Falling... falling away from yourself...

Crumbling.... it was all crumbling away from her- at first methodically, almost unnoticeably.... and then there had been a dreadful, almost overwhelming sense of loss.... Now, she was once more faced with that sensation of utter hopelessness and inner pain.... because it was all crumbling away. Her artificial mind had been taken from her- destroyed.... Her control had diminished to mere human capacity.... and her furthered physical manifestation- that of her armor- was suddenly being stripped from her as well. It was maddening.... infuriating.... and the bounty hunter could feel the blaze of her rage scorching what remained beneath it all- her soul.... No, she would not be purified through such flame, but become a harbinger of destruction.... a tool for the concept of unbridled vengeance....

It was a cold revenge, truly.... an icy pyre within her... and she would show the beast before her that very same chill. She would make his being fill with the shivers that her icy blades could induce- a wintry ensemble of suffering and sorrow upon his soon to be annihilated form of gory scales and gouts of blood through muscles run. Oh, yes... she was that angry, and that spark of a motivating force added a sinister glean to her usually apathetic, emerald-tinted eyes.... It was enough of a change for Ryu to note it, and idly, the reptilian warrior wondered if his former actions had, indeed, been in his best interest.... because not only was he even more damaged- a broken arm added to the former afflictions- but his opponent now seemed fueled by a kind of ethereal vigor... a divine purpose.... the will for his complete and utter destruction....

Thus, Estrus, in a fit of fury, lunged forward at a searing pace- outstretching her body as she jumped further into the motion, swiftly turning her ascent into a simple, high arc whilst projecting into the battle-heavy air. Flipping her body upside down in the process, now beginning her descent, she took the risk of momentarily exposing her backside to her opponent, knowing that little could come of it, now. After all, she was now confident in her abilities to over-power her adversary, both in speed and tactics, for his might was, obviously, more so than hers with his bulky, muscled form and her with deteriorating mecha. Even so, she quickly brushed those errant thoughts away and continued her maneuver within split second bursts of time....

Managing then to plant her worn, metal-covered palms onto the solid, dusty surface of the foreign ground, the assassin’s form became perpendicular to the ground on which it was poised. Both hands were upon the surface and her feet were held straight up into the dusky sky, making it appear as though she was carrying out a shortly maintained hand-stand. Despite this appearance, though, the strange circumstance was not to remain any longer; she was not finished in her actions, and she, utilizing the situation to her vantage, grit her hands into the dust before pressing off in an almost malicious manner, shooting up particles of ash in the process. Along with motion, it could also be noted that she was launching her legs before her and toward Ryu at an alarming rate, poised and ready to finish with this somewhat risky task.

Therefore, having rapidly closed in the distance, Estrus continued on- not landing upon her feet as surely was expected- a generic forward flip meant to confuse or daze. No- instead of ending up standing before the hostile creature, she promptly latched onto his neck with her lightly armored knees and lower calf muscles, gripping tightly about his head despite the somewhat compromising position. So, in a moment of learned agility and experience, the female warrior bent backwards, reaching out her arms towards the ground once more and ignoring the small protests coming from her tautly stretched muscles in the form of minor aches. As a result of such determination, her palms did indeed connect easily enough, her fingers digging faintly into the earth as a result of her grip, creating small indents in the dirt.

This slight happening allowed her to distribute her weight and control, preparing her to advance onward with an assurance of success- brought on through the adrenaline rush of the infuriating happenings and her superior dexterity. Such rambling of thoughts, however, should not be welcome within a battle field, so before allowing interruption to her feat, Estrus forced her body to continue on in its swift movements. Flipping backward this time, she managed to fling her opponent over herself in an arc, keeping a tight hold upon his neck with her clenched legs, giving mere notice to his need to breathe or the fact that she might be marring his scaly exterior. Even so, this hold could not last, and as she neared completion, she loosened her hold and let go of the other warrior, continuing without his mass to land solidly upon her feet.

