Anticytherian Circle/2017/First Preliminary Match: Joshua vs Pix

This is the first preliminary match of the Anticytherian Circle 2016, Joshua Sentrium Burns vs Pix of The Isis Dominion. This match is over but the results are still in analysis and the victor is yet undecided.

Match
"When is the first fight?"

"Oh, it will be you and Mister Joshua at the Petrarxian Jungle in Geomus. That match will start within ten minutes. Sort everything you have before the match~" Cordelia spoke through the astral comm unit.

As the Construct blocked Joshua's attacks at a steady pace, Joshua took notice of the intercom. "..Miss Pix?" He thought, as he continued sparring with the Construct.

Joshua kept on the offensive with the construct, as he wondered who Miss Pix was, and why her name was said on the intercom. The construct held its ground effectively against Joshua's melee attacks.

"Oh, if you want to proceed to the arena grounds, a door near the benches is there to let you in," Cordelia spoke through the comm.

Hearing that the match would start in ten minutes, Joshua took notice of the directions Cordelia said, and headed straight for that area.

Pix made her way there as instructed.

Ten minutes had passed and they have arrived in the Arena Warproom AII of the Petrarxian Jungle.

Joshua looked around "Hm, very interesting." He thought.

Pix looked around the scenery for a moment. "When do we start?"

The Arena Warproom AII's door hatch started to open, revealing a bright light from outside. The warproom was intricately designed with cyan circuit lines etched all over the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Joshua watched as the door hatch proceeded to open. "..I guess that's how we enter." He said.

Pix walked forward.

Joshua also walked forward.

As they exited the warproom, the door hatch closed. The cries and howls of the numerous spectators resounded the area, exuding an atmosphere of excitement.

"Heeeeeh-ria, ladies and gents~!" the commentator spoke through a wide-scale astral comm unit. The person was no other than Alice Argentum, the Chief Marshallia of the Empyrdom! "This arena is quite the exotic type, ain't it? With all those floating rocks and these.... enormous towers of sharp stone, this could be akin to an aerial labyrinth! And I am Alice of the Argentum family, being your commentator for the matches!"

Pix strolled up to one of the pillars, knocking her knuckles against it lightly to test the density.

Joshua watched as she was testing it's density. "..."

"Let us first introduce our judges! The left judge, Meife Ictise!" The crowd clapped in response. Meife was a rarity among the Geomusians, being a Mephitian. She smiled mildly and waved hello. "The second judge, Mizariel Petrarxus!" The crowd clapped again. Mizariel was strangely a middle-aged man among his fellows. Nevertheless, he is a venerable gentleman dressed in an intricate brown robe and an Egyptian-esque headwear. "The third judge, Amos Saballon!" The crowd clapped again! Amos was a bald man dressed in a Mexican-esque robe.

"Now, with our warriors~!" Alice announced. "Our first battler is the son of the chief of the Empyrdom's allied forces, the Jkirk Federations! Under the tutelage of the Emperor himself, he proves to be a formidable foe in any range! Come forth from the blazing red: Joshua Sentrium Burns~!"

"Hm? I guess I'm up." Joshua came forth upon them.

The crowd succeeded into greater excitement.

Joshua faced up towards the crowd. "..Whoa. That's a lot of spectators." He thought to himself.

"Our second battler looks like a wild card...! Here we are to behold her, testing her strength with a stone pillar! She looks like a Kinemancian, but nuh-uh~! She is of an unknown formidable anthropomorphic species! Presenting, Pix!"

The noise of shouting resounded the arena again.

"Kine- what?" Pix rose an eyebrow.

Joshua faced Pix. "Welp. Here we go." He thought.

"Now it is time for us... To witness their all in a decisive match of destiny! Who shall emerge the victor?! We shall find out in this moment of truth~!"

The arena's astral comm array announced. "First preliminary match: Joshua vs Pix. Projecting ethereal shielding."

The arena grounds and the spectation ring was then bordered by a cylindrical ethereal barrier between them to protect the audience from their potentially destructive attacks.

Joshua looked at the barrier. "Huh. Smart thing to do." He thought, as he faced Pix, reaching out his hand. "Well, may the best combatant win." He said.

Pix glanced around the changes before focusing on Joshua. "Right..." She growled lowly. The lizard-cat-looking woman flexed her right arm out as it bursted out into a sparking fist of magma. Her eyes tinted to a dark red with a peering hiss. "En garde."

"Starting the duel in 3... 2... 1..."

"Commencing the duel," the AI announced, followed by a 2-second buzzer.

