The electrodrivers powering Grievous's mechanical arms let each of the four attack thrice in a single second; integrated by combat algorithms in the bio-droid's electronic network of peripheral processors, each of the twelve strikes per second came from a different angle with different speed and intensity, an unpredictably broken rhythm of slashes, chops, and stabs of which every single one could take Obi-Wan's life. Not one touched him.
"This is why he was chosen to fight Grievous as opposed to other members of the Order", Shaak Ti observed, keeping up with her fellow Council Member's defensive stance against the droid General.
"Master Kenobi's preference in using Soresu as a counter to Grievous' more unorthodox skill in combat is the key for him to win this fight", Master Mundi added, inwardly admitting that Kenobi had an easier time against Grievous given to their past encounters, while his nearly ended with their doom
After all, he had often walked unscathed through hornet swarms of blasterfire, defended only by the Force's direction of his blade; countering twelve blows per second was only difficult, not impossible.
His blade wove an intricate web of angles and curves, never truly fast but always just fast enough, each motion of his lightsaber subtly interfering with three or four or eight of the general's strikes, the rest sizzling past him, his precise, minimal shifts of weight and stance slipping them by centimeters.
Grievous, snarling fury, ramped up the intensity and velocity of his attacks—sixteen per second, eighteen—until finally, at twenty strikes per second, he overloaded Obi-Wan's defense. So Obi-Wan used his defense to attack. A subtle shift in the angle of a single parry brought Obi-Wan's blade in contact not with the blade of the oncoming lightsaber, but with the handgrip. —slice—
The blade winked out of existence a hairbreadth before it would have burned through Obi-Wan's forehead. Half the severed lightsaber skittered away, along with the duranium thumb and first finger of the hand that had held it.
"That fast? I recall having to play it safe when I had my own encounter with him", Master Fisto said, amazed.
"Exploiting his aggression, Master Kenobi has", Yoda observed.
Grievous paused, eyes pulsing wide, then drawing narrow. He lifted his maimed hand and stared at the white-hot stumps that held now only half a useless lightsaber.
Obi-Wan smiled at him.
Grievous lunged.
Obi-Wan parried.
Pieces of lightsabers bounced on the durasteel deck.
Grievous looked down at the blade-sliced hunks of metal that were all he had left in his hands, then up at Obi-Wan's shining sky- colored blade, then down at his hands again, and then he seemed to suddenly remember that he had an urgent appointment somewhere else.
Mundi sighed to himself. "Perhaps I should have invested my time in practicing Soresu"
"The best defence could the be the greatest offense if used properly", Plo Koon said, praising Obi-Wan's resounding skill against Grievous.
"With that in mind, we could expect him to run away now", Windu mused to the Droid General.
Obi-Wan stepped toward him, but a shock from the Force made him leap back just as a scarlet HE bolt struck the floor right where he'd been about to place his foot. Obi-Wan rode the explosion, flipping in the air to land upright between a pair of super battle droids that were busily firing upon the flank of a squad of clone troopers, which they continued to do until they found themselves falling in pieces to the deck.
Obi-Wan spun.
In the chaos of exploding droids and dying men, Grievous was nowhere to be seen.
"Of course he has, Master", Depa conceded.
Obi-Wan waved his lightsaber at the clones. "The general!" he shouted. "Which way?"
One trooper circled his arm as though throwing a proton grenade back toward the archway where Obi-Wan had first entered.
He followed the gesture and saw, for an instant in the sun-shadow of the Vigilance outside, the back curves of twin bladed rings— ganged together to make a wheel the size of a starfighter—rolling swiftly off along the sinkhole rim.
General Grievous was very good at running away.
"Not this time," Obi-Wan muttered, and cut a path through the tangled mob of droids all the way to the arch in a single sustained surge, reaching the open air just in time to see the blade-wheeler turn; it was an open ring with a pilot's chair inside, and in the pilot's chair sat Grievous, who lifted one of his bodyguards' electrostaffs in a sardonic wave as he took the scooter straight out over the edge.
