fandomtownies | The Preserve

Kaidan moved into a punch at about quarter speed.

And Kanan reached in to grab Kaidan above the elbow, the way he'd been grabbed, himself.

Kaidan waited for the yank and then dropped, landing on his ass and pulling Kanan toward him. "If you feel them start to fall, let go and back up or sidestep, because.." He demonstrated, without actually kicking Kanan, that he could. "If they don't kick.." Kaidan caught Kanan's arm and rolled back further, not fully, but enough to show that if he got his feet up, Kanan would get tossed. It was similar to a move he'd used to throw Emil.

And Kanan stumbled along with all of Kaidan's demonstration, brow still furrowed, committing all he could to memory. He'd remember it. He'd pull it out if he needed it. At least where fighting was involved, he'd always been a quick study, after all.

"Seems like from there it all becomes a bit of a dance."

That wasn't really a criticism. So did swordwork, after all.

"Sort of," Kaidan acknowledged, letting go of Kanan's arm and getting to his feet. "It's about control. Keeping control of your own body, taking control of the other person, or people's. There's several different types of hand-to-hand, but the one I learned is meant to end fights in a minimum amount of time. It's mostly for defending yourself, or defending something else."

He fidgeted a second, picking grass off his pants.

Kanan considered that. The words and the fidget both, really. And then he raised a hand and dusted off his shoulder, mostly for something to do with it.

"I can understand that," he replied. "The lightsaber form I know best is tailored to dragging a fight out, to surviving longer than an opponent, saving stamina while they give it their all trying to take you out. This sounds like a fighting style made to counter that sort of mindset. Get in close and end it quickly, before you can get worn down."

He hesitated a moment, and then added, "This is why I need to train against everyone I can. Because I know my way around a blaster, but without my lightsaber, there's only so much I can do if they out-armor me or I end up disarmed."

Kaidan thought about it and tossed him the bamboo. "Go slow, but show me a strike with this, as if it were your light saber."

"The way I fight, it's in two parts. It's meant to protect whatever's behind me, and it's meant to kill or incapacitate enemies quickly so I can go on to the next threat and end that quickly. The entire goal is to finish the mission and get out to report back."

Sentinel. SPECTRE. It made for an odd mix.

Kanan caught the bamboo with ease, slipping far more readily into a stance that he was clearly comfortable with.

"If I'd finished my training, I'd be more well-versed in offensive forms as well," Kanan noted. "I picked up some Jar'kai, that's the two-bladed style, but that'll really only do me any good if I ever manage to find a second crystal."

Which... was not a prospect that was looking terribly likely, these days.

He lifted the bamboo, and then stepped forward with a simple, straightforward strike, aimed for Kaidan's shoulder.

Kaidan pivoted slowly to dodge the bamboo and brought a leg up, knee to hip, and slowly extended in a kick. He demonstrated the three modes of extension - aiming his foot at Kanan's hip, at his chest, and then at the underside of his chin. "How would you correct the strike? It's plasma. If it hits me at all, I'm maimed or dead, so my goal would be to keep out of the way of the blade, keep you off balance so you couldn't swing it, or keep you far enough away that a strike wouldn't hit. In this instance, I would follow up a kick with biotics."

"And if I were in your position, I might try to shove an opponent away with the Force," Kanan noted. "But assuming using the Force is only going to get me in more trouble, the best option is distance. A lightsaber wielder losing their balance is a potential wildcard. They're as likely to injure you as themselves. And," he lifted an elbow, tucked in the other, and twisted his wrist around, bringing the bamboo down toward Kaidan's hip. "Trying to avoid the blade will only take you so far. All I need on you for those strikes in particular is speed, and you've lost your leg."

Kaidan nodded, "Which is why my follow up would be biotics." He smiled grimly, "Assuming I didn't have a gun. If I did, you'd be on the defensive pretty much immediately. I assume lightsabers block bullets as well as blaster bolts?"

He thought of something, "Does the sword shut off if it loses contact with your hand?"

Tilting his head a little, he examined the sword and asked another question, "Why would you go for the hip? Three inches in height, you'd split me in half."

"The sword shuts off," Kanan confirmed. "And I've never tried to block a bullet with it, but I suspect it would simply reduce it to slag. You're welcome to shoot at me to test that theory."

He wasn't holding his breath on that front. He had a hard enough time asking people to throw pebbles at him, here.

There was another moment, while that last question registered. And then he looked faintly horrified.

"The aim is to incapacitate," he said, actively taken aback. "I can kill a person. I have killed with it. But if I can take a leg instead of a life, I damn well will."

"You're going to have to show me a Force shield before I start flinging bullets at you," Kaidan pointed out, "Show me you can block it if it gets past the sword."

