Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, or anything else related to the Dragon Ball universe, or any of its characters. They are all owned by Akira Toriyama.
Ki was the weirdest and most versatile thing that he had ever seen in his life, without question.
No matter how many times he had told himself exactly that, over the last few weeks, he would always find another occasion to say it again.
He didn't have a lot of it yet. Not a lot that he could readily access at will anyway. Yet he could still do so many things thanks its sheer versatility alone.
It was beyond incredible, and it seemed as if its uses were limited only by his own imagination.
He had discovered a while back, during one of his many experiments, that Ki could be used to enhance the durability of an object if he 'pumped' it into it, for lack of a more… precise word.
Yet he hadn't really understood why. It was just something that had worked, so he took advantage of it and moved on to other things.
Well…
It turned out that he had been wrong all along.
Ki couldn't be 'pumped' into an object like that. Or maybe it could, but that hasn't been what he's been doing up until now.
The difference between what he thought had been happening, and what was actually happening, was very subtle to a simple observer. Unnoticeable even. But it was still fundamentally different conceptually.
Though, a similar effect was produced all the same.
The object that he was 'enhancing' guides his Ki.
His Ki, leaves his body through his hands, then wraps around the object he was holding, on the outside, forming a kind of barrier. His Ki doesn't ever enter the object.
This barrier is thin, and is maintained solely through his own concentration.
The technique is performed by willing his energy to become as small as possible around the object. As a result, it's thin enough that the basic properties of the object remain intact.
A Ki-protected stick, still feels and acts like any other stick, when you hit something with it. It's just harder to break.
The object isn't altered at all.
Yet, it was impossible to directly see this difference with his eyes alone.
The only reason he now knew the truth on this matter at all, was because his Ki barrier, that he had just been maintaining, had shattered, yet the stick in his hand that said barrier was protecting, hadn't.
That wouldn't have happened if the object's durability was simply increased somehow.
He had put a lot of energy into that barrier. At least, it was a lot by his standards. A huge amount of force would have been required to break through it.
He really should have expected that it would have though, after doing what he just did.
He had acted on instinct.
And it was an instant regret. He had known that things would go wrong the instant before impact.
It hadn't looked like there was room to just dodge the attack, though. In any case, if he had been a second later in his defense, he'd probably be dead.
His brain was still rattling from the shock wave of the impact.
He couldn't even tell what his orientation was anymore.
Which way was up?
The sun was glaring, then he saw the ground. Then the sun was glaring again, then the ground.
'At least I learned something new.'
That was always a plus in his books.
He could feel himself rag-dolling through the air, as his hearing slowly recovered.
A few moments later he could see properly again.
And he was still airborne.
He caught a glimpse of the ground as he completed yet another rotation.
He was doing front flips. And it was going to be a messy landing by the looks of it, if he didn't do something.
'Roll…'
It was really the only thing he could think of. The ground was too close for anything else.
He managed to raise his arm just before he would have face-planted. His other hand was outstretched far behind him. Way too far away to be of any help.
He tucked his chin in, and managed to call upon his Ki to try and further protect himself.
His body tensed in anticipation for the impact, and he managed to form a transparent block of Ki on his outstretched hand. His air walking technique might further minimize the impact force.
Even though he wasn't anywhere near as skilled with using said technique with his hands, as he was with his feet.
He hit the ground arm first, in a roll.
He felt the block of Ki on his hand smash into the ground, and break apart. It had done its job.
His shoulder impacted the ground next, and he executed a surprisingly decent roll considering the circumstances.
Then he continued rolling.
It took several seconds, multiple uncontrollable rotations, and a less-than-graceful penguin-slide, for his momentum to finally come to a standstill.
His arms were numb, but other than that, he was moderately surprised at how little that ordeal had hurt.
Maybe it was just the adrenaline numbing the pain, though.
He was laying on his stomach now, staring out into the distant treeline. It was a pretty nice day outside all things considered, judging by how peaceful it looked over there. The weather was perfect.
Huh. Where had that thought come from?
Maybe he had rattled his brain slightly more than he had originally thought. A concussion perhaps?
After regaining some of the feeling in his right hand, he found himself slightly surprised. He was still holding onto the stick that he had been using to protect himself, a moment ago.
How had he managed that feat, after being smashed into the ground and rolling around uncontrollably?
All of a sudden, the sun was blotted out by something and he was engulfed in shadow. He already knew what the culprit was though. They had completely ruined his day after all.
The shadow was getting bigger, fast.
