Parsley passed through silently. Upon reaching the other side, her eyes cast upward to take in the countless millions of stars in the sky. The half-crescent moon was just inside her periphery vision. It was such a beautiful night; the perfect night to train and improve! She allowed herself an excited smile as all kinds of scenarios started running through her head.
How was Caliban going to train them? Have them read ancient texts from civilizations long dead and forgotten by modern society? Or perhaps even whisk them away to those civilizations to train with their greatest sorcerers? He was a god, so the possibilities were literally endless! She was tingling all over with anticipation of... "Eh? What's with the cards?"
"Cake! Cake!"
Sarada was thankful Kumara associated cake with what it actually was and not what Parsley and Avoca were actually talking about when she overheard them say it over and over again. "If only I could get her to eat some kind of vegetables with this kind of energy." Even at the mention of vegetables, the baby's face scrunched into one of disgust.
"So, what have you been up to these last few months?"
"Yes. I was in that exact situation against Tundra and I'm still here. He's not." At least she hoped not. With that Soul Meister having been around and actually wanting to free nobodies like Kevi and Battersea, she hoped he hadn't struck a deal with someone actually dangerous. Then again, there had to have been a reason he released them and not someone like Auroc. And that was assuming he hadn't released Auroc. Damn it. This whole thing is too void of details for my liking."Will you, now? Against an enemy you have never encountered, who you have no information about, you'll throw yourself against them and prevail like you always do," he replied. "But for the lengthy losses along the way."
They who had known about Sihn and Shekin'ah had direct passage to the Afterlife, for some time, and only now had he been informed of this even with his correspondence with the Guardians. One twisted cosmic schemed snaked into another stoked by fear; fear the catalyst for a strength previously unknown for ages. Brought to bear in such a manner, all opposition would be crushed and the strongest would remain.
And what, exactly, would change?
"There is a simpler way than force your way through to find it. Would you like to know?"
But when Sarada made her demand without even deigning to look at him, Ochazuke merely poured another pot of tea.
Power. For alliances commodified and taken for granted.
"Fusion. Cheh. How presumptuous."
For as formidable allies they had been, every time a Saiyan came to Earth it seemed that it was always to take something for themselves.
"Even if I wanted to, you lack the aptitude to learn it."
Regardless, "It's not like I'll be alone. I'll have my wife and sister with me." With them, she couldn't lose. Especially if Inanna was strong enough to finish off Genesis, like Sarada knew she could. Whatever it was, the three of them would be ready. She was going to make sure of it.
"My style is forging forward, and sometimes finding ways around." That was, after all, the entire point of her training with the Archons months ago. Bashing her head against the proverbial brick wall would have only gotten her killed against opponents like them. Thinking out of the box saved her - for a little while, anyway - so it wasn't like it was a complete waste of time. Besides, it was always good to think on her feet. If she could do that more often instead of falling back onto the same habits.
The cake was gone, so she set the plate aside. It seemed, thankfully, that her daughter had her fill of Zaofan's culinary prowess and seemed satisfied.
She, however, raised an eyebrow and her gaze. "Presumptuous? Given what we're talking about, I don't think it's out of order to make that kind of request. From what I was told, Zaozi was far more powerful than either you or Zaofan. Parsley and me are the two strongest members of whatever's left of this team. It's not completely out of the realm of understanding to assume that we would be able to make a lot of use out of it."
What he said next, however, lit her fuse. "I... lack the aptitude..." The fork in her grip bent, the snapped in half. "What is that supposed to mean?" Despite the outward show of anger, her voice remained oddly level.
Zaofan folded his arms and thumbed his chin before walking back to the wall. "I might have the solution to that, where did I leave that..."
Pulling a section of the wall apart, the new, upgraded, in-kitchen refrigerator swung open, revealing doors and trays lined with a resplendent cacophony of bottled sauces, jarred demiglazes, and various projects set to rest. Far in the back there was the raised dome of dough, and several long glass mason jars filled with pudding.
"Been taking care of a few things here and there. With Etrina off in her studies, I've had to step up in more ways than one," he replied as he rummaged. "Not to brag or anything, but I think I'm on the verge of discovering a whole new preparation method. All it took was just a hint of...magic. Of sorts."
When he popped his head out the clatter gave him such a fright he bolted upward.
She's awake!
It was as if the moment he heard the voice he began snatching all manner of things, shoving things around in a rush, until a realization dawned on him.
...wait a minute, Channel Foci don't eat. Ugh!
