Star Wars: Slave Of Darkness

Terrak hit the wall with a grunt, stars flashing across his vision as the back of his head smacked against stone. Woozily, he got to his feet just in time for an explosion to rock the corridor, collapsing the passage between him and his sister.

"Ianna!" He half-bellowed, half-slurred helplessly, both with his voice and through the Force, as his ears rang from the noise.

Her side of the bond remained ominously silent. His only consolation was that it was still there at all.

Both of his hearts raced as adrenaline flooded through him and he could hear his own blood pounding in his ears.

As the dust settled, the Zabrak found he was not alone. In the darkened passage, a tall figure stood ahead, its features barely visible as more than an outline. Even at a distance, it loomed over him.

It wasn't difficult to puzzle out the being's identity and the growl that echoed back to him all but confirmed it.

After all, Aldrex rarely went anywhere without his alien bodyguard.

"I don't want to fight you." Terrak tried to reason, though he wasn't entirely certain that the creature understood Basic, "I only wish to retrieve my sister."

It only replied with what sounded like a bark. He was hardly the most adept at reading emotions with the Force, but he thought it sounded almost resigned.

Resigned…but also resolute. There would be no peace here.

What little light was present in the corridor glinted off a bared sword as it was drawn.

Terrak sighed, "So be it."

There was no warning, no signal to begin. One moment, they were apart. The next, they clashed.

Though the Zabrak was unarmed, he was far from helpless. The alien's durasteel blade screeched and skittered off his metal arm as Terrak bashed it aside, making way for his flesh and blood fist.

The creature suddenly threw itself back before he could make contact, a grunt of effort escaping its toothy maw. Eyes that he could barely make out in the dark were watching him more warily now.

Terrak took advantage of the brief pause to close his eyes and breathe in slowly. As the air flowed into his lungs, the Force spread out from his core, trailing down his organic limbs. Power seeped into muscles shaped by months of intense, single-minded training, hardening them until they were like durasteel cables.

And then, he saw.

A shaggy paw reached for his mechanical arm to pull it away as a blade descended. Cold metal cut into his flesh, dividing him from shoulder to-

He moved, his cyber-arm flowing like water around the grasping limb to knock it aside before it could land. On the opposite side, his flesh and blood hand caught the sword-arm by the wrist before shoving it away. Terrak quickly drew his arms back to his sides, his elbows poking into his ribs before his hands rocketed back out as fast as lightning.

His palms hammered into the creature's chest and the Zabrak felt the snap of bone through the dense fur and muscl-

An imperceptible frown hit Terrak's face as reality snapped in to match his perceptions. The sight was still the same but not…

He threw himself into a dive to his left as a shaggy arm swept down in a move that would likely have taken off his head had it connected. He abruptly arrested his movement by slapping his right palm on the ground, avoiding a Force-empowered stomp that would have pulverized any part of him that it touched.

Instead, it merely shattered the stone beneath the foot.

As he put some distance between them, it only took him a micro-second to realize what had happened. While he had hit, the creature had moved with the blow to reduce the damage. Ribs had not broken and had instead been replaced by, at worst, mild bruises.

With that analysis came another revelation: The alien had been trained to fight both unarmed and against unarmed opponents. On top of that, it had experience, to the point where it moved to counter instinctively.

It wasn't something taught at the academy. Sith rarely fought completely unarmed, preferring to use either a blade or the Force. Terrak's own fighting style came from a chance encounter with the Followers of Palawa. It was quick, precise, and designed for use against Force Users.

The creature's style was frankly the opposite. Its movements were large and sweeping and its arms were used as clubs, leveraging its greater strength and size to pummel its foes into submission. Precision was lost in favor of brute strength.

Despite that, Terrak had to admit that it was disgustingly effective. The towering creature was faster than its height implied and was likely using the Force to bolster its speed, enabling it to keep pace with him as it used its larger size and greater reach to herd him.

He was being forced to use more and more energy to dodge around its long limbs rather than risk meeting them head on.

A hand, with claws restrained, reaches for hi-

Terrak ducked under the grasping hand and spun to the alien's left side, his leg lashing out in a vicious kick into the back of the creature's knee. Instead of seeing it buckle, a grunt and a flinch were his only reward as his attack landed against braced muscle.

The sword swept down again and again. Each time, he parried with his metal arm. But each blow carved a chip from the skeletal limb and the blade alike. It was a testament to either the sheer strength behind each swing or to the weakness of the materials of each.

Terrak did not particularly wish to find out which it was as being down an arm again was an unappealing prospect.

A kernel of frustration burrowed into his mind at the whole situation. He hadn't seen exactly what condition she was in, but sustained exposure to Sith Lightning was hardly conducive to a healthy being.

This creature was between him and Ianna and was wasting valuable time, stalling him while his mentor fought both those two monsters alone.

He had known this was a trap from the moment he had been aware that Ianna was missing, but he had had no choice. He would not -could not- abandon his sister.

He was the brother, the protector. Ianna needed him, as he needed her. They were all the other had left.

Terrak breathed in again and set his feet.

'Even on Korriban, the Force is here. And it is a most powerful ally.'

When the sword came again, he was ready and his durasteel fist met its edge. With the screech of metal on metal and a loud crack, the weapon snapped near the hilt, sending the blade careening into the darkness.

The creature barely paused to cast the now-broken weapon aside. Though the blade had been a threat, breaking it had only freed up another hand.

And soon, he realized that it had been holding back.

Blood sprayed and bone crunched as it gripped his head between its han-

...

Terrak's eyes snapped open, words on his lips. The creature was back at the end of the ruined corridor, the blade in its hand whole once more.

Four flashes of insight. Four times he would have died.

The pragmatic part of his mind acknowledged that running out of the tomb was always an option…but it wasn't one that he was willing to take. And if he fought here, this corridor would be his death.

It was time for another approach. He needed help.

This time, he did not arrogantly offer the creature the chance to surrender. After what he had seen, it was laughable.

Instead, he took off down the hallway that his mentor had taken to circle around the ambush.

Ominously, Terrak didn't hear the creature's footsteps plodding behind him or even sense its presence.

That titanic, overwhelming power had simply…vanished as soon as he started running.

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The first book of this fanfic has been completed on Patreon, you can look it up in the collection alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.

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