From Ashes

    His hand raised as a finger raised to his own forehead, eyes closed as if he was thinking for a moment.

    Letting out a sigh so heavy his lips vibrated, he gave a bit of a slump to his posture as his arms sagged to his side. There was a lot to that answer, frankly, which was quickly becoming a theme of the conversation.

    He stopped suddenly, realizing he almost mentioned Cato and the events that lead up to it, but as far as anyone knew that wasn't Ward, that was Brumal, so how exactly would he explain the promise he made. Thankfully Lottus kept talking and gave him the opening he needed.

    Rolling his neck as it cracked in a few places, he stood back up straight, placing his hands behind his head.

    Both arms transitioned back behind his back, and though the question was more lengthy this time, the answer was actually quite simple.

    He had said a lot, but purposefully had said very little at the same time. It was hopefully enough to let him make his own assumptions from there, dropping names that would be familiar, and also unlikely to have any sort of extensive talks with Lottus to gather more information than that. Given the topic, it wouldn't have been likely any of the above would have wanted to share just how sloppy they had been and how much information they had shared.

    There was suddenly a grin that covered his face, as if someone else had stepped into his skin. It was far from a normal grin, and far from subtle, almost looking unnatural as if someone was grabbing the sides of his face and stretching his cheeks to show his teeth. If this was going to work between them, he had to be honest, and it was unlikely Lottus was ready for the level of honest he was suddenly even surprising himself with wanting to be.

    Raising his arms up as they spread like wings, and in a flash of bright light where Ward had stood, there was the Emperor Brumal. His tail slapped the ground hard enough to shake it, but as his arms dropped to his side and went to lock back behind his back, the magic dissipated and he was simply himself once more.

    The smile had faded back into a blank face, no signs of emotion to be found.

    A heavy sigh escaped him as he looked up to the clearing sky.

    It was hard to know exactly how Lottus was going to react to what he had been shown and told, but the moment had passed and now it was a matter of how to move forward. It was clear he couldn't simply lecture his way through this, which was genuinely for the best, because as much as he was able to talk about balance and the ideas around it for hours on end, it wouldn't accomplish much unless someone was receptive to it from the beginning. His strength was always more hands on approaches, applying theories, and it would regularly drive his prior teachers mad, as compared to them and many of the others who were being taught with him, Ward was impatient.

    What he had planned all this time was currently put on hold, as the tournament coming up had given way to an opportunity he couldn't pass up. The problem was, what would he do until then? There were still weeks till then, and he wasn't going to sit on his hands if he could prepare Lottus and himself for it.

    Perhaps this was what he needed to push further and to push Lottus further; simple combat. Leaning into Lottus' strengths instead of simply his own.

    Stepping back he put his hand on the tree as he looked to Lottus.

    Lottus was quickly ready for a fight, not entirely unexpected, but was Ward. He was not at one-hundred percent mentally or physically, so this could end up a poor idea all things considered. As Lottus got himself into his position and stance, Ward moved a bit closer, put both hands behind his back and simply watched and waited. He didn't watch much of Lottus fighting with Nasu back on Plant, so in truth this would be new, which brought a sparking of excitement despite how exhausted he was.

    His senses immediately focused in on Lottus as he began to charge something in his hands, moving his eyes as an attack flew up above and a second headed for him. Both hands finally started to move just as the ki blasts were closing in on him, both glowing with a light blue as shielded energy formed in front of both. Without moving the rest of his body, one arm lifted and the other pushing out in front of him to shield the incoming attacks, but his attention staying firmly on Lottus with his head turning.

    There was a clear focus on his right arm as ki gathered there much stronger than these attacks, and he began to move and turn as he fully deflected away the previous attacks, intended to clasp his hands together and-

    -it didn't matter, as he hadn't taken into account the shape he was in and the apparent disconnect between his mind and reflexes. Usually he would wait till the last moment and react, but that split second of difference left him lifted off his feet and a jolt of pain covered his cheek. The only thing that had held him upright was using his telekinesis on himself as the punch connected, otherwise he not only would likely have ended up on the ground, but quite a few feet further away.

    For what it was worth, that smack in the face seemed to wake him up a bit, or maybe it was just the adrenaline. Perhaps it was something else entirely that he was feeling as he felt his feet touch the ground and turned back to Lottus.

    There was a bit of happiness in his voice, just barely. His feet slid just barely apart and his arms lifted into what looked like a sort of martial art stance.

    There wasn't much pride to speak of inside of Ward, especially not in comparison to any Saiyan, but he wished he had the ego to match to simply lie and say he took that hit on purpose. In truth he appreciated the punch and it had knocked something into place and woke him up like having a bucket of freezing water poured on his head. There was more pain lingering on his face than just a bit of cold water splashed in his face, but it did the trick all the same.

    Even for a moment he felt as if things were moving slower than they should, not in the sense that things were slowing down, but as if his mind wasn't reading them at the speed it normally would. Watching Lottus move was strange for a moment, shaking it off, seeing him sling the ki ball. His feet slid, not moving from the ground as the grass bent in kind and sprung right back up and repositioned. Ward did not like melee combat, bluntly, and the moment Lottus moved in to Ward's comfort zone he gave a single leap backwards and threw his hands up as two thin walls slid up right in Lottus' way, leaving a gap for them to see each other between them both.