'Move.'
He pushed off with his left hand as hard as he could, just managing to lever himself into a position where he could bring his feet up towards his chest, and into a proper launching position.
He planted his feet, pushed off the ground hard, and felt the wind from the strike as it breezed past, mere feet behind him.
Due to the angle of his jump, and his original forward lean, he had forced himself into a front flip to avoid an awkward landing.
He was completely upside down, mid-rotation, and facing his attacker, when his enemy's missed strike smashed into the ground.
He was feeling oddly detached from this whole situation. He should probably feel afraid.
A huge crash assaulted his ears. On instinct, he had raised his arms to cover his face. Uprooted sand, rocks, and debris pelted into his skin. That had been a close one.
Completing his rotation, he landed on shaky legs, and severely off-balance due to the shock wave that he had just been hit with, mid-flight. He landed in a squat, and planted his free hand into the ground for added support.
Why had today gone like this?
He had just managed to recover from an abrupt loss of home, and food supply. Now he had new, homemade clothes, a new food source, a new home, and was back on track with his training. He hadn't provoked anyone. These things just came out of nowhere and attacked him.
He had been in several battles with groups of tigers, bears, and even a few wolves over the last few weeks. Ever since he had first started leaving animal scraps on the outskirts of his clearing, in fact. Groups of predators would always show up every time he cooked something or started a fire, and he would always end up with more food as a result.
It was a pretty effective strategy that he exploited shamelessly. Those animals had been laughably easy to defeat, as well.
After a simple skirmish he was able to use most of the meat that they left behind.
The leftover scraps would be left at the edge of the clearing once again, and the process would repeat.
As a result of this, he had plenty of experience fighting off wild animals. Most of them anyways.
Slowly, he stood up and reached his hand up to his ear. It felt wet for some reason. He was pretty sure he knew why though.
'I'm bleeding.' It really was expected at this point.
He looked up at his attacker and narrowed his eyes.
He had been prepared to fight any wildlife in the area, but he had never thought that he would face a situation like this in the middle of a forest.
He wasn't afraid, but he was still at a loss about what to do.
He had read about T-Rex in the past. They were incredibly aggressive, but mostly lived out in wide open areas. Plains, deserts, and the like. But forests? It didn't make any sense.
Why were they out here?
He wasn't ready for something like this yet. He wasn't strong enough. If it had been a single T-Rex, then maybe he could have killed it with a well thought out strategy, or with his superior agility and stealth. All it would have taken was a well-placed strike to a vital area.
He glanced down at the stick in his hand.
He had picked it up off the ground when he was first attacked so that he could do just that. If he could have planted it through the eye, then this fight would have been over. It was long enough to hit the brain if he drove it in with enough force.
It was his go-to strategy for when he fought against bears. It was an instant kill. Their hide was just too thick for him to be able to take them down quickly any other way.
Fighting a T-Rex, presented the same problem.
But it didn't matter anyway. There wasn't just a single T-Rex to deal with here. For some reason, there were eight.
He had been hopelessly outmatched throughout the fight so far. He had just barely managed to survive until now. If he hadn't picked up that stick earlier on…
He thought back on his fight. Specifically, to his attempted block a few moments ago.
It had taken almost everything he had, to block that tail-whip, and he had still almost died.
His attacker suddenly roared, then charged. The ones behind it followed suit.
Gohan glanced to his left, at the nearby mountains. They were really his only shot at this point.
So he ran on silent feet, and he felt his body instinctually align into his recently perfected sprinting posture.
He had achieved permanent air-walking only a few days ago, and he had integrated the technique into his running posture. He didn't touch the ground at all anymore except in a few select situations.
Namely, whenever he sat down, or went to sleep. Though eventually, once he could perform the technique on all areas of his body, he would try to have the technique active during those times as well.
For no other reason than to see if he could.
He couldn't hear his own footsteps, and he had really started to notice how much energy he was conserving through his movement training.
It was very evident now how much he had progressed, and how much his efforts were paying off.
Peering over his shoulder as he ran, he verified that all eight of his pursuers were gaining on him. For some reason they were all working together. He had never heard of a functioning pack of dinosaurs before. They were usually too territorial to cooperate with each other. As likely to kill each other as they were their prey.
'But I guess there's a first time for everything.'
As he approached the base of the decently sized mountain, he started looking for a viable route up. He had to get high enough to be out of their reach. But since there were no solid platforms to rest on by the looks of it, he would have to climb to the very top.
