FORSAKEN II - Eternal Dawn

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Syrran parried Quinlan's attack and used his pummels to disarm him. Quinlan had no choice but to dodge the next strikes, leaving the crowd holding their breath. He Force-pushed Syrran, who cancel the momentum with his own power and dashed toward him. Quinlan flipped over the amethyst blades, recalled his lightsaber in time to parry, and Force-pushed a screen of sand at Syrran's face. Striking a shoto out of the way, Quinan flipped his grip, thrust its blade right into his Syrran's chest, and pulled it out. He dropped to his knees and then fell on the ground to the to the sound of the deafening uproar of the arena.

"Sy!" Elynn jumped to her feet, horrified.

"It's alright, Little Sister. Remember?" Gorin said.

"I know. It's just... it's unpleasant to watch." Her eyes welled up.

"I know, I know." He hugged and patted her back. "I don't like it either. Come, let's get the airbus and have some fun running away from dangerous criminals."

"Yeah... that'll cheer me up." Elynn wiped her tears.

Down at the arena, Quinlan watched over Syrran and deactivated his lightsaber. Rather than bask in the glory of his victory, he walked into an opening tunnel, ignoring the adulation from the crowd.

Sitting in the crowd, Karabra was impressed with the fight. Devious, she thought, unsure of how the Jedi managed to pull that trick with the lightsaber. This is a canny lot. The Kiffar didn't switched his blade off when he stroked, so they had to be something else. Karabra spied half the team at the event. The other half—the one with the archeologist—was missing, giving her a good idea of what they could be doing at that time. Karabra left the arena before the rest of the crowd.

"Poetry followed by death," said Hondo, leaning over the edge of the balcony. He sighed and sat back to have a drink. "Like my dear mother used to say, 'Those who live violent lives better carry a blaster.'"

Grakkus clapped, pleased with the results. "This was indeed the greatest fight held at this arena. It will be spoken of for years to come. I hope you weren't close to the Pantoran, Miraluka."

"Merely business acquaintances," Jarriss said before drinking.

"And that business is now concluded. Hand over the holocron."

"When I get my money."

"Our money," Hondo said.

"You don't trust me?" Grakkus said.

"I'd rather conclude all transactions before taking my leave," Jarriss said.

"And I'm in the mood to celebrate, so you'll get your credits then."

"I can definitely use another drink."

Two BLX general labor droids, one gold and one silver, came out with a hovering gurney to collect the body with little ceremony, and one of them placed the shotos inside the compartment in his chest for Grakkus to add to his necklace.

"Are we throwing him to the acklay or are we chopping him up to feed the others?" the gold one said, as they brought the hover gurney to the animal pens under the arena.

"We're chopping him up." His silver companion picked up a power saw. "The Gamemaster wants the acklay hungry for tomorrow's games." He turned the tool on.

The blades of Syrran's shotos pierced through the droid's torso, destroying him. His surprised counterpart had no idea how it happened, or how the saw cut his own head. Syrran sat up and checked the plate of cortosis he hid under his jerkin through the hole burned in his chest. One of the strongest minerals in the galaxy, its high energy absorption properties could resist a lightsaber strike. In the excitement of the intense fight, people missed the fact Quinlan's blade failed to come out through Syrran's back as it should have.