DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super or Dragon Ball Heroes.

AN (1): This one's a bit more experimental than the last ones. I'm currently trying out different ways to write panic and stress in a present tense, first-person style. Let me know how I do!

Chapter 13: Kami's Lookout, Part 2.

I'm startled awake. My arm was screaming at me from having slept on it, the pain so loud that I needed to turn off my sense of touch just to get off the couch. At some point I'll probably figure out how to turn off pain only, but I'd rather not accidentally lobotomize myself.

I was a big fan of living, surviving day-to-day was always my favorite pastime.

Optimistic-yet-cynical humor aside, something was off. The pain wasn't what woke me, I was specifically startled awake. Like if something had made a sudden loud noise, only there was no noise. And if there was a noise, there was no echo of it.

No echo, in a marble structure like Kami's Lookout?

Oh yeah, and the fact I also shouldn't have fallen asleep in the first place.

Definitely strange.

"Saiya?" I whisper, a quick glance around the room showing that she wasn't on the couch like I had been. The room was also incredibly dark, night must've fallen while I was passed out—

There, on the table in between the two couches, were the teacups we used. Both were filled to the brim, which was a little jarring considering they were empty before Saiya and I fell asleep. Normally I wouldn't be skeptical of someone refilling our drinks…

But those drinks were also in the exact same position as when we put them down. My gut was telling me they weren't moved, and listening to my gut got me this far.

"I'm here." My partner answers after a minute. "Was having a talk with, apparently, our new master. Kami says he'll be taking over training us on one condition."

"Which is?"

"We pass his trial."

More trials and more tests. It was like a bad adventure game, where everything and anything was a chore to slog through, instead of a fun journey. Although, in spite of the pain the past couple of trials had been, I did have fun while doing them.

Looking back on it, I can say I climbed Korin's Tower, and we still had that gold credit card with access to an insane amount of money.

Maybe this one also wouldn't be so bad?

"That doesn't sound too bad." I whisper. "Did he tell you what the trial was?"

"Yeah, and we're not gonna like this one."

A light started shining outside, and something about it was pulling me in. Before I knew what was happening I was already outside, the top of the Lookout bathed in bright moonlight. Saiya was there, her white aura flaring around her and brimming with power—

But she wasn't the only one there. Six humanoid bodies of white light stood in front of her. Four of them were the same height. One of the lights easily towered over the others, standing around eight feet tall. But the last one was the size of a small child, so tiny and frail looking.

Yet they all shone with the same brightness, and the six of them slowly melded into one another.

As it was happening, whatever suppressor was on my ki suddenly lifted. Saiya must've felt it too because her head perked up.

"Look alive Arcos, our trial is to survive this!"

"What do you mean survive?!"

I was pumping as much energy as I could, filling my reserves as fast as possible. When the six bodies of light became one, a sudden and crushing pressure filled the atmosphere. The wind howled, the trees swayed violently, and the entire Lookout seemed to shake—

Just as quickly as it happened it was over. The lights were gone, only a single individual standing where they once were. He wore a purple gi; a pair of brown, pointed boots; a sky-blue sash around his waist; a pair of red armbands; a white cloak with heavy pauldrons; and on his head sat a white and purple turban. His skin was green, and his bare arms and chest were decorated with exposed pink muscles.

Piccolo, the Namekian warrior responsible for stalling long enough to save the day so many times that I couldn't keep track. In the show he had fused with two other powerful Namekians, in order to bridge the gap between him and his rival.

He was a major threat to most people when he only had two people inside him. Now, right here and right now? He had maybe five or six in him.

And he was our next fight. And despite all the power he displayed, I couldn't sense his energy.

Oh…

Swell.

"Here are the rules of your trial." Piccolo says, holding up a finger. "Rule One: If either of you survive till dawn, you win." That was… strangely worded and oddly specific. Piccolo then raises another finger. "Rule Two: Fight at your full power. You two will need it, for I will not hesitate to kill you."

In my peripheral Saiya had donned her modified boxing stance, whilst I slipped into my own 'flighty' stance.

"Rule Three." He was holding three fingers up, but for some reason was staying silent. I started tightening my body, preemptively readying myself to jump into the or to the side—

One of Piccolo's feet was lifted, only a few inches but it was lifted all the same. Something was wrong, and despite my inability to feel his ki I could see his foot was wrapped in an aura of some kind.