In order to prevent running out of energy by clinging to the wall too long, and then promptly falling to his death.
He spotted his first few hand holds just as he reached the base. Then he jumped, and finally dropped his stick.
He wouldn't be able to take it with him, despite how much he wanted to have a weapon with him. All he had on him at the moment, was a deerskin shirt, a deerskin shoes, and a pair of deerskin pants. All of his tools and equipment were back at the clearing, so he couldn't secure his would-be weapon to anything.
His momentum allowed him to take a full five steps up the wall, in a vertical wall run, before taking a leap upwards, towards a protruding rock.
Grabbing onto the first hand-hold he started climbing as fast as he could. He could feel the rapid vibrations through the rock, of his enemy's thundering footsteps.
He had to go faster.
The vibrations were getting more intense. They were close now.
He jumped, and reached the next hand-hold just as the first of his pursuers reached the base of the mountain.
He heard a massive roar of frustration, which prompted him to look down.
He was safe.
He was at a height that was nearly three times what the T-Rex could conceivably reach.
But they weren't leaving. They were just staring at him with hungry eyes.
They were probably going to try and wait him out.
Looking back up, he tried to spot the top of the mountain. If he couldn't go down, then he would just keep climbing.
It was a long way up, but he could manage it.
He had to.
He was in trouble.
So much trouble.
There had been only one option to escape from those dinosaurs that he could see. He hadn't been able to go around them, because they were faster than he was, and there were no nearby escape routes that he could use his superior agility to take advantage of. All he could do, was get out of their reach by getting to a safe location as high as possible. Climbing the mountain had been the only way to really accomplish that.
But the climb was difficult. It was concave. Dangerously so, too. Meaning it started out as a gradual slope, before slowly jutting outwards. During a lot of his climb until now, he had been either upside down, or on a perfectly vertical cliff face. And with his slowly weakening arms due to his fight earlier and the damage he had taken, he was getting tired, fast.
The T-Rex had been just sitting at the bottom of the cliff watching him. Following after him every time he tried to climb sideways to get away. They were hoping that he would eventually just drop out of exhaustion.
They were trying to wait him out.
He hadn't been able to outlast them either. He was constantly having to maintain his grip on the wall, while his pursuers could sit down and rest. It was a battle of attrition and he was losing badly.
He hadn't made it easier on himself on that last movement of his either. As he had been ascending, he had noticed that there were fewer and fewer handholds. They had become so few at his current altitude that he had to perform a leap to reach the one he was currently clinging to.
But then, the worst possible outcome happened.
There were no more handholds above him.
Just a sheer vertical wall that he would never be able to get past. It was so unnatural looking. Just a perfectly vertical and flat, wall. He couldn't go back either because of the shape of the wall. He had just gone over an L-shaped ledge. One that he had been underneath. His feet weren't even on the wall anymore as a result. They were just hanging. He was supporting his entire body-weight on the tiny hold currently in his grip.
He couldn't backtrack, and he couldn't ascend. There were no holds on either his right, or his left.
He was stuck. And he had been for a few minutes now.
He definitely wasn't going to be able to hold on for much longer.
Yet if he let go, he would die. Unless his hidden power came to the rescue. But he couldn't be sure that it would. After all, where had it been during his fight earlier? He had almost been killed on several occasions then.
He had lost feeling in his arms completely almost thirty seconds ago.
He had tried punching a hole in the wall so that he could use that as a handhold, but he hadn't been strong enough. All he had received was a bloody fist as a result.
He could feel his grip loosening.
He was almost out of time.
He frantically started searching for anything that he could use. Anything at all that he had somehow missed during his previous frantic searches.
Still nothing. Just like the last time he had checked.
He was running on sheer adrenaline and willpower now. He had maybe thirty seconds left, and that was being optimistic, before he would-
SNAP
His eyes widened, and he felt his stomach drop.
He was still clutching his handhold with all he had, but his handhold wasn't connected to the wall anymore.
It had just snapped off.
He was in free-fall.
His hands darted out to grasp something in a last ditch effort, but they just slid off the wall. There was nothing to grab.
He was going to die.
He just continued to stare, in disbelief, at the place that the rock in his hand had been attached to.
Everything seemed to slow down, and his mind started processing at speeds it never had before, but he was ultimately, too scared and desperate to notice.
Why had he decided to leave his clearing today? He still had almost a week's worth of food left. Food that was just stockpiled in bags, back at the clearing. Why had he gone out searching for more?
Why had he been so greedy and careless?
