“Then stop making me angry!” Pumyra snapped, throwing a wild punch that Syms caught. He spun her arm around, tying her up in a painful arm lock.
“I told you to keep calm,” he scolded. She winced a bit as he then shouted next to her ear, “Salix! That wasn’t a tired collapse! Don’t be lazy, get to it!” The dryad grumbled and reset to pushup position, continuing the workout without much vigor. “Come on, Pumyra, get out of this.”
“I can’t, you’re too strong.”
“Then do something else besides struggle! You don’t need a complicated maneuver to muscle your way out, just get out! You’re still not giving up that honor bound attitude, you fight to survive, not to follow rules of honor!”
“I know.”
“Then do something about this, I’m not helping you this time.” Pumyra gritted her teeth thinking. She could fight very well she knew, however that was on the ground against normal opponents in a normal battle, not with a deity like speed, strength, and power, not without keeping to a strict code of life that included an over abundance of honor. There was so much Syms wanted her to forget about her past expectations in order to release her full ki potential as a Saiya-jin.
She remembered before whenever he had her locked up, back when he’d still offer her advice, that he told her to distract him. She could kick at his legs, dig the fingers of her free hand into his stomach, bite the arm he had around her neck, anything as simple as that to get his mind away from holding onto her, even if it wasn’t very honorable or couldn’t be seen as particularly skillful. Nevertheless it worked and he was right; honor and typical view of skill had no place when it came down to life or death situations. Even if that wasn’t the case now, the point was still to pretend it was, at least with the urgency of being in the situation and to resolve to fight though she wouldn’t actually purposefully cause extreme wounds or kill Syms or Salix.
There was one other way she knew would allow her to escape. Normally it’d be worthless against Syms considering how much stronger he was than her, however now he had a handicap on his power level to match with her current maximum so that she could train properly, actually gain results. She began gathering her energy, accumulating every ounce of strength from her ki and equaled it out through her body. When ready, she let it all out, a blue light that radiated out, consuming Syms behind her, she could feel him let go and be swept away.
She turned about quickly when the attack was done, searching to see what had happened to Syms. He was nowhere to be seen. Pumyra looked down to Salix, who had quit her pushups again to observe the release of energy, and frowned at the shrug she received to her questioning look, the dryad not knowing where Syms went either.
“What are you looking for?” Syms said, suddenly behind her, causing her to gasp and turn about startled.
“You,” she answered sternly. “Why were you hiding?”
“I wanted to see if you were paying attention to my ki, instead of just looking at me with your eyes. You would’ve find me immediately if you’d felt me out with your senses,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest.
Pumyra looked down saying, “I told you, I can’t do that with you,” her voice tone was quiet, almost ashamed. “I can feel your love when I touch your ki...I can’t attack you then.” She looked up again, studying his face and finally reaching out to touch his life force. Both showed a stern resolve and an imminent attack, however she could feel that familiar, comforting love buried deep down, a storming conflict layered over top. He was going to attack, she knew, even though it broke his heart to do so. She felt that every time they sparred, he never changed.
The attack came swiftly; Syms raised his right hand and fired a small blast that Pumyra deflected away to explode in the hills below. He was on her just as quickly, she blocked his side-kick away and caught the reverse-punch that followed in a parry that set him off-balance, exposing his back to her. She crushed her a side-kick into his right kidney, brought her other leg up high and axe-kicked the back of his head, sending him speeding towards the ground.
She closed her guard up when he stopped himself only a few feet from the grass and launched back up to her, ready to meet his returning attack. She gasped when he vanished and then suddenly her world spun. Syms had phased out and reappeared behind her, slamming the back of her head with a spin side-kick. She shook her head, made herself forget the pain and disorientation, and spun around to face him. She played defense when he came at her and they locked in a flurry of attacks.
“Your counters are good, but you can’t just play defense forever. You can’t block and dodge every strike and blocking only helps wear your stamina down as your arms and legs get beaten,” Syms instructed her. She knew that, but he was so fast and aggressive, she couldn’t find an opening to begin her own offensive. He kept talking, every statement full of more criticism and less compliments. It was beginning to irritate her, worsened by the sting that was beginning in her limbs that he’d warned about, and each failure in her defense felt as if he was hitting harder and harder.
“Sh...shu...shutup...” she stammered, taking another hit to the stomach and one more to the side of her jaw. He complied with her request, but it didn’t matter much as only a few short seconds went by before he pounded her down and she slammed into the ground.
She opened her eyes with a start, unsure how long she’d been unconscious, but completely aware she had to keep her defense up. Syms wasn’t continuing his attack though, he stood a few steps away from her with his arms crossed over his chest, that same stern look on his face.
“Now would be a good time get angry, if you’re still feeling that way,” he told her as she slowly unburied herself.
