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The shipping dock of Keralis’ construction site was quiet, the air tense with anticipation as the full moon illuminated the area.
When Xisuma had asked for volunteers for a pvp exercise, most hermits jumped at the opportunity. An all out brawl with specific instructions to not hold back made the hermits think they would be able to show off.
Keralis had offered the docks of base as an arena, thinking the shipment containers would make a good backdrop to the fight.
Needless to say, Keralis now regrets that decision as every creak of metal puts him on edge.
Things had started out calm, but once it became clear Xisuma was picking off hermits one by one panic started to set in and any remaining hermits had quickly grouped together, hoping to win in numbers.
The only hermits left were Keralis, Doc, Hypno, Tango, and False. Tango and False had stuck together and were nowhere to be seen.
At this moment, it was a game of patience, waiting for Xisuma to strike.
The silence made the hermits uneasy, knowing Xisuma was lurking somewhere around the shipment containers. Waiting for their guard to be down so he could attack.
Hypno sighed, breaking the tension.
“Maybe we should just fight,” he began, “I’m afraid he’s gonna start picking us off one by-“
The sound of metal bursting cut Hypno off.
Xisuma had punched through the metal of a shipping container, grabbing Hypno by the collar of his diamond armor.
Doc and Keralis bear witness as Xisuma pulls back, smacking Hypno into the bursted metal wall and before Hypno can recover, the wall breaks off from a kick delivered by Xisuma, effectively pinning Hypno to the adjacent metal container.
Now within their sights, Doc reacts first, aiming his crossbow at the green armored man.
However, Xisuma is quicker, grabbing hold of the crossbow and aiming it upwards and delivering a blow to his gut.
The force of the blow causes Doc to fold over, giving Xisuma the ability to grasp him and throw the cyborg toward Keralis head first.
Doc’s head collides into Keralis’ gut, the force knocking them both into the metal wall and knocking the air out of their lungs
Before either of them have a chance to recover, Xisuma charges toward them like an ox. The force of impact is so great they burst through the walls of the metal shipping container.
Bursting through the other side, Doc and Keralis are flung into a stack of barrels as Xisuma rolls himself to a stop and witnesses their impact.
Standing up, Xisuma steps toward the slowly recovering hermits but stops when an arrow lands to his right.
Looking toward its presumed path, Xisuma spots Tango perched on top of a shipment container.
Eyes locked with each other, Tango’s expression lacks the fear of a ruined stealth attack. Xisuma has a hunch that this could be a coordinated attack with Tango as a distraction.
His theory is proven correct when Xisuma turns to his left and narrowly dodges the swipe to his head from False.
Wielding the crucible blade Xisuma had hidden in the arena for fun, False puts all her might into a lunge aimed at his right side.
Strafing left, Xisuma avoids the attack. The force of the missed strike brings False off balance, her momentum sending her to the ground.
She doesn’t make it to the ground however, as Xisuma grabs the collar of her diamond armor from behind, followed by a grip to the culet.
Gripped like a sack of potatoes, Xisuma spins around with False in tow and throws her toward Doc and Keralis, who had just begun to recover.
Keralis manages to avoid the flying False, but Doc is hit square in the chest and the two of them collide in a tangle of limbs.
“Come on False! Don’t you know how to use that thing?” Doc groans.
“I know how to use a sword Doc, what’s so hard to understand about ‘swish, swish, stab’?” False bites back, “it’s a sword, not a fighter jet.”
While the two of them continue to bicker and recover, Hypno, now recovered from being pinned by the metal container, makes the mistake of charging in sword swinging.
He misses each swing once in range, Xisuma expertly dodging each attack like it’s nothing.
“I get that he’s in Doom Guy Mode, but come on, we can’t be that bad,” False groans.
“We’ll just need to work smarter to take him down,” Doc said, a glint in his eye that False knows that it can only mean trouble.
Meanwhile, Hypno continues to miss every swing he makes while Xisuma closes the distance between them. Delivering several blows to Hypno’s chest, Xisuma knocks the wind out of his lungs.
