Kaiyo scratched at his scalp, fingers catching on the coarse black spikes that refused to lie flat. Dawn bled purple across Planet Vegeta's sky, painting the jagged training grounds in bruised light.
He exhaled, watching his breath mist in the frigid air. Three months. The number thrummed behind his ribs like a second heartbeat. Frieza's armada wasn't some distant rumor whispered in warrior dens—it was a certainty, etched into the fabric of his borrowed Saiyan bones. Panic tried to claw up his throat; he swallowed it down. Panic got you dead.
A translucent screen flickered before his eyes, untouched by the wind whipping dust against his worn combat leggings.
STATUS:
Name: Kaiyo
Race: Low-Class Saiyan
Power Level: 1,200
Skills: Basic Ki Manipulation (Lvl 2), Tail Sensitivity (Passive)
Unassigned Skill Points: 0
Available Skill Trees: Ki Mastery (Locked), Combat Arts (Locked), ? (Locked)
Cheat. The word tasted like iron and desperation. The System—this intrusive ghost in his synapses—was his only edge. Its cold logic offered no comfort, only pathways. He focused inward, past the thrum of alien blood, seeking the spark. Ki. It wasn't just energy; it was potential made manifest. He remembered the tutorial prompt, buried deep in the System's help files: "Conceptual Understanding Bypasses Physical Limitations."
His palms faced each other, trembling slightly. Not with effort, but with the sheer, terrifying idea of it. He didn't visualize a ball of light. He thought of annihilation. Of compression. Of the crushing gravity at a star's core. The air between his hands warped, shimmering like heat haze over desert stone. A bead of sweat traced his temple. It wasn't blue. Wasn't gold. It was dense, a pinprick of distorted space humming with barely contained violence. It vanished a second later, leaving his muscles screaming and his lungs heaving as if he'd sprinted for miles. The System pinged.
New Skill Unlocked!
Gravity Sphere (Lvl 1): Condenses Ki into a point of intense gravitational force. Drains 80% Max Ki per use.
Skill Tree Unlocked: Spatial Compression (Branch: Ki Mastery)
Kaiyo grinned, sharp teeth bared against the rising sun. It hurt like hellfire. It was utterly, recklessly his. Cheating had never felt so raw, so real. He flexed his fingers, the phantom ache of impossible energy still singing in his bones. The countdown ticked on.
He pulled up the System interface again, ignoring the pounding in his temples. Ki Pool: 24/1200 (Regen: 12/min). Pathetic. But beneath the exhaustion, a fierce thrill burned. He'd ripped a hole in reality's fabric using sheer, stupid understanding. The Spatial Compression tree shimmered faintly: Gravity Sphere (Lvl 1), and beneath it, tantalizingly greyed out, Micro-Singularity (Lvl 5 Req), Event Horizon Shield (Lvl 10 Req). Power, waiting. He needed numbers. Bigger numbers. Faster.
A low growl vibrated the air behind him. Kaiyo spun, tail lashing leaned against a shattered rock spire, arms crossed, her gaze sharp enough to flay skin. Her dark hair, shorter and wilder than his own spikes, framed a face etched with scars and weary amusement. "Gravity Sphere?" she drawled, her voice rough like grinding stone. "That's a neat trick, runt. Looks like it nearly ripped you apart." She pushed off the rock, boots crunching on gravel. "Waste of ki. Flashy, inefficient." Her own power level flickered on his scouter – 3,780. A low-class warrior, but leagues beyond him. "You fight like you're trying to impress someone who isn't there."
Kaiyo bristled, the System's interface pulsing faintly in his periphery. "It's new," he snapped, forcing his trembling hands still. "And it worked." He focused inward, pulling up the Spatial Compression tree again. Gravity Sphere (Lvl 1). Ki Cost: 960. Effect: Creates a localized point of intense gravitational pull. He needed data. Practical application. Not just theory. He scanned the desolate plateau – scattered boulders, cracked earth. Target practice. He raised a hand, focusing not on annihilation this time, but on anchor. A single point, heavy as a mountain. He poured a sliver of ki, barely 50 points, aiming at a fist-sized rock ten feet away.
The air thumped. Not a shimmer, not a warp. A sudden, sharp downward pull. The rock didn't move. Dust around it surged inward, plastering itself against the stone in a perfect circle before collapsing. The effect lasted barely a heartbeat. Kaiyo gasped. Even that tiny fraction felt like a vice grip on his mind. Useful. Very stupid. Cade snorted. "Checking poison? You look like you haven't eaten in days." Her eyes narrowed, calculating. "Show me again. Smaller. Control the size of the pull, not just the weight. Pinpoint it."
Kaiyo gritted his teeth. Control. Not raw power. He targeted a pebble. Five ki points. Focus. Not compression, but containment. A tiny gravity well. He released it. Fwip. The pebble vanished into a microscopic point of distorted air for a nanosecond, then reappeared, unharmed, but the dirt beneath it was sucked into a perfect, pinprick crater. Skill Progress: Gravity Sphere Lvl 1 (12%). Understanding clicked. It wasn't just force; it was precision shaping space itself. His grin returned, predatory. Cheating smarter.
Cade watched, arms still crossed, but her tail flicked once. "Better," she conceded, voice flat. "Now make it stick. Hold it." Kaiyo poured twenty ki points into the same spot. The air shimmered, a tiny vortex humming for three full seconds before collapsing. His vision swam. Ki Pool: 8/1200. Exhaustion hit like a hammer. He staggered, catching himself against a boulder. "Too much... too fast," he gasped.
"Idiot." Cade pushed off her perch. "Your system's a crutch. You see numbers, not reality." She stepped close, invading his space. Her power level hummed against his senses, a tangible pressure. "Ki isn't points on a screen. It's breath. It's blood. It's the rage in your gut when Frieza's name is whispered." She jabbed a finger at his chest. "Feel the cost before you pay it. That drain? That's your soul screaming. Push it again, right now. Feel it tear."
