Searching the Remnants

She didn't say much during their flight. His reminiscing about the lessons of his brother teaching him flight made her wonder if she had any siblings. If they existed, were they still alive? The fact that she couldn't remember something so important made her heart and her head ache with frustration. There was a hole within her mind and spirit that seemed impossible to resolve, let alone fill.

Her gaze shifted to the location he pointed out. Celeh responded with a quiet nod of acceptance and acknowledgment. The building in question seemed to be a large warehouse of some sort. It had long since been emptied of anything valuable, likely by scavengers much like the Tuffles that Indra dispatched just yesterday. Or like Celeh herself, for that matter. She'd basically been surviving off of hunts and scavenging this place since she awoke from her cryo-sleep.

There was a light 'thwunk' as her boots made contact with a cracked slab of concrete she elected to touch down on. It was part of the floor of the place, but seemed to have been heavily damaged by something previously. Perhaps someone had done battle her before? Either way, she did some stretching of her own to prepare for their spar. She set the provisions she'd carried aside at a safe distance. It wouldn't do to have a stray blast accidentally destroy their dinner or hydration for the day.

She lifted one leg up until it ran parallel the other, but with that foot above her head. She hugged said leg to her side with one arm, then tilted her upper body to stretch multiple muscles at once. Then she let it down, took a breath, and did the same with the other leg. She did a few hip twists and shoulder rolls after that. The last thing she did before taking a fighting stance was to roll her neck a couple of times.

"Aahhh... I should have stretched back when I first got out of that damnable pod. But hindsight and all that. Now, Let's get down to business!" The Saiyan woman took three quick steps forward before she kicked off the ground, curled her legs up so that her knees almost touched her chest. Then she thrust both legs towards Indra's chest in what can only be described as a missile drop kick at full speed!

Celeh gave a smirk when she saw the impact that her kick had on him. The force of the blow had scattered dust around them. She landed from her leaping kick and took up her fighting stance once more in preparation for whatever counter-attack he might deign to launch. The Saiyan woman's eyes widened when he snapped back almost immediately to rush forward.

She was about to leap back to try and evade, but before her feet could leave the ground his tail was wrapped around her waist to keep her from escaping. Celeh reacted swiftly enough to deflect the brunt of the damage. Just before the initial haymaker was set to land, her aura sprang to life and concentrated on the back of her right hand and forearm. It formed a sturdy energy barrier that she used to block and deflect more than a few of the blows in his barrage style attack. However, even though she was able to defend against the heavier strikes within his combination, a myriad of lighter hits still scored direct impacts. The hits left her reeling for a moment just the same. She couldn't quite slide back or stumble back with his tail still holding her. She shook her head quickly to try and stave off the pain.

Rather than try to throw out a technique again immediately, Celeh elected to focus on pacing herself and looking for an opening. She threw two quick left jabs while they were both still in close quarters. She lowered her stance a little to give her knees more flexibility. "You're not..." Those two jabs were followed by what looked like a stiff right, but it was only a feint to lead into her kicking off with her left foot and bringing her right knee up towards his left ribs. "...bad yourself!" His tail was strong enough to hold her in place for a bit while she was caught off guard, but his tail alone couldn't keep her stuck if she put her full body into breaking free. Whether lucky or unlucky for him, she didn't try to put distance between them. Instead, she was going to accept his invitation to brawl at close range. That is, if he didn't lose his grip from a potential knee to the ribs with her full weight behind it.

"A good first exchange! You're stronger than you look." She grinned playfully.

There was a moment of recognition and clarity in her mind when he proclaimed that he would continue his assault in spite of her going on the defensive to decent effect. He wasn't the type to play defensively, it seemed. Celeh saw that now. He had been attacking at every point. He even took one of her hits clean and attacked again instead of defending. The raven haired woman decided then and there that she wouldn't defend again. At least, not in the traditional sense!

As he began his next barrage of strikes, Celeh answered in kind with her own. At first it seemed like she was struggling to keep up with his strength and speed, but her aura began to surge and swell around her. It was a pale, grayish green that enveloped her from head to toe. As her fist met his, the energy around her arm detached itself from her limb and threw another punch of its own with chilling force. It was then that he got to experience Celeh's ki for the first time. This was bitter cold, and unnatural. As her physical body matched his physical assault, her ki continued to rain down additional, far more potent blows in his direction simultaneously. One kick turned into two plus an elbow. Two punches turned into four. On top of that, if he made any attempt to evade, this ki aura would seek him out with relentless fervor to ensure the he could not escape.

She had managed to stop his assault and put him on the defensive. Unfortunately, she didn't have the energy left to continue making powerful attacks like that of her own. Or, that's what she thought at first. Celeh's breath was visible as if it was cold outside. They were in the middle of a desert region in the early morning. It wasn't blistering hot yet, but this time of year the desert rarely got below warm temperatures, let alone all the way down to cold. She was breathing heavily, too. That attack took a lot out of her.

