Author's Note: This is an old snippet from a project I'd started with M2J MandalorianJedi several years ago. I had originally written this to help keep him inspired in our project, but as it would seem it failed. However, it's such an awesome piece that I just felt like sharing it with all of you.
Merry Christmas!
Legacy of the Force
Episode III: Grandmaster
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Battle of the Tomb
The structure was covered in massive amounts of dust, dirt, and sand. It protruded from the side of a small mountain, clearly having been crafted directly out of the rugged terrain. Though the weather had tempered down much of its majestic power, the foreboding aura of darkness that saturated the air around it made it as every bit intimidating as it had been during its original completion. The colder-than-freezing temperatures of the winter night helped to enhance the terrifying presence the temple-like entrance of the ancient tomb. Even with construction platforms that surrounded much of the structure to help the Romanian wizards with their excavating of the Tomb before their sudden and unexplained slaughter weeks ago did nothing to hinder the sheer power that was wrapped up around it like a protective shell.
Standing proudly on opposite ends of the second level of the main structure were two figures. One was wrapped up in a simple black cloak with short black hair, both of which were billowing mightily in the strong, cold winds. His frame was solid and strong, despite being slightly hunched over and panting from a small amount of fatigue. Nevertheless, there was an almost palpable feeling of sheer power that surrounded this young man, despite his exhaustion. The other figure was clearly no less frightening or powerful. Dressed in a elaborate but functional body armor of ages past and long hair billowing in the wind like a majestic cape, his blood-red eyes were focused upon the much younger man's brilliant green eyes in front of him with sharp concentration. Though he was also breathing somewhat heavily, it wasn't quite as bad as his opponent.
Marius Vladimir couldn't help but give the young human a small grin. Truly, this young man was as powerful, cunning, and dangerous as the many rumors claimed him to be. Marius had seen many wizards and witches in his long lifespan, and quite a few of them had been worthwhile opponents and deserved their places in history. But, as this fight was quickly proving already, this young human who wasn't even a man yet was proving to be the most difficult opponent he'd ever faced before, and that was truly saying something!
The two of them had started out the fight by exchanging various spells and attacks, trying to force the other into submission through brute power. Young Potter had power in spades and was quite capable of wielding it to his fullest advantage, countering Marius' many traps and attacks with a finesse that was almost scary. But all the power in the world hadn't been enough to help the boy subdue the believed-to-be strongest of the Vampire Lords, whose greater experience had saved his life several times already. The magical battle had more or less been a stalemate, and both of them knew it. Which was why, not even five minutes after they'd started it, they stopped and were preparing for the next phase of the fight.
Reaching down, Marius slowly unsheathed his beloved Mithril sword and held it at the ready. Across from him, Harry took hold of his preferred weapon and ignited it. Seeing the glowing blade of pure energy emerging, Marius' eyes narrowed. He'd heard so many stories about the strange but lethal weapons of the 'Jedi' for the past few years, and this was only his second time ever seeing one. Even though he'd already fought against that very same weapon earlier, it still made him feel uneasy from simply knowing just how dangerous that energy blade truly was. Centuries of experience, his pride, and the knowledge that his Mithril sword was one of the few weapons that could counter it gave Marius a much needed boost in confidence. Nevertheless, he shifted his grip on his sword as he leaned his posture forward ever-so-slightly as he prepared to lunge forward. Harry mimicked his motions, gripping his weapon in both hands and holding the deadly blade to the side.
Rushing forward at the same time, the two combatants quickly closed the distance between them and slashed at each other. Marius quickly pressed the attack with vicious slashes towards Harry's center, forcing the Jedi to block them while backing away and sidestepping. Spinning around to face his enemy, Marius gave a follow-up slash that almost any other man twice Harry's age wouldn't have been able to guard against, let alone see. With the Force heavily reinforcing his body and abilities, Harry was able to see the slash and jump out of its reach as the metal blade came whistling towards his neck. He knew that he didn't even compare to Marius' incredible strength and so wasn't about to get into a shoving contest with the Vampire.
