I’d rushed head-first into a lot of things in my life, some with good consequences, some with bad, but I thought Kami had changed my patterns, taught me how to control myself.  Then I reverted back to the old days when I sprinted over to Kennard and Nikita with the others.  It felt good really, giving me a kind of adrenaline rush I hadn’t had in a long time.

            Luckily the Caprians hadn’t been prepared for the five of us to all come out at once, and fell back in surprise as we all crowded around the downed Nikita and the stunned Kennard.  I made sure to face in the direction of the one Kennard had knocked senseless, didn’t need a pissed off Caprian to go unnoticed.  Luckily I could sense him still trying to figure out what happened, so I managed to make out the conversation Gideon and the really big were having.  Gideon was speaking at the time I began listening in “Back the hell up damnit, don’t start something you’re not ready for.”

            I heard the other guy laugh deeply, and I turned to look at him.  When he managed to stop hooting, he replied, “Don’t make me laugh.  How long did you plan on hiding there in the rocks, like cowards?”

            “As long as it took for you to make a fatal mistake.”  Came Gideon’s quick reply.

            “Ah, they admit to their own cowardice, what morons.”  Was the quip from the other apparent commander.

            I couldn’t let something like that go un-contested, so I cut off Gideon and yelled back “Who’s the fucking cowards here you piece of shit?”  I could feel my blood beginning to boil, so I kept going “You’re the ones that would kill a warrior that’s obviously not near you power wise.”  I screamed as I pointed towards the body of Nikita.

            “I see they have a mouthy one in the group.”  The big one looked me straight in the eye, and I made sure to give him a glare he’d remember.  Suddenly though he started laughing, mocking me in the crudest way possible.  I clenched my fist and bit my lip in order to restrain myself from going over to try and kill the stupid bitch.  After a few seconds he regained control of himself and yelled out “We’ll set you straight yet, son”, I thought the “son” was pushing it a little, even for him “You just wait.”

            “Maybe it will be us that sets you straight.”  I replied, half-calmly.

            “I highly doubt it.”  Then he turned to one of the Kalandrilians and said, “Power levels please Eagel.”

            The shortest of the insect-like beings pushed the large button on his scouter and began to read out power levels.  Since I was pissed off, mine was rising the fastest and consequently was the first one read.  “The feisty one is at 60,000 and rising slightly.”  After reading mine, he moved slowly over to Gideon, “The black guy is at 82,000 and….” Before he could move onto any others, his scouter exploded on his face in a bright flash of light.  I traced the ki blast that had destroyed the device to its source, and found Karnai, his hand outstretched and his palm smoking, a grim look on his face.

            “That shit ends now.”  Was all the Namek warrior said.  I smiled, barely containing my laughter.  “There will be no scouter’s used in this fight.”  The way he said it, you just knew he meant business.

            The big leader one glared through squinted eyes at Karnai and answered “Who’s going to prevent us from using them, you?”  Karnai just nodded, and the big one just replied “I’d love to see you try.”

            Now I knew Karnai well enough to know that he didn’t back down from a challenge.  He instantly fell into his attack position, claws extended, fangs bared fully, he actually looked quite formidable.  The huge one just smiled, and began to drop down into his own fighting posture.  They looked about ready to rip each other to shreds, and probably would have if the Caprian Kennard had demolished moments ago hadn’t shown up all of a sudden.

            He flew in on a blue streak of ki, landing just a few metres away from me.  His eyes were bloodshot, a trail of blood ran down from the corners of his mouth, and he looked very pissed overall.  His vision was concentrated on Kennard, and as soon as he laid eyes on the human he screamed out “Get the fuck over here so I can kick your punk ass!”

            Kennard faced the Caprian right in the eye, not daring to show the fear I knew he had inside.  I wouldn’t let my buddy get jumped by this crazed fuck-up, but I didn’t know if I was strong enough to help out any; from what I could tell, his power level must’ve been somewhere near 80,000, which didn’t spell well for either of us.

            I could tell the Caprian was about to spring, but before he did a call came out from the Caprians side of the field.  “Triel, get back here right now.”  I recognized the voice as the big one’s and saw him glaring at the Caprian staring at Kennard, Triel.

            Triel took a few deep breaths, released his tense muscles, and reluctantly glided off towards the group of Kalandrilians.  Also the Kalandrilian Nikita had nailed flew back to join his comrades, rubbing his stomach and cursing us under his breath.  I was relieved the fight had been stayed off, but the Caprians had now regrouped and were at full force, while we still were missing Nikita, not to mention whomever it was who had been wished back.  That very thought reminded me that we still had no idea who was coming to help us in our struggle.  I secretly hoped it would be Cris, and I’d grown to trust and respect him during our four months together, but I also wanted to see what this Triono kid was capable of.

            I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and concentrated on the task at hand.  The Caprians had grouped together in front of their spaceship, and were holding some sort of a meeting to plan their attack.  As tempting as it was to just fire a ki blast and break up their meeting, it could only hurt our goal of holding out until aid arrived.  Still, I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing so I tried striking up a conversation with Yukia.  “Hey, Yukia.”  I began, waving him over.

            He jogged over beside me slowly and then asked, “What’s up Arsenia?”

            “I was just thinking, how long will it take one of those guys to run down snake way and get here?”

            “Well, it took Goku quite a while if I remember correctly, but those guys are probably way stronger than Goku was back then.”  He paused for a moment in concentration “I dunno though, it could be anywhere from half an hour to a day.”  I didn’t like his guess, but I couldn’t really disagree, I came up with the same kind of estimates myself.

            I couldn’t think of much else to say, my mind was kind of numb, so I just thanked him and went on to my own thoughts.  There weren’t a lot swirling around in my head, other than a nagging feeling in my spine that said we didn’t stand a chance.  I quelled that notion and thought instead about how I was going to rip open Triels spine and then piss on it.

            Soon though the Caprians emerged from the crater, walking slowly in a straight line, shoulder to shoulder.  Seven of the warriors stood tall in the line, all except Triel, Yush and the biggest guy.  Each of the seven’s steps were completely in unison, like they all shared one mind.  It was kind of freaky if you looked at it objectively, but to me it was almost scary how they moved in complete unison.

            I jumped forward, right next to Karnai, who still stood in his attack posture.  Soon Yukia hopped beside me, then Kennard beside him, and soon we had formed our own, less fearsome line.  Still the Caprians advanced, seemingly not noticing our own attack front.  I didn’t exactly like how they kept moving forward, so I decided we should attack first.  “We have to strike first.”  I whispered to Karnai.

            “I know.”  He replied, and then pointed a finger at both the tallest Kalandrilian and the red-skinned, blue-haired alien.

            Since Karnai had already decided who would be fighting two warriors, the rest of us picked a lone fighter to do combat with.  Gideon was next, choosing the blue-skinned one of the twin warriors.  Yukia, Kennard, and Phoenix all picked single Kalandrilians for their fight, so that left me with the older version of the giant.  Even as we picked out our opponents though, the Caprian bastards just kept walking forward in perfect harmony.    Karnai determined that it was time to get going, so in a fluid motion, performed the Dondopa manuever.  The ground below the feet of the Caprians literally exploded in ki and flame, forcing them to break their line and sent each flying in separate directions.

            While each of my friends shot after their respective preys, I locked onto my own foe, and after a few seconds flew after him at full speed.  He was flying slowly towards the city, but didn’t seem to actually care about the metropolis, almost like he didn’t know it was there.  I swooped low to the ground, under the vision of the Caprian, and shot across the green field.  He was no fool though, and quickly spotted me with the help of his scouter.  He twisted his torso towards me, extended his arms and fired two relatively small ki blasts from his hands.  They both came rushing at me at amazing speed, but his aim was off, and both attacks struck the ground far behind me, sending up a mist of dirt and other debris.  While the smoke was clearing, I took advantage of his possible wandering attention, and flew straight at him at full speed.

            He didn’t catch me in his line of sight until I was upon him, but somehow managed to bring up a knee and block the fist I’d directed towards his crotch.  Unfortunately for me, the reckless attack left me floating directly under him, with his free leg dangerously close to my torso.  To remedy the situation, I zanzokened about ten feet lower, and not a moment too soon; sure enough, he’d swept his open leg right where my head had been.  I was about to fire a ki blast at him while he didn’t know where I was, but he must’ve seen me in the corner of his eye, as he turned to face me after re-orienting himself.

            We stared off for a while, and I could tell he was as anxious as I was to get it started, it was something in his eyes.  We blasted off straight at each other at about the same time, both of us zeroing in on a meeting spot in mid-air.  Rather than just convening with him there and duking it out though, I decided to try something.

            As I was flying towards my meeting with the Caprian, I began charging up a small ki blast in my hand.  I was leading in headfirst, hoping to coax him to attack me, and it worked.  Right before we met, I fired my ki blast ahead of me.  The old warrior never even saw it coming, but lucky for him, striking him with the attack wasn’t my intention.  The blast sailed wide of him, but the kickback of throwing the blast propelled my torso backwards, so my legs were sticking out in front of me, horizontally.  The Caprian just kept flying forward, right into the path of my outstretched legs.  He was unable to protect himself as I roundhouse kicked him in the side abdomen, and then violently in the face, hurling him upwards at unheard of speeds.

            Drops of blood fell onto my face as I wrapped myself up in my own ki, and sped after him.  By the time I managed to catch up to him though, he’d regained his composure and as we both sailed above the clouds, we met in a clash of fists.

            For almost an entire minute, neither of us landed a single punch against the other.  His blows were quick, but he generally relied more on his strength than any overwhelming speed.  After noticing this, I used it to my advantage, trying to get him to over-commit on a punch that would leave him wide open to attack.  After only a few exchanges more, he performed such an attack.  He wound up for a huge punch at my head after we’d blocked each other’s roundhouses, and as I saw it coming, I ducked.  His fist whiffed by a mile, and it left his ribs so wide open I could’ve tickled him.  I drove my left fist in with all my strength, and as the air rushed out of him, followed up the attack with my right fist driving into his cheek.  He curled back from the attack, but I didn’t let up, using a dynamite kick to smack his jaw once again, sending him plummeting to the ground.

            I flew down, hitting the ground a few seconds before and a couple hundred metres away from him.  As soon as my feet touched the ground, I rocketed towards the point where he would make contact with the earth.  I timed it perfectly, arriving just before he reached the ground so I could punish him some more, but unfortunately he had other plans.  He surprised me with a small ki blast he nailed me with at point blank range.

            The blast hit me right in between the eyes, which luckily were closed.  It whipped my neck backwards, and then the rest of my body followed.  I crashed into a rock of some sort, or at least something hard as that.  When I managed to get back on my feet, I was dazed and sort of confused.  Luckily I managed to pick up my adversary rushing towards me with another ki blast charged up.  I jumped up, maybe about five feet, but was thrown much higher by the explosion of his ki attack on the ground underneath me.  I lost all sense of direction while I was in the air, and was unable to protect myself from a well-placed kick to my ribs.  The air rushed out of me, replaced by a throbbing pain in my side.  I began to gasp for oxygen, but my lungs felt like they were being crushed.

            I began to fall gently to the ground, obviously not quickly enough for my opponent.  He hit me with another blow to the back that sent me swiftly to the hard floor of rocks and sod.  After a few uncomfortable moments on the ground, I pushed myself up and got to my feet hastily, searching for my challenger.

            He was standing a hundred metres away, directly in front of me.  His breathing was deep but smooth, his arms were crossed, and he seemed to be very calm for someone who was fighting for life or death.  I faced him calmly, wiping the sweat from my brow and spitting the blood from my mouth.  Off in the distance I heard the sounds of my friends battling the other Caprians, each of them fighting for the survival of the planet they called home.  I was tempted to turn and see how each of them were faring, but I sensed that none of their power levels were falling, in fact a few were rising higher than any I’d ever felt before.  So the man and I stared each other down, I could see the blood lust pulsating in his eyes, much the same as I could feel it brimming up inside my blood.

            Anxiety was building up in my toes, and I almost shot straight after him, but he caught me off guard by saying “Please, tell me your name.”  I stood there, almost stunned, not knowing whether to respond or to shun the question as some sort of bizarre battle tactic.  Before I could make my decision though, he continued, “So I’ll know who I’m crushing the life out of.”

            I grinned and then answered “Arsenia.  And you?”

            He nodded, sighed deeply and then replied “Crafstar.”  As soon as he finished speaking, he shot off towards me at full speed, his teal-coloured ki blazing all around him.  I matched the move, and soon both of us were heading towards each other, in a dead-on collision coarse.  As we sped nearer and nearer to one another, I peered forward and our eyes connected for a split second.  His eyes were those of a warrior; a pair of black dots that had witnessed both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, eyes that had witnessed its owner decimate life after life in order to achieve a goal that wasn’t even his own, eyes that had seen friends and family killed by allies and enemies alike.  In other words, eyes that resembled my own.

            The only thing the eyes lacked were intelligence, so I decided to take advantage of it.  Milliseconds before we met, I came to a complete stop and began a sharp spin.  He continued flying towards me, and if he’d been just a split second quicker, I would’ve been at his mercy with my back to him.  But he came too late and as he came near, I finished my turn and brought up my leg with all the momentum I’d built up, driving my heel right into his temple.  The rotating kick threw him straight into a nearby mountain, which he broke into several large slabs of rock.  I turned my entire body to face the broken rock face, and waited in silence as his ki signature roared to life and he exploded in a ball of ki energy.

            After he’d incinerated the ground around him, he screamed loudly and flew after me.  Once he’d reached me, he lead in with a fist that struck only ground, shattering the thin layer of earth underneath me.  I jumped up and then shot away from him, wary of his growing anger.  Once he realized he’d struck only ground, he engrossed himself in ki and shot after me.  He continued to chase me until I slowed down slightly and he tried to strike again.  Again he missed me by a long shot, hitting a small tree this time, and I shot away once again.  We played this game for a few minutes; him pursuing me vainly at full speed, me staving off from death as long as possible.

            After a few wild swings though, I could tell he was beginning to get tired, and that’s when I decided to pounce.  Instead of dodging one of his attacks, I zanzokened away from it, reappearing behind and above Crafstar.  He floated there in the air, his entire head open to attack, and I tried to take advantage of it.  I attempted a simple front snap kick, right before I made contact, he zanzokened out of view.  I hadn’t been expecting that, much less for him to dissolve into view just a foot away from my left.  I was unable to defend myself as Crafstar delivered a quick punch to my jaw, which sent me falling to the ground, face-first.  Right before I was planted into the ground though, I stuck my arms out and used them to stop my quickened descent, so that I was in a handstand position.  Crafstar was foolish enough to come crashing after me, and I repaid him by thrusting both of my extended legs into his chest.

            As soon as he was thrown away from the blow, I snapped my wrists, flying up and landing back on my feet, and turned to face Crafstar.  He had his arms wrapped around his bruised chest, his armor cracked and ripped even more so than before.   His face was beat red, flushed in anger and surprise.  He really hadn’t been expecting anything like that to come so soon out of me.  I sensed a seed of fear had been planted in him, and I knew right then the fight was mine.  I smiled at the revelation, and he asked through clenched teeth “What are you so happy about?”

            I didn’t reply, he didn’t give me a chance.  Instead he sprinted towards me and we engaged in a quick exchange.  He was already out of breath though, and soon I’d landed several punches on his body and face.  Old cuts on his face had been re-opened, and his armor was shredded to the point that his entire torso was showing.  He hopped away from me, and I let him go, using the brief pause in the action to catch my breath.  Through swollen lips and blackened eyes he said, “You had enough yet?”

            I realized he was trying to be funny, which was almost scary.  I didn’t want to get to know anything about this Caprian; knowing his name was too much already, and to get a personal relationship going between us wouldn’t exactly do wonders for my mental stamina later on, I knew that.  Then a wave of wonder hit me, and I thought:  Was winning the battle worth sacrificing my humanity?  No regular human being could senselessly beat the life out of another being, even if it was a mortal enemy.  Was my friends and I exempt from these rules, simply because we protected that humanity?  I was confounded; suddenly unsure of the very principles I’d based my life under Kami on.  I stood there, my fists clenched, waiting to continue, and possibly end the fight, but uncertain of whether or not it was right to proceed.  I’d proven to both of us that I was the stronger, faster and smarter one out of the two of us, so why not just end the fight now, without either of us going through any more pain or suffering?  I decided it was worth a try.  I opened my mouth to offer peace and began turned my head to face him, “Crafst---” that was all I got out.  A fist distributed itself straight into my nose.  The bone cracked, and as I brought my hands up to shelter my snout, I could feel the blood pouring out of it. 

            All thoughts of salvation of life were instantly incinerated from my mind.  Here I was just about to offer him salvation; and he responded with only more violence, the very thing I’d been trying to avoid.  And worst of all, he was smiling, a cruel, evil, bloodstained smile.  A level of anger I hadn’t felt in a long, long time exploded within me.  I screamed, letting the blood that had formed inside my cupped hands fall to the ground.  I screamed for all I was worth, and then proceeded to go right after the moronic bastard.  My first punch landed, and then my second, then my third.  Every one of my blows hit their mark, some striking his face, some his body, some even his arms and legs.  I just kept hitting him, not caring if I was even doing damage any more; I knew I’d already killed him.  I didn’t even see his face any more though; all I saw was a red haze that had swallowed up the man I’d come to know as Crafstar.  It made it that much easier to hit him.

            After maybe three minutes, the haze lifted.  My anger subsided, and I stopped hitting him.  His face was once again before me, only now it was so distorted and disfigured I didn’t recognize him.  It was so drenched in blood and brains that I would’ve picked it out as a large dead insect as opposed to a man’s face.  His body was still standing though, like some sort of zombie, just standing straight at me.  I kicked it once for good measure, sending it crashing to the ground.  He was dead, a lifeless lump of carbon based molecules, just waiting to be decomposed.  But killing Crafstar wasn’t enough for me; I had to desecrate his life, his very being, just to rid his form from my conscious.  I charged up a small ball of ki, aimed my hand at the lifeless form of the Caprian warrior, and then destroyed the spot where it had previously laid.

            The smoke cleared, and there was nothing but a small, smoking crater where his body had previously lay.  I tried to take in a breath, but there was no air, only the smell of burning flesh, flesh that I had burned myself. I stared down at the grave of Crafstar, fell to my knees, and then began to vomit.  After my queasiness passed, I stood up and took a few steps away.  My hands were soaked in blood and shaking, my legs were wobbly and weak, and my head felt like it was about to explode.  I’d done it again, I’d killed when I hadn’t needed to, and again I was paying for it, like I always knew I would.  I become conscious of the fact that I’d just broken the very morals and laws of life I’d tried to uphold just a few short minutes ago.  This knowledge deepened my inner-pain, so much I almost cried.  The image of Crafstar’s body, lying there on the ground, a chunk of dead meat, spread itself across my eyes.

            I tried to shove the image down into my toes, where I kept all the other images that haunted my life.  There were too many there though, it was overflowing with painful memories.  Instead I pushed myself to my feet, unwilling to give into the memories.  I turned away from Crafstar’s fissure, looking onwards to each of my friend’s battles.

            They had all either already won or were obviously winning.  Gideon, Yukia and Phoenix had all defeated their opponents and were watching the remaining battles closely, looking for any sort of a chance to jump in and aid their brethren.  Karnai was manhandling the Kalandrilian he’d been fighting, much like I’d conquered Crafstar, only with the trademark Namek ferociousness.  Kennard was almost playing with his Kalandrilian, zanzokening around and pounding it time after time.  After a few seconds though, the human ended it; firing a ki beam straight through the armor and mid-section of his adversary.  The teal-skinned warrior fell to the ground in a heap, without an audible sound or a hint of pain, so different from Crafstar.

            Karnai ended his battle quickly as well, slicing through the arm of the Kalandrilian with his claw and then kicking it savagely in the head, causing him to crash into a small hill.  He didn’t come back up.

            All five of them grouped together just outside the crater the Caprians ship had created.  I caught Yukia’s eye and he yelled at me from nearly a kilometre away “Arsenia, get over here, we beat them!”

            Yes, we did beat them, but at what cost?  I shot off in a blaze of white ki; leaving behind the most worthy opponent I’d yet to face.