"Your trial has already begun." Was all the warning I got before his foot lowered and he vanished.

It was just like what Nail did earlier! Whatever it was, it must've been some kind of step technique—

My vision suddenly taking a 90 degree angle downwards was my only indication to what happened. Twisting my body and lashing out with a kick, I manage to catch Piccolo in the stomach. His elbow was extended, it was probably what hit me in the back of the head.

Lucky me I still had my sense of touch blocked!

Time suddenly stopped, and in an instant I figured out why. Piccolo's entire arm had stretched, swiftly reminding me that Namekians could just do that, and his finger was mere inches from my eye. At the same time, I could feel that Saiya was in mid lunge towards Piccolo. This strange power, where time slowed to a stop, has been incredibly useful in keeping me alive so far!

But now that it's gone off, what now?

When I tried moving last time, something important in me snapped like a twig. I could use my Psychokinesis, but on what exactly? Using it on Uub gave me a horrible migraine, and I have no idea how powerful Piccolo is in relation to him. Piccolo was out of the equation, using it on him wasn't worth the current risk—

Hang on, what if I'm thinking too hard about this? The problem, I'm under attack and about to lose an eye. The other problem, I can use only Psychokinesis while time is stopped. The other, other problem, I can't use Psychokinesis on Piccolo, on account of him being (probably) too strong.

The solution is to use my power on myself! The actual act felt like I was pulling on a rusted valve, throwing all of my weight against it just to make it turn the slightest inch. It was aggravating, tedious, and a little painful, but each push of my power moved me inch after inch. And, after what felt like an eternity, I managed to turn 90 degrees to the left and out of the attack's path.

Time slowly started up again. Piccolo's arm continued to extend, his fingers digging into the Lookout's tiles. Everything was still slowed down, and moving through slowed time was like moving through a tub of syrup.

Slow, arduous as Hell, and a surprising sense of stickiness on my everywhere.

Saiya flew in on my peripheral, her fist swinging—

Piccolo flexed his arm and pulled himself forward, dodging my partner and swinging himself over my head. My arm rose on its own, everything still moving in slow motion. Ki gathered in my hand, and with a flick of my wrist the energy blast fired.

Time snapped back to normal, and the shift from 'feeling-like-I-was-swimming-in-syrup' to 'Not-feeling-like-I-was-swimming-in-syrup' was as jarring and sudden as a bad analogy about how jarring and sudden it was.

The sudden rushing of wind drowned out the sound of my attack's detonation. I forgot that happened when Nail did it. But this time my energy wasn't being suppressed, and now I didn't even stumble when the wind slammed against my back.

Something was strange with my blast though, it was like there was a hollow spot where Piccolo's energy should've been.

The smoke from my shot was obscuring my vision, but I didn't need to see to know what my partner was about to do. With my ki unsuppressed I could feel where she was in relation to me at all times, as well as feel her desire to hit Piccolo as hard and as fast as possible.

With a burst of power my partner flew into the smoke. A moment later there was a loud noise, like a gunshot, echoing from some point of impact. The smoke's blown away and I was given a front-row seat to just how screwed we were.

Saiya's fist was brimming with her full power, and she was struggling to push back against Piccolo's shin.

The Namekian warrior had blocked her with his shin.

He didn't deflect it.

He wasn't struggling against it.

He simply blocked it,

The worst part was he was still holding back. Piccolo's turban and cape weren't just for show, as the series constantly reminded anyone who watched that the both of them were heavily weighted. It was a sign of how serious he was taking a fight, and the fact he was still wearing them meant he wasn't taking this one serious at all!

That's not even mentioning the fact he could just be holding back his power on top of that.

And we needed to last who-knows-how-many hours?

What kind of sick trial is this?!

I needed some kind of plan—we needed a plan—

Time froze again. Confusion was definitely at the forefront of my mind, seeing as how the only times so far this power activated was when I needed time to think… or I was in grave peril. But looking around, as limited as my vision was since I couldn't turn my head, wasn't yielding me any—

Right there, in the absolute bottom of my vision, was the cracking tiles of Kami's Lookout. A green, claw-like hand had broken out of the ground, only barely getting the wrist out of the ground so far. I somehow didn't hear—

I didn't hear it because of the wind, clever bastard!