Kaidan would have zero problems throwing pebbles. That would be easier than throwing punches.

He shot Kanan a very lopsided smile, "Remember when I said that everything I do is lethal? I wasn't kidding. If I took a leg, that person would be alive on the ground within my defensive sphere. That's not acceptable."

"I've I've taken a leg instead of a life, it's because I'm damn certain I have control enough of the situation to survive doing so." Kanan pulled in a breath, and then shrugged. He wouldn't fault anybody for making damn sure his opponent was down, even though it had very nearly gotten ugly on Tuesday for what was likely the same reason. "You find something for me to shield, and I'll show you how that works. I don't think there's much that can be said by either of us to change one any opinions on killing in that situation. I was taught a defensive lightsaber form for a reason."

Kaidan nodded, "If I'm fighting, I'm defending something. Anything within my defensive sphere is getting put down in a manner it won't get up from, because I can't afford for it to get past me, or to bring me down and give line of sight to whatever it is I'm guarding."

He nodded at a nearby tree, "Can you put a meter by meter shield in front of that?"

Kanan shrugged and tossed the bamboo stick to the side.

"Where? Ground level?"

Easy enough.

"Sure, that works. Higher up would be better, but my aim's pretty good. Will you know if it weakens or breaks?" Kaidan asked.

"It'll break when I let it go," Kanan replied. "I'll know if I weaken."

He held up his hands toward the tree and reached into the Force.

"You can aim higher if you want."

He was pretty much just covering the trunk for good measure.

Was he doing this? He was. He took a breath, then another, and then he triggered his implants. His Omni sprang to glowing orange life on his left arm. His voice, when he began to speak, was devoid of emotion. "We'll start with Cryoblast. Don't blame me, I didn't name these. On an unprotected person, it will freeze them solid and shatter them in 1.8 seconds. On an armored target, it will weaken the armor and slow them down. Multiple hits will freeze them solid. While it's active, any other biotic ability that hits the target, as well as plasma bolts or bullets, will cause a detonation. My recharge speed is approximately 4 seconds. I usually go with six, just to be sure."

With that, he brought his left hand up, aimed at the tree, and triggered his implants.

There was no physical projectile. There was nothing but the sound of water vapor in the air freezing along the shield Kanan was holding up.

From Kaidan, there was no emotion. Not even static. There's a void where there should be a person.

Every four seconds, he fired another blast, so Kanan could see what he meant by 'detonation'. Ice turned into jagged shrapnel with a sound almost like an implosive pop. It didn't fly all that far, but the speed it was going, it didn't really have to. After about four, he stopped.

"What I'm doing is firing masses of super-cooled subatomic particles that snap-freeze on the target."

"It's a hell of a trick," Kanan said, watching the vapor in the air form along an invisible barrier. "I can feel it through the Force, another energy at odds with what I'm holding in front of the tree. And you say it'll cause a detonation if it interacts with other biotic abilities?"

Kaidan nodded. He gauged the distance far enough. "This is what happens when Reave hits Cryo."

He didn't move or gesture. For this, he didn't have to. All he needed was line of sight.

The ice detonated with enough force to send a shockwave through the air.

"If there wasn't a barrier in front of it, that tree would be kindling."

Kanan could feel the shockwave physically, which was good, because with his eyes closed and a second hand coming up to join the first, he sure as hell wasn't seeing what had just happened, there.

"I believe it," he replied, opening his eyes again. "Quite the kick that has, there."

Not so much that he couldn't handle it, but enough that he'd had to buckle down and brace for it, anyway.

"Reave is a thief. It steals power from kinetic barriers, armor, and it'll start to drain a person's life once it gets through. When it hits a person, they stagger. Doesn't matter how armored they are, Reave will stagger them. I assume the Force shield is going to act like a biotic Barrier, though it probably won't detonate on contact. I'm only going to hit it once to start. If you feel at all weakened, tell me. Reave is one of the few biotic abilities that can outright kill a Krogan in a blood rage. The power stacks, so every hit drains more life out of them. On anything but a Krogan, the general tactic is to hit once with Reave and then go for a headshot."

His voice was still flat and emotionless. Possibly even moreso than before. Again, he stood there and looked at the tree, and triggered his implants. He didn't need to see it to know it hit, he could feel the glow of the return.

And Kanan felt that, too, once again knuckling down to brace himself from the pull of Reave, which seemed to tug and rip at the shield he was trying to maintain.

"That... that one has bite," he said, un-clenching his grit teeth. "I can hold against it, but I need to put more in. Need to fortify. It's taking from the Force, not from me, but that's still... it's work."

"Do you want me to hit it again?" Kaidan asked, head tilting slightly.

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