"Haha... you really... took that one on the chin! I'm impressed, Indra!" She dashed forward while he was still reeling. Even if she didn't have the energy left for another all-out attack, Celeh wanted to keep the pressure on. She peppered him with a few quick energy blasts on the way in. The Saiyan woman got in close. She threw a barrage of punches interlacing rights, lefts, feints, and sneaking in an elbow now and then, as well. Her aura began to swell forth again. As she put more and more pressure on and pushed herself further, Celeh's energy reignited. For once, the cold faded. She felt warmth flow through her. The intensity of the battle had kindled something in her. Much like that defensive technique she'd used earlier, her aura was now a vibrant orange-red. It wasn't as intense as it had been when she used that technique, though. This surge of energy seemed to have revitalized her somewhat. Celeh's attacks continued with renewed vigor. The Saiyan woman flipped herself upside down using flight to propel herself forward into an upside-down whirlwind of kicks to hopefully knock him completely off balance. "Come on! I'm getting fired up. Show me what you can really do!"

Celeh's energy continued to intensify around her. Her whole body was engulfed in the red-orange ki he'd witnessed when the heat of battle ignited her Burning Ki. This time it was much more visible and dense. She didn't run away from the enormous ball of energy he hurled at her. Celeh stood her ground as it approached. The Saiyan woman gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, crossed her arms in front of her, and let this new fiery ki surge around her. She refused to back down now that she'd got fired up! Her very fighting spirit itself was ablaze around her to form a defensive barrier.

The attack collided with a devastating explosion of dark energy that left a crater in the floor of the warehouse, blew out the walls on two sides of the building, and sent rubble and dust in every direction. Even with her defense, the raw power of Indra's attack broke through. She was at the center of that blast when it happened, and it knocked her flat on her back. Blood trickled down her forehead and from one corner of her mouth. Her arms were bruised and had battered. Her legs were almost as bad, but her arms had taken more of the direct attack. Her clothes were in shambles, with only the armor lining beneath holding them together. She was breathing heavily as the smoke and dust finally cleared. "You really pack a punch when you want to. That was the kind of hit I needed to really wake me up!"

He wouldn't have a chance to see her on the ground. She'd be standing in that crater looking up at the edge closest to where he'd been when he fired it off. Her whole body felt numb from the impact. The pain hadn't registered yet. Her ears were ringing from the blast, too. Still, she gritted her teeth and leaped into the air. A few quick energy blasts were aimed at his location. Then, she zoomed in an arc to get over him. Celeh intended to come at him from above with a combination of kicks that would end with her signature Citrine Arrow double leg kick. "You got my arms feeling like jelly after that one, Indra! Guess kicks will have to do!"

His surprise at the fact she remained standing after such a powerful attack made Celeh beam with pride. The Saiyan woman grinned widely. That wasn't the only reason, though. For the first time since she'd come out of that cryo-stasis, Celeh felt warm. Her ki was surging, and it heated her up. "I won't back down. Come at me!" Her response was a proclamation not unlike his own from earlier in the fight.

Celeh stepped up and began exchanging blows with him once again. He fought back hard with his Fury Surge as he had done many times before. Celeh was becoming familiar with his fighting style now, and his reliance on barrages of blows to overwhelm an opponent in hand to hand combat was something she could see herself overcoming if she could remember more of what she was taught in training. She had only been fighting on instinct using what her body and spirit remembered. In this moment, though, she focused on defense again. She twisted, swayed, and blocked as many of his strikes as she was able to. The shear volume of attacks he threw at her made it impossible for her to evade them all at her current level, though, and that final haymaker at the end of his combo struck her clean in the gut.

She was launched back towards a wall on the far side of the warehouse from him. Before she collided and crashed through, she flipped around in the air to plant her feet on the wall. The dark haired woman kicked off the wall and zoomed through the air using ki to rocket herself back towards him. She was coming with her fist cocked back for a haymaker of her own aimed at his jaw, but at the last second her flight path dipped low and then shot up, turning what would have been a diving punch into a slicing uppercut. Rather than continue her ascent, she flipped in place to chase the uppercut with a rising knee for a quick two hit combo should he be unable to block or dodge.

We're drawing close to the finale. Let's see how he reacts when I throw his own technique back at him with even greater power! But first...it has to be a proper clash. I want him to be able to answer it. It wouldn't be fun otherwise! And I want to test my limits. I feel different after waking up from that frozen slumber. Can my body still handle fighting all out? I seem to be handling this level fine so far, but I haven't pushed myself enough in this spar. Probably best to save that for later, though. Celeh's mind was flooded with many different thoughts. There was much more to this spar than just the battle itself for her, at least.

His backflip kick was a graceful and calculated counter-attack. Celeh had to give credit where it was due, but it would be foolish for her to expect him not to counter her uppercut. That was the reason she followed it with a knee in the same motion. He'd managed to dull the impact of both attacks with his movement, though. Because of her attacks partially landing, though, his return kick was a bit delayed. She twisted her body to the opposite side from his kick and let it swish through the air beside her on its upward path. As he flew backward through the air and began to rain down blasts upon her, Celeh returned fire in kind. Unlike with close combat where she struggled to keep up with his fury surges, she seemed to hold her own when it came to these basic blasts. Hers were still powerful enough to match his, and she was able to unleash a nearly equal number. The few stragglers she didn't match, she was able to avoid with a quick hop or side-step.

"Aren't you getting tired of these games? It's almost time for the finale, don't you think? Or are you too tapped out after expending so much energy before?"