Thus, with her back turned to him once more, the female fighter took in a deep breath, prepared to turn and face him.... prepared to take his life from him slowly- watch every bit of it crumble away from him as the dust did from her form, now.... as her extended self had from her earlier. Yes, she was ready to torture him as he had her... and then give him release in the form of death, a comforting darkness only to those who knew suffering so well.... who knew what it was like to degrade slowly away from all that was once dear.... who knew the feeling of crumbling. For as the suit crumbled from her, so did she crumble from herself.... and so would the beast crumble from life....

Falling... falling into death....

Estrus starred upon her adversary. Ryu was laying on the ground, his back facing the sky. Estrus peered down with a straight face and her eyes squinted; Ryu had awoken a giant. Gathering bits of energy in his body, he focused it on his legs. He bent his knee down and lifted his body. Then he forcefully jumped backwards away from his opponent. He stood several feet away, gritting his teeth and wondering what he could do to stop her. He tried to move his broken arm but to a painful attempt he failed. Ryu took a step back, his fierce intimidating appearance slowly diminishing with each second. Sadness filled his eyes. He was Repu and he could beat her? He transformed into a Reptearian but he couldn’t defeat her? Many things he hadn’t tried yet but his underestimation towards her was his undoing. Now it was too late to use some techniques that could have taken care of her within seconds. He held his broken arm and moaned out a shrill cry. Anger had left his mind to bring forward grievance. Thinking as a wise one would, a flare surrounded his body. He flew up into the air and continued to fly far away from that nightmare. Estrus watched him fly off until she could see him no more. She smiled, and then that smile turned into a faint laugh.

Flying away, images kept running through his head. The muscles on his cheeks fidgeted. I’ve lost to a girl, to a scrawny girl who uses her armor as her power, he thought. He let out a roar and his speed busted into a flash. It’s like she’s immortal, she knows all my moves. She has no weakness. Ryu’s body past by the hills and grass like a rocket. This can’t be happening, the entire time she showed no suffering. Then it something caught Ryu’s attention. He immediately stopped in mid-air as so did the flare around his body. A brisk, new idea came into his head. He thought, starring forwards as if he were in a trance with his mouth slightly open. His eyes fidgeted as he laughed slowly insanely. He went on roaring into laughter, his arms back. He finally stopped and smiled showing his sharp teeth. He licked his chops and bent down his head, leaving his eyes starring forwards. He blasted off back at Estrus’s direction.

Estrus was walking back to the dimensional rip’s location to leave this dimension and to return to her own. She walked, one shoulder going forward at a time. She was still walking forward when she turned back to look at the direction that Ryu had left to. With a straight face, she turned her head back around to see Ryu standing 10 in front of her; she immediately stopped with her eyebrows up. He starred at her for a moment and then began to walk, swishing his half cutoff tail around in the air. His anger was at its peak and his face was burning with hatred. He opened his mouth; saliva dripped from his teeth, sliding around the sharp canines. He let out a slight moan, adding meaning to his appearance. His three toed, hand like feet took one large stomp into the ground after the other. His upper pair of tremendously bulky arms swayed forward and backwards.

Estrus held up her hands and spun, throwing a high right kick. Repu grabbed it and then twisted around. Trying to prevent him from braking her leg, she shifted her weight and spiraled around and landed on the ground. She got up quickly to throw a out her piercing blade and skewered him in his right arm. With his left hand he grabbed her wrist, squeezing hard. The mecha armor on her wrist shattered, and started crushing her flesh. Feeling some type of compassion to ease her pain, he lifted her up and threw her down upon the ground; he let go of her wrist. Estrus rolled over and got to her feet. She looked at her wrist, she could not move it.

Noticing that 2 of his arms were injured, one severely, he decided to merge them. He concentrated and his lower two arms merged with the top ones. His shoulders and muscles on that part of his body increased as well. He had to get rid of his four arm advantage in order to maintain his defense. He reached in and ripped out the hunk of metal left from the blade and through it on the ground before the last bit of his arms merged.

