Death Battle: Darth Maul vs. General Grievous

Ray: Alright, the combatants are set. Let’s settle this debate once and for all.

Steel: It’s time for a DEATH BATTLE!

--

The Malevolence...

A figure in a black, hooded cloak stood in the empty quarters aboard a massive space cruiser. All who had perceived him a threat and tried eliminating him, from battle droids to panicking officials onboard the ship drawing concealed weapons, lay in pieces around him.

All he had to do now was wait...

A noise came from the nearby doorway. A distinct, sharp-sounding "clink", as though something sharp and metal was regularly hitting the ground...and was getting louder and louder as it got closer. It definitely caught the figure's attention, for he turned to the door just as it slid open.

On hearing the door, the figure turned around fully and opened its eyes, revealing they were the same color as open flame. These bright-orange eyes met a pair of yellow, reptilian ones in a death glare.

The owner of the yellow eyes was tall, clad in a floor-length black cape, and seemed to be made entirely of metal. Its mechanical exoskeleton was adorned by white plates to make it resemble an inhuman, beastly skeleton. Yet the odd thing out about this monster were that its eyes were that of a living, breathing being, the skin surrounding the eyes raw and red like they had been burned long ago.

The figure in black's fiery gaze never left his new opponent. He slowly reached up with his gloved hands, gripped his hood, then slowly pulled it away from his head, revealing himself to the repulsive cyborg.

He looked like a demon straight out of Hell itself.

The figure, now revealed to be identifiable as male from appearance alone, was human in appearance...but only just. His skin was the color of fresh blood, and his face was adorned in tattoos the color of obsidian, making him look like a participant in a savage cult built on bloodshed. Horns jutted from his hairless scalp like the lethal spikes of a hellish morningstar, adding even more to his demonic appearance.

The rest of the cloak followed the hood as the figure cast it off himself. A duel was fast-approaching, but it wouldn't be a duel among men so much as it would be between monsters.

The cyborg, Grievous, emitted a sound that could pass off as a snort. “You are a fool to come after me. You think I am unguarded?” He beckoned forward, and more clanking came from behind him.

As the demonic Zabrak, Darth Maul, watched, four droids emerged from the doorway behind Grievous. These were no ordinary droids, though. THESE droids were two meters tall, a little too human in appearance for psychological comfort, and wielded strange, quarterstaff weapons. Once all four of them were standing in front of Grievous, they triggered something in their staffs and each end sparked with bright-violet electrical energy.

Grievous emitted a sinister chuckle, then ordered, “Kill him.”

The Magnaguards advanced on Maul, electrostaffs crackling, yet the zabrak made no effort to back away. From his belt he pulled a lightsaber handle that was oddly longer than most other sabers Grievous had seen.

A blade of crimson energy burst from the handle with a crackle and a hiss, a faint hum ringing through the air as a result of the plasma blade’s existence.

Then another one hissed into existence on the opposite end of the handle. Right about now, Grievous now knew why the handle was a bit longer than he thought.

No matter. The Sith assassin would be hard-pressed to get past four magnaguards.

The magnaguards advanced until the first two got in close and swung with their staffs. With expert maneuverability, Maul sprang between the two and blocked one’s staff with the blade of his saberstaff and ducked under another’s, the crackling tip missing his head. With another whirl and a blur of bright red, the blocked magnaguard fell to the ground with stumps for legs. One swipe of red later and mentioned warrior fell apart from a chest slash that completely bifurcated it.

One down.

The remaining three magnaguards swung and parried with their staffs, blood-red clashing against amethyst-purple. Few Jedi would have lasted in this situation and, most likely would have either retreated or get turned into a charbroiled corpse from the intensity of the staffs’ output.

Too bad Maul wasn’t like most Jedi.

The air rang with the sound of humming plasma as Maul matched each guard move-for-move. When one thrust, he simply whirled away and raised his blade quick enough to block any magnaguard that was waiting for him.

Acting on impulse, Maul reached into the Force and the magnaguard to his right slammed, headfirst, into the magnaguard in front of him. While the two tumbled to the ground, trying to right themselves, Maul whirled and severed the arms of the guard to his left. The thing had tried jabbing him with its staff and paid the ultimate price for it. One swipe later and the magnaguard was cut from its right shoulder to its left hip. It fell to pieces and remained motionless.

Maul sprang into the air just as the two grounded magnaguards were trying to get back up, then plunged his blade into the back of one, impaling the other with the same movement. Both fell motionless as Maul looked up at Grievous, who had spectated the entire fight, then slowly stood to his full height, which was already-intimidating when he was hunched over.

“You send toys to fight Sith?” Maul growled in a low, hoarse whisper, a hint of insult in his voice.

