Accolades
Nick Rotsu regards Vastor as "more than powerful"
"There's a lor pelek who travels with Depa's band. He's... very powerful. More than powerful. If we can get Besh and Chalk to him before they start the twitches, he might be able to save them."
Shatterpoint
Mace Windu states that he can't match Vastor's raw power
Mace stood motionless except for the heaving of his chest. He knew already he could not match Vastor for raw power. With each breath, he stripped away another layer of restraint and inhibition. Another layer of serenity. He had to move his inner peace out of the way to let in the joy.
Shatterpoint
Mace Windu states that he knew he couldn't beat Vastor, and describes Vastor as very powerful
"As you said earlier: Vastor is a difficult man to lie to. He would have known if I was holding back. Then the beating would have been much worse, and he might very well have killed me. What I did was pick a fight I knew I couldn't win."
"Couldn't?"
"Vastor is... very powerful. Half my age and twice my size. Training and experience can compensate only up to a point. And he is naturally ferocious in a way that no Jedi can duplicate."
Shatterpoint
Vastor has power on the scale of Yoda and Anakin Skywalker
I could not answer; Vastor has power on the scale of Master Yoda, or young Anakin Skywalker. And I had no desire to debate with Depa on Jedi tradition, and the necessary distinction between dark and light.
Shatterpoint
Mace Windu regards Vastor as stronger, faster, immensely more powerful than himself, and states that even on his best day he couldn't beat Vastor in a direct battle
Vastor was younger, stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful, and he wielded weapons that could not be harmed by the Jedi blade. Mace couldn't win such a battle on his best day, and this day was far from his best: he was exhausted, badly wounded, and heartsick.
Shatterpoint
Cronal regards Vastor's connection to the Force as astonishingly powerful
This subject hadn't been entirely analogous to Skywalker-his connection to the Force, though astonishingly powerful, was innately of a far darker shade than the boy's, not to mention that he had never received Jedi training.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Vastor's power in the Force rivals Cronal's
And with the shadow nerve network of meltmassif lacing his body, he had a connection to the fundamental power of the Dark that rivaled Cronal's own.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Strength
Mace Windu regards Vastor as physically stronger than himself
Vastor was younger, stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful, and he wielded weapons that could not be harmed by the Jedi blade.
Shatterpoint
Cronal regards Vastor as physically powerful
He was, however, enormous and physically powerful, and his very arteries pulsed with a certain innate ferocity that Cronal found more than a bit intoxicating.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Vastor casually holds Terrel in the air with one hand
Vaster stood within, hunched like a gundark, his right arm drawn back to strike. Dangling from hair tangled in Vastor's left fist, feet kicking above the floor, sobbing uncontrollably about how all you stinkin kornos have to die, was Terrel.
Shatterpoint
Vastor's launches a palm slap at Nick Rotsu, that would of killed him had Windu not halted it
Vastor's immense left arm flashed at Nick in a blinding palm slap that would have taken his head right off before he could even blink-but that massive arm was intercepted by the heel of Mace's open hand.
Shatterpoint
Vastor catches Windu in an "unbreakable hug", which pins his elbows to his sides and begins to break his ribs
Vastor seemed to be all teeth and claws and fierce snarling assault. Arms like girders of durasteel caught Mace in an unbreakable hug, pinning the Jedi's elbows to his creaking ribs.
Shatterpoint
Vastor seemingly doesn't notice the weight of a large Jedi master on his back
Pure will powered Vastor to his feet. He didn't even seem to notice the weight of a large Jedi Master hanging down his back.
Shatterpoint
With a surge of incredible strength, Vastor slams Windu into the dirt with more force than his earlier Force-blast, which was powerful enough to shake a meter thick lammas tree
In an eyeblink, Vastor's grip shifted from the gripleaf trailer to Mace's wrists. He threw himself forward, bent at the waist, and with a surge of incredible strength yanked the Jedi Master over his head and slammed him bodily to the dirt.
The impact replaced the stars in Mace's head with billowing black nebulae; he'd never gotten his breath back properly after landing on the akk dog, and now he couldn't breathe at all. The jungle above faded into a black haze; through the darkness descending inside his skull, he barely caught a glimpse of Vastor leaping into the air to drop a body-slam that would finish him.
Shatterpoint
One of Vastor's open handed slaps leaves a bell-like ringing in Windu's ears, and then Vastor casually lifts him by the throat with one hand
One of those open-handed slaps flashed out of the darkness; the next thing of which Mace was aware was a bell-like ringing in his ears, and the grip of Vastor's huge hand around his neck, holding him up off the jungle floor.
Shatterpoint
Vastor floors Nick Rotsu with a casual backhand
Vaster interrupted the young Korun with a backhanded cuff that knocked him to the ground. He never even looked at him; his gaze was still on Mace Windu.