Four claw-footed arms deployed, digging into the rock to carry him down the side of the sinkhole, angling away at a steep slant.
"Blast." Obi-Wan looked around. Still no air taxis. Not that he had any real interest in flying through the storm of battle that raged throughout the interior of the sinkhole, but there was certainly no way he could catch Grievous on foot...
From around the corner of an interior tunnel, he heard a resonant honnnnk! as though a nearby bantha had swallowed an air horn.
He said, "Boga?"
The beaked face of the dragonmount slowly extended around the interior angle of the tunnel.
"Boga! Come here, girl! We have a general to catch." Boga fixed him with a reproachful glare. "Honnnnnk.
"Oh, very well." Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "I was wrong; you were right. Can we please go now?"
"Made a friend, Master Kenobi?", Yoda mused with a chuckle.
The remaining fifteen meters of dragonmount hove into view and came trotting out to meet him. Obi-Wan sprang to the saddle, and Boga leapt to the sinkhole's rim in a single bound. Her huge head swung low, searching, until Obi-Wan spotted Grievous's blade-wheeler racing away toward the landing decks below.
"There, girl—that's him! Go!"
Boga gathered herself and sprang to the rim of the next level down, poised for an instant to get her bearings, then leapt again down into the firestorm that Pau City had become. Obi-Wan spun his blade in a continuous whirl to either side of the dragonmount's back, disintegrating shrapnel and slapping away stray blasterfire.
They plummeted through the sinkhole-city, gaining tens of meters on Grievous with every leap.
...
Within the streets of Sundari, Republic forces fought Shadow Collective Commandos, sustaining heavy losses to the Clone Troopers that were trying to fight their way out through the Overpass.
"I have seen Mandalorians being fierce warriors, but the fact that they managed to inflict heavy losses on Clone troopers showed thay they are a different class of warriors at this stage", Plo Koon said.
"If we are going to take note of it, their colors indicate their loyalty to Maul, as a parallel to Ahsoka's Clone troopers", Luminara added.
"The Death Watch is likely replaced by another organization who is loyal to Maul alone, after a portion led by Lady Kryze seceded from it", Obi-Wan observed.
At the Throne Room of Sundari, Maul and Ahsoka continued their resilient duel. At a seemingly slow, yet graceful maneuver, Ahsoka moved for a quick flurry of strikes, only for Maul to intercept and parry them with quick-paced movements before lunging in for an assault, with Ahsoka cartwheeling backwards to avoid being seared by it.
"Her smaller size and agility has made it easier for her to conduct her movements against him", Mundi said, impressed at the former Jedi.
"Judge anyone by their size and age, do not", Yoda interceded. "Unknown surprises, awaits"
If Anakin could see her now, Obi-Wan thought, praying to the Force that Padmé, Rex and the present Ahsoka had helped him go through all of this.
As she did, she took a moment from Maul's assault towards her, breathing incoherently as she tried to regain her composure and focus at her mission. Regaining it soon after, she followed Maul through the now-open window where he had collided.
"This is not good for her, now that she is becoming exhausted at their duel", Plo Koon pointed out, worried for her at every moment.
"I agree. The longer this duel goes on, the harder it will be for Padawan Tano.", Depa added.
"Move it! Move it!", one of the Clones rallied to their men as they charged in towards a company of Shadow Collective commandos, both sided taking in heavy losses until they engaged in fierce hand to hand combat.
"One side where soldiers bred for war against another where one encourages its people to become warriors", Saesee Tiin mused.
"Could not have said it better, Master Tiin", Kit Fisto agreed with him.
In the ensuing chaos, dozens of Nite Owl warriors, under the command of Bo Katan, descended down to reinforce the 332nd, using their rockets against squads of Shadow Collective warriors where the tide of the battle began to turn to the Republic's favor immediately.
"Come on!", Rex rallied to his men as they moved in to join the Nite Owl's pursuit of the now-retreating Shadow Collective.
"And the Cavalry has arrived soon enough", Mundi proclaimed.
...
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