Grievous inwardly scowled, then strode forward, his taloned feet scarring the floor. “Very well, then. I will have to deal with you myself, animal.”

Grievous undid the clasps on his cape and let it fall to the ground. Any Jedi or Sith who did this was obviously preparing for a fight. Maul’s reaction was simple: ready his saberstaff, waiting for Grievous’ next move.

“You won’t last any longer than the rest in this room.” Maul warned.

“You fool. I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Lord Tyranus himself.” Grievous said, then reached down to his hip, which held an array of lightsaber hilts: lightsabers that he had taken from the cold, dead grip of Jedi he had slain personally.

Grievous seized the hilts of all four he had on him, a thumb on each side of his hand ensuring he could grip all of them. The minute he pulled them free of their storage, his arms split down the center and Maul could only watch as two arms became four, each equipped with a lightsaber.

Four cracks and hums and four different bars of blue or green plasma burst from each hand’s fist. To add even more to his intimidation factor, Grievous utilized two rotaries in his shoulder, his arms seeming to circle round to switch places. Rotaries in his wrists actually turned the lightsabers into a disc of energy for a brief time. They spun that quickly.

“I will enjoy taking your saberstaff and adding it to my collection.” Grievous snarled, a malicious smile showing through his voice.

If Maul was intimidated by Grievous’s show of ability, it didn’t show. His fiery eyes continued glowering at his opponent and his dual-sided saber never left its battle-ready position.



Grievous hunched forward and his two uppermost arms moved towards the front of his body, his wrists slowly rotating. Mentioned rotating increased in speed until the lightsabers were no more than whirling discs of energy, enriching the air with the hum associated with swinging plasma blades.

Maul slowly backed away, his gaze never leaving Grievous’s. On hearing a repeating, high-pitched shrieking noise, he briefly glanced down to see that the whirling blades were carving deep, bright-orange scars into the floor and turning the remains of his own magnaguards into pieces of heat-sheared metal.

Maul did not panic and, in record time, saw the flaw in Grievous’s strategy. One expert thrust of his saberstaff and the crossing arcs of the lightsabers connected with Maul’s own blade with a sharp crackle.

Grievous had many a Jedi counter this technique in that fashion and quickly followed up with an upward thrust from his remaining two arms, which Maul sidestepped and countered with a strike of his own.

Fighting multi-armed enemies proved to be a pain to him now, for one of Grievous’s other arms countered his strike with a sharp parry. The opposite arms swung so fast that Maul vaulted clean over Grievous to escape it. Tucking his legs in, he narrowly avoided landing on the ground legless.

Grievous turned when Maul landed, then began his ruthless assault again. Maul parried like mad as Grievous actually increased his attacking speed. He delivered almost ten striker per second, which wasn’t impossible for Maul, but still very difficult.

Fifteen strikes per second…

Okay, not undoable, but it was starting to overwhelm his defensive tactics…

Twenty strikes per second…

It was official. That was about as far as Maul could go on the defensive and, should he keep up, Grievous would certainly cut him to ribbons.

Maul sprang back in a graceful flip, then chose to re-plan his strategy. Staying in front of this man-droid abomination was obviously a bad idea. Maul was an attacker, not a defensive expert like his slayer, Kenobi. So, Maul instead opted to circling the beast so that he’d at least face two sabers instead of four at a time. Whenever Grievous turned to face him, Maul would circle at least ninety degrees to the side to ensure that Grievous couldn’t lay a full assault on him.

Grievous, though, was a lot smarter than Maul gave credit for. At this point, he had seen the tactic through. He wasn’t falling for THAT anytime soon and, like his opponent, mixed up his strategy. He started hacking low at Maul’s feet and only a mad parry kept Maul’s legs intact.

The Zabrak proved a good bit more resourceful than Grievous had anticipated, for when Grievous brought his arms up, he saw that one of his left hands was missing. In its place was a stump of burnt metal about where the wrist used to be.

With a cybernetic growl, the former Kaleesh general advanced again, sabers becoming blurs of color as they aimed to take off Maul’s head.

Maul had been lucky that time and even HE knew it. Odds were that Grievous wouldn’t let him pull that stunt off a second time. When Maul moved towards Grievous’ left to try and take advantage of his severed arm, Grievous mirrored him. Difference was that this time, he was much faster to act, meaning Maul had to put up a defensive game sooner and had little room for attack.

Maul had to up the ante a bit, and he knew just how to do that.

Maul parried an attack from Grievous again, but before the CIS general could so much as swing his remaining lightsaber, Maul put a hand forward and Grievous slid back a full three meters. Maul cocked a brow. Such a push would have sent any ordinary entity slamming into the door behind Grievous, yet Grievous barely budged.

