Sounds like Static [Private Training]

[Empty]

~ 1931: Sounds like Static ~
(Direct Continuation from Speed Demon)

The wind stirred fitfully picking up loose sand from the tops of the nearby dunes in the near darkness, yet Loki's eyes were long used to the perpetual night of Huecco Mundo. Loki now sought to fully capitalise on their earlier breakthrough in the Menos Forest below, where the stone trunks of the trees in the surroundings earlier would have been dangerous in which to practice the skill that Loki envisaged, the open expanse of the desert before them was perfect, as if made for that very purpose.

Earlier while attempting to increase their pace, Loki had been careless in directing the flow of their energy to the joints of their Gel limbs. Instead of concentrating the flows expertly towards the points of articulation he had instead allowed the energy to infuse the entire limb. The result had been a dramatic reduction in the difficulty of moving the limb and this had quickly increased their speed to such an extent that Loki had foolishly slammed head-first into a tree. Yet the incident which cost them a meal, was not without benefit – for in their failure they had noticed the unexpected increase in speed, far beyond what they had envisaged possible at their suppressed power level.

Deciding that their best bet would be to attempt to duplicate the feat exactly; forcing their reiatsu levels lower, Loki reverted from their humanoid form to that of a turtle crossed with a snake, the Genbu costume that they shaped was the least manoeuvrable of all the forms that they had learned. Yet it had been in this very situation where they had managed to achieve speeds that nearly eclipsed their peak.

Reshaping the feet, Loki made the ends thicker and broader to cope with the sands underfoot, then began running forwards, changing directions as he did so first to the left then to the right; a winding trail much like the slithering of a snake.

As they ran, Loki was ever concious of the fine flows of reiatsu within the Gel that surrounded them, it was these flows of reiatsu that allowed the Gel to move by finely reshaping and flexing the gel, contracting the more flexible soft areas of the joints to provide movement. It was something that they had long taken for granted, ever since they had emerged from beneath the Silvery Quartz tree in the Menos Forest in this new form – once they had established how they could make the gel move they had paid little attention to the fine flow of reiatsu; instead it had become something of a second nature.

Their steps were much quicker than the turtle like shape had any right to move, but nothing approaching the speed they had, for a moment, obtained earlier. Thinking back, Loki remembered the sensation; willing himself to move their body faster he had still been anxious not to increase their reiatsu levels, instead of converting more reiryoku into reiatsu he had instead diverted the reiatsu that they were already expelling.

It was much like how they had directed their energy into the shape of the blocks that they had used to ascend into the air; Loki had guided the energy not into the joint as he usually did but rather infused it into the entire shape of the limb. 'Were these legs Our own I might be reluctant to try out my idea,' Loki admitted between steps, 'but since they are not...'

Loki began to gather the Reiatsu leaking from their body, guiding it towards the stumpy turtle legs, the thin brown spider web like 'veins' of reiatsu within were drowned out by the sudden brown cast to the gel as they were immersed in Verlassen's energy. As Loki continued to canter in their clumsy form the effect of their energy kicked in almost instantly – as he picked up their left front and right rear legs, the sudden ease disconcerted him for a moment, making the legs flick forwards at great speed and travel further than they were supposed to; the result was to make Verlassen perform a rather ludicrous attempt at the four legged splits accompanied by a faint crackling sound.

Had the Gel been capable of transmitting pain they would have been in agony, instead they were acutely aware of severe damage to their left front and right rear hips where the gel had torn significantly, now it hung by a mere two inch strip of gel where it had been attached by nearly half a foot moments earlier. Loki carefully examined the area, preventing the gel from reconstructing as he looked at it closely; the area where the gel had been infused had torn from the area where no extra energy had been allocated, the result was an almost clean tear as if cut by a knife. The outside of the joint had separated cleanly yet the inside of the joint where the ridges of reflexively hardened gel protected the relatively soft gel beneath, remained whole and unharmed, 'It seems that rather than the gel that is hard and tough, the gel that becomes harder when force is applied is more likely to withstand the burden.' Jun said calmly, nodding to himself as if it were a deep and meaningful lesson indeed – perhaps it was at that.

After the damage was repaired Loki once again attempted the move yet this time he was intent on doing so more slowly, running forwards he gradually increased the amount of reiatsu that he was directing into the limb. Rather than increasing the amount of energy that they were releasing Loki sought to better harness the energy they already emitted, gathering it and sending it towards their legs a little at a time.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the legs began to take on a brownish tint; as they did so the difficulty Loki faced in picking up their feet diminished, their weight almost seemed less though he knew that was not the case. Every step was slightly faster than the one that preceded it and before Loki knew it he had diverted every scrap of reiatsu that they were already discharging. The speed that they had obtained nearly matched their pace when they used genbu without suppressing their power a whit! However Loki had other plans.