“I am angry,” she noted with contempt, standing up on wobbly legs.
“Hmph, I don’t feel it,” he regarded with indifference, uncrossing his arms for a moment to wave the prospect away as if it were a fly that buzzed in his face. Pumyra clenched her fists tightly, she could feel the rage building up inside of her. She could no longer feel his loving emotions buried down, not even the conflict that blanketed it. The same feelings were no longer in her either, though she didn’t notice, the only emotions in her was anger and frustration, she burned with the desire take him down, to hurt Syms as much as possible.
Without warning her ki nearly tripled, bubbling over like water left to boil too long. She burst forward, pummeling her love’s face and stomach too fast for him to react, finishing the flurry with a front-kick that sent him soaring away.
Pumyra screamed rage, the aura of power surrounding her gaining size in tangent, causing Salix to slide away from where she sat watching in consternation near by. The rage-filled woman took off in a burst that tore up the ground as she went, catching up to Syms as he finally gained control over his flight.
“Pumyra! Control yourself!” he instructed firmly, grimacing from blocking her attack that held more power than he did. Her attacks continued mercilessly, Syms could barely defend till he changed into a Super Saiya-jin as he intercepted one last strike with his badly bruised arm. Her anger increased now that her attacks were unable to hit home, his power up making him more than a match for her once again. “Pumyra, you control your anger, it does not control you! Pumyra!”
His words were lost on her, she continued on with that assault fueled by her anger alone. Then Syms disappeared, avoiding her attack. She was pushed from behind, setting her off balance for a moment before she turned about to attack again and came face to face with a ball of gold energy, the light seemed to make their surroundings darker despite the sun, and the energy’s light silhouetted Syms as if she were shining a flashlight in his face. She stood there staring at the deadly sphere for seconds that felt like hours, and then met his eyes.
“Control yourself now or you’re done,” he warned. Suddenly her mind came back and Pumyra realized where she was. Her ki quickly dropped and she took a step back.
“S...Syms...I...” she stumbled along trying to find what to say. The ki blast in Syms’ hand dissipated and he lowered his arm.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes...I’m sorry...I...” she still couldn’t find words, however it no longer mattered when Syms powered down to his normal state and wrapped her up in a hug. They stood in each other’s arms without words until an annoyed voice cut through their moment.
“Hey! I’m okay too, thanks for wondering!” Salix said indignantly with her hands on her hips and a look on her face to match the attitude of her voice. Syms turned around keeping one arm wrapped around Pumyra’s back to meet his adopted little sister. She at the little dryad’s unwavering mood when he placed his free hand on her head in the mock demeaning way he always did.
“So you are! Which means you can continue your pushups,” Syms announced, removing his arm from around Pumyra and his hand from Salix’s head. “Unfortunately I have to get back into my bastard mode for training, we’re not done yet.” He pointed to the ground and Salix reluctantly dropped for pushups. Then turning to Pumyra he said, “Focus your ki, organize your emotions, let’s see you hit that power level again while you’re in control.”
Pumyra nodded and sat down. She watched Syms for a moment; he had one finger on Salix’s back that was enough to create enough extra weight to make her struggle with her workout. She listened as he encouraged her. Despite how harsh he was with them in their training and how high his expectations were he was always very encouraging. After watching Salix perform fifteen pushups under the extra two hundred pounds Syms said he was forcing on her she closed her eyes and focused inward. Her power was there as usual, stronger this time. It still fascinated her to feel her inner power, her whole self in meditation. She wasn’t sure if she quite understood it yet, it was still a strange phenomenon to her.
Even if it was mysterious, she still very much enjoyed it. All of her emotions had become tangible things, not just feelings that were there, unexplained and random at best. Her emotions gave way to her inner strength, that which was called ‘ki’. It gave her power, and not just a given power such as she would receive from the Sword of Omens as a Thundercat, but her own power, her own strength. It was such a gift, one of the greatest things anyone had ever given her, the knowledge and training to harness her own potential. It was one of countless reasons she loved Syms so much.
“Are you ready?” her love’s voice broke her reverie. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, wearing that same stern look he always had when playing instructor. He looked so cute that way.
“Yes, I am,” she said and stood. “Let’s make me stronger than you.” Pumyra grinned and received the same from the man who was her instructor, love, best friend, and so much more. She lunged at him, her first attack blocked, the five that followed hitting home.
She stood back for only a moment as Syms powered up to Super Saiya-jin. “You’ve already harnessed it!” he exclaimed. She answered him with another assault. Her power felt like it was overflowing. She embraced it, took control of it, and became more than a match for Syms’ Super Saiya-jin transformation. He powered up again to the next level. Super Saiya-jin 2 Syms and Pumyra fought furiously and little Salix the dryad was blown away across the grass.