Chapter Twenty Four

"Mr Krillin," said Gohan. The boy shifted from blond to raven and engulfed Krillin in a hug. The monk was honestly surprised by it all because when Krillin had left the boy had been stoic, as though he were several years older.

"You're a super saiyan," said Krillin with an amount of surprise.

"Yeah. Grandpa taught it to me and dad," he said. "He said if we were going to avenge our planet then we had to be strong."

"Where's your dad?" Krillin asked. The fighting continued around them, a heavy rain having joined the fray but it moved, at point water collecting and turning it ice, slamming into vampires and decapitating them.

Some of the vampires achieved in doing the same, controlling water but the degree to which they had an effect was superseded by the waterbenders; a month's time to achieve control versus people that had just come from a war.

"Last I saw him he was fighting with Dracula," said Gohan. "But that was a long time ago and I've been forced to move. This place is big."

Which was true enough. Krillin had gotten lost, seen people before he would move long bouts of fights before he saw them again. The ships had left some time ago, some too damaged while others needed to refuel there was word that more would be arriving to aid the effort.

"Wait," said Krillin, tired mind finally catching on something. "You said your grandfather taught you?"

"Yeah," said Gohan. "He, Uncle Raditz and Prince Vegeta escaped from Hell more than a week ago. All of us were in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a day working towards the transformation." Gohan beamed. "I was the first to transform," he said. "Prince Vegeta almost turned red because of it."

"Where is Vegeta?" asked Krillin as he felt a pit of worry.

"He was helping my dad," said Gohan. "Dracula is strong. Dad says he's probably drinking a lot of blood and storing the power. He says that if this had gone on for another month Dracula and Lucifer would have had enough power that they might tear through even all the super saiyans combined."

"Explains all of this," Krillin said; a vampire ventured too close and Gohan was golden, letting out a sharp burst of yellow energy that ripped through the vampire. Krillin swallowed. The kid was young and already he was killing without flinching, the influence of Piccolo and his saiyan relatives was not good on the boy. Krillin made a mental note to have Chi-Chi direct the boy towards a therapist. Thinking of which, "Where's your mother in all this? Is she fighting? Does she know you're fighting?"

"She's searching for the dragon balls," said Gohan, "and she doesn't exactly know," he added sheepishly. "But uncle Raditz said he'd convince dad not to tell her."

Two more vampires and Krillin acted faster, summoning two discs and throwing, simultaneously letting out two clones that would take control of each of the discs.

"Tell me more about everything that's been going on," said Krillin. "About Vegeta, your uncle and grandfather."

"Well Grandpa Max is great," said Gohan. "He's sort of like dad sometimes but more serious? He likes teaching me about what being a saiyan is about and some of the stuff he'd like to change. He calls me the first of a new generation and that I would be leader one day. Uncle Raditz is the best because he's fun," Gohan went on.

"He plays with me a lot. Prince Vegeta though is intense; he's always trying to get stronger. Sort of like my dad but he's angrier when some is stronger than him. I remember sparring with him when after I had first transformed and he went overboard." Something akin to fear flickered through Gohan's eyes before it faded.

Not exactly a threat analysis but then Gohan was still impressionable and spending a year with only them and Goku would have left its mark. Six super saiyans but this showed that their power could be outdone. Perhaps this was the reason the Knassans were so insistent on wanting to stockpile their power, limit the chance of loss until it was non-existent.

An explosion detonated from above them, rock starting to fall before they changed course, slamming into the vampires who could not fly. Giant boulders start rising, moving towards the vampires that were flying, too caught in their battles in the sky; streaks of lightning coloured the sky, slamming into their fighters an bodies dropping from the sky, a few streaks were redirected but even those firebenders couldn't manage between flying, fighting and redirecting that they couldn't take the onslaught; the sky was covered in mist before it congealed into water than congealed into icicles that speared the fighters.

"Can you do the Kamehameha?" Gohan nodded. "We fire at the sky and have they meet, detonating them and taking away the cloud cover."

