(Back on Earth)
An explosion ripping across the sands sent Videl bouncing across the soft floor, the girl crying out when she hit the surface with her back, elbow, shoulder, and then her back again, before eventually rolling to a stop. Groaning as the dust from her landing settled around her, the teenager in the white and pink shirts pushed herself off of the grained surface and looked up. Coughing on the sand that got in her mouth, the battered and bruised girl then gazed across valley she'd been thrown over. As soon as she did, she saw her opponent emerge from behind the wall of smoke, which parted the moment she strolled into view.
Her eyes landing upon her Ibizan hound opponent wielding the two flaming batons, the raven haired tomboy groaned painfully and pushed herself onto one knee to glare across at the minor deity.
"Okay… this isn't going very well," Videl spoke, openly admitting to the issue that she was currently faced with.
After all her years of hard training, the girl thought she would be prepared to face whatever super powered enemies were likely to show up. Even though she was well aware that guys like Gohan, Zangya and Piccolo were much more powerful than her, she still believed she'd grown enough in her time as a fighter to be able to accomplish something with her abilities. But as it turns out, this foe that she was confronting alongside Krillin, Android 18, Goten and Trunks, was far stronger than she'd previously expected.
So far the canine warrior had spent the better part of the last hour leisurely kicking her and the others around the lifeless wasteland. Despite being backed up by the likes of Eighteen and Goten, this woman was still proving to be more of a challenge than they could've hoped for. If Videl was reading the airways right, in terms of raw power and strength, she estimated that their adversary was about the same level as Piccolo. That easily placed her in the Super Saiyan class. Thanks to a combination of flight, speed, dodging abilities and luck, the five of them had been able to hold out against her.
However, Videl wasn't sure if they would be able to keep this up much longer.
Unless Piccolo, Vegeta and Zangya were able to take care of their opponents quickly enough to come help them, then she was at a loss as to what they could possibly do.
"Who knows… maybe she'll get tired," Videl thought optimistically, watching as the smirking dog marching towards her raised her batons and cross them over her chest. When she did, Tana's whole body suddenly became encased in blue fire. It was a sight that had the tomboy cringe nervously. "Oh, who am I kidding. We're boned."
Seeing her opponent get up several yards away, the Ibizan grinned viciously. "Ready or not… here I come!" With a yell, the minion then charged towards the human at a ridiculous speed, her form resembling a living comet as it streaked across the dunes towards the grounded fighter.
Eyes widening in panic, the tomboy quickly leapt into the air and avoided the woman when she swung in with one of her batons. When she missed, the blazing warrior ended up striking the sand, causing a geyser like blast that filled the sky, as if a depth charge had been set off. As soon as she jumped into the air, Videl cupped her hands over her head and, taking aim, fired a powerful orange blast towards the cloud of dust hanging beneath her.
"Masenko-HAAAA!" A sonic boom rang out when her attack rocketed towards the desert and struck it, exploding with the force of a compressed nuclear warhead. The dome shaped blast engulfed an entire area of five hundred meters in all directions, punching a sizable hole in the ground at the same time.
Videl thought she was successful and grinned in celebration of that belief. But that smile soon faded when the smoke settled and she saw her target standing perfectly unscathed in the heart of the crater.
Smoke curling around her body, Tana smirked at her enemy. "What was that supposed to be?"
"Uhh…" Videl didn't know what to say at first. A few seconds later of staring down at her still perfectly alive target, the girl's shoulders slumped. "Shit. I got nothin'."
A scoff came from the Ibizan hound. "That's what I thought." Banter completed, the dog woman then launched herself from the sand and rocketed up towards the girl at terrifying speed.
Reacting in alarm, the tomboy thrust her hand out and fired a couple of ki blasts down at the approaching woman, only to see them bounce off of her harmlessly. When the counterattack failed, Tana had a clear shot straight up at her human target and took a swing at her with her flaming baton.
Acting quickly, Videl dove out of the way at the last second, barely avoiding the dog's attack. The second she moved, the teen threw both hands up and fired a couple of ki blasts at her, the attacks exploding against her side and blinding her with smoke. As the tomboy continued her descent, the Ibizan hound chased after her, her baton pulled back and ready to strike again. But just before she could catch the desperate teen, a kick from a blind spot slammed across her cheek and sent the dog spinning through the air.
