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The wind whistled through the crevices of the dusty canyon, a few vultures could be heard off in the distance, but that was the last thing on Ichirou's mind right now. He had been tracking this... this thing. For months, and finally tracked it down. His preliminary recon of this things curse were conclusive and frustrating collectively. It would be difficult for him to take this thing down alone, especially given the circumstances.
So he needed to call in a little back up, no biggie. He knew just who to call in. The clay bird that he had sent out three days ago should have arrived at Athos on the second day, and if he had taken Ichirou's request seriously then he should be arriving shortly. The exact Coordinates of Ichirou's cave camp being listed within the letter that the clay bird contained.
He watched the shadowy hulking mass with his Byakugan as it paced around the canyon. Grumbling and grunting, it couldn't even speak it was so far gone. Ichirou was glad to have rained hell down on the bastards who had created this piece of evil, and even more glad that he was the one who would reclaim what was wrongly bestowed into this beast. Ichirou wore his usual red archery gear, his bow no where to be seen, but his executioners blade sitting close by in the small cavern he had carved in the wall of the rocky cliffs to use as a base. The blade was an identical replica of the legendary Kirigakure sword it was named after, though that was just for show. Everything else about this blade bore no relation to the original.
Ichirou would continue to watch the cretin should it's hulking mass decide to throw it to some other corner of the world, he hoped Athos would arrive soon before it relocated..
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Retirement was mostly what Athos had been up to as of lately, a different twist on his usual life. The man had been training still, of course, but also enjoying the more peaceful things in life. He walked to where Ichirou had asked him to come, at least at this point, not wanting to draw attention to himself as he approached. He was dressed within a sleeveless black shirt, and pants to match. He wore no shoes on his feet, though they somehow had still managed to stay completely clean.
Athos' crimson hair, like a silk cape, stretched down his back and to his ankles. This was a defining characteristic of the man, as well as the fact that he stood at a towering six feet and seven inches. His hands rested behind his neck as he walked, a relaxed look on his face, and a relaxed stance as he moved. His chakra was enormous, even though he was trying to hide it. It was only the size of a normal Jinchuuriki Host, which was still fairly large, all things considered.
"Man, are you sure about this, Athos?" To which the tall male would give a soft sigh,"What do you mean? Of course." The beast inside Athos, a long time friend and partner of the man, released a sigh,"If Estelle finds out, you're going to be up shit's creek without a paddle, my good friend." He frowned at the idea of what wrath his daughter would rain down upon him if he wasn't home soon. He gave an agreeing nod, as well as a sigh of disappointment,"Yeah, you're right. Guess we'll need to make this quick." Of course, Athos would finally come to reach the man's camp, glancing around it as he approached. As his eyes found Ichirou, he adjusted his steps to take him towards his old friend.
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Ichirou would stand and turn to Athos, opening his mouth to speak, but as soon as words would have left his mouth, they were stolen away. A booming sound ruptured throughout the area, almost like a meteor had hit the ground, the sky would grow dark. As if night had been dragged from the other side of the planet.
The rocks around them would rumble and crack, Ichirou would scoop his sword and quickly leap from the cheaply made cavern he had constructe. Assuming that Athos would need no instruction to o the same. As the two men had left the encampment, it would crumble behind them as several small landslides erupted throughout the canyon.
They had been spotted.
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The hulking beast stood roughly 500 meters away from their location. Steam erupting from it's mouth as it huffed, it's eyes and body hummed a deep red color, the corruption of the Gelel energy that did not belong within this host. As Ichirou landed on the ground he despawned his executioners blade in a puff of smoke, and begin to radiate his own energy, a much lighter green color. "It seems i'm not going to be able to brief you like I wanted to on this thing, and we definitely didn't get the element of surprise that I was hoping for. But there's one thing that you should about this thing above all others. It doesn't bleed. We can't cut it, we can't blow it up. This is all i've got on this thing as far as it's curse goes for now, but i'm sure we'll discover more shortly.." As Ichirou finished his sentence, his body changed. The green energy encumbering it and emitting a bright flash before fading away again. Now his body was as black as pitch. Claws on his hands and feet, and the entirety of his form looked like that of a humanized wolf. Because it was. This was the pinnacle of Ichirou's physical capabilities, and a byproduct of the Stone of Gelel that had been infused into his blood. His physical prowess was increased nigh 50 fold in this form, and on par with high level Hachimon users. His voice, now much deeper and gruff, called out through the wolf head that sat upon his shoulder. "Until we can uncover more about this bastard, our best rules of Engagement are going to be hand to hand combat. Which may be harder than it looks.." The hulking mass of energy and muscle stood at a massive 9 feet, towering over the two ninja who were tall amongst there kind. The muscles on this creature easily encompassed Ichirou and Athos' chests, and it was safe to safe that this beast possessed physical strength much higher than anything that either of the ninja had encountered before. In it's hand it bore a hefty blade, seemingly crafted from stone. The blade within itself dwarfed the two men... this was going to be quite the combat.
This was only one of the many abominations that Ichirou had committed himself to tracking and removing from the face of this planet. Not only would he be able to reclaim the gelel power that rested within these monstrosities, but he would be able to add to his own power as well. Though on a much more stable level of course."Before we get started, I want to let you know, I've only ever fought one of these abominations, and the first one i fought.. well.. the easiest thing to compare it to was a fighting a Biju." were Ichirou's final words as he knelt low to the ground, preparing himself for what was to come from this thing.
