Knarf lunged and caught Perce’s blade right near the hilt. It felt hot. Perce groaned as he felt his skin singe.  He kicked Knarf in the chest, using the Force to add momentum, and felt his skin repair itself immediately. He let out a loud gruff.
            The Sphere made another pass, sending volleys of fire towards Perce.  He let them hit him. They were mere needles, a tiny pinch, that his body was able to handle, even when they were more numerous.
            ‘I am going to wear you down, Knarf, and you will soon tire,’ said Perce.
            ‘Is that so?’
            Knarf came at him again.  Perce sent lightning.  Knarf caught it on his blade.  Perce sent a storm of lightning. Knarf went flying across the field, landing on his back and sliding as the lightning pushed him a little further. Perce laughed.
            ‘When I am done with you, you will be begging me to finish you off. You will plead with me and I will carve you limb from limb, kill you in front of your wife, and you will die!’
            ‘Good luck with that!’ said Knarf.  He stood up, and tapped his helmet twice with his index.
            Perce snorted. ‘That beskar isn’t going to protect you for much longer!’
            He sent more lightning as he advanced on Knarf.  He could hear the slicer gargle with pain, as the lightning danced across the armour.  Knarf bent over and touched the ground with his hands, but remained on his feet. Perce kept advancing.  Knarf stood up and raised his lightsaber, taking a wide stance.  Around him, the air began to move and the lightning began to twist like a whirlwind and all the lightning Perce was sending was gathering in the one place now.  Perce stopped, but the lightning kept dancing and twirling around Knarf’s lightsaber.  Then Knarf sent it back at Perce and the twirling lightning flew towards Perce, sending him to the ground.  He rolled and jumped up, using the Force to propel himself high into the air. He landed next to Knarf for close combat.
            Knarf was nimble and Perce assumed he was taking some risks given he had his armour.  The Sphere flew low and shot Perce enough to send him staggering back.  The Sphere took a few moments to hover between him and Knarf.
            ‘Out of my way, Sphere!’
            The Sphere did not obey.  He sighed in exasperation.  Then he noticed that Knarf was atop the Sphere, sending Force energy of some kind his way. It was weak, it wasn’t even what regular Jedi could send, and it wasn’t enough to hurt him, but it was enough to annoy him.  Perce allowed his rage to fuel him and sent a barrage of lightning that caught the Sphere more than it did Knarf.  He heard its pain and it jerked.  Knarf swayed and staggered and jumped off the Sphere’s top, onto Perce.
            Perce was ready.  He aimed his lightsaber towards Knarf’s underarms where his armour was weakest, but he missed as Knarf landed sideways, and slashed across the Mandalorian’s stomach, causing nothing more but a mere graze.
            ‘Hey!’ cried Knarf.  ‘Now I’m going to have to get that repolished.’
            ‘Oh, pity!’  Perce slashed this way and that, letting lightning flow onto his lightsaber and dance across it. He hit Knarf’s blade as it came crashing down on him and they locked blades. ‘I don’t know how your wife tolerates being married to such an arrogant and condescending krif.’ The lightning transferred to Knarf’s lightsaber, blue twisting around the orange blade, and he backed away reflexively. Perce sent another onslaught of lightning at both Knarf and the Sphere.
            The Sphere took flight, lightning still dancing across it. Perce aimed a bolt of lightning at Knarf’s leg, lifting his hand and forming a claw with it, working the dark side to corrupt it as he had on Mandalore.
            The Mando-Jedi chuckled. Perce scowled.
            ‘That tactic isn’t going to work this time,’ said Knarf. ‘I may not have regeneration skills as you do, and it might be my prosthetic, over which I have less control with the Force, but Lian is the guardian of the Crypt now, and he is a healer. Since I share power from the Crypt with Shadie, he can heal me. I mean, I still feel it, but more as just a tingle.’
            Perce grunted and Knarf burst into laughter.
            ‘You’re funny, Perce, you’re funny.’
            ‘Jokes on you, Knarf, or at least it will be when I kill you.’
            The two slicers exchanged some more attacks and parries.  Knarf twirled around and hacked at Perce.  He blocked.  Knarf did the move again, and again.  Perce blocked it every time. Then suddenly, Knarf came again, but twirling the other way and he hacked off Perce’s lightsaber hand.
            ‘AARGH!’ Perce cried out in pain, as his hand hit the ground, his lightsaber powering off as it landed next to it.  He looked at Knarf feeling much anger, knowing it was reflected through his gaze.  ‘You fool!’
            He pushed with the Force and Knarf flew a few feet back.  Perce quickly called his hand to him using his other hand and placed it on his wrist. He held it a moment, feeling the tingling of the regeneration, as the cauterised tissue began to grow back into place.  Then he let go.  He looked at Knarf who looked from the ground, back to Perce, then to his hand.  He could not see the man’s face, but this one took a few steps back. His stance gave his astonishment away, as one shoulder was kept back, as though Knarf were ready to turn away and run.  Perce took another moment before moving his hand, his fingers, turning his wrist, as though he were exercising it.  Then he used that very hand that Knarf had sliced off to call his lightsaber to it, and powered on his weapon anew.
            ‘Yeah, I might have forgotten how effective that was,’ said Knarf.
            Perce began to laugh loudly and uncontrollably. His laughter grew and echoed through the darkening field.
            ‘You cannot win, Knarf!’ he said.  ‘You can try, but you will fail every time.  I will regenerate again and again.  My limbs will always glue back or grow back.  Yours will not, that is why I have the advantage in this fight and you do not.’
            ‘I have the Sphere fighting with me,’ Knarf retorted.
            ‘Not for much longer!’ Perce cocked his head towards the other side of the arena, where he could see a group approaching.  Knarf turned his head towards it too.  Perce knew that if Shadie did not want to be captured by the Empire, she would need the Sphere to come to her aid.  This opened the door for Perce to fight Knarf with no interference from anything or anyone.
            ‘It will truly be just you and me now, Knarf! And you will die!’

Continue Reading Chapter Twelve

Read the Epilogue

Catch up on previous Star Wars Fan-Fiction from the Shadie story series.

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