Estrus let out a scream, something that was new to Ryu, as she thrusted her good hand’s blade towards his face. Thinking quickly, Ryu moved to the right and grabbed her arm. He yanked her down into the ground, underneath his foot. With this momentary stun placed on Estrus, he lifted his right arm high into the air and released his blades. He merged the three into a large one. Estrus opened her eyes to look up at the monster placed before her. Seeing his large arm into the air, her heart pounded. With a loud, terrifying voice, Ryu spoke. “FEEL THE LOSS!!! FEEL THE HUMILITY!!! I SHALL ALAS BE RIDDEN MYSELF OF THY VIAL BURDEN!!!” Ryu threw down his blade in a quick smear of blackness. The blade had slashed from the bottom of herself, threw her armor up her chest, and partly sliced her cheek leaving a slight cut. He let go of her arm and stepped backwards, still angry as ever. She attempted to stand but had difficulty because her armor had been sliced in half.

To help her get up, Ryu held out his arms and twisted them to where his hands were palm to palm. With the energy in his body, he lifted her in the air. This paralyzed her for the moment as he brought her to himself. He put his hands on the crevice that was cut down the middle of her armor. He then roared loudly and pulled it apart, revealing her slightly clothed body that covered up her sexual organs. He had torn her from any sanity she had left. Feeling that he had done enough or even too much. He placed her back down on the ground and then took a step back.

He concentrated hard and his body began to turn a faint tan. The crevices in his skin diminished and his muscles shriveled. His entire body shrunk a bit as he turned back into his original form. His long face flattened back, revealing his human face. His tail went back into his body and his spinal cord merged back into one. His blades went back into his wrist. The gash on his arms opened back as well as the one in his abdomen. Remembering the pain, he fell on the ground landing on his bottom. When he was Repu he had advantages about feeling pain, but now when he was back all the pains came back and even worse. Struggling to stand up, he looked down at her. “I’m sorry it had to result to this. I truly am, I didn’t want to kill you because…to tell you the truth I kinda like ya.” Smiling a bit, he turned around and put his hands on the back of his head and walked off. “Hey come on, you have to understand my situation…What am I supposed to do when a crazed psycho wants to kill me? I bet you would have rather had me killed you but I think life is more precious than that.” Looking back at her he held up his fist and smiled. “It was a good fight, and you are very skilled. Luckily I found your only weakness, otherwise I would be the one on the ground except I would be dead.” He sighed faintly and then held his head down. He turned off and walked off on the hills.

As Ryu desperately struggled to walk across the barren land away from his enemy, pulled out his radio to contact the planes above. With a couple of pants from being tired, he spoke. “Ok.. We I sure could use a medic down here? Where the hell have ya'll been?” A seemingly average flight cadet responded. “We’ve been stationed at high orbit over the planet, what’s happening down there.” Ryu then let out a few laughs, still feeling the pain vibrating from his stomach. “More than you know kid. Luckily there was only one.” “A single fighter? Would you happen to know if it is associated with Placid Shadow?” “I’m not to sure, she seemed to feel an extreme prejudice towards me. She got my right and left arm pretty good.” “Understood, we’re sending a medic team. They will be there in about 15 minutes so sit tight.”

After these words were said, Ryu chunked the radio off; at the moment he could care less about using it. He then lied down on the soft grass on top of the hill. He let out a small sigh, trying to bear the excruciating pain. He let his eyes go lose, as he felt the wind rush by. Off in the distance there was shown a radiant sunset of pinkish purple of the horizon. As he gazed at this beautiful sight, he smiled. Feeling proud for his victory that day.