Frowning, Harry kept his lightsaber blade up as he watched his opponent carefully. The Vampire, seeing the hesitation in his enemy, quickly shifted stances out of his preferred fencing style and switched to the more aggressive and primeval side of his Vampiric heritage. Twirling the blade mockingly in the air for a second, the Vampire rushed forward with renewed vigor. Dodging away from the cyclone of slashing metal, Harry leapt up and landed upon the ledge of the Temple, below him was a sheer drop that could've easily killed him if he fell. Marius was quick to follow Harry up on the stone ledge, sword already rushing to meet Harry's saber.
Slashing down towards Harry's chest, Marius watched as Harry backed away with his lightsaber dipping a bit low from the power of Marius' strike. Jumping forward before the boy could recover, the Vampire planted a powerful kick into Harry's gut. It was only Harry's fast reflexes that allowed him to see the kick coming and jump with it, negating a portion of the power. The blow still knocked him reeling haphazardly across the ledge, almost causing him to stumble and fall but he was quickly able to regain balance. Not a second later, Marius dashed into his personal space, spinning around to grab Harry's hand that held his weapon with his own free hand. Marius continued to spin around, trying to wrench the lightsaber from Harry's grasp while using his other arm to elbow the boy in the face.
Despite the blow to the face, Harry didn't lose his steel grip on the saber hilt. Seeing this and not wanting to be caught in a compromising position, Marius let go of Harry's hand as he finished his earlier spin and once again kicked the recoiling teenager. This time the kick sent the boy tumbling off of the ledge and back onto the temple. Sliding across the roof and finally getting his bearings again, Harry went on the offensive and slashed towards the Vampire with clenched teeth, very angry at the underhanded fighting.
His slash missed as Marius sidestepped him. The loose sand under his feet caused Harry to overshoot his target and go sliding uncontrollably a short distance away, towards the corner of the temple platform they were on. Spinning around as soon as he could, Harry gave another slash, only to have Marius evade it by jumping upon the ledge again and then over onto the construction platform that was a short distance away. Harry followed immediately, jumping up and racing after the Vampire as he fled down the length of the platform. As they neared the edge of it, Marius turned to face Harry as the boy went into a skid, kicking up large amounts of dust and sand and creating a smokescreen. Harry's lightsaber gave away his position to Marius, but Marius' distinctive Force presence more than compensated the temporary loss of Harry's eyesight in the smokescreen.
As quickly as the dust was kicked up, it was blown away by the strong winds, revealing the two to still be locked in deadly combat. Using unrelenting attacks, Harry was steadily pushing Marius backwards towards the edge of the platform. Guessing the boy's intentions, Marius knocked the saber aside and escaped to the side, once again dropping back onto the temple platform. Spinning around, he gave another faster-than-sight slash towards Harry's legs, but the boy leapt up and over the Vampire as the sword reached him. Landing somewhat awkwardly, Harry pressed his attack again, swinging and slashing with all his might. Marius blocked each strike with apparent ease before delivering a few of his own. Locking blades momentarily, the two of them began attempting to jab the other in the face while blocking their opponent's blade. Blades racing forward, the two of them ducked their heads to the side to dodge the other's blades as they jabbed forward. Drawing back his saber, Harry gave his own faster-than-sight slash towards Marius, but the Vampire nimbly somersaulted away.
After a few handsprings to put some buffer space between them, the two fighters came to a momentary halt. Both were breathing quite noticeably harder than they were earlier, though Harry's were more of ragged pants for air despite his attempt to control himself. The smell of fresh blood reached Marius' sensitive nose and his eyes automatically tracked and located the source of it. There was a cut halfway up the side of Harry's leg, his dark pants and boots had done much to protect his leg from the slash but the skin had still been broken. Blood was slowly leaking out of the wound and drenching that portion of his clothing.
