Chapter 4: Leviathan
5 Days Left
I had 2 more days to get to 2000, but I wasn't too worried about getting there anymore. My power level was sitting right above 1,800. Training my muscles without the use of ki did just what I theorized that it did. The stronger my body, the higher my power level. It would be easy for me to get over 2000.
I wanted it to be my next level up that got me over 2000, though. From what I'd observed, it looked like HP was branching off from levels, and the strength stat, and maybe the endurance stat. The higher someone's level, the higher their HP, usually. So, even if I had a higher power level then someone, they had more health than me. I couldn't let it stay that way.
"How is your training coming along?" My mother's voice stopped me just as I was about to leave the front door. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her.
Over the last month, I hadn't seen her much. She mostly spent her time at work or elsewhere. Even if she was home, I wouldn't know. I was out training usually from early in the morning to the night.
Whenever I did see her though, she acted different. It was weird to hear her actually talking to me, let alone wondering about my training. Strangely enough, the reputation thing I could see when I used observe on her said neutral, instead of hated.
"It's going very well. I think I'll be able to make you and father proud." I reply to her with certainty. She looks at me up and down, her face straight and critical as always.
"Not only will you restore honor to your name and our family by becoming a first class, but opportunity will open up to you. I hope you've thought about that." She told me; confusing me slightly.
"How?" I asked her, taking a step away from the door and towards her.
"I forget you've only been back for a little over a year." She sighed, disappointment still evident in her voice. "And you wouldn't know what being a high rank has to offer…"
I stayed silent and leaned back against the wall. What was she going on about?
"Once you officially become a second class, you'll have the option to either go into mental training to be a scientist or a doctor. If you manage to get to 1st, You'll be able to join the Saiyan Army." Mother informed me. "A male becoming anything but a warrior is shameful. You will be looked down upon if you become anything but that, and I will certainly disown you from this family."
I flinched and crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn't planning on becoming anything but a warrior anyways.
"That won't be a hard choice. I have no interest in stupid science." I scoffed in disinterest, before turning back to the door.
"Good." I heard her say as I opened the door. "One more thing."
"Yes?" I asked in reply, already becoming irritated.
"Tuunip hasn't been home in a few days. It isn't like him to just disappear. Find him and make sure that he's safe." She said to me, much to my annoyance. I opened my mouth to protest, but was cut off immediately. "That's an order."
"Fine. Ugh." I growled through my teeth and shut the door behind me.
I needed to train, dammit! I didn't have time to be babysitting Tuunip! When had he disappeared anyways? I thought back for a few seconds and sighed. The last time that I saw him was a few days ago. The same day that I ended up fighting Cauliflo's gang. Weird, I hadn't even noticed his absence.
But my Mom was definitely right. It wasn't like the little twerp to be away from home for so long. Hopefully he wasn't dead. Dying anywhere but the battlefield was pathetic. And I know that he hadn't died in a battle, or else his killer would have made the news public already.
Where was he?
Quest Alert
Find Tuunip!
Time Limit: 24 hours
Reward: 3000 XP; Greatly Increased Reputation With Tuunip
Greatly Decreased Reputation with Tuffle Race
Failure: Death of Tuunip
?
Accept / Deny
Tuffles?
I felt my heart beat faster in my chest when I saw the name. What was going on? Why would saving Tuunip give me a bad reputation with the Tuffles…
Unless….
"Tuunip, what have you gotten yourself into?" I blasted off into the sky immediately, in search of my missing brother.
I searched the area surrounding our house, and then the forest nearby. Tuunip wasn't there. The next place I thought of was the city. I thought that maybe I could find some of his friends and that they would know where he is.
A creeping sensation crept through me as I kept on the search. None of the kids that I found knew where he was. Either that, or they were too stubborn to tell me the truth.
Right now, I was looking down at a group of kids rough-housing each other outside of some buildings. I dropped down at the center of the group, putting myself between them all and separating the two fighting children.
"Hey! Why'd you stop the fight you dick?!" One of the kids who had been watching the fight shouted at me, balling his fists at me. I scowled and flared my energy around me.
"Do any of you know Tuunip? Son of Omato?" I asked them seriously, not in the mood for games. I noticed a change on some of the kid's faces, and narrowed my eyes. "Do you know where he is?"
"Yeah, but what's it to you?" The lead kid, Ettuce, asked me with sass in his tone. I took a step towards him but held myself back.
"He's my brother. Now tell me where he is." I said to him with venom in my voice. The mission only had 22 hours left.
