Jedi Insurgency

AN: Triple release today, go back to chapter 20

Whilst Maw was dismantling the vault's infrastructure, and destroying the mines by dropping pieces of metal on top of them, Corvus had moved ahead, and prepared a little surprise for the Anzat. 

Frag mines weren't the only type of device he could plant, he had also placed down a handful of sonic mines in the area Maw was about to advance towards. 

Eyeing Maw as he slowly made his way forth, Corvus patiently waited for him to act in his usual arrogant manner. 

Dicing through a steel structure, debris collapsed like it had a hundred times before. 

However, instead of a fireball, a cone of sound erupted from the position in front of Maw. 

Seemingly taken aback by the concentrated cone of noise, Maw seemed to pause in his step. 

For that one fraction of a second, Corvus saw the opportunity to cast [Force Suppression], and took it. 

At that moment, Corvus realized how effective Suppression was, as the Anzat's powers in the Force diminished from that of a weak Master/Darth to somewhere closer to Corvus's level. After this split second of analysis, Corvus had made up his mind, and Paused to dump his last remaining 3 points into Slow. 

Un-Pausing, Corvus cast Slow/Valor/Speed/Energy Resistance/Force Resistance in short order. 

After rapidly using these 5 abilities, at his current level, he only had enough FP to cast two more abilities until a minute passed, and his regen refilled his bar. 

Still within the auspices of stealth-as he had yet to land a physical attack on anything yet-Corvus ran at Maw. 

Maw turned around quick as lightning, and seemed to stand still to accept the red bolt of Slow! The mad bastard was extremely confident in his skills, and wore a wide smirk across his pale aristocratic looking face. 

From that brief motion of his, Maw proved he was just a little faster than Corvus. If he had to compare them, Corvus would say Maw was Usain Bolt, whilst he was the best college athlete in the world. 

Both were incredibly fast, and Corvus could certainly hang in the same stratosphere, but Maw clearly still outclassed him despite the two debuffs affecting him. 

This only proved what an absolute beast ancient Anzat's were in their prime. Maw had a right to be arrogant when even despite these two debuffs, he still had an edge over him. 

Corvus could only grit his teeth, hopeful that the poison effect from Slow wore away at this ancient monster, and allowed him to get a hit in edgewise. 

All he had to do was land a bisecting slash with his lightsaber, and the damned tentacle bastard would be finished. 

Grimly advancing forward, Corvus moved to circle around Maw, and hit him from the side. 

"Oh hoh, I read about this technique in my ancestor's manuscript. To possess such a wide berth of skills, your memories are sure to be juicy, soup." Maw taunted. His facial tendrils twitched, then he swiped his katana right where Corvus was about to be. 

Forced to either dodge or block, Corvus found that he didn't have time to jump back, and was forced to ignite his lightsaber to intercept the Force Blade. 

Dropping his invisibility as he made physical contact with Maw, Corvus adopted a defensive pose. 

Using Pause dozens of times each second, Corvus was able to anticipate the exact angle of attack, and parried the sword to the side. 

A half second later, he shoved his left hand forward, and spawned in his lightsaber from his inventory, and ignited it towards Maw's face.

By the time his left hand had risen, Corvus was forced to desperately parry three more sword strikes away. 

During all of this, Corvus tried to utilize his Jedi Shadow ability to drain darkside energies….however, much to his shock, there was nothing to absorb! In his perception, Maw was relatively neutral in the Force, neither pure Light nor pure Dark, but a mixture of the two. He was perfectly balanced, as all things should be. 

Corvus could absorb the darkside energies from others, but apparently if it was cohesively mixed with the lightside, then he couldn't sap it out of someone. 

"Haha, wonderful!" Maw twirled away out of range of the second saber, then threw out his hand, and used Force Pull, dragging Corvus off his feet, and towards the oncoming sword. 

Fortunately, [Force Resistance] was in effect, and he skid across the factory floor instead of flying headlong into the blade. 

Using the pull to his advantage, Corvus capitalized on the boost in momentum, and ran at Maw. 

Throwing out his left hand, Corvus let loose with a burst of [Force Lightning] whilst he continued his charge. 

Predictably, Maw held up his Force Blade in a vertical position, and used it as a conduit to absorb the oncoming attack. 

Arcs of blue dominated the dimly lit vault, and Corvus's signature soared in the Force as he witnessed Maw grunting and falling back a step. 

"A Sith? No! More like a Je'daii!" Maw said in joyfilled, murderous glee. It was as if the ancient had witnessed something that awoke his wonderlust for the first time in eons. 

Corvus silently closed the distance, and eyed a nearby mine that the Anzat was slowly being pushed into. 

Corvus hoped to press the elder alien into the explosive device, and was preparing a [Force Push] with his remaining energy, however, Maw seemed to be aware of its existence, and with his offhand, he telekinetically gripped it, and tossed it between them. 

Electrical arcs met the mine, and an explosive cloud appeared between them, obfuscating Corvus's vision. 

Dropping a handful of smoke grenades, Corvus leaped back, and turned invisible. 

It wasn't a moment too soon either, as the katana had pierced the grey cloud of smoke right where he had stood, and swept away most of the wispy substance. 

Corvus felt sweat drip down the side of his head, and gripped the hilt of his lightsabers tightly. 

Even with the help of Pause-buffering, anticipating and deflecting each of those attacks was absolutely brutal. 

He wished he had [Breath Control] unlocked, or a gas mask within his arsenal, then he could really poison this guy to death. 

For now, he'd have to rely on the effects of Slow, and once his FP bar had regenerated, redo everything all over again. 

"Ah, ah, soup, I can smell you now that you've revealed yourself! Invisibility does not protect one from the pheromones in the air." Maw chided, and lunged directly at Corvus despite the fact that Corvus was invisible. 

Corvus wasn't expecting this sudden development, but he had a plan. 

Pocketing one of his lightsabers, Corvus met the Anzat with a sonic grenade in his left hand. As they came close to one another, he exploded it from point blank range, and waves of noise burst onto the scene. 

His [Energy Resistance] shield shuddered, and rippled from the serious amount of damage, however, as it was upgraded to a higher level, it didn't lose more than 10% of its power, and Corvus was fine. 

This act seemed to discombobulate Maw, and Corvus was able to side step the Force Blade, and finally launch an attack of his own. 

Swiping down with a diagonal cut, Corvus tried to swipe through Maw's chest, but unfortunately only cut through one of his tentacles. 

Stumbling like a drunkard after tanking that point blank sonic grenade, Maw's entire complexion changed after taking that wound, and Corvus felt a blast of psychic fury directed at his mind. 

The [Force Resistance] barrier shuddered, and felt like it was on the verge of bursting, yet it held out under this onslaught. However, the defense wasn't perfect, and Maw found a crack in the bubble, then delivered an ice-pick migraine straight to Corvus's temple. 

Vision going blurry, Corvus saw the world like someone who had needed glasses all their life, and was in their 80's. It was almost impossible to see like this, and his head was throbbing like never before! 

The only silver lining was that if he didn't have Resistance & Suppression going right now, Corvus would 100% be a blubbering lobotomite at the moment. 

Well, at least Maw was no longer taunting him? 

Corvus wanted to cast Heal, but he found he had no time, as Maw silently unleashed his rage with wide sweeping power attacks. 

The Anzat was still noticeably discombobulated, but Corvus's debuffed state didn't help much either, and they were back to square one. 

At least they would be, but Corvus could go into a 3rd Person POV when Paused. Which meant that his vision wasn't entirely fucked, and when in that state, his mind wasn't foggy or under immense pain! Every second spent Pause-buffering between attacks was a balm on his spirit, and within 10 seconds on the backfoot, deflecting over 32 attacks in that short time frame, Corvus had finally seen an opening. All it cost him was a serious wound, and the taste of death on his lips. 

Taking a cut to the forearm, copious amounts of blood poured out of his left arm, making the limb hang limply.

The Anzat began to figuratively foam at the mouth, and his eyes dilated due to excitement. Ancient mind he may be, Maw's instincts were absolutely screaming at him to feed this very instant, damn the consequences. 

Sword shoved forward, and tendril wriggling like a cock in heat, Maw, for an infinitesimally small amount of time, had left himself exposed. 

Aiming with his good hand, Corvus matched Maw's stab, and shoved his hand downward in a diagonal movement. Hot blue plasma burnt into Maw's lower extremities, damaging the pale man's hip, and severing his left leg from his body. 

At the same time, Maw's offhand reached forth, and clamped down on Corvus's neck. 

Gnarled fingernails dug into Corvus's flesh, causing choked blood to well up his throat. 

Eyes going wide as oxygen began to escape his lungs at an alarming rate, Corvus started to gurgle as blood went down his air tubes. 

Despite the damage to his body, Maw wore a manic expression, and his remaining tentacle snaked forward towards Corvus's eyeball. 

The sick fuck was going to scoop up his eye, then sup on his brain! 

Corvus, fearing for his life, tried to twist his wrist that held the lightsaber, but Maw released the grip on his sword to pin him down! 

Lying on his back, and eying his encroaching demise, Corvus Paused to think, and came up with a desperate solution. 

Swapping out his lightsaber in his inventory, a thermal detonator spawned in his hand. 

"Soup~" Maw salivated, his saliva fell upon Corvus's face, and the tendril was less than an inch from his eye. 

"Fuck you." Corvus rasped as he spat blood at the ancient alien. 

A second later, the grenade beeped, and Corvus saw a white flash. 

Gaseous hot fire ripped across the two of them separating Corvus from Maw in a cataclysmic explosion. 

Hearing ringing in his ears, Corvus drily coughed, and opened his eyes, only to see nothing. 

He was blind. 

Entering Pause, he regained his vision, and saw that his body was charred all over. He was about half as bad as Anakin was when he took a dip in Mustafar. 

Corvus couldn't believe he was alive, but he could thank [Energy Resistance] for being able to pull off this insane strategy. 

Taking a moment to bask in his victory, Corvus really didn't want to return to real time anytime soon. The brief second of life he had experienced a moment ago was nothing but pain. 

However, his FP bar had regenerated a decent amount by now, so casting Heal should be possible. He still had all his limbs, so he was quite fortunate in that regard. Somehow he had evaded the Star Wars curse, and hadn't lost his arm yet. 

Thanking his lucky stars, Corvus looked around for Maw's corpse, and was stunned. 

The bastard was still alive…and he was crawling towards Corvus like some zombie! 

Maw was charred worse than him, but just like with Anakin, the Force must be keeping him alive. Some assholes-like Darth Sion-were straight up cockroaches. The Anzat could barely be described as a man at this point. Maw was more like a burnt marshmallow with glowing eyes, and radiated a hunger in the Force so strong, it reminded Corvus of Darth Nihilus. 

Corvus began to feel hatred for this persistent bastard. 

If he wanted 'soup' so badly, Corvus would be happy to oblige! 

Un-Pausing, Corvus screamed out in extreme agony as he felt the burnt tips on his nerves. 

He almost lost his mind to unconsciousness, and was so damaged, he couldn't even cry, but so much was on the line, and he willed himself to cast Heal. 

The first wave of minty green brought him back to 60%, the second 100%. 

Standing up, and being able to see again, Corvus took a deep, haggard breath as he took a step back. 

Maw was persistent in his pursuit, and moved surprisingly fast for a burnt marshmallow on the verge of death. He crawled at baby speed, which was kind of impressive given his injuries. 

Corvus stretched his limbs, and wiggled his fingers, making sure everything was still there. He then glanced down hatefully at the burnt man. 

"Soup. Soup….soup." Maw muttered between ragged gasps. His voice wheezed like he was in a constant state of an asthma attack, yet Maw kept moving towards Corvus with a single minded intensity. 

"You want soup? Fine, I'll turn you into soup!" 

Corvus then jumped up onto one of the warehouse-style railings that lined the vault. 

Holding out his hand, Corvus started to release credits from his inventory. 

A river of metal money poured forth, and clanged as it fell on top of Maw. 

Tons and tons dropped onto the madman, mooshing him into a fine paste. 

[+100,000 exp] 

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AN: Read up to chapter 60+ at: patreon.com/KarpQQ

I update there every Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs