goofycaffinatedguru: I'm glad I could entertain you in your TV-less days; I wish I could have finished this story sooner, but I moved and started a new job, so this is the first I've been able to get back to it. Here's hoping the winter nights are treating you well!
DarthChocoholic: Thank you so much for being willing to comment on my story. Here's hoping that you'll be willing to do so again, even three months later.
Tyranus backed away from the encroaching white bulb, his eyes narrowing even as his pupils dilated with excitement – or was it fear? He swung his lightsaber slowly back and forth along the creature's rim of eyes to assess how it would track his weapon's path. Its eyes remained fixed on Tyranus, immobile in their sockets. However, it altered its trajectory, heading toward Tyranus with a more deliberate (if halting) gait.
Suddenly, one of the legs closest to Tyranus reared up and stabbed downward, as if to spear the Sith Lord. Tyranus jumped backward half a meter, able to evade the preternatural speed of the bulb's leg only by calling on the Force to aid his movements. Still, he probed the bulb's defenses, its attack patterns, its movement style, using the Unifying Force to understand the creature and anticipate its future actions.
The bulb's legs, in turn, continued their blindingly fast probing and slashing attacks against Tyranus, barely admitting the possibility of a counterattack. Its sharply pointed legs created a whirlwind of mud and water that caked Tyranus's trousers and tunic. Its mindless onslaught would not admit the Force to dissuade it from its murderous course.
Nevertheless, though he was forced to retreat time and time again from the tree holding Sifo-Dyas, Tyranus soon enough noted a number of weaknesses in the creature's attacks. Their unthinking, unyielding ferocity slowed the bulb's forward progress so much that a single burst of Force speed allowed the Sith Lord to put meters of space between him and the threateningly thrashing legs of the bulb. Once that distance opened, it was closed again by Tyranus's humming crimson column of light, which sheared off the three legs of the bulb closest to him. He used the Force to recall his lightsaber's hilt to his hand right before the bulb crashed flat into the mud, its remaining legs splayed out, flailing furiously for purchase in the sodden ground.
In a single fluid motion, Tyranus leaped across the distance separating him and the bulb, landing atop the bulb and swiping his lightsaber across its entire girth. With a sickening thud, the top of the bulb fell into the mud, the squish of its sticky bloodsap unable to save it from being cleft in twain. Tyranus gazed defiantly at Sifo-Dyas, eyes narrowing as he felt the Jedi Master's thoughts percolate into his mind.
You see? You should have listened to me, Sifo-Dyas taunted Tyranus through the Force. After all, I had to learn a bit about this planet's wildlife to survive. Too bad your insipid Sith pride wouldn't let you learn a little something from the insurance policy you were sent to kill.
"Enough of your prattle, fool Jedi!" Tyranus spat from atop the bulb's dead hulk. "Your body will soon enough be fodder for your precious wildlife!" With that, he sprang at Sifo-Dyas, his mad flight only able to drive him near the foot of the tree that housed the Jedi Master.
Oh, how quickly you forget your lessons, Dooku. As Sifo-Dyas thought those words, another bulb detached from the tree, and Sifo-Dyas nearly floated on top of it, riding it as its eyes and legs flashed to life much more quickly through the influence of the Force.
Ordinarily, the Dark Lord would have been ready for another attack from such an opponent and would have dispatched it with ease. However, this time the bulb's movements were more deliberate, purposeful, as if the Master of the Light and the bulb had joined their consciousnesses into a single mind, working together to bring Tyranus down. Each time Tyranus lunged to hack off one of the bulb's razor-sharp legs, Sifo-Dyas flopped his belly on top of the bulb, reaching down with his lightsaber to parry Tyranus's thrusts. The deflection opened up a corridor for the bulb's legs to sail through, shearing down the length of Tyranus's tunic at least once, though failing to draw his blood. And that leg then retreated with preternatural speed before Tyranus's blade could slice through it, guided back through Sifo-Dyas's mental efforts.
Tell me, oh Dark One, how will you ever explain to your Master that you were defeated by a walking tree stump? Sifo-Dyas asked through his mind as Tyranus lunged his saber vainly through the one of bulb's eyes, the bloodsap closing the wound even as it was partially cauterized by the intense heat of the lightsaber. The bulb responded to the wound by thrashing a leg out at Tyranus's body, knocking him to the ground and cutting a shallow but half-meter long gash down the length of his chest as he fought to regain control of his lightsaber.
This is the end for you, my friend, Sifo-Dyas projected into Tyranus's mind as the bulb reared up two legs to impale his head and abdomen. But the wily Tyranus tucked into a ball, rolled underneath the bulb, and ended up directly under its pincers. The Sith Lord thrust his lightsaber through the bulb's maw and cut a neat and wide cross through its buccal orifice and throat. The bulb let forth a hideously distorted scream before shuddering and then becoming utterly still. The lack of anticipated motion was enough to send Sifo-Dyas tumbling off the bulb and into the mire, his cloak acquiring a fresh layer of crime as he lay half-dazed on his back and heels, as Tyranus rolled out from underneath the bulb.
With a self-satisfied smirk, Tyranus rose slowly from his crouch, covered from head to toe in brown and green muck, which had a particular affinity for his formerly gray hair. He glanced at the bulb before pushing it back with a casual flick of his wrist, sending it toppling into the earth with a satisfying splat. As the Jedi Master clambered up from the mud beneath him, assuming a defensive Soresu ready position, Tyranus smirked and casually muttered, "You were saying something about the end of you? About insipid Sith pride?
"Indeed, it will be that pride and its bearer that will put an end to your miserable existence, once and for all."