Joshua backed away, watching as the leaves that flew around Xander from the wind burned to a crisp in mid-air.
"I don't want to fight you Xander..."
Xander took a few steps forward, the grass that he stepped on turning black as he walked towards Joshua, "You have no choice."
The wind began blowing at a slower rate now, but it continued howling through the night.
"We're a team Xander... we shouldn't be fighting." Joshua replied.
"Really?.." Xander stopped walking towards him and smirked, "Is that why you don't want to fight me?"
"You're my friend too." Joshua sighed, "It wouldn't feel right in the first place..."
Xander looked at Joshua with the same cold stare before dashing in front of him and punching him in the face, sending him back a little.
"Did that feel right?" Xander walked up to him slowly.
Joshua reacted too late as Xander landed another punch on the left side of his head this time, sending him back further.
"..." Joshua growled a little, getting more and more pissed.
"I said don't hold back, Joshua."
"I am not playing your little game, Xander."
Everything was silent for a brief moment.
"I wouldn't really call this a game... but if you don't fight back... you'll die."
Xander fired a Flamethrower at Joshua, but he dodged it in time before he could get hit.
"You're being really boring..." Xander sighed.
Joshua charged up to him, hitting him with a Night Slash on his leg that he raised to block the attack.
Xander smirked.
"I'm not playing around, Xander." Joshua said fearlessly.
"Really?" Xander asked, making his voice sound surprised even though he wasn't.
Xander then pushed Joshua's paw away, still charged up and glowing from the Night Slash and used his own force against him, taking the paw and slamming it into the ground with such a force that it went straight through and got stuck.
Joshua tried taking his paw out quickly, but Xander jabbed him at his side, then used the opportunity to land a punch that practically sent him flying and landing on the ground as he coughed up a little blood.
Joshua got up weakly, "H-how did you..."
"I never said I was playing either, Joshua." Xander grinned, his blood cooling a little from the punch even though his adrenaline was surging, "But boy, that felt good."
Joshua growled louder, but it hurt his side a little, so he stopped, trying to hide the pain so that Xander wouldn't notice.
"Sorry about the paw thing... I agree it was a bit dirty in terms of fighting, but that's just how Foul Play works." Xander laughed a little, his voice mocking Joshua as he tried to sound as innocent as he sounded normally.
Joshua hadn't felt anger like this in a while. Somehow, this wasn't the Xander he knew and became friends with. He was oddly... different.
"You're so weak that it's funny..." Xander laughed more as Joshua glared at him, not sure what to do.
Suddenly, Joshua felt something radiating from his horn and looked up to see that it was glowing pink, then white, and pink again, alternating over and over.
"Maybe this is..." Joshua thought before he fell to the ground in pain, the glow fading.
Xander was too busy laughing to notice the glow, then walked over to Joshua, who tried to attack, but was countered by a Sucker Punch.
Joshua landed on his back after the Sucker Punch, immobilized as he breathed heavily, his vision getting blurry.
Walking up to him slowly and without haste, Xander punched him again, this time in the stomach as Joshua desperately tried to get up. This made him cough up more blood, but Xander just stared at him in pity.
"Think of it this way," Xander calmed down a bit and yawned, "If I wasn't here, you and Allison would've probably been slaughtered by those Beedrill by now and dead."
He pushed down on Joshua's chest close to where he punched him in the stomach, but not too close, which made Joshua grunt a little.
"That means that I can get to decide whether you die here or not." Xander pressed his paw down on his chest, making him scream for a short moment until Xander pushed down harder, silencing him afterwards as some of Joshua's ribs cracked underneath the very pressure of Xander's paw.
Xander took his paw off afterwards, walking back to gain some distance, "However, I'll keep my word and show you the move that burned those Beedrill to death." Xander shrugged, "Even though you probably won't survive this or rather see it in the state that you're in now, but I'm just going to let you witness the fire."
Joshua got up as much as he could, clenching his teeth from the pain he felt as he stood up halfway, observing Xander opening his mouth, a stream of flames coming out that moved like they were alive and controlled, in which the flames then circled around Joshua like a ring before it died out afterwards.
"That was just an example, of course, but Inferno is a move that can be manipulated in an endless amount of ways," He said, smirking, "And while you were probably playing around and goofing off when you first came to this world, I trained and discovered that about the move, when you chose to stay weak."
Joshua stayed up on his paws, the pain being unbearable at this point, "I... I tried-"
Joshua coughed up more blood, then fell to the ground again, starting to lose consciousness.
"Well, maybe you did, but now... I get to kill you for your own ignorance."
Xander opened his mouth again, this time the stream of flames were far more intense than before, as they began to circle around Joshua once more, the speed increasing faster and faster until the ring of fire came in closer and started burning Joshua in the process.
After that... he blacked out.