Keeling over, Xisuma follows the move with an undercut and uppercut. Now swaying, Xisuma grabs Hypno by the neck and throws him harshly to the ground, and with a good kick Hypno is sent flying in the air.
Hypno’s trajectory ends up in Keralis’ line of fire, the two hermits crashing into each other.
Wincing at the sight of the impact, False turns to Doc, hoping to figure out a quick plan of action before getting back into the fight.
Only Doc is nowhere to be seen.
With a sigh, False readies her stance, prepared for Xisuma to come after her again.
The sound of an arrow flying past catches both hermits’ attention. One lands between them, and before she knows it, Xisuma catches another mid air, inches away from his head.
Both hermits look toward the source, finding Tango perched up high on a slightly closer container.
Tango realizes his mistake. “Uh-oh” is all he has time to say before Xisuma sends the arrow flying back to him. The arrow lodges itself in his shoulder plate, the sheer force of it sending Tango on his back, balance completely lost.
Knocked to the ground, Tango wheezes.
It takes a second for him to catch his breath, once recuperated he struggles to stand.
“Ugh… I need to get a bigger weapon,” he grunts, discarding his useless bow.
Glancing around the makeshift arena an idea forms into his mind at the sight of the crane Keralis kept in the shipyard.
Opening his communicator he opens a channel to Joe, who was one of the first to be benched in their little pvp exercise.
“Joe! You gotta help us!” Tango cries as he flees with extra flee.
“How?! I literally died within 5 seconds of Xisuma going full Doom Guy Mode! What do you want me to do?” Joe responds through the comm link.
Tango knows the man from Nashville, Tennessee is with the other hermits who didn’t last long and that they’re safely watching at a distance from Keralis’ office tower.
But he also knows Joe is one of the few hermits with a crane license who can help him figure out the controls to the machine.
“I just need your help pushing buttons or whatever! I’ll explain soon!” Tango exclaims as he makes his way over to the construction machine.
Meanwhile, False and Xisuma are locked in combat. The crucible blade False wields fails to make contact as Xisuma dodges each slice she makes in the air.
A swipe aimed toward Xisuma’s head misses its mark as the admin crouches down and proceeds to elbow False in the stomach, sending her stumbling backward.
Lucky for False, it’s not game over for her yet.
Fate rewards her a second to recover as Doc appears in a poof of purple particles and aims a crossbow with a firework right in Xisuma’s face.
The firework misses its mark as Xisuma side steps and flings his head back to dodge. Never losing momentum, he returns to standing upright and kicks Doc in the chest hard enough to fling him backwards.
In a panic, Doc throws another enderpearl, dropping his crossbow in the process. However, the kick delivered by Xisuma messes up the throw and he lands a few inches away on the floor.
Xisuma quickly pins Doc to the ground with his left foot, preventing the cyborg from moving and aims the dropped crossbow he picked up to his face.
[click]
A sigh of relief escapes Doc at the realization that Xisuma doesn’t have any ammo to load the weapon with.
“Heh, no arrows, no weapon,” Doc says smugly.
Xisuma says nothing as he takes his foot off of Doc’s chest. For a second, Doc thinks his goofball of an admin will offer a hand to help him up.
That fantasy is quickly crushed as Xisuma places his other foot on Doc’s chest and angles his body to swing! As if the crossbow was a golf club and Doc the golf ball!
“Wait! Nononono!”
Doc’s cries of protest are cut off with a cry of pain as he is once again flung into the air, his fall broken by Keralis who was about to join the fray, with Hypno by his side, only to be hit by a flying creeper cyborg.
“Crap…” Hypno sweats as he watches his back up be knocked down before the fight even begins.
And the fight ends with Xisuma punching Hypno in the face, knocking him down alongside Doc and Keralis.
While Xisuma waits for the trio to recover and come at him again, a now recovered False prepares for a sneak attack from behind.