His eyes returning to Harry's panting face, Marius smirked confidently. But as he did so, he became aware of a strange pain. Reaching up with his free hand, Marius gingerly touched the pain on the side of his cheek bone. It felt like a burn mark, though no blood seemed present. Once again returning his attention to his panting opponent, Marius' opinion of the boy's skills and prowess was raised several notches as a frown again settled upon his face. This boy had just done something that hadn't been done to him in almost four centuries; given him a wound, no matter how superficial it was.
Eyes narrowing, Marius glared at the boy. Now he was really starting to understand why the British Ministry had placed such an incredibly large bounty on the boy's head. If he was given a few more years to grow, this boy would've been nearly unstoppable to any who were his enemies. Harry seemed to sense the change in his opponent's mental disposition and prepared himself for the renewal of their battle.
A sudden strong wind kicked up a dust cloud around Marius, momentarily masking his movements. But Harry wasn't surprised when the Vampire suddenly lunged out of the cloud and delivered a vicious slash. This time it was Marius who slid on the sand below them uncontrollably, which allowed Harry a precious few seconds to hurry off to the side, seeking more favorable fighting grounds. Marius was almost immediately following him.
As he raced towards the opposite side's corner, Harry spun around and blocked a slash of Marius. But the slash also sent him sliding backwards away from him. The sand was working against Marius as well, causing him to lose precious traction and send him stumbling towards the ground. Harry attempted to exploit this opening, but Marius was one step ahead. While bracing himself with one arm, he swung his sword at Harry, causing him to back off. Then he leapt up into a one-handed handstand, kicking out at Harry's face and knocking the boy stumbling backwards again. Both of them recovered quickly, blades swinging and crashing against each other as they circled one another.
Jabbing forward, Marius nearly stabbed Harry's right eye out. Shifting left, Harry felt the wind of the blade's passing his temple as he jabbed forward himself towards Marius' exposed abdomen. However, the Vampire's sudden reversal of his jabbing arm and following slash caused Harry to back away. Pressing his advantage, Marius swung ruthlessly at Harry, forcing him to back up ever closer to the edge. A sudden upward slash of Marius caught Harry's right shoulder, the Mithril blade easily cutting through the leather material, sending a small fountain of blood shooting out. Ducking under Marius' following strike, Harry swung out and knocked the sword even further away from him, despite his arm now being momentarily weaker than it had been earlier. The slightly-awkward position Marius was in with his sword arm a bit too overextended was just the distraction Harry needed to Force Jump over the ledge behind him onto the construction walkway behind him.
Sprinting down the walkway, Harry both sensed and heard the Vampire quickly gaining on him. But before the Dark Creature could overtake him, Harry spun around and anchored himself against a jutting board and helping him arrest his momentum. Slashing his lightsaber with all his strength, Harry was able to knock away Marius' sword as the Vampire leapt high into the air and flipped over the boy's head. The Vampire quickly recovered and leapt forward again, slashing as he went. Harry barely deflected the attack thanks to his quickly weakening arms as Marius flew past him.
As the two spun to face each other, their weapons clashed repeatedly in a deadly dance. Marius could feel Harry's weakening body and see his slowing reflexes, which only served to encourage him to further increase the strength of his own blows. It culminated to the two of them locked blades, Marius pushing Harry to the side and almost over the edge with his brute strength. Ignoring the burning pain on his cheek, Marius opened a grin with a mouthful of large, sharp teeth. It was a psychological attack he'd used on his prey many times throughout his long life, meant to weaken their resolve and steal their courage away.
Instead of seeing the familiar light of wavering courage, the green in Harry's eyes hardened to that of diamonds as he let out a slow, deep breath, steeling his resolve even more than it had been earlier. A sudden shove with a surprising amount of strength caused Marius to stumble backward two steps, giving Harry more than enough breathing room to knee the Vampire in the gut. As he doubled over, Harry sidestepped and brought his saber down in preparation. Turning to face the boy, all Marius saw was a flash of viridian light as the saber slashed up towards his face. Only six century's worth of swordsmanship training allowed Marius to shift himself slightly to the side and away, resulting in him receiving a grazing burn trail going up the right side of his forehead, rather than having his face split in two.
