Original join date: 11/23/2004
Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.
"Sasheem evidently has a way to stop him. But, if it's what I think it is, I can't let him do that." If he was planning on absorbing Jagam, that was going to be an absolute nightmare. She couldn't let him do it, even if it meant letting Jagam live for a little while longer than otherwise. "Anyway, I wouldn't doubt my sister and I. We can survive long enough to give you guys a chance to pick your spots."
I hope.
She glanced at Parsley, who was standing at the edge of the Lookout, arms folded over her chest. She knew her sister was listening, but was focusing more on her own strategy. I sitll don't know what all she's capable of. I'll find out tomorrow just how talented a prodigy really is.
"And I doubt it'd just be the two of us. Totoma should be almost here. There's no way he's missing this fight." If Tasure is here, too, then that'll be a problem. I want her on Vocado in case the unthinkable happens and I fall in battle. Someone has to protect the Saiyans, and that person is her.
"The Threshling woman is a sorceress of some regard, it seems." Ishtar replied, after leaving the broken Room. "So I suggest that Etrina would be best served by running counter to her, while I attempt to slow Jagam with my own magic. That we know where they intend to set down too, will prove advantageous as it will allow me time to seed the battlefield with Ki so that the Earth itself will defy them." Ishtar sighed, before shaking her head. "That said, Meagan is true in that recklessness will prove damning ... at the same time however, there is no reason to use every means necessary to stop them. Hitozaru. Time Magic ... Aēšma." The Oni muttered, before shuddering.
"I suggest at the least however, that Etrina and I are allowed the time necessary to prepare with magic. If they can be slowed, the rest of you will have time to act with a measure of safety."
Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran
Arx Inosaan
The immediate crisis was over. But a new one would be upon them in a day. Asha'rah closed her eyes, contemplating her options. Jagam was a Saiyan hunter, created by the Threshlings to beat the Saiyans at their own game. In a purely tactical sense, Jagam should be faced with the least Saiyan-like tactics possible. But for the health of all creation...
Her eyes snapped open.
"Sarada. A long time ago, you said you wanted to spar with me once I could summon my giant form, did you not? I believe now would be an excellent time. Meet me on Mars?"
Yes. Preparation was half the battle, as Parsley would say. Observation was the other half. That wasn't possible at the moment, so they would have to make do with being as prepared as possible. That meant pre-casting spells and prepping the environment to work for them and against Jagam. Again, he had no idea what they could do, so they had to use that advantage to the absolute full.
"We know where he's going to land?" she wondered. That was something that hadn't occurred to her. If it was a place with a lot of hiding places, then guerrilla warfare was another option. Hit and run tactics were very useful against more powerful opponents.
She didn't know who this kid was, but she was glad to have the help. "Thanks, whoever you are."
Finally, Asha'rah spoke, but not in the way Sarada thought. Instead of sage words of wisdom born from millions of years of existence, she offered to take Sarada up on a spar the Saiyan noted interest in months ago. In all honesty, she didn't even remember requesting the spar. Still, training was training and she needed all of it she could get on such short notice.
I can't help but wonder if that's all this is going to be.
"If you say so, I won't say no." She did have some steam to let off, after all. "So, Mars, hm? Not familiar with that city. Lead the way?"
Ishtar nodded, "yes. The Wastes."
A desolate swath of land if the description was any indication, and a place that Isthar could manipulate to great effect, and yet ... would it be enough ? "While you are off with Asha'rah, I will head there to prepare. You will need to know what traps there are before you take the field to fight.."
Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran
Arx Inosaan
For such a short trip, it was faster now for Asha'rah and her compatriots to just fly there than wait for transport. She enveloped Sarada in a bubble of air, then accelerated into the stars.
...or so it would seem to the average observer on Earth. They landed on an incredibly close-by celestial body, all things considered. They had one day to train and recover, which meant time was of the essence. If Sarada were to get stronger to the maximum extent possible, Asha'rah needed to start right away, then give the newly-crowned Saiyan the remainder to recover her energy. Physically, that meant beating her to within an inch of her life, or as much as could be allowed while ensuring a complete recovery within 24 hours. Mentally was another story entirely.
When they finally arrived, Asha'rah suffused the immediate area with oxygen, then bowed, her robes flowing strangely in the thin, windless atmosphere.
"I have been preoccupied with stellar matters of late, and have forgotten my manners. Congratulations on your ascension to rulership. So far as I know, you are the greatest possible successor to King Mato for the future of the Saiyan people."
"The Wastes."
The word brought to mind a desolate wasteland, an endless expanse of empty space and nooks and crannies in which to hide and wait for the moment to strike. It was perfect. "That's perfect. You all can hide and do hit-and-run attacks to wear him down, while Parsley, Totoma, and I hold his attention. Guerrilla warfare is one of our best bets of making it out of here alive."
Okay, so Mars wasn't a city on Earth, but another planet entirely. She wasn't sure why she just assumed they were going to fight on Earth, but it didn't matter in the end. After a very short trip, Sarada found herself on an empty planet. The ground under her feet was red and dusty, as was the sky. The air was breathable, thanks to Asha'rah suffusing the necessary oxygen into the atmosphere.