Shatterpoint
Windu describes the battering he sustained at Vastor's hands as "not far" from nearly crippling
Vastor was willing to let Nick help me, and treat my more serious injuries with supplies from a captured medpac. He was willing to believe the battering he'd inflicted on me was nearly crippling. It wasn't far from the truth.
Shatterpoint
Vastor throws himself back up a meter
Vastor's vine cat reflexes whirled him in the air and latched his hands onto the rock face a meter below the lip of the cliff. His confederate in the jungle poured fire up at Mace to drive him back, while Nick ran out of the cave behind him, shouting "Did I get him? Is he deal? Is he dead?" until Vaster threw himself back up into the meadow, bringing his vibroshields into fighting position with a surge of the Force.
Shatterpoint
Vastor lifts Luke like a doll, and shakes him
He reached out with the Force and slammed shut the Falcon's hatch just as the Vastor body lurched to its feet and reached Luke in one lightning bound. Impossibly powerful hands seized Luke's shoulders as Vastor lifted him like a doll, and shook him and roared rage and bloodlust into his face, and there was nothing human left in Vastor's eyes. He sank his teeth into Luke's throat, and bit down.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadow of Mindor
Speed
Windu describes Vastor as faster than himself
Vastor was younger, stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful, and he wielded weapons that could not be harmed by the Jedi blade.
Shatterpoint
Vastor flashes into an inhumanly fast sprint
Vastor touched down in the middle of the compound and rolled out of his fall without slowing. He flashed into an inhumanly fast sprint toward the very steamcrawler atop which Mace lay. Vastor's sprint became a headlong dive that carried him sliding between the treads.
Shatterpoint
Vastor's arm moves with blinding speed, and would of struck Nick Rotsu before he could blink
Vastor's immense left arm flashed at Nick in a blinding palm slap that would have taken his head right off before he could even blink-but that massive arm was intercepted by the heel of Mace's open hand.
Shatterpoint
Vastor launches forward like a human missile
A burst of power launched the lor pelek as a human missile, clawing his way through the twilight toward the Jedi Master.
Shatterpoint
Even while hurt, Vastor can whip his arms at blinding speeds
And even hurt, lurching drunkenly, Vaster still could whip his arms in blindingly fast raking slaps at Mace's head and wounded neck. But where Vastor's speed was blinding, Mace's was invisible. Not one of those slaps connected.
Shatterpoint
Vastor deflects all the hypersonic slugs fired at him by Nick Rotsu
Nick fired as fast as his finger could jerk the pistol's trigger and bullets clanged off Vastor's flashing shields-And Mace just stood there.
Shatterpoint
In concord with Depa Billaba, Vastor batters away a flood blaster fire
Outside, the other two gunships from the flight were heeling around, turrets sparking as their laser cannons tracked toward him. Depa and Kar crouched in front of the head of the ankkox, battering away a flood of blaster fire; Chalk and Nick lay flat in the shadow of one of the ankkox's massive side-curved legs, returning fire with chattering assault rifles.
Shatterpoint
Vastor's incredible reflexes, allow him to whirl around and snap his shields in front of his chest with plenty of time to block
Vastor's incredible reflexes whirled him, and those same reflexes snapped his shields in front of his chest in plenty of time to block-But they didn't actually block anything...
Shatterpoint
Vastor moves too fast for Han Solo to properly see
Han fired again, and again, but his shots splashed harmlessly on the stone; this guy―this thing, whatever―moved too fast for Han to even get a clear look at it.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Han feels Vastor rush by him inhumanly fast
Han felt an inhumanly swift rush past him; he kicked blindly in the dark but missed.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Durability/Endurance
Vastor shrugs off a combination of strikes from Windu, that would of left an ordinary man unconscious.
Standing toe to toe, the top of Mace's head barely came to the level of Vastor's chin, and you could have tucked Mace's whole thick-muscled upper body inside Vastor's chest with room to spare. And even hurt, lurching drunkenly, Vaster still could whip his arms in blindingly fast raking slaps at Mace's head and wounded neck. But where Vastor's speed was blinding, Mace's was invisible. Not one of those slaps connected.
Before Vastor could even focus his eyes, Mace had hit him six times: two thundering hooks to his short ribs, a knee slamming hard into the same thigh he'd hit before, an elbow snapping up to the point of his chin, and two devastating palm strikes to either hinge of his jaw.
An ordinary man would have been unconscious. Vastor seemed to be getting stronger.
Shatterpoint
Vastor tanks dozens of blows from Windu, and recovers in seconds when he puts distance between the two of them and gets a chance to recover
Vastor fired another of those blinding slaps. This time, instead of ducking, Mace countered with a whirring hook that met the lor peleks swinging arm directly on the nerve that ran up the inside of the biceps. Vastor threw the other even harder-which only made the inside of that arm connect that much harder with Mace's counter-hook.
