Seeing Set reappear directly in front of him prompted Whis to leap to his feet and retreat. Jumping back across the ruined terrain as fast as he could, the trainer threw his hand forward and, with a shout, fired a compressed blue sphere of energy the size of a basketball towards the woman.
Watching the slow moving ki attack approach her, the God of Storms raised an eyebrow in amusement. She then lifted a finger to poke at it as it closed the gap between them.
"You're such a cute one. What's your little name?" she asked curiously.
The instant it touched her finger however, the little ball went up in an enormous, dome shaped explosion that was three times larger than a thermonuclear bomb. Compressing a blast capable of wiping out an entire galaxy to a single area, Whis managed to shoot up into the sky fast enough to avoid getting caught up in the heart of it. Sporting various bruises and burns, with sweat dripping down his face, the man watched from the clouds as the explosion punched an enormous crater into the desert.
But just when he was beginning to believe he'd managed to damage his former student, he suddenly saw a black figure dart out of the fire and shoot up at him faster than he could track. Before he could respond accordingly, the figure crashed into him from below and sent him blasting up into orbit with a single kick.
Effortlessly breaching the atmosphere of the planet, Whis tumbled and spiraled as he tried to slow down. By the time he managed to halt his momentum, Set had managed to catch up to him once again. Powering up, the instructor of the Gods shrouded himself in blue energy and shot off further into space, with the dog deity doing the same and giving chase. Taking the form of two bolts of light, the pair danced across the celestial plains together, intercepting over and over, and engaging in a furious exchange of blows.
Shockwaves echoed throughout the deathly silence of the vacuum. Even though there was nothing out there to see or hear the battle, the force of their blows was so immense that they literally shifted planets out of their orbit ever so slightly.
Clashing every time they blew past each other, the pair continued to battle it out across the solar system. It was only when they flew into Mars's orbit and they began approaching the red planet's surface that the results of their brief clash became known.
Whis was now sporting more bruises and wounds then before. With his eye swollen shut and blood trickling from both his head and mouth, the man looked like he'd taken the beating of a lifetime. Panting heavily as he watched his student charge towards him, he cocked his hand back and prepared for a hit.
Set on the other hand looked completely untouched. With a calm and obviously pleased expression on her face, the woman crashed into her master with a blow of her own, the pair trading hits and parrying their opponent's at the same time with a deafening artillery clap. As they fought, the pair orbited the new planet, dealing blow after blow in a hopes of taking the other out. It appeared even at first. But after several more hits, Whis's energy began to drop.
Taking a kick to the body and across the face, the attendant's head was then knocked back by a hook crashing across his cheek. The attack drawing blood and causing a shockwave to echo around them, the man then deflected another butterfly kick from his student as the two of them began to drop out of Mars's orbit. As their bodies picked up speed, the trainer ducked a clawed strike from his student, avoiding a potentially lethal blow before bringing his arms up defensively.
He then saw Set lunge in with another wide hook. Taking his chance, Whis slipped it, caught the wrist, and twisted it around the woman's side. As soon as he did he leapt onto her back and, while holding her arm behind her, drove his heel into the groove of her neck. This stretched her out to what he knew was an uncomfortable position, locking her up and pushing her down as they began to plummet towards the surface of Mars.
Whis looked like he finally had her.
But when the girl glanced over her shoulder and glowered at him, the man knew instantly it wasn't over.
All of a sudden, Set cocked her free arm back and, with ridiculous flexibility, slammed two elbows into the man's face. Hitting him twice, she managed to free herself from the arm lock and, with a quick reversal, she managed to grab the man by the throat and switch places with him, putting her teacher at the front of their dive. With a loud battle cry, the God of Storms pushed her former master through the atmosphere of the planet. As a result, the pair started to burn up, with Whis's back taking the full brunt of their entry.
As soon as they plummeted into the Mars's air space, the pair continued to drop towards the ground. But just when they were about several dozen feet above the floor, Set then did something completely unexpected and, with a quick spin, she threw Whis up and slammed a kick into his stomach, sending the man rocketing over the horizon.
Spinning out of control, the blue-skinned teacher slammed into the mountainous surface of the valley and bounced several times. He eventually stopped moments later in the middle of an open plain, pushing himself onto his hands and knees, and coughing up blood.
Shaking as he stood, Whis's swollen eyes then turned to see Set land several feet away. Rising up from the floor, the fox woman's ears twitched as a very foul smirk crossed her face. "Come now. That was just a love tap." Cracking her neck to the side and stretching out her muscles, the woman once again set her sights squarely upon her wounded adversary. "It's really something, isn't it? Years ago I was so proud of the power I was able to achieve training under you. But then, out of nowhere, people just as strong as me started showing up one after the other to challenge my strength." When she saw her teacher grit his teeth and take a step back, the deity's expression then became more excited as she reared her head back and yelled boisterously across at him. "Those were the good old days! I had challenges back then! Today… I am incomparably stronger!"
A confused expression fell upon Whis. But just before he could figure out what his student meant by that announcement, he suddenly saw Set clench her fists, widen her stance, and with a loud howl of effort, allowed a shroud of blue energy to explode from her body like a hurricane.
Bolts of lightning streaming up and down the vortex of ki, the goddess of storms produced a gale so powerful that it damn near knocked her teacher off his feet. Her power up punching a massive crater into the desert beneath her, the woman drew on all of the celestial energy inside of her and flexed her muscles for her battle damaged instructor. By the time she finished powering up and the aura blasting around her had stabilized, a horrified look had fallen over the attendant's face.
Swallowing nervously, Whis gawked at his student's glowing form. "No way! She's even more powerful than she was when we sealed her!"
Apparently her twenty thousand years of confinement had been good to her.