The crowd cheered out in excitement.

Pix immediately made a shifting rush at Joshua, swinging her arm up and slamming down at him with a spread of the magma.

"..Hm.. not very sportsmanship-like, are ya? Very well, then." He said, reaching for a sword handle to his left hip as he leaped backwards in an effort to dodge her attack.

"Pix made the first move, but Joshua was perceptive enough to see through!" commented Alice.

"Sportmanship... FINE," She digged into the ground, whipping herself around as her hand detached: the magma arm spreading over the ground. "Best of luck," she called with a fanning kick aiming for his head.

"Hm.. a Temper, eh? At least we have that in common..." He said, emerging his Dark/Anti Matter blades, and attempted to block. If successful, he would boost himself towards her using his LZVA Jetpack, and would make an attempt to slash at her with the blunt of his blades.

"What is this?! A lava pool is forming on the arena grounds! Aaaand Joshua finally reveals his AM/DM blades~!"

"Looks like Joshua is trying to avoid the lava pool and aim for Pix directly! How will their close combat turn out?"

Pix's foot melted off from the anti-matter properties, forcing her to tumble into a roll to the side. She immeidately whipped around, kicking back from a distance, directing the lava pool to whip over toward Joshua as well.

"The heat intensifies!" cried Alice.

The lava/kick would have been blocked from Joshua's chaos shield, and his attack would have gone ahead with no difficulty. His blade was aimed primarily at her upper chest.

"Here it is~! Joshua is protected by a shielding akin to our ethereal barrier! And it looks like Pix could not land a direct hit!"

Joshua's blade slammed into Pix's front as her body hardened at the protruded sections. Her eyes widened, her nose twitching almost as if smelling something. "... Chaos?" A green spark started up on her arms--newly regrown--"Chaos!?" a sudden burst of chaos energy went out in a repeating pulse. Despite the injuries of the blades, Pix forced herself to endure by attempting to keep Joshua stuck in their lock despite the blasts of energy acting to force him back.

"...?!" Realizing that his offensive attack might have backfired, he attempted to boost himself backwards with his Jetpack, to break away from the lock.

"Something strange is happening between the two! Are they trying to pin each other in submission?" said Alice.

Pix reached out, trying to dig into his chaos shield before he fully got out of range. "You aren't chaos!"

"No, my shield is though..." He said, as his Chaos Shield was taking damage. "Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, SH*T." He thought in his head, boosting his Jetpack at full power to break away from the lock.

Pix tore at him as he broke out. She jerked forward for a moment,standing still, statue-like, as the stabbed sections began to fill up. A hissing continued to be heard from her as the lava pool slowly dissolved.

Joshua boosted up into the air, maintaining a distance from her. "Okay. Lava AND Chaos attacks. This is going to be difficult." He thought, unemerging his Blades and putting the handle back on his left hip, as he equipped on what seemed to be a Rifle. "Let's see on how she fares against Ranged Plasma Attacks." He thought, taking aim at her.

As the lava dissolved, Pix stomped a foot to the ground, a pillar of metal shooting up around her before it slowly turned to a brown color: wood, a thick wood. A giant redwood was ground out, its roots expanding around the pillars.

"...Really?" He thought, now firing 5 shots of Plasma at her, aiming for the upper chest, he tries to maintain more distance away from her.

"This is getting more interesting! Pix has vast control over elements! And now Joshua is backing away to evade danger!" noted Alice. "Wow, we have a tree in the midst of the stone pillars! Spectacular!"

The plasma penetrated the oak, burning through it in layers, but further layers grew. Pix was raised by a branch upward yards to the air. Her arm began glowing a green light again as she prepared to retaliate, but stumbled back with a pause as the plasma was still coming toward her. Her collar-bone section was splashed by the substance before she could raise up further shielding. A larger hiss came from behind.

"The wood is regenerating but it seemed that Pix took a hit from the plasma rays!"

Joshua fired continuously at Pix, and then the wood oak, wondering if his Plasma Rifle could inflict major damage.

The wood was burning away, the tree nearly burned half-way through as Pix recovered from the hit. The top of the tree broke open as she fired a spread of energy darts at him.

Joshua attempted to dodge by rolling to the left. If successful, he would deliver a Counter Attack by continuing to fire Plasma at Pix's Upper Chest.

Pix had a clear direction vision of her target at this time, allowing her to make quick shifts back and forth to avoid the attacks. As she continued firing toward him, roots from the tree slowly made their way around him for a surrounding assault.