Kaiyo glared, defiance warring with dizziness. He raised a shaking hand. Five ki points. Focused not on the idea of gravity, but on the sensation Cade described – the burning exhaustion in his limbs, the hollow ache behind his eyes. He poured that feeling into the space between his fingers. The air pulled inward, a sustained, visible distortion the size of a marble. It held. For five seconds. Ten. Skill Progress: Gravity Sphere Lvl 1 (38%). He dropped it, panting, but his eyes blazed with revelation. The System quantified it, but the agony was the teacher. Cade gave a curt nod. "Now you're cheating properly."
He pushed off the boulder, ignoring the tremor in his legs. Target practice shifted. Not rocks, but movement. He sprinted across the plateau, ragged breaths tearing at his throat. Ahead, a loose boulder wobbled precariously. Ten ki points. He visualized the drain – the sharp, metallic taste in his mouth – and flung the sensation at the boulder's base. Thump. The air compressed violently downward. The boulder lurched, groaned, and tipped sideways, crashing onto its side. Dust plumed. Skill Progress: Gravity Sphere Lvl 1 (65%). He grinned savagely. Control wasn't just precision; it was timing. Turning weakness into a weapon.
Cade watched silently, arms still crossed, but her tail coiled tighter. Kaiyo pushed harder. He tried layering – a micro-gravity sphere inside his fist. Twenty ki points. He punched a smaller rock. The impact cracked louder than it should have, shattering the stone into powder. His knuckles screamed, skin split and bleeding. Skill Progress: Gravity Sphere Lvl 1 (89%). Skill Progress: Spatial Compression Branch Synergy Detected. The System flickered: Potential Unlock: Kinetic Amplification (Gravity-Assisted Strike) - Requires Lvl 2 Gravity Sphere. Numbers became pathways. Pain became currency.
He wiped blood on his thigh, panting. Cade hadn't moved. Her gaze was a physical weight. "Show-off," she muttered, but her eyes tracked the bleeding knuckles. "You're still thinking in points. Feel the rock shatter. Feel the snap." Kaiyo grinned, sharp and reckless. The ache in his hands, the exhaustion – it was fuel. He scanned her posture: rooted, immovable. Too immovable. An idea sparked, crude and cocky. Horny desperation mixed with newfound understanding. He needed to see if he could disrupt her stability.
He feigned staggering exhaustion, leaning heavily against another boulder near her. "Yeah, yeah," he gasped, waving a dismissive, trembling hand. "Teach, preach..." His other hand, hidden behind the rock, gathered ki. Not much. Fifteen points. Not compression. Distortion. He visualized the warp – not a sphere, but a slice. Horizontal. A razor-thin plane of intense gravitational shear. He aimed low, at the seam where her worn leggings met her thigh. The sensation wasn't exhaustion this time; it was the sharp, illicit thrill of the forbidden. He released it.
The air shimmered, a barely visible horizontal line humming for a fraction of a second right against her hip. There was no sound of tearing fabric. Instead, gravity itself acted like a molecular scalpel. A precise strip of her leggings, right across the upper thigh, simply vanished, atomized by the localized spatial shear. It revealed smooth skin, a thin scar, and the stark black strap of a thong beneath.
Cade froze. Utterly still. Her crossed arms didn't move. Her expression didn't shift. Only her eyes snapped down, then locked onto Kaiyo. The air crackled, thick with sudden, dangerous silence. Her power level flared – 3,780 spiking violently to 4,200. The sheer pressure forced Kaiyo back a step, his breath catching. Her voice, when it came, was lethally soft, devoid of any trace of amusement. "Clever." The word hung in the air like a blade. "Very clever." She slowly uncrossed her arms. Her tail lashed once, whip-crack sharp.
Kaiyo swallowed hard, adrenaline warring with the bone-deep exhaustion. The torn fabric was stark against her skin, the black strap beneath undeniable. His brain, fried from ki drain and reckless impulse, short-circuited. The words tumbled out, raw and unfiltered, riding a wave of desperate bravado and genuine, stunned appreciation. "Damn," he breathed, eyes wide, voice cracking slightly. "Didn't realize... uh... gravity could sculpt something that... perfect." He gestured vaguely towards her exposed thigh, the blush already creeping up his own neck. "Seriously, Cade. That ass is... fuckable. Like, monumentally." He instantly regretted it. Every syllable.
Cade didn't move. Didn't react. For three agonizing heartbeats, she just stared at him. Then, impossibly, a flush bloomed high on her sharp cheekbones. It spread fast, vivid crimson against her tan skin, clashing violently with the fury still burning in her eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin, furious line. She looked away sharply, towards the horizon, but the blush deepened, staining her neck. Her tail stopped lashing and curled stiffly around her thigh, almost protectively covering the exposed skin. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating. Kaiyo braced for the impact, the crushing blow, the obliterating ki blast. Anything but this furious, flustered stillness.
Finally, she spoke, her voice tight, strained, refusing to look at him. "Idiot." The word lacked its usual bite. It sounded almost... flustered. "You burn half your ki on parlor tricks... and waste breath on..." She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Her knuckles were white where she clenched her fists. She took a deliberate, shuddering breath, visibly forcing her power level back down. When she finally turned her head back towards him, the blush was still there, stubbornly clinging, but her eyes were narrowed slits of pure, dangerous focus. "Fine. You want to play with forces you don't understand?" A predatory glint replaced the embarrassment. "Let's see how your... sculpting... holds up." She dropped into a low, fluid stance, ki flaring around her fists. "Hit me. With everything you've got left. Before I rip that wagging tongue out."