AU: The Rise of a Legend
Prologue Arc:
24th Tournament Saga:
Chapter 14: The Thrilling Conclusion! Goku Outsmarts Tien?!
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Tien's body now seemed to be shimmering brilliant from the sheer exertion of his ki as grunts of effort echoed out across the ring. Even Goku looked to be very amazed at what was currently taking place.
"What's he doing?" The spiky-haired man wondered. "He's putting out enormous amounts of ki!"
And then, out of nowhere, Tien's body seemed to be slowly changing, morphing, changing appearance from something solid to a thin ghostly texture, like vapor — it looked as if Tien was fading out of existence!
"Whoa, unbelievable!" Goku said. "What's he doing?!"
A determined expression replaced the frown that had been before it.
"Well, whatever it is, I've gotta stop him before he finishes it!" The innocent man decided.
With a ferocious battle cry, Goku charged at Tien just as the misty vapor completely enveloped his body, leaving the three-eyed warrior standing there, looking he had just fazed into another dimension.
As he got close, Goku threw a side swipe at Tien which, to the messy-haired fighter's shock, passed right through Tien's body!
"What?!" He exclaimed. "What's going on?! Impossible! That was a direct strike! It should have hit!"
And in an instant, Tien's body shifted back to its normal state, whereupon he delivered a solid punch to Goku's gut. With a violent expulsion of air from his lungs, Goku went flying, landing several meters away in a crumpled heap.
"I don't know if I can really explain what just happened!" The announcer declared. "At the last moment before Goku's strike, Tien seemed to disappear before our very eyes, making Goku's punch less than useless! I've… I've never even heard of this kind of technique!"
Up in the stands, Master Roshi nodded. "Intangibility."
The others turned to face him. "Intaga-whatsit?"
"You're not making any sense, old man!" Bulma snipped. "What's that?"
"Think of it as a permanent version of the afterimage technique." Master Roshi explained, sounding very grim. "With enough training, a fighter can use their ki to alter their own body's molecular structure, protecting it from any form of attack, whether physical or spiritual. To my knowledge, it was never fully perfected. The immense strain on the user's body and ki taxes them beyond the limits of mortal men and to even attempt to try runs the very real risk of fading away entirely from prolonged exposure to it — out of all of the foolish upstarts who have tried to harness it throughout the ages, none have ever succeeded, but it is said that total mastery over this technique will make the wielder unbeatable."
"But… that's not fair!" Bulma complained. "How on Earth is Goku supposed to defeat a technique that's unbeatable?"
"That's just it." Master Roshi. "It can't be beaten. It is the ultimate technique, and no mortal force can hope to penetrate it."
The others turned back in shock, now worried for their friend.
"Goku!" Puar cried.
"You're out of your league!" Oolong advised.
"Just do something!" Bulma cried.
"Tien, you're awesome." Launch said, now smirking in that oh so superior way of hers.
Struggling back to his feet, Goku watched Tien with something akin to joy on his face.
"Wow, that was incredible!" He remarked. "My attack didn't even hit you!"
"As you can see, my training over the last three years was time used wisely." Tien said. "I am now the master of the Intangibility technique. No living force can compete with its power. It is totally unstoppable."
"Really?" Goku said with a smirk. "Sounds like a challenge to me!"
And with a kiai, Goku threw himself at Tien suddenly with a massive flurry of punches, kicks, and uppercuts as Tien rapidly fazed in and out of the normal dimensions of the space-time continuum. Master Roshi gasped.
"Incredible." He said. "He's learned to control the rate at which his body phases in and out."
"How in the world is Goku going to beat him, then?" Bulma asked.
"There is no way it can be defeated." Roshi said. "With Tien's fine control over Intangibility, he can simply keep on using it until Goku wears himself tired, and then take advantage of that weakness."
"Tien, you're the man!" Launch praised.
"So, you can control your speed too, huh?" Goku noted, and then he smirked. "Let's see you compete against me at full power!
Jumping back from Tien, Goku sat down on the ground and began pulling off his weights.
The three-eyed warrior folded his arms with confident laughter.
"Ha, I know you're taking off those weights, but you'd have to be moving mach 300 to beat my reflexes." He said.
"I don't know what this 'mach' you say is." Goku said cheerfully, dropping his heavy boots and wrist-bands to the arena floor, "But I know you can do everything you set your mind to if you try hard enough!"
And with that, Goku shucked off his weighted undershirt, rubbing his neck and arms. He jumped up and down in place.
"Ah, yeah, I feel much lighter now!" He chirped, then he turned a determined stare on Tien. "Get ready now!"