Vastor's mighty arms spasmed and dropped limply to his sides. "This is called Vaapad, Kar." A fierce light burned in Mace's eyes. "How many arms do you see?"
Then he hit Vastor twice in the nose before the lor pelek could even blink.
Vastor howled in pain and raging disbelief, falling back against the akk dog's flank once more, twisting and turning to try to find some way to avoid the Jedi's flashing hands.
Mace stayed with him, pinning him to the akk's flank, fists whirling through Vaapad flurries, striking not to disable or to kill, but instead to hurt: stinging flicks to soft tissue, smashing ears and nose, stabbing up under the chin.
The akk dog suddenly lurched away from them, giving Vastor half a meter of clearance. The lor pelek sprang sideways, diving away.
Mace let him go. "Go on and run, Kar. This is over. You lose. I'm the big dog here-"
Vastor turned his dive into a roll and spun to face the Jedi Master from one knee, and before Mace had even finished speaking the Force whirled around him and Mace found himself wrenched off the ground, hurtling backward through the air to slam against the smooth-barked gray trunk of a meter-thick lammas tree. The whole tree shivered with the impact, and a spiral galaxy birthed itself inside Mace's head.
He thought, I was wondering when we'd get to this part.
Vastor's face tightened. Strength must have been returning to his nerve-punched arms already, because he managed to raise one and gesture as though throwing a stone; Mace was whirled forward from the tree to crash against the skull of an astonished akk dog.
Shatterpoint
Vastor is only winded by Windu crashing into him, with force akin to a concussion missile
Instead of resisting or grounding the power of Vastor's Force grip, Mace added his own strength to it. The speed of his flight suddenly doubled; Vastor had only time to widen his eyes in dismay as Mace flipped headfirst in the air. The top of his head speared into Vastor's gut and drove the lor pelek to the ground as though he'd been hit by a concussion missile.
On the other hand, Vastor's stomach wasn't much softer than that lammas he'd slammed Mace into; the impact didn't do Mace's head a lot of good, either.
Another spiral galaxy blossomed where the first had been as Mace rolled off him, lying on his back while he watched stellar clusters wheel inside his skull. Vastor lay beside him, making faint panting noises while he tried to pull air into his spasming chest.
Vastor's breath began to return in great whooping gasps, and Mace knew his time was running out. He shook the stars out of his head and reached down to his ankle to unwrap the severed gripleaf trailer. Limp now, dying, it was unresisting as an ordinary rope; Mace took one end in each fist, and as Vastor rolled over and gained his hands and knees, Mace slipped a loop of the trailer over the lorpelek's head from behind and tightened it around his throat.
Shatterpoint
Even after being strangled for ten seconds by a gripleaf trailer by Windu, Vastor is able to power to his feet by will alone
Vastor's breath began to return in great whooping gasps, and Mace knew his time was running out. He shook the stars out of his head and reached down to his ankle to unwrap the severed gripleaf trailer. Limp now, dying, it was unresisting as an ordinary rope; Mace took one end in each fist, and as Vastor rolled over and gained his hands and knees, Mace slipped a loop of the trailer over the lorpelek's head from behind and tightened it around his throat.
Vastor straightened and his hands went to his throat, clawing at Mace's improvised garrote, but not even he was strong enough to break a gripleaf trailer with his bare hands. His face darkened, swelling with blood; the back of his neck bulged; veins writhed across his temples and forehead.
Ten seconds, Mace thought, hanging on, wedging his knees into Vastor's back. Ten seconds and out.
Vastor got one foot under him.
Mace swallowed, gasping for breath as he tried to tighten the trailer around the lorpeleKs throat.
Pure will powered Vastor to his feet. He didn't even seem to notice the weight of a large Jedi Master hanging down his back.
Shatterpoint
Vastor is unharmed by Windu's punch, which was forceful enough to lift him bodily off the ground, flip him over backwards, and drop him on the back of his neck
Though Mace couldn't breathe-could barely see through the black-and-red haze inside his head-he could draw upon the Force to throw himself upright, and he lunged at Vaster, whirling, hands clasped together to deliver every erg of power at his command into one last thundering punch that lifted Vaster bodily off the ground, flipped him over backward, and dropped him on the back of his neck.
Mace swayed, almost out on his feet. The jungle hazed in and out of focus. All he could clearly see was the lorpelek climbing to his feet.
Vaster was smiling.
Shatterpoint
Vastor walks away from a large slab of stone falling on his head, with an ugly gash as the extent of his injuries
While Nick imitated him, Mace picked his way around the rubble and over dead and wounded Korunnai toward a gleam of ultra-chrome under a huge slab of stone. He dropped to his heels beside it and gestured, clearing smaller rocks away from the lorpelek.