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As the cavern threatened to give, Athos made sure to make his way after Ichirou. He watched as the man summoned forth a unique power before his eyes, and then changed. He had seen the Stone of Gelel used so craft-fully used only once in his whole life, and it was when he was in his early twenties. To see it again so many years later, a fierce grin crossed his lips, the nostalgia starting to build in his heart causing him to want a fight.
So, as his eyes would came to lock onto the beast, his hands slipped out his pockets and rested at his side,"Okay, Athos, I know what you're thinking. But listen to watch Ichirou is saying." He had been, of course, every last detail. But the man before him had prepared for battle, and from the sounds, and looks, of all of it, this was going to be another fun fight. He nodded his head as he rolled his shoulder, walking at a casual pace towards the thing,"A Bijuu, eh? I can hold my own against a Bijuu, so let's hope you're wrong." Although there was some truth in that statement, it was usually a close match when he fought a beast with his strength and speed only. But they also had a larger form, this one was large, but it didn't equal a Bijuu. And for some reason, sometimes smaller meant stronger.
"We'll try and do this like a Hunt.. I'll take the first charge, try to look for an opening."A groan came from inside the man,"You're not going to listen to me, are you? At least let me lend you some of my strength." Athos' walk would start to change into a fast walk, then a job, then a run. As he charged towards the thing at increasing speeds he would give a nod of his head,"Fine, you can help out in this fight, I'm not so greedy."
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Ichirou listened as Athos made mention of treating this combat like a hunt, "Sure, we'll give that a shot." Ichirou replied as he began to move along a wide right flank of the beasts position, his wolf like form gliding across the ground with elegant speed as he moved,
Of course, the abomination had other plans in store.
The creature, despite it's hulking size, lack of ability to speak and excessive anger. It was much much smarter than it looked. And rather than taking on Athos, the initial charger -a tactic that one would expect from a rabid beast- he would make his move for Ichirou.
The ground would explode in a huge cloud of dust, the abomination moving with the speed of a shunshin almost passively, a second earth shattering boom could be heard to the right of Athos, as the hulkling appeared before Ichirou. Ichirou snarled an ducked low as the beast swung to cleave him in twain with it's massive blade, missing by just the slightest of hairs. Ichirou used his low position to incite a powerful jump straight up, releasing a boom of his own as his knee came into contact with the hulklings chin, causing it's head to tilt back and the beast to furrow it's brow.
Jolting it's head back down it threw Ichirou off balance, causing him to flip behind the monstrosity, and before he could regain his footing he had been snatched from the air by the massive hand of the creature, and tossed like a rock directly towards Athos, but Ichirou was quicker than that. collecting himself and digging his feet into the earth as he flew back, stopping just shy of Athos' location/previous location if he had moved.
"Damn thing is smarter than it looks.." he grumbled as he straightened up and locked his eyes on his target, his eyes weren't fully comparable to the Byakugan in this state, but he was able to keep up with the thing more or less. He began to channel gelel energy into his right hand, the veins in his arm radiating a deep green glow in pulses as the energy gathered. He knew his next strike wouldn't maim the beast, but used in proper collaboration with Athos they could get the upper hand, at least for a few moments.
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At the moment that Ichirou had been attacked instead, Athos would turn his body and come to a stop, letting his golden hues lock onto the fight before him. Seeing that the beast had attacked Ichirou instead, it meant that Athos was on the job of looking for an opening. Of course, at that moment, Ichirou would have been thrown past him, leaving Athos with a smirk on his lips,"Oi, that means I'm tagged in now!" There was a nod before he took off towards the beast, giving a booming and powerful battlecry of his own as the man flew across the ground towards the beast.
He had taken note of Ichirou's glowing attack starting to take form, so he would aim to create an opening for his friend then. As he got close to the beast, Athos' plan was to lure to beast into attacking first, hoping he would swing the giant weapon in it's hand,"Alright, Sai-kun, you make sure to do your part here."
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And yet the creatures intelligence was shown once more..
As the 'Tag' of sorts was initiated, the beast was quick to catch on, realizing that Athos had stepped up to the plate and intended to attack it. However this time instead of a full frontal assault, the beast would use it's blade as a projectile. Throwing it forth with speed similar to that of a bullet, a huge just of dust emerging from the force behind the blade.
Simultaneously, the beast would use it's outrageous speed to burst forth and around athos, ending up behind him around the same time the blade would arrived at his face, the beast drew it's hand up with intent to strike at the same time the blade would hit, a means to disabling one of the two opponents it was faced with
But it wouldn't be that easy,
With Ichirou watching from the distance, he would find the opportune moment to release his attack on the mongrel as it appeared behind Athos, having had a decent amount of time to focus the energy into his palm, he would swipe the air in front of him as he initiated the Gelel Blast technique.
This technique made to create a blast from a distance without the need of physical contact or projectiles, it would bend the air around it's target before erupting, but with the beast focusing on Athos and apparently not counting on long range tactics, it would go off without a hitch. Though Ichirou new this attack wouldn't do so much as to draw a spec of blood from this beast, that wasn't his goal.
The detonation would occur at the back of the beasts knee, the force of which caused the leg to buckle and the beast to unexpectedly fall to a knee behind athos, who Ichirou assumed would have dealt with the blade incoming blade by this point.
