Not too long ago, Gandigan had a curious encounter. A Dragon named Slayg had fallen through one of the rifts connecting Hell to the living realm, who claimed to have been an enemy of Lottus. Although Gandigan wasn't always the most trusting person, after chatting with the Dragon for a while he came to believe this story, and offered to help train Slayg to defeat Lottus. The Dragon's power was... a long way off of the Saiyan, but if there was a chance he might catch up then Gandigan would do what he could to help.
Gandigan had given Slayg a compass that would allow the Dragon to seek out more rifts that opened to Hell, for the time when he felt his training was ready to begin. The only problem now was that the two had no way of communicating to each other, so when Slayg passed through the rifts it would be on Gandigan to try and find him. Most of the rifts seemed to be concentrated in the Bramble Woods these days, so that's where Gandigan waited.
He didn't expected it to take long for Slayg to take up his offer; he had seemed quite aggrieved at how weak he had become in comparison to mortals, and there was only one way to gain that strength back...
Slayg had spent the time since he had last met Gandigan lying low on Earth. He had slept in caves far from civilization, and spent much of his waking hours studying the compass that Gandigan had given to him. The metallic components of the compass appeared to have been aligned with the flow of magic in Hell, specifically. On Earth, the compass usually pointed to some specific, unwavering location that Slayg had yet to scout out. It was probably some sort of open portal to Hell or the afterlife, or something FROM Hell which had been buried and preserved, and which leaked a lot of magical power yet also retained said magic somehow. Now, whatever this object was, the compass kept pointing only toward it. EXCEPT when a suitably large and powerful portal to Hell opened on Earth. Slayg had skipped a few chances to re-enter Hell to study these portals and the magic that fueled them. And he had learned much from what his eyes, whiskers, nose, and tongue had told him. He just needed the right conditions, the right source and focus, and then Slayg would be able to open those portals himself. Once he was able to do that, Slayg intended on making a little hole for himself deep inside of Hell, somewhere to hide from living mortals until he was strong enough to kill them all.
But first, there was the matter of training.
A grand shadow fell over Gandigan, and the rest of the Bramble Woods, as Slayg flew low overhead. Normally, Slayg would have been flying high enough that he would have been barely visible, but the "ceiling" of Hell still offered an unbreakable barrier to Slayg's body. So, Slayg flew low enough that the flapping of his wings made a hurricane of winds, and his belly scraped against the tops of the trees. Said trees, seeming to remember Slayg's last visit to the forest, recoiled from his scaly hide, and sent messages to their fellows around the forest to keep their vines and branches away from the dragon.
Slayg landed with a great shake of Hell's earth, crushing trees and brush with his bulk as he did so.
"I have come, as I said I would."
This was all the explanation that Slayg gave as to how he got into Hell, or why he was there.
Any doubts that Gandigan had over whether or not Slayg would actually show were quickly put to bed upon sensing the Dragon's re-arrival into Hell. The Mazoku was beginning to fear that maybe he had been too harsh on the Dragon; that maybe his pride had been wounded so badly that he had no interest in coming back, but thankfully he was wrong. Any opportunity he had to train someone to fight against Lottus was wealth worth his time, even if he had his own doubts about Slayg's ability to be victorious.
"Indeed. I'm glad to see you've taken me up on my offer. I want you to know that taking on Lottus will likely be the most difficult thing you've ever undertaken in your entire life. I say this because I want you to know that the training I have in store for you will be as brutal as he is. It is necessary to train in that way so that you can forge your body in preparation for what's to come. I will not be going easy on you."
Gandigan began by taking a defensive stance, not interested in any more chatting. "So let's begin. Come at me and strike me down... if you can."
As Gandigan spoke, Slayg held up the hand upon his wing and touched his right cheek. There was a pink, not-quite-perfect line of raw flesh on that cheek, uncovered by scales. A scar, which had started to knit itself together shortly after Gandigan made that wound with his nail. Memories of a time when Slayg had been taken into a camp's wood-and-dirt walls and forced into a cage of what would one day be known as ironwood, now extinct in the realm of mortals. Memories of battle, of beatings, of blood and suffering for Slayg at the hands of a scarred man in a bear-skin. But, so too came memories of the Smith, Ninag. Forging and preparing metal in his great furnace, which was once fed by dragon-fire.
