The Saiyan Gamer
Chapter 29: The Decapitator
"And here we are again for the second day of the second trial!"
The atmosphere was as crazy as it was the first day, with perhaps even more people attending. We flew to the front lines and set up our seats as a large group. My match wasn't the first today, so I got to relax a bit and enjoy the show.
"You ready for your fight, Kakarot?" I asked the little bundle of excitement.
"More than ready!" He bounced up and down, his balls fisted. "And once I win, I'll get to fight you!"
"You sure will," I chuckled. "I'll just have to win my next fight, then."
"Do any of you want some food?" Gine asked from her seat behind me, already shoving a sandwich in my face before I answered. "Especially you, Sprout. Make sure you're fully healed."
I took the sandwich despite my full stomach and stored it in my Safe Place when she was distracted forcing Turles to eat. Next to me, both Rue and Chile devoured their food with stars in their eyes.
"This food is incredible!" Chile gasped between bites. "You're a goddess!"
"Nothing like the food I eat at the estate!" Rue added.
"Oh, that's nothing compared to what she can do," I said, laughing when I saw their beaming eyes.
The morning was filled with laughter until Kakarot was called up for his fight. As he strolled up to the arena, I leaned back in my chair and turned to my newest cousin, who was looking over at me with a strange expression on his face.
"It was a weird night last night. I was caught entirely off guard, and I…" He narrowed his eyes slightly, clearly thinking.
"The word that you're looking for is 'thank you," I said. "Don't worry, before I came back to this planet, I hadn't used the word either."
He sat back in his chair and nodded his head, showing me what I assumed was correct. After a few seconds, he sighed loudly and asked, "So, how was your purge?"
"I didn't know about my mission until I was ten, but before that, I was treated like an animal," I told him. "They didn't teach me their language and kept me away from the rest of their civilizations. It was a pleasure to destroy them."
It was silent for a few seconds, and when I looked back at him, I saw a slight frown on his face. Finally, when he spoke, his voice was low, "Mine was nothing like that."
"Oh?" I asked. "How so?"
"I… I had a family," He started, to my surprise. "I was old enough to know my mission, but they were plenty strong, so I had to pretend. A family took me in and took care of me for years. They were great people. Soft, but good."
"But, I was obsessed with fulfilling my mission and returning to my real family," He stressed the word real with disgust. "So when I started having my growth spurts, I began planning until I knew that I was the strongest on the planet, no competition. I don't even remember starting my assault, I just remember waking up in a burning city, and my family was gone. Just like that."
"After that, killing the rest was easy," He admitted, his voice raw. "But every night when I go to bed, I can't help but ask myself a question. Did they deserve to die?"
I tried to think of a response, but my brain was completely blank. Everything was fuzzy for a few seconds until I eventually looked back over at him.
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "We were told to do something and we did it. That's all there is to it."
He frowned at the response, before turning away from me. When I realized that he wasn't going to respond, I decided to change the subject.
"So what are you going to do now that you're back and free?"
He seemed to think for a few seconds, before shrugging his shoulders. "Get out of this town, that's for sure. I was thinking of leaving tonight."
"Where will you go?" I pressed.
"Dunno," He said. "But thanks for helping me out. If we meet again, I'll make it even."
I nodded my head in response, and we both went back to watching the fight. Kakarot won swiftly after that, beating his enemy into submission, but my mind was far removed from the entertainment in front of me.
Who deserved to die and who didn't?
I didn't find an answer.
"And now, Sprout, son of Omato, will go up against Inzuke!"
Standing up quickly, I began my walk over to the arena with the cheers of my new family behind me. Excitement filled me, but it was different than before. I wasn't fighting to impress anyone this time. It was simply for the enjoyment of it and to gain experience points.
"Where'd you go the other night?" A voice stopped me from my left. When I looked, I saw Root floating a few feet away, staring down at me.
"I'll explain later," I dismissed him quickly. Despite my feelings changing concerning my family as a whole, I didn't hold any animosity towards him. He was just a kid after all, and even though I'd only known him for a little over two weeks, he'd grown on me.
"Well, I just came to say, I look forward to seeing you win," He offered me a thumbs up.
And just like that, he solidified how I felt about him. "Thanks, Root."
His lips turned upwards slightly before he flew off in another direction. I followed his path until he landed next to Omato and Brussel. Omato looked at me with a curious expression on his face, but the moment that we made eye contact, I turned my head away. Prolonged eye-contact invited conversation and that was the last thing I needed before my fight.
I continued my way to the arena, determination flowing through me. My enthusiasm didn't go unnoticed, my opponent caught on immediately.
"Aw. One last bit of happiness before your final day alive," Inzuke chuckled darkly. Even from the other end of the arena, he looked down on me.
"You're sure confident for someone who is about to lose. My power level is much higher than yours," I said as I slowly unsheathed the Fang of Flame and swung it around, before settling into a stance. "Why do you want to kill me so badly anyway?"
"As I said before, I do not need a reason to kill," He said as he casually put his hands in his pockets and leaned back. "Why do you fight?"
The sound of an explosion echoed far above me, as I replied, "Because I want to."
"Exactly," He smirked, like a predator looking down at its prey. "Now, come on and fight me."
I obliged, blasting off of the sand in a straight sprint. The closer I got, the bigger the grin on his face grew. A bad feeling blossomed in my chest, but the moment I realized that something was off, I felt the ground beneath me burst upward.
Lightweight
The pain was excruciating. My vision swam with darkness, and that was when I noticed that I was lying on my back, staring up into the sky. Far off in the distance, I could see sand and what looked like a leg. My leg.
I couldn't resist the urge to belt out in pain, my hands flying to my missing limb in alarm. Everything below halfway down my thigh was gone, and blood gushed out of it in spades. Thinking fast, I channeled Ki to the spot, burning my skin until the wound was no longer bleeding.
"That's surprising!" His voice was upon me in a minute. His demonic shadow loomed over me as he came down from above. "Not many survive the first attack!"
A flail about the size of half of my body struck down from the sky, hitting the ground where I was a moment ago. I rolled to the left of the attack, but he was on me still, swinging the chain that pulled the ball at me. Still in pain, and with my mind racing with uncertainty, I did the first thing that came to mind and sliced at it with my sword.
The impact of the ball against my sword rattled my body and sent me skidding further along the sand. I allowed the momentum to keep me going until I felt the sand shift beneath me again. My eyes widened, but this time I knew what to expect. By the skin of my teeth, I dodged the brunt of an explosion erupting from the ground beneath me.
I floated straight up and away from the ground, spinning as I rose in an effort to locate him. I found him quickly and was surprised to see that he was holding a different weapon. In both of his hands, he was holding knives, and there were already two flying at me. I swiveled and spun, my sword slapping them out of the air and far off into the desert.
I don't even have time to think! I growled as I was forced to dodge several more knives flying at me. Shit!
After dodging a few more, I threw two Ki balls hard into the ground, blowing up a massive cloud of sand, blocking his view of me. I fell back down to the ground but made sure not to touch down. How am I supposed to get close to him with those explosions all over the place?
How is he even doing that? My brain was firing off ideas as fast as it could go. Is his Ki invisible? No, the sand is coming from the ground, I can hear it shift just before it explodes. There's no way he's burrowing them into the ground as he fights, he must have planted them sometime before the match started. Either way, the most important thing is that it must take a lot of concentration to keep it going.
I generated two balls of Ki and blasted them right in his direction, before flying back up and then towards him. He dodged the Ki balls just in time for him to see me flying down at him, my sword already swinging at his neck. His eyes turned to meet him, but I froze on the spot when I saw that he was still grinning like a madman.
A split second later, the sand beneath me separated and a ball of yellow Ki flew up at me. Instinctively, I pocketed my Fang of Flame and threw my hands down at it, catching it. The air around me shimmered as my Ki engulfed the attack, keeping it stable enough so that it didn't explode in my face.
"You caught it, but let's see how you handle all of these!" My opponent laughed, as the ground slightly below me shuddered and several other Ki balls rose out of the ground and sped at me. Not seeing how I could possibly dodge this attack, I gritted my teeth and activated [Iron Body].
The attacks exploded against me from all directions, scorching me in an instant. I could feel the clothes on my back melting against my skin as the attack tore at me. By the time it was finished, I was trembling.
Shit, how the fuck does he have so much control of his Ki? I took a deep breath and retreated from the spot, flying back far enough that I exited the cloud of sand that had ballooned around me.
"You young Saiyans don't understand true technique," He spoke from somewhere in the cloud, mocking me. "Back in the Great War, even us with lower power levels had to find a way to be useful. I couldn't raise my power level, but I could increase my control. I've killed thousands with this control, and you're next!"
Underneath me, I could hear the sand beneath me moving again. But this time I had a plan. I flew higher, and as soon as the Ki balls burst from the sand, I opened both of my hands and ten Meta-Wolf teeth appeared between my fingers. With one fell swoop, I threw them all, and they exploded on contact, neutralizing the attacks before they could hit me.
"Enough with this shit!" I yelled, my voice raspy from the pain. My HP was draining quickly, and I was already getting tired.
"I've got plenty where that came from," He snickered. "I've already won! Give up and die!"
I responded by releasing four Ki balls that began to float around my body. My concentration was strained so badly that their surfaces shimmered. Even still, I generated two more.
"As if I'd lose to someone like you," I spat to the ground below. "This ends now!"
