The Sword of Justice vs. Mercenary Business: Bayman and Deacon clash. (14-03-2403)

Deacon DeSaint was approaching the site of a heavily damaged Installation that supposedly housed a User Enhancement project when out of the shadows a voice sounded.

“Leave this place Mr. DeSaint.” The Mercenary Agent known simply as Bayman stated in a rather hostile tone before appearing about ten feet away from where Deacon stood.

“Why?” The Xelot Knight asked.

“You are intruding in the business of the Mercenary Army.” Bayman stated.

“The business of justice trumps all others.” Deacon responded.

“There is no justice here Mr. DeSaint. Now be on your way.” Bayman commanded.

“It is the sworn duty of the Knights of the Xelot Council to bring justice to all the world.” Deacon spoke with calm steel.

Bayman had by now grown tired of this exchange. The only reason he even entertained the Xelot for as long as he did was because the Exalted Knight Commander was not one to be easily dispatched.

“You have two options. Leave or be made to leave.” Bayman stated as he drew his Combat Knife and powered up.

“I cannot allow you to stand in the way of justice Major. I will cut down all those who dare attempt to do so.” Deacon spoke calmly as he began to draw his Vanquisher and likewise power up.

By the time the Xelot Knight had halfway drawn his sword a Hyper Driven Bayman had closed the distance between them, the hilt of his Combat Knife pressing down on the hilt of the large blade preventing it from being drawn further. Bayman pushed the sword back into the sheath before landing a Hyper Driven hook punch to Deacon’s temple, further boosted by his Kinetic Wave. The Knight’s All Guard ripped away a portion of the energy from the blow but it was not enough to prevent him from being knocked to the side.

Anticipating Deacon’s response of releasing a wave of Disca, Bayman activated his Tidal Dissonance as he flash kicked the ether splitting wave. The energy dampening effect of the modifier reduced the power of the wave as Bayman set off a controlled zeta detonation blast to cancel Deacon’s attack. Bayman then performed a high kick which met Deacon’s Reverb imbued forearm, cancelling the force of the blow. He followed through with a strength boosted axe kick with the same leg to the top of Deacon’s head to stomp him face first into the ground. Bayman’s falling knee press would be evaded as the Xelot’s Burst Thrusters shifted him behind the Merc as his knees hit the ground.

Deacon delivered a Shifta imbued chop to Bayman’s neck followed by another chop to the other side and a palm strike to the base of his neck sending him forward. Bayman pressed off the ground as he fell forward, and extended his legs back to kick Deacon away.

Bayman got to his feet and advanced to Deacon to deliver a mid round house. A wave of Disca intercepted the kick, cutting through Bayman’s Just Defender but doing minor damage. As the Gestalt’s leg returned to the ground Deacon launched a straight punch which was slowed by a kinetic field and countered. Bayman grabbed his forearm, pulling and turning him to the side as Shifta worked to force him to let go. Agent 10 would endure and punched Deacon in the kidney before pressing his foot to the back his leg, sending him to his knee. Deacon would feel his body being bent backwards as an Anima boosted Bayman bent forward, looped his arm around his neck and flexed his huge bicep, painfully pressing against his throat. Next Deacon would be lifted up and Bayman fell backwards to drive his head into the ground. Deacon activated his Dynamic Guard before impact, thus reducing the damage.

The combined effects of Rooke’s modifiers would finally force Bayman to release his neck and the two Field Commanders got to their feet. Bayman ducked under Deacon’s punch and moved into him. He wrapped his powerful right arm around his waist while grabbing his foot with his left hand, yanking it forward while pressing against Deacon’s torso to take him off his feet and to the ground. Bayman quickly moved up to loop his much bigger forearm around Deacon’s to apply a wrist lock. His attempt to break the knight’s wrist was met by a powerful counter force and he quickly abandoned the hold to get to his feet.

Deacon then summoned two Suppression Knights on either side of the Mercenary which each launched a projectile blast of Disca at him. Bayman dashed forward towards Deacon, leaving the blasts to collide with each other. Not giving the Xelot the time to draw his sword, Bayman set off a Kinetic Detonation behind Deacon which knocked him forward. Bayman came in with an uppercut only to connect with Deacon’s summoned Guardian as the Xelot used his Burst Thrusters to dash away. The large heavy armoured knight took the blow easily and attempted to grab Bayman but he ducked and rose up quickly to shoulder check the Summon. He was aided by a rush of kinetic energy which launched it away. After the de-summoning of one of the Suppression knights, the remainder continued to fire Disca from his crossbow cannon in an attempt to keep Bayman off balance.