"I see... as you wish..."
Slayg unleashed his full power, growing wider than the clearing in the forest (which hadn't existed mere minutes before) could accommodate. Trees were crushed and splintered, vines were made to wither and die, and the forest itself groaned at having to hold such a gigantic, hot, hard body within its borders. Slayg's wings and neck were more than long enough to hit the invisible ceiling of Hell, but Slayg was wise enough to remember his past mistake. His head and wings were kept a bit ducked, until Slayg had finished growing to his gargantuan true size, whereupon he shrank enough that his head was no longer scraping the ceiling. After that... Slayg opened his maw, and unleashed a torrent of fire. It was not quite so piercing as the flames he had sent at Gandigan during their last meeting, but there was more of it. More of his power burning at the forest and the slug-man.
Slayg TRANSFORMS into a TREMENDOUS TERROR, Quintupling his power! New PL: 200,000
Then he unleashes his "new" technique, THE FIRE WAS RED against Gandigan at 100% PL! That's 200,000 POWER!
-6 KP 0/6 KP
+1 MP for posting, +1 MP for using a technique. 2/6 MP
Slayg was a 'student' unlike any that Gandigan had ever taken on before. Most others he had trained in a similar manor like Farria, Otama and Cello had come to him willingly, and were eager to learn from him. Slayg was brash, arrogant and extremely annoyed at the fact that he was so much weaker than Gandigan. The closest that he could maybe compare him to would be Cabasa, who he was able to slowly help change over time, but even then he wasn't all that close to her.
As the Dragon expanded in both size and strength, Gandigan was reminded of his previous battle against Slayg where the wound he had imparted was still somewhat visible. He could sense that the Dragon had grown more powerful since then, able to easily surpass what the Mazoku was capable of in his base form, but that was hardly a concern for him. This was a sparring session, and although Gandigan liked to push himself hard in sparring he could always transform himself if things became too much for him.
Slayg opened the way you might expect a Dragon to begin a battle, breathing down hot flames upon the Mazoku. Gandigan brought his arms up to try and protect himself from the fire, though he found himself quickly overwhelmed by their intensity and thrown to the ground; his skin now covered in heavy burns. Just moving to stand up put him in pain as his weakened skin tore. But no matter how much pain he was in, Gandigan fought against showing any signs of it.
"Not bad. Better than what you were capable of before. But now watch this!" Bringing his right arm out forward, Gandigan grabbed a hold of wrist using his left hand and fired a spiraling energy wave at Slayg.
PL: 150,000
Shield = 20% - 2KP - Shield = 30,000 30,000 vs 200,000 = 170,000 x 0.7 = 119,000 119,000 vs 150,000 = 79%
Slayg grinned at the praise that Gandigan had given him, faint as it was. Although, perhaps he was actually grinning at the burns that covered Gandigan's whole body. Either way, Slayg had a few moments to feel smug and powerful before he was struck with Gandigan's attack, just below the spot where his neck met the front of his bloated body.
While Gandigan had taken Slayg's fire with resolve and zero sign of the pain he felt, Slayg... well, he roared with pain a mere few moments after he was struck. The wave of energy washed over Slayg's hide, tearing up some of the pebbly scales and the armored bits that covered Slayg's belly before sinking in and damaging the tender flesh that lay beneath. After Slayg was done screaming, he roared again, this time with anger. He lifted up his right forelimb, and brought it down with the force of a meteor, though no ki, to try and squish Gandigan's crispy body flat against the earth and stone. Whether or not he hit Gandigan, there was a great rumbling and an explosion of dirt and debris and bits of root from the trees around them. The cloud rose alllll the way up to the ceiling of Hell, before slowly falling back to Earth with the gentle-ness of a soft snowy night.
"Is this how mortals train each other? I thought I was going to learn something, not get battered again for little to no purpose!"