Caught by surprise at being unable to sense the attack, the dog woman looked up to see Android 18 charging right down at her. Beaten and bruised from an already grueling battle, the blonde woman shouted when she chucked a fist at the hound, only for her target to slip it and knee the cyborg in the stomach. The blow connected loudly, stopping the woman dead before an elbow in the back sent her plummeting to the desert floor.
Taking aim with her hand, Tana prepared to shoot the android out of the sky and finish her off. But just before she could do that, a loud humming sound alerted her to danger and prompted her to lean back, avoiding a golden disk that nearly sliced her arm off. Gritting her teeth, the woman looked in the direction it'd come from, only to get struck from behind when a glowing Super Saiyan Goten dove down from above and nailed her with a double kick behind her shoulder blades. The blow causing her to lurch forward, Tana spun around and attempted to backhand the boy, only for the speedy assailant to duck and leave her wide open for a body shot from Trunks.
Driving his fist in from below, the lavender haired child laid into the dog with a fierce onslaught of punches and kicks. However, after several dozen attacks landed, he soon realized that none of them were having any effect and, by the time he looked up to see the smug expression on his target's face, the boy was suddenly grabbed by the hair and kneed in the stomach. The blow knocking the air out of his lungs and muffling his yelp, he was then smacked in the side of the head and sent blasting into the sand dunes below.
"TRUNKS!" Goten shouted, coming around again to punch the woman across the face. But as soon as he let his punch fly, Tana caught his wrist and sent him into a spin.
Krillin, having attacked the woman earlier with a Destructo Disk, dashed in to try and save the young Saiyan from the toss. Unfortunately for the gutsy fighter, the moment he flew into range, he ended up getting blindsided when the woman used Goten as a battering ram and slammed the blonde child into the short man. The collision sent both warriors plummeting out of the sky to land painfully on the sand. When the dust settled from their respective crash landings, it showed Goten had been knocked out of Super Saiyan and Krillin with his entire upper body lodged in the ground, his legs sticking into the air in the most comical fashion.
Landing on the sand between the fallen bodies of her two latest victims, as well as Trunks lying several yards away, Tana looked around at the range of targets she could pick from. Having thoroughly enjoyed the thrashing she'd been dealing them thus far, the woman smirked and decided to go torment the spiky haired youngster that'd had a go at her sometime before.
Strolling over to where Goten was struggling to get up, the dog raised a foot and slammed it into the back of his head, drawing a yelp from the child and beginning to grind her heel into his skull. Grinning as she heard the muffled cries being emitted from his writhing body, the woman followed up on her plan to make the boy suffer and stomped him into the floor a couple of times for good measure.
"Gaaah… aaugh" Goten cried out, feeling the blows shake his skeleton as his mind began drifting in and out of consciousness.
Each hit drew a cry or a shout from the child; a chorus of agonized sounds that sent a chill of delight up the woman's back.
"Oh… this is going to feel great," Tana exclaimed, glancing across at Trunks to see the boy up and staring across at her in panic. When she saw the look in the lavender hybrid's eyes, the canine flashed him a devilish grin and gestured down to the one beneath her toes. "Watch closely now, because your friend is about to be put down like the miserable wretch that he is."
But then, just as Tana was about to commence with crushing the life out of the youngster, she was forced to spin around and elbow an approaching Videl in the face, catching the teenager in the midst of a sneak attack. The blow knocked the raven haired fighter back and sent her tumbling down a hill, a scoff of amusement leaving the dog's lips when she saw the dust settle.
"Please… don't interrupt me while I'm having my fun," the Ibizan stated as she then turned back to working on the child. When the sound of bones and muscles being compressed rang out, the minor deity chuckled menacingly. "Ha. This is like harpooning fish in a barrel." And here she was worried about not coming out of this thing alive.
This group of warriors were pathetic.
Stopping in a crumpled mess at the bottom of the ditch, the plucky crime fighter looked up from her place and spat furiously. "Y-You bitch… I'll show you!"
Another series of pained cries flowed freely from Goten's lips when his skull started to cave. With the enormous amount of power wielded by the dog woman, it was only a matter of time before his body gave in to the strain.
From his position, Trunks could see and hear every agonizing moment of his friend being pushed into the floor. As Videl, Krillin and Eighteen were trying desperately to get back to their feet from the blows they'd suffered; the rugged son of the Saiyan Prince was the first to return to an upright stance. However, due to the amount of damage he'd suffered and his insignificant power level in the face of such an overwhelming force, the only thing he could do was stare helplessly as his best friend and training partner was mashed into the ground.
