From Ashes

    On a normal day, a normal fight, more normal circumstances, this might have gone far worse or far better for either of them, but it was hard to find normal days as of late. This situation in itself wasn't all that normal given the position he had been put in, literally, as a tutor for the afterlife, but the exhaustion and the stress were bringing him into this fight far below his full strength mentally and physically. Given the damage he had sustained thus far, he was finding it hard to focus, and whatever Nero had done to him, intentionally or not, it was completely screwing with things in a way he wasn't ready for or fully rationalize.

    Lottus was more than willing to keep pushing, and it seemed he was at least able to push back enough, but he knew full well he couldn't keep this up. Perhaps that's exactly what he needed to push through whatever this was, but this wasn't something Ward was accustomed to. He struggled, he trained, he fought, but rarely did he truly feel pushed. He had never had to push past any limits because it always came easy to simply move around them or move in a different direction, but this wasn't just normal limits, this was something he had never dealt with grabbing him by the throat and squeezing tight.

    He spoke before he had realized the words came out of his mouth, barely having thought to himself before forming the words. It was the first time it had clicked fully that he was a teacher, and this was in a sense their first true interaction. This didn't exactly feel like putting his best foot forward.

    His expectation was to try and power up and immediately pass out in all honesty, given the last time he felt this sensation. He hadn't tried pushing himself since, but it felt different, but he could feel it was still wrong, unbalanced. Taking a deep breath and expecting the worst, he slowly started to push his power, or more so releasing it, and he could feel the pain and sensations he didn't want to feel increasing along with it. His aura flickered, but he looked to be moving better than he was before, reaching up with his right arm and undoing his outer coat.

    His comment was more to himself than Lottus, but it didn't make it any less true. Folding the coat behind him he sat it off to the side and rolled his neck, testing out his left arm and finding his elbow still stiff and hard to full straighten, but also fully seeing the black trail of veins for the first time. As his power grew steadily, he noticed the ones on his right arm were disappearing, and at the same time the light blue of his aura was growing once more, as the much darker side still pushed against it.

    Looking back to Lottus he clenched his fists and gently let his arms fall, shaking them as his energy finally stopped rising and hit a plateau, and surprisingly to himself he felt fine, comparatively speaking. He was still in a large amount of pain, the exhaustion was far worse than it was before they started, but he hadn't passed out and the feeling of disassociation had left him. Raising his arms back up he nodded and got back into his fighting stance.

    Both fighters were hurt, but both were clearly trying not to show it, and perhaps their pure stubborn drive was pushing them to keep throwing blows. It hadn't been a long fight, but even for a spar it was brutal. There was more to come, but he could feel the doubt creeping in, recalling what Lottus had said about calling him a teacher after all, and all he wanted to dd now was stand a bit longer, fight a bit harder. He knew his threshold for stamina was far lower than normal however, but he couldn't think about it and focus on the fight at the same time.

    Closing his eyes as Lottus rushed forward, he relaxed, throwing his palms forward sending out a wave of energy. It seemed as if it was dissipating but large dirt walls shot up from the ground one after the other in between Ward and Lottus, each growing in thickness the closer to Ward they were. If the fight kept up in melee range he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up for long, so he had to fall back on comfort, hoping his body wouldn't betray him once more.

    By the time Lottus would have gotten to the first wall they all turned to the side making an odd looking hallway but no Ward where he was previously standing, as he had jumped into the air, clapping his hand together loudly. Pulling his hands apart the walls spread and a second clap caused them to all try slapping together one by one to smack into Lottus from his left and right sides.

    Ward's aura seemed to be in it's own desperate fight, as the power inside of him was still pushing and wrestling. The left side of his body however was starting to look less and less like a true aura, and more like what had happened initially on Namek. The energy looked almost solid, dripping away and sagging, but not in a weakened state, but as if it were so heavy with energy it couldn't hold up under its own weight. The right side was his normal light blue aura, somewhat weaker than usual, flickering like a true fire.