Tien took on a fighting stance. And in an instant, Goku had launched himself at Tien, moving faster than the eye could see!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
In a flash, the innocent man was all over the ex-Crane student, smashing into him with the force of a fallen meteor, pounding and pummeling every square inch of Tien that his fists could locate.
"Yay, all right!" Bulma cheered. "Goku, you're doing it! You're doing it!"
Launch twirled the gun in her finger. "What was that youse was saying?"
Bulma gulped. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
"This is simply amazing!" Master Roshi said, trembling in awe. "I've never known anyone who could move that fast! Even trained masters have spent decades trying to achieve the level of skill that Goku has managed to obtain in only ten years! What's his secret?"
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Finally, Goku smashed his fist into Tien's chest, sending him flying back as with a large thud he landed on his back, aching all over.
"And Goku has just launched himself into a furious counteroffensive against Tien Shinhan!" The announcer said. "He'll definitely be feeling that one in the morning! All I can say after watching that is… wow! Just wow!"
Wincing and groaning in pain, Tien worked his way back to his feet, now covered in many red bruises. As he stood up to his full height, he wiped some blood away from his mouth, now smirking as he stared down Goku.
"I see I underestimated you." He said. "You've gotten much faster, way faster than you were three years ago."
And Tien hunkered down with his arms by his sides.
"I can see it's gonna take more than that to defeat you." He answered.
Goku simply laughed, grinning and having a good time, just like the little kid he was in his heart.
And then a white aura surrounded Tien, as with an enormous strain, he started calling on ki from deep within him to augment and enhance his muscles as, with grunting and deep panting, another, completely identical Tien stepped out from his body… and another… and one more too! The three other Tiens surrounded Goku, standing there on each side of the ring.
"The Multiform again, huh?" Goku observed with a large, confident grin. "You know this technique divides your power evenly. You're now four times weaker than you were before — there's no way you can beat me now… unless you have a clever strategy planned."
Tien chuckled. "That's for me to know and you to find out."
All the forms of Tien took on battle postures as well as Goku himself.
"Unbelievable!" The announcer stated. "And once again, we see that Tien Shinhan has split himself into four identical copies of himself! This looks bad for Goku, but, if there's one thing we've learned during his fights, it's that he has a habit for dealing with unusual problems!"
With a furious cry, all form versions of Tien launched themselves at Goku; for just a couple of minutes, it was a blur as Goku dealt with the problem of having four opponents instead of one, but, unlike when he did this before, whenever it appeared he would land a solid blow on one of the Tiens, they phased away from Goku using Tien's new move, and it wasn't long before they laid the beatdown on the black-haired man, Goku's reaction now too ill-equipped to deal with four opponents who could use the Intangibility technique.
"Oh boy, this could spell trouble." Master Roshi said from the stands. "Alone, Goku could deal with the Intangibility technique by himself, but when Tien backs it up with the Multiform technique, Goku's reaction time suffers, and he can't deal with it as quickly."
"Tien, you're amazing!" Launch said dreamily.
"And what about Goku, huh?" Bulma demanded angrily. "How can you just turn your back on him?!"
"Hey, you can't win all the time." Launch said haughtily. "Everyone loses sooner or later."
Bulma just seethed angrily.
Meanwhile, Tien continued pounding on Goku, smashing his fists and feet into every available space that he could find on the formerly tailed fighter, disappearing rapidly before Goku could catch him, and of the very rare times he did and reacted to it, Tien phased away too quickly for him to land a blow!
"How does it feel?" One of the forms of Tien asked.
"To be the one powerless now?" Another Tien asked during the smackdown.
"Your reaction time is suffering because of this!" A third one admonished him harshly.
"You can't beat us like this!" The fourth one finished, suddenly flying up into the air.
Goku didn't even notice, too consumed in the raw pain that he was feeling as he tried to find some weakness in Tien's new technique, a way to get past his defenses and get in close enough to deal some damage, but it was hopeless.
Suddenly, all three Tiens jumped away as up above, he felt a strong power being generated.
Turning his head to face it, Goku saw the Tien above holding his palms cupped together in an upraised V pattern.
"TRI-BEAM!" The Tien up above roared as a colossal wave of orange-colored energy came bearing down on Goku.
"Ha, I'm not so slow I can't counter that!" Goku said as he cupped both his palms to the side, gathering ki. "Ka… me… ha… me…"
Bluish-white energy formed within his palms as he thrust them both together upward with a loud cry of:
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The Kamehameha Wave leapt straight upward, smacking into Tien's Tri-Beam Cannon head on directly above them.
