As all of this was going on, Sandra, deciding to get a little more space, began to circle the courtyard and position herself on her opponent's side. Moving away from the Z-fighters' station, the empress then observed her adversary move to a more suitable place as well, away from her comrades, putting both of them on opposite ends of the courtyard. With The Z-fighters on Gohan's right and the Saiyan Empire representatives on his far left, both Super Saiyan 3s, bleeding from multiple wounds, glared each other down.
Gohan huffed as a bolt of electricity ran up his body, "That was a good one. I didn't even see it coming."
"You liked that, huh?" Sandra asked, before reaching up and wiping the blood off of her face on her glove. After spitting out the fluids that'd collected in her mouth, she then stretched her neck and slid her left foot forward. A smile quickly formed on her face, "Well then, brace yourself big guy, because I've got a lot more coming your way."
"I'll bet," Gohan replied, his expression also letting loose a smile before he widened his feet and dropped into a stance similar to the one his father used when squaring off against Vegeta all those years ago. With his left arm held low and his right held behind him and higher in the air, the transformed boy narrowed his eyes as a bolt of lightning shot off of him, striking an opposing bolt of lightning that unconsciously left Sandra's body. A loud clap rang throughout the district as sparks flew between both warriors. "Come on. I dare you to try and show me. Hit me with your best shot."
"With pleasure," Sandra shot back, before suddenly bringing her arms up and positioning them in front of her, with her fists curled, positioned on either side of her face, and the left extended further out.
It was this stance that had Gohan flinch and the Z-fighters watching blink in surprise.
The position the female Super Saiyan had assumed was one very few of them had come across before in combat. On the surface it looked pretty basic; a stance that had the figure standing more upright than conventional kata with their legs slightly crouched. It was pretty much a boxing stance for all intents and purposes. However, upon closer inspection of the positioning of the hands and the way Sandra was standing on the front toes of her left foot, the human fighters of the group quickly equated that stance to a fighting style they'd seen multiple times before in media and on the sports channel.
"Hey… isn't that…?" Krillin began in a baffled tone of voice.
"Muay Thai?" Yamcha blinked, as images of famous kick boxers began filling his head.
The Saiyan Contingent though, upon overhearing the Earthlings discussing the appearance of Sandra's fighting stance in comparison to one of their own, had a completely different take on its origins. This was something Maya was willing to point out as she observed her friend settle into a comfortable rhythm, where she began to bounce lightly on her forward foot, whereas her arms and shoulders moved in a bobbing motion.
"Sandra's using the Kai Mui Style, huh?" Maya commented while raising her head.
"She's deciding to go for her main fighting style right out the gate?" Kure also remarked, adjusting her glasses while leaving a single hand on her hip. She then smirked when she saw Sandra's left fist lock onto the position of Gohan's head. "This should be interesting."
Gohan, unable to ignore the sight of Sandra's extended left fist tracking his head's movements, experienced a moment of hesitation. In spite of having fought against multiple opponents in the past, all of whom used different fighting styles, there was something about his current opponent that didn't sit too well with him. Whether it was the way she managed to brush off his assault or how she was able to counter him before, he didn't know. Whatever the case, he just couldn't shake the feeling that he was up against someone who could give him even more trouble than he'd bargained for.
Deciding to throw all fears and uncertainties to the wind, the demi-Saiyan sucked it up and dug his feet into the ground. "I'll start off with the same approach as before; attack her quickly, set the pace, and don't give her time to breathe. I'll move in close and take her to a pummeling match, and see if I can't force her hand!" Considering they were pretty much the same strength, he had to focus everything he had into his blows. So, in a flash of electricity, Gohan's form vanished, a sonic boom echoing across the quad as he charged his opponent head on.
With electricity coursing over his entire body, the demi-Saiyan seemingly teleported in front of his adversary and thrust down at her with a right hook. In a blink of an eye and with the sound of gunshots, Sandra fired off a couple of jabs at her opponent, forcing him to block them instead. Blasts of perspiration exploded off of Gohan's head as the punches connected with ridiculous speed, forcing him to stop his attack. Upon which he responded with a blur of mixed punches. More sonic booms rang out and clouds of dust filled the air when the female empress, with a completely calm expression in play, shot down the boy's attacks with a series of quick parries, smacking his fists off course. After that attack failed, the demi-Saiyan then sprang into the air and uncorked a spin kick right for her head.