Her plan of attack changes when she notices the rectangular shadow fall over her and Xisuma. A quick glance up reveals a crate moved directly above her and Xisuma, connected to the crane currently being operated by Tango.
In a swift move she rolls forward, sliding on the floor and planting herself between Xisuma and the others, stopping the admin in his tracks and she connects to Tango’s comm link.
“Tango! Now!” She shouts.
Without a second to react, the crate drops onto Xisuma’s position.
“Oh fuck, I can’t believe that worked!” Tango exclaims.
His celebration is proven wrong however, as the crate has not crushed Xisuma. Instead, the admin is holding the crate up with all his strength, the sound of denting metal filling the air.
“Oh fuck that didn’t work!” Tango exclaims with dread.
“I knew that wouldn’t work,” Joe’s voice echoes through everyone’s comm link, “Xisuma is a bit of a badass in Doom Guy mode.”
Xisuma makes deliberate movements to shift the weight of the crate, intending to throw it at the four hermits standing in front of him.
In preparation, False readies the crucible blade while Doc, Keralis, and Hypno attempt to run for cover.
Throwing the crate, Xisuma almost makes it look effortless. In turn, False slices the crate in half with ease, sending the contents of the crate, honey bottles, flying everywhere.
Doc, Keralis, and Hypno barely manage to avoid being hit by the detached pieces of the crate, surviving only to be buried in honey bottles.
Wincing at the mess she made, False decides to let the trio buried in the mess handle it and focus her energy on Xisuma.
“It’s just you and me X, come here!” She exclaims, trying to hype herself up as Xisuma approaches her.
Crucible blade in hand, she slices downward, missing her mark as Xisuma expertly dodges and delivers two retaliating blows to her arm and side.
The force of the punches knock her up a bit, but her stance remains firm and she recovers to make a second swing aimed higher, but Xisuma dodges again and delivers a kick to the ribs that has her folding enough for Xisuma to follow it up with a strike to the head.
Recovering quickly, False stabs high where Xisuma had been. Only he is not there and instead ducked just underneath False’s hand, which he grabs hold of and in a quick maneuver, twists and weakens her grip on the blade.
The position isn’t enough to break False’s hold entirely, and as if sensing that Xisuma kicks her thigh, bringing her knee down and forcing her to a kneeling position.
Blade still in False’s weakening grip, Xisuma delivers the final blow and kicks False away, forcing her to drop the weapon and slide across the floor.
The momentum of the kick brings her to Doc, Keralis and Hypno, who are doing their best to store all the dropped honey bottles into a few makeshift chests created during the sword fight.
“Whoa, did you see that?” Keralis comments as False comes to a stop in front of them
“How would I have missed that?” Hypno responds.
With a grunt, False stands up, but before she fully recovers, Doc puts an enderpearl in her hand and takes her arm and throws it to Xisuma’s position.
“You got this False!” He cheers as she teleports with a shocked look on her face.
Teleporting on shaky legs, False stumbles into Xisuma’s clutches and he grasps her by the collar of her diamond armor.
“What the hell Doc! Why would you do that!” False shouts.
With the crucible blade in hand Xisuma is about to deliver the final blow to take False out. However, Lady Luck is still on False’s side and the blade powers down, the argent energy stored within running out.
“Having trouble keeping it up X? Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us!” Doc taunts from the sidelines.
The taunt gets Xisuma’s attention, and he wordlessly puts the powerless hilt of the blade onto False’s weapons belt. With both hands now free, he flings False toward Doc with all his might.
In a panic, Doc tries to dodge his flying friend by throwing an enderpearl and stepping away from her trajectory. This results in him being teleported walking backward into Xisuma’s arms, where he is promptly lifted and suplexed backward.
Dazed, Doc barely has enough time to bring his arms up to block the first punch Xisuma throws when he mounts the cyborg and begins a seemingly endless barrage of punches.
“Straight to the mount, huh? Not even gonna buy him dinner first?” Keralis teases from the sidelines.
