AN: One of the great things about Shula is that we're given no indication of what his level of power is other than 'much greater than Goku'.
(That said, no need for concern reviewers: I do my level best not to nerf Sakura too badly)
The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Seventy-one
Well then.
This was less than ideal.
She glanced back at her other self. Still there, though obviously distracted now, like everyone else, by the display of the king. The illusion of the princess was gone, though. Had something gone wrong, or had he never been fooled in the first place?
"You don't really expect a king not to notice when new faces appear in his kingdom, do you?" His voice was calm and level, expression just shy of friendly. However powerful he really was...obviously he was quite used to being fully in control.
She wasn't one of the humans he'd met before.
"Now..." He took a smooth step toward her. "If you would put the princess back in her place..."
She shifted her stance slightly, hefting the weight of the princess over her shoulder. Fighting with one hand wouldn't be the best situation she'd ever been in, but nothing about this place indicated she'd need both, anyway. "I'd do that, but you're in my way."
His lips curled into a small smile, and he extended a hand toward her. "For the sake of her feelings, I will reiterate just once: Unhand my queen and have a seat. This is not a request."
"For yours, I'll reiterate: get out of my way." Now that stealth failed, it wasn't likely she'd get away without a fight, though. Maybe it would have been better to bring Goku along after all. At least then she'd have both her arms empty.
Light flared up suddenly from his outstretched palm. She narrowly managed to duck under the blast, and sprinted a few steps out of the way just to ensure he couldn't immediately repeat the gesture. That was a quick ki charge.
The sound of the blast impacting stone echoed off of the far wall behind her. Apparently he wasn't that concerned with the princess' welfare? She frowned, and clenched her free hand. The other her would be able to keep the others in the room from interfering much, at least for a while, but if she devoted energy to that and to keeping the princess asleep while she fought two battles...it would be difficult.
Better to get through it quickly and return before Goku got tired holding that gate open.
She leaped forward, fist charged with chakra, and swept through air as the tall man narrowly slipped out of her way. But that wasn't unexpected. Clearly he was maneuverable, given his...entrance. Without slowing, she let her slightly curved strike spin her around. Her leg lanced out as she spun, quick and just as deadly as her punches.
Her heel crashed into his palm, sending a shock wave of air slicing through the large room, crash of flesh and leather echoing off of the walls and scattering the nearby observers by the sheer force of the impact. Tendons on his arm bulged as he flexed, and she grit her teeth.
Neither of them moved.
He seemed disturbingly unaffected.
She used the leverage of his grip on her foot to twist into the air and kick him solidly in the side of his head. That, at least, knocked him off of his feet and into the nearby wall. The din of the room silenced by then, muted by the shattering of stone and earth.
She dropped lightly to the ground. Dust billowed from the crushed wall, and for a few moments the only sound in the room was the breathing of all still inside it.
A moment later, air stirred across her face, and an unseen force as powerful as a train slammed into her chest.
It didn't feel so much like flying as simply moving. Quickly. She barely managed to curl protectively around the sleeping form of the girl she carried before her body crashed right through a wall of her own. And then a second. And skidded several feet in the darkness.
Ugh.
She shook her head, struggling to clear it from the rattling impact, and pushed herself up from the ground on an unsteady arm.
Silhouetted in the dust and dirt floating in the air, the form of that king reappeared, no longer walking but floating. He floated toward her, legs tucked under himself and crossed as if he were sitting on an invisible cushion instead of the air.
She'd have been more impressed under other circumstances.
"For caring so much about her feelings, you don't seem to care much for her welfare." There was always the off chance it just didn't occur to him not to use full force when she was holding the hostage.
"Don't I?" The man gave a little scoff. "Humans like you have no understanding of any world but your own."
She shifted on her feet. This room...even with the light filtering into it, it was hard to make out its purpose. Or how to get to the main exit without passing through the path that Shula blocked. "You're the one who's marrying one."
"Love..." He held out a hand toward her, in the same manner he had before. "Makes strangers of us."
She dodged before he quite fired it this time, taking the opportunity to use the light of the blast to navigate the room. Boxes. Dressers. Boxes and dressers were all that she managed to glimpse before the light splashed against the wall behind her and winked out once again. Still, she dashed toward the nearest box she'd seen, stepping onto it and using it as a platform to leap at him from a different angle than before.
He'd used lights in other rooms. Probably, that meant he actually needed those lights to see properly.
Her fist landed, whipping his head down and bouncing his chin off of his chest, but in exchange his hands pressed against her stomach. The beam of light he shot didn't miss that time.