"Hmm, you're his brother? You don't look elite class…" Ettuce hummed to himself, before his eyes lit up. He began to laugh and point. "Oh! You're the weakling brother, aren't you? The one with the super low power level?"
I paused for a moment and anger boiled up inside of me. I wasn't weak anymore. I'll never be weak again. And people needed to know that. I wasn't going to let my pride be damaged ever again!
"Does this look like a low power level to you?" I asked him through gritted teeth. I willed my aura to swirl around me like a torpedo, before exploding outwards in a burst of energy. The kids covered their faces in shock, some even being blown away. Ettuce was thrown back a few feet, but I was instantly upon him.
I grabbed the kid by his face and lifted him off the ground, holding him high into the air above me. The grip I had on his face wasn't anything to laugh at. In fact, according to him, it was something to scream about. Fortunately for my ears, my hand was large enough to cover his mouth.
"Shut it, kid."
I punched him hard in the stomach, causing him to go limp in my hand. I heard the chime that notified me that I had received some experience, but before I could do anything else, I heard two other kids rushing at me from behind.
Spinning around in an instant, I threw Ettuce into the advancing form of one of the kids, sending them both tumbling to the ground. The second one was shocked by my sudden turn, and paused for a moment. I used that moment of hesitation to knee him in the stomach and then kick him over to where Ettuce and the other kid lay motionless.
Another notification about experience came up, but I ignored it.
"A-Are they dead?" The final kid, a smart one that decided not to join them in the fight against me, asked me in shock. I put my hand up towards them and energy started to form in my hand.
"They're about to be." I said carelessly, allowing the energy to form into a ball big enough to consume them all. Just before I could release it, the kid jumped in front of them and threw his hands out to the side of him.
"Don't kill them! I'll tell you where your brother went!" The kid begged, much to my amusement and shock. I used observe on him quickly, intrigued.
Brave Victim
Karro - Level 4
Age: 8
HP: 5,760
KI: 15,360
Reputation: 0/1000 Neutral
Description: Karro wasn't born with an impressive power level. In fact, he's only projected to become a second class warrior. He grew up quite lonely, with no family, and gets attached to people easily. Is willing to sacrifice himself for his friends.
Due to his second class ranking, he was a subject of Tuunip's harsh bullying.
Currently is on edge and willing to do anything. He is being truthful and will tell you where he thinks Tuunip is.
Power Level: 720
"Ah, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" I shook my head and allowed the energy in my hand to seep back into my body. Karro's body relaxed a little bit and he turned back to look at his friends.
"Now tell me where he is." I ordered Karro while crossing my arms. Instead of listening to me, though, Karro ran over to his friends and shook them all awake.
"Thank god you're alive.. Go heal up…" I could hear him very faintly as he whispered to his injured friends. They protested, but they weren't in a condition to do anything about it.
I had to admit, the boy had some balls to stick up to me after I beat up all his friends. I didn't say anything until his friends flew off somewhere and he walked back over to me with his head down.
"Your brother… Uh… He…" Karro's voice was quiet and a little frightened. Instantly my heart pounded and I growled in anger and suspicion. I took a step forward and Karro took a scared step back.
"Spit it out or I'll break you." I threatened him. A bad feeling that I couldn't shake came over me. Karro looked up at me with wide brown eyes.
"We s-sent him to the ruins of the f-first Saiyan city…" Karro admitted finally. He carried on when he saw my critical glare. "W-We wanted him to go away… He's a jerk and we thought whatever was down there would scare him enough to leave us alone… I didn't think that he wouldn't come back.."
I resisted the urge to snap his neck right there and then.
I didn't need to ask him why they had chosen the first Saiyan City. I already knew.
The cities name was lost to time, the only information known, was that it was the first city that the Saiyans built while on this planet. It has been abandoned for hundreds of years, after all of the Saiyans living there suddenly vanished one day. The rumors were wild, but little could be done to prove, or disprove them. Some people believed that whatever killed them was still lurking in the city, waiting for more Saiyan to slaughter. Others believed that it was the Legendary Super Saiyan, who followed our ancestors to this planet to finish them off.
I wasn't sure if the rumors were a bunch of crap but whether they were true or not, the facts was that no one came back from that city. Even I knew that, and I'd only been back on the planet for a little over a year.
"I gave you what you want, so I'm going to go home now." Karro's voice woke up out of my thoughts, and I scowled down at him. His face was as confident as he could muster, but I could still see the fear behind it. He launched himself into the air and began to fly, but I caught him by the back of his shirt and dragged him back to the ground.