His answer would have to wait, for in the split second he had to comprehend his metal opponent’s sturdiness, Grievous moved. Whirling blades of blue and green came at Maul like the mouth of a predator, ready to bite him in half.

Maul dropped flat-out on his back, the whirling plasma passing over his face so narrowly that he could smell the ozone. With a flex of his body, Maul flipped back to his feet and swung at Grievous’s back, only to be met with a pair of plasma blades. Grievous’s incredibly-quick electronic reflexes proved effective and he turned and parried Maul’s strike as though the Zabrak made it apparent that was his next move...and blocked his follow-up strike as well.

Grievous and Maul eventually locked blades, fiery-orange locking with reptilian gold, Maul’s now-exposed teeth grit together to form his face into something resembling a feral , snarling beast.

Maul quickly sprang back as Grievous’ lightsaber sprang up...just not quick enough. The green plasma didn’t injure him, but it didn’t leave Maul unscathed.

It cleaved through the center of his saberstaff, causing the crimson blade in his right hand to flicker out of existence. Only a made force-guided leap back prevented his life from ending right there. Maul reached into the force and the motionless body of a magnaguard picked itself up like a marionette and hurled itself at a now-charging Grievous…

A swipe of his arm and a clang of metal later, and the de-powered droid smacked off of Grievous’s forearm and clattered to the floor once again. Grievous swung once again to meet a crackle of crimson against blue, then advanced with his two other arms.

Oddly enough, Maul was holding up a lot better than he had thought. Grievous had once believed that, once reduced to one lightsaber, Maul would be a lot more vulnerable. Yet he was holding up just as well as before, the only difference being that he was mildly inconvenienced.

Maul reached into the Force again and something flew through the air. Reaching up, he caught it just as Grievous swung once more.

A bar of green ignited in time to save Maul from losing his head. The very lightsaber Grievous had dropped when he lost his hand was now in Maul’s possession. Grievous inwardly scowled, but didn’t dwell on it too long and advanced.

Maul seemed to switch tactics now that he had two separate sabers now instead of his traditional saberstaff. Before, Maul was a whirling disc of energy, making an occasional twist and leap with his weapon. Now he seemed a bit more steadfast, making more use of his lightsabers without so much as leaving the ground. He would twist and strike from the sides, but no longer seemed as acrobatic, most likely in caution against his mechanical adversary.

No matter. In just a few seconds, Grievous had the fighting style down and was already working fast on how to counteract it.

Then Maul surprised him.

Mustering as much Force Power as he could, Maul put forth his hand and Grievous, not expecting it now, flew all the way to the transparasteel viewports of the ship, his lightsabers falling from his grip in the process.

Grievous’s back hit the durasteel wall with an audible CLANG before he fell to the ground. To Maul’s surprise, he actually landed on the ground on all six of his limbs, making him resemble a giant, metallic insect of sorts. Rearing back to his feet, Grievous reached to his side, seized a control panel from underneath a now-dead Neimoidian and, with the sudden sound of screeching metal, ripped it from its base and hurled it at Maul.

The demonic-looking Sith charged for Grievous, jumping in mid-sprint and using a graceful flip to clear the metal projectile, which crashed in a shower of sparks behind him. Grievous acted fast and, just as Maul swung a lightsaber at him, a jolt spread through his left hand and the green lightsaber flew from his grip.

In Grievous’s own was an electrostaff, now alit with energy. To ensure that Maul wouldn’t try to return the saber to his grip, Grievous stepped on it with his four-taloned foot (not enough to crush his own trophy, though).

Maul’s snarl couldn’t have looked more bestial. Right now, he was at quite a disadvantage. Grievous’s electrostaff was longer than his lightsaber, meaning he could strike from beyond its reach. If he had his saberstaff, he’d be a little more comfortable with a more evenly-sized weapon, but such was not the case here.

Grievous spun his staff, electricity crackling through the air, then sprang at Maul and spun in a flurry of attacks. Maul parried and evaded, even striking at the staff’s middle in an attempt to even the playing field, yet the middle of the staff didn’t even have a scratch.

Maul cursed those phrik alloys: of the many things a lightsaber could cut, this staff would NOT be among them.

Grievous chuckled, then pushed away the saber’s blade and thrust with the staff, catching Maul in the midsection. Maul jolted in pain, but he had endured far worse forms of electrocution in the forms of Force Lightning. This would be nothing. Maul acted fast and swung his lightsaber at Grievous’s head only to see him back off narrowly enough to watch the blade pass over his eye.

Grievous’s reptilian eyes widened even further as Maul advanced faster and far more aggressive than before. He seemed to be everywhere at once, leaping and ducking around Grievous’s attacks and defenses like a demonic primate, the cyborg’s electronic reflexes being the only thing keeping up with him...barely. This was starting to get a little too close for comfort and any ordinary warrior would have fallen.

