Uniforms tattered to the point of disintegrating and bodies covered in multiple bruises, burns and lacerations, both Gohan and Sandra were locked in a heated wrestling match; the two fighters attempting to trap one another in a strangle hold. Having managed to get his opponent from behind, the Super Saiyan 3 hybrid growled as he slammed Sandra into the floor and pushed her into the dirt, tightening the hold he had around her neck in an attempt to put her to sleep. Sandra meanwhile, grabbing the arm that was choking her, forced herself forward for dear life, gasping and snarling through her own teeth, while at the same time clawing at the ground.
Surprised by the pair's sudden appearance, Maya then pointed lamely at the wrestling duo, "Found them." Earning glares from Vegeta and Zangya, the audience of four then proceeded to watch the fight taking place before them.
Wiggling her leg around and propping it under her, Sandra then brought a hand up, grabbed the back of Gohan's head and, with a firm pull, threw the boy over her and into the ground. This forced the demi-Saiyan to let go and separate from his opponent. Seconds later, the two warriors wound up on all fours, facing each other with bruised faces and bloody lips.
"There's no point in worrying about the damage I'm taking!" Sandra panted as she watched her foe wipe the blood from his nose on the back of his arm. "This fight will go nowhere if I don't give it everything I have! Even if I break every bone in my body, I will defeat this man!"
With a yell, Gohan powered up and sprinted forward, at the same time his opponent's aura kicked up around her. Diving in, the demi-Saiyan opened up with a series of sharp straights, forcing his opponent to slip them and retaliate with a series of equally fast swings. When Gohan managed to nail her twice in the face, Sandra retaliated with sharp hooks and straights, hitting the demi-Saiyan across the face and forcing him back.
"Be brave! Don't back down!" Gohan shouted in his head, parrying a hook and countering with a flurry of hits. "I've been training for seven years for a fight like this! Everything I've done has led me to this moment. I will win if I use everything I've learned, from my family, my friends, and myself!" He then lunged in with a left hook, only for his eyes to widen when he saw his opponent diving at him with her right fist burning a hot gold. "Another Senko! Stop it!" Without missing a beat, he changed his hook into a left straight, throwing it over his opponent's shoulder and clocking her across the temple, at the same time her fist grazed his cheek.
Sandra cursed as she backpedaled clumsily, avoiding the demi-Saiyan's kick. "Shit! I've used too many Senkos! He's got the motion down!"
Chasing after her, his aura blazing around him in a storm, Gohan intercepted his opponent as she sprang to the right. "I can't take any more of those! If she manages to nail me directly, I'll be finished in one shot!"
Leaping away to avoid another punch, fending the boy off with a left hook, Sandra then reverted to her shoulder-roll stance and began to move in a cautious and twitchy fashion. At the same time, her fists started to pop out and jerk in a threatening manner. "The Senko isn't my only trump card! I'll get you with these!" She then made it look like she was about to lunge in with an attack, but stopped herself short, causing her opponent to hesitate.
Bringing his fists up defensively, Gohan gritted his teeth. "She's coming! Sandra will use feints! I shouldn't worry about them!" Resting his knuckles on his chin directly under his nose, the demi-Saiyan took on the Peek-a-boo guard and began to weave in a figure of eight motion at high speed. His body blurred out, creating two after images on his left and right as he charged straight at his opponent. "If I weave my body, I'll be able to dodge them, including her feints! As fast as I can! FASTER!" Dust clouded the air as the demi-Saiyan pursued his foe across the desert like a raging bull.
Cal blinked as he watched Gohan stick to his foe like glue, not letting her get away as they leapt across the desert in a blur. "That's some incredible head weaving. He's trying to dodge all the feints and real blows at the same time."
"With that kind of movement, it'll be really hard for Sandra to corner her target and use counters, since his head is constantly in motion," Vegeta stated, finding the boy's strategy to be incredibly well thought out. "He knows his opponent will be aiming for a knock out, so he's going to do everything he can stop her from doing that."