Gohan turned blond and darted away. Krillin sensed him calling four clones before he started gathering energy. Krillin did the same and within moments the energy was singing, the air having taken on a blue glow. They both thrust the attacks out and those in the sky dodged, getting out of the way while still going head-to-head. The beams met and the detonation was large, sending out a concussive blast that pushed back the cloud cover, letting the setting sun filter through everything.

The effect was instantaneous, a sudden dip in the power levels of every vampire within the sun's reach. Yunzabit Heights however was large enough that even with the powerful concussive force, most of it was still under cloud cover.

The idea spread though and the clouds were congealing into water and more of the sun's rays were filtering through the battlefield; a battle that hadn't shown any clear side winning started to be almost one-sided. Their forces were starting to dwindle down the almost endless supply of vampires.

The more powerful became evident, not as affect by the sun as the much weaker; a mass of bats flew through the air, weaving out of the way of a wave of fire and engulfing a firebender, within a minute the man was falling out of the ski, drained of his energy and blood. Waves upon wave of fire hit the air, burning most of the water and leaving the air dry. The bats disappeared as they were burned until none were left.

"Back," said Krillin to the clones and they were back inside of him. He let one out while forming a large ball of energy over his head. The clone grabbed it and broke the thing apart, directing the resulting bolts of energy to the fifteen vampires arrayed around him.

The ships arrived already shooting out streaks of electricity, gunning down the vampires in the sky before changing to short range missiles.

Krillin did the attack again, going higher up and getting a few vampires in sight before he let out the Scatter Shot. The ground shook and Krillin whirled around, a woman dressed in green armour was gliding forward on a mound of earth, as she came closer Krillin saw who she was.

"Nosey," the woman said. Krillin was quite surprised that she had agreed to come to earth, when Krillin had heard that the woman had a daughter he had thought that would be reason enough to lay off the whole fighting gig.

"Toph," said Krillin.

"So," she said. "Stumbled on a network of caves beneath us and wanted a partner to explore with. You up for it?"

"With everything that's going on down here?" Krillin asked.

"Vampires," she said. "I have the basics down. I felt bodies down there. A whole host of them. Sleeping I might guess, but when night falls…"

She left the statement hanging but Krillin got the gist of it. If they let them be until sun set then there would be more vampires to fight. Krillin subsumed the clones and said, "Let's go."

Toph jumped and when she landed the earth sunk much like an elevator. The abrupt lurch resulted in Krillin almost losing his balance but the man straightened himself until the suddenly stopped, a large cavern having opened up around them.

Toph gave another stomp. "It looks like it might be a large compound, sort of like a castle crafted deep inside this place. There's something at the relative centre and its spinning, sending out a lot of vibrations."

"People coming," said Krillin as he saw the humanoid figures in his mind.

"I know," said Toph with a snort.

The first appeared but the jutting of a spire stopped him, the man's had dodged the spire and he let out a beam of red energy. Krillin called out a telekinetic shield just as Toph sent up three wall shields; the attack pierced through Krillin's shield but by the time it had reached the first of Toph's walls it had lost its impetus. Krillin surged forward and the walls broke, pieces of the rock flying towards the man who dodged, managing to evade Krillin's attack in the same motion.

The vampire spun and landed a kick, sending Krillin flying back; twin spires jutted from the ground and the man flew out of their direction, whirling and punching through a spire that had tried to hit him from the back.

"Kamehameha!" The blast hit its mark just as the man whirled around again, energy called forth to form a thin green shield. The detonation was hard enough to fling the man into the room. Toph entombed the man but a concussive force stopped her, blasting the rock into small chunks.

The vampire directed eye blasts Toph's way but the woman was fast, gliding left and right without running, calling forth a storm of boulders that condensed before they flew towards the vampire, slamming into the surrounding walls and calling forth more rocks. Krillin joined her, grabbing the condensed rocks with his mind while she worked on creating more. The room became a storm flying rocks and the vampire started lagging in his dodging, when the first hit it flew through the vampire, leaving a large hole which looked as though it were already healing.

Krillin released two clones and he had them working on controlling to small energy discs. The man became overwhelmed by it all and a disc managed to cut his head clean off. The pair was already moving, Toph gliding forward on a mouth of earth while Krillin followed her, traversing the maze of rooms.