Slayg takes the hit at full power! 90,000/200,000 is equal to 45%! DAM: 45/250%
No technique used this turn, +2 KP 2/6 KP
+1 MP for posting, +1 MP for taking over 20% damage in one hit 4/6 MP
Gandigan's energy wave crashed into Slayg, and caused more pain that he would have guessed. The Dragon let out a furious cry of pain, despite it appearing to the Namekian that he hadn't quite suffered as much as Gandigan did. Maybe it was down to a lack of experience on Slayg's part when it came to real combat. It was important to mask your true feelings while in battle, else you risk giving your opponent an advantage. Gandigan was in a far worse shape than Slayg was, but he was putting his effort into trying to hide that.
Slayg countered by throwing down a forearm at Gandigan, who quickly tried to match the move by bringing up his own hands to meet the massive club coming his way. Unfortunately the Namekian had overestimated his own strength and found himself being crushed into the ground, leaving a small Namekian shaped hole in the cold surface of Hell. Gandigan was forced to take a page out of Marimba's book and slowly burrow out around the arm, dusting himself off as he faced the Dragon's question.
"How much battle experience to you have, Slayg? And be honest with me. I'm talking about raiding villages or the like; I mean going up against equal foes? Have you ever fought that sort of battle without picking up a few scars?"
For a moment, Slayg smiled oh-so-very smugly, showing off all of his fangs. Then, he realized that if he had indeed crushed Gandigan to death, then he was out a teacher and future ally. With a quickness born from panic, Slayg lifted his front paw and looked down... seeing a Namekian shaped hole in the middle of the print his paw had left. He narrowed his eyes, and twitched his whiskers, sensing nothing within the crater that he had left... And so, Slayg was completely surprised when Gandigan burrowed out of the ground from near where his paw had been, and he almost, almost, jumped.
Slayg's ears, eyes, and whiskers were completely focused on Gandigan, but Slayg's mind wandered far away when he heard the question. It went back, back through millennia to an age forgotten on Earth. Back to a frozen wasteland that had since been flooded by the sea. There, Slayg had suffered at the hands of Earth's strongest and mightiest warriors of the time, a fearsome clan of men and women who commanded control over their chi, or ki, and could leap mountains and tear down mighty walls with their bare hands. He had fought then, fought for his life when they took him from the Smith, fought for his daily meals when they threw him in the pits with other beasts, fought their battles for them when they raided smaller settlements. Slayg's hide had been weaker then, his body smaller, his flames less hot. He had suffered then, he had gotten scars that stuck with him beneath his scales. Bones had been broken and reset, teeth lost before they could be replaced. That long-forgotten time was the last time he had suffered, or faced a foe on his level before he awoke.
"I have done nothing but fight mortals on or above my level of strength and power since I awoke a few years ago. But before that... I had not fought anyone like that... Not since the days when I was young and small."
Slayg confirmed that he had battled before; supposedly against foes of equal strength, which left Gandigan wondering what it was that he had to complain about. "If that were the case then you should have your fair share of scars; I have some too." Despite the natural regenerative abilities that all Namekians possessed, the wound that Amon created when his parasite burst from his chest was still marked onto Gandigan; never healing and never fading. A constant reminder of the worst times of his life.
"I don't know what sort of training or sparring you've done in the past, but this is how I do it, and I think we can both agree on how the results have turned out." Gandigan wasn't one to brag often, but in terms of pure strength it was impossible to deny that few could match the Namekian. "I believe in hard training, with the goal being to emulate a real battle as much as possible without actually crossing the line."
Others had criticized the way he trained like Ticoga, yet Gandigan had greatly surpassed the Arcosian in power as well. Who were they to say that he was wrong, when the fruit he reaped came out so sweet? They didn't understand. "You still interested in training? Or would you rather go back home and tend to your wounds?"
"Ha! I do have scars, they are simply hidden from view!"
Slayg smiled and held up his right foreleg and ran a claw over the scales on his chest and the beginning of his belly. The scraping of Slayg's claws made a sound like that of an iron dagger being dragged over a grindstone.
"My true flesh is pink and soft, but it is well protected by my armor! And whenever something manages to pierce my hide and injure the flesh beneath, the scales simply regrow and return... covering my aches and wounds again."
