and start to bite their lips. The feelings of nerves were foreign to Macu. He'd been angry, and happy, but never had he been scared or nervous.
"There will be two matches going at once. And the first four competitors will be, Grovin and Rags, and Macu and Coronarcher."
Of course.
Smiling at the woop that flew from Corrie's mouth, he turned to his new friend and they gripped hands in a manly hug, slapping each other on the back as they mounted the closest platform.
"Bring it, Cuey!"
Grovin and Rags mounted their platform more slowly, squaring off unfamiliarly, while Macu and Corrie were smiling comfortably. Corrie was grinning in his usual manic fashion as they circled.
Master Windu smiled as he sat down. "Remember, you're being judged on how you fight, not how the fight turns out. You have ten minutes. Go!"
Grovin and Rags engaged very quickly, a flurry of fast, sharp blows, but Corrie and Macu waited a moment, still circling.
Qui-Gon Jinn was staring intently at the two fights, leaning back in his seat. Windu sent him a sideways glance before resting his head on his fist and absently fingering his lips.
Qui-Gon gestured briefly at Rags and Grovin. "They'll be going this round." he stated.
Mace sighed at admitting his old friend was right, but nodded nonetheless. Neither Rags nor Grovin were particularly skilled with a sabre. Corrie and Macu on the other hand, were both quite skilled. They would place well.
Quite randomly, Corrie jumped forward in a stance for a high shot, but his sabre shot low.
Macu jumped up over the sabre and gave Corrie a 'what was that, you lunatic?' look, before thrusting forward, forcing Corrie to jump up into a flip with a yelp.
Qui-Gon laughed as Mace rolled his eyes. All of the Knights and Masters were looking at Obi-Wan. "Yes, I know." he sighed.
They all turned their attention back onto the pair as Macu continued to attack very successfully, and Corrie scooted backwards as Macu drove him to the edge of the platform. The human quickly ducked a volley of blows before doing a force assisted jump. Macu automatically spun around, assuming he would jump over the top of him, but Corrie merely fell down and gripped the edge of the platform, before jumping back up again and quickly attacking Macu from behind before he could turn around again.
Macu didn't seem too happy about it.
Turning to his old Apprentice, Qui-Gon delighted in the smug grin on his face.
"I see you'll be having quite a bit of fun with technique, won't you, Obi?" Mace asked.
Obi-Wan just grinned at him lazily.
"He doesn't need technique if he can do that." Qui-Gon shot back, winking at Obi-Wan. "But he'll simply absorb it if he's around my old Padawan."
Obi-Wan's smug look quickly turned into a pout, and Qui-Gon barked a laugh before turning back to watch the end of the duels.
Jonah's duels went quickly. They were both relatively early, and although she was distracted, she managed to earn herself a 4 out of 5 against Crawen and a 3 against Arak. However, with the duels out of the way, she had nothing to fill her time as she waited impatiently for eleven 'o'clock to come around. It was 10:54, and she had been watching the clock for the last hour and a half. Both Reeka and Crake had gone out already and hadn't come back.
She didn't know what was going to happen at eleven, and frankly, she didn't want to. She had surmised that it would be one of those challenges on the fancy poles in the room that had appeared from nowhere, which the Initiates had labelled the Phantom Room.
Living Force, Reflex Thinking or Technology…Living Force, Reflex Thinking or Technology…
Growling under her breath, Jonah looked at the chrono. 10:57. Time to go. Sighing, she quickly grabbed Rags' hand and squeezed it for good luck before standing up. Closing her eyes briefly, she collected herself before leaving for the Dining Hall.