They came upon a room filled with people who looked in the throes of rebirth, skin varying colours of pale, blue and blue-grey. Toph called forth spire that enclosed the room before any of the could react. Krillin blasting the place for good measure. Three more rooms like this and they were forced to go deeper into the place, moving further into earth and further away from the battle.

Another guard and she was dressed in military attire, her fur a golden-brown coat and her eyes red. She opened her mouth and let out a red blast both of the dodged, Toph too slow and the blast clipping her in the shoulder, causing her to spin before she landed on the ground; and expression of anger.

Krillin sent out a rapid salvo of energy blasts but the detonated before they landed on the woman, causing explosions large enough that rubble started falling all around already being taken control off by Toph. They repeated the manoeuvre from their previous encounter but it didn't work, the woman catching the rocks with her telekinesis and choosing Krillin as the target she could get away with hitting; a rock grazed Krillin's left and the man winced as it cut through his clothes, blood forming.

He went in close, layering himself with a telekinetic shield. The woman ducked under air punch and swerved right fast enough to leave an after image; she swiped and Krillin ducked back but he could still feel the hit.

"Telekinetic attacks," said Krillin. "Can you armour yourself?"

Rocks flew into the sky and engulfed Toph, making her akin to a rock golem. He thought that the technique might inhibit her but it seemed as though she moved faster and calling the earth to aide her didn't need as complex gestures as she had shown in the fight before.

Pillars of rock stretched out from the ground trying to hit the vampire to no avail. It wasn't solely that she was fast; Krillin had gotten close enough that he should have landed a few hits but they glanced off her telekinetic armour. The room shook from the battle, losing much of its structural integrity as more rocks fell and joined the chaos.

Krillin almost didn't notice it and he wouldn't have been swarmed had it not been for his shield, but a sea of rodents exited from one of the doorways, trying to swarm the pair. Krillin sent out three concussive blasts and layered himself with two more telekinetic shields before concentrating on the woman. Three blasts of energy that Krillin wove out of the way off and he used spit off a clone, letting the thing shoot out a stream of energy blasts at the vampire.

A slab of rock rose and flipped over, taking down a mass of the rats but leaving enough that a person was able to appear when the things congealed. The man sent out an eye blast, but unlike Krillin's own it covered a much large range. There was no dodging the blast and it slammed into Krillin, cutting through his shields and slamming into him.

Toph caught him with a sand trap.

"Perhaps we should have gotten re-enforcements," Krillin muttered.

"I've been trying," the woman said, "sending out small beacons for the Yadrats but none of the are responding."

"Place must be cloaked by magic," Krillin said, thinking of the trick Garlic Junior had pulled, blanketing the entire earth with a range inhibitor. "When we take down these two you'll had to the surface. Collect more people."

Toph nodded and moved, calling more spikes into the air. The woman caught them and redirected but the things turned to send. Krillin focused on the man, dodging another eye blast and letting out another clone; the clone closed the distance and fought with vigour but signs showed it was losing. Krillin let out another and gathered a large ball of energy over his head. He threw the thing and the close broke it apart, controlling the twenty or so blasts and targeting both opponents.

The hit detonations were enough to take down the woman's shields and afforded Toph and opportunity for her rocks to plough through the woman. She clattered on the ground when one went through her hand.

The man screamed, an almost feral sound. The scream was lined with a rush of power and a concussive force that he sent outwards. The room couldn't take the hit and it collapsed, the only saving grace being that Toph was fast enough that she was able to divert the rock before it could entomb the both of them.

Krillin was panting, feeling the fatigue of perhaps the longest battle he had ever faced and the aches and pain emanating from points in his body. The same could be said for Toph but she put on a strong enough front that Krillin couldn't see her weakness.

The man, even entombed, was still alive. Both of them knew this and it was the reason that Toph erected a pillar below both of them, simultaneously opening a hole above and raising them towards the surface.

If Krillin had been forced through another fight alone, there was the chance that he wouldn't have come out alive.