Rolling his eyes at the dirty comment, Hypno figures he should help Doc and starts making his way over to the beat down.
Hypno’s approach doesn’t escape Xisuma’s notice, and in a swift maneuver, he stands and kicks Doc in the chest, sending his body flying and he collides with Hypno.
The collision stops Doc’s momentum, and just as the creeper cyborg is about to hit the floor, Xisuma is there to grab him by the ankle and move him in the line of sight to Xisuma’s fist.
Face and fist meet, the resulting force practically flipping Doc around and his body disappears in the classic white puff of death.
[Docm77 was beaten to death by Xisuma]
The chat message delivers the news of Doc’s final moments, his items scattering on the ground before the other hermits.
Keralis spots a bundle of fireworks and a crossbow amongst the items, a half baked idea forming in his mind.
The wide eyed hermit makes a mad dash for the items, Xisuma hot on his tail to no doubt foul his plans. Despite that, Keralis just manages to grab a single rocket before turning back, forced to leave the rest to prevent Xisuma from catching him.
Running back to False and Hypno, Keralis loads the rocket into the crossbow he picked up along the way.
“Fire in the hole!” Keralis shouts as he aims toward Xisuma.
The rocket, however, misses its target, as Xisuma swiftly dodges, the colorful explosion going off behind him as he raises his own crossbow loaded with multiple fireworks back at Keralis.
“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Hypno exclaims.
“Run!” False shouts, scrambling to get out of range.
Unfortunately, for her, Keralis and Hypno simply run into her in their scramble to get away. Making them easy targets for the firework rockets that blast around them.
[FalseSymmetry went off with a bang]
[Hypnotizd went off with a bang]
[Keralis went off with a bang]
Once the particles have cleared, it becomes woefully clear to Tango, who had been perched safely in the crane, that he has to face Xisuma on his own.
Morbidly, he thinks it would be easier if Xisuma just came up to him and finished the job, but he figures he has to be a man and go down to him.
Marching to his doom, Tango leaves the safety of the crane.
Back on the ground, he makes his way to the area False and the others had died, spotting Xisuma gathering their items to place in the chests created for the honey bottle mess.
Unsheathing his sword, Tango makes his presence known, Xisuma stopping in his tracks to make eye contact with Tango.
“Oh hey Tango! Mind helping me clean up this mess?” Xisuma greets him cheerfully.
The tonal whiplash between the Xisuma that ruthlessly took down False and the others in a matter of minutes and the friendly admin gathering their items before him has Tango flabbergasted.
“Uhhh… aren’t you gonna… yknow, finish the job?” Tango hesitantly asks, waving his sword a bit to emphasize his point.
“Oh! Nah, I got it out of my system,” Xisuma says, like the display of super human strength was nothing.
Tango lets that statement hang in the air for a second.
“Was that before or after you pummeled Doc to dust?” Tango questions.
Xisuma chuckles at that, his helmet covers his face but now that he’s no longer in Doom Guy Mode, as Joe has been calling it, his body language is back to being readable. Rubbing the back of his neck, Xisuma seems bashful.
“My plan was to stop when the Crucible Blade ran out of power,” Xisuma says, holding the hilt up to Tango for emphasis, “but…”
“But then Doc opened his mouth and you had to take him down a notch right?” Tango teases, picking up the scattered items around them.
The admin lets out a mischievous giggle at being read like a book.
“And then Keralis practically handed you the big finale trying to get Doc’s fireworks,” Tango concluded.
“Well I wasn’t going to let him get away with that tease about mounting Doc,” Xisuma chuckles.
The two devolve into a fit of laughter reflecting upon the fight as they finish collecting the scattered items.
Xisuma sends a message in chat clarifying that the match is over, allowing the other hermits to gather their fallen items.
“So, do you guys wanna do this again sometime?” Xisuma asks politely.
The hermits stare at him, still trying to reconcile the intimidating and formidable opponent Xisuma was in battle, and the derpy admin before them.
“Maybe next season,” False suggests.