fantheflame | IC Contact / Appointments: Luceti

Sure! How about a training program against the cultists? I personally can't think of better targets.

[She wasn't kidding when she said she was holding a grudge against them. She walks over to the controls and starts programming in the scenario.]

How many of them do you want to fight?

[In contrast from the deep frown of Bulla's first approach, now, Sasuke's mouth turns up, more on one side than the other. Oh yes. Destroying cultists sounds perfect.]

As many of them as the machine can handle.

[Bulla looks very amused. That kind of attitude makes her think fondly of home.]

Now I know I picked the perfect targets for practicing against. All right, let me see what the machine will accept.

[She tries to enter in a ridiculously high number, like nine hundred and ninety nine million, and gets an error message. After trying a few different commands, she finally gets it to accept a fairly high amount of cultists, although nowhere near her first try.]

You really like to go all out, huh?

No point in training if you don't treat it like your final fight. You don't get better by indulging in baby steps.

[He gives her a quick glance, Sharingan spinning once, as the simulator revs up and begins to work its holograms into scenery. Just a quick measure of her uncloaked chi - strength, volume - in vague terms. Curious, since she doesn't seem at all put off by the high number herself.]

I know a few people who'd fully agree with you.

[She has quite a bit of raw energy inside of her. Although she's been able to use it to fly for years, she's only started tapping into it for more combative purposes, and with that, it's grown. The biggest growth spurt, however, came after she was severely injured from the cultists and after her recovery from those injuries.

She's a little apprehensive about fighting this many cultists, but she reminds herself that she's sparred against her father for eight hours and that was months ago. He may have pulled his punches, but the force he was hitting her with was still well into levels that would be regarded as superhuman. She's also done training scenarios almost every day against the cultists since recovering from her injuries...just not this many before. She can do this. She just needs to remind herself of that.

When the cultists start to materialize, she decides she'll just have to make this an exercise in conserving her ki and timing her ki blasts to do as much damage with as little effort as possible.]

Then they're doing it right.

[Sasuke's learned plenty over the years about conserving his energy during a fight - at least, during fights against those considerably weaker than him, which cultists are. And with Bulla's reserves - her levels are impressive, if not the world-breaking ones he's seen recently in his own universe - he shouldn't have to worry about her, either.]

[So he starts with just his sword, using no more chakra than what's necessary to improve the speed of his body, cutting through holograms in short order - quick kills at first, testing the program.]

[Then he starts getting nasty.]

[Limbs come off, guts are spilled open, throats are cut but main arteries not severed. Most of it is academic - an anatomy lesson of sorts, seeing how these things tick. Some of it is rage. And since it's all an illusion, he doesn't feel an instant of hesitation or remorse.]

[Bulla has no weapon on hand other than her fists. She doesn't need one. Her natural physical strength is all the weapon she needs. The cultists' wings are just as vulnerable as any Luceti resident's and that's what Bulla aims for so she can drop the cultists efficiently. Sometimes, she aims a punch or kick at their throats or other vital places instead.

When some of them begin to swarm her, she makes certain that Sasuke won't be hit before firing off a ki blast that obliterates every cultist in its path before disappating into nothing.

Then she reminds herself to conserve her energy, because there will be plenty more to fight for the rest of this hour. Assuming Sasuke doesn't get to them first.]

[Sasuke can feel it when she gathers her energy like that - it's a little hard to miss - so he makes sure his attacks and dodges stay the hell out of her way. And when the blast goes off... well. Reminds him a little of Naruto and Sakura both at once. Interesting.]

[He's also noted, from the corner of his eye, the efficiency of taking off wings as his training partner is doing, and starts to aim a few of his slices that way as well. Also interesting.]

[The program is still generating cultists as they finish them, and without knowing what number Bulla entered it's difficult to gauge how far they've gone through the numbers. That's fine with Sasuke. Just means maybe he should ramp things up.]

[There's a spark, then two, and then lightning crackles up his left arm, blue-white and wild. From there the sword in that hand starts to vibrate and heat, and with his next swings each stroke blows electricity out through each hologram body, the vibrations of the blade cutting through skin like butter. Some cultists crash into others as they fall, spreading the sparks and at least temporarily incapacitating even those he hasn't hit.]

[Bulla makes sure to stay far away from those sparks of electrical energy when she catches sight of that lightning out of the corner of her eye. She might not be a genius like her mother and brother, but she's got enough of a grasp of science to know how electricity can affect the body. There's ever so tiny currents going on conducting brain waves, and shocks to the body can temporarily disrupt the neural system enough to cause paralysis. No thank you.

When they get too close, she even takes to the air. Flight is one of the easier ki manipulation skills, and requires far less energy than a blast. As an added bonus, it allows her to move in for attacks from unusual angles, and to swoop in to attack the cultists' wings.