"Not so fast, twerp. You're coming with me." I growled at him, much to his shock. It took all of the energy inside of me not to beat him to a pulp right here.
"W-Why? I'm not very strong. I can't help you at all.." He whimpered. His false confidence broke easily, and I couldn't help but to feel proud of my intimidation skills.
"You're right, you can't." I said slowly, as I flew into the sky with him in my grip. "But if we go there and my brother is gone, a life for a life seems fair, right?"
The look of pure terror on his face made me smile briefly, despite my anger.
"We should just turn back. Tuunip's probably okay. They're just rumors, right?"
Maybe taking the kid along wasn't such a good idea. I ignored his babbling while I searched the land for something to eat.
The mission had about 17 hours left. That wasn't too bad, considering that if we flew at the pace that we were currently going at, we would be there in about an hour. It gave me enough time to stop and get something to eat, which I desperately needed.
Strangely enough, the further that we got from the claimed territory that I was familiar with, the less animals and life there seemed to be. About an hour ago, the trees started to die and wither, until there was no more left. Even the grass had disappeared. Now, the ground just looked dry and cracked.
"Hey, I think someone's following us."
The first useful thing that he's said the entire time. I snapped my head back and strained my eyes. Far off in the distance I could see someone trailing us, their aura flaring around them as they did.
Who would come all the way out here? This was practically a wasteland.
I stopped flying and turned to face them. To my surprise and confusion, the person that reached us wasn't at all someone that I expected.
"Squash?" I said his name in slight confusion, staring at his name tag. I remembered him. He's the coward that abandoned me during my fight with Taro. I crossed my arms over my face and examined him.
Sweat was rolling down the sides of his face, and he was panting slightly. His short black hair clung to his face, and his tail swung slightly behind him. He didn't look like he wanted to fight. Not right now, at least.
"You know my name?" Squash asked in surprise. I narrowed my eyes at him and let myself fall to the ground, waiting for him to follow. Karro and Squash followed me and we all touched down.
"Why are you following us?" I asked him, not bothering to answer his question. I didn't really have a good answer to that question anyways. The only reason that I knew his name was because of the game, and I sure wasn't about to tell him about that.
"Well… The other day, you helped defend me against Taro." He seemed to grit his teeth a little, and then looked down. "It hurt my pride to accept help from someone else, but it was the only choice. I would have rather died right there and then."
"And then you abandoned me like a coward. Get to the point." My hands fell to my side and I felt my body tense. If he wanted to fight, I was ready. He probably came here to fight me for in defense of his pride. But if he did, he was in for a rude awakening.
"Because you helped me once, I have to help you back once. And then we're even and I can forget anything happened." He said with a frustrated expression on his face. "That's why I'm here. So I can get it done as soon as possible. I can't live with myself knowing that I was helped by some softie."
"Soft?" I couldn't stop the growl from escaping my throat. How dare he call me soft?! I'm not soft at all! My hands balled into tight fists.
"Why else would you go out of your way to help me? I didn't know you, and we're not related by blood." He questioned me confidently. "It's obvious that you're soft. It's like you wanted to be a hero or something." He spat the words out like they were poison.
My blood boiled at the thought. I wasn't being soft! The only reason I helped him was because of the mission! I could feel the fury rising in my body, and took a few steps towards him. I'd crack his skull in. That will teach him who is soft!
Before I got to him, though, the ground started to shake. I stopped mid-stride and looked down, my eyebrows raised in confusion. As I watched, the ground suddenly bulged upwards, as if something was trying to poke it's head out. Immediately, I jumped up into the air, flying away from the bulge in the earth.
I ended up right next to Karro, who was staring down at the ground in confusion. A moment later, a large metallic object poked its head out from beneath the earth, destroying most of the ground in the process. It didn't stop there, though. The weird object slithered out of the ground, and my eyes widened due to my shock and confusion.
It's body was long and slender, with scales that shifted and screeched as they rubbed against each other. When it opened its mouth, I saw what looked like thousands of sharp blades that was were its teeth should have been. If it had normal eyes, I couldn't see them due to the overwhelming red light emanating from them.
"It looks like… A Leviathan…?" Karro's voice was just as confused as I felt. He was right. The weird metal thing looked like one of the giant sea snakes that lived in the oceans of Planet Vegeta. Except, Leviathans don't live in dirt and they definitely aren't made of metal.
"Tuffles…"
I heard Squash's horrified voice from a few feet away. My eyes widened in shock and I looked between him and the metallic Leviathan, which was still dislodging its body from the ground. It was immeasurably long, with a width that was big enough to easily swallow us whole.
Was that thing a Tuffle creation?
I thought back to when I received the mission and my mouth went slightly dry. I had hoped that it didn't have anything to do with the actual Tuffles, but as I stared down at the monster coiling beneath me, I knew that I was wrong.
I hadn't actually met a Tuffle before, and I didn't know much about them. In fact, just about all I knew came from rumors and from Brusell. I knew that we've been in a war with them for over 20 years and that they had crazy technological inventions. That alone worried me. How could they compete with the Saiyans for this long?
"We need to go!" Squash called out to me. When our eyes made contact, I almost recoiled. His eyes were full of fear. I instinctively nodded at him and flew higher into the air and away from the ground. Squash was ahead of me and Karro followed me along quietly.
When we were a good distance into the sky, I stopped and looked down at the giant slithering thing.
"What is that?" I asked no one in particular, although my eyes did fall on Squash. The slightly taller boy gulped and tore his eyes away from the creature, so that he was looking at me.
"I-I need to go… Now." His voice was quite, like the whispering of the wind. I growled my teeth and flew over to him, coming up close to his face. To my surprise, he didn't react. Upon getting closer, I realized that his face was now a deathly pale color.
"You aren't going anywhere." I said to him, a bead of sweat rolling down my forehead. "You need to repay me right?"
As much as I would rather knock him out and send him home in a basket, he seems to know something about this stuff.
"They are monsters created by the Tuffles…" Squash started after a few moments of silence. "Leviathans made of metal and the blood of our people. They don't need to eat or drink. All they live to do is kill and devour Saiyans."
A shiver ripped through my spine, but I shook my head and crossed my arms. "It's just a bunch of scrap metal. It will be a piece of cake." I scoffed, trying to keep confident.
"Well, we don't really need to kill it, right? If we fly high enough, it can't get us…"
My head snapped backwards and I glared at Karro for a split second. Wow, I forgot that he was even there. The small kid looked even more nervous than before, but not nearly as fearful as Squash. Why is he so scared anyways? And how does he know so much about Tuffles?
"Hmm. Good point." I acknowledged reluctantly, yet a little grateful. I didn't let that show in my tone, thankfully. "We'll keep going to the city. We still need to find Tuunip."
When I turned to go back in the direction of the city, I felt Squash's hand harshly grab me by the shoulder.
"Wait!" His voice raised into a panicked shout, stopping me in my tracks. I slowly turned towards him, removing his hand from my shoulder swiftly.
"What?" I asked him, eyes narrowed.
"If there are more of those things ahead… We won't make it back…" Squash's voice went quite again, his eyes flashing with the same terror that I saw earlier. "We aren't strong enough. Going against Tuffles now would be suicide…"
"Disgusting. You're a coward, just like I thought." I gritted my teeth. "You would admit defeat against an inferior enemy! For what reason?! Why are you so afraid of the Tuffles?!"
His mouth opened slightly and words threatened to spill out, but as if his throat sealed shut, he kept quite. He lowered his head and quivered, so I turned my back to him and began to fly towards the direction of the city.
I wiped off the sweat that had been building up on my forehead, my eyes glancing downwards ever-so-often. The ground was bulging and twisting under the surface. It's following us…
Getting food would have to wait. I looked forward and gulped, before speeding up. Tuunip, what have you gotten yourself into?
And here's chapter 4, and reveals a bit about this arc. "Tuffles?! The Saiyans destroyed them!?" I can hear some of you saying, but remember, this is an AU. In this AU, as I briefly mentioned in the chapter, the Tuffle-Saiyan war has been raging for over 20 years. Which is more then 10 years more then the war did in canon. And clearly, the Saiyans haven't been destroyed by Frieza yet! What's going on with that? You'll find out eventually. But clearly, Frieza didn't decide to destroy the Saiyans for some reason.
Since it's over 10 years after the would-be destruction of planet vegeta, some of you may be asking about Kakarot(Goku) and Vegata... Andddd you'll have to wait for that.
I'll explain this though. The saiyans are living a lot more less technological and lavish then they did in the movies. They didn't destroy the tuffles, and therefore didn't acquire their technology. So they're a little more primitive, technology wise.
And remember this is an AU! Alternate UNIVERSE! So things probably won't go in the direction of Canon! Let's just consider this universe 13.