After a moment, Slayg growled and grimaced and held the hand on his right wing up to the scar on his cheek. The flesh was still so tender, and ached whenever he smiled too wide, or opened his mouth too much. And the ache reached beyond the skin, down to the muscle... And it lingered...
"Of course, they are all still there. Just lying beneath the surface. Some fade, others do not."
As Slayg continued speaking, he held his head low, and folded his wings against his body. They would be useless if he could not fly, merely flaps of skin that were weaker than his scales and got in the way during a fight. Slayg then started walking... slowly... in a circle around the clearing that he and Gandigan were in. The whole time, he tried to keep Gandigan in the center, and watched his form and his movements. He did this in the way that a threatened lion would pace around a bear or a man with a gun. Knowing that his foe was powerful enough to injure him, and not wanting to overextend himself.
"Do you perhaps have something beyond merely battering me like a drunken husband? Advice? Techniques? Ways to see or smell or hear my opponent that will give me an edge?"
Gandigan listened carefully as Slayg explained the way his body worked; how the hard outer scales protected the soft flesh within. A powerful defense mechanism, but not enough to win battles by itself. Slayg asked for some more... practical advice, which was fair. Gandigan preferred to learn though observations made in battle, but not everyone operated the same. "Well, for starters I would suggest not giving away your condition. Even when you are hurt you should put on a brave face, else you're just going to create targets for your opposition."
Perhaps Slayg felt safe because this was not a real battle, but Gandigan wanted to make sure that the Dragon knew this wasn't the case. "Do not think of me as a sparring partner right now. I told you before that when I spar, I like to emulate real battles as much as possible. I want you to battle against me as though I was trying to kill you, and you have to do everything required to save yourself. Understand? And if you see an opening against me then don't hesitate to go for it."
Slayg didn't seem the soft type to Gandigan; hopefully he could live up to that. "As for techniques? I have a few that might suit you. How about this? I call it the Shugeki Wave. All you need to use it is a mouth." On cue the Mazoku opened his jaw and fired the energy wave at Slayg.
Slayg simply snarled when Gandigan advised him not to show how hurt he was. It was easy enough for a being like Gandigan to do so, he had probably been trained as a proper warrior throughout his youth and taught how to resist pain. Slayg had simply been beaten until his hide was too thick to feel the fists and blades and clubs of his captors. And they had beaten him to get him to make noises, for amusement... but then, hadn't Slayg held back his roars and cries of pain at some point? Hadn't he fallen silent when he was used as a training dummy, refusing to give the Bear Clan any enjoyment from their one-sided beatdowns of him? Yes, he'd done that... until the day his "master" had thought to prove himself by fighting Slayg once again, and Slayg had broken his chains and tasted blood.
When Gandigan attacked again, Slayg moved quickly. He could not always rely on his scales to protect him, especially against such powerful techniques. Instead, for the first time in a while, Slayg dodged. He flapped his wings hard enough to summon a gale of wind, while pushing against the dirt with all four of his legs. This allowed his great bulk to rise above the attack, without quite hitting the ceiling of Hell.
"Decent, but I like my fire better."
Once he'd dodged, Slayg opened his maw and returned fire with his own mouth-based ki attack. This was a jet of hot flame, aimed at Gandigan, infused with the power to pierce his defenses, if he raised them. And, somehow, he pulled forth extra strength that he didn't know he had. As if he was remembering the rush that came when he had fought back against the Bear Clan, the... what was it the mortals called it? Adrenaline.
Slayg uses his Gusty Wings to dodge Gandigan's attack at 60% PL or 120,000 power! -2 KP 4/6 KP
120,000 is more than enough to dodge 60,000 power!
Slayg then counters with DRAGON'S BREATH at 60% PL, or 120,000 power! The attack carries the PIERCING VARIANT. -4 KP 0/6 KP
BUT WAIT, he adds a free momentum boost from his Demonic MIGHT, increasing the attack by 10% power to 140,000!
Apr 6, 2024 1:21:15 GMT -5
Lottus: Friendly reminder for new folks to check the rules regarding art claims - AI Art is not accepted on Sparking for character sheets.
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Yakito: I am the #1 Tenrec hater (Striker will be struck)