Instead he had focused his attention on developing diplomatic talents. Yet he was still a Jedi, and a formidable foe for anyone to face.
He may have been outnumbered, but his enemies attacked as individuals, unable to coordinate the timing of their strikes. The woman regained her balance and rushed in, but Johun spun to the side and shoved her toward the first man. Her momentum sent her crashing into her partner, both of them tumbling to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs.
Knowing that the other two were momentarily incapacitated, he focused all his attention on the second man. Attacking as a trio, they had forced Johun onto the defensive. One-on-one, however, he was able to press the action. He came at his lone opponent aggressively, holding nothing back, knowing he was fighting to save not just himself but the Chancellor, as well. His blade danced and sizzled, moving too swiftly for the eye to follow.
The man fell back under the assault, frantically parrying the blows and retreating until he felt his heels dangling over the platform's edge. In desperation he lunged forward with a clumsy stab at Johun's chest. The Jedi simply slapped his blade aside and ended the assassin's life with a single cut of the lightsaber across his chest.
The other two were back on their feet now. The woman rushed toward him recklessly yet again. This time Johun stood his ground, ducking under the wide, flat arc of her blade sweeping in from the side. He reached out with his left hand and seized her wrist as he rolled onto his back, using the momentum of her own charge against her. Pulling hard on her wrist, he tumbled backward and brought both feet up, planting them in the middle of her stomach. He completed the move by kicking out with both legs, sending her flying up and over the platform's edge. She screamed all the way down, her cries ending abruptly when she struck the water and rocks below.
Johun was already back on his feet, bracing for the first man's next attack. But rather than face him alone, his remaining adversary turned to flee, making a break for the walkway leading from the platform back to the shore.
He passed the Twi'lek at a dead run, then stopped as his body went rigid and his hands flew to his throat. He turned around slowly so he was facing Johun, clutching the bloody gash just beneath his jaw as he toppled forward and fell facedown on the platform.
It happened so fast it took a moment to register on Johun. Then he noticed the small, crescent-shaped blades clutched in each of the Twi'lek's hands. They looked like miniature sickles; the one in his left hand was a bright silver, the one in the right dripped with red.
The Chiss and the tattooed man had been making their way toward the platform to join the battle. Seeing the Twi'lek cut their escaping accomplice down, they abruptly reconsidered. Faced with a wrathful Jedi Knight and an ally who would kill them if they tried to flee the confrontation on the platform, they made the only logical choice and raced back up the walkway to their waiting vehicle. Piling in, they fired up the engines and sped away, wanting no part of a plan that had gone so wrong.
Stepping over the still-gasping body of the accomplice he had just killed, the Twi'lek dropped into a fighting crouch. He didn't seem to know or care that the other two had abandoned him. His lekku hung down behind him like twin tails, the tips twitching and curling in anticipation.
'I've always wanted to test my skills against a Jedi,' he said, issuing the challenge.
Johun was more than willing to accept. He leapt forward, moving with the blinding speed of the Force as he stabbed his lightsaber squarely at the Twi'lek's chest to put a quick end to their confrontation. With an almost casual grace, the red-skinned Twi'lek merely leaned backward and twisted out of the way, slashing out with the strange crescent blades at Johun's throat.
The Jedi turned his body at the last second, avoiding the first blade completely, but catching the other with the meat of his right shoulder. It sliced deep into the muscle, eliciting a grunt of pain from Johun.
He wheeled back around to see the Twi'lek in the same low crouch, holding the crescent blades up in front of him like a boxer. Johun approached more cautiously this time, recognizing that this opponent was far more dangerous than the other three put together.
Using tight slashes and quick cuts, he probed his enemy's defenses with his lightsaber, trying to learn the patterns and rhythms of his foe's unfamiliar weapons. The Twi'lek slapped each blow aside with contemptuous ease, alternating hands so he could always leave one of the crescents up in a defensive position.