Zangya, also watching the super fast battle in awe, grinned widely, "He's got Sandra on the run! Now he has the advantage!"
Despite hearing the confidence in her former opponent's words, the wounded and badly bruised Maya frowned uncomfortably. "It's not over yet." A sense of dread fell over her.
Looking at her friend and the condition Sandra was in, beaten, bleeding and fighting to the point of collapse, she knew exactly what was going to happen next.
The demon was banging on the front gates, just waiting to break free.
It was only a matter of time.
Getting sick and tired of being chased, Sandra quickly changed tactics and dove in. Her opponent did so too. When the two golden blurs crossed paths, the two warriors slammed into each other head first, their foreheads colliding with a colossal shockwave, which punched a crater into the desert floor. Earth trembling under the force of their impact, Gohan and Sandra snarled as they attempted to push through their opponent, their eyes burning holes into the other while their electrical bio-fields sparked around them violently.
Knowing that his opponent would not be able to use her vicious counters at this range and that neither of them could use kicks, the two eventually separated and began lashing out at one another at super close range. Hooks and uppercuts began raining down from both sides as Gohan and Sandra laid into one another with sharp and powerful blows. Using parries and blocks characteristic of Wing Chun, the hybrid Saiyan attempted to nail his foe on every turn, but the female warrior was able to stop his blows with elbow blocks and knees, preventing him from landing any clean hits to the vital areas.
Taking a left hook to the cheek, Gohan spat. "It's no good if I hit according to Sandra's rhythm! I'll return two for each of her shots!" With a yell, the Saiyan rushed in and nailed his opponent in the face with two straights. When she retaliated with a hook, he hit her twice in the body and again across the face. After she lashed out with another uppercut and hook, the hybrid once again struck with chain punches, catching her four times before she managed to block with her arms.
When Sandra caught another straight to the face, sending blood splattering down her front, the woman bellowed. "Damn you!" She then tried to nail Gohan with a right cross, but overcompensated and ended up getting nailed in the face instead by his left.
Seeing Gohan take several more heavy punches from the frustrated Sandra had Zangya grit her teeth with worry. "You don't see a warrior like Sandra every day. A woman with her kind of power and strength is an incredibly rare thing. Each and every attack she throws must be terrifying." Upon watching Gohan dodge another two punches and respond with a vicious onslaught of straights to the woman's guard, the Hera tensed up. "There's no chance of winning against that kind of tenacity if you're scared. Don't lose your spirit, Gohan-kun! Take it all the way to the end!"
All of a sudden, a deafening crack rang out when the group saw Gohan fly in and deliver a haymaker to Sandra's face, not only knocking the woman off her feet, but also deactivating her aura. Blood and sweat clouded the air as the female warrior was thrown several yards across the desert, causing Vegeta and Zangya to look on in amazement.
"That's the way!" the Hera shouted.
"You've got her, brat!" the prince also roared. "Finish her!"
Spotting an opportunity, Gohan tucked up, took on the Peek-a-boo guard, and went for it. "Sandra has stepped back!" the teen shouted, seeing the woman stumble and throw her left foot behind her to keep her from sliding. "GO FOR IT!" His aura roared to life as he lunged in, ready to deliver the final blow.
However, just as the hybrid was closing in, a smirk crossed Sandra's lips as she suddenly brought her arms up and cocked back her left. The instant she did, steam suddenly burst off of it as it ignited gold, a sight that had the fast approaching Gohan's eyes widen in horror.
"No!" Quickly noticing the woman step in deep with her right foot and spring off of her left, the half-breed immediately realized his blunder. "Southpaw! She used a quick shift to set herself into position! A LEFTSENKO!" Throwing his weight back as fast as he could, Gohan hit the brakes hard and crossed his arms over his face. But it was too late.