Skidding to a halt, Loki released their reiatsu infusion for a moment and relaxed slightly. Taking a deep breath he concentrated on their reiryoku and began to convert it into reiatsu more quickly than before; no longer being quenched, their reiatsu burst forth, regaining its former glory. Loki opened their eyes and narrowed them slightly. The true test was not to be able to move at their normal pace while using less energy but rather to move at a much faster pace than normal.

This time as they ran forwards, Loki began directing more and more of their reiatsu into the limbs, it was an incomparable amount to what they had used earlier, and the results were equally as impressive. With a sharp crackling noise, they shot forwards, the bulky turtle was like a bullet, their stumpy legs kicking up sand in an impressive trail, almost like a wave, behind them. Grinding to a halt, Loki left a twenty feet long gouge in the sand from his 'braking,' it had far exceeded their expectations, the souls of Verlassen were all but silent, only George the former sneak thief managed an awed whisper, 'Damn me.' Loki could only shake their head slightly in amazement.

Hours passed without incident as they attempted to replicate the feat over and over, changing from one form to another to attempt to further increase their control over the phenomenon. It was only after they had succeeded in every other form that Loki was willing to attempt it without using Gel, instead focusing the reiatsu within their own body, in the muscles of their tail, to propel them forwards at much greater speeds than before; it was exhilarating.

~ All together now! ~

Changing into their most agile costume, Loki adopted the four legged form of Nue; on the ground their was no form that they had yet managed to find that could match the tiger legged, tanuki bodied, snake bodied, gorilla headed chimera that was Nue. Infusing their legs with reiatsu, Loki sprinted forwards, even the initial stride was incomparable to those of the turtle at it's fastest; with their reiatsu complementing the natural speed of the form the pace they sped along the white sands was incredible.

As Loki considered the landscape ahead he saw that they were fast approaching a vast dune, intent on moving around rather that climbing the steep slope, Loki gathered their weight midstep and attempted to shift direction to the left, as he did so, one of their paws cracked clear off and Loki was sent tumbling to the ground; given their speed it was a spectacular fall which resulted in Loki tumbling upwards over the dune and down the other side. Snarling in rage Loki produced more gel and reshaped their broken leg.

Having come this far Loki was loathe to forgo the opportunity to push himself to the limit; he was certain that he had the opportunity to learn something that would allow him to protect the souls within Verlassen, that would make them far more difficult to kill; he was elated by the prospect and determined to make good on it.

Although the technique so far had allowed them to increase their speed to an extraordinary extent, the most significant limitation seemed to be that it was extremely difficult to change directions while it was being used. Compared to when Loki was usually running, he was able to redirect their direction and orientation with each and every step – even between steps, to a much higher degree.

Loki however was not to be dissuaded by this 'slight' problem. Unable to effectively change their direction while using the technique, which he dimly recalled from the memories of those he had eaten as being called 'Sound Ceremony' or Sonido; Loki began to experiment with reducing the duration of the technique, increasing the speed with which the reiatsu could be injected and removed from the limbs.

Rushing the reiatsu into and out of the limbs became the central focus of Loki's efforts, as he did so he found that the increased speed of movement was easier to maintain while the reiatsu was in place, yet that same reiatsu that increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the movement, made changing the movement, such as altering direction, much more difficult and placed more strain on the limbs. Had it been their own limbs that were being used, Loki would have given up long ago as chunks of gel were torn off or burst apart – the result of being careless in how the reiatsu was distributed, too much reiatsu in the one location caused the gel to rupture, while too little caused the surrounding gel to rip free. Finally however Loki was able to spread the reiatsu evenly throughout the limbs, despite the speed with which he was attempting the procedure.

Determined to continue, Loki began running forwards once more – this time however he was ready; as he attempted to alter their direction or orientation he quickly receded the reiatsu, then – even as he began to change their direction he instantly used it again, the result was that instead of needing to slow down – he was instead able to maintain their speed and force despite their sudden movements.

However their greatest breakthrough came when Loki nearly slipped on the sand beneath; annoyed at how easily it gave way, he considered changing locations to the human realm or else even attempting to run in the sky with the technique they had learned the previous day. It was that thought that made him consider how best they could apply what they had learned – the ability to form 'solid' ground from which to push off would allow them to change directions even faster, making them less susceptible as they moved.

Racing over the desert they made their way between the dunes, as they shifted direction sharply to the side, Loki felt their limbs jar slgihtly from the force, he was able to hold their course and on their next stride he whipped their tail to the right hand side, spinning their body to the left slightly as they created a small block of reiatsu directly behind their rear right flank which pushed into them, guiding them towards the left even without having moved their legs again. Loki grinned behind their mask – things were going smoothly indeed.

