"You know, you're overestimating yourself if you think we actually needed to go this high, Tater." I called, my voice, for some reason, echoing perfectly over the sounds of the roaring winds around us.
As one got higher up into the atmosphere, the oxygen density got less, but wind speeds got faster. Currently kilometers above the arena floor, which looked like a mere speck in the distance to us now, the winds ripped straight through to the bone, and there was little to no oxygen to breathe in.
Wrapped in my aura, those facts wouldn't be affecting me for quite a while, but for Tater, just being this high for a sustained period of time would be extremely draining. Maybe even dangerous.
"Shut up, Tarble." Tater replied to me, his aura quietly gathering and raging as he readied himself for the real battle
With a shrug, I lifted my own fists into my fighting stance, my aura humming around me like an obedient little puppy, rearing to follow me every thought before I even finished thinking it.
The clouds rolled in silence below us as we squared off. Truly, nothing would bother us, up this high. We could fight without worrying for a second about the planet below.
There were other perks, too. Though the moon wasn't full tonight, with us as high as we were, I could feel my body absorbing just a bit more Blutz waves than usual. To me, that didn't particularly change anything, but it was still a nice feeling.
Even though I wasn't in my SSJP form, I could still feel the energizing, blood-boiling effects of the extra Blutz power rolling through my system. If I were in my SSJP form, it'd probably be enough to make me a bit impulsive, but luckily, my Saiyan impulsivity was a bit more muted in my base form.
Tater and I's first clash was his forearm against my leg, and it created a massive shockwave that resonated outward, changing the wind pressure around us with the strength of our efforts.
This time, he wasn't holding back, so much as 'warming up.' Lynn would've had to take a punch like that extremely seriously.
But I simply swept it aside with a kick, before rolling into a smooth backspin that set me up for a real counter, in the form of a kick targeting his gut.
Responding reflexively, Tater rolled out of the way and sent a punch toward my face. Exactly as I'd expected.
Grabbing his fist midair, I pulled, throwing him in a general downward direction.
Tater's body plunged down at a speed notably surpassing terminal velocity. But, only a few seconds later, a barrage of energy blasts poured through the cloud layer toward my location. Keeping my eyes on the clouds below, I batted each and every one of them out of the way, one at a time.
Then, like a missile, it streaked toward me.
Tater's body. At an incredible speed, using the energy blasts as cover. If I hadn't been watching for it, even my body likely would've had significant trouble reacting.
But I had been watching for it.
So, at the very last moment, I jumped out of the way, aiming an energy blast at Tater's back as he passed me by. It was too fast for him to possibly dodge out of the way, I knew it.
But unfortunately, things don't always turn out as one expects.
"BULL CRASH!"
BANG!
Tater let out a massive shockwave attack, pouring all of the energy that he'd amassed for speed into it. It caught me off guard, and slammed right into my body, offset only slightly by the release of the energy blast that I'd aimed at Tater as a counterattack.
The explosion was magnificent. My body jackknifed, screaming through the air at the speed of sound as the energy from the blast lit up the sky, causing shockwaves that blew away the cloud cover below.
Catching myself as my momentum faded and gravity began taking hold, I righted my body just in time to catch Tater's fist as it raced toward my face with impressive accuracy for someone so much bigger than me.
He pressed his advantage with a flurry of blows, as quick as he possibly could, holding nothing back at this point, but to me, it honestly felt a bit like a letdown. A quick shift of the palm, and his fist missed me by an inch, while my own, same hand finds its way down to block the knee coming for my sternum, giving me ample time to duck under the elbow heading toward my head. This sort of easy, flowing exchange of defense against his bullish, bone-crushing flurry of blows continued for several hundreds, maybe even thousands of attacks before he finally overextended himself, and my elbow connected with the larger Saiyan's jaw with the force of a freight train.
With a loud CRACK! Tater staggered backward midair, his head whipping to the side.
This time, I wasn't nice enough to let him recover. I hit him with a quick, but powerful follow-up. Five major hits, to the sternum, center back, side, and two to the chest, and Tater's body flew backwards and slightly up with a velocity not inferior to the speed of his Bull Crash rush.
Then, just to be mean…
"Titan Bomb." Raising my open palm, I charged up a large energy bomb right in front of me, and sent it flying after the large Saiyan.
BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
It took the Titan Bomb a few seconds to meet its mark. While it wasn't the slowest thing ever, it wasn't a particularly battle-ready attack, anyway. I wouldn't have really lost out, if it missed. In fact, I'd half-expected it to miss.
But the visual spectacle when it finally did, surprisingly, hit its mark was nothing short of glorious. The feeling of the air changed as a bright explosion of light conquered the sky, whipping my hair and pants with the shockwave. Even I was forced to look away a bit, as the light from the explosion began to fade.