With a mighty roar, Sandra lunged in and uncorked the mother of all jabs into Gohan's guard. The punch drilled through the boy's arms and cracked them wide open with a titanic thunderclap, the shockwave parting the clouds behind her target and annihilating a miraculously still standing mountain. The empress practically clear cut the entire countryside with that one hit, as a stunned and wounded demi-Saiyan was thrown back by the force of the attack hitting his body.
"It broke through!" Zangya shouted with her eyes wide in alarm.
"Despite the guard," Vegeta also remarked, looking on as Gohan threw his feet back and stopped himself, burying his heels into the dirt.
Bringing her right hand up to protect her face, Sandra then extended her left hand and, with a quick pivot, fired off her long reaching jabs at her opponent. "Take this!" When two shots clipped Gohan in the arms, the woman suddenly stepped in a little bit closer and, just before her jab could fully retract, unleashed a hook upon her opponent. "Kyokusen!" (Curve Shot) And just like that, her attack slammed into her opponent's temple with a loud clap and a blast of sweat.
Vegeta and Zangya reacted in alarm, thinking that their companion had just been knocked out by the punch.
Or so it seemed.
Eyes widening when she felt her attack had been blunted, the Saiyan Empress hurriedly backed off and retook her stance. When she saw the cloud of perspiration fade around Gohan's head, she quickly noticed that the demi-Saiyan had brought both his arms up and formed a crucifix in front of him in the form of a cross-arm guard, which he held firmly in front of his face. It was through this defensive technique that he was able to successfully fend off his opponent's curved blow.
Maya was stunned, "That's-?"
"A cross-arm block!" Zangya said, a grin appearing on her face, "It's a defensive technique used by boxers in the professional ring. Since it has the user pressing both arms against each other in a locked forward position, it's able to stop blows from the heaviest weight classes." She knew this much from her spars with Gohan.
"But doesn't that defense make it hard to counter punch?" Cal asked, noticing the awkward positioning of the boy's limbs.
Vegeta nodded, "Yes. That means he has to rely on his legs to get in close."
The frustration Sandra felt in that moment prompted the woman to press forward her assault, in which she began viciously unleashing a hail of Kyokusen shots upon her adversary. Jabs, hooks and uppercuts started hammering at Gohan's guard from different angles, chipping away at his defense and attempting to slip through. But as the demi-Saiyan slowly edged forward and forced his opponent to retreat, it quickly became apparent that the jabs were no longer having an effect on him.
When Gohan pushed into her range, Sandra fired off several more curved jabs and growled in frustration. "Damn it! I can't stop him with my left! The bastard figured out how to get through! If that's the case…" Since her Kyokusen was no longer cutting it, the woman quickly changed strategies and, with a sharp pivot on her forward leg, slammed a full right hook across Gohan's face from a blind spot. After knocking his head to the side, the Saiyan Empress started mercilessly pummeling her opponent with wide hooks and overhands, nailing him repeatedly around his guard.
Vegeta cursed when he saw this, "Shit! The cross guard can't block those! It's next to useless!"
Zangya, smile still in place, clenched her fists, "Yeah. But if Sandra can hit him with hooks…"
"THEN SO CAN I!" Quickly dropping the cross arm guard in favor of the standard one, Gohan suddenly ducked the woman's right hook and, with a deep step in, chopped at his opponent with a counter. "TAKE THIS!" All of a sudden, a sickening crack rang out when the Saiyan's fist buried into the woman's right side in the form of a piercing liver blow, which not only doubled the woman over but had her choke up blood.
Eyes open in horror and her breaths coming out in gasps, Sandra stumbled away with a deep impression of Gohan's fist in her waist. "Fuck! That blow cut in deep! He just broke three of my ribs!" Knees shaking as she attempted to catch her breath, the woman's eyes then snapped up when she sensed her opponent closing in and recoiled when she saw him directly in front of her. "Damn it!" Trying to throw a counter, the Empress ended up catching Gohan's punches instead, and what followed shortly from there was the female Saiyan getting the beat down of a lifetime.
Unable to defend herself in time, Sandra started receiving crippling blows to the abs, chest and face, the repeated body blows knocking the air out of her while the kicks she received to the head knocked her brain about. After hammering her with multiple right straights, Gohan checked a kick before, leaping into the air, slammed a roundhouse into her head and sent his opponent flying to the side. When Sandra skidded to a stop several yards away and looked up, she showed a cut had been formed in her hairline and blood was now running down her face.
Seeing her friend receive such damage had Maya step forward in horror. "Sandra!"
"This is it!" Gohan thought, noting that his opponent had her guard down and was wide open. His aura bursting around him once again, the teen rushed at the female Saiyan in a veil of golden flames and blue lightning, ready to deliver what would be his final attack. "I'm ending this fight right now!" Clenching his left fist tightly, the young man closed in on his foe and lunged at her with a left cross, aiming to cut Sandra down with one blow.
Clenching her fists tightly to the point they were shaking, Maya gritted her teeth in anticipation. "There he is, Sandra! The man standing before you now is the man you've always wanted to see! He's the only one who can satisfy your hunger!" Stepping forward, she then yelled at the top of her lungs, "If you win, everyone will recognize you as the most powerful Saiyan in the universe! Win this, and prove that you're the best!"
Blood pouring down her face from the open wounds in her head, Sandra watched in bullet time as Gohan's fist slowly approached her. His fist howled with the force of an artillery cannon, threatening to split her skull right open and send her soul careening into the next world. As Maya's cries of desperation echoed through her head and her vision slowly turned red through the stream of bodily fluids dripping over her vision, something inside the Saiyan Empress snapped.
Her pupils glazing over and turning white, Sandra suddenly bit her teeth together in rage, revealing the set of razor sharp canines protruding from her gums. Then, as the blood caking her face molded perfectly into every welt and groove in her mug to form a thick layer of war paint, the Super Saiyan 3's expression morphed from one of anger into one that was damn near demonic.
"RRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH-"
All of a sudden, just as Gohan's fist was about to make contact, the enraged woman unexpectedly lunged forward with a hook and struck the man in the face with a wicked counter cross. A shocked look filled the hybrid's eyes as his skull was literally warped from the force of the punch slamming into his temple, sending a cloud of blood and spit blasting through the air with the sound of a gunshot. Then, as soon as his body was sent flying backwards, Sandra gave a loud and terrifying cry.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Her bloody scream echoed with the roar of a wild beast, the likes of which none of the Z-fighters had ever seen before.
Her reaction was so violent and so aggressive that not only were Vegeta and Zangya horrified, but Maya and Cal were too, both of whom stepped back in shock.
"It's here…" the Sura warrior whispered.
"Yaju," Maya whispered, shaking her head in astonishment, "Sandra has finally let the beast free…"
OOO
(Meanwhile)
(Grand Kai's Planet)
When Pikkon heard the crunch of Sandra's fist echo off of Gohan's face, the man cringed, "That one connected at a really bad angle."
"Sandra's expression has changed completely," Olibu added, his own expression reflecting his concern and astonishment. "She must have lost it at the sight of her blood running down her face."
Before any more comments could be made from the most senior members of the troop, the audience on the lawn was jumpstarted out of their reverie when Goku darted forward and grabbed the sides of the television. As the trainers and fighters were about to protest against their companion for blocking their view of the fight, the group then heard the Saiyan yell.
From what he had to say, it was definitely not good.
"GOHAN! HIT HER! DON'T LET HER TAKE THE OFFENSIVE!" Gripping the sides of the box in panic, Goku then spoke under his breath. "You might not realize it, but you're damaged way beyond your limit! Both of you are! If you take any more direct hits, your body will shut down!" He then shook the television and shouted once more, "ATTACK HER NOW, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"
Sensing the desperation in his friend's words, Pikkon also looked at the television and yelled, "Come on, kid!"
"Fight back!" Olibu roared immediately afterwards, wanting to offer his support as best as he could, "Give it all you've got!"