This would serve as an opening for Athos to initiate a counter attack, though only seconds existed for the window, and Ichirou braced himself to either take the beasts next charge, or move in for an assisting attack in conjuction with Athos.
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As the blade would have come towards Athos, his eyes widened for a moment,"The hell..." Was all he could mutter as he moved. Did this thing really just throw it's weapon like that? Athos' charge would have come to a sliding stop as the weapon came at him, though it didn't matter with how fast the weapon was moving...
And then, from beneath his shirt and in a blur, a large tentacle came forth. With great speed and strength, the thing crashing against the incoming blade with enough force to parry it and send it into the side of the canyon wall in the distance. Of course, his eyes watched the beast as it decided to use this as a distraction, using his sliding stop to turn on his feet and face behind himself.
The monster appeared and it seemed Ichirou found his moment, because the beast seemed to fell onto a knee as Athos faced it. A smirk was on his lips, the same tail from before smacking into the ground, cracking the ground beneath it's force, and propelling Athos with great force upwards. With his right hand cocked backwards, he threw it upwards at the beast's jaw, aiming to deliver and stunning blow to the beast. Though, red chakra bubbled his form as he took off. His goal was to end up above the, hopefully stunned, beast.
The red chakra condensed around his hand as he would open it, a small black ball of chakra forming. Creating something this small, yet with a powerful punch, was nothing for the Duo of Athos and Saiken. He wondered just how durable this thing was as he released a Super Mini Tailed Beast Ball towards the thing from his high position, aiming for the center mass of the beast.
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Quite the move the duo had pulled on this thing, the successful deflection of the blade followed by a hefty strike to the beasts chin, causing it to stumble back a back as Athos released his tailed beast ball. The beast seemed to remain stationary as the attack came in, was it stunned? in shock? Hardly. It's never that easy.
The beast would smirk as the ball connected with it's forehead, the resulting explosion expanding rapidly, before appearing to implode in on itself as rapidly as it had expanded. What was left behind was smoldering ash of the rock that once was there, a crater. And the beast standing within. The red glow that was dim beneath it's skin had become bright, and it almost seemed rejuvenated as it leapt from it's crater in one motion, reaching Athos' position in the sky and opening it's maw.
From within? The blast shot forth from the Bijudama. The explosive power of the attack erupting from it's mouth like a beam of destruction as it once again aimed to remove Athos from the equation. "What the hell!?" Ichirou shouted as he too leapt from the ground in a tremendous bound, reaching the duo's position. However instead of striking the beast physically, he would howl. Release a force strong enough to blast the beast back to the earth, causing it to hit the ground and slide, throwing up a long trail of dust as it traveled before regaining it's footing and leaping up in a flurry of flips.
"What the hell was that? Did it just recycle the power from the attack?"Ichirou questioned himself as he descended, assuming that Athos had been tossed to the side. Hopeful that he had not been obliterated. The only thing Ichirou could compare this too as of this point was something similar to the Uchiha return.. but it didn't seem quite the same.
This was the real challenge in fighting abominations. Each comes with a specific curse, no two the same in any way. The effects that the corrupted Gelel energy casts upon their bodies results in powerfully outlandish abilities, which were coined by Ichirou as their curses. It appeared at first that this beasts curse was it's impervious body, but this didn't seem to be the case after all.. As he touched down he would move to regroup with Athos, while the beast moved to recover it's blade. They needed to decipher just how the creature had performed this feat.. just how it worked.
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Athos fell out of the wall in a tumbled roll of the blast as it ripped across the area with a powerful explosion. Of course, it wasn't all powerful but it could have been bad to take that on without any defenses. Taking a deep breath, he came on his feet and charged towards Ichirou. He perked a brow,"Okay, so, just exactly what the hell was that?"
"Chakra seems like a bad idea..."Saiken muttered inside Athos, which he nodded in agreement, he rolled his shoulder,"What exactly is your take on this, since you know more about these things than I do."
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Ichirou paused for a moment and swallowed as he kept his eyes locked on the beast, "Well.. to be honest with you I don't have a lot to go on right now. I couldn't actually see whatever it did to survive the attack, let alone redirect it. But the closest comparison I have to whatever that was is the Uchiha Return, the only question is how many times can it do this in succession? He paused for another moment as he charge Gelel energy into his palm, creating a Gelel Rasengan roughly the size of the Odama Rasengan, and with relative ease. "Right now, I'd say our best course of action is to try to force it to the do the move again-" Ichirou's words were cut short as the beast appeared before him once again, It's hefty blade held high above it's head before being brought down in an outrageously fast single motion.
the force was enough to shatter the ground and release a shockwave, sending huge stones flying about in random directions, as for Ichirou, he had side stepped the black and moved in to the beasts center as to avoid his strike, the shockwave from the blast essentially propelling him as he moved to strike the creature in the stomach with the Rasengan.
However to his surprise, the beast did not repeat it's actions again. No instead it took the hit, being launched backward from the force of the blast, but not before it through a wild last out, aiming to grab hold of Ichirou once more, but merely smacking him to the ground, causing him to bounce like a ball before landing on his feet again.