Too bad Grievous was no ordinary warrior.

When Grievous pushed Maul off, the two faced each other in a tense stand-off, waiting for the other to move.

Then Grievous decided to take his one leap of faith. He took the electrostaff up over his shoulder like a javelin and hurled it at Maul, who leaped over it and swung with his lightsaber.

Too bad Grievous hadn’t planned on hitting Maul.

The electrostaff hit the transparasteel viewport behind Maul and embedded its crackling tip deep into it, causing it to crack. Mentioned cracks, in the vacuum of space, meant that the viewport would not last long.

When Maul came down, Grievous leaned to his side so narrowly that he lost his right leg to Maul’s blood-red blade. Now on the ground like an insect, Grievous reared up on his remaining leg and, in a move that surprised Maul, he reached up and seized Maul by the throat with his remaining left hand. His twin right hands each seized Maul’s saber-hand by the wrist.

Then the viewport gave way and shattered. Maul’s formerly-feral expression quickly turned to one of realization that he had been suckered.

Both Kaleesh and Zabrak were sucked out into the empty void of space. Difference was that one could survive while the other couldn’t.

Maul’s mouth gaped as he tried breathing in the airless vacuum, but the force of mentioned vacuum was causing his face to bloat and his eyes to bulge from their sockets. Silently, Maul gasped and choked as his eyeballs finally couldn’t take anymore.

Blood burst from Maul’s eyes and any opening his face provided, his internal organs practically combusting from the sudden pressure. The Sith Assassin was no more.

Grievous, on the other hand, had little to fear from the vacuum of space. His body was more machine now than man, his synthskin gutsack protecting his organs from the pressure and his ability to survive long periods without oxygen meant that he could survive extended periods in the void.

Grievous didn’t witness all of the mess, for he knew his opponent was as good as dead now, and released Maul’s body (though he did nab the Zabrak’s blade) then reached forward and fired something from a compartment on his right forearm. A cable shot out and a grappling hook latched deep into the Malevolence’s hull. The cable then retracted, dragging Grievous through until he latched onto the metal hull and crawled about its surface like some sort of robotic parasite on a giant, metal leviathan.

Grievous eventually found a porthole, most likely used by droids for making repairs to the ship, and forced it open. He maneuvered inside and sealed it shut once more. When he touched down on the ground, his gaze fell on the handle in his hand. One hiss and crackle later and a blade the color of flame burst from his fist.

Another fine addition to the collection: the first Sith Lord he had personally killed.



--

Steel: Well, sucks to be Maul right now.

Ray: This was actually very close. Grievous’s electronic reflexes are so fast that they actually prove a good match against Maul’s force perception and reflexes. Both had blow-by-blow counters in a duel, too. Maul is fierce but Grievous is cunning, Grievous is powerful but Maul is swift.

Steel: The difference laid in technique, experience, and fighting style. Maul is an attacker, not a defender, so his means of protecting from Grievous are a bit more limited than most. His lack of knowledge in Force Techniques (or flat-out refusal to use them) is one such key to defeat. The main reason Obi-Wan beat Grievous was because of the highly-defensive form of Soresu and that Obi-Wan is one of the most perceptive and Force-savvy Jedi of his generation.

Ray: Grievous is also a cunning and cruel strategist who is not afraid to use unorthodox and underhanded methods in a fight. In other words, if things look bad for him, he will use ANY methods to achieve victory, be it a tactical retreat or taking advantage of whatever is available to him.

Steel: Grievous is also made of tougher stuff than Maul. While cutting off an arm or leg will fill an organic entity with a heap-load of pain, Grievous can lose one and still keep fighting like nothing happened. Grievous also has a one-up of being analytical in battle, too, like the time he exchanged blows with Mace Windu and quickly adapted to his Vaapad style after a brief exchange.

Ray: And while defeating a crime syndicate single-handedly sounds admirable, Grievous has laid waste to entire squadrons of trained soldiers and once took on four or five Jedi masters, including Shaak-Ti, one of the most cunning Jedi in the order.

Steel: In the end, Grievous’s cunning, durability, and sheer cruelty blew Maul into orbit.

Ray: The winner is General Grievous.


DARTH MAUL…
+More vicious fighter
+Can use the Force
+Actual Sith training
-Limited Force capability
-Not strategic enough to match Grievous
-Too aggressive a fighter

GENERAL GRIEVOUS…
+Used to fighting Force Users
+Smarter and more tactical
+Cyborg body has advantages
+Not beneath underhanded tactics
+More weapons
+Knows when to tactically retreat.