Finally Out Of The Gate: Rayne duels Juggerknot (07/07/2403)

It had taken the two a while, but they finally managed to find themselves in the same location with everything that they needed for their duel.  With this achieved, the two channelers would waste no time in getting things started, skipping straight past the formalities and uncapping their forms, allowing their energies to charge before Rayne opened with the initial attack.  Rayne’s Vampiric Vortex would go to work instantly while his Razor Bloom expanded around him and hurled itself towards the Juggerknot.   Juggerknot would waste no time erecting a force Barrier with his Com’muh skill, using that as well as his  Forced Entry shaving a considerable amount of damage off of Rayne’s initial attack while he moved towards the Itami to close the distance.  Rayne, the faster of the two was having none of this however, keeping his distance using his superior speed while whittling down the Juggerknot’s health with his abilities.

After a few seconds of this, the Juggerknot would get rather annoyed, grappling Rayne with his Com’muh skill and performing a quick ‘yank’, pulling the Itami towards him.  The Juggerknot would be forced to Perfect Guard as Rayne impacted his form to avoid the hail of blades from his Razor Bloom before he landed a critical punch with the assistance of his Soul Brekka.  This would temporarily stun Rayne and reduce his channelling abilities, allowing Juggerknot to score with two quick knees to the stomach before Rayne would come to his senses.  Instantly Rayne would exploded with a hail of blades from his Vortex Bloom.  These blades would only be minimally effective against the Juggerknot’s naturally defensive form however, causing the Juggerknot to smile beneath his mask as he delivered an elbox to his opponent’s temples in an attempt to stun him again.  This attempt would fail however as Rayne now shifted his full energy to his Vampiric Vortex as he attempted to consume the Juggerknot’s fully life force.  Unfortunately for the Itami, with his very limited Spiritual and Psychein the abilities, the drain tended to be strongest ethereally, however, for now, this was enough.  The Juggerknot would quickly find his energy reserves being depleted, forcing him to use Concussive Wave to shunt Rayne out of his Personal Space before he activated Learnn, morphing himself into a Singularity.  By now, things had gotten interesting as Rayne quickly realised that with Juggerknot now draining energy much like himself, his own offensive energy absorption moves would be considerably nerfed, meaning that he would be forced to change his approach.

Once again Rayne would retreat out of the Juggerknot’s melee range, releasing his Razor Bloom above and below the ground.  Juggerknot would waste no time dispatching the energetic blades as they approached his form, preventing them from dealing much damage to himself before he once again charged forward at Rayne.  Rayne smirked now, strafing to  the side and watching as the Juggerknot followed him, tumbling into a pit that opened up beneath him, courtesy of Rayne’s Razor Bloom.   Juggerknot would growl loudly as the earth within the pit now took on the consistency of quicksand, preventing him from moving, while Rayne did his best to ensure that this was so.  Unfortunately, the Itami would be in for quite a surprise as the Juggerknot engaged his Concussive Wave, ejecting a stream of energy that would blast him out of the pit.  Rayne just cursed now, continuing his range assault.

Once again Juggerknot would manage to catch Rayne with his Com’muh, pulling the Itami towards him, but Rayne would be ready for him this time, factoring his Razon Bloom into a drill around him as he used Juggerknot’s assisted force to launch a powerful attack.  Juggerknot would barely have the time to Perfect Guard after taking the initial attack, thanking his more than tripled resilience for the fact that he was able to avoid the stun and return a lunging uppercut imbued with his Back Up ability.  This Astrally imbued move would be enough to temporarily stun Rayne once more, allowing Juggerknot to land a lunging knee strike this time, launching Rayne before catching him out of the air by the face and planting him in the ground.

Rayne would curse as he came to now to the feeling of the Juggerknot pounding on him, summoning his Eviscerators and lunging them into the Juggerknot’s chest before allowing the energy from  his Bleeder Strike to flow into the wound.  Energy would erupt from the Juggerknot’s form like geysers now, feeding the vampiric Itami with a rush of energy, enough to allow him to launch the Juggerknot from his mounted position, trapping him in a razor vortex and allowing the blades to dig into his now weakened form.  Rayne would smile as his blades now increased the Juggerknot’s already bad energy bleed before a Perfect Guard would save the behemoth, allowing him to land safely some distance away.

By now, Rayne would be approaching critical health, but his opponent, who was simply more durable still had more than half his health.  This drew a deep sigh from the Itami, he realised that it was be all or nothing at this point.  Rayne would rush the Juggerknot now, dodging a wild elbow strike to get behind the behemoth and using his Power Saver to dispel the Juggerknot’s guard before condensing all of his energies, as well as his Omega Drive, into his blades and going for the monster’s neck.  Rayne would actually managed to get the blades into the Juggerknot’s neck before he could react, but with the Juggerknot still in his Singularity form, he would find it a bit more difficult than he had previously imagined to actually separate the Errant’s head from his neck.  This slight delay would be all that the Juggerknot needed before he would unleash his Power Saved energy to perform an Interrupt, stopping Rayne’s attack in the middle before Juggerknot used Back Up.  This Astral Wave would stop Rayne in his tracks, literally retarding his channelling abilities to the point where he could not even move, this combined with his critically low Health would put enough strain on the Psionic’s form to render him reverted.  Unfortunately, Rayne’s last attack combined with Juggerknot’s exertion would completely leak the Juggerknot’s energies, causing the massive channeler t revert from ethereal asphyxiation.

The two channelers would sit in their users forms now, exhausted from their battle which seemed to end in a stalemate.

Juggerknot: 320 Exp (-1846HP)

Rayne: 310 Exp (-1615HP)