Ichirou clutched his shoulder, It had been severely dislocated. "Son of a.." he grumbled as he gripped the arm tightly before shouting, "Bitch!" As he snapped it back into place with a relieved sigh. He had progressive healing in this satte, so a matter of minutes and his shoulder would be as good as new as far as any extensive damage was concerned. For now he focused his attention on the beast once more, who was collecting itself off the ground with a smile
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Athos would feel a type of annoyance bubbling in his stomach as the thing took his attack but had not taken his,"Oi, you cheating bastard!" He said with a roar of defiance before coming up on the beast's back, right side. His charge was fast, bringing him to the beasts side, and in a moment, he was at the beast's side, pivoting with his right leg raised.
Energy exploded out of him in red chakra as Saiken followed up on the attack, whether Athos' kick struck it in the side or not. From his pant's leg came a tentacle that was unbelievably large, aiming to come out with the force of a Bijuu and hopefully smack the thing roughly to it's side before it could fully get it's footing again.
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The kick was delivered to the mongrel with Gusto, causing it to lose it's footing for but a moment as the tentacle came down, however it was rather quick, and as the tail struck it the beast would not go flying, as it had latched on to the gigantic tail and had been smacked into the ground like a fly.
but it's follow up was clean, having a grip stronger than the strongest vices times a hundred, the beast would roll on it's shoulder, aiming to uproot athos from the ground before slamming him back down yet again, should the slam go off without a hitch the beast would burst forth and soccer kick the grounded Athos in an attempt to send him flying instead.
Ichirou would make his move whether the Beasts kick had been successful or not, tackling him hard not seconds after the kick, landing in a full mount position on the ground. of course physically Ichirou was outmatched here, so he had to be quick to try an force the technique out of the beast again. Funneling Gelel energy through his palm, he would utilize the Gelel Laser technique to release a highly potent highly concentrated blast of Gelel energy directly into the beasts ugly face. Ichirou hoped that it would either initiate it's absorption move, or he woul find a way to pierce it's flesh.
Luckily, the beast triggered it's move.
The space in the center of the beasts forehead, directly above it's eyes; would open. Much like a third eye, though what resided within was a Red Gelel stone. The source of the cretins massive power. Ichirou's technique would be absorbed into this stone easily, and if he had continued to supply it he imagine it would have drained him of all his available power. But he wouldn't let it go that far, he had gathered enough information from his assault to formulate a strategy on taking this thing down, the key was timing as always.
Ichirou ended his laser attack, and quickly covered his chest with his arms as he was punched, sent flying back and crashing into the ground though he still landed on his feet. As the beast stood, it was apparent that it had become larger, it's muscles more vascular and with more size, as well as it's height. The glow of it's body was once again a much brighter red. However the beast did not redirect the attack initially.
"Did it want the energy?Ichirou asked himself, "Did this make it stronger? Or simply give it a payload.." He quickly surveyed the area for Athos, aiming to formulate a plan against this thing as fast as possible before it began to get the upper hand. Without the aid of a Biju like Athos had, Ichirou had a much higher chance of getting pushed to his limits, though that was still far from occurring as of this moment, the point was that this fight couldn't go on forever.
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If he had time to say 'Oh shit' he would have, but he was torn from his feet suddenly and slammed into the ground harshly. He grunted before gritting his teeth, bring his arms around his form and balling up. He had no idea what attack was about to come next, so he tried to cover all angles of himself. Sadly for him, the kick came against his side, which wasn't fully covered. There was a crack as the attack connected before Athos was sent ricocheting across the ground like a stone skipped against the water.
He landed against a large boulder, dug into it's side. He groaned, cuts and marks across his whole body, his clothing torn some. He sighed softly, laying there in the rock for a moment.
After a moment or so, though, he would move to push himself out the rock and land on the ground, grunting at the feeling of broken ribs on his right side. He would be fine would now but he rolled his shoulders, letting his eyes scan over the beast from the newly granted distance he was granted from the kick.
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Ichirou would arrive next to Athos in a shunshin flash, huffing a bit. "Damn thing knocked the wind out of me, but listen. I figured out how it's doing it. The stone of gelel is originally introduced into the body via the blood, at least in the old experiments. If the subject is accepted by the stone, the liquid fuses with their blood and becomes part of their being, their DNA. However if it is rejected, it takes the form of a stone within the experiments body. That's what he's using to absorb the attacks. The stone seems to conduct any energy it comes into contact with and store it within it's host. I believe it gives him a strength and durability boost while it's store inside him, but once the payload is released he is returned to his already ridiculously powerful state." Ichirou grabbed Athos and bolted as the Beasts sword was flung at them, crashing into and through the rock while Ichirou landed safely behind a large piece of rubble. The beast apparently didn't have a means of sensory detection, which was a good thing for them, that meant they had time to strategize.
The beast began searching for the duo, who were now positioned some 1,500 meters away from him. He smashed through stone and shouted angrily as his search was inconclusive. But every moment that passed was a moment wasted as he progressively got closer to the two of them."This is just a hypothesis, but I think if we can get him to draw the stone out to absorb an attack, we can attack the stone directly. Which will hopefully kill him, or at least weaken him significantly. But there may or may not be more to his abilities than what we've been shown. From what I can tell he's actually determining what is and isn't worth absorbing. what will give him the most beneficial amount of power to use against, which explains why he absorbed your bijudama. and if he's got the power of the stone I imagine he knew my laser would be a consistant source of energy, and wanted to see how long i'd keep it up." he paused for a moment to sigh, "Well, any thoughts?