Eyes shimmering with fear and despair, the lavender haired youngster gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly. When another round of cries from Goten echoed across the countryside, Trunks shut his eyes and growled in frustration, taking up a fistful of sand and slamming it into the floor repeatedly. "Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT! I can't do anything! I can't! I'm so useless!" In all his life of training alongside his father and his teammates, he'd never felt as powerless and as worthless as he did right then and there.
Hell, he was so broken and so beaten into the dirt that he was completely incapable of helping someone he cared about.
The thought of it was completely ridiculous. It was almost like a damn nightmare! Here he was, clawing at the ground while his best friend was just a few feet away and having the life squeezed out of him. With his dad occupied and the rest of their teammates in the exact same debacle as he was, unable to do anything to help, the situation was becoming dire.
And even though it probably wasn't true, Trunks believed that it was entirely his fault.
"It's because I'm not strong enough! I'm not strong enough to do anything!" the boy thought desperately, tears appearing in his eyes as another bloodcurdling cry from his best friend of many years filled the air. "I-I'm sorry dad, but… I can't… I just can't do it!"
Any second now Goten was going to die and even if they tried and attacked the woman now, there wasn't a single thing he could do! She was just too strong!
However, when another bone crunching sound followed by a scream from his best friend echoed across the skies, the lavender haired boy's eyes widened and, with a yell of his own, he forced himself upright.
"NO! I WON'T LET IT END THIS WAY!" His shout drawing the attention of Tana, the woman turned just in time to see the wounded boy covered in burns and cuts rise step forward and, with several deep breaths, threw his head back and balled his fists. In that very instant, his eyes became filled with anger and fury. "Do you hear me?! I WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON'T!" With a deafening cry of defiance, Trunks screamed at the top of his lungs when his white aura exploded around him and shook the entire field with the sound of an earthquake.
His cloak crackled with golden bolts of electricity as his energy skyrocketed, stunning Tana at its increase and drawing blinks of surprise from the grounded Krillin, Videl and Eighteen. Then, just moments into his staggering outburst, both the child's aura and his hair flashed gold, the latter of which spiked up and lifted into the air, literally defying gravity. At the exact moment his energy changed colors, a massive shockwave reverberated across the desert and smacked the Ibizan hound with a blast of wind and sand, causing her to raise an arm and cover her face.
"W-What in the world?" the woman choked out, looking across at the grey haired child in awe of his sudden transformation. "He can do that too?!"
The range of power ups she'd witnessed today was unreal.
Unfortunately for her, Tana wasn't allowed time to dawn on this reality. With his golden energy burning like a furnace around him, the newly transformed Trunks exploded from his spot and charged straight at the woman. Another cry of rage filling the air, the child drilled the surprised canine across the face with a killer haymaker, which connected with a deafening crack. The blow threw her off of Goten, liberating him from her heel and sent her stumbling over the sand.
As soon as he caught her by surprise, the demi-Saiyan then dove in and began hammering away at her stomach with a vicious barrage of punches. The boy furiously pounded away at the woman's midsection, the sound of machinegun fire filling the air while the dog woman grunted and coughed repeatedly under the string of hits. The assault carried on for a solid ten seconds.
Then, as soon as he was satisfied, Trunks nailed the woman in the chin with an uppercut before slamming a kick into her side, sending her blasting across the ground and tumbling towards another part of the valley.
"YOU WANT MORE?!" Powering up and blasting into the air as soon as the woman stopped rolling, the child cupped his hands at his side and, with another cry of effort, threw them forward and unleashed a golden blast down at his target. His Buster Cannon attack arced down and struck the dog woman squarely in the chest, engulfing her in a massive dome shaped explosion that burrowed into the earth's surface and sent sand pelting in all directions.
When the ground stopped shaking and the fire settled soon afterwards, the stunned Z-fighters observing the battle from across the plains watched as the smoke slowly started to clear. Maintaining his position in the sky, still wrapped in the golden glow of his transformation, Trunks panted to catch his breath following his wicked attack. From the way he completely cut loose on his foe, he had every reason to believe that he'd probably done some serious damage to her.
However, when the smoke that was the aftermath of his blast blew away, the child gawked in shock when he saw his target standing in the center of the crater, covered in dirt and glaring up at him with a ticked off look in her eyes.
Expression twisted irritably, Tana spat to the side. "I actually felt that, you little shit." Clearly having not expected the child to pack such a wallop, the woman had let her guard down for only a second, giving him the opportunity to hit her.
Well, now that she knew exactly what she was dealing with, the minor deity opted not to do that again.
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