After a while, the medic team showed up and to find him asleep on the ground. There they lifted him up in a stretcher and put him into the drop ship like medic aircraft that had open hatches on both sides. When put into the vessel, he woke up. “Thanks you guys, I could really use the help.”, he said. Using their highly advanced healing utensils, they were able  sear his wounds back shut with a laser. Then they injected him with a chemical that speeds and increases healing rate. “The drugs we administrated to you have healed your wounds but your still going to be weak for a few days.”, told one of the nurses on board, her hair waving from the wind. Ryu concentrated his eyes and looked up at her. “Is that you Christine?”, he asked. She smiled and nodded. “Now get some sleep, you’ve done a great job.” The table that he was on rocked from instant to instant as the ship fly through the rugged air.

Suddenly, there was an alarm that went off in the cockpit. Red lights starting flashing everywhere and one of the pilots were screaming out, “We’ve been locked on! Missile!” Thinking quickly, Ryu sat up. Using his quick reactions, he took lift, using his energy, and flew out of the side of the ship. Swirling around, he caught sight of the missile heading towards the ship. He held up his right hand and then concentrated deeply as it glowed yellow. Then he faced towards the missile and threw his arm towards it, firing a yellow, ball shaped blast towards it. Then, using his energy, he steered the blast towards the missile, hitting it directly. Then he starred down at the ground where it had come from, seeing a strange figure. The ship came back around where Ryu was floating at.

“What do you want us to do?”, asked one of the pilots. “Call for back-up immediately!” After a moments passed, the pilot was fidgeting with the controls until he raised his head back up and responded. “It wont work! Our frequencies are being jammed some how!” Cursing in his mind, Ryu made a brave decision. “Well head back up to the others and contact them from there! I’m going to find out who just fired at us.” Christine then poked her head out to say something. “But Ryu! Your still weak from your last battle!” Ryu stayed there, his legs slightly tucked back, arms at his waist and moving up and down, maintaining his floating position. He smiled and then held a thumbs up. “Don’t worry, this will be a piece of cake.” With that, he faced the odd figure and blasted off streams of energy as he flew towards it.

As he came closer to it, it became visible that it was a mobile suit. It then began to fire other multiple missiles at him consecutively yet to Ryu’s advantage, he just moved side to side dodging them with ease. As he came closer to it, he landed simply a couple of yards away. Glaring at it with slight disgust, he asked, “So, mind explaining -why- you were firing on a ship that belongs to the Dt’s forces? The strange, brown tainted armor of the short, human sized mobile suit glistened in the dim sunlight. It had a huge cockpit in the front and two large turrets mounted as arms. “I’ve come to collect.” Ryu begin to float upwards a bit, as if to taunt the arrogant fool. “Collect what?” The suit then aimed his rocket launching turrets at him. “Your bounty, of course.”

Now being completely phased about the whole “bounty” thing, he almost was hit by two rushing missiles. He quickly jolted his body left, then right, them barely missing his waist. “Well I’d try a little harder if I were you!”, exclaimed Ryu as he dashed out forewords and suck his strong fist deep into his armor where sparks of electricity shot. He then took out his arm and came around his back and kicked, smashing him to the ground.

“Ok this is getting strange.” Ryu then took lift once more and flew off.

Estrus gathered her strength, clenching the dirt into her palms. She had never had to use her natural legs in walking but now she did and it seemed difficult. When she finally was able to stand, she tried to walk but ended up staggering and almost fell. Concentrating her eyes a bit, she looked off in the distance. Then a shock of fear ran through her spine at what she saw. She fell to her knees and rested her hands on the ground.

As Ryu was flying off he felt a sudden jolt of energy off in another direction. He halted instantly and turned to face it. He stood there, his face in awe, making out an expression of fear and anger. It was a giant ship of great superiority. Estimating by the size and certain visible offensive equipment, he knew it could devastate the entire fleet of star ships in high orbit over the planet. Not knowing what else to do... He rushed towards it.

