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Post by Inna on Mar 24, 2019 14:20:43 GMT -6
His screams echoed in the desolate land around them, carrying for what felt like miles. He hacked and wheezed and struggled and whined as he stumbled to his feet and, through sheer willpower, forced his body to start patching itself together. The delay was so long that, for that uncertain moment, a look of worry crossed Inna's face. As the blood painted the craggy ground and she watched him shake, she couldn't help but drop her stance and take a small step forward. She had definitely gone way overboard. She knew that she was pushing the rules by using her ki to mimic a spear. She knew that her strikes would kill any other person. So why didn't she pull her punches? This was supposed to just be a spar--
And then he was on his feet again. The hole in his chest, just like before, stitched itself back together. His skin crawled and bubbled until it looked like it was melting together, cauterizing itself, and building replacement parts. She would have stared in awe if the burning flames of his ki didn't drag her attention back to his face. A few labored breaths escaped him as his shoulders rolled into place, but at the end of the day he didn't look any worse than he had before she had pinned him to that cliff just a few paces behind him.
Her hand reached out to the side and it was another spear. Or, rather, a staff it seemed. The end was no longer pointed but instead curved off to make it a blunt weapon. Though she met his defiance with a wide, toothy grin, she didn't truly believe he could take yet another one of those hits. At the very least, she'd make an attempt not to put anymore holes in him.
"I can do this all day, Methus!" Inna threw his words right back at him, even chuckling a little as she watched him lower himself into place.
She slapped the staff made of ki into her other hand, holding it in a defensive line across her body. A foot slid backwards just enough to ground her stance and then she braced herself. With nothing more than a small shift in position and a sudden jerk of her staff, his spear clashed against her own with a violet, loud hiss.
The crimson and violet embers of their ki licked at one another for a moment as they tested their strength against one another. And as the red-hues of their ki cast long, dark shadows over Inna's face, something changed.
With them so close, all but touching physically, there was no way he couldn't see the way the long, nasty scratch on her cheek started to pull itself together. The flesh bubbled and grabbed at the corners of the wound only to leave behind pristine skin where the gash had once been. All around her body, the wounds patched themselves together in the time it took for Methus to close the gap and find his spear battling against her own.
With a smirk, Inna shifted her weight. Her back foot slid forward as she twisted her body. With a great heave, she shoved her staff against Methus' own and just as he felt his grip about to break, her staff erupted in a blast of purple and white.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 24, 2019 14:33:17 GMT -6
Red and violet light flashed violently when his spear collided with her quarter staff. He pushed and pushed and watched as sparks of energy poured off their weapons and created the biggest lightshow this desolate hell ever saw. Yet, not matter how hard he shoved his spear forward, no matter how much his arms trembled with the exertion of it, Inna’s weapon refused to budge. She held it steady, unchallenged by his strength. Methus dug his feet into the dirt beneath even harder, squinted through the wind that buffeted them from the collision of energy weapons, and screamed. He screamed as loud as he possibly could as he pushed forward and drained his body of every last drop of its energy.
Inna shifted a moment later and Methus stumbled forward, spear still in-hand. Just as he stumbled, he felt the blunt end of the quarterstaff smash into his chest and drive all of the air out of his lungs with that single impact. The sheer force lifted him off his feet a dozen centimeters and his grip suddenly opened. The red spear fell towards the ground, but failed to reach it before the staff of energy suddenly lit up with a blinding, white light and exploded.
The blast consumed Methus’ body and threw him from the cloud of violet and black that it created. Smoke trailed from around his bare, upper body before he hit the ground, shattered rock, and tumbled side over side until he rolled to a stop. Steam rose from his chest as he came to a stop on his back, groaning. He brought his hand up to the point of blunted impact and pried one of his wincing eyes open. He turned to look at Inna, who stood there, entirely unfazed by his latest attack, now weaponless.
She didn’t even bother to arm herself again.
“You win,” he croaked, as quiet as could be. After that, he just laid there, and let his bruised and battered chest heave in a desperate attempt to suck back in some of the wind that she beat out of him. He knew, too well, that there was no point in continuing now. No tactic could help him win.
Not after Inna, somehow, learned how to regenerate her body; almost exactly like the way he did. Of all things he doubted that a Kai, a goddess such as her, could learn to do, she managed it. Some way or another, she learned how to heal herself.
If he knew that, he would have used his absolute, full power to fight her in this match.
After a few more seconds, Methus rolled onto his side and pushed himself onto his knees with his hands. He gasped and let sweat drip from his forehead onto the rocky dirt below. With another heave, he got one foot under him, then the other, and stood back up to full height. Sweat rolled down his dirt-caked chest and back, creating clean lines through the mess on his skin.
“You win,” he repeated for her, louder now, as he took his first, exhausted step forward.
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Post by Inna on Mar 24, 2019 15:08:01 GMT -6
His body tumbled across the unforgiving ground like a rag doll that had been thrown too hard. He grunted and wheezed as the momentum faded and he eventually came to a stop. And, for a moment, he just laid there.
