Forging Strength

The oozaru spotted the ball of energy coming, but it made no move to escape. Instead, it grounded itself in place, digging its heels into the ground -- and then, as the energy shot closer, it hurled its fist forward to collide with the blast of energy. There was a tremendous explosion as ki and black lightning coursed across the oozaru's arm, searing its fur black and leaving a trail of bloodied cuts clear to its shoulder.

The Saiyan whose mind had been lost might well pay later for the Oozaru's reckless habit, as the arm fell limp to one side, rendered useless from the blast -- likely broken bones, beneath all the visual damage. But the beast howled on, its anger mixing with the pain, only seeming to drive it to an even greater height of unbridled rage. It stomped its feet into the ground, sending ripples of broken earth in either direction, and causing the very land to erupt in minor quakes.

But the beast's eyes locked right onto Lottus again. This time, however, it didn't attack. Instead, it opened its mouth and formed another sphere of ki -- this time, it shone a bright red, as bright as the crimson eyes of the Oozaru. But rather than fire it, the energy seemed to spark all around the beast's body, enveloping it in crimson lightning. But it didn't attack -- no, it wasn't quite ready to. And perhaps, on some level, it didn't fully want to.

Its eyes remained locked on, as the blast was held dormant in its maw. It knew it could level Lottus now. It just needed a little bit more clarity, and then...

---

The oozaru stood its ground as blast after blast struck its already bloodied form. Each blast was a fresh jolt of pain across an already battered form, but its pure stubbornness and bloodthirst won out against that underlying urge to protect itself. The crimson energy that had begun to form across its entire body only sparked to greater and greater heights, until it reached a power to outstrip that of the oozaru itself. A gleam in its eye was all the evidence needed that the attack was ready, and that any hesitation that had clouded its mind vanished with the hail of blasts that had been fired against it.

But there was a change. Clarity came not in peace, but in battle, and the oozaru shut its jaw. Instead, it brought its hands together before it, as if it were using a proper battle technique, something it had yet to truly show any grasp of. The crimson energy sparked wildly around it, clashing into the landscape and creating deep gashes in the already ruined land. Destron spurted out from where those bolts had landed, and even the sky seemed alight with the blood red of the creature's energy.

Then, it let out a primal howl and released all of that stored up energy.

The beam shot out towards Lottus with a tremendous force, enough that the oozaru was knocked backwards from its feet -- that, and the hail of blasts had whittled away its strength despite its effort to resist. As a sea of volting red ki threatened to envelope Lottus, the oozaru crashed into another cliff-face, obliterating it under its weight. But its attack wasn't quite so simple as an ordinary blast: even as Lottus found himself under threat from the bulk of the attack, those sparks of excess energy formed their own separate spheres of energy, firing off in every direction.

By the time Lottus was able to deal with the attack that had struck him, dozens of additional explosions sounded all around, creating fresh craters, geysers of destron, and plumes of smoke and debris. The oozaru sat there a moment, its glare never wavering -- and whatever brief clarity that had helped to loose its attack seemed to fade. Its eyes shone only with its continued bloodlust, even as its chest rose and fall heavily with the sheer exertion of its tremendous blast.

---

The Oozaru let out a growl of annoyance as it caught the sight of the Saiyan bursting forward, back on the attack after everything he had thrown at him. The Oozaru was fast, despite its size and despite its injuries, but it wasn't as fast as Lottus. It managed to get up to its feet just in time to be kicked in the stomach, causing it to stagger backwards and cough blood out, testament to some earlier injury that the blow had aggravated. It wrenched its hand back to retaliate, but then --

-- the uppercut caught it clean under the jaw, and it was sent staggering backwards.

The whole weight of the Oozaru crashed back down to the earth, causing one more of what must have been several small quakes since the start of the fight. It lay there for a long moment, trying to catch its breath as the dozens of stinging cuts, burns, and fractures all across its form began to catch up to it -- but then, it bounded back to its feet with just as heavy a thud against the already battered earth, giving its head another visceral shake.

Its eyes locked firmly on Lottus, radiating every bit as much of that primal rage that it had been barely containing since the purple-haired Saiyan had taken in the false moon's enervating blutz waves. Then, it let out another piercing howl, and launched its weight forward. This time, though -- something was a little different. The beast was nowhere near under control, but it seemed just a little more clever.

It swiped one heavy fist down at Lottus from a high arc, a heavy but predictable blow. It was a ruse, however: it wanted Lottus to duck beneath its massive arm, to a coiled knee waiting to rise up to strike him from below, with the solid edge of its kneecap.

---

There wasn't much the Oozaru could do as the right hook connected with its knee. It felt its leg buckle beneath it, leading it to topple over helplessly--but before it could hit the ground, the second blow struck clean into its chin, causing its head to snap backwards. It raised its hands to try to mount some kind of guard, but it was to no avail -- the blow landed hard and send the great beast slamming down into the rubble, leaving a heavy impact crater where its head bounced off of the hard surface.

It lay there a moment, recovering in the dust of its own impact. It was battered and bruised, even worse than before, and as it forced itself to its feet it wasn't completely clear it would even be able to go on fighting. But eventually, from behind a now blood-streaked face, it once more fixed its gaze squarely on Lottus.