Still, the shock of the attack froze the Vampire for a critical few milliseconds. These were milliseconds that Harry used to climb to his feet and bring his saber over his head in preparation for a powerful chop. But as he was beginning this chop, Marius snapped out of his shock, caught Harry's arm by the elbow, and used his massive strength to throw the boy to the side. His impact with the walkway hit a certain nerve cluster in Harry's arm which caused him to reflexively release his lightsaber. The deadly weapon dropped out of sight below them as Harry immediately tried to regain his footing.
Raising his arm towards the recovering boy, Marius summoned his magic and channeled it into the amulet he wore over his right forearm. As the ruby glowed with power, he muttered out the spell and launched it at Harry. Harry had no other option but to raise his arm to shield his face from the fast-approaching spell, completely unable to use the Force to negate the magic like he usually could. The bone-breaking spell immediately shattered the bones in his right forearm, and the force of its impact also sent Harry stumbling over the edge of the walkway. Grinning like a manic, Marius snatched up his sword and raced down the walkway in order to reach a more reasonable location to jump off and pursue his target.
Harry, on the other hand, had managed to use his good arm to grab hold of a log below him. It didn't stop his plummet, but it helped him slow his fall just enough that when he did hit, it wasn't with enough force to kill him. Using the Force to help him ignore the screaming in his muscles and the hot, throbbing agony in his arm, Harry pushed himself awkwardly to his feet, clenching his forearm. Focusing as best he could, he sent the beginning tendrils of Healing into his wound. But he wasn't able to do much more as he felt the sudden rise in killing intent coming off Marius as the Vampire descended towards him like some kind of nightly predator, sword at the ready.
Dodging around the descending blade, Harry's left arm, hidden under the billowing flaps of his cloak, flew to his hip. Marius landed lightly, he spun towards Harry with his sword's point leading the way. He spotted Harry turning to meet him, his injured arm moving in such a way as to unintentionally hold his cloak up and obscuring the profile of his body. The two of them were practically shoulder to shoulder at this point; neither of them could've dodged, even if they'd tried. Just as Marius was driving his sword point forward, he heard a familiar snap-hiss as a silver blade erupted through Harry's cloak. Then they slammed their shoulders into each other, cheek to cheek, emerald-green eyes staring into blood-red. For a second, neither of them moved.
Then Marius' sword point dropped to the ground with only a few lines of Harry's blood lining it. Thanks to Harry's cloak obscuring his body, Marius hadn't been able to make a clean stab. But Harry, on the other hand, momentarily switched off his second lightsaber to allow the Vampire to stagger back away and painfully examine the wound to his chest as he began coughing up blood.
Looking up with a strained expression, Marius coughed out, "You're much…more skilled than I…thought a human ever could…be."
"And you're every bit the deadly Lord I heard you are," Harry replied, staring his opponent in the eye unwaveringly. "I wish we didn't have to be enemies. You could've done so much more if you hadn't challenged me like this."
Smirking at the boy's attitude, Marius straightened himself up to stand proudly, his wound already starting to heal over. "You make it sound as though you've already won."
Nodding, Harry said, "I have, because I know something you apparently don't. You must've missed it up to now because of all the fighting we've been doing."
"What?" Marius asked, lifting his sword up to prepare for the final round of combat.
"We're not alone," Harry stated simply.
But even as he said that, Marius' senses suddenly caught on to what the boy was saying. There was someone else here. And they were close, very close! Then a sound of feet impacting sand directly behind him, followed by another snap-hiss, and Marius was spinning around to face the stranger. All Marius saw was a flash of electric-blue and white before his world went dark and he dissipated into oblivion.