Upon making it half way there, he noticed a familiar sight on the ground; it was Estrus and she wasn’t in her earlier spot. He dropped down to her and kneeled to the ground, by her side. He saw the expression on her face, which was the same as his before. “What’s going on here, do you know anything.” She panted heavily and then darted out at him with a punch and fortunately she did hit Ryu in the shoulder... But she was still too weak to hurt him. She gritted her teeth, her arm still on his shoulder. She lowered her head and began to tear. And then she spoke. “Why didn’t you kill me…?” Ryu stood up and took a step back. Her voice was sweet and innocent but still strong and deep. She looked up at him, tears running down her face; he returned the same glance. He looked deep into her beautiful green eyes. Her face was so white and hair looked as soft as silk, being a darkish brown color. He looked off to the side and then spoke. “I just couldn’t... it’s not really in my nature.” He stepped towards her and extended his hand. She took it and stood up. “When my sensors were still online, it showed that you weren’t using your full power. Why did you hold it back?” “I like to fight at my opponents level. I could have completely devastated you in a Kamenso Kamensa attack but where would be the sport in that?” She then began to wipe her eyes. Then she placed her hands over her face and shook her head. “I’ve never experienced these emotions before. I’ve never felt sad or hurt. Only anger and honor. I was sent to defeat you,  but now I have lost. You must destroy me. I couldn’t live with myself.” Ryu put his hand on her shoulder. “Listen, it’s all right. Now look, just go.” “Go?” “Yes, just leave. It’ll be all right.”

She then looked back at the large ship that was still slowly heading in their direction. “Those are space pirates, highbred by Placid shadow.” Ryu then took his attention off the ship and looked at her. “Were you hired by him also?” She looked back at him and nodded. Ryu shook his head. “Well I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ll blow this large vessel to scraps and I’ll open you up a dimensional vortex. Then we can call it a day.” Ryu laughed a bit scratching the back of his head and facing the ship; the sun had just now gone down over the horizon and the full moon had appeared. “You know, you’re the first person who has ever showed kindness towards me... Thank you.” Estrus then stepped towards Ryu and rapped her arms around him. Surprised at this, he returned the hug. He softly patted her back and then stepped back, pulling out his pdd. “Don’t worry... We can always meet up some time. Maybe you could join Dt? I know of some real good spots that you could take.” She nodded a bit and took the pdd. She set in a couple of coordinates and then a dimensional rip appeared. She then gave him a final wave and disappeared into the haze of purple and black. Ryu sighed a bit to himself and then faced the large ship.

“Ok ya big liner. Your about to get a special package from Ryu Denjà! Courtesy of the proud organization of Dt. Now, it’s all up to my body now. I -hope- that it isn’t too weak to do a massive Kamenso Kamensa attack.” Ryu shrugs his shoulders. “Well you never know until you try!”

Ryu then closed his eyes, maintaining a silent hum. He put his right foot in front of him and stretched his left leg to behind; arching his knee almost to the ground. His veins bulged as his muscles tightened. Energy began rushing around him causing slight tremors to disrupt the dirt. Wind flew from him, causing dust and grass to scatter from him. Electricity began to conduct in his palms as a misty blue cloud formed. Then, the electricity became even more intense. Ryu gritted his teeth and opened his eyes, his hands cupped from behind with his palms pressed against each other. He then began to recite his famous words that his enemies only heard right before they were finished. “Ka… Men… So… Ka… Men…” And before he said the last word, he threw hands forward and exclaimed, “SA!”. Then a massive, blue beam of energy excreted from the palms of his hands which made his feet sink into the dirt and cause crevices. The enormous energy blast was approximately 60x60 y2. After he fired this incredible amount of energy, he watched as the blast impacted on the giant cruiser ship, causing a chain reaction that blew it in half. Burning pieces of metal fell to the earth as the explosion grew greater.

Ryu Denjà, a fearless Arouscian Reptearian harnessing the ability to use energy freely to fly and to create energy blasts was truly ranked as one of the best fighters in all of Dt. After destroying the space pirates cruiser, he flew up into the distance screaming one simple phrase...

“Mess with the best and get busted like the rest!”