"Why are you back?"
Rhode sensed the familiar energy signature behind him before he even turned, surprise coloring his voice. The one who had appeared was Aira, who should have still been immersed in her foundational training on Yardrat.
As he turned to face her, however, his surprise deepened into genuine astonishment.
Aira was transformed. Her once turbulent and flamboyant aura was now a contained, stable pressure. More strikingly, she was no longer a girl. She had matured into a young woman—tall, lithe, and powerfully built, standing just shy of his own height. Her features held a striking blend of fierce determination and softened beauty, a testament to the years that had clearly passed for her.
"You went to Namek," Rhode stated, understanding dawning. "You wished for a Time Chamber of your own."
Aira gave a single, sharp nod, her eyes never leaving his. There was no small talk, no reminiscence. Only a blazing, focused intent. "Rhode. I challenge you."
This was the moment she had compressed years of relentless effort for. She was certain that the current her could finally win.
Within her personal time dilation, Aira had spent nearly a decade. She had not only solidified her foundational control but had mastered three key Yardratian techniques: the Protective Barrier, the Multi-Form Clone, and the Recovery Technique. Her raw power had exploded, leaving her previous sub-million battle power in the dust.
"Challenge?" Rhode's eyebrow arched. He focused his senses, truly gauging her energy for the first time. The sheer magnitude of it, now rivaling his own, sent a jolt of genuine shock through him. The Time Chamber... she really went all in.
But shock quickly gave way to a thrilling anticipation. An opponent of equal footing? This was what he'd been missing. Crushing inferior foes was a bore. A real contest… that was exhilarating.
"Come with me."
Without another word, Rhode opened a spatial gate into his Time Chamber and stepped through. Aira followed without hesitation.
The moment the gate sealed, isolating them in the endless white expanse, Rhode moved. No warnings, no ceremony.
Bang!
His fist shot out in a blur. Aira calmly raised her forearm, intercepting the blow with a solid thud. A fierce, proud smile touched her lips. "I won't be taken down in one hit anymore, Rhode."
"Indeed. Not bad at all," Rhode acknowledged, a grin spreading across his own face. She hadn't just matched his power; her reaction speed and control were impeccable.
Swish!
He vanished, reappearing behind her to drive an elbow down toward her shoulder. But his strike passed through empty air—a dissipating afterimage.
Bang!
He pivoted, his arm rising to perfectly block the kick Aira had launched from his blind spot.
"You've gotten strong, Aira," he said, the praise now utterly sincere. This was no longer the raw, brute-force fighter he'd known. This was a martial artist.
"Hmph!" Aira snorted, dismissing the compliment as she exploded into motion, her power surging as she intensified her assault.
Bang! Bang! BANG!
The serene silence of the Time Chamber was shattered by a continuous thunderclap of impacts. Their forms became blurs of motion, trading blows at speeds that would be invisible to any earthly observer.
So strong! Rhode thought, parrying a series of vicious elbow strikes and knee drives. The pressure was real and immense. Just how long was she in there? Is she trying to age herself into a crone?
But there was no time for such concerns. Adrenaline and focus narrowed his world to the opponent before him. He would not lose. Not here.
Swish!
He feinted high, then dropped low, his leg sweeping for her ankles. Aira leapt over it, but Rhode was already flowing upward, his fist aimed like a piston at her midsection.
Bang!
She crossed her arms, taking the blow with a grunt, then used the impact to pivot, her own heel whipping toward his temple.
Clang!
He blocked with a raised forearm, the impact resonating through the bone.
Bang-bang-bang! Clatter-clatter-clatter!
The exchange became a storm of violence—a dazzling, brutal dance where every block was a counter, every dodge an opening, and the very air crackled with released energy. For the first time since leaving Yardrat, Rhode felt truly, utterly alive. The test had finally arrived.
Within the timeless void of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the clash between Rhode and Aira had escalated into a storm of kinetic fury. Their movements were so fast they warped the air, leaving shimmering heat hazes and concussive ripples in their wake. The pure physical exchange was a symphony of impacts, a test of speed, technique, and raw power that seemed impossibly balanced.
**BOOM!**
The dynamic shifted violently as a sphere of searing blue ki erupted from Aira's palm, carving a path of destruction through the emptiness before detonating in a deafening, light-engulfing blast.
She had broken the tacit agreement of melee.
"Heh." Rhode's derisive chuckle cut through the rolling thunder of the explosion, a sound more grating to Aira than any insult.
In their unspoken duel, the first to resort to energy projection acknowledged a stalemate in physical combat. It was a subtle admission of defeat on one front.
But the battle was far from over. It simply transformed.
The vast white expanse became a canvas of chaos. Blurs of motion were now punctuated by streaking lances of plasma and expanding spheres of annihilation. The roar of colliding bodies was drowned out by the constant, percussive **BOOM-BOOM-BOOM** of ki detonations, each shockwave rippling through the featureless "ground."
**POP! BOOM!**
A particularly massive energy sphere erupted near Rhode, engulfing him in a blinding fireball and a thick, churning cloud of vaporized... whatever constituted the Chamber's floor.
A fraction of a second later, primal instinct screamed a warning in Rhode's mind. He twisted, attempting to Instant Transmission away.
Swish!
He was a hair too slow. Aira materialized inside the smoke, her fist—wreathed in a corona of violent energy—slammed into the space between his shoulder blades with the force of a meteor strike.
**BANG!**
The impact drove Rhode from the air, sending him cratering into the unyielding white surface with a sickening, bone-jarring thud. Pain, sharp and shocking, lanced through his back. The calm, analytical mask he'd worn throughout the fight finally shattered.
Pushing himself up, he looked through the settling dust. What he saw made his eyes widen.
Aira hovered above him, but she was changed. A faint, fiery gold aura flickered around her form, not the wild blaze of a transformed Oozaru, but a controlled, concentrated furnace of power. Her energy signature had skyrocketed, multiplying nearly tenfold in an instant.
Great Ape Power. She's learned to harness it in her base form.
The revelation wasn't a surprise—with her refined Spirito control and decade of focused training, mastering that Saiyan trait was inevitable. But seeing it applied so seamlessly, with such devastating effect, was another matter.
As he rose to his feet, brushing non-existent dust from his gi, the pain in his back faded into background noise. A slow, genuine smile spread across Rhode's face, replacing his earlier battle focus with something colder, more deliberate.
The playful test was over. Aira had played her trump card.
Now, he thought, his own energy beginning to stir from its deep, placid lake into a gathering maelstrom, it's time to end this. The real fight was just beginning.
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