The Imperial Open Top 8 Round - Taori VS Lottus

"You can't be serious," Taori mumbled to himself as the announcer declared who his opponent for this first round would be. Lottus? But that was genuinely impossible! Taori stood somewhat stunned by this revelation on one end of the arena, Alpinia standing next to him looking similarly perplexed. 

"But he's... Dead! Right?" she asked, glancing nervously up at Taori. "Amara wouldn't have lied to us about that, right?"

Taori shook his head. "No, he's definitely dead." He'd gone to hell and seen the man there himself, after all - not that Alpinia was aware of that. But as the announcer finished, and Taori watched his opponent at the opposite end of the arena step up, the Saiyan across from him was unmistakable, as was the halo shining over his head. That was Lottus, back from the dead - yet, apparently, still dead all the same. Otherwise, he had to imagine that halo over his head wouldn't still be there. So how...?

"Well, um... Good luck, sweetie!" Alpinia nervously stated as she jumped up and gave Taori a tiny peck on the cheek before sending him off to fight. 

"...Thanks," Taori somewhat unenthusiastically replied, though he appreciated that he at least had one fan. Alpinia stood back outside the edge of the battlefield as Taori stepped forward, meeting Lottus close to the center. Now that he was closer, he could see Lottus wasn't garbed in the Saiyan battle armor he'd seen him in previously. It looked more like... "Ward had something to do with this, didn't he?" Taori asked, his brows furrowed. What was that Shinjin getting up to? There was no way he was actually being allowed to do this by the higher ups of the Otherworld, right?

The time for answers would have to come later, though, as Lottus struck out the moment the announcer stated they could begin! Taori leapt back swiftly as the other Saiyan charged at him, having anticipated Lottus would try to get the jump on him, and he held his arms up to knock away one of Lottus' incoming strikes. He'd trained hard since his last encounter with Lottus, but he could tell he still wasn't quite at the dead Saiyan's level... But he was close enough that he stood a chance.

Taori ducked down from Lottus' initial strikes and swung out with his foot to try and trip up his opponent, then opened his palm and thrust it upwards towards Lottus' face while still ducked low, firing a weak but sudden beam off in an attempt to immediately throw Lottus off!

Lottus was holding back against Taori - that much was clear the moment he didn't immediately turn into a Super Saiyan. But could Taori keep up with him, even in his suppressed state? He was about to find out, as his foot connected with Lottus' ankle, and his beam fired out towards his opponent. Surprisingly, though, Lottus countered not with an attack of his own, but a powerful shout that blew away his attack! Taori was caught off guard for a brief moment as it appeared he was about to be assailed by a wall of sound itself, but he thought quick on his feet, and feinted back as he clapped his hands together before him, using the clap to blast back a ki-empowered sound wave of his on that met with Lottus' and just barely cancelled it out entirely!

Lottus was hardly finished, though. Taori had only just dealt with his first counterattack when the opposing Saiyan swept in with a vicious-looking uppercut! Taori would have no time to counterattack, as he could just barely muster a block in time to prevent Lottus' blow from pounding into his chin. It instead pounded into one of Taori's palms, and he just barely managed to shove the blow back, with his other palm thrusting forward to deliver an open palm shove to Lottus' chest as well, with the aim of putting some distance between them.

After their brief exchange, Taori took a deep breath and composed himself, but remained in his battle stance, his heart pounding in his chest. Somehow, he was going blow to blow with Lottus himself... And wasn't exactly losing. Though he wasn't exactly winning, either. The two seemed nearly even, for the time being. Taori smirked. "You fight like a proper Saiyan warrior, alright," Taori praised him, "Though I think you won't find me slouching, either." 

That was the only lull he'd allow Lottus in this fight, as Taori swooped back in and closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye, spiraling himself through the air as he lobbed a weak but explosive blast towards Lottus that was more meant to act as a smokescreen than anything else, as he followed up with a powerful kick aimed at his opponent's neck!

"Well said," Taori had briefly replied to Lottus, "Though I wouldn't start celebrating just yet, if I were you!" The two then engaged in close combat once more, with Taori's lobbed blast instantly countered by one of Lottus' own. The two collided in a weak but large explosion that produced a decent smokescreen between the pair, but Taori rushed ahead regardless in the hopes that he could catch Lottus off-guard with how quick his follow-up was. Nope. Instead of nailing Lottus in the neck, the opposing Saiyan had managed to block Taori's foot with his arm, prompting a slightly annoyed "Tch" from Taori. 

As his foot rebounded from the block, Taori's feet planted themselves quickly back onto the ground, as he knew there was no way Lottus wouldn't follow up with another attack of his own. He was right. Lottus kicked back quite suddenly, using that same ground as leverage to add even more oomph to his blow, which Taori only barely managed to catch with his hands before it impacted his stomach - a blow like that right to his midsection would've knocked all the wind out of him for sure!

Lottus didn't give him so much as a moment to breathe, though, as he followed that up with another rushdown! Taori was able to block his first chop, but he was finally outsped by the second blow, which brought Lottus' fist smashing into his nose. Taori winced and briefly shut his eyes tight as pain seized his face and his neck was snapped back from the force, though he wouldn't let a blow like that get him down for too long.

He took the opportunity to grab at Lottus' wrist as the other Saiyan retracted his arm, and attempted to jump off the ground while still holding onto said wrist, before thrusting both his legs and feet out at Lottus' midsection in a powerful double kick that had the potential to put some serious strain on Lottus' arm if he hadn't broken free in time.