When congratulated on her ascension to the throne, she bowed her head respectfully. "Thanks, Asha'rah. Coming from you, that means a lot. Now, we don't have a lot of time and we still have a lot of preparation to do, so let's get to it."
Ochazuke rolled his neck idly to the left, the joints between vertebrae popping in a lazy half-shrug. Exhaling slowly, he merely tapped the centre of his brow.
"Why would you? You weren't looking for it," he said, a thin smile spread in knowing, "even with the increased concentration you found, you had no reason to be aware of it."
He unfolded his arms and brought them down before him. With the sharp snap of his sleeves, it was as if to conclude a martial demonstration.
"Seeking to absorb with totality everything in your view may have overwhelmed your faculties with excess, for it takes little effort to see, but a great deal to behold and further, to comprehend," he said. "Simply perceiving these sublime matters will not reveal insights any more than one who cannot see the forest beyond individual trees."
So spoken, Ochazuke unfolded his hands, and exhaled coolly. "Intuitively, I would wager we all know this well, to one degree or another, and in the heart of battle where all superfluity outside of the moment is shed, there we find our understanding."
"You presume to speak of what's coming as if it is a matter concerning your people alone," he spoke to the Saiyan, the clarity of his words hardened by the basso of his tone, "Indeed I have little doubt this battle would be waged anywhere a vaunted Super Elite would deign to stand to fight it, whether at the head of a host or by herself, alone, a world apart from home."
His countenance heaved under a hollow grunt. "How fortunate for you that your world shall not bear the brunt of it, Parsley, for the Threshling eye is set upon the Earth."
"Yes," Parsley replied to the martial philosopher, but not without turning to face him. "It is very convenient that Jagam would choose this world and not Vocado or any other Saiyan world. I wonder why."
That was a very good question. There was no way he could have known that she and Sarada would be on this world and not their homeworld. What was more, the only reason they were even there was because they knew Jagam would be arriving on Earth. If they didn't have that foreknowledge, there was absolutely no reason for either of them to even be there. Well, not here, anyway. Sarada, she assumed, would want to see her human pet and this Evangeline wished back to the realm of the living.
"It begs the question why Jagam, a killer of Saiyans, would deem it necessary or appropriate to travel many light years to a planet with no Saiyans except for a precious few occasions. It would make more sense for him to choose on of the Saiyan worlds. Unless he knew in advance that we would be here. Yet, the only reason we are even here now is because we knew in advance that he would be here."
Saying it aloud made her believe that this confrontation was destined to occur, and that the planet Earth was destined to be their battlefield. A shame, that such paltry, weak primates such as these humans would be the ones to bear witness to Jagam's final battle, and not a world that would fully appreciate his death. A shame, indeed.
"Indeed." Asha'rah said, her voice growing in volume and bass. Her manifestation of flesh fell away, leaving a growing mountain of living stone, for lack of a better word. Her form rose, immense in weight yet applying but the slightest pressure upon the soil she stood. In but a breaths' span, she blotted out the sun, casting her shadow upon Sarada.
"To face Jagam at your best, you must have time to heal from the beating you are about to receive."
Her featureless face betrayed no expression, but one could almost hear the teasing grin in her voice, inviting Sarada to prove her wrong.
Sarada's mouth fell open when Asha'rah revealed what the young Saiyan felt was the true form of the creation goddess, one so immense in size and presence that it blocked out the sun itself by simply standing there. She towered over Sarada, casting an impossibly long shadow over her.
The question was why. What good would providing an impossible opponent be for her training? Not even Jagam could stand before this form of Asha'rah's.
Sarada was about to ask when the goddess answered. To face him at her best, she needed time to heal from the beating she was about to get?
Getting a little ahead of herself, wasn't she? There was no reason to assume that this form wasn't anything Sarada couldn't handle. In fact, Sarada was certain that with her smaller size compared to the gargantuan size of Asha'rah, she could get in several shots before she faced anything resembling retaliation. Rinse and repeat a few times and this giant was going down!
"A beating, hm? We'll see about that!" She roared and powered up, activating her Hitozaru form and powering up to times four. Red rocks floated into the air as her power swelled to its self-imposed limits. "Let's go!" She dashed into the air, zig-zagging to avoid being tracked as she closed in on the giant goddess' flank.
"Perhaps....a Trap then" Etrina chimed into the conversation, having been quietly pondering to herself since the conclusion of the issue in the RoTaS. "Our recent issue with the Space and Time Chamber has been rather inspiring in a sense. Perhaps we could prepare a similar sort of situation for Jagem and his mage. A trap with twofold purpose.....to seperate Jagam from his mage, and to give Sarada and the others a sort of home field advantage in combating him. Out of the two, I suspect Jagam and his hatred of saiyans to be the easier of the two to bait into going where we want. Once such a trap is sprung, we'll be safe to engage each separately without worrying about a possible combined assault. It may put our chances at slightly above suicidal."