Sandra responded with a swift elbow, their attacks colliding with such force that they caused the entire estate they were standing on the bounce several feet into the air. The audience of human observers watching from the sidelines all cried out in panic from the impact that rippled out from between the two super-powered warriors, whereas the Z-fighters and the Saiyan Empire representatives did their best to try and hold their ground. When both parties looked back into the heart of the chaos, they saw both Super Saiyan 3 fighters glaring at each other with determination and excitement burning in their eyes.
Holding their positions for a split second, Gohan then sprang off of his opponent at the same time she shoved him off with her arm, propelling the young warrior across the courtyard. As soon as the half-Saiyan tapped down on the other side of the ring, he suddenly vanished in a flash of gold and teleported into his foe's blind spot on her right, swinging down at her with a kick. Unfortunately, much to his chagrin, Sandra was expecting his attack, ducking under his leg as it sailed over her, before retaliating with a kick of her own. Her leg shot past the half-Saiyan's head when he dodged it, springing across the quad to stay in her blind spot. The woman tracked him however, swiveling about till she was locked onto him once again.
Darting forward allowed Gohan to close the gap on his opponent in an instant, where he then nailed her with three sharp lefts. His shots came in fast, but Sandra calmly and effortlessly deflected them with a couple of parries. Wanting to capitalize on his rush, the attacking half-Saiyan, still bathed in a golden glow, prepared to follow up his assault with a kick, only to jerk to a stop when he suddenly saw his opponent turn in to counter and clench her hand tightly.
"A hook?!" Gohan thought in alarm, seeing in slow motion as Sandra's right fist and shoulder began to pull back. "No! A right straight! But the windup is huge!" Though he shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when he spotted her intentions, there was something about the girl's motion that had him stall his advance. "Do you seriously think you'll be able to hit me with such an obvious attack?" Gohan then gritted his teeth and brought his left arm up to parry.
The hero was all set to deflect her shot. However, just as he was setting up for a block, he suddenly saw his opponent's loading arm light up with a golden glow and a current of electricity, before it shot forward at blazing speed. Sandra's entire body twisted into her attack, causing a powerful gust of wind to billow off of her when she spun her entire bodyweight into her shot. Not wanting to take that hit head on or risk getting struck, the demi-Saiyan dodged it.
It was a good thing he did too, because the instant her fist shot past his head, a sonic boom rang out, followed by the sound of rushing wind and a hurricane blasting across the city behind him. The force of her attack tore through the sky, distorting space as it traveled at light speed before, several seconds later, an entire mountain range a hundred kilometers away exploded in a shower of rubble and debris, filling the atmosphere with a cloud of dust.
The force behind Sandra's attack was so great, not only could the shockwave be heard from one end of the country to the other, but the power of her punch disintegrated the mountains it struck and bifurcated the very troposphere of the earth for thousands of miles over the ocean, as indicated by the way the clouds parted in a perfect 'V' shape, which could be seen from the moon's orbit.
The Z-fighters gaped at the destruction and effects generated by Sandra's punch.
As for the empress, she continued to remain as she was in her unloaded position, her fist fully extended, while Gohan stayed rooted to the ground, his body leaning to the right just an inch away from the woman's arm, with sweat trickling down his face.
From the way his pupils had dilated, you could tell he was just as stunned as everybody else.
"Holy shit. If I'd taken that punch…" There was a good chance not only his arm would've been snapped in half, but his head could've been taken clean off of his shoulders.
When the wind from Sandra's attack died down, the empress quickly retracted her fist and, her eyes snapping towards her foe, wound up for a second shot. Gohan, reacting in alarm, leapt to the right as fast as he could.
"Damn it! I need to get away-" Unfortunately he couldn't get out fast enough. In a blur of movement, Sandra leapt in his way and cut him off, darting forward and ramming into him with her shoulder. The tackle shoved Gohan back, knocking him through the air and across the courtyard. "Whoa! She's quick!" Slamming his feet into the floor, the demi-Saiyan skidded to a stop, only to see his opponent dash after him and stop right inside of his defensive circle. When he saw her fists were up and ready, Gohan brought his guard into play and braced himself. "You're really asking me to go all out, aren't you?!"
In a blur, Sandra dove in and began hammering at Gohan's arms with swift punches and body hooks, her form moving like a machine as it repeated the string of attacks over and over. The demi-Saiyan attempted to weave around it and look for an opening. But due to the speed the girl's attacks were landing, he just couldn't find one. Dull thumps rang out as her knuckles struck her target from head to body, causing a cloud of perspiration and dust to fill the air with every hit. Being Super Saiyan 3, only the strongest Z-fighters could follow what was going on.