The unusual weapons sacrificed reach for speed and maneuverability, Johun realized. He was vulnerable if he let the Twi'lek get in close, but if he could keep him at a distance he had the advantage. The Twi'lek seemed to realize this, too, and began to move in slowly.
Johun tried to force him back with a sequence of aggressive attacks, but he was unable to penetrate the Twi'lek's defenses. No matter what he tried, his enemy was always able to keep at least one of the crescent blades back to parry his blows.
Frustrated, Johun overextended on one of his strikes, bringing the lightsaber in a fraction of a centimeter too high and wide and putting too much weight on his front foot. The mistake nearly proved fatal.
The Twi'lek swatted Johun's blade aside and stepped forward, closing the distance between them to less than a meter as he slid inside the arc of the lightsaber's effective range. The sickle of his left hand sliced down in a high vertical strike as the one in his right carved a low horizontal slash. Johun was able to backpedal and avoid the initial blows, but he wasn't so lucky when his opponent reversed his attack, allowing the crescent blades to retrace their original paths in the opposite direction.
One of the blades sliced upward, opening a gash in Johun's cheek and narrowly missing his eye. The other left a long, shallow cut along the left side of the Jedi's ribs-painful but not debilitating.
His enemy was in too close for Johun to bring his lightsaber to bear effectively; all he could do was butt with his head, sending his brow smashing hard into the Twi'lek's face. There was a wet crunch as the cartilage of his enemy's nose crumpled beneath the impact. The Twi'lek staggered back, then dropped once more into his fighting crouch. Blood flowed freely from his nostrils, the dark crimson flow visible even against his bright red complexion.
Johun tried to gather the Force to hurl his opponent off the platform's edge. But gathering the Force required concentration, and for a fraction of an instant it drew his focus away from the battle. His enemy sensed his momentary lapse and sprang forward, the sickles carving deadly semicircular arcs through the air.
Johun threw himself backward at the last instant, the power he'd accumulated disappearing harmlessly as he fell into a full retreat to avoid the lethal assault. Dropping low to the ground, he tried to swipe the feet out from under the Twi'lek. His opponent anticipated the move and leapt nimbly over his outstretched foot, bringing his knee up to strike Johun square in the jaw.
Seeing stars, Johun rolled clear, narrowly avoiding decapitation, as the crescent blades swooped in again. He regained his feet and took a wild swipe at his opponent. Dodging the blow, the Twi'lek swooped in close, and Johun was forced to give ground yet again to survive another series of lightning-fast blows.
The Twi'lek pressed the attack, staying close enough to Johun that the Jedi's only options were blocks and parries. Darting from side to side he cut off Johan's paths of retreat, slowly backing him up until he was balanced on the platform's edge.
Johun knew he couldn't beat the Twi'lek. His opponent was faster, his skills honed by years of intense training. He could continue to fight, but the outcome was inevitable-he was going to die on this platform. He could not escape his fate-yet he could still sacrifice himself to save the Chancellor.
There is no death; there is only the Force.
The Twi'lek had braced himself in preparation for a desperate counterattack, expecting Johun to try to fight his way clear of the platform's ledge. Instead the Jedi dropped his weapon and both hands shot forward to clutch tightly onto the front of his opponent's shirt. The handle of Johun's lightsaber clattered on the platform's durasteel surface, the blade extinguished the moment it fell from his hand.
The unexpected move caught the Twi'lek completely off guard, and he hesitated for a split second before his eyes went wide with fear and dawning comprehension. He slashed frantically at Johun's wrists and forearms, carving deep gashes into the flesh. But the Jedi's grip never faltered.
With his heels already dangling over the precipice, Johun simply had to let himself fall backward, dragging his enemy with him. The Twi'lek screamed as they plunged toward the deadly rocks jutting up from the waves fifty meters below; Johun felt nothing but a serene inner peace.
They seemed to fall forever, the world moving in slow motion as Johun surrendered himself fully to the power of the Force. It flowed through him, stronger than he had ever felt it before. The instant before they hit the water he looked into the terrified eyes of his foe and smiled. He had never felt more at peace than he did in that
