CoH CoS (Chapter 35)

Damien moved slowly into a fighting stance on one end of the platform. The crane dissolved into the blue cloud once again.  The cloud moved to the other end of the platform, opposite Damien.  Lightning flashed, once, twice and then a form came into being. It looked like a living shadow, a copy of Damien, only darkness born instead of light.  As Damien moved, the form moved as well.  He drew a lightsaber and activated it. The pure gold light flashed into being.  At the same time, the shadow drew out a saber of darkness and ignited it.  A pure white light spilled out, but it seemed cold, dark.  Damien and the shadow moved slowly around the platform, circling one another.  Then, the struck. The students watched in wonder as they moved in graceful sync, battling one another. It seemed almost slow, graceful. They moved in time with each other, neither gaining the advantage.  They broke apart, standing on opposite sides of the platform. Damien shut down his saber and slung it on his belt. He clasped his hands and closed his eyes. Slowly he started floating off the ground. The shadow shifted and then charged with saber in front of it.  Damien did not move, deep in concentration. The shadow had almost reached Damien, the saber only inches from Damien’s chest.  An aura of light flashed out, surrounding Damien. It grew, expanding out. The shadow backed away from the light slowly. Finally, it turned to run and the light overtook it, burning away the shadow into nothing.  Little by little, the light contracted until it was a pale aura covering Damien and as he opened his eyes, the light went out.  He floated to the ground, amid thunderous applause. He smiled and waved as he walked off the platform.  Damien was just thinking about what a wonderful day it was turning out to be when the battle room alarm went off…

Damien