Joshua took notice of the roots that were going to surround him. "..Ah, Great." He thought, as he kept his attempts to dodge. He then decided to concentrate his fire on the approaching roots.

With the roots now preoccupying his time, Pix emphasized the speed on each, forcing three to act as whips as the others slowly approached, each shriveling to each shot. At the same time, Pix's backside began to expand as a large cylindrical metallic shell grew out, charging up a later attack.

Now realizing he cannot keep the roots at bay, Joshua boosted straight towards Pix, unequiping his Rifle and equipping his Left AM/DM Sword. What was he planning?

"And now the tree is trying to distract- Whoa, Joshua is charging at Pix! Is he trying to end this now?" commented Alice.

Pix stiffined at the sudden charge. She took a step back, surprised for the moment, but quickly made a jerking motion, sending rapidly-firing bits of the tree bark upward upon his approach.

"The heat may have dried up, but the heat in our hearts will keep up! Let us witness what happens next to both!" Alice spoke.

Joshua moved faster as he charged, leaving the Tree Bark to not have enough time to counter, as Joshua extended his right foot at Pix, aiming for her head.

"Ooh! Akin to the Emperor's signature Tachyon Kick, he is charging with a flying front kick!"

Pix's right hand took on a grey color as she slammed it at the incoming foot, forcing her to momentarily lose her balance, stepping back further as the preparing attack paused for a second.

Her hand would have slammed into the shield, and then the foot, as Joshua (somewhat) successful kicked her. Due to the speed he was going, theres a chance she might have been knocked backwards.

Pix's hand cracked, fissures of energy streaming out as she considered her options. She relaxed the pressure on her feet, allowing herself to ricochet back off the tree. Just as she did so, her other hand twitched toward the trunk as a red light began appearing just below the top where they had both been.

Joshua readjusted his flight pattern as he moved forward, now going at a steady hover. He keep a closeful eye on her, still having his swords equipped. "..."

From the tree came a blast of chaos energy, a beam shooting high into the air poised at where Joshua had stood. Pix was still falling from the massive height, the backside weapon poised and waiting for if he maneuvered around.

"We are reaching rising action!" cried Alice. "And it looks like Pix is falling! Is this the end or can she...?!"

Joshua just hovered there as the Chaos Beam neared. The Chaos Attack had made contact with the Shield. Due to the Shield's High Defense Stat, the Attack has a high chance of breaking off.

Realizing that she was about to hit the floor, Pix fired the secondary weapon, sending a concentrated blast at Joshua's section, knowing that the tree was about to drain out of energy, before she finally hit the ground.

Joshua decided to move out of the way of the Tree's Chaos Blast, assuming it won't follow him. He might have also unintentionally dodged the secondary attack.

Pix's one personal attack was keeping track on Joshua as it went before she finally slammed into the floor, breaking the still-firing construct from her backside.

The Secondary Attack successfully hit Joshua's shield. Surprisingly, the Shield held, but was close to collapsing. Joshua looked towards the floor in surprise. "?!"

Pix remained still for a moment befor jabbing her arm into the construct and lodging it cracking into the air as it sparked. It was about to implode.

"..Oh, give me a freaking break!" He thought, as he boosted to the right in an attempt to avoid the construct's implode radius.

The tree dissolved as the construct imploded. The radius of eneregy was a very brief five yards before fissuring out to a constant two for some seconds. Pix remained below while the tree continued dissolving.

Joshua was successfully able to avoid the attack, due to his high perception and Jetpack's speed. Joshua gave a sigh of relief.

The tree dissolved fully, and with the pressure gone, Pix placed a hand to a pillar, molding against it as she zipped up, tearing the base of it up as she rose back to the regular level: the pillar poised for impaling.

"...Oh for f*ck sake. Why won't you stay down?!" He thought, his anger increasing. He equipped his right sword handle, and emerged it's blades.

She crunched down on the pillar, fragmenting it repeatedly into a sand cloud that began spreading around. "Plasma," She ignited her left arm again. "Chaos," she ignited her right hand, two different blades forming on each. Her body shook in maintaining control over the three elements, but she remained stable enough to keep focused.

"..First Lava, and then Chaos, and then Wood, AND NOW PLASMA?!" He yelled in his thoughts in anger, his Dark Form was close to coming into effect, but managed to calm himself.

(Alright so no dark form then? M'kay)

"Experience, has, benefits," she forced out, her voice somewhat distorted. She raised her plasma hand, sending bursts into the sky for a rain of plasma. Likewise, she stretched out her chaos-charged hand to connect with his shield.