After seeing her teacher back down, Set allowed the aura of blue energy and lightning to fade from her. Appearing refreshed, the fox deity then began strolling towards her foe, watching him back away while maintaining a defensive position. But with the amount of power she'd just displayed as well as the ease of which she was able to block his attacks, even his most threatening death glare didn't even come close to fazing her.
"Now then… where were we?"
The instant she asked that question, Whis, gathering all the energy he could muster, suddenly widened his eyes and, with a flash of his irises, fired a powerful Kiai straight into his student. The invisible blast struck the woman full on and cocked her head back, stopping her in her tracks and seemingly damaging her. Heck, the blast was strong enough that it was able to punch a two hundred meter wide trench in the direction it'd traveled and caused several mountains in the distance to collapse. It seemed like a sure hit.
But moments later, as the exhausted Whis gained some breathing distance, he suddenly saw Set straighten up and smile back at him. She was both unfazed and undamaged, a sight that had her teacher balk in horror.
The deity grinned, "Was that your best shot?" A scoff soon followed when she saw the guardian take a cautious step away from her. "Now let me show you mine." At that moment, the girl's eyes widened and flashed red.
A split second later, Whis was suddenly struck by a terrifyingly powerful gale of wind. However, instead of just pushing the trainer back, the attendant to the God of Destruction let out a scream of agony as his body quite literally warped under the force of the blast and his skin felt like it was going to be ripped from his body. The shockwave that hit him punched a five kilometer wide crater behind him, not only disintegrating a great portion of Mars's landscape, but also distorting the surface of the planet itself.
Several moments of agonizing pain later, the teal-skinned fighter was sent hurtling into the distance, barreling across the landscape like a ragdoll. He continued to travel for several hundred miles. It wasn't until the land started to slope that he eventually crash landed at the base of a hill. Once his momentum ceased, the man had bounced a fifth of the distance around the whole planet.
Struggling to his feet was a nightmare. Bolts of pain shooting through him, the determined instructor groaned and shouted as he stumbled into a hunched over position, blood trickling down his face and his body covered in multiple cuts and bruises. His eyes shooting in the direction he'd come, the teal-skinned alien then saw his student Set flying towards him at blinding speed, her hands behind her and a serious look on her face.
The time it took to reach him gave Whis a moment to catch his breath and take a defensive stance. When she slid to a stop several feet in front of him, the deity's blue aura suddenly exploded around her before concentrating around her hands. As soon as her energy focused up, her palms lit up with blue fire, which burned brilliantly as she quickly formed them into fists and, without a moment's hesitation, began ramming them into her master over and over.
"Everything I did, I did to make you proud!" the God of Storms shouted, slamming a variety of combinations into her teacher as he retreated, desperately blocking her flaming blows. More attacks rained down on the battered attendant, who grunted and yelped with every hit he attempted to block. Eventually, the attacks became some brutal and so forceful that even when they were successfully parried or deflected, the punches still put damage on their target. Whis was hanging on by a thread.
A few more blows later, the inevitable happened.
With one final yell, Set spun and drove a double-fisted blow into her master's chest, sending the man blasting across the countryside.
Tumbling to a stop a mile later, his body smoking and singed from the punishment, Whis let out a strangled gasp of shock and slowly started to push himself back up. But after all the damage he had suffered up until now, he would be lucky to even get onto all fours.
While he was still eating dirt, Set extinguished the flames on her arms and began marching towards her fallen adversary.
But as she did, amidst the pain racking his body and the ruin that'd been brought down upon the planet, Whis began to speak. "I… have always been… proud of you," the fighter whispered, shaking his head as he gripped at the red soil beneath his fingers, "From the very first moment… I've been… proud of you." Hearing the woman's footsteps stop, the man looked up to see what'd happened. Almost instantly he saw Set was staring down at him silently, ears and eyes wide open, and her fists unclenched. "You were my greatest treasure… my greatest student… and I loved you… as if you were my own daughter." Tears formed in the corners of the guardian's eyes as he gazed across at her. "I loved you so much… that I couldn't bear to face you… when I was told you couldn't be my successor. I was a coward… and I was weak." The man swallowed heavily as his expression reflected nothing but grief. "I… I'm sorry, Set."
The female deity stood in place, her eyes reflecting her astonishment at what Whis had just told her. Her irises shimmering as she looked the man squarely in the eyes, she saw for herself that what he had to say was the truth. It was these very words that had her freeze and remain in place as her mind wrapped around his words little by little.
For the next couple of minutes both master and student stared at one another, neither one knowing what to say next or how the other person was going to react. After a long moment had passed, it was anyone's guess as to how the ice was going to crack.
Eventually though, time had to start ticking again, and once Set had processed everything the man had spoken to her, the woman closed her eyes and lowered her head, as if conceding defeat.
"I appreciate that… master," were the first words out of her mouth.
…
…
…
All of a sudden, the goddess thrust her hand forward and fired a swift Kiai, knocking the man off of the floor and spinning through the air. When Whis crash landed several yards away, Set flexed her fingers and generated a stream of electricity, which ran up and down her limbs. Once she'd gathered enough energy, she restarted her stroll towards her teacher.
"But if you think apologizing is going to stop me from taking over this world, you're wrong," Set spoke, her eyes narrowing darkly upon the man, "I've come too far to simply give up on my ambitions now." When she stopped alongside the wounded warrior, she saw him look up at her through a pained expression and hardened expression. The sight of him had the woman frown. "Don't worry. I won't kill you. But I'll make sure you have a front row seat to watch the destruction of the old universe and the beginning of the new."
When Whis glared up at his former student, all he saw reflected in her eyes was determination and a red, demonic glow in each of her pupils.
"The Age of Set… begins now."
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