"Kar? Can you hear me?"
Even hoarse with dust and pain, Vastor's growl had a sardonic edge. Better stand back. When you're around, big hard things seem to fall on my head.
Mace breathed himself into his center, and found the slab's shat-terpoint. "Don't move."
His blade flared, bit in, and the slab cracked in two over Vastor's back. A shrug of Vastor's huge shoulders shifted the two pieces enough that he could push himself up to his knees between them. He was caked with dust, and blood trickled from an ugly gash over one ear.
Shatterpoint
Telekinesis
Vastor hurls Windu off the ground, and slams him against a meter-thick lammas tree, with enough force to make the whole tree shiver with the impact
Vastor turned his dive into a roll and spun to face the Jedi Master from one knee, and before Mace had even finished speaking the Force whirled around him and Mace found himself wrenched off the ground, hurtling backward through the air to slam against the smooth-barked gray trunk of a meter-thick lammas tree. The whole tree shivered with the impact, and a spiral galaxy birthed itself inside Mace's head.
Shatterpoint
With a gesture as though he were throwing a stone, Vastor hurls Windu forward from the lammas tree and slams him against the skull of an akk dog
Vastor's face tightened. Strength must have been returning to his nerve-punched arms already, because he managed to raise one and gesture as though throwing a stone; Mace was whirled forward from the tree to crash against the skull of an astonished akk dog.
Shatterpoint
Vastor seizes Windu in his Force-grip again, and yanks Windu towards him
Mace turned his own fall into a flip that landed him on an akk dog's shoulders. He bounded off into the air-And Vaster's Force grip seized him again.
Vaster was on his feet now, and his arms didn't seem hurt at all. His blood-smeared mouth spread wide in a howl of triumph as he yanked Mace through the multicolored glowvine-shaded night, pulling him in while he opened his arms for that lethal embrace.
Shatterpoint
Telepathy
Due to succumbing the jungle in order to survive his exile, Vastor lost the ability to speak coherently. To make up for this, he uses "semi-telepathy" to communicate. Numerous examples of this, but I'm only going to post one where he communicates in this fashion over a holo-transmission
The comm panel chimed to announce an incoming voice-and-visual. Numbly, Mace reached past Nick and Chalk to hit the receive key. Scanning lasers in the comm unit traced a blue-lined image shadow on the windscreen: an electronic pre-echo of the larger-than-life holo-image projected into the burning night outside.
An image of a huge Korun with a shaven head and a smile like a mouthful of bone needles.
He growled, and Mace wondered how Vaster could expect to be understood-his Force-powered semi-telepathy wouldn't modulate a comm signal-but this little mystery instantly solved itself.
When the lor pelek growled, the dark storm that had swallowed Pelek Baw growled with him.
Thank you for giving us the city, doshalo. His smile spread like flames on oil. We have decided to redecorate.
Mace opened his mouth to ask for CRC-09,'571-and closed it again. The commander had been warned not to take orders from them.
They must have killed him.
"Kar, where's Depa?" Mace held his desperate horror locked deep inside his chest. "Let me talk to her."
She doesn't want to talk to you. She doesn't want to see you. Ever. I have arranged matters so she won't have to.
"Kar, stop this. You have to stop this!"
And I will. Vastor's lips pulled back from those needle teeth, and there was no longer even the pretense of a smile. When everyone is dead.
"You don't understand what you're doing-"
Yes, I do. And so do you.
Mace's stare burned like the city around him.
He did understand. Finally. Too late.
He had no words for what he felt. Perhaps there were no words.
I called to say good-bye, doshalo. Depa will remember you fondly. As will we all. It is a hero's death you go to, Mace of the Windu.
Mace showed his own teeth. "I'm not dead yet."
Vastor's blue-imaged head tilted a centimeter to the right. What time is it?
Mace froze.
Shatterpoint
Vastor uses a Mind Trick on Windu, and is partially successful
Vaster let the reins drop as well. He stepped away from the grasser and turned to face the Jedi Master squarely. His immense shoulders bulged, and muscles across his chest went rigid in acid-etched definition. The air shimmered like a mirage around him: anger beat against Mace like a hot wind in the Force. You will come "with me.
"No."
Dark power clutched at Mace's will. You will come with me.
Slowly, reluctantly, Mace slid himself out of the saddle and slipped to the ground. He took two steps toward Vaster.
And stopped.
Shatterpoint
Force Concealment
Mace is incapable of picking Vastor out from the surrounding jungle
Nick again expressed his confusion, and I explained. "Even with the Force, I can't pick Kar out from the jungle around us. He is so much a part of it, and it of him, that he is practically invisible. My lightsaber, on the other hand-"
Shatterpoint
Force Bonds
Vastor forms Force bonds between himself, his akk guards, and Depa Billaba, describing them as fractions of himself
"That wasn't you," Mace said, low.