"Alright. F*ck this." He said in his thoughts, now boosting himself towards her, with both swords in hand. This charge might have been unexpected. The plasma and Chaos Attacks have a moderate chance of hitting him.

As her arm was extending out toward him previously, she immediately slammed her palm against his approach, aiming to disable the chaos-shield around him with her own energy.

As her arm made contact with the Shield, Joshua gave a slight grin. "..You shouldn't have done that." He said, as the Shield started to collapse, and when it did, it dispersed into a Mach 2 Shockwave what would have sent Pix flying towards the barrier. Due to the vast speed of the Shockwave, and how close she was to Joshua, it would have been unavoidable, and would cause major injuries upon impact.

Considering he was saying "You shouldn't have done that" Pix realized that, while not knowing specifically what, that something problematic was about to happen. By "done" she began forming out a nanite wall which bursted open immeidately from the blast, breaking off her arm. Pix's feet tensed, trying to hold against the blast as it forced her to slid back and nearly off the platform, cracks forming around her legs.

The shield had decreased the shockwave's force by 20%, and seeing that she's using her legs to try to keep herself on the ground, the legs would have a high chance of 'breaking', and would still sent her towards the barrier at high speeds, just not as fast as normally expected.

As Pix struggled against the push of the blast, she kept her arm aimed at Joshua, firing a stream of plasma toward him while calling down the built-up plasma rain to storm down. The additional pressure cracked open both legs as she went flying to the side of another pillar. Immediately she started cutting away at the tense-caused hardened legs to replace them.

Joshua attempted to roll to the left in order to dodge the incoming plasma stream, while holding his swords upwards to prepare to block the incoming Plasma Rain.

Pix kept her streaming arm going, trying to train on his location while also still still removing the dead hardened nanites on her legs.

Joshua continued effortly to dodge the Plasma stream, still keeping his swords upwards to block the Plasma Rain.

A shot of the plasma splashed down on the back of Pix's head. Growling, she forced it back upward, growing out a platform of plasma just above her head.

Now noticing there's a Cloud of Sand around him, Joshua closed his eyes, and attempted to boost upwards out of the cloud, with swords still upwards to block the Plasma Rain.

As he trailed upward, Pix had only just repaired the damage to her feet. Launching herself back to the original platform. She began resolidifying parts of the sand into stone stakes before launching them upward along with the last reserves of the plasma rain and her own firing.

Seeing that now Dodging it little of an option now, Joshua directed his left Sword to block any incoming fire from Pix's plasma stream, with his Right Sword still pointing upwards. If timed right when the Plasma Rain is no longer in effect, Joshua would reposition his right sword downwards to intercept/block any incoming Stone.

The last of the plasma was falling as the barrage of stone rose up. Pix ended her stream of plasma, tensing her arms into a glowing green.

"Oh thank Mobius.." He thought, directing his left Sword towards the incoming Stone so he may intercept/block, still holding the right in order to block the Plasma.

"Fine then," She hissed up. With a green blink she vanished from the ground, reappearing directly in front Joshua: a charged hand already ramming toward his collar-bone.

"..!" Joshua attempted to block the charged hand with his right sword, although there's a moderate chance this would succeed.

With her hand conflicting with the sword, Pix resorted to slamming her foot against him for additional pressure.

Joshua attempted to boost backwards from her to make an effort to dodge. If successful, his Chaos Shield would replenish. If unsuccessful, he would get hit, but his Chaos Shield would replenish anyway.

Due to her hand being locked with the blade, the kick hit. The knee-joint of the foot seemed to stretch out as it began repeatedly kicking down at him, starting slow but speeding up. Pix began squeezing at the blade, her own nanites burning off against it in attempt to break it.

The attempt to break the blade failed, as squeezing something that is made out of Anti Matter (or Dark Matter, depending on which blade she grabbed) is really not a great idea. The replenished Chaos Shield allowed for Joshua to block the rest of the kicks. As for his left sword, Joshua decided to use it on Pix while he has the chance, and attempted to stab her in the Middle Torso (Basically between her Upper and Lower Torso), and seeing that he is locked stationary and that Pix is concentrated on Joshua's right sword, there's a high chance this succeeds.

As Pix's hand was still charged with chaos energy, the colliding energies simply resulted in a constant pressure on both ends. With the sword stabbing toward her, Pix immeidatley let out a burst of energy to knock him back, a pulse of a chaos energy shield in of itself for the moment. "Take down your stpuid shield and actually fight!" She hissed, clearly becoming agitated with the longevity of the fight.