And so he returned from the fridge with a red, rooty bulb. He held it up before Kumara. "Before me, I have a beet. Now..." He palmed it and dropped his hand. "1, 2, 3, Pot Au Feu!"
His palm glowed inwards, and in an instant he'd transformed it into...a roasted beet. It wasn't until he swiped off the ashen skin that the caramelized sugars in the bulb rose up, intensely savoury and sweet. Dark red pooled beneath it, thick like bloody syrup.
"It's clear she's got teeth, so maybe at this stage she needs to be challenged with something new," he said, as he picked up and set the Little Green Etrina before their guests. "Um, I think I got the elemental exchange ratios down pat, what do you think, little chef?"
Ochazuke met her gaze, listening intently to her reasons. When she snapped the fork in half, however, he was less than impressed."Yes. I was in that exact situation against Tundra and I'm still here. He's not." At least she hoped not. With that Soul Meister having been around and actually wanting to free nobodies like Kevi and Battersea, she hoped he hadn't struck a deal with someone actually dangerous. Then again, there had to have been a reason he released them and not someone like Auroc. And that was assuming he hadn't released Auroc. Damn it. This whole thing is too void of details for my liking.
Regardless, "It's not like I'll be alone. I'll have my wife and sister with me." With them, she couldn't lose. Especially if Inanna was strong enough to finish off Genesis, like Sarada knew she could. Whatever it was, the three of them would be ready. She was going to make sure of it.
"My style is forging forward, and sometimes finding ways around." That was, after all, the entire point of her training with the Archons months ago. Bashing her head against the proverbial brick wall would have only gotten her killed against opponents like them. Thinking out of the box saved her - for a little while, anyway - so it wasn't like it was a complete waste of time. Besides, it was always good to think on her feet. If she could do that more often instead of falling back onto the same habits.
The cake was gone, so she set the plate aside. It seemed, thankfully, that her daughter had her fill of Zaofan's culinary prowess and seemed satisfied.
She, however, raised an eyebrow and her gaze. "Presumptuous? Given what we're talking about, I don't think it's out of order to make that kind of request. From what I was told, Zaozi was far more powerful than either you or Zaofan. Parsley and me are the two strongest members of whatever's left of this team. It's not completely out of the realm of understanding to assume that we would be able to make a lot of use out of it."
What he said next, however, lit her fuse. "I... lack the aptitude..." The fork in her grip bent, the snapped in half. "What is that supposed to mean?" Despite the outward show of anger, her voice remained oddly level.
"What you've heard from Parsley and what you've decided to conclude from this knowledge have nothing to do with the reality of the situation."
Of course, given only three names ever seemed relevant to her in this conversation, he wouldn't have been surprised Parsley had omitted herself in the evaluation of their fused alter-ego's capabilities. Only ever just useful enough to be pilfered or imitated, then discarded.
"Consider that your style was already 'forging forward' when you first landed on this planet over five years ago. And so it remains," he said, "For what it's worth it's served you well for contests of strength and glory...and it's precisely that single-minded nature that will impede you."
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her arm, her hand. It had only been one year ago that they hadn't been flesh.
"Moreover, the moment you presumed your goal was in reach, you stopped paying attention to anything I've said."
Correspondence to Maiz. The means to gain knowledge of the enemy to come. The moment increasing her personal power entered her thoughts, nothing else seemed to matter to Sarada.
Perhaps I've grown too accustomed to dealing with Nevadians.
"You've become utterly disconnected across the span of a single conversation. Think of what would happen when another's life is in the balance?"
"If you presumed you would understand this technique, what, simply because you wanted it? Will you forge ahead, heedless of your partner, and force another to create the result you desire? This is not what Fusion is about."
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
As expected, Mastering Super Saiyan 2 was much the same as the first level... just took a bit longer. Still, with his dead body allowing him to stay in the form a lot longer--and thus reap the conditioning gains from that--it proved to be a quicker process than he'd anticipated. He'd be learning Super Saiyan 3 in no time!
...although what Vocado told him during his and Rutaba's training meant that learning Super Saiyan 3 wasn't really necessary. They weren't separate forms, but the first form... pumped up. And in a way that made them more, uh, inefficient than the normal super saiyan. Especially the third level. But beyond that, it was possible to train super saiyan--which, when mastered, had almost no ki or stamina drain--to reach levels that exceeded even Super Saiyan 3!
