Litmus Test (CONQUEST)

After all of his attacks, he was surprised to see that his opponent still looked rather fresh, even if bruised. He was certain he had put all of his strength into it, too. Perhaps there was some validity to her claims, that she wasn’t all talk. Still, the fight had only just started and after dishing out that kind of damage, he knew there was a limit to how much she could take. A limit that he’d have to discover himself. Thankfully, he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve left.

“I guess you’re not just all talk. I should take you somewhat seriously.”

While she had been mocking his lack of abilities earlier, she was not looking at the full picture. His attacks had mostly been large swipes and strikes, lacking any proper form. Facing her, he took an airtight stance, shifting his center of mass to be a little lower by crouching a little, hands in front of him. If he used his martial arts, he was sure to make easy work of her. She did not reply to what he had said, instead the look of anger annunciating her intentions. He had made her pissed. Instinctively he tightened his guard.

With a swift movement, she was ready to strike his face once again, on the same part that she had knee’d a little ago. He couldn’t see from this side of his face and though the attack appeared to be slower than the previous ones, he still couldn’t help by take that hit head on. Fissured bone began cracking once more and his swollen flesh let out a spurt of blood to taint her foot and the deck of the ship.

A strike much weaker had sent the Heran flying several meters away previously. This time, however, though his body bent to the side at a forty-five degree angle, it was not enough to make him fall. His remaining eye that wasn’t covered in blood still looked at her, more alive than ever. With an even faster reaction time than before, he tried catching her feet that was still connected to his face. Should he find himself successful, he’d try to use his superhuman pinch strength to dig his fingers in her Achilles’ tendon, attempting to snap it, before letting her go.

Regaining his composure, he cracked his neck by moving it around. His calmness offered a strange contrast to the amount of injuries he had suffered thus far. Too uncanny to be simply brushed off, his breathing was even and he resumed his fighting stance.

“This one didn’t hurt as much as the first one.” he said, blood dripping from his face.

The Heran watched, silently. Though he wasn’t feeling pain, he felt his movements becoming a little more sluggish, due to blood loss. It was in these moments of crisis that he truly felt alive and in full possession of his means to conquer and defeat. At this point, Ruby had missed her chance to take him out and it was time for him to strike back at her. Her crazed smile contrasted with his seriousness, a complete reversal of their earlier predispositions. He watched her draw a line of blood on the ground. Was she putting up a barrier that was not to be crossed? Fights on this planet were nothing like back home. There was no sense of imminent danger, no one fought for survival, instead they did it for sports and giggles.

Even the other two, back there on the deck. Dosu quickly glanced over to them to find a scenario similar to his. The saiyan guy looked worse for wear while his opponent was nearly unscathed. Somehow, that pissed him off a little. This culture he was discovering was clashing with his pre-established values and the fact that all of this had a form of casualty to it felt like some sort of mockery to the struggles his people faced at home.

‘Whatever, it’s not like there’s a point to dwelling on that.’ he thought, before focusing on his opponent. If she wanted to play a waiting game, then he would charge. He did so rather frankly, going straight ahead with no feint or anything, towards her. He cocked back his left arm, going for an overhead strike to Ruby’s face and launched it, only to stop his motion midway, grinding himself to a halt.

The sudden stop should, in theory, grant him a fraction of a second to catch her off-guard and he tried to do so by spitting a mist of blood that was coating his mouth and tongue, straight to her eyes. In the hopes of momentarily blinding her, the ki-less warrior opted for an uppercut instead, with his right hand. Given his earlier record, the chances of him actually landing a hit on her was minimal, but he did not even think of that. He was all about action and not overthinking stuff.

His maneuver only seemed to anger her further, like a wild animal that was startled.She resumed attacking almost immediately, charging towards him with a big attack, namely a dropkick. This time, as with most other times, the Heran wasn’t fast enough to dodge her attack, taking it head on. However, as he was accustomed to the pain, in the split second of the impact, he formed his hand into a spear and attempted to strike her at the solar plexus before being sent flying away, once again.

Mid-air, he coughed up another splurt of blood, trying to get a rough estimate of his whole situation. He knew he was in bad shape, though he couldn’t exactly feel pain either. Surfing on that wave of adrenaline and endorphins, everything was numbed in his body. He wondered how long he could last still, and if fleeing was still an option available to him. Moreso than his pride as a hunter, survival was always and always has been his top priority. He didn’t feel exactly in danger, though he was not the best judge either.

That being said, everything would only get more complicated as his trajectory perfectly coincided with Usumi standing in his way. Unknowingly, Ruby had sent him towards the demon and it was head first that the Heran would slam into the black-haired demon, should she stand in the way.

At the end, he would finally hit the ground, not too far from the two other fighters. Bruised and battered, he would stand up on his feet, noticing the two other fighters.

“Huh?”

Yet another bunch of nonsense spewed by someone he didn’t know anything about. Though he clearly wasn’t concerned by the fight happening between the saiyan and that other weirdo, her words managed to rub him the wrong way. Not that he could do much about it in the first place, since he already had his hands full with a certain someone. Speaking of which, he didn’t even get to mutter another words before being kicked again, bumping into the demoness once more.

“Humph”

He managed to stay up, this time however, slowly walking back to face off against Ruby, cracking his neck and joints, his overly bloodied body entertaining the thought that he was probably going to faint from blood loss at any second. As for him, aside from the slight dizziness, he was feeling rather refreshed, though his body wasn’t quite as responsive as he would have liked, a clear indication of his situation. He looked at Ruby who was busy making it clear that he was her prey, to which Dosu simply said.

“Why don’t you get rid of her before we resume our fight? I’ll catch a breather in the meantime.”

Fighting for spoils was a common occurrence back in his world and the greediest of them all often made for easy targets. Ruby looked greedy enough, so it might just work out. What’s more, he really did need to catch a breather. Suffering from all these injuries, the sensation it procured was almost overwhelming. Back against the ropes, he could just barely maintain control over it. With just a slight push he could go beyond it and snap. Pain traded for pleasure was not nearly as nice as it sounded and though Dosu was already a very flawed individual, this was one flaw he never managed to get rid of, no matter how hard he tried. Which is why his own clan never bothered teaching him more advanced techniques. Out of fear he’d hurt others and himself once he snapped. If possible, he would rather avoid it, even against a stranger.