Running forwards he gathered his steps and pulled the reiatsu from his legs, redirecting it to form a block of solidified energy directly before them. As he took his next step he jumped, twisting about in mid air to landed upon the near side of the block rather that the top, as he began to kick off, Loki increased the flow of reiatsu to his legs once more; thrusting himself away from the block in the direct opposite direction as he had been travelling moments earlier. Three steps later he created a block underneath them, even as he maintained the pace of his running, he thrust upwards with the block, thrusting himself into the sky as he maintained a block underneath him, two steps later a second block appeared atop him, pushing downwards even as he allowed the one beneath to dissipate – the result was his sudden descent. Loki roared happily as he caught himself before hitting the ground, darting suddenly to the side and then onwards, their earlier failure had been fortuitous indeed.

[Empty]

~ Tag! You're It ~

It was hours later as they soared above inthe black sky above the white sand of Huecco Mundo that Loki cast his eyes downwards, something about their earlier efforts seemed - lacking, something was amiss though he could not quite place it. In truth it was difficult to be sure of their progress without having someone to test it upon, yet there were few indeed that could challenge their new found speed – it was but one of the many challenges that they often faced these days, those that could test their full power were becoming rarer and rarer. Were their others of Verlassen's own level things might have been different but, as it was they were left with little option but to either lower their power and attempt to coax those weaker than them to attack, or else...

Loki bit his lip slightly and allowed the blood to trickle out the corner of his mouth, mixing with the gel and forming five small reddish brown spheres, one of these travelled through the gel towards the right wing, another towards the left wing, one travelled to the tail and the other two positioned themselves within the body of the immense form of the dragon Nidhogg.

As Loki tilted their wings they began a circling descent until they was but on hundred feet from the ground, as soon as he reached that height the form of Verlassen burst into six smaller shapes, each falling downwards towards the ground. Of the six, five halted their plunge several feet above the ground while the centre most, landed on the soft ground with an accompanying cloud of loose sand.

Loki cast his eyes around at the five shapes suspended in mid air, just like the shape he himself wore, each of the Verlassen controlled costumes wore the Nue costume, the tiger legged, tanuki bodied, snake tailed, gorilla headed, chimera. However they were each quite a bit less powerful than Loki, since they were kess powerful they would also be slower and for this test that would be a horrible failure. As Loki strained to send them more reiatsu he also began to curtail the amount he himself was using, trying to bring his own power into line with their own.

Gertrude was the only one of the five who seemed completely at ease, despite never having used such a form before – even as they stood there they could recall exactly how Loki had used the form of Nue, each of them could remember how to move their limbs, how to turn and run, how to guide their reiatsu. ”So, if we cannot readily find an opponent, rely on each-other?”

”Tag?” Samantha asked in disbelief as she stretched her new found body, ”Are we children then?” Her voice was slightly scornful, though while the other souls in Verlassen may have been oblivious, she was unable to hide her emotions from Loki – he could feel the deep and abiding satisfaction of being able to move around in her 'own' body, no matter how temporary it may be.

”Dunno bout this ya damn Gorilla,” George's voice was much clearer than it had been in his previous, slug-clam form, for the mouth he now spoke through was much more similar to a Humans' than the Hollow form he had previously inhabited.

Jun the Shinto priest seemed almost overwhelmed by the sensation of merely having the wind blow over his own fur, even the simple feeling of response as he moved his paws on the block of reiatsu beneath his feet. ”Well, I am happy for the opportunity in any case,” he said simply to Samantha.

The soul inhabiting the final Nue was one of the Nameless, it was now that Loki decided to fill them in on the true intent of his plan. ”This isn't just a simple game of Tag, Samantha,” he corrected her gently, ignoring her sudden start as she heard her name spoken aloud for the first time in hundreds of years. ”Rather I want you all to do your best to attack each other and me using only your bodies, while you prevent the others from touching you. Do not use Sonido or Sonido de Reverberacion, instead use all of your natural speed.” He paused for a moment before explaining, “By doing so we can work on ensuring that the lessons we learned from our earlier efforts were not in vain. Once we can be certain of that we will begin the next phase.”

“Sometimes you are so go about things in such a needlessly complicated way,” Samantha said with a sigh, still, she couldn't help but grin at the opportunity to run riot for the first time in a very, very long time. Even as she looked like she was shaking her head at Loki's foolishness, she kicked off the block of solid reiatsu looking to strike the off balance Jun who seemed to still be adapting to the new form he found himself in. Yet it seemed that the former shinto priest had managed to gain more control over his reiatsu than she had given him credit for and instead of being struck, the crafty priest allowed the block beneath him to drop precipitously even as he created a second block above him, which thrust downwards, pushