Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 02_ Shadow Academy - Kevin J. Anderson [35]
The cyclopean creature plodded out of its cell, growled, and looked around with its one eye. The Abyssin seemed to be in pain, and the only thing it saw-and therefore its only target-was young Jacen, armed with his lightsaber.
The Abyssin roared, but Jacen stood firm. He held up his free hand, palm outward, trying to use the soothing Force techniques that had proven so successful when he'd tamed new animals as his pets.
"Calm down," he said. "Calm down, I don't want to hurt you. I'm not with these people."
But the Abyssin didn't want to be calmed, and stalked forward, swinging its long arms like clawed pendulums. Of course, Jacen realized, if the monster was really just a hologram, then his Jedi techniques would be irrelevant.
The Abyssin pulled out a long, wicked club that had been strapped against its back. The club looked like a gnarled branch with spikes on one end, with a far longer reach than the lightsaber's. The one-eyed monster could pound Jacen and never be touched by the Jedi blade.
"Blaster bolts!" Jacen muttered under his breath. He flicked on the lightsaber, feeling the power of the energy blade that pulsed in front of him with a blinding blue glow.
The Abyssin blinked its single large eye, then charged forward, its fang-filled mouth wide open. The creature swung its spiked club like a battering ram.
Jacen slashed in front of himself with the light-saber defensively, instinctively. The glowing blade sliced off the tip of the club as easily as if it were a piece of soft cheese. The spiked end clanged on the metal floor.
The monster looked at the smoking end of its club for just a second, then howled and charged again. Jacen was ready this time-his heart pounding, adrenaline flowing, attuned to the Force and focused on his enemy.
The Abyssin hammered down with the club, too close for Jacen to strike with the lightsaber. He dodged to the side, and the creature swung again, this time with a raking handful of claws.
Jacen made a dive for the floor and rolled, holding the lightsaber at arm's length to keep from harming himself with the deadly blade.
The Abyssin pounced on him, thrusting with the thick end of the club. But Jacen lay on his back and held the lightsaber up, twisting his wrists to slash the remainder of the club down to a smoldering stump in the monster's hands, then rolled sideways to dodge the heavy wood as it fell to the floor.
The Abyssin tossed away the useless stump and yowled again, then lunged to grab Jacen from the floor. But Jacen held the lightsaber in front of himself, pushing it forward like a spear. The glowing tip plunged into the descending monster's broad chest, scorching through until it disintegrated the Abyssin's heart.
With a loud and fading shriek of pain, the creature slumped and fell forward. Jacen winced, knowing he would be crushed by the brute-but in midair the cyclops flickered and dissolved into static, then nothingness, as the hologram projectors shut down.
Gasping and sweating, Jacen turned off the lightsaber. The hissing energy beam was swallowed into the handle with a descending thwoop. He stood up and brushed himself off.
As the door opened again, Jacen whirled, ready to face another hideous enemy. But only Brakiss stood there, quietly applauding.
"Very good, my young Jedi," Brakiss said. "That wasn't so bad now, was it? You show great potential. All you need is the opportunity to practice."
14
Lowie crouched atop the sleeping platform in his own cell, back pressed to the corner, shaggy knees drawn up to his chest. He wallowed in abject misery and self-recrimination; occasionally he let out a groan.
How could he have been so stupid? He had let the riptide of Brakiss's teaching draw him further and further into his sea of anger until he had been immersed in it, swept away by its current.
Jacen had not given in. And seductive as Brakiss's teachings were-Lowie refused to think of him as Master Brakiss-Jaina had not