Immediately I began flying at him, the Ki balls spinning around me as I did. The closer I got to him, the further the balls separated from me and started flying in separate directions, surrounding both of us in a huge net. He threw several knives, and in response, I threw meta-wolf teeth, knocking the knives just off course.
The moment that I heard the sand moving below me, one of my Ki balls flew at him. He was forced to dodge, and his grin slipped down into a frown for the first time since I'd met him. The sand beneath me stopped moving and that was when I knew my plan would work.
As I approached, flying at a steady speed, every time I heard one of his attacks preparing to launch, I'd attack him directly with one of my own, halting the attack. Occasionally a few would still manage to shoot up, but I'd counter those with meta-wolf teeth. It didn't take long before I was a few feet away from him, and the Fang of Flame appeared in my hand.
"It won't be that easy!" He howled. In desperation, he whipped his arm at me, launching his flail at my face. Without a second thought, I poured as much Ki as I could manage in that split second into the Fang of Flame. The Ki balls around me disintegrated with my focus gone, but that didn't matter anymore. I could feel the handle heat up to incredible temperatures, but I didn't have time to look back at it before I sliced forward, activating [Meteor Fist] as it moved.
My attack melted through his ball with extreme ease, cutting it completely in half. His eyes widened, but it was far too late for him to dodge it completely. Flames coated the blade completely, red flickering to blue and then to exotic purple. As the blade, poised to decapitate him approached, I savored the look of pure panic in his eyes.
And just like that, the fight was over.
Enemy Defeated!
7000 EXP Reward!
Level up!
"There you have it! Sprout The Decapitator has won once again!"
"Decapitator! Decapitator!"
You've Earned a Title!
The Decapitator
When equipped, you will gain 10% more experience when you kill an enemy by cutting off their head!
I like that. I acknowledged the new title for a second, before walking over to my seat. Everyone was cheering for me, but the thing I noticed immediately was the strange expression on Zaria's face. I couldn't explain it, but it sent an intense shiver down my spine and into my stomach.
What does that mean?
The next two days went by in a blur, and there was no training accomplished. The warmth of the bed surrounded me, but that wasn't the only thing keeping me warm. When I flopped over to my side, Zaria's short black hair met me. I hadn't trained at all, and she was the reason.
Silently I stood up, successfully not waking her. Once I was certain that she was still asleep, I turned and clothes from my Safe Place appeared on my body, along with a book. It was the last book that I had taken from Mossgrove, 'How To Defend Yourself'. I'd already read most of it, and so far, it was extremely disappointing.
All it did was teach me what I already knew about fighting, but with a twist that somehow made fighting boring. Their version of the basic fighting stance had barely any offense, focusing almost entirely on defending against attacks. There were quite a few more joint lock moves in there, and how to escape them, but that was about the most interesting thing I'd seen. This was the fifth time I'd sat down and tried to finish it, but lost interest quickly, which was rare considering I typically devoured books in an hour or so.
This time, I powered through it and read the end. It was just as boring as I expected, but the moment I read the final word, I got an interesting notification.
Alternative Version Of [Basic Martial Arts] Unlocked!
Non-Lethal Basic Martial Arts Lvl 10!
Intelligence Stat Raised by 1 Point!
It's immediately at level 10? Must be because it's only an alternative form of the normal martial arts. I sighed, before putting the book away. Still, very disappointing.
"You're awake…" Zaria's voice was soft and low as she rolled over to face me. "Are you ready for your fight with Kakarot?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," I said. "It's going to be a tough fight. He'll be the toughest opponent I've fought in this tournament."
"Tougher than the guy who blew your leg off?"
"Definitely. That guy was tricky, but once I figured out his trick, it was an easy victory. His power level was only 1,300 after all," I explained. "On the other hand, Kakarot is extremely skilled in combat. He is Bardock's son, after all. On top of that, our power levels are almost matching. The only thing that I have on him is that he doesn't know how to use a weapon, but I won't be using a weapon on him anyway."
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to accidentally kill him, after all," She said, as she got up.
"Exactly. I'm at a disadvantage in this fight," I continued. "But that's what'll make it the best fight yet."
I didn't plan on losing, but if I did, it wouldn't be with my hands up. No matter how it ended, it would be a fight to remember.
Next chapter, "Kakarot vs Sprout"! And here is Sprout's stat sheet. If you'd like to see a list of his skills next, chapter, let me know.
Also, the game restored his leg completely after sleeping. I honestly forgot to include it in the chapter, and don't want to edit it in now, so there'll be a mention next chapter!
Status Sheet
Level 23
The Decapitator
Sprout
Species - Saiyan/?
Age - 15
Gender - Male
HP - 29,302
Ki - 33,246
Strength: 59
(Speed Stat: 29.5)
Endurance: 39
Intelligence: 25
Power Level - 2254
Unspent Attribute Points: 24