"You know you can't hold on forever, Goku!" Tien said. "Even at a fraction of my total power, my Tri-Beam can match your Kamehameha Wave, and without hurting innocent civilians in the process either!"
"Oh yeah?" Goku challenged. "Well, we'll see about that!"
BAM! BAM!
Instantly, two hammer blows to the sides of his upper torso had the messy-haired warrior keeling over as he stopped channeling his entire power into the Kamehameha Wave and at the same time an orange-colored beam from the side leapt towards the formerly tailed fighter… and just like that, both of the Tri-Beams collided in a fiery explosion!
Goku disappeared within a dome-shaped blast of heat and orange energy. All four Tiens watched as gale-force winds blew outward from the point of impact, and the audience cowered in their seats in the stands!
"Incredible!" The announcer declared. "I've never seen a battle this intense in my entire lifetime — after hitting Goku with the combined power from two Tri-Beam blasts we have yet to see any sign of the spiky-haired fighter! What a match, folks!"
Away from the explosion soared Goku, with clothes now in rags, his entire body looked beaten and cut up, as in unison, the four forms of Tien slammed into Goku from multiple angles, sending him flopping bonelessly across the arena, carving a path through through the hard ceramic tiles as finally, the explosion and the gale winds died down.
All four Tiens landed in the ring, facing opposite Goku, who wasn't moving at all.
"Amazing!" The announcer said. "And after a devastating barrage of attacks from Tien, Goku is down and out! By the tournament's rules I must begin the countdown now! This could be it, folks! One… two… three…"
"Oh come on, Goku, get up!" Yamcha said from the backroom.
"Don't take it lying down, buddy!" Krillin said. "You gotta still have some fight left in you!"
"Five…"
"Well, what do you know?" Yajirobe snickered. "Looks like somebody finally brought down the Great Goku."
"Tien, you're so cool!" Chao-tzu said, now grinning like a little boy.
"Seven…"
"Oh, this doesn't look good!" Bulma said.
"It's over already." Master Roshi remarked. "No one could get up after sustaining such injuries."
"Nine…"
Suddenly Goku's leg twitched.
"And te — huh?"
And then Goku instantly stood up, looking a bit worse for wear, but otherwise completely fine!
"Simply astounding, folks!" The announcer roared. "Despite a seemingly brutal beating, Goku is back up on his feet and ready for more! This fight will go on! Fighters, please take your places!"
Goku smirked as he stared at Tien.
"You're good, Tien, but now you've fallen exactly where I want you." Goku said confidently.
Tien reacted angrily. "And where would that be? So far, you're the one who's taking all the blows, Goku!"
"Well, you see, earlier on, I spotted a weakness in your technique." Goku said simply. "I knew if I let this fight go on for a while, then the weakness would be your downfall. You can't defeat me now, Tien."
"Oh, and what weakness would that be?" Tien growled angrily. "Face it, you're just stalling for time! Intangibility HAS no weakness! It can't be beaten by anyone! Countless generations, countless masters, and only I have had the courage, the strength, and the abandon to master this invaluable technique; there's no way you could hope to compete against it!"
"Well, we'll see about that." Goku said as he laughed happily.
With a furious growl, the four Tiens launched themselves at Goku, who just grinned like a madman the whole time.
One of the Tiens jumped right up into Goku's face, covering his eyes.
"SOLAR FLARE!" He cried.
For the umpteenth time that day, the citizenry at the tournament were forced to cover their eyes from the blinding ray of light.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
And suddenly Goku found himself assault from all sides by the endless wave of Tien clones.
BAM!
A right hook left.
BAM!
A punch to to his shoulder.
BAM!
A kick to his torso.
BAM!
An elbow to his backside.
BAM
And on and on it went, Tien was relentless in his barrage to Goku, slamming into him and pounding at his body from every conceivable angle and finally when the light had died down and Goku could see again, he opened his eyes and smirked at what was happening.
The four Tiens stopped their assault, just gaping in awe.
"What?" One of them said.
"What's happening?" The second one demanded.
"You shouldn't be walking!" The third said.
"It's that weakness I mentioned, Tien." Goku said. "You may not have noticed it, but can you even feel your ki?"
And Tien suddenly realized…
"You've bled yourself dry maintaining that move." Goku noted. "It takes a lot of energy to use it, and using the Multiform just increased the level of strain." Then he grinned confidently as the ex-Turtle student launched himself at the three-eyed fighter. "NOW IT'S MY TURN!"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
In a flash, Goku was moving faster than anybody could follow as he moved around the stadium at roughly Mach 400, at least, smashing into Tien with many punches, kicks, side swipes, body slams, uppercuts, and other fierce martial arts attacks.
