the prestige. [closed]

It was only a matter of time before someone responded to his signal. With a slight turn of his head, Beryl eyed the rapidly approaching figure in the distance. Even as the stranger neared, Beryl didn’t move or adjust other than to stuff his hands into his pockets. “I did that; yes,” the dark-skinned human replied to the hooded woman, trying to get a good look at their face. Their hood obscured most of their facial features but he was at least able to make out the bandages shrouding her face. He had a mind to point it out, to ask her if she was fine, but he decided against it; it would be better to just answer her questions so that he wouldn’t seem overly suspicious or downright creepy.

“Do you know what’s been going on lately?” Beryl asked, pivoting to face Zerori. “Anything regarding alien activity?” He was starting to sound like one of those UFO chasers. “Earth hasn’t been … peaceful lately and I’m trying to determine what the cause of it is. From what I know, the arrows point towards aliens, those who aren’t native to this planet.” Then, he realized the slight irony in his statement, causing him to crack a small grin. “Now that I think about it, what I just said doesn’t make too much sense,” he admitted, hand reaching to tug at the pair of goggles around his neck. “Ever since ki had been discovered on Earth, not much had ever been the same. Then again, I definitely think ki has done plenty of good for Earth. After all, it has given us a way to defend ourselves.” For a second, the dark-skinned human paused, his visage suddenly becoming neutral, unreadable. “… I apologize. I’ve seemed to gone on one of my tangents again. I hope I’m not taking too much of your time.” A pause.

“If you have other things to do, I won’t hold you any longer.”

Kindness was a scarce resource nowadays. He noticed the quirking of the brow and the somewhat startled silence. Beryl considered himself to be a decent person; unlike many, he didn’t allow his superhuman power to go to his head. Of course, he was superhuman in comparison to the average human. To everyone else in the galaxy, there were plenty who were infinitely more powerful than he was. However, he wasn’t too worried. All he needed was time and dedication and he was certain that he would be able to match the nastiest and strongest fighters the universe had to offer.

His eyes widened as the hood was pulled back, revealing the rest of the woman’s face. Bandages covered her facial features, all a product of intense training. “… You know how to use ki too?” he asked, somewhat shocked. Admittedly, he hadn’t run into many people who could use ki; even though humans had access to it, not many pursued it. It wasn’t for everyone; while every human had the potential to utilize ki, it required specialized training and persistence. Beryl remembered the mess he had to go through in order to manipulate the slightest sliver of ki; those were days he’d rather not relive anytime soon. “… Mm. Yes, you’re right. I did call you out here. I was just worried that I would take up unnecessary amounts of your time,” the twenty-three year old explained, adjusting his beanie. “Still, I cannot help but be interested in your training. If you trained hard enough to warrant those bandages, the results must surely be worth it. You know the saying: nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

As Zerori lowered herself down onto the boulder, the wince caught Beryl’s attention. He frowned in concern but didn’t ask if she was alright; he figured she was, being that she was a martial artist. “A meteor near West City?” Now, he hadn’t heard anything like that before. Interesting. Then, the hybrid presented her own questions. “I want to become more aware of them, to educate myself. If they are coming to Earth as much as they are, then I want to be as informed as possible,” Beryl replied with a small nod. “I’m not looking for one in particular, no. In fact, I’ve been making an extra effort to be careful about running into aliens. Not all of them are … inviting.” He hoped that he wasn’t sounding racist but one would be hard pressed to find the lie in his statement. “Not many humans are able to defend themselves against the other species out there in the galaxy. In a way, you could say humans are easy pickings, prey even.” The young man sighed. “And I don’t want to be viewed as prey or an easy target. That’s what caused me to learn how to use ki. I’ve only been able to use it recently. Obviously, I still have a long way to go but—“ He then looked right at Zerori. “Perhaps I could learn a thing or two from you.”

“Foolishness? I suppose you have a point; there is definitely a fine line between hard work and completely overdoing.” Looking at the bandages alone, it seemed obvious then that Zerori had unfortunately overdone it. Could he blame her? Not necessarily. Pushing the body to its limits often involved training, some of which could be absolutely grueling. Seeing the bandages made Beryl reflect back to his beginning days, the days when he tried to find out more about ki manipulation. A shudder went down his spine; he didn’t want to relive those days ever again.

Zerori found a snack bar to eat as she talked with a mouthful of a granola, Beryl did his best to not make it obvious that he was put off by people talking with their mouth full. “You’re right; not every alien out there is bad,” the young man admitted, adjusting the goggles around his neck. “But I can’t help but be careful. If I trust too easily then my kindness can blow up in my face.” That happened far too often for Beryl’s taste; it was sort of the reason why he was somewhat … cautious about whom he acted friendly towards. Anytime the topic of ki popped up, Zerori’s attitude shifted. She clamped up, her eyes darted about and she seemed to be somewhat anxious. However, she did at least agree to show Beryl what she knew, something that the dark-skinned human appreciated. She warned him that the training that he was about to go through was nothing short of hell incarnate.

Even with the foreboding nature of her warning, the twenty-three year old male nodded once and grinned softly. “I wasn’t expecting it to be easy by any means,” he informed, rolling up the sleeves of his black Capsule Corporation hoodie. “But I believe I’m prepared for whatever you are going to throw at me.” It wasn’t a cocky statement, merely a one of humble confidence. Then again, Beryl had eaten his words in the past and he was prepared to do it again if it came down to it.

“So, when do we begin?”

@zerori

They were going to begin now? Well, Zerori wasn't one to waste time, it seemed. With a quiet nod, the human watched as the hybrid rose from her seat, careful to make sure that she didn't irritate her injuries more than needed. She asked for a demonstration, most likely to determine Beryl's skill level. "Understood. I'll try to keep it ... contained." Collateral damage wasn't something that Beryl believed was necessary, even if the two of them were in the middle of nowhere. After assuming a combat-ready stance, one that looked like an ordinary, Southpaw boxing stance, Beryl got to work. He threw several punches, hooks and jabs, all of which were blindingly fast by normal human standards. From that display alone, it was obvious that Beryl wasn’t a typical human. By human standards, he was superhuman and that assertion matched well with his power level, one that was around one thousand times greater than the average human being.

After displaying his fair share of physical strikes, Beryl went on to display his ki manipulation abilities. His left formed into the rough shape of a gun, his index and middle fingers extended outwards whilst the rest of his fingers, excluding his thumb, were curled into his palm. His thumb stuck straight up, mimicking the hammer of a pistol. A small, orange-colored orb grew near the tips of his index and middle fingers. Then, the dark-skinned male cocked his hand back, sending the orb up into the air. The sphere expanded before fragmenting into a shower of small orbs, similar to a shell being fired out of a shotgun. The orbs traveled for a fair distance before dissipating. Not wasting any time, he extended both of his hands forward, his thumbs and index fingers touching together to form a diamond shape. A white-clear blast of concussive force shot out of his palms towards the sky, one powerful enough to send a shockwave throughout the area.

Once the blast dissipated, Beryl turned towards Zerori in order to gauge her reaction. “Alloy Cannon and Capsule Breaker,” he started. “Those are the names I gave those two ki-related techniques. The names are fancier than the actual techniques.” He was being humble, perhaps too humble. He could also fly but he wasn’t sure if it was alright to display that. Then again, he did just shoot energy blasts out of his hands just now. “How did I do?” he asked, readying himself for heavy criticism. “And my name’s Beryl.” He noticed how she referred to him as “human”; to him, another human wouldn’t refer another human by just their species name, even if they didn’t know their name. That alone seemed to give him enough reason to believe that Zerori wasn’t human at all but he kept it to himself; perhaps she would reveal it herself in due time.

@zerori

She looked interesting. That was a good sign; after all, if he was going to be training under her, Beryl hoped that Zerori retained some kind of interest in him, interested enough to invest time and effort into them. He nodded modestly at the compliments sent his way. “Thank you. I still have plenty to learn; hopefully, I’ll be able to learn much more while training under you.” The hybrid’s change of stance caught Beryl’s attention. So, she was going to show him what she was capable of? Strands of fire erupted from her fingers, the full power of them reduced due to Zerori’s well-understood fatigue. Nonetheless, it was an impressive feat in Beryl’s eyes. Just what manner of power was that? He wanted to say it was ki but it didn’t look like ki, not to him. When he saw ki, he associated it with pure energy, not flames. Was it magic then? No, magic just sounded silly, even in a way, it was very true and it did exist. His dark-brown eyes darted between the woman’s fingers and her bandaged face. “… You can control the elements?” Fire, water, air, earth and everything in between; were all of these at Zerori’s disposal?

She finally revealed her name and Beryl committed it to memory. Him enjoying the training itself was a bit of a stretch; if she was telling any sort of truth, then she had every intention to put him through absolute hell. His lips parted to speak but then he clamped up once the hybrid charged right at him. Acting purely on instinct, the twenty-three year old male dropped into his combat-ready stance, dark-brown eyes zeroing in on the fist barreling towards his fist. Using the minimal amount of movement possible in order to speed up his reaction, Beryl tilted his head towards the right, the woman’s fist almost scraping his cheek. "She's fast."