Inna's fingers twitched, ready to summon another weapon to defend herself with, but when he didn't move and opted to just catch his breath, she knew there was no point. Her posture relaxed and in those moments she allowed herself to close her eyes and catch her breath. A pale hand rubbed the sweat from her brow and she tossed her hair over her shoulders once more.
The rags that desperately clung to her body didn't do much for her. The sleeves had been ripped up and turned more into really thick straps that connected with a thin line of fabric around the back of her neck. Other than that, her back was completely exposed. Her front was in better condition. The golden sash that held everything together remained firm and aside from some frayed edges and cuts, it looked alright.
It'd be a pain to restitch everything. Maybe she would just cave and stop donning the robes she had stolen from her home world. Maybe a cute black skirt and a...
Her train of thought was broken when Methus grunted and began a shaky attempt to get on his feet. As he wobbled and hissed out an exhale, she started to walk forward. In contrast, her strides were long and confident. Though parts of her back was still red and tender, she felt fine. Unlike Methus, she wasn't lying when she said she could take his hits all day.
As he steadied himself and took a step forward, she closed the distance between them. A gentle hand came forward and rested on his shoulder. She gave him a soft squeeze and a smile.
"I didn't go too hard on you, did I?" She asked, allowing her worry to slip into her tone. "I'm not used to fighting you when you're not powered up."
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 24, 2019 16:09:34 GMT -6
When he felt her soft hand on his bare, sweaty, dirt-caked shoulder, Methus groaned and dropped to a knee. Even the impact of thinly-covered bone against rock simply hurt and the pain sank deep into his body. With another thud he dropped onto his backside and curled both legs underneath each other. With a deep breath, Methus leaned backwards on his hands and let the sweat drip freely from the back of his dark hair and the single tail he had some of it tied into.
“No, it’s exactly what I needed…” he reassured her, breathless by the time he finished the words. “I would rather bleed with you than with someone who would, given the chance, take my head off without a moment’s hesitation. The more I hurt now, the less I’ll hurt when that time comes.”
That time would arrive soon, too. They were successfully gathering an impressive collection of fighters, people who could serve as appropriate commanders for the invasion of Eaus that followed this initial part of their journey. All of them needed to get stronger, of course, but there was a time limit to how long any of them would wait before achieving something of note. Methus needed a world to handle to his people for when the bulk of his forces arrived. Only a whole, proper planet would support the sheer scale of his military, and then would need every bit of those numbers until his average soldier could compete in this galaxy.
Which meant neither of them could afford to take it easy on the other. Methus hated to admit it, but he needed Inna to be more than knowledgeable and magical—he needed her strong, too.
“What about you? I hardly held back, and some of those blasts were…” this time, his voice trailed off with uncertainty. He remembered the image of the thrown spear that suddenly curved upwards before it detonated right in her face. The more he looked at her, the more he more just the tiniest bit of the burns from that explosion, mostly healed away by her new magic.
“Intense. But not too intense, apparently,” he said and let his eyes focus on the healed burns along her cheeks. “How, and when, did you develop that ability? Last we spoke, you said your people weren’t capable of self-regeneration like that.”
Last they spoke, Inna hadn’t been able to fight that well, either, as far as he understood it. Her skills grew dramatically since they started to train together back on Namek.
“But I saw it with me own eyes,” he insisted. “What’s the story?”
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Post by Inna on Mar 24, 2019 16:29:54 GMT -6
She followed him to the ground, her legs tucked neatly under her bottom as she let out a little sigh. She visibly relaxed as she twisted her head from side to side, soft popping following the motion, and then refocused her eyes back on him. His eyes were just slightly off from hers, something that struck her as odd at first until she realized he was admiring her regeneration. It wasn't perfect, far from it. She hadn't really pushed the new skill to the limits and doubted it could heal internal injuries like Methus' own regeneration could, but it got the job done. For fights like this, or taking the edge off early in a fight, it was an amazing tool in her kit.
One she could thank him for.
"Well, I had certainly never seen any other Kai do this, so I just assumed I wasn't capable as well," she started softly, doing her best not to sound too smug. "But after studying you and seeing how you regenerate in combat, I started humoring the idea of trying it for myself. Through some trial and error and then some more studying of your people, I think I stumbled on something that works."
Her eyes drifted down to her forearms. A few nicks and bruises marred her pale skin and some of the deeper gashes hadn't healed fully. It wasn't perfect. She doubted it ever would be perfect, but a step in the right direction.
"Basically, I use my own Ki to expedite my natural, mundane healing and amplify it ever so slightly." Her eyes lifted from her hand and met his stare.
Quietly, she held out a hand, her palm towards his chest and her fingers spread. For a second, nothing happened. Then, like some sort of magic trick, a soft, green energy began to emit from her palm. Sea-foam green tendrils licked at his chest with a coolness that brought a strange sort of comfort. It felt nice, but didn't do much to make any of his aches and pains go away. With that, she closed her fist, the energy faded, and she dropped her hand to her lap once more.
"The hope is I can eventually learn to channel that same sort of energy externally," she explained, though her eyes started wander thoughtfully. "If I can learn to not only heal myself, but also you or our allies, I think that'll make us truly threatening even to someone like Achi."