"Tien, come on…" Launch pleaded. "You can't give up that easy!"
"Goku, you're the man!" Bulma screamed, twisting Oolong's ears and poking her fingers in the pig's nose.
"Hey, lay off the abuse, will ya?" He insisted as he tried to wriggle free.
Down below, Tien was having the beating of his lifetime, worse even than the beatdown he had received from Upa as he tried to muster up a defense but Goku had been right; constant use of the Intangibility technique had drained him of most of his ki reserves!
And with a series of well-placed maneuvers, Goku kicked, punched, and blew all four copies of Tien out of the ring, where they landed on top of one another in a pile-up, quickly fading into the Tien proper.
For a few moments, silence reigned, as everyone just gaped in shock, and then the announcer threw up his arms.
"And Tien has been thrown out of the ring!" The announcer said. "That makes Goku the winner! He will go on to fight Krillin in the finals!"
"GOKU… GOKU… GOKU… GOKU…" The crowd chanted.
"Listen to that." Yamcha said, smiling happily. "They really do love him."
"Well, I can't pretend I didn't see this coming." Yajirobe scoffed. "That Goku… he's just unbeatable."
"And for once he used his brains instead of just his fists!" Krillin stated. "Man, I'm impressed. I didn't think Goku had it in him."
"Oh Tien…" Chao-tzu said worriedly. "Do you guys think he's all right?"
"Hey, don't worry." Yamcha said. "Tien has come out of a lot worse beatings than this. Give him some time, and he'll be fine."
Chao-tzu suddenly felt a lot better as, out in the ring, as he walked up to Tien, Goku stuck out his hand.
"You see?" Goku said as he helped Tien to his feet. "That technique isn't perfect; it's useful, sure, but using it for too long just drains your ki faster than any other martial arts technique I've seen you use."
Tien nodded. "Thank you, Goku. I guess… I was a fool to think that there's really an ultimate technique which makes a fighter unbeatable. We just gotta keep training and rely on our skills, not our attacks."
Goku nodded as he turned to face the area Krillin was in now.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if I had had to bet on it, I wouldn't have seen this outcome!" The announcer shouted among wild screams and happy calls. "We have two veteran tournament fighters, and longtime rivals, Krillin and Goku, two pupils of Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi, now facing off in the final round to see who takes home the gold!"
The roar of the audience was practically deafening in its intensity.
"For those of you who need to use the bathroom, there will be a twenty-minute before the final round!" The announcer continued. "I also encourage to buy some ice-cold drinks and some snacks from one of our many vendors in the main concourse of this stadium, because this final fight is sure to be a doozy!"
As the crowd filed out, Goku returned to his friends in the waiting room along with Tien.
"Hey, guys, this is awesome!" Goku commented. "I'm gonna be fighting Krillin! This is so much fun!"
"Yeah, super." Krillin said, now unnerved at the idea of having to fight with Goku.
Thoughts of his previous battle with Goku flashed through his head.
"No, I can do this!" He told himself. "If I try hard enough, I know I can! Goku is very strong, but he's not invincible! And I am the master of the basics! And, today, I'll show them all how strong I became!"
"Hey, Goku?" Krillin asked as his friend changed clothes.
"Hm, Krillin?" Goku said as he shucked his shirt off.
"Promise me that you won't be going easy on me!" the ex-monk said passionately. "I know we're friends and all, but promise me that when we enter that arena, we won't be leaving until one of us is defeated! When we're in there, we're rivals, not friends!"
Goku nodded. "It's a deal!"
And he clasped arms with his best friend as the spirit of rivalry burned ever brighter within the two friends.
They would enter the arena as rivals, and when they left, only one would be declared Champion.
And though they didn't know who it would be, both of them knew one thing:
They would have a great time trying their best.
Winner take all.
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Well, hello there my friends! Once again, thanks to my dear friend The King of Soda and his valuable input, I present you a new chapter of Rise of a Legend!
Thank you very much for your patience. As a reward, here's once again my Power Level list!
Power Levels:
Goku (With no weights): 357
- Full power: 650
- Kamehameha: 975
Tien: 350
- Multiform (x4): 87.5
- Tri-Beam Cannon: 218.75
- Tri-Beam Cannon (full power): 437.5
- Tri-Beam Cannon (combined): 875
Well, this is all for today, folks. Until next time! LSSJ Gohan out.