She picks up speed. For exactly one hour, this training scenario is designed to send in more cultists as they're defeated. There's a finite number it can generate, but whether it will hit that point in an hour or not is more the question.

Being telekinetic, some of the stronger cultists are able to take to the air while simultaneously flinging objects at the two teens. Bulla flies in near Sasuke.]

Give me your hand for a second.

[Sasuke catches Bulla's flight in his periphery. Now there's something he can't do: though the wings on his back add a little extra lift to his movements, true flight is not something he's capable of. Not with the Curse Seal gone, at least.]

[His steps are quick, and his hand is quicker. Depending on the program's capabilities... it's entirely possible this session won't last an hour. Who knows?]

[Dodging objects thrown and aerial attacks is a little more complicated than dodging land-based ones, but the motions don't catch Sasuke off-guard. His Sharingan, every now and then, give a calculating spin of tomoe around the iris. This isn't his first time fighting aerial assaults.]

[But Bulla's offer? That is surprising.]

[He considers turning her down. The words I don't need your help are on the tip of his tongue.]

[Fading and false as they are, memories from Luceti Valley well up quietly in the back of his head. He remembers sharing a lunch table with Bulla, once or twice, and not finding her unpleasant.]

[More clearly, if sort of color-faded, he remembers being twelve, practice, two bells and three teammates, and the lesson Kakashi meant to impart with that.]

[Externally, his hesitation lasts a split second. He drops his right hand into hers, sparks fading from the sword held in his left.]

[Bulla pulls Sasuke up in the air with her. Based on the way he's been moving thus far, she's fairly certain he'll be able to handle being flung at the cultists, but she wants to make sure she doesn't hurt him unnecessarily. He trusted her with this, and she wants to show him that she deserves that trust he placed in her.

She takes a moment to judge the distance, and gauge how quickly the cultists are able to levitate objects to fling at them. Then she lifts her arm up a bit, supporting his weight with ease.]

Get ready. We're about to get up close and personal with the cultists. On three. One, two...three!

[With that, she whirls around to give her throw extra momentum and launches Sasuke at one of the cultists before darting in to confront one directly herself.

She'll be ready to catch Sasuke so she can set him down closer to the ground, but for now this seems like the best way to close the distance between them and remove the advantage the cultists have.]

[The ease with which Sasuke rises with Bulla's flight is more surprising than her raw strength. He only has to brace his weight a little in her hand; whatever force spurs her flight seems to help lift him as well, to maintain his balance in the air. ...Convenient.]

[He doesn't have to question or double-check Bulla's meaning. On her count, he's ready, and when she spins, his eyes do as well. Her throw is fierce but not wild, and Sasuke flies at what would be an impossible speed for him on leap alone. At such speeds it would be almost a suicide throw - except for the wings, which give him just enough control over his trajectory. Lightning cracks again and he hits the cultist with incredible force, slipping in between the very edges of its guard. His hand pierces its chest exactly through the heart - and comes out its back at the base of one wing, severing that completely in a whirl of burnt feathers and snapping bone.]

[A quick contortion pulls Sasuke's knees up to his chest in the split second before they start to lose altitude, and he plants a strong kick to the dead cultist's stomach that slides it down the column of his arm - blood smearing his skin past the elbow - and sending its crackling body into a second below, who'd thought Sasuke trapped by the force of his own attack. The second one fails in its levitation as lightning sparks through it, including up and down both wings, and starts to plummet. And that kick gave Sasuke just enough momentum - with help from his own wings - to go straight up, blade-first. The third cultist loses both wings in that single overhead vertical sweep. So much for their attempt to flank.]

[It's only then that he finally starts to drop, and spreads his wings broad and cupped, limbs going spread-eagle as well to turn his descent diagonal to slow himself. Eyes tick around to find Bulla - to see if she'll keep up her end, or if the simulation will end with a shot of pain through both his legs and an abrupt spark of canceled programming.]

Edited 2014-03-17 20:51 (UTC)

[While she's in close quarters with the cultists, Bulla lets herself be brutally efficient. Memories of being impaled with a wood plank are fresh in her mind, and virtual reality copies of people who would kill them both in a heartbeat make for perfect targets for letting loose with her natural saiyan battle instincts that she usually does nothing with.

The cultists closest to her are assaulted with a flurry of punches and kicks. She doesn't hold back, and she aims for the wings whenever possible. One cultist is unlucky enough to have her heel drop down and tear its wing right off with a brutal axe kick.

She's ready to charge in and keep fighting them, but there isn't much time before Sasuke will fall. It's only then that she lets loose with another ki blast, blowing away several more of the cultists.

Swooping down, she reaches her hand out to catch Sasuke's arm. Rather than risking hurting his arm, she slows down in the same instant and continues on a slow downward descent.]

IC Contact / Appointments: Luceti

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