Or, in other words... KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. No need for a crapton of different forms, just two. Or three, including hitozaru.
Totoma scratched his chin. "...huh, yeah, it makes sense. At first, Super Saiyan's power output wasn't even as high as Hitozaru's, but that awesome, brief surge when first transforming tipped us off that its potential was a lot higher than it first appeared. It's the same here, just even more extreme and less apparent."
He pumped his fist. "Alright, we've got a goal! Let's work our asses off and shock everyone once we're revived, Rutaba!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Month 3
The third month was when Totoma really began training in earnest. The first month, of course, had been spent mostly getting Rutaba up to speed, then capping it off with transforming, and the second had been getting her used to the form using his mother's... personal training methods. Mentally, she was pretty much acclimated, and physically she'd be caught up by the end of the month. Of course, he'd done some self-training during that time--mostly getting used to Super Saiyan 2--and he'd learned a few things from teaching Rutaba, but there was only so much he could do while juggling her training, his own training, and... uh, well, occasional trips to explore the afterlife.
He'd run into a few pretty strong fighters during those mini-adventures, but those were stories for another time.
At the end of the third month, he decided to go for it. Super Saiyan 3, that is.
He'd been doing one-finger standing pushups in an area with heightened gravity when the thought struck him to just... go for it. He'd watched Vocado transform into the form pretty much daily by this point (at his request) and asked him to describe the process--the energy comes from deep inside, and one had to push hard to find it--so he knew how to do it... and he was a prodigy when he put his mind to it, so he should be able to pull this off, yeah?
Pushing himself off the ground into a flip, he landed a fair distance away, walking out of the area with the heightened gravity--the afterlife was a weird place, by the way... though he could see why Vocado spent his time here--and rested. This was definitely something he needed to be rested for, so... yeah. After a few minutes, he was ready.
Firmly planting his feet on the ground, Totoma burst into Super Saiyan, and then quickly into Super Saiyan 2--he could transform directly to Ascended now, if need be, but he sort of felt that doing this in sequence would help?--and then... began digging. His lightning-tinged golden aura flared into existence the moment he did.
The build-up was slow, but gradually, his aura compressed, becoming almost like a miniature sun surrounding him. As he 'dug' and his power rose, a great wind accompanied it, the air (...wait, was there air in the afterlife? well, whatever... air, airlike stuff, didn't really matter. Point is, it was windy) rushing away from him.
Sweated formed on his brow as he continued to grasp and, painstakingly, drag out that power within him. The feeling was... exhilarating, and, out of some deep, primal instinct, he let out a scream. As he did so, the 'world' around him trembled, as if afraid of the power he was drawing out of himself. It wasn't, because it wasn't alive, but it was a cool thought!
His aura bright and raging, and blinding to look out, Totoma's hair began to grow... save for the eyebrows, which began to recede. He wasn't really cognizant of this, but he could feel it! He was close, very close! Just a bit more digging and screaming and he'd be able to transform.
For a few moments after that, it seemed like he'd reached a plateau, the power he had been dragging out of himself topping out higher than his super saiyan 2 form, but lower, much lower, than what he was aiming for. The Just Saiyan was not deterred, and he redoubled his efforts.
...and then the dam broke.
The power he had grasped rushed out all at once, and his aura exploded outward, more or less disintegrating the ground into dust, which, naturally, created a dust cloud. Slowly, it began to clear and there, in the epicenter of the explosion was Totoma...
Cloaked in the flame and lightning of his aura, hair wild, long and savage, and power overflowing and greater than most anything in either the world of the living or world of the dead, Totoma had done it! Even though he knew the form was "useless" in the long run, he had managed to transform into Super Saiyan 3 after just a few months of training and on the first try!
Heh, not bad... not bad at all.
Elated as he was, the power was... both hard to control and draining. Incredibly draining. He could literally remain a Super Saiyan in his sleep, and, at this point, remain a Super Saiyan 2 for, like... a day or two, assuming he wasn't fighting, but this? He focused purely on maintaining the form as long as he could, expression focused, fists clenched, and feet firmly planted where he'd been standing... and yet...
One minute, Totoma dropped out of the form and to his knees, panting heavily, after one minute. The energy drain was absurd! He felt like he'd just run a thousand marathons while also fighting every villain he'd encountered up until now! What the heck!? Even with his mom's training methods, this was gonna be time and energy-consuming to get to the point of being sort of usable.
Pushing himself to his feet, Totoma... immediately fell onto his back. Yeah, he was just... gonna lay here and rest a bit.
"Hoo boy... I've really got my work cut out for me... but it's for the good of the Earth and my friends & family, so a little exhaustion's nothing." Okay, calling this 'a little exhaustion' was understating it a bit (a lot) but the days of him just... throwing himself into insane situations and hoping for the best were over. He had to be prepared for whatever the future brought.
Yeah... prepared... gotta be... ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Exhaustion overcame the Just Saiyan and soon enough, he fell into a (well-deserved?) deep sleep, splayed out in the barren ground zero of his transformation site.
[End of Month 3]
Last edited by Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki; 04-15-2021 at 06:12 PM.
The poster formerly known as Daiyoukai Ramza.
“Very good.”
He flips the card around, throwing it, and calls out dramatically. Parsley sees an image of a lightning bolt on the card.
“THUNDERSTRUCK!”
A bolt of real blue lightning roars down and strikes Parsley from on high, frying her quite a bit, even as the loudest thunderclap she ever heard shakes the sky around her and leaves her ears ringing.
“Lesson one, Magic cheats. This ain’t no Ki beam battle or punching fight, magic cheats and is dirty and crafty, and each one of my cards here has a prepared spell already cast into it, so I ain’t burning energy ta fight ya.”
He draws another card and smirks.
“You two best do your best to take ‘em from me or I’ll keep drawing, and there are some nasty effects here.”
Last edited by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade; 04-14-2021 at 04:04 PM.
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Parsley learned two things as she was struck, but mostly unhurt, but the lightning bolt. One, magic didn't need to abide by the same rules of... decorum that Ki did. It didn't have to be upfront and obvious like a ki blast or a power up. It could have been subtle, sneaky, striking when the opponent never expected, in a place the opponent never expected.
The second was how incredibly useful pre-cast spells were. She made a note to look into it further, perhaps etching runes into her skin or something like that. Or... tattooing them on her body.
Parsley rose to her feet, with a plan to relieve him of the cards already in mind. A small bit of blood bubbled up from her fingers and formed into a rune.
Petrify! was cast on his arms, to prevent them from moving and drawing another card.
"Please....I was expecting a test, not the basics." Etrina assumed a combat stance as magic pooled into her hands. The air temperature dropped around her as a large spear of ice formed just above her hand, then pulling back....she gave the impression her intent was to lop the spear directly at him.
Her aim was too high, intentionally.
No sooner has she pulled back, two of her foci emerged from being and latched onto the tail end of the spear as Etrina magically propelled it forward at lightning speed.
"Commencing Operation: Deck Out." Blue disengaged from the spear and dived for the deck in his hands, attempting to cast her minor time lock on his drawing hand.
"Wooo! Free Cards!" White screamed and dive bombed after the thunderstruck card that had been discarded.
Even as Zaofan spoke and prepared a beet through near magical means, Kumara wasn't paying attention. Her gaze was completely enraptured by the little person standing on the table. She had never seen a person so small before! She looked up at Sarada and pointed at Green Etrina. "Toy?"
"No, that's not a toy. That's a person." If one of her minis was alive, that meant Etrina was still alive. And apparently studying. And since he seemed to want to send her a message right before Parsley left, that must have meant he hadn't seen her in some time. Possibly since they all went their separate ways after Darkle. And since he was gone for six months before that...
She frowned. "So, you haven't really seen her since before you left to find Reshlan? Sorry to hear that."
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
Caliban throws the second card and it pulses with a small painting of a rainfall.
“NEGATION RAIN!”
Above Parsley and Etrina rain clouds appear and start raining upon them, only each raindrop seems to drain small mana portions from them and Ki.
Black Knight of SO
Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
CBR GM/DM
It didn't work. The spell struck, but didn't take effect. In fact, it slid right off him. Interesting. Her eyes narrowed as she cast her magical gaze on him, looking past the cards and on Caliban's person itself.
Toki Yo Tomare
As she was scanning to see what his deal was, he struck again. Another card hit the ground, immediately jump-starting a rainstorm. Normally, it was nothing worth getting alarmed about, but the moment the drops of rain started to hit her, she felt her power dip. Not much, but it wouldn't take long for her and Etrina to feel the effects in full once the rain really started to fall.
Perfect Mockery - Aura of Invincibility
A pair of green barriers, Sarada's own technique, formed around herself and Etrina to protect them from the ki drain. "I'm well-versed in various ki draining techniques. You'll have to do better than that!"