This was fine, I just needed a plan. I could feel the duration of whatever was stopping time ticking down. I didn't know how, but I could just feel that I had at most a couple of minutes. And wasn't that a weird thought, time stopping for two minutes of time?

I needed to get my head in the game, and think. Thinking was what got us this far after all. First I needed to go over what was happening, what I knew, and then what I should do.

Piccolo is in the process of attacking me whilst using his leg to hold off my partner. Piccolo is currently trying to kill us and has so far aimed for the back of my head as well as trying to gouge out my eye, so he wasn't bluffing there. We needed to hold out till daybreak, but realistically?

I didn't see us surviving the next minute, let alone the next few hours.

Time was ticking down. I needed my entire mind focused on just thinking, letting my sense of touch go unrestrained and feeling pain once again. The back of my head and my arm hurt, but not enough to dull my thinking.

Right then, what did I know?

My partner's a Saiyan, and Saiyans got stronger the longer the fight went on. I'm an Arcosian—for lack of a better name—and all I really remembered as their main defining trait was that they had regressive transformations as well as being insanely durable. Piccolo's a Namekian, tough breed with a penchant for regeneration, stretchy limbs, and incredible hearing.

Only a minute left to think.

Namekians, weakness.. weakness, what were their weaknesses? I could feel my panic rising.

45 seconds left.

Weakness, weakness, w… whistling? That's right, whistling! The elf-like ears on their heads couldn't—

Their heads! They couldn't regenerate if their heads were destroyed either!

30 seconds left, were there any other weaknesses to Piccolo? Did I have any time to keep thinking of them?

25 seconds left, no time for brainstorming I needed a plan!

Dodge to the left, whistle, tell Saiya to whistle and aim for the head.

20 seconds left.

It wasn't a good plan, but I need to spend the rest of the frozen time calming down. Focusing on my heartbeat always helped me; alongside taking a deep breath, holding it, then letting it out. Somehow my heart was beating in the stopped time, and my lungs still took in air just fine. My body seemed to still work while this was happening, I just couldn't move it. The sensations were definitely strange, and hard to explain now that I was focusing on them.

But focusing on strange phenomenon always calmed me down, and this time was proving to be no different.

Five seconds left, but I was ready.

I felt whatever inner clock I had tick down to zero. Time started back up and I dash to the left—

Panicking and rolling in midair was the only reason my neck wasn't sliced open. As soon as time began, Piccolo's hand fired out of the ground and directly towards where I jumped to. Pulling my head down, tucking my legs in, and spinning in mid-air caused the sharpened claw hand to slice into my tail instead of my vulnerable neck.

It hurt, but the alternative was much worse.

Slamming my tail into Piccolo's hand, I'm just barely able to force it to the ground. Stomping my foot down on his wrist was helping keep it there. Now that that was taken care of, it was whistling time.

Taking a deep breath, to both fill my lungs and calm my nerves—

Something was wrapping around my throat. It coiled and was drawn tight like a rope. In a fit of panic I flare out my aura and detonate it, shoving the oppressing whatever-it-is off of me. Summoning my ki reserves and restoring my aura, I kick off the ground and start flying backwards.

It was an arm. The thing that had wrapped around my neck was Piccolo's arm, curved into a makeshift noose.

This was getting ridiculous, every move he made was a move to kill!

More gunshot-like blows sounded in the distance, and without needing to focus on my ki sense I could tell Saiya was throwing a desperate series of punches and kicks.

Piccolo's arm was picking itself up off the ground—

The claw-like fingers of his hand suddenly extend in five directions, each one maneuvering like bone-less tentacles and flying towards me!

Resignation was flowing through my body, slightly easing the tension in my muscles. This was too much. We weren't going to survive this, were we?

AN (2): Another chapter done, this one more experimental than the others. I don't even know if any of you actually read my Author's Notes, but I'm going to keep writing them all the same.

And for anyone wondering; no, Arcos has not given up yet, he's just lost hope of surviving. He still plans on fighting to the bitter end.

Remember to favorite the story to show me you liked it, follow the story if you want to keep up with it, and leave a review if you have anything you want to say or any critiques you want me to see.

And finally, stay safe!