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"It could work..." Saiken said, reading Athos' mind as he spoke. He sighed, nodding his head,"Alright, that can work. I think I have an idea. If you want to lead him into trying to absorb an attack, I'll throw something at him so strong he won't have a choice but to use that ability of his."
He nodded his head, glancing in the direction that the beast was in before looking back at Ichirou,"When he does, that'll be when you get in your sneak attack. You're an archer, stay out of sight and be ready when he goes to counter it. Saiken and I have this, alright?" He asked, turning to face the location of the beast, his hand coming to rest over his stomach as he raised his brow and waited for confirmation from Ichirou.
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Ichirou nodded, releasing the item seal on his wrist guard to spawn his bow, gripping it in his left hand. The mongrel patrolled the area, walking with a casual yet aggressive pace as he continued to close in on their position. "On your cue Athos."Ichirou spoke out in a hushed tone.
His goal for this sneak attack was twofold, first and foremost it was an attempt to bring the bastard down, secondly it served to test the extent of this things ability. Ichirou hoped that Athos attack -which he assumed would be Biju related one way or another- would cause the stone to have to focus in order to absorb all of the energy from the attack, he hoped that this would allow his attack to break through and make contact with the stone, instead of being absorbed as well.
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Taking a deep breath, the ground beneath Athos would break suddenly as chakra flowed out of him,"Ready, Saiken?" As it's chakra merged perfectly with Athos, he gave a mental nod, the two of them within the inner sanctum for a Jinchuuriki and it's Bijuu.
His form would suddenly be covered in a blue aura, clothing. A blue hoari split down the front rested on his form, two antennas on his forehead. He entered Saiken Modo, power surging out around him. He glanced over his shoulder at Ichirou before nodding, before taking off in a blue streak.
He traversed across the ground in this heightened state quickly, coming into view of the beast, but keeping his distance. He extended his right hand outwards, then places his left's palm against the back of his right hand,"Oi! You ugly bastard! Over here!" Chakra poured into the area in front of his hands as Bijuu chakra gathered, it built itself quickly to the size of a basketball, then condensed, and repeated this several times. It was a powerful attack, prepared to launch.
Assuming Ichirou got into position, and the beast charged at him, or at least paid him mind, he would release the attack.
The beam would tear through the air swiftly, in a stream of black and red chakra. The force could tear through any Susanoo with ease, and even with it's strength, it wasn't even meant to kill the beast. It was a decoy but at the same time, with all this strength, Athos thought that maybe overloading the crystal could work as well. If not, Ichirou's attack would be all they had.
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The beast caught eye of Athos, but did not move. In fact, it smiled as his attack formed before it's eyes. Steam leaving it's maw as it hung open like a dog.
Ichirou had indeed taken position, leaping to a high ledge along the rockface and drawing his bow, an arrow of Gelel energy gathering as he drew it back, the energy condensing in a manner similar to a bijudama, causing small cracks to begin to form and pebbles to float up in the area around Ichirou as he continued to condense the energy, waiting for the right moment to release the bow and taking aim at the exact location where the stone would emerge.
the beast would raise it's blade, pointing it toward Athos, as if challenging him. As if it knew something that the duo did not. Exactly what was it planning? surely it could feel the energy gathering around it at such high levels. Yet it bore no fear, it braced for nothing, but instead began walking at a gentle pace toward Athos.
Providing that Ichirou understands the nature of the attack (xD) and it traveled at the mongrel in the form of a beam, the crystal would reveal itself and the massive absorption would begin. The area around the mongrel cracking and stone flying abruptly around the place as the massive intake of energy began,
Now it was Ichirou's turn, with the beast hopefully distracted with absorbing the massive amount of Biju chakra, he felt his Gelel Arrow had more than enough power to finish this, or at least he hoped. He release the draw string, the bright green arrow darting forward that a bullet, and then.. boom. A collective explosion of Energies as the arrow hit it's mark. It was noticeable that not only Ichirou's energy expanded, but so did Athos', as if forced to. And then.. "Wait.. is that.." Ichirou muttered as he peered at the explosion that seemed to last a life time.
Like a shark breaching the water, the Red gelel energy would erupt from the explosion, along the outside of Ichirou's an Athos' energy, consuming it like a parasite before receding down into the beast once again "Shit." Ichirou grimaced as a huge cloud of dust burst forth from the now energy-less area that was the ground zero of their attacks. The beast roared, the sound alone cracking the ground and walls around them, forcing Ichirou to once again abandon his location to avoid a rockslide.
The smoke cleared abruptly, as if blow away from the center. The beast stood, alive and well. Larger than before, he stood at 11 feet now, his appendages and face twisted into malicious evil, his teeth replaced with jagged fangs, and his jaw wide, billowing smoke. The red Energy that shown from beneath his skin now encumbered his entire body, almost like a Biju cloak, it seemed alive, squirming around inside of it's vessel, muscle spasms occurring randomly throughout it's figure.
"Okay.. New plan.."
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Though Athos still had chakra left, he took a deep breath, panting heavily as he stood there in Saiken Modo. The flickering chakra around him a bright light in this darkness. It took a lot to bring up that much chakra in such a short amount of time and now... This? The flames suddenly exploded like paper around him, revealing the slightly battered and beaten Athos that rested beneath. He sighed, rolling his shoulders before moving to reach into his pocket. There were two green beans, Senju Beans, one that he would pop into his mouth and the other he would toss the Ichirou. They were something that would forcefully expand their chakra pool, replenishing it and some of their wounds.