But it was. One-seventh of me.
Your pardon: one-eighth.
He could feel the transceiver chamber now: two meters away o the far side of this console bank. Its ceiling began a meter and a ha below the floor.
You have lost her. Lost her to pelekotan. Lost her to pelekotan's drean a world free from Balawai.
Mace muttered, "We are all Balawai here."
Shatterpoint
Should someone Vastor has formed a bond with die, Vastor and the remaining beings can grow in power, due to the backflow of pelekotan through the bonds Vastor's forged
Power roared around her, a rising storm of darkness.
Mace got it now: as each Akk Guard died, his share of pelekotan backflowed through the bonds Vaster had forged among them.
She was getting stronger.
Shatterpoint
After absorbing all his Akk Guard's share of pelekotan, Vastor is described by Windu to smoke with more power than he had ever felt, indicating that Vastor at that point in time was more powerful than beings like Anakin Skywalker, Darth Tyranus, or Yoda
The growl came from a black shape that rose like corpse-fungus from among the bodies.
So, doshalo. Here we are. For the last time.
"Perhaps."
The shape smoked with power. More power than Mace had ever felt.
Shatterpoint
Plant Surge
After Windu directs Vastor's power back into the jungle, Vastor makes the jungle "come alive" and directs a gripleaf trailer to seize Windu's leg, and a length of brassvine to curve towards Windu's throat
Jedi Padawans learn to counter Force kinesis before they even begin lightsaber training. Still in the air, Mace sensed the flow of power that held Vastor's grip upon him; with a sigh, he allowed his center-Vastor's point of Force contact-to relax and ground Vastor's power back into the jungle around them...
And that jungle came to life.
A gripleaf trailer snaked down from above and seized one of Mace's ankles in its unbreakable clutch. His airborne tumble became a wide-swinging head-down arc.
Gripleaf trailers only grew tighter as their victim struggled, and their fibers were nearly as strong as durasteel cable; they could not be broken by mortal strength. This one squeezed his ankle, drawing blood with the edges of its sharp waxy leaves. Another trailer reached toward his other ankle, and from his upside-down vantage he could see a thick blade-thorned length of brassvine curving toward his neck.
Shatterpoint
Vastor senses the aura of the fungus that's killing Besh, and focuses his power on it, in order to burn it out spore by spore
Vaster's eyes were closed, and the Force shimmered around him. Mace could feel some of what the lor pelek was doing: searching within Besh's chest for the essential aura of the fungus that was killing him, focusing power upon it to burn it out spore by spore.
Shatterpoint
Beast Control
Vastor persuades that Fever Wasps inside Besh, and Chalk were in the wrong place to hatch, and draws them out into a fire
A streak of red painted itself along their spines, and a moment later this red suddenly blossomed into the glistening wetness of fresh blood oozing through their skin-and details, I suppose, are unnecessary. Suffice it to say that Kar had somehow used the Force-used pelekotan-to persuade the fever wasp larvae that they were in the wrong place to hatch: using the same animal tropism that draws them from the site of the wasp sting to cluster along the victim's central nervous system, Kar induced them to migrate-Out of Besh and Chalk entirely.
And such was his power that the entire wriggling mass of them-nearly a kilo all told-squirmed its way straight into the tyruun blaze, where the larvae popped while they roasted with a stench like burning hair.
Shatterpoint
Presumably, Vastor uses Beast Control to make the akk dog lurch away from him and Windu, in order to give him an opportunity to escape
The akk dog suddenly lurched away from them, giving Vastor half a meter of clearance. The lor pelek sprang sideways, diving away.
Shatterpoint
Force Heal (?)
Vastor uses the Force to return strength to his nerve pinched arms (?)
Vastor's face tightened. Strength must have been returning to his nerve-punched arms already, because he managed to raise one and gesture as though throwing a stone; Mace was whirled forward from the tree to crash against the skull of an astonished akk dog.
Shatterpoint
Combat Skill
Vastor bests Mace Windu in hand to hand combat (credit to Silver2467)
The lor pelek crouched and lowered one hand to the ground, digging in the leaf mold, his sweat-glistening chest heaving, breath pumping darkness into him and out again. Gathering rage. Gathering power. The shimmer around him had gone from red to black.
Mace shook his arms loose. "Rules?"
Vastor's reply was the snort of a hunting akk. Jungle rules. A burst of power launched the lor pelek as a human missile, clawing his way through the twilight toward the Jedi Master.
Jungle rules it is, then, Mace thought, and leapt to meet him in midair.