The pressure of Sandra's relentless attacks battering his arms had Gohan grit his teeth. "She must be trying to make me guard my body," the half-Saiyan thought, keeping his arms up even when he felt his opponent's fists drive even harder into his arms. Since he was keeping his body tight, he was preventing her from landing any clean hits, even when she struck him with a couple of kicks in between her punches. "I can tell from the quick but heavy blows she's landing down there." A frown crossed his face as he watched his opponent ram him with several more left body shots, which struck his arm instead. "So that's your aim, is it? You want me to drop my guard so you can go for my face?! Okay… I'll bite!"
As soon as he saw a gap in Sandra's pattern, Gohan dropped his arms. In that instant, the female Saiyan pulled away and, turning towards him in a haze of speed, began winding up with a right punch, which she was now clearly aiming for his face.
His super human reflexes putting their high-speed battle into slow motion, the demi-Saiyan smirked, "Bring it on! You're not the only one that can take big risks!" Telegraphing her incoming punch, Gohan brought his right arm up and, with a grunt, thrust it forward in a right counter. His fist cut forward like a knife, aiming to cleave his opponent's head off the moment her arm extended.
Sandra however, expression calm, then uttered a single, well-known idiom.
"Check mate."
All of a sudden, her left fist, which had been pulled back, lit up with a hot sleeve of gold like the end of an iron poker, before striking Gohan in the stomach with enough force to split a planet. A loud thunderclap rang out when the demi-Saiyan's body was literally lifted off the floor and bent forwards, his opponent's knuckles burying into his abs. In that same instant, the sound of bones crunching and muscle fibers tearing filled the sky, Gohan's eyes bugging out in horror and a strangled gasp escaping his lips, as a wave of pain shot through him like electricity.
Vegeta, Zangya and all of the teen's friends stood dumbstruck, especially when they saw Gohan spit up blood.
When Sandra retracted her fist, she watched her opponent's knees buckle and his entire body fall forward, crumpling under the damage of her counter attack.
"You needn't feel shame after falling from one of my body blows," Sandra thought, watching through her calm yet bruised face as her Super Saiyan 3 foe descended towards the cobblestone canvas. "The abs of many powerful men and monsters has been penetrated by my Senko (Flash) multiple times before." She then cracked a smile, "I'm sorry, but it's over…"
Suddenly, just when it looked like Gohan was about to pass out, the demi-Saiyan's eyes lit up and snapped towards his opponent, who recoiled in shock. In the blink of an eye, the young warrior lunged at his enemy and nailed her in the face with a swift one-two combo, knocking her head back twice. The shock of the two hits had Sandra leap away to reduce the damage, while at the same time watching her opponent close in on her at full speed.
"The timing and the angle of my punch was perfect," Sandra thought in alarm, watching her opponent dive at her with his guard held high. "Why hasn't he gone down?" More to the point, why wasn't he knocked out?
Using speed none of the others could track, both fighters began attacking each other at close range with a series of punches, knees and elbows. They traded shots, striking and parrying repeatedly, unwilling to fold to their opponent so easily. Their exchange of lightning fast attacks caused the ground to shake beneath them and the air to vibrate.
It almost seemed like the pair would be stuck in this cycle for the entire duration of their battle. That was until Sandra suddenly slipped under a jab from her opponent and nailed him in the chin with a short-motion uppercut. The attack knocked Gohan's head upwards, setting the empress up for her finisher. With a shout and a flash of light, the female Saiyan uncorked a superb right cross into the boy's face, her fist burying into the demi-Saiyan's cheek and knocking his head back with a crunch.
The shockwave from the blow was immense, causing the clouds above them to part instantly and a gust of wind to ripple across the city. The instant Sandra retracted her fist, Gohan's eyes rolled back into his skull and he began to fall forwards once again.
"He should've more than felt that one," Sandra thought when she saw her opponent lurch forward in slow motion, his face clearly showing the damage her punch had caused. "I heard his jaw cra-huh?!" Reacting in alarm, the woman threw her body back to avoid a vicious right hook from her opponent. For the second time in a row, Gohan's consciousness bounced back, allowing him to retaliate against his powerful foe. But despite his lightning fast recovery, he was unable to land a clean shot on Sandra, who managed to leap to a safe distance and land on the other side of the quad. Still, this didn't stop the look of pure astonishment that crossed the female Saiyan's face. "He's still conscious?"
Both warriors then held their ground, with Gohan now sporting his own fair share of facial wounds and Sandra showcasing hers. In spite of their monstrous exchange of hits, the two Saiyans weren't tired in the least, and simply glared one another down without the slightest signs of faltering.