Of course, now in this normal state, he stood where he was, now replenished,"Okay, what about something that isn't chakra?" Using his newfound energy, he would let out a violent battlecry, the ground breaking beneath him. Blue energy exploded out from around him, shattering the ground easily and raising into the air. His skin turned a deep red color and he formed his hand into a special handseal; that of a tiger.
That he tapped his hand against his other, condensing the air pressure around him, before throwing his hand forward into a blinding punch. From the punch came the form of a tiger, that aimed to slam into the beast and carry it a distance away before erupting in a large explosion. Athos wasn't sure what kind of damage it would do, but they were grasping at straws now and this was a move without any chakra.
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Ichirou had made his way to Athos' side quickly, abandoning his bow in the process. he caught the Senju bean and ingested it immediately, feeling the restorative powers that lied within. He then watched as Athos utilized his Hachimon, quite a clever idea and perhaps could bode the best results they had seen so far.
Unfortunately it was merely one piece of the puzzle, they needed more. As the tiger of air pressure made it's attack, the mongrel spoke. It's voice rumbling for miles as the first words they would hear would leave it's lips. "Pathetic."It roared as the tiger made contact, the explosion setting off prematurely as the beast simply raised it's hand with intense force, shattering the attempted move and sliding back but a mere few feet.
The level of strength that it had reached now was ridiculous, it was safe to say that Ichirou had yet to see something this strong so close. But he had to do this, he had to think.
The idea of a non chakra attack was good in concept.. but it seemed to be lacking in the fact that the beast so easily cast this aside. But then it came to him. "Athos! I have an idea, but we need to regroup." he shouted before darting off into the darkness, the beast seemed to just be toying with them now, full of itself and sure that it wasn't facing anything life threatening today. Ichirou would once again take shelter behind tons of rubble, far and deep into the canyon and away from the mongrel. Assuming Athos would follow him he would immediately communicate his plan, "Okay, So we couldn't take it down with two chakra based techniques, so overloading it is out of the question, however.. I know for sure you can perform the Asa Kujaku right? If i'm right and I seriously hope I am, If I use everything i've got left I should be able to hit him with an attack that will force him to use the elongated version of his consumption that we just witnessed. If you use Asa Kujaku in that moment to strike the gem, we could perhaps break it, and cut off his power for good. However there are two down sides to this. The first is that you will have to literally travel directly through the detonation of energy to reach him while he consumes my attack, the second is that if you don't get out of there fast enough, the resulting explosion that will come from him may consume you. If you're willing to try this, i'm willing to try this. But I don't want to see you die. That things got ridiculous amounts of our chakra in it plus whatever it had before, if the stone breaking results in an outward release of all of that energy, it could be catastrophic to anyone caught inside." Ichirou's face was as grim as it could be in this form, and his tone was deadly serious.
The beast, whom had been standing still up until this moment released yet another shout at his opponents. "You can't hide! I can smell the stench of your weakness from here." He swung his blade as he shouted, releasing a shockwave that would cut deep into the earth, and travel directly to Ichirou and Athos' location with intense speed. It seemed that he had gained the ability to track them now, too.
-
Athos listened to his plan, still within the Seventh Gate, as he nodded his head with a sigh,"Right... Of course I can use it. This is going to be close." As the attack came close, Athos would look at Ichirou and then jump out of the way of the incoming shockwave, having felt it across the ground. It could sense them now, too?
He sighed as he would land, looking at the beast. His sweat was an explosive blue aura around him, his skin a crimson red. He took a deep breath and nodded his head. They didn't have time to talk anymore. This thing was strong and they had to act quickly. He nodded his head at Ichirou, that this was the plan they were going to have to work with. Athos started dashing towards the monster as swiftly as he could, ground breaking beneath his feet.
-
Under these circumstances, it was all or nothing for these two. Ichirou didn't have time for an elaborate charge, no he would have to throw everything together at once. He'd be surprised if this in itself didn't kill him. The beast laughed as Athos ran at him, delivering three slashes at the air with his blade, creating devastating wind blades that would carve the earth an athos if precaution was not taken.
However, luck seemed to be on their side. Each step the monster took was slow now, very slow. The ground shattered beneath it's feet but it seemed the outrageous mass of energy that resided within it hadn't had enough time to fully adjust, and was instead weighing him down like a boulder. At least that's what it seemed.
Ichirou clapped his palms together. a green flame like energy bursting from the center of his palms. Every vein in his body lit up like a christmas light, the bright green glow attracting the eyes of the mongrel as Ichirou prepared his attack, "More?! Come on then! I'm as hungry as i've ever been! You beaten down rodents! You're nothing!" he shouted as the air around him seem to fluctuate simply from his rage.
Ichirou would spread his palms apart slowly, the resulting accumulation of all his remaining power taking the form of a Bright green spear betwixt his palms as he extended his arms as far as they went, once that was complete he would drop his arms, panting. His Gelel transformation began to recede from his body starting from his hands and feet, and the glowing spear spun in a circle, hovering in the air in front of him.
He gripped it with his hand, which was normal now. A smoldering emerging as the pure energy burned his skin. He cringed but cocked his arm back, taking aim before using the final strength of his Gelel Transformation to cast the spear forward in a burst of force. The spear traveled fast, shattering the sound barrier as it did. Quietly it moved, and the only sound that coul be heard by Athos was the laughing of the mongrel and Ichirou's shout "Now's our chance! The last chance!" he shouted as he fell to his knees. Panting and returned to his normal state.
The spear would connect with the chest of the monstrosity. who released a loud grunt as if unexpecting the force behind the spear. The explosion that followed was humongous. The light emitted was so bright that it could nearly blind, and the shockwave cracked the entirety of the remaining rockfaces. The explosion erupted in a cylindrical fashion, toward heaven and hell. Carving a deep hole in the ground and splitting the dark clouds that the mongrel had summoned to the area, it was only moments before the red energy would emerge from the beast, whom was suspended in air over the hole created by the blast.
Luckily, Ichirou's calculations had been off, Athos would not have to run through the force of his attack to make his own, as the strenuous amount of power it took for the false stone to absorb such a pure attack, it had actually crafted a veritable tunnel directly to Athos' target, whom was frozen in time as the stone worked it's magic, a mindless vessel waiting to be filled.
It was now or never, this could be it for the mongrel, or for two Old Friends...
-
It's known that when one uses the Morning Peacock, their fists move so quickly that their hands catch fire, the same can be said about people moving fast enough in the Seventh Gate. Pushing his body, Athos crossed the ground with a speed that created small red flashes to cross over his form, burning away his clothes slightly and leaving singe marks slightly on his skin. It was with this speed he dodged the monster's slices and closed in quickly.
He came up to the beast as Ichirou's attack landed and dove himself forward with all his might. His golden hues locked onto the red target that had the opening around it as he would through all his might behind this punches. He gave a bellowing roar as he began to rain down a furious strain of punches. Fire exploded around his hands as them moved, driving to connect with the beast's power source. His arms were covered in black singe marks as he punched as fast as he could manage, trying to end this beast's life, or so some type of serious damage. He put all he could into those punches.
-
In the Fury of Athos' punches, the stone attempting to absorb Ichirou's attack, and Ichirou'd debilitated state, there was no way for him to tell if Athos' attack was actually working. That is until a loud screech was emitted, not from the beast, but from the stone.
a shockwave would release that would blow Athos away, as well as much of energy of the attack. It seemed as though things were starting to end as the body of the mongrel descended into the pit that had been formed. That was until all of Ichirou's energy plummeted down the hole behind him. as if drawn directly to him.
The pit would emit a deep green light for a few moments, before subsiding. And then a sound could be heard, followed by the heavy crashing as the mongrel landed on the ground in front of Athos, his sword missing but his body and the exposed stone in tact. Ichirou couldn't believe his eyes, they.. they had lost? Was this it? The two of them barely possessed the strength to continue, and if this attack had failed they were as good as dead. No question about it.
Ichirou pulled himself from the dirt and began to run at the fastest pace he could, which was nothing more than a slow jog. Now in his normal state, he was able to activate his Byakugan though even with it active he could barely see. He focused with all his might on the stone, Was it really still there? Fully functional?
The beast raised it's hand as it's eyes focused on Athos, it clutched it's hand into a fist as the pure amount of chakra gathering in his knuckles could be felt. "Athos!" Ichirou called out as he stumbled, panting and doing his best to keep it together. Then the fist would drop. Faster than attack the beast had thrown thus far, and with enough force to crush a building.
However it didn't connect, instead.. it stopped mere centimeters before his face, the hefty size of the beasts fist blocking out the view of the rest of it's body from this position. Ichirou stopped in place. he looked worried.. but then his worry turned to fear. "RUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE NOW!" he shouted as he turned around. God he hoped Athos could make it out. Ichirou did his best to run, but he wasn't even sure that he could make it.. He saw the slightest crack form in the beasts stone just before he shouted, and he knew that they had won. He knew that the stone would release all the energy pent up inside of it now.
But even though they had won, this wasn't over. Would their lives still be claimed? Even by this defeated opponent..
-
With perhaps the worst timing, the Seventh Gate's Power exited Athos' body and he grunted in pain. He body was torn, covered in scorch marks and he was ready to take on the strike from the beast, hoping to make it with his life... But then it stopped and the stone started to... Crack?
Oh no. He heard Ichirou scream for him to run but his body was torn apart, he groaned, turning on his feet and starting to run. As he moved, blue flashes appeared around his body. Similar to the flickering chakra of his Saiken Modo, what chakra Saiken pushed into Athos put him into Six Tails Chakra Mode, the form before Saiken Modo. It was only for a few seconds, and it still wasn't fully enough to get Athos out of the range of the attack.
Coming out of such a speed boost so fast with such a beaten up body caused the man to grunt as he launched forward in a starting tumble before the explosion would go off. He would be swept off his feet by the edges of the explosion, before a blur in and air and crashing into the side of a canyon in the distance.