Once again, it took all of her effort to ensure that when she slammed into the roof above, and then crashed down to the ground, the princess was safe from the impact. At least she landed gracefully, instead of crashing through the floor. With her body.
She slammed her fist through stone, and chunks of ground flew up around her, fissures shooting out in every direction. The majority of the shock wave shot toward where the man floated, and while his feet might not have been on the ground to disturb his balance...that wouldn't protect him from the ground coming up to meet him.
Violently.
He sprawled backwards through the air, and she pounced. She sprinted a few steps and then launched herself through the air, fist slamming into his gut with as much force as she could muster this time.
He took off at an impressive speed. He also smashed through quite a few more walls than she had.
Rather than wait for a response, she took off immediately, racing through the damaged wall she'd been knocked through, and running down the hallway toward the exit. Beating him wasn't necessarily a requirement of the mission, as long as that king was also right about the gate being impassible once the door was again closed.
She narrowly dodged King Shula's shoulder when he burst through the wall next to her, flying nearly as quickly toward her as he had away from her. Carrying the princess was beginning to become a problem.
The air vibrated, and this time she ducked aside before the wall behind her buckled inward. Really, though, given this was his home, she would have expected him to show a bit more restraint. But then, she was also holding his 'bride', and he seemed to show very little concern for her welfare either.
For the moment, he'd given up floating. His mistake. A sweep sent him to the ground, and a moment later her fist contacted with his stomach, crushing the floor inward underneath him. Shards of stone jutted upward, blocking off the path back into his arena, and nearly also blocking the way out. Crashes resounded from the dark pit that remained of where he'd been, as the force of her blow continued to send him deeper into the ground (or, perhaps, the lower levels of this complex).
She ran as quickly as the broken floor would allow her, escaping the hallway and breaking away into the almost inky blackness of the giant room she'd originally found herself in.
Something gripped her ankle.
A moment later, she felt herself forcibly yanked through the floor.
Without the princess.
(*)
Now, in his life he'd never really made it a habit to go racing toward the site of screams, but there wasn't exactly much else to do or to be found on the dusty road. And also...well, it was probably a better use for his skills between tournaments than banditry, lacking any other military forces to bring down.
At least Krillin didn't seem to disagree, as he ran just as quickly toward it.
"You know," the kid said, glancing up at him as they ran. "It's not even a girl screaming over there."
"Yeah..." He gave the short one a bit of a grin. "But it's something to do, right?"
Krillin didn't look entirely convinced, but he also didn't raise any other objections. So...he probably agreed. Mostly, at least.
It didn't take long to crest the hill that blocked their vision from the source of the scream. Screams, actually, but they'd stopped for a bit now. Which made sense, because the vehicle the person must have been driving was destroyed, and the man sprawled on the ground nearby.
He hopped down from the cliff, and heard the sound of Krillin following a moment later. Closer now, he could see the man still seemed to be breathing, if unsteadily. There was that, at least. Though...with the bullet holes all across the car and the flat tires...it wouldn't be easy for him to get back home in that state.
Yamcha grimaced to himself and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "Man..." This must have been the work of a bandit that patrolled the area...but it was sloppy. He'd never have been this messy, and leaving the guy for dead? That was one step away from being a heartless killer.
"Is he dead?" Krillin walked up next to him, squinting warily.
"Nah, but it's gonna be a pain to get him to safety from out here." He knelt down to inspect the man for wounds...but...actually...the man seemed to simply have fainted. Or been knocked unconscious with minimal violence.
Which was...odd, considering the damage to the vehicle.
Krillin spoke from behind him. "Looks like whoever it was is gone now."
He frowned, and glanced around the area, scanning for footprints, or any sign of what direction the attacker might have gone. "...Maybe."
"Er...Maybe?"
He hefted the man onto his shoulder and straightened, turning his gaze back toward the old man's island. Ridiculous demands or no, they didn't really have much choice but to go back there and get one of those vehicles if they wanted to get the man to safety. On foot would just take too much time away from getting back to training.
"It's...probably nothing. You're right. Whoever attacked must have already fled the scene when this guy started screaming."
Despite the fact that they couldn't have possibly known anyone around would hear.
He took a step forward, and a line of bullets shot across the ground in front of him, creating a sudden screen of smoke, dust, and dirt between the two of them and 'home'.
"I thought I might get someone with the way he kept shouting, but...this is a surprise."
AN: I intended for this to only last two chapters, like Terror an Plague, but really they rushed through the story to cram it into one singular episode. A lot.