    The attacks crumbled the walls easily, but gave him the time and space to move further back and twisted his body. As the ki ball came in closer he moved as if he were going to grab it, but instead slapped and parried it, deflecting it towards Lottus, aiming right at his opening mouth. There was a hint of confidence, though he wasn't aware of it consciously, but it didn't last long. The ki ball found itself immediately overwhelmed as Ward threw up his hands to create a much larger wall than he had previously, but a hole was blasted right through it, barely standing. Through the hole Lottus would be able to see a second wall that looked to be destroyed in opposite fashion as a near outline of Ward, having been the only thing that had held Ward up at the last second as yet another attack connected solidly and his magic had for a second time kept him on his feet.

    This was bad, and something was wrong, he simply couldn't seem to react fast enough, but this time it wasn't his magic or his physical reflexes, but it was as if his ki simply hadn't responded in time. It felt as if something had a grip on it, and almost released it at the last moment, but stopped. He could feel the tug from in his chest and grabbed at it as he was slumped against the wall behind him and the one in front of him crumbled inward on itself. Ward himself couldn't see it, but there was already what looked to be a manifestation of....something around him as his normal light blue aura was much more light in color, and something a much darker, near black color was consuming a large part of it, threatening to cover his body. There was no power to it, nothing giving him strength, it just hurt.

"Again!"

    It was clear Ward had yelled, but it sounded almost angry, throwing his fist back as he managed to get back to a stable base and smashed the wall behind him to dust.

    There was the faintest hint of a second voice, or an echo of his voice when he said resisting, but it didn't sound sinister, just a deeper version of his own voice. Again however, Ward didn't notice.

    He clearly didn't know his body as well as he thought, but that didn't stop him thinking as much. After a few words he was speaking through gritted teeth, not out of anger, but clearly out of some type of pain, as if someone as stuck in a knife and was actively twisting it for every word. The lighter side of his aura flared heavy however, lifting the right side of his aura over his head as the darker blue side did so to match, and for just a moment Ward's energy spiked. In a foot around him in a perfect circle the grass burned chalk black, and finally, this Ward noticed, staring down at it as he fell to one knee, putting his hand to it to try and regrow it, but nothing happened. Both sides of his aura lowered, but the darker part was pushing back against the light one more, and once more he grabbed at his chest.

    As he started to stand, the grass immediately grew back to normal as if it was a delayed effect, and again the two sides of the aura looked to match, and again Ward's power seemed to spike, and once more the grass seemed to burn in that same exact circle. The closer Lottus got the more his energy seemed to swell, rising far more than it should have, much like it had before on Namek, but it was as if he couldn't move his own body until the last moment, reaching out his hand.

    The moment his feet left the ground the grass had already grown back, replaced by a large Ward sized dent in the ground, shaking a few leaves free from the tree above and leaving Ward staring up at the sky. His pupils had turned completely white with his arm still extended, and that aura around him had now turned completely dark. Blood was dripping from his elbow from having slammed into the ground when he landed, and his white hair was staining red from a gash in the back of his head, but still he laid motionless.

    There was no motion for a moment except for breathing, no words, not even eye movement, but in a flash he was on his feet, not of his own accord, but it looked as if the aura itself had lifted him up, or more so through him away from the ground. His elbow popped and creaked as his extended arm finally lowered, and his eyes seemed to return to normal, but his aura was still dark blue, flickering as if it might go out at any second. Raising up the same arm he had dropped, he looked at his hand for a moment, then lifted the other with a wince of pain and rolling his neck. A Ball of ki quickly formed in his hand, floating up in front of his face as he held out his palm, and as his eyes flicked towards Lottus the ball shot out towards him.

    By the time it reached it it was turning that same sickening dark blue, but also half of it changing to pure white, trying to strike Lottus in the chest. If it were to hit him, it would push against him as if it was phasing through him and stop right in the center of his chest and seemingly disappear.

    Ward's aura was slowly, all this time, starting to turn lighter again, once more split in half, and as he tried to form another ki ball to throw, it appeared for a moment and fizzled. Dropping his arms he sighed and stared at Lottus, as if he noticed something, then reached out towards him, and if pulling an invisible rope, he gave a grunt and turned. If the earlier attack had connected, a dark blue energy looked to try and force its way out of Lottus in any way it could, painfully, as Ward saw something he didn't realize he could see, or at least he couldn't before; an imbalance in Lottus. Whatever he was doing, or at least trying to do, he thought he was pulling that imbalance right out of Lottus rather directly.

    His injured arm raised as if beckoning the energy pulled from Lottus, the other making a swatting motion as a translucent shield appeared in front of him, taking the brunt of the incoming attack. If he wasn't running on adrenaline earlier he sure as hell was now, as his mind and body pushed the idea of the pain away completely. As the energy closed in, it hit and dissipated what was left of the shield, and the moment the energy from Lottus touched his fingers the energy around his body flared, not to the extent that it would if someone were to power up, but as if his entire body was bursting into flames.

    A white hot energy, and bright no top of things, shot out and upward completely snuffing out the darkness that had been creeping in between leaving only a barely blue hue to his aura. He might not have been able to feel the pain of the damage done so far but he could certainly feel the heat from the aura, as if it was coming from inside of his body and not the aura itself. After a moment the energy he had pulled from the Saiyan looked to absorb into his own body, the veins of his left arm starting to darken, and as quickly as it had turned white the aura flared dark again, but not blue, pure coal black.

    Squeezing and unclenching his right hand, he held out his now outstretched fingers as what looked to be spikes hovered over the tips of his fingers, and with a single flick of his wrist slung them at Lottus in an almost nonchalant way. It was then he looked to see his wrist, and that both arms hand the same blackened veins, stretching down to his hands.