He had wanted a larger back-up in case of emergencies. He had experienced debilitating hunger not too long ago. But rather than simply getting a reasonable amount of food again, to just survive, he had gone to the opposite extreme. He had needed more. So that he would never go hungry like that again.
From having too little, to wanting too much. How pathetic. He had completely disrespected his environment.
He really was disappointed in himself.
One of the lessons his dad had always taught him about nature, was to only take what you needed and nothing more.
Moderation.
He had forgotten that.
He should have just kept training. He had been making so much progress recently.
If he had continued training for another week, and then ventured out when he ran out of food, he would have been able to defeat those T-Rex with his new strength. He was sure. He had been improving that fast.
Faster than ever.
But he had forgotten to take one critical thing into account.
His overall strength, was just as important a resource out here, as his food and water was. It was just as critical for his survival.
He had gotten too overconfident in his abilities. He had compared them to the tigers and bears in the area. They had been easy to beat, so he had thought that he could handle anything in the area.
He hadn't thought everything through.
If he hadn't left his clearing, would he even have met those T-Rex? Would he have survived until the end of the week?
How would the future have panned out?
He felt his eyes widen, as his mind conjured up an image. It was a tunnel, and his dad was at the end of it. His dad was waiting for him. Waiting for him to get stronger, and to finally catch up to him after making it through the tunnel's expanse.
He wanted nothing more than to make it to the end with his own strength, and earn the right to fight alongside everyone there.
But the tunnel was long, and dangerous.
Would he have made it to the end if he hadn't left?
Would he have made it until the saiyan's arrived? Would he have been able to meet his dad once again? To fight alongside him and everyone else?
He never should have left the clearing.
Regret.
'I think I finally understand what that feels like.'
No, he should have done things differently even sooner than that. Sooner than his decision to leave the clearing.
When he had been taken by Piccolo that day, why had he acted so childishly? Calling for help to anyone who would listen? Crying over the fact that he was scared?
Why had he been so weak?
He should have asked to be trained immediately. Or at least asked how Piccolo had created matter from seemingly nothing. He never would have run into his food problems if he had done at least that.
Or his clothing problem for that matter.
He could have just materialized them both.
He wouldn't have had to waste valuable training time getting basic necessities.
He had made mistake after mistake, right until the end.
His immaturity cost him his life.
Not that he had ever really amounted to anything. Almost his entire life had been spent studying. He had read countless books on a huge variety of subjects. He was almost certain that he knew more than either of his parents when it came to all things theoretical in nature.
What a waste.
He had never really lived.
Maybe, above all, that was his biggest regret.
These last few months, even with all the stress that came with the extreme survival training, and the countless mysteries that surrounded him, were some of the best times of his life.
Gaining super strength, running at super speeds. He practically had super-powers.
He even got to try and apply some of his math and physics theories to what he was working on.
He should have asked his dad to train him as soon as he had been able to walk.
'I wonder if there are any theories in that book of mine that could have saved me.'
It was his favorite physics textbook. The one on classical mechanics.
The one he had gotten on his second birthday? Or was it his third? His early childhood was a bit blurry so he wasn't sure anymore which one it had been.
But he sure knew that book. He had almost completely memorized its contents after reading it through completely, four times.
It had sure made his mom happy.
Seeing him finally change his mindset towards studying. It had been that book that had finally stopped him from constantly complaining about it to her.
He was actually going through his fifth read through before his life was completely flipped upside down. He had wanted to make sure that he hadn't missed anything.
And he was glad that he had. Some of the results in that text had been directly responsible for the development of his training methods.
The laws of motion gave rise to his sprinting technique, the basic ideas behind his pursuit of perfect movement, and energy minimization.
And the mechanics of springs gave rise to his air walking technique.
Springs.
The image in his mind shattered.
And was promptly replaced with another.
He saw his favorite book. It opened and flipped towards the section on springs.
It was only then that he finally realized just how incredible the feat his mind was unconsciously performing, really was.
He could read the page.
In so much detail that he even noted the page number.
His eyes widened and he mentally slapped himself.
Sitting there, on the page, was a simple fact that he hadn't even considered before now. If he had remembered it when he had been training, he would have been able to save himself from the situation he was in.
He wouldn't have fallen.
Maybe he really could have made it to the end of that tunnel.
His air walking technique was only half complete.
And the other half was just as useful as the first. Possibly more so.
When you push on a spring, it pushes back. When applied to his air walking, the thin cushion of Ki, is the spring in question, and pushes him away from the ground. It's why he never touches it.