By now Deacon had finally fully drawn his Vanquisher and summoned his Retribution knight in place of Guardian, which commenced a series of fencing sword thrusts. Bayman barely evaded the first two strikes to then have to parry Deacon’s sword thrust with his Combat Knife, boosting the blade with his Force. The Retribution’s rapier missed Bayman’s arm by mere centimetres but having to contend with the two swordsmen left him open to a grazing strike to his leg from a second Retribution’s rapier. Thanks to his Just Defender he was able to completely negate the effects of the strike.

The Merc was less concerned about the two Summons as they seemed unable to pierce his guard with individual strikes. However he still tried to evade their sharply pointed swords in case they both connected at the same time and further to avoid any sudden increased effectiveness of the slender blades. Deacon was the real threat as his formidable channelling abilities and unique energy types enabled him to overcome Bayman’s near impervious guard. 

After parrying a horizontal sword strike from Deacon he briefly activated Anima for a burst of speed, sliced off a fencing knight’s rapier wielding arm with his Combat Knife, grabbed him by the throat and turned him into Deacon’s next strike to be dissipated by his own Summoner.

Bayman continued his motion to replace the dispatched summon’s throat with Deacon’s. As the remaining Retribution’s rapier struck him harmlessly, the large Gestalt choke slammed the Xelot into the ground as he activated Anima again, this time boosting his strength. On impact Bayman Flash Coded a zeta compression zone which caused Deacon to sink even further into the resulting crater as the seemingly heavy zeta attempted to crush him.

The remaining Retribution knight faded as a now stunned Deacon was left at the mercy of the Russian born super soldier who created a localised kinetically amped zeta whirlwind around him. Deacon was swept up and whirled around the Mercenary to eventually impact his roundhouse at supersonic speed, Bayman’s instep slamming into his neck and severely compressing and damaging his carotid artery. The incredibly powerful blow shook Deacon from his stunned state. He clutched his neck in pain as he was sent skating across the ground, the flow of energy and blood to his brain partially disrupted and making it difficult to focus.

As Bayman was almost upon him again the Xelot Commander barely managed to summon two Destruction Knights at a lower output than normal, which latched onto the Merc before converting part of his form into Disca. Deacon then activated his Glaze Step to teleport away leaving a concentration of volatile energy in his place. The resulting explosion combined with Disca attempting to tear him apart would have been negated by Bayman’s actively guarding Just Defender, but Deacon’s Overwhelming Force allowed the near impervious guard to be torn apart. Ether was also torn from Bayman’s form forcing him to his knees.

Some distance away Deacon propped himself up on his sword as he attempted to fully regain his senses. The knight gripped his sword firmly as he used his natural ability to manipulate Ki to direct the energy through the artery to slowly uncompress it. As the pain dissipated he summoned two Retribution knights to keep Bayman occupied while his Piercing Gaze went to work. Unfortunately for Deacon he could not scan the Merc’s form, even when aided by his Ethereal Scanner. This would weaken Seeder’s ability to lower his opponent’s natural defences but it would still be partially effective and Deacon would capitalise on the slow but continuous process when the time came.

Looking to dispatch the two Summons as quickly as possible, Bayman flash coded a polarity based energy type which enabled him to control the movements of the knights and force them to stab each other repeatedly until one dispatched the other. Bayman then twisted the remaining knight’s head clean off his shoulders to eliminate him also.

Now fully recovered, Deacon summoned Justice, fusing with the Paladin class summon and utilised his Speed to dash towards Bayman to engage him in a knife vs. sword fight. Initially, due to his Anima boosted physical abilities and expert combat skills, Bayman managed to keep Deacon at bay for some time despite the knight’s advantage in reach. This prompted Deacon to imbue his Vanquisher with Shifta thereby increasing the sword’s neutralizing effects, and he released short waves of Disca which preceded his strikes. Deacon’s increased combat aptitude due to Justice would not go unnoticed by Bayman as he found this close ranged engagement increasingly difficult to handle. This was made even more so by the fact that the output of his form was decreasing the longer the exchange went on.

It would not be long before Bayman would experience some of his Permanent Attributes temporarily fail as Deacon finally landed a slice with his Vanquisher to his arm. Deacon then negated Bayman’s point defence on his next strike causing blood to gush from the large gash across his abdomen. This was made worse by the Xelot exploding Bayman’s internal energy and even more blood, and now energy gushed from his form. The large Russian coughed up blood as his channelling abilities were further compromised. The Vanquisher would then pierce Bayman’s side, forcing him to grab the sword by the blade with both hands, pull it out and hurl both it and Deacon away. Holding the blade further nerfed Bayman and at this point the severely weakened and damaged Agent fully engaged the stealth of his Combat Suit and disappeared from Deacon’s senses.  