Joshua was unsuccessfully bounced back, due to his Chaos Shield able to tank the pulse. "Nah. I'd rather have the complete defense advantage over you." He replied in a taunty tone.. It seems he wants her to get angry, so that she would become less concentrated because of her assumed Temper. He was also attempting to stab her once more in the same area with the same sword.

Aware of the sword still, she sent out a second pulse followed by a blast toward him of chaos energy from her mouth. A long hardening blade began growing out from her free arm as she went silent.

Both the Pulse and Blast hit the shield, but with little effect. "..Phew, your breath is Bad." He said, again taunting. He also took notice of the growing blade. In a preparation to counter this, Joshua attempted to kick Pix in the assumed area of where her Lung would be, while also positioning his Right Sword in an Defensive Stance. His Left Sword is still locked by Pix's hand as well, which is probably starting to hurt her, because, y'know, Anti-Matter.

Due to also now being surrounded by a chaos-based shield, the only section penetrated was the blade-holding hand. Pix's hand eventually was torn through as she had lost track of the specific conflict, but she simply narrowed down at Joshua's repeated attacks. A small chuckle of a huff came from her, as if to taunt "See how you like it".

"..You seem to have copied my Chaos Shield. Most impressive." He said, giving a compliment, before unemerging his Left Sword's blades, while also attempting to boost backwards with his Jetpack before she had the chance to strike at him with her growing blade.

"DO NOT CLAIM THIS POWER AS YOURS TO ORIGINATE," She tensed. Ignoring his backward boosting for the moment, she drove straight down toward the ground before vanishing, and reappearing above. She did this repeatedly, the blade growing as she went faster, and faster.

"But, I wasn't claiming originality to Chaos Energy" He said, while descending to the ground, reemerging the blades on his left Sword, and got into a Defensive Stance.

Her pattern began to change from one location, a side charge at him from behind, the tip of the blade charging with energy.

Seeing that Pix is no longer in frontal view of him, Joshua turned behind him in an assumption that she was there. Turns out, he was out, and he prepared his Right Blade to interlock with Pix's blade.

Immediately after colliding with the blade, it detached from Pix's body as she rushed on, vanishing again to continue up speed. Judging by the force of this first strike, she was at 7- MPH and gaining upward.

"...?" He attempted to knock the blade backwards with his sword, as he was looking around for her. "I'm going to get ambushed, aren't I?" He said.

"...Welp. This is probably going to hurt." He said, as he prepared his blades to block. Of course, these blades were going at 200MPH, so it's unlikely for him to block them with his swords.

The blade slammed against him, the chaos tip acting to penetrate against the shield. At five feet in length, it rushed forward to stab. Pix's foot could be felt above, on the shield most likely, before she vanished once again.

She was reappearing once more, a blade at ten feet, though her shield had vanished. She wasn't vanishing at his strike.

The very nanosecond the Blade touched the shield, the Shield dispersed into the Mach 2 Shockwave, thus reflecting it, and any other blade/attack, and also sending Pix flying to the same barrier. This time, she would have no warning like last time.

Despite the burst of the shockwave, the speed of arrival from the blade and Pix had reached up to 17,920 MPH, with the additional burst of the chaos tipped blade.

"...Welp, this is going to hurt." He said, now having ran out of options, hes pretty much going to accept his loss.

Stabbing and ripping through the left side of Joshua's body, sparks of the energy and the collision of Pix's sent the both of them crashing and bashing along the battlefield. Going at such extreme speeds and using the energy to do so, the remaining nanite sand from Pix's body slid across the platform, sparking, but not moving, with the blade fracturing in the air before collapsing to the ground.

Joshua was on the ground, with multiple stab wounds that were very, very serious. Despite that though, he's surprisingly still alive. "*Cough cough*.... Yep... That hurt." He said.

Pix's nanite sand just sparked a bit, attempting to rise up every few seconds only to collapse again.

Joshua just laid there on the ground. "Heh. Anyone know any Medics? Because, Ah... I'm kind of bleeding out." He said.

At the moment Joshua asked for immediate help, twelve gram grails entered the scene. Each six carried Joshua and Pix away from the arena.

"Welp. Guess I live. Yay." He said, before passing out.

Pix grew out a brief shrug toward the grails, forcing out a "don't touch me" despite not being quite mobile enough to move away herself.

These gram grails carried them to stretchers and exited the arena to the medical bay.