Nelgae vs Gohan [TL/Gem, discord, complete]

Rei — Yesterday at 6:48 PM
It had been a few months, the Arlian ancestor knew. He'd been on this planet, filled with beasts that no normal being could live on. It was terraformed, and that suited the Hunter quite nicely. He ate his fill of new creatures, but it was about time to end his sojourn.

However, before that, he went into the Astral Realm, and formed up a new area. An open arena for the Former Champion of Arlia, but this time it was not some hauty open air arena. Here, it stood in the middle of what looked like a bauge ant colony, as the humans might say. Open holes allowed insectoids to filter in and out, and there seemed no rhyme or reason to the seating, besides the box reserved for the Queen.

Nelgae stood in the middle, ten feet tall now, grey and patient as his smaller two arms folded as his long-limbed "normal" arms swayed calmly at his side, as his mandibles clicked, "Who will I face today?" He wondered this aloud with his crimson eyes ready.

Tienizard — Yesterday at 7:01 PM
There was a certain nigh-indescribable feeling which was characteristic of Gohan's visits to the Astral Realm. It was almost like a tingling on his skin, as if his very essence was bubbling up out of him. That same tingling embraced his body a nightmarish world spilled into his reality.

Massive ant-like creatures scurried and scuttled through tunnels of sand and dirt around him, an unpleasant crowd for the boy. Just a few yards away was a massive specimen, easily doubling Gohan's stature. Its hard shell was nearly devoid of color in the subterranean light which filled the young scholar with unease. His every instinct said that a fight was imminent, but the advantages were stacked against him.

"Son Gohan," the boy responded, his black hair waggling as he shifted his weight side to side experimentally. It was best to be prepared in case the ant-man decided to lunge. "Do you have a name, too?"

Rei — Yesterday at 7:08 PM
"I do," the voice was rough, low in tone, and seemed like it might crack at any moment, yet filled with air. After all, insects breathed differently than those species with lungs, "Nelgae." Of course, if one wasn't familiar with the Arlian Champions that dated back two centuries, his name would be unfamiliar. And let's face it, who really cared about Arlian Arena champions? The bugs were always so weak.

"Son Gohan. I shall remember your name." His frame moved with frightening speed, not quite the speed of lightning, but damn near like it. Just as fast, it was like four arms pummeled at the boy from all sides, two sets of these kinds of jabs before the bug shoved a ball of ki towards his chest to launch him towards the edge of the arena.

A test. Simple, though the movements fast. Nelgae then allowed his power to burgeon from him in waves, lifted the viel as his grey ecoskeleton took on a golden-yellow hue as he introduced him again. "I am Nelgae, the Last of the Queen's Guard. Well met, Son Gohan."

Tienizard — Yesterday at 7:24 PM
The low buzz of the creature's voice grated against Gohan's eardrums. He barely processed what it had said before the first hint of movement had begun, a greyscaled projection of the ant colliding with the boy's undersized frame.

In his home timeline, Gohan had been one of the strongest warriors of Earth; in the Astral Realm for whatever branch he'd ended up on, monsters like this existed and put all of his experiences to shame. Even having mastered his Super Saiyan form such that holding it was like second nature, the boy had no time to ascend before a quadruple dose of pain burned through his torso.

A flurry of blows was enough of a rude awakening to the young Saiyan, and his sharp sense for ki allowed him to catch on when Nelgae followed up. Gohan's reactions were too slow to fully remove him from the line of fire, but unleashing a pocket of energy as a buffer let him fly back gracefully and change the thermal energy into a less harmful acoustic wave.

He skidded to a stop with the thunderous clapping of energy, breathing heavily just from the opening attack. Not wasting another moment, Gohan joined his opponent in emitting the yellow glow that he had associated with an unleashed potential. Unable to sense an opening, the boy simply tightened his guard and prepared for another overwhelming blitz.

Rei — Yesterday at 7:35 PM
No words, but a sense for battle. Nelgae would have had a sinister grin, if he had a face like the boy's. But that sinister energy flowed easily from him in waves as his power roiled. Thunder seemed to strike again, but this time it wasn't a frontal attack. From his left side, the bullet punch followed from one of his shorted limbs, before his long ones seemed like they tried to cut the boy in half.

Instead, they clapped the palms together and thrumbed with psychic energy, an enhanced wave of sound that could split the ear drums of the weak. Instead, for this boy, he expected him to become disoriented, just a moment. That was the only moment the insectoid needed as he rose his arms up, the palms connected as a leg shot up towards the boy's center.

He followed with a hammer blow from above, all the weight crashed down like a fright train that fell from a ledge. The ant stayed close now, as he took an aggressive stance and threw a snap punch from his smaller arm, the one that didn't attack before. Nelgae wasn't a former Arena Champion for nothing, as he pushed this Son Gohan.

"Show us more, Son Gohan," he chirped, the taunt in his tone all too clear.

Tienizard — Yesterday at 8:01 PM
With the gift of clear sight returned, Gohan was able to track the initial burst from Nelgae on its second attack. His right hand supported the left as he threw them in the way of the creature's arms, only barely able to redirect the first blow. Another arm reached out like the reaper's scythe and it was all the boy could do to twist down and out of the way.

But Gohan was deceived by the rapid movements, and saw with the corner of his eye a clasped pair of fists joining well above his head. Twisting had put him off balance and there was no time to defend the attack he could see being readied. Instead, he adopted a cross-guard and faced down, hoping only to mitigate the damage of slamming into the ground.

It was a surprise, then, when Nelgae's unnaturally hard leg segment slammed into the boy's freshly-braced guard. The cushion helped him stay grounded and brace for the double-fisted attack from above, but the Saiyan couldn't help feeling the role of "punching bag" as dirt filled his mouth.

Gohan winced as the bug's rasping voice once again filled his ears like claws at a chalkboard. He may not have been the most eager to fight, but he could tell that this one-sided beating would only drag on if he continued to defend without any offense.

Holding a grimmace, the boy let his energy manifest at the backs of his shoulders and felt another pair of arms erupt in muscle and bone. He hoped to catch the bug-creature off-guard and grab ahold of one of it's many appendages and yank, pulling Nelgae off balance while standing up with the aid of his freshly bruised main arms. Whether or not he successfully tipped over the massive arthropod, Gohan spewed a wreath of flames all over the enclosed space around him, hoping that the heat would give him a moments respite.

Rei — Yesterday at 8:15 PM
The Arena held many surprises, and this Son Gohan did have some up his sleeves. While Nelgae held higher forms, he had judged that his Beast Form would do well for this contest. This one's defenses were sharp, sharp enough that his blows were caught or made less effective. "Your battle sense is good," his voice rasped as the arms formed.

The Saiyan youth attacked, then, as he grabbed for one of his longer arms. His aim wasn't clear until he tugged, as he pulled the insectoid. Rather than simply be fully pulled off balance, Nelgae rolled with the attack, as his five other limbs helped him accomplish a scuttle-motion. Flame sprouted from Gohan's mouth, only to find that Nelgae was not scared of the flames in the slightest.

He snarled at the burning ki, felt the pain through his exoskeleton, and then stomped on the arena floor to fling away any fuel left for the flames. His movement was followed by another scythe-like attack through the smoke as he aimed to strike Gohan in the chest. His body followed the attack as he drew his arm up and pointed twin fingers towards Gohan.

Ki flared like Earth's Forth of July, a cacophony of colors and explosions rocked the arena as he growled out, "More, Son Gohan!" The hulking ant stood more as he ignited more power that bled from his form as the golden-yellow molted off of the ant. From that molt stepped a shadowy version, pulsated with azure energy within the black cage of his mortal form. Was the kid in his most powerful form? It was time to see if he had more power to give as Nelgar stepped away from what remained of the flame and smoke like a dragon from it's lair.

Tienizard — Today at 1:50 AM
It hadn't been long since the fighting had started, but Gohan tasted the blood in his mouth and felt the bones creak and groan with his every movement. He was slowly adapting to Nelgae's voice, but failed to do anything quite well enough to stand his ground against the terrifying creature.

As evidence of that fact, the monster scuttled through his fiery wards without a single hesitation. Gohan felt the unmistakable crunch as his ribcage gave way from the successive impacts and the impact reverberated throughout his entire skeleton. The boy soared upward from the blow with bloodshot eyes that seemed to scream for a stop to the torture.

Such mercy was not meant to be, of course. Gohan's momentum carried him on an upward arc only to be boosted by another explosion at its apex; the tingling energy danced across his torso as it began to erupt in a cacophony of sizzling, burning, and tearing. The resulting explosion was so vibrant and forceful that Gohan couldn't tell if the shaking was just his perception or if the cavern itself was actually rocking.

Smoke followed the young Saiyan's body as he fell to the ground again. Barely conscious, he could only look up from the bloodied dirt as another metamorphosis occurred in the creature to turn it into a shadowy blob.

"No... more..." he struggled, ragged breaths trying to overcome the internal organ damages Gohan had sustained. His opponent had only grown more enamored with its punching bag as the punishment piled up, but it had long surpassed the limits that the boy could handle.

The tingling feeling of coming or going from the Astral Realm had begun to wash away the discomfort of his most recent thrashing, and he was eager to let it run its course before Nelgae could tack on any more trauma. He already suspected that he'd have a new prejudice against ants.