Deacon scanned the area in a futile attempt to locate his Mercenary foe. Realising this futility he summoned two Guardian knights and a Salvation knight in fairly close formation with a Guardian in front and behind him, and the Salvation knight to his right. He also charged his modifiers and summoned his Paladin Shield on his left in expectation of an attack.

After some time multiple rounds from an Iger V-AP would traverse the zeta stream bending around the summoned knights to hit Deacon in the back, chest and leg, his techniques doing little to protect him. However as he was actively guarding, his Dynamic Guard and Reflector Field minimised the damage. Unfortunately for the Xelot, the on the fly modification to the rounds caused his form and Combat Suit to glitch tremendously as they added corrupted zeta code to his form’s ethereal code and the zeta which powered the Combat Suit.

The Guardians dissipated and the Salvation knight began to glitch along with Deacon’s techniques. Bayman would appear above the now kneeling Deacon to land feet first on the back of his head, planting him face first into the ground and sending a flood of corrupted zeta onto and into his form, also wrapping him in a razor sharp zeta lattice to keep him restrained. The Mercenary then applied a leg lock to his opponent and activated his Mass Driver and Kinetic Charge. Deacon’s Vanquisher was pulled into a rotation around Bayman, accelerating it to supersonic speed before launching the blade some kilometres away.

Even with Deacon’s form glitching, Bayman concluded he would not be able to actually break any of his limbs with the level of force he had generated so far. So having charged his Anima to max the Gestalt focused all the energy into boosting his strength to an extreme level as the massive zeta glitch was just about to wear off. Even with his incredible strength and having the necessary leverage, Bayman only succeeded in tearing a single ligament in the Xelot’s left leg. If not for Deacon’s Overwhelming Force the Merc would have torn his leg right off at the joint during the powerful and extremely painful hold.

A large Gryphon formed out of energy appeared in the sky and swooped down in an attempt to grab Bayman with its talons. The Mercenary would have none of this however as his Mass Driver uprooted a large chunk of earth and hurled the kinetically accelerated projectile up to the summoned creature. The Gryphon used its own Seeder ability to create and exploit a critical weakness in the piece of land and broke through the solid reinforced mass beak first. This served as an adequate distraction as Bayman capped his form and once again utilised his Environmental Simulator to vanish from the landscape, then powered down to ensure no chance of his detection.   

Deacon slowly rose to his feet, his form still slightly glitching and deep cuts could be seen on the back of his neck from the razor like zeta. He picked up his Paladin Shield and scanned the area for his Vanquisher as he charged his Energy stat. However, the knight would be forced to resign himself to looking for his sword when the battle was over. Having already learned he could not locate his Merc foe while he was stealthed, Deacon’s Omega Drive activated, boosting his Energy as he sent radial blasts of fully charged Disca outwards to spread through his massive area of influence. Gryphon circled the ether splitting blasts unleashing its Chilling Breath, the ethereal ice being torn apart as the blasts impacted it.  

Bayman was not going to allow himself to be caught in the ice trap and would be forced to power up again and abandon his stealth as the destructive blasts rapidly approached him. The Mercenary Agent activated his Omega Drive, focusing the entire stat boost into his Deflection and the additional ACP to boost all his Permanent Attributes, particularly his Just Defender and also activated Juggernaught. Bayman then turned and ran into the waves of death, storming through them with the intention to finish this battle sooner rather than later.

The Merc headed straight to Gryphon’s location taking a good deal of damage in the process, bringing him closer and closer to reversion as small chunks of his form were left in his wake to be further torn apart. He leapt out of the blast 400 metres into the air and up to the flying creature which directed its freezing breath his way. The Omega Driven soldier would break through the ice and activated his Vangard which was fully charged in the short space of time due to his Time Control. He morphed into a massive spiral of zeta with a sharpened drill tip and tore right through the Binding Summon.

The continuous waves of Disca would cease as Deacon suffered the resulting backlash from Gryphon’s demise. His hp was in better shape than Bayman’s but even his boosted stamina was not far from depletion. By Bayman’s quick calculations his own stamina would be out by the end of his Omega Drive. Worse yet, his hp was so low that it would not take much to hard revert him. Still in his spiral zeta morph Enrique Bayman descended upon the stunned Deacon, drilling him deep into the earth and exploding his M-10 Mines in the process.

Some distance away from the kilometre wide dome of unstable zeta death the Mercenary Agent would be violently shunted from the zeta stream, reverting as he hit the ground. When the blast finally dissipated a reverted Deacon laid at the bottom of a 200m deep crater.

Outcome: The already heavily damaged Installation was completely destroyed along with any clues that may have been there. However Bayman was able to gather some tangible evidence before the ensuing widespread destruction.

Deacon 310 Exp (reverted)

Bayman 340 Exp (-2283HP) (reverted)