Taori got closer than he expected to it when it came to his gambit about dislocating Lottus' shoulder, though he wasn't horribly surprised when his opponent reacted fast enough to knock his feet back down from his body, hurting Taori's leverage over the slightly taller Saiyan. As Lottus twisted his own arm back and attempted to elbow Taori in the face, Taori had no choice but to let go of the wrist he'd seized and raise one of his arms to block the incoming blow. He'd rather give up that leverage than have his jaw dislocated, after all.

Though he'd held on with his other hand for a moment, Lottus had managed to twist the arm free and hopped back, with Taori taking their brief moment apart as a chance to ready himself for the next attack. Said attack came all too quickly, as Lottus rushed in with a kick at Taori's legs. Taori pulled his lower body back in time to make his opponent kick only the air, but he hadn't been expecting Lottus to grab his head as he did!

His head seized by both of Lottus' hands, and a headbutt incoming, Taori could only think of one thing to do in time. His mouth opened up at Lottus, and there was a brief white flash from down his throat, before a beam of energy blasted out from between Taori's teeth at the up-close Saiyan: a blast of ki energy fired from out the mouth! Whether it hurt Lottus or if he'd managed to duck away in time, Taori took the opportunity it afforded him to raise up his arms between Lottus' and force his opponent's hands away from his head, then flipped back through the air, landing gracefully into a combat-ready position a few meters back.

"Blech," Taori spat out in disgust during the brief respite. Something about ki just tasted kind of awful, so he really hated doing mouth beams like that.

Taori may not have enjoyed firing off a beam straight out of his mouth, but he couldn't deny its effectiveness as it overwhelmed Lottus' face at point blank range, stunning his opponent and signaling the first good hit he'd managed to land on him. Alright, he just had to do that, what, nine or so more times, and then Lottus would go down? How hard could that possibly be? The surprising thing was that instead of seeming hurt or frustrated that he'd finally been caught off guard, Lottus was grinning ear to ear at Taori. That probably wasn't a good sign, was it?

It indeed was not, as Lottus used his ki to summon forth a blade of black and red around his arm - a weapon that did not look very well-suited for a ring-out tournament match. As Lottus leapt for Taori with the blade raised, it occurred to Taori that Lottus had no reason to care about following the rules for this tournament: he was already dead, anyway, so what sort of punishment could he care about? 

Taori leapt back as Lottus swiped at him, his teeth grit as he desperately tried to dodge out of his opponent's mad and frantic slashes. Lottus was slowly backing him towards the edge of the arena, leaving Taori with less and less space to work with here - and the sheer look of gleeful malice in Lottus' eyes betrayed how he was more than willing to mutilate Taori if it'd get him his win in this fight. Though, truthfully, Taori wasn't really scared in this situation. Actually, he was just getting kind of pissed off. Who was Ward to bring this prick back from the dead to participate in this tournament? Taori had come here for a fun test of his strength and skill and a chance to showcase the power of the Kingdom, not for a fight to the death with a menace the Kingdom had had to work together to defeat.

Like hell he was going to get shanked and bleed out in a tournament match like this! 

Taori's energy surged and he let out a tremendous roar of anger as Lottus thrust his blade at Taori's shoulder and kicked out at his leg - but when Lottus' leg hit his shin, he'd find it was as solid as if he'd just kicked a steel wall, and while his blade pierced into Taori's shoulder, it was halted before it could pierce too deeply, as Taori grasped the blade with one hand and slowly pulled it out from the inch or so of skin it had managed to pierce. When Lottus looked into Taori's eyes, he'd find they'd gone from their deep black to an enraged, dimmed yellow.

"Sorry, Lottus," he taunted, "But your blade did not cut deep enough." Taori then shoved Lottus' blade back with a tremendous amount of force, then leapt into the air and delivered a powerful crane kick straight at Lottus' face to knock him back away from the edge!

Taori had felt pretty good about himself, managing to power up in time to catch Lottus' sword and deliver a resounding counterattack. Back in the day, there was no way he'd have been able to power up in time like that. He stopped feeling good about himself, though, when his foot connected with Lottus' head, and it felt as though he'd just kicked an incredibly solid brick wall. Taori was paused, briefly, in that position, and he turned his head to look at Lottus, only to find Lottus no longer had the dark hair and eyes of a normal Saiyan warrior... But a bright, golden mane and icy blue, sinister eyes. Taori was now facing down a Super Saiyan!

"Gah-" Taori grunted in annoyance as he pulled back as quickly as he could. There was no outspeeding Lottus at this point, though. Lottus' fist slammed with a tremendous amount of force into Taori's gut, knocking all the wind out of Taori in a single strike. A pained gasp exited Taori's mouth as Lottus drove his fist deep into his gut, knocking him up into the air and away from his opponent. 

"Taori, be careful!" Alpinia called out to him from the sidelines as he tumbled through the air, her fists clenched with worry and her teeth grit as she watched the battle unfold. She believed in her husband, of course... But did he really stand a chance against the Super Saiyan?

Taori, to his credit, managed to recover in the air before he landed, turning his tumble into more of a somersault before landing on his feet, only moderately worse for wear. It seemed that his armor had helped soften that blow, but it was such a mighty blow it had worn out most of its integrity for the moment. He'd need to get it fixed after this... At least it had done its job. "Straight to Super Saiyan, huh?" he asked Lottus as he caught his breath. "Well, I bet I can still keep up, as long as that gravity field is keeping your full power at bay. Still, don't hold back, or you'll just disappoint me." Taori crouched down slightly into a combat pose and gestured for Lottus to come at him. He could do this, right? ...No, probably not. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to give this his all anyway.