But you can also pull on a spring. In that case, it pulls back as well.
It resists motion in both directions. Not just the one.
If he had somehow figured out a way to take advantage of that, then he would have been able to pull himself towards the ground, instead of pushing away from it. He'd have been able to stick to things. He wouldn't have had to constantly concern himself over the possibility of tripping or slipping over things ever again, either.
But most importantly…
He would have been able to stick to walls too.
There was an answer after all.
Was it too late to try it?
He didn't want to die, but was there enough time?
His mind had gone into overdrive to let him know that there was in fact, an answer.
And he had no reason to ignore it. If he didn't at least give it his all, he'd never be able to face his dad again.
But most of all, the one entity that gave him the answer in the first place, his own, incredible subconscious mind…
He would be turning his back on it.
It may not be an actual person, but it had always felt like it was. Some of the ideas he had received from it were so out of left field that they surprised even him.
And those ideas were the best ones.
He spun around to face the fast-approaching ground. Quickly judging the distance, he figured that he had seconds.
He wasn't close enough to the wall.
Whatever he was going to try to do, would require him to be able to touch it.
So he fired a Ki blast in the opposite direction. It was weak, but the momentum was enough to close the distance.
He slammed into the wall.
He felt his back strike the rock and bounce off, before he started tumbling end over end down the wall of the mountain.
Briefly, during one of his flips, he caught a glimpse of the dinosaurs still waiting for him at the mountain's base. They were on their feet, jostling for position. Clearly, they knew what was going on. One of them was even beginning to open its mouth.
They were going to eat him right out of the air unless he did something, now.
How was he even going to do this though?
He had the idea but how did he apply it?
He felt his head abruptly change direction, and go completely numb.
Had he just hit the rock wall, head first?
Ouch.
That had hurt. A lot.
Specks of light were everywhere. It was like night time, but in the day. So many stars were out…
What was he doing again?
He saw a flash of teeth.
Right…
Dinosaurs, springs, falling…
He had to attach himself to the side of the mountain with his Ki somehow. But how could Ki do that?
That was when he saw it.
He saw it through the leftover haze that the impact of his head hitting the wall, left behind.
It was like time had stopped and the world faded away. For just a moment, he saw a perfect image. A single, simple, mental diagram that explained everything.
He had been wrong again.
Minutes ago, he had learned that Ki didn't reinforce the durability of an object, it instead, protected it like a shield. Surrounded it.
But he hadn't taken into account the fact that there was no such thing as a truly solid object. Not on a molecular scale anyway. There were tiny spaces between molecules and atoms. No two distinct things could ever actually make contact with each other.
A solid object, like his stick from earlier, was actually just a collection of atoms held together by various forces. They were closely packed, but not in contact. The various forces of the universe kept each atomic nucleus separated by a short distance. And there did exist a variety of things that could pass between those spaces. Electromagnetic radiation and various subatomic particles could manage it.
Ki, whatever it actually was made of, could do this too.
It had to be able to, or else it would never be able to travel through the solid object that was his body, the way that it did.
His previous situation where he had 'pumped' his Ki into that stick, was analogous to a sponge being placed underwater.
The sponge was the stick in his analogy, and the water was his Ki. The water surrounded and protected the sponge. But, due to the tiny holes in the sponge, the water was able to get inside, and saturate it.
When he had blocked the tail whip that would have killed him, all that the impact had done was disrupt his focus on his Ki. As a result, it dissipated, leaving the stick intact.
It was like suddenly converting all of the water around the sponge into vapor and letting it disperse.
The sponge would remain intact, and the water would be gone.
It was exactly what had occurred with his stick.
Ki density was the answer.
When his Ki was incredibly thin, it could pass through solid objects by slipping through the gaps in its atomic structure. But when it got denser, thicker, it began to take on some of the properties of solid matter. This was why his air walking technique worked. It involved creating a ball of Ki thick enough to provide a force against the ground, but thin enough to prevent the ground from being burned.
If he thinned out his Ki even more than that though, it would be too thin to provide any force against the ground at all, and he wouldn't levitate.
This was because all of the Ki 'particles' were passing through the gaps between the atoms in the ground.
And the critical concept that he had just visualized in his mind, was that even when his Ki was thin enough to pass through the ground, he would still have mental control over it.
The solution was so simple.
Use a thinner version of his air walking technique to create a ball of Ki inside the rock wall of the mountain, then abruptly, with as much force as possible, condense it.
