Joan connected the comms almost instantly, but she didn't speak, as if waiting for Amir to start.
"The item you're holding might be a fake. If you're in danger, you can throw it away."
Hearing this, Joan faltered in her stride. she couldn't help but glance down at the box in her hand. Her face remained expressionless, but behind her, the two Imperial Inquisitors were still in hot pursuit.
"Where is the real one?" Joan whispered.
"Nurul hid the real one. However, I saw a droid sneaking away with a box earlier, and it's very likely that the relic is inside that one."
Amir's words brought Joan a measure of relief.
Still, she couldn't simply stop or toss the box aside. After all, anything was possible; if the one she held turned out to be real, losing it would be a disaster.
Inside the rat run, Joan diverted all power to her engines, pushing her body's potential to the limit and sprinting at full speed. She had managed to put tens of meters between herself and the Inquisitors, but they were persistent and refused to let up.
Joan wasn't particularly familiar with the rat runs in this area. She rarely went out, usually letting Varela prepare whatever necessities she needed.
Since converting herself into a cyborg, her needs had diminished significantly. All she required were equipment for her experiments and the necessary test subjects.
Realizing this, Joan could only pick a general heading and keep moving.
In another tunnel not far away, Varela remained silent, leading Milisen forward with a clear objective.
Behind Joan, bolstered by the Force, the Imperial Inquisitors were moving incredibly fast. The Fifth Brother, taking the lead, had deactivated his double-bladed lightsaber; the weapon was too unwieldy to deploy effectively in such a narrow passage.
Rounding a sharp corner, the Fifth Brother saw light ahead.
Finally, the exit! He had had enough of this cramped channel.
But after running a few more steps, he realized that directly opposite this exit was... yet another entrance!
What was wrong with this city? Why did these things exist?!
The Fifth Brother didn't hesitate. Ahead was a rare, long straightaway. He immediately activated his lightsaber and, using a specialized Force technique, threw it vertically. The lightsaber carved a smooth arc through the rat run, slashing diagonally toward Joan.
No matter how tough her body was, it couldn't withstand a direct hit from a lightsaber. Joan wasn't a wealthy warlord; she was just a poor researcher. The alloys on her body had been scavenged bit by bit during her black-market dealings. She certainly couldn't afford expensive materials like Beskar steel.
She had no choice but to turn, watch the incoming blade, and duck to avoid it.
Those two or three seconds spent dodging were enough for the Imperial Inquisitors to sprint more than ten meters. The Seventh Sister leaped over the Fifth Brother, activated one blade of her saber, and rushed forward.
Meanwhile, the Fifth Brother took advantage of the moment Joan crouched to dodge. He planted his feet, narrowed his eyes, and pulled back hard with the Force.
Caught by the Force pull, Joan lost her footing. Her feet slipped, and she fell to the ground. By then, the Seventh Sister was less than twenty meters away, charging with her lightsaber raised.
Joan rolled to her feet and grabbed the red lightsaber that had embedded itself in the wall behind her. She turned to face the Seventh Sister and raised the weapon to block. The Seventh Sister pounced through the air like an enraged leopard, but Joan's defensive motion remained calm and unhurried.
In that moment, her mechanical body demonstrated its immense power.
The instant she was blocked, the Seventh Sister felt an abnormally powerful kinetic force slam into her. It knocked her slender frame backward, nearly jarring the lightsaber from her grip.
It felt like hacking at a shielded landspeeder with bare hands!
It wasn't a high-level technique, nor was there any reaction from the Force—it was just brute strength!
The Fifth Brother caught the flying Seventh Sister, set her down, and took his lightsaber back from her hand.
Joan didn't let the successful block go to her head. That had just been a surprise counterattack. In a true engagement, the enemy's swordsmanship and combat experience far stripped hers. If she made a mistake, escaping again would be difficult.
So, without hesitation, she activated both blades of the lightsaber she held, hurled it at the Fifth Brother with maximum strength, and turned to run.
However, this move didn't stop the Fifth Brother. He simply deflected the projectile lightly with his own saber, sending the rapidly spinning weapon bouncing into the adjacent wall.
Instead, the action slowed Joan down, allowing the Inquisitors to close the distance once again.
Seeing that Joan had exited the rat run and was about to dive into another, the Fifth Brother gritted his teeth, his pale face twisting. He strained his left hand outward, reaching for the box in Joan's grip.
He exerted his full power this time.
Although it had been years since he'd needed to go all out—mostly relying on superior numbers to hunt down Jedi—Darth Vader still trained the Inquisitors frequently. And the training was strictly rigorous.
One might even call it inhumane.
During sparring sessions with Darth Vader, the man encased in black armor always exuded an intense, oppressive pressure. His swordsmanship was exquisite, his Force power unrivaled, but most terrifying of all was that he never held back.
Even in training, if you didn't treat it as a life-or-death battle, he would genuinely take your head off!
The Fifth Brother had already lost an arm to him.
But this resulted in their continuous improvement in the dark side of the Force. Although they were still far from reaching that man's level, they were vastly more powerful than they had been as Jedi long ago.
Now, fully channeling the dark side to manipulate the box in Joan's hand, he generated a massive pulling force. Joan came to a complete halt.
She froze in a running pose, her feet plowing two furrows in the ground as she was forcibly dragged backward.
As soon as he made his move, the Fifth Brother found the process much easier than he had imagined.
When manipulating a fully resisting living being, or an object connected to one, he would usually encounter spontaneous resistance from the Living Force, making it relatively difficult to control. Yet, while pulling the box, the Fifth Brother felt no such resistance.
Instead, it felt like he was pulling on a... droid? But slightly more difficult than a droid.
Before he could figure it out, the thief who had been intent on fleeing suddenly turned and charged at him.
The Fifth Brother quickly ceased his Force control and raised his lightsaber, but the woman smashed the artifact box right at his blade.
This scene gave the Fifth Brother a massive fright. If the artifact got chopped to pieces, whose fault would it be?
It would definitely be on his head.
Forced by circumstance, the Fifth Brother had to retract his lightsaber and step back.
But Joan had found the key to victory. Knowing the box likely contained a fake, she felt no attachment to it whatsoever. She used it directly as a weapon, knowing the Imperial Inquisitor wouldn't dare destroy it.
With this perfect shield restricting the Inquisitor at every turn, Joan pressed her advantage. Her legs exploded with powerful kinetic energy once more. As she surged forward, she whipped her left leg out, aiming a kick directly at the Fifth Brother's wrist.
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