They collided with a crash that shook the jungle around them. The collision was not just of two human bodies, but of two node-channels of the Force: invisible energy crackled, and vivid blue gap-sparks arced from leaf to leaf in the canopy above. For a moment, they hung in the air, supported by power, grappling, tearing at each other's flesh. The akk dogs lunged and whirled and slashed the air with their tails. The guards clashed together their shields, roaring with ferocious animal exuberance.
Vastor seemed to be all teeth and claws and fierce snarling assault. Arms like girders of durasteel caught Mace in an unbreakable hug, pinning the Jedi's elbows to his creaking ribs. Mace answered swifter than thought with an instinctive head-butt that split the skin on one of Vastor's cheekbones. The lor peleklowered his head to Mace's shoulder as though to snuggle in like a lover—then sank his needle teeth deep into Mace's neck, chewing for his carotid artery.
Mace jerked a knee up to slam the inside of Vastor's thigh; Vastor only grunted and bit down harder, twisting his head from side to side like an akk worrying off a tusker's leg. His jaw pressure on the artery was restricting its blood flow; billowing clouds of darkness gathered in Mace's brain—but when Mace fired the knee again, Vastor jerked his legs out of the way.
Mace's knee caught him a decimeter below the navel. This brought a sharper grunt and a snarl that vibrated in Mace's neck, but instead of withdrawing his knee for another strike, Mace dug it in harder, forcing Vastor's body away from his own. This created just enough space that Mace could slip one arm up between their chests, and could stab his stiffened fingers into the notch of Vastor's collarbone. And shove.
With a convulsive gasp of astonishment, the lor pelek released Mace's neck. Mace kept on shoving, jamming his fingers into Vastor's windpipe. Vastor gagged, and his massive arms loosened. They fell together, tumbling, and as Mace finally pushed Vastor off him he managed to sneak in a quick snapping kick to the point of Vastor's chin that sent the lor pelek whirling like a topspun ball.
Mace recovered his Force-touch in time to flip upright and land in a balanced crouch; Vastor landed on all fours, absorbing the shock as effortlessly as a vine cat.
They looked at each other.
Blood ran from the bite wound on Mace's neck, painting his shoulder and part of his chest scarlet, but it was only a trail, not a jet: the artery must have remained intact. A similar trail rolled from Vastor's split cheek and dripped from his jaw.
Neither man appeared to notice.
Vastor's growl resonated in Mace's chest. Not many men can break my grip. You won't do it twice.
Mace didn't answer. Vastor was probably right. He was suddenly, acutely aware that he hadn't slept since the night before the fight in the notch pass. The night when a bark-drunk Lesh had come to him in tears, to tell him what Kar and the Akk Guards would teach him, if he lived long enough. It seemed like years ago.
He wondered briefly if the lor pelek would have gone ahead and torn out his throat despite what he claimed Depa had told him, or if he would have settled for the strangle. He decided he could live without knowing the answer.
That is, if he lived at all.
Vastor stalked toward him on all fours. Was that Jedi fighting? Poking and pinching? A little jab to stop the big dog? I am not impressed.
Mace stood motionless except for the heaving of his chest. He knew already he could not match Vastor for raw power. With each breath, he stripped away another layer of restraint and inhibition. Another layer of serenity. He had to move his inner peace out of the way to let in the joy. The thrill. The sheer okay-why-not-let's-FIGHT. Because Vaapad was more than just a form of lightsaber combat. It was a state of mind.
Night had deepened upon the jungle, and around them glowvines began to pulse faintly. To use Vaapad now, out here, was incredibly dangerous—almost as dangerous as not using Vaapad. The ultimate answer for power is skill.
"Want to be impressed?" Mace said. "Let's see the impression my boot makes on your face."
Without warning, Vastor's stalk became a lightning lunge, fingers hooked like talons, his arms sweeping wide to close on Mace once more—but Mace wasn't there anymore. A slight sidestep and a weave of his head snuck him to the outside of Vastor's lunge, and his fist whipped backhand to snap Vastor in the base of the skull as he passed: a knockout blow.
But Vastor must have felt it coming; he pitched forward, rolling with the punch so that it flipped him end for end. He landed in perfect balance and sprang again, straight up; the kick Mace had aimed at his kidneys only grazed his calf muscle. He used the impact to whirl in the air so that he could fall upon the Jedi Master like a branch leopard taking a tusker.
But what he fell upon was Mace's fist, driven upward into his solar plexus by the combined power of the Force and nearly fifty years of Jedi combat training. Mace's hand sank in to the wrist, and Vastor's fighting snarl became an agonized struggle for breath. Mace used the Force to hurl him off and send him tumbling through the air to slam into the flank of an agitated akk dog. Eyes glazing, half stunned, the lor pelek slid bonelessly down the akk's armored ribs, and staggered as his feet skidded over gnarled roots.