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Mar 24, 2019 17:01:58 GMT -6
As impressive as her new, magical ability was, the comment about Achi held most of Methus’ attention. The pointy-eared, tanned Kai hovered behind everything Methus did like a specter that threatened to ruin all of Methus’ carefully-crafted work. As powerful as Methus had become, and as powerful as he was becoming, he had a feeling that the Kai worked hard in order to keep pace with him. How he managed that, or attempted to manage that, Methus couldn’t be certain. What he did feel certain about was that Achi would not helplessly fall behind everyone else.
But if he lost the ability to become a significant threat to Methus alone? That he could believe. His own strength grew so wildly and so rapidly, even now, that Methus wondered how anyone like that Kai managed to keep up with him. His entire life, as he understood it, lacked any sort of serious combat or war. Methus, on the other hand, had been born in it, molded by it, and turned into the kind of person he was thanks to life-or-death battle after battle.
Without realizing it, Methus allowed his gaze to fall away from the comforting, violet eyes of Inna.
“Do you have any idea where Achi might be?” Methus asked when he lifted his eyes back to hers. “If there’s any chance I have reversed the gap that used to exist between us, I want to press it. The sooner I can send him back to your Afterlife, permanently, the better it will be for everyone.”
Images of a surprise attack from the self-proclaimed deity played through his mind. His recently hired crew, all Saiyans, would be torn apart in moments. Yacha could likely keep up, he suspected, but if Achi grew as much as Methus worried that he did? She would fall to his sword as well.
Achi only needed to die once, and until then, represented a grave threat to everyone involved in their adventure.
“What’s next for you, Inna?” Methus asked next. “We have that target on Earth, I remember. Shuto. But after that, was there someone else you had in mind? Another candidate to join us? At this point, if you just point me in a direction, I can go about flying from world to world to recruit various people into our organization.”
Which meant that Inna, with all of her powers, could do something else. But Methus didn’t know, at all, what she planned, or even just considered. Truth be told, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he knew very little about what went on behind her pretty, violet eyes.
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Post by Inna on Apr 4, 2019 16:34:02 GMT -6
What's next? It seemed like he was always asking that question. Probably for the best, since it fought against Inna's natural reaction to simply wait out problems. For someone like her who had spent time unimaginable simply standing around waiting, it was hard to break that habit. Methus' relentless pursuit of new goals and power kept her focused more than she wanted to admit.
"I'll actually be taking a detour while you go to Earth," Inna began to explain. "There's an outcast I want to meet. He might be a valuable asset, but I'm not sure. He's been under some pressure as of late and I don't know how he'll react."
A lot of maybes and uncertainties. Though she had never pitched any of her ideas as absolutes, this was probably the least certain. Even less certain than the human who had ended up last on their early-game list. All the more reason she wanted to go alone and not take away from their mission.
"My plan was to Kaikai to the planet he's on one we're done here," she continued. "Whether or not he ends up joining us there are ships on the planet that I can use to meet back up with you when I'm done there. It's also a pretty remote area, so I'm not too worried about getting ambushed by anyone."
By Achi was the more accurate term, but saying his name once was enough to put Methus on edge. She didn't want to poke that fire anymore than she had to.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Apr 4, 2019 17:34:36 GMT -6
A detour? While Methus had just suggested that could split up, at least for a while, he never expected that she already considered that option for herself. Ever since they first met, Inna and he had been nearly inseparable. There were a wide variety of reasons for that, all of which came in various states of undress, but she seemed entirely unconcerned with the sudden change. At first, Methus felt an urge to argue, to cling to her and keep her with him, but he corrected himself quickly.
After he cleared his throat, he said, “Kai Kai to visit some outcast? This must be one interesting man. That is your, what did you call it, ‘teleportation’ ability? To instantly travel anywhere you want?”
That idea thoroughly intrigued Methus. He travelled through space on a starship, across a planet using his own power, and sometimes his own feet. The idea of simply willing it to be so and appearing on a distant, alien world whenever he wanted? That appealed to him and filled his mind with thoughts of how it could be applied for the purposes of invasion and conquest. Inna told him there were certain limitations to it, of course, but Methus ignored most of those details. With everything else he had to handle, that simply never made that cut.
Now he wished he had, since she planned to do something with it.
“I’m not disappointed with our current recruits, and this Shuto seems promising from what you’ve said, but to go after someone alone? I want to believe whoever this man is, is special,” Methus pointed out. “That’s the kind of news I could use right now, after that stinging defeat.”
He smirked at her. As much as his people hated to lose, it stemmed mostly from a sheer desire to survive. When it came to practice, and to admitting he had lost—rightfully, when he held a proverbial hand behind his back—Methus had no trouble accepting that he fell short of his opponent. It only meant that he needed to push himself even higher than before and acquire power even more wild and unimaginable than he already had.
Every day, he marched closer to that goal.
“Especially when you consider the risk,” he doubled back to his previous question. “Achi has continued to grow right along with me. If you run into him alone, you might not be able to hold him off, and I can’t snap my fingers and appear on some distant world. Now, with all of that in mind, you’re still certain about this 'outcast'?”
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