Still startled, he continued to go through the motion, his right palm shooting out in an attempt to plant itself right in the center of Zerori’s chest. If it hit, she would be pushed back a couple of feet; the blow itself wasn’t painful; it was more for the sole purpose of creating space. “Are we sparring now?” he’d ask, not waiting for an answer. Whether or not his initial palm strike connected, the human would unleash his own chain of physical strikes, a series of fast, rapid punches aimed all throughout the half-demon’s upper body. Her face, her shoulders, her chest; it didn’t matter where he hit, so long as he hit. He was investing so much in his offense that his guard faltered and Zerori would be able to see the opening if she was attentive enough. “Sorry if I hit too hard,” he added, surprisingly not sarcastic in his remark.

@zerori

Taking a step back, the Saiyan-Demon hybrid curled up a hand and slammed it into the ground. At first, Beryl didn’t get what the whole maneuver was about but it became extremely clear exactly what Zerori was doing seconds after. Before his very eyes, red hot magma oozed out of the ground like a viscous paste and with it, explosions of fire erupted forth, threatening to batter and burn the dark-skinned human. “Woah!” Funneling ki into his legs, the researcher flew backwards, his feet only an inch or so off the ground as he did so. He brought his arms up, shielding his face from the fiery assault. While the actual magma didn’t touch him (thank Kami), the radiant heat still burned him. Light burns surfaced on his face, centralized around his cheeks. He brought his arms down for a split second to see where Zerori was and he was immediately greeted with a hard, sharp headbutt. The contact made his head spin, his vision blurring. He flew backwards and crashed into a nearby boulder, his form embedding itself into the rock with a loud, crushing sound. With a groan, Beryl blinked his eyes several times as he struggled to gather his bearings. Zerori was perched on top of another boulder not too far from he was, one that was spared from her fire elemental attack from earlier.

“She’s really something else.” With enough effort, Beryl was able to wrench himself free from the human-sized hole he created when he slammed into the boulder. His clothing was still mostly intact thankfully and he managed to escape the assault with few bruises and light burns. “You didn’t tell me that you were going to use magma on me,” Beryl announced, shaking his head. “In fact, I didn’t even know you were able to do that in the first place.” Who else could say that they could summon fire and lava at will? If she was going to use her own techniques then Beryl thought it was safe that he was allowed to do the same. The difference was that Zerori had seen both of his techniques while he still didn’t know what else was in her repertoire. Even so, he had some insight on them; they were most likely elemental based, given that’s where her expertise lied. The magma continued to flow from her earlier attack. Whether or not it would harden was out of Beryl’s realm of knowledge. So, for him, it was safe to assume that the magma was still an environmental hazard and that he had to be careful around it. The last thing he wanted was to get his face melted off.

Abruptly, he made a “finger gun” at Zerori with his left hand. She would recognize the gesture and possibly what was to come. Two ki blasts shot out from his fingertips, orange and scattered like blasts from a shotgun. They were aimed for her core, her torso and if she dodged them both then that was fine; it wouldn’t thwart what Beryl had in mind. After firing off his ki techniques, Beryl immediately dashed forward, pouring ki into his legs in order to propel him up and through the air. He flew wherever Zerori was and aimed to cut her off if she tried to create distance between the two of them. His fists then started flying once more as he attempted to catch her in a rapid combination of punches. They were aimed primarily for her face though Beryl was careful about hitting too hard; she was still recovering from her past injuries after all. Whether or not his blows were defended against, he channeled ki into his left foot, causing it to glow with a green aura. He then kicked out with the same foot, aiming to plant it right into Zerori’s stomach. The ki blast itself would launch outward though the force behind it was around the same as an ordinary kick; the only perk behind it was that if Zerori could go out of range of the physical kick, the ki orb could still get her. It was an experimental technique Beryl was trying out and even though he used punches and elbows for a majority of his physical strikes, it didn’t hurt to know how to use his legs for strikes as well.

“If you keep this magic show up, you’re going to blow the entire Eastern Lands up!” It was a jest but then again it wasn’t at the same time. Beryl wouldn’t have been surprised at all if Zerori had the power to summon a massive geyser of fire, lava and brimstone, one large enough to engulf an entire swath of Earth.

There was some crazy shit out there.

TECHNIQUES USED:

@zerori