It didn't howl, or even growl this time, but leered at its opponent. Even in its blood-crazed state, it was starting to realize the gap that existed between the two of them.

But, that realization wasn't enough to hold it back. It hurled itself towards Lottus, mounting a wild attack of its own -- fists rained towards the smaller target again and again, in a furious assault unbefitting such a massive creature. Most would miss, but its hopes pinned on the idea that if it could overwhelm the Saiyan, it might just be able to force him to take a heavier hit than he was intending.

And then, it unleashed the trap -- the second in moments.

Even as it continued its wild, and wildly inaccurate, flail of fists, it opened its jaw one more time and fired a blast of molten yellow energy, aiming to strike Lottus at point blank, in hopes of knocking him clear back and into the ground. It knew well enough that it wouldn't beat him like that--but it might just be a start.

---

The rain of destruction all about the Oozaru gave it pause at first, its eyes flashing around the ruined landscape as it became even more fouled by destron packed craters. It wasn't quite concerned, indeed if anything the wanton destruction served more to entertain the beast than anything, but it was confused. While some of the blasts did catch it, searing fresh burns against its already bloodied and burned fur, most flew well past it. It was almost like the very attack it had used earlier, but a far more modest version of it.

It took a moment for the Oozaru to make its decision, but when it did, it let out a bestial howl to try to draw Lottus' attention. It beat its chest once, and then crossed its arms over its chest in a simple guard, eyes flashing with the hint of a challenge.

It knew the Saiyan was just playing with that imitation of its own technique, and it knew better than before that the Saiyan packed more of a punch than he had let himself show. And while it flew against even the most basic survival instinct, its Saiyan blood had been lit ablaze.

It wanted Lottus to take his shot, and so it stood its ground: making itself a target amidst the hail of ki, a low growl still rumbling from the depths of its throat.

---

The Oozaru stayed true to its challenge as the Saiyan began to prepare his attack, its eyes darting across the sky as it bore witness to the scattering energy. It remained in place even as the Saiyan crested across the sky, and the accompanying crackle of thunder was evidence enough of the incredible power being brought to bear. The most the Oozaru moved was to raise its arms in a heavy guard over its own head, but it stayed rooted in place. It would either withstand the attack, or it would be overwhelmed in the effort. Either way, it would taste its most terrible challenge yet.

As the whirlwind of Ki raced towards it, an aura of crimson red sparked around the Oozaru, its power again spiking to a new height. It hardened its own guard, let out one last challenging growl, and then--

-- there was a crash as the two energies collided with each-other, the massive blast overwhelming the beast in a matter of moments. Pain ripped through the Oozaru's entire body, and it disappeared within the explosive dome. For a moment, it seemed as if the fight had finally come to an end. But, as the smoke cleared, Lottus bore witness to his handiwork.

The Oozaru was down to one knee, battered and scorched and dripping pools of blood beneath its clenched fists. One eye seemed to have fallen completely shut, while the other seemed barely open, as if it was clinging to consciousness. It let out another howl, this one pained and distant, lacking the fury or the confidence it had mustered before.

It was almost over for the beast. But it wasn't yet.

In an act of desperation, or perhaps revenge, the Oozaru barely managed to lift its head enough to face Lottus properly, opening its jaw to release one more blast of chaotic yellow ki. This time, the ki seemed to shred the very air around it, sparking off bits of ki that were honed to razors-edges. It was a familiar technique by now, one Lottus had dealt with easily in their previous fight. But while the Oozaru's power was dropping, it was still swelled to an unusual height--and when it released that blast of energy, it hurdled towards Lottus at a breakneck pace, the last vestiges of Cato's energy and perhaps the Oozaru's final hope for a victory.

---

The Oozaru blinked its eyes with recognition, for one brief moment. The name Cato echoed in its head. It was still quaking with pain, still struggling to even remain upright, but the name seemed to rattle around in its thoughts, giving it some newfound strength, or perhaps newfound clarity. Even so, that flicker of recognition dimmed as it emitted a low growl, trying to recuperate what energy it could. The battle was lost, certainly: but the Oozaru wouldn't run.

As Lottus raced down towards the beast, again calling out that strangely familiar name, it fell into a defensive posture--or as much of one as it would be able to manage given its poor state. But even as it raised its arm to guard, a ki-infused punch struck its left cheek with full-force. With little power left to guard, the Oozaru as knocked clean off its feet, tumbling into the hard earth off to the side.

The Destron that swelled where it landed should have been more of a danger, but at this point, it had already ingested so much of the foul toxin that more barely seemed to register. Slowly, weakly, and against all reason, the Oozaru rose to its feet once again. It teetered in place, like it might collapse at any moment, before digging its heels in to steady itself.

It couldn't so much as manage to throw itself forward in another attack, so it did the only thing it could think of: it thrust a hand forward, and a sphere of chaotic yellow ki began to hum to life. What energy it had managed to regain in that short a time was now fueling one more attack. It was weak, barely a fraction of the energy it had brought to bear moments ago. But it was something: a last scrap of resistance.

It was only that flicker of remembrance of the purple-haired Saiyan who relied so much on that very technique that caused it to fire that orb towards Lottus from out of its outstretched palm, rather from its maw.

---