On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter XXXVIII

"Stinkin' Sithspawn of the Devil," Luna muttered as she dashed behind cover, dodging several lightwhips in the process—apparently Palpatine had been working on getting weapon variants in his army, lucky her. Vader had considered the weapon so out of date that he'd only brought it up in passing—and a variant at that considering he'd only ever touched on the more common electrowhips....though, now that the once Sith apprentice thought about it, he'd likely brushed over the subject because of the weapon's connection to slavers. He'd trained her to know how to wield and fight just about every other weapon in the galaxy, including vibroswords (where, if you're doing it right, you need to attack with the edge and block with the wider blunt part of the blade close to the hilt where the sword is strongest) despite the fact the likelihood of her ever picking up a heavy vibrosword when having such easy access to a lighter and more nimble lightsaber was less likely than the sun rising in the west. On Earth.

In comparison with ancient sword techniques, Luna hardly knew anything about whips in general. Basic knowledge was from Star Wars and that was limited to Legends Luke having a padawan who decided to have a lightwhip with like, half a dozen actual whips attached to the handle and that it was a weapon Sith usually used though not often for obvious reasons. The kriffin' thing was as deadly to the enemy as it was to an untrained wielder.

....Guess Luna would be buying herself an electrowhip off the black market once she got herself out of this mess. Best way to know the weaknesses and attacks of an enemy's weapon was to know how to wield it yourself....if she got good, perhaps she'd make it a setting on her lightsaber.

For now, she'd stick to the basics: It could probably cut like a lightsaber and it was never a good idea to get whip wrapped around a sword because you'd find yourself in an unfair tug-of-war because sabers are meant for blocking, not things wrapping....

Oh, there's an idea.

By definition, lightwhips weren't built to be strong, but flexible and yielding. It was unlikely you could block much more than a laser blast, if that, without the whip itself rebounding right back at you.

Therefore, you couldn't block force lightning, or you at least couldn't do it easily.

"I'm brilliant," Luna muttered to herself, peaking around the corner with a smirk. With that, as long as she moved fast enough....

Well, she should be perfectly capable of it, if she had any of the skills her old master had. How was it put on that webpage she'd looked at back in her obsessive fandom days.... Oh right: Darth Vader can move so fast that it appears as though he's teleporting....to Jedi.

And Luna would like to think she's a tad bit quicker than her old master. She would not challenge him on tanking abilities, but she would challenge speed.

Alright, three, two, one, Luna thought to herself in preparation, jumping out from behind cover the moment she finished the countdown, electricity springing from her fingers, soundly startling the Sith Hands as she sprinted down the hallway, easily slipping through the now defensively moving whips as though she was watching the movements in slow motion. In a few seconds she had relieved several enemies of their hands and had switched blade hands as she spun, cutting off her lightning as she grabbed her saber in a reverse grip and blocked a red lightsaber while summoning one of the still lit lightwhips from a cut off hand to her now free right hand before using the commandeered weapon to cut the enemy she was in a blade lock with in half—using the Force to prevent the thing from coming all the way back around and cutting her.

The kriffing thing was literally made to come back and bite you in the face.

Luna bent over backwards, successfully dodging an enemy's lightwhip before opening a few fingers as she called upon the Force, visualizing a ball of kinetite forming, balanced on her three free fingers before spinning around and launching the ball of electricity at the Hand who had attacked her. A second hand used the Force to deflect the ball of kinetite into a wall.

Of course. The one time Luna gives it a try, the enemy deflects it. Of kriffin' course.

The ex-Shadow spun the whip in a circle, creating a shield-like barrier in front of herself, making the Hands pause, before she sprung forward—using precognition to ensure the whip wouldn't hit her as she moved through the air with it spinning around her body—and relieved one of the Hands of his head with her saber before the whip in her hand shot out and cut another Hand from the shoulder downwards before landing catlike on the floor, the lightwhip hissing as it landed on the floor at rest before she deactivated it, having finished off the Sith that had been on her tail.

....If she could figure out how to properly wield the thing, Luna would be open to a saber-whip fighting combo. As much of a double sided weapon it was, she did like how it moved and could create temporary shielding plus long ranged attack without letting go of her weapon. Luna would have to alter her technique to something much more similar to Ahsoka's style, get used to fighting with a left handed reverse grip so the blade would keep from getting tangled with the whip, not to mention find herself another crystal and build a saber that could turn into a lightwhip at the flick of a switch, but given time....

The Force suddenly flared in warning from behind her. Luna quickly moved to dodge but not quick enough as the vibroblade hit its mark.