    Consciously he still hadn't realized as it would have been near impossible to see the aura in the same way Lottus could, but he could feel it. It was such a foreign sensation that he couldn't pinpoint what it was, what was happening, how to make it stop. He couldn't dwell on it further however, as he saw Lottus closing the distance again, and felt the shock wave of the clapping walls below. He wasn't going to get the usual time he would have to make his next move, at least not easily, and his physical state wasn't making it any easier. Lottus' own state was the only thing likely keeping him from catching another blow to the face.

    Unfortunately Lottus looked prepared to land another painful blow Ward wanted no part of, catching his arm just enough to push it to the side, but the second swipe cutting open his shirt just missing his chest by a hair, and the next missing as he pushed back out of the way. Clapping his hands together the walls below that weren't broken shot up at Lottus trying to either hit him or catch his attention, just as it seemed like the blade pierced right through his shoulder.

    There was very little resistance, to an unnatural degree, no sound, no change in facial expression, and Ward suddenly turned to dirt. As his hands had clapped together he had created a basic version of himself with magic, hard to detect mid attack, and Ward himself had dodged out of the way that same instance. From behind Lottus, Ward raises his right arm and creates in his hand what equates to a morning star and swing it full force right between Lottus' shoulder blades. At the point of what would be impact, connected or not, it shattered into pieces right when Ward would try and empower it, managing to transfer the energy through the creation, but getting a feedback shock in return.

    Immediately he fell from the sky clutching at his chest, landing with a harsh thud, his aura looking to grow in overall size, both sides flaring up and outward.

    Both fighters had crashed with the grace of a brick, but they both looked to have the toughness of one to match, especially given the punishment they had given to one another. They had gotten back to their feet, but Ward didn't look like he was in any condition to keep fighting, with none of the enthusiasm Lottus still had. He looked as if, quite frankly, he was somewhere else entirely as he vacantly stared past Lottus, not even registering his comment. Taking a single step out of the hole his body had created in the ground, he vanished before his foot touched the ground.

    It was no more than a full second but he was there once more, at least in part. The aura around his body was bright and light blue, raging like an inferno and much like earlier seemed to burn the grass away around him. On the other Side of Lottus was...Ward, at least in part. There was a heavy dark aura surrounding him, a thick liquid energy dripping from it, loud hissing sounds as each drip hit the grass burning it away like lava.

    The air pressure between the two began to drop, as did the temperature, as the two looked to stare at each other for a long moment, almost ignoring Lottus entirely. It wasn't obvious as first, but energy looked to be draining from both, their aura's pulled away, right above the Saiyan's head, swirling around one another. This was no slow pull, but as if their very essence was being sapped away from an invisible force.

    Both reached out as if trying to grab at it, their hands turning red as if reaching into a fire, almost like the energy was no longer theirs individually, and after what was no more than seconds they both collapsed. Up above the aura was flared, whipping around erratically, but it seemed to be shaped around a form that still wasn't visible, but it was clear it was there. As a shape started to form out of the air and become more visible, the aura seemed to calm, and as it did there was a clear split of the darker energy and the light energy, not fighting for strength, but moving together.

    The moment it seemed that whatever was in the center seemed to form, it vanished entirely, then in the span of a blink was on the ground standing inches away from Lottus. Ward stood staring up at the taller Saiyan, his eyes obscured by burning energy, the right with the energy engulfing the left side of his body and the left with the energy engulfing the right. the power coming off of them was immense, at least comparatively speaking, even if it didn't quite match the full power of a Super Saiyan. It wasn't perfect, and it was far from in pure balance, but it seemed something had clicked enough to awake a power in Ward.

    His head lifted just enough to look over to see what was left of Lottus and what condition he was in given the condition he was left in laying on the ground. It was just the two of them, no audience, no onlookers, and no reason for either to try and hide their pain or how tired they were, and clearly neither were. For what was supposed to be a spar to test each other, it had been brutal. While he never would have admitted it to a single soul, he enjoyed it that way, and he knew full well Lottus did as well. If this was they state they left each other in with nothing on the line but a bit of training, he wondered what they would do if this was a more serious fight, and a part of him found that incredibly exciting.

    Much like Lottus he gave a laugh, rolling on his side in pain much like the Saiyan had, letting his head drop onto the ground.