Those gaps in the molecular structure of the wall will suddenly be filled with his Ki. And these Ki particles will exude intermolecular forces against the molecules of the wall.
His Ki would literally become part of the wall. At least, until he thinned it out again, or let it disperse.
All that remained would be for him to ensure that his feet were locked in place inside the same ball of Ki that was implanted into the wall, and then mentally contract the ball hard enough to overcome the force of gravity, and halt his momentum.
He opened his eyes once again.
He had solved the problem at what felt like the speed of a camera flash.
He was mid-roll when he came back to reality.
His back bounced off the wall once again. The ground was so close. He had to succeed on his first attempt or he was going to die.
After completing one final rotation, he lashed out with his feet. The instant he felt them make contact with the wall, he activated his air walking technique.
He activated it perfectly on instinct, which almost got him killed. It was too dense. Immediately dialing back on his Ki, he started pumping it into the wall.
He needed as much as possible for his idea to work.
It was time for the moment of truth.
This technique was the exact opposite of what he was used to. His air walking technique involved mentally expanding the ball of Ki he was standing on to overcome his own weight. Here, he had to mentally contract the ball of Ki hard enough to stop his momentum.
He had no idea what was going to happen.
He threw out his arms for stabilization, and he tensed his body, before clamping down on his manifested Ki as hard and as fast as possible.
He was lying on his stomach, gasping for breath when he noticed that he had come to a full stop.
The impact had knocked all of the wind out of him.
Opening his eyes, he looked up, and saw the group of dinosaurs from before. They were about twenty meters away, and looking right back at him hungrily.
The ground was also above him.
When he looked down he figured out why.
The sky was below him, and he was lying down on the wall of the mountain.
He felt tears stinging the backs of his eyes, and he smiled.
He was still clamping down as hard as he could mentally, on the Ki around his feet, and in the wall. His idea had worked. His feet had stopped immediately. But his upper body had kept going, and as a result he winded himself by slamming into the wall on his stomach.
But he had stopped.
He could feel tears start to leak out of his eyes. Not out of pain, even though there was quite a bit of that, or out of sadness, but out of a sheer sense of accomplishment.
It was the feeling that he would get every time he blew away even his own expectations. After knowing that he had succeeded utterly. Things had gone so right that he couldn't have possibly done better.
It was a feeling of pride. He had absolutely no idea how he had managed to remain calm enough during that ordeal, to think his way out the way that he had.
But he had done it.
One of the dinosaurs let out a roar of frustration, after noticing that it hadn't gotten its meal.
Gohan placed his hands on the wall, and shakily got to his feet, while carefully maintaining his newly invented technique.
He was now standing on the wall, perfectly parallel to the ground.
So many things had led up to this moment. During those first few moments of his fall, when he thought he was going to die, he had found himself regretting so many things. He hadn't seen just how perfectly all of those events had fallen in to place to lead him here.
If he hadn't taught himself silent movement, if he hadn't invented air walking, if he hadn't taught himself how to control his Ki, if literally anything had gone differently, he wouldn't be where he was now.
If he had asked Piccolo to train him on that day, he'd have never learned to depend on himself. He'd have never had the chance to come up with new techniques and training methods, as he would have been following Piccolo's instead.
He wouldn't have had the chance to experiment, and apply what he knew from his books, to his training.
He wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn the value in making a mistake on his own and learning from it.
And most of all, if he hadn't been lucky enough to be born with a brain that could just go into overdrive like it just had…
He now knew beyond any doubt that he was satisfied with who he was. He no longer wished that he was exactly like his dad, or his mom, or anyone else for that matter.
He knew beyond any doubt that if he were allowed to switch minds with any other person, living or dead, he would decline in all cases. After what his brain had just pulled, he would never underestimate himself again.
Carefully, he bent down and grabbed onto the closest handhold, and released the mental clamp on his Ki.
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he noticed that he was very low on energy. Pain was starting to show itself all over. He had taken an absolute beating from smashing into the wall so many times, and he was bleeding. He didn't even know where it was coming from anymore. It was just all over his new, home-made, deerskin shirt.
He had hit his head a few times too, judging from the splitting headache that was reverberating throughout his skull.
He glanced up at the next handhold.
He had to get to the top so he could finally rest.
The dinosaurs weren't going anywhere, and he still had to escape.
And when he reached that spot on the mountain once again, the one that had caused him to fall, he now had the perfect technique to use.
Reverse air walking.
A/N: Please excuse any grammar and spelling errors, as I have no beta reader at this time.
- LeviTamm