Before he could find his balance, Mace was on him. "Impressed yet?"
Standing toe to toe, the top of Mace's head barely came to the level of Vastor's chin, and you could have tucked Mace's whole thick-muscled upper body inside Vastor's chest with room to spare. And even hurt, lurching drunkenly, Vastor still could whip his arms in blindingly fast raking slaps at Mace's head and wounded neck. But where Vastor's speed was blinding, Mace's was invisible. Not one of those slaps connected.
Before Vastor could even focus his eyes, Mace had hit him six times: two thundering hooks to his short ribs, a knee slamming hard into the same thigh he'd hit before, an elbow snapping up to the point of his chin, and two devastating palm strikes to either hinge of his jaw. An ordinary man would have been unconscious. Vastor seemed to be getting stronger.
Vastor fired another of those blinding slaps. This time, instead of ducking, Mace countered with a whirring hook that met the lor pelek's swinging arm directly on the nerve that ran up the inside of the biceps. Vastor threw the other even harder—which only made the inside of that arm connect that much harder with Mace's counterhook. Vastor's mighty arms spasmed and dropped limply to his sides.
"This is called Vaapad, Kar." A fierce light burned in Mace's eyes. "How many arms do you see?"
Then he hit Vastor twice in the nose before the lor pelek could even blink. Vastor howled in pain and raging disbelief, falling back against the akk dog's flank once more, twisting and turning to try to find some way to avoid the Jedi's flashing hands. Mace stayed with him, pinning him to the akk's flank, fists whirling through Vaapad flurries, striking not to disable or to kill, but instead to hurt: stinging flicks to soft tissue, smashing ears and nose, stabbing up under the chin.
The akk dog suddenly lurched away from them, giving Vastor half a meter of clearance. The lor peleksprang sideways, diving away.
Mace let him go. "Go on and run, Kar. This is over. You lose. I'm the big dog here—"
Vastor turned his dive into a roll and spun to face the Jedi Master from one knee, and before Mace had even finished speaking the Force whirled around him and Mace found himself wrenched off the ground, hurtling backward through the air to slam against the smooth-barked gray trunk of a meter-thick lammas tree. The whole tree shivered with the impact, and a spiral galaxy birthed itself inside Mace's head.
He thought, I was wondering when we'd get to this part.
Vastor's face tightened. Strength must have been returning to his nerve-punched arms already, because he managed to raise one and gesture as though throwing a stone; Mace was whirled forward from the tree to crash against the skull of an astonished akk dog. The impact folded him over the dog's head and blasted the breath from his lungs; the dog's crown spines gashed Mace's abdomen, and when it tossed Mace aside with a twitch of its head like a Nymalian water-ox, his blood ran down the black outer shells of its eyes.
Jedi Padawans learn to counter Force kinesis before they even begin lightsaber training. Still in the air, Mace sensed the flow of power that held Vastor's grip upon him; with a sigh, he allowed his center—Vastor's point of Force contact—to relax and ground Vastor's power back into the jungle around them...
And that jungle came to life. A gripleaf trailer snaked down from above and seized one of Mace's ankles in its unbreakable clutch. His airborne tumble became a wide-swinging head-down arc.
Gripleaf trailers only grew tighter as their victim struggled, and their fibers were nearly as strong as durasteel cable; they could not be broken by mortal strength. This one squeezed his ankle, drawing blood with the edges of its sharp waxy leaves. Another trailer reached toward his other ankle, and from his upside-down vantage he could see a thick blade-thorned length of brassvine curving toward his neck. He almost reached into the Force for his lightsaber—
But that would be admitting defeat. Time to be clever.
He used the Force to shove the gripleaf trailer so that the arc of his swing sent him whirling out over the ring of dogs and men. One of the Akk Guards smirked at him as he swung overhead: "Big dog? More like little tusk-pig."
When his swing carried him back in, Mace reached down and grabbed the Akk Guard by the arm, yanking him into the air. Drawing upon the Force for a burst of strength, Mace whipped the astonished Guard up and over and used the edge of his razor-sharp shield to slice through the trailer before releasing him to flail helplessly through the air and crash into the jungle darkness.
Mace turned his own fall into a flip that landed him on an akk dog's shoulders. He bounded off into the air—
And Vastor's Force grip seized him again. Vastor was on his feet now, and his arms didn't seem hurt at all. His blood-smeared mouth spread wide in a howl of triumph as he yanked Mace through the multicolored glowvine-shaded night, pulling him in while he opened his arms for that lethal embrace.
Mace thought: Well, if you insist...
Instead of resisting or grounding the power of Vastor's Force grip, Mace added his own strength to it. The speed of his flight suddenly doubled; Vastor had only time to widen his eyes in dismay as Mace flipped headfirst in the air. The top of his head speared into Vastor's gut and drove the lor pelek to the ground as though he'd been hit by a concussion missile.
On the other hand, Vastor's stomach wasn't much softer than that lammas he'd slammed Mace into; the impact didn't do Mace's head a lot of good, either. Another spiral galaxy blossomed where the first had been as Mace rolled off him, lying on his back while he watched stellar clusters wheel inside his skull. Vastor lay beside him, making faint panting noises while he tried to pull air into his spasming chest.
Vastor's breath began to return in great whooping gasps, and Mace knew his time was running out. He shook the stars out of his head and reached down to his ankle to unwrap the severed gripleaf trailer. Limp now, dying, it was unresisting as an ordinary rope; Mace took one end in each fist, and as Vastor rolled over and gained his hands and knees, Mace slipped a loop of the trailer over the lor pelek's head from behind and tightened it around his throat.
Vastor straightened and his hands went to his throat, clawing at Mace's improvised garrote, but not even he was strong enough to break a gripleaf trailer with his bare hands. His face darkened, swelling with blood; the back of his neck bulged; veins writhed across his temples and forehead.
Ten seconds, Mace thought, hanging on, wedging his knees into Vastor's back. Ten seconds and out.
Vastor got one foot under him.
Mace swallowed, gasping for breath as he tried to tighten the trailer around the lor pelek's throat.
Pure will powered Vastor to his feet. He didn't even seem to notice the weight of a large Jedi Master hanging down his back.
Mace thought: Here it comes.
In an eyeblink, Vastor's grip shifted from the gripleaf trailer to Mace's wrists. He threw himself forward, bent at the waist, and with a surge of incredible strength yanked the Jedi Master over his head and slammed him bodily to the dirt.
The impact replaced the stars in Mace's head with billowing black nebulae; he'd never gotten his breath back properly after landing on the akk dog, and now he couldn't breathe at all. The jungle above faded into a black haze; through the darkness descending inside his skull, he barely caught a glimpse of Vastor leaping into the air to drop a body lam that would finish him. With a gasp, he rolled aside, and Vastor landed hard on the ground beside him.
Mace dizzily tried to pull himself up to his hands and knees; Vastor was still down, his hands clawing weakly at Mace's flanks. Mace pushed him off and made it to his knees. Vastor rolled onto his side, found a tree trunk, and pulled himself up it, leaning on it drunkenly.
Though Mace couldn't breathe—could barely see through the black-and-red haze inside his head—he could draw upon the Force to throw himself upright, and he lunged at Vastor, whirling, hands clasped together to deliver every erg of power at his command into one last thundering punch that lifted Vastor bodily off the ground, flipped him over backward, and dropped him on the back of his neck. Mace swayed, almost out on his feet. The jungle hazed in and out of focus. All he could clearly see was the lor pelekclimbing to his feet.
Vastor was smiling.
Is that the best you have?
"I'm just—" Mace gasped for breath. His arms came up slowly; each one felt like it was made out of collapsium. "Just getting started—"
One of those open-handed slaps flashed out of the darkness; the next thing of which Mace was aware was a bell-like ringing in his ears, and the grip of Vastor's huge hand around his neck, holding him up off the jungle floor.
Mace's eyelids fluttered open. Vastor's blood-smeared grin was the only thing in the world.
Vastor growled, How many arms do you see?
Mace didn't answer.
He certainly didn't see the one attached to the hand that snuffed the world like a blown-out candle.
Shatterpoint
In his private journal, Windu states he wasn't holding back against Vastor, knew that he couldn't beat Vastor, and even implies that Vastor himself was holding back to an extent
"As you said earlier: Vastor is a difficult man to lie to. He would have known if I was holding back. Then the beating would have been much worse, and he might very well have killed me. What I did was pick a fight I knew I couldn't win."
Shatterpoint
Windu states that had he attempted to properly duel Vastor, blade to shield, he would be dead and even expresses doubt at the possibility of him killing Vastor
If the fight hadn't happened, he and the Akk Guards might very well have killed Nick and me both for setting free the prisoners. If he and I had gone at it blade to shield, I would be dead now-even if I'd killed him, the guards and the dogs would have torn me to shreds-and Depa, too, if she'd tried to save me; we'd only barely survived being attacked by three akks in the Circus Horrificus.
Shatterpoint
Windu states that Vastor is stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful than him, and that he couldn't beat Vastor on his best day
Vastor was younger, stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful, and he wielded weapons that could not be harmed by the Jedi blade. Mace couldn't win such a battle on his best day, and this day was far from his best: he was exhausted, badly wounded, and heartsick.
Shatterpoint
Conclusion
death
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