-
(http://bestanimations.com/Military/Explosions/explosion-animated-gif-39.gif)
The explosion was massive, the ground itself rose an fell like a wave through the ocean as dust darkened the sky once more, ash rained down upon everything as the tremendous cloud of dust covered the area, visibility was next to none. the canyon had been annihilated, all that was left was flat land, burnt to a desert by the force released from the stone. Athos had flown past Ichirou in his escape, barely making it out of the range of the blast itself though the wave of force that followed behind it would have undoubtedly thrown him amidst the rubble,
Ichirou had barely made it out. a Huge burn now covered the entirety of his right arm and shoulder blade. And not having enough time to recover Gelel energy his regeneration had yet to take care of it. His chakra was next to none, his vision was next to none. There was no doubt they had won, but jesus if it didn't take a toll on Ichirou. Probably Athos too. Ichirou pulled himself from the ground, using a nearby rock for leverage. Reaching into a pouch on his waist to recover a pill container, only to be stabbed in the hand by broken glass.
Cringing in pain he found a vitality pill that had survived the impact. And consumed it before using his teeth to pull out the shard of glass. He rested for a few moments, waiting for the effects of the consumable to set in, finally having it in him to walk on his own, though barely. "Athos!?" he called out, unknown if Athos was anywhere near him. He had no idea how far he'd been thrown from the blast. But he did know one thing, after the release of the chakra stored in the false stone, comes the recollection. when the stone would revert to it's pure state before being placed within an unsuitable vessel, and would be safe to be absorbed by Ichirou.
If only he could find it, he'd be good to go. But where was it?
-
Perhaps fate was a weird way of making things work, seeing as Athos found himself touched by the explosion, and then a sharp, stabbing pain in his left rib cage. Perhaps it was the monster's last 'fuck you' to the warriors, but the stone had found itself through the ribcage and through Athos.
Laying on his back, body sore and slightly torn from the Seventh Gate, arms singed and beaten, he looked up at the sky. Blood came from the wound on his side, the Gelel Stone Ichirou was looking for lodged somewhere in the ground near Athos, coated slightly in the man's blood. He pressed a hand against his wound and grunted, moving to stand up.
He spat to the side, stumbling as he tried to stand and almost falling, but stopping himself at the last second. He heard Ichi calling, slightly blackened vision looking for the man and finding him, barely, waving his other hand at him but not calling out. That'd hurt to damn much.
-
"Son of a... ATHOS?!"He called out once more, looking for his friend. Deciding that perhaps he had been thrown into unconsciousness by the blast Ichirou began digging in a separate pouch on his belt, luckily finding half of a chakra pill buried in there, and being careful to avoid getting stabbed once more, ingesting the pill he did his best to search around the area, but the dust was too thick. He could barely see 5 feet in front of him.
A minute or two passed and he had enough chakra to sustain his Byakugan, at least for a few minutes. Long enough to locate his injured friend, and the stone that was not far from him. Ichirou cursed under his breath and made the trek as fast as he could, falling to his knees as he reach the broken athos, stone wedged in his side. "Athos... Thank god you're still alive... We got this.. you're gonna be okay..." he panted as he fumbled for the stone, picking it up and clutching it in his palm for a moment as it was absorbed into his bloodstream, restoring a hefty portion of his Gelel energy. "Okay.. So.. This isn't exactly Iryo Ninjutsu, so don't expect to be dandy when i'm done, but I get this stone out of you, and get you on your feet. Alive." he panted as he scooted on his knees to the side of Athos that had been pierced. The burns upon his back singing but Ichirou focused his Gelel energy as to not heal himself, he could live with this for a bit, Athos was in real danger.
The added boost of the new stone also meant that Ichirou's energy pool would restore faster, so he would be able to repair himself before too long. But for now he has the problem of this stone. He winced in pain as he gripped the stone with both hands. "You got a little strength left buddy? I could use some help getting this out of you.." he requested as he looked up at Athos, his byakugan deactivated by this point.
-
Athos was grateful to see his friend, falling to his knees himself once the man had gotten close enough. Talking was too much of a pain right now but the man nodded his head as Ichirou spoke, and then asked his question. He hands came to grip the sides of the stone, taking a deep breath as he would prepared to pull at it with his friend.
Once they would pull the stone from his wound, blood would gush out for a moment before slightly starting to pool out. All Athos needed Ichirou to do was stop the bleeding, hopefully his stone could do that, because Athos arms screamed in pain when he pulled the rock and he wasn't going to be able to apply pressure to his wound.
-
As the tore the rock from his body Ichirou was quick to cast it to the side and place both of his hands to the wound, soaking them in blood as the green energy channeled through his veins, sealing the wound and providing some minor healing. "That's the best I could do, Athos." he said as he stood up, offering his hand to Athos to aid him, "You think you can walk? at least a little? there's a trade post not far from here.. maybe we'll make it without dying."he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood at least a little bit. At least they had won, right? What more could be asked fighting something like that. Ichirou prayed he would never come across that thing again.
-
He nodded his head, letting out a soft noise. He pushed to his feet with a grunt and started walking in the direction of the said post,"Yeah... I'm just ready to get the hell away from here already." He said with a groan, limping slightly as he walked.
-
Ichirou chuckled dryly, coughing a bit due to the remaining dust in the air. "Yeah the feeling is definitely mutual.." the two would travel from their fight to the outpost, it took hours. Without a doubt the men were exhausted upon their arrival. But the outpost were surprisingly ready for them, they had bore witness to the series of explosions, and assumed that someone had been fighting the monstrosity that had traveled near their town only days before. They were quick to provide the two with as much aide as they could, keeping them in their hospitals, having medical ninja come in from different villages. They even provided substantial amounts of food for the two.
By the end of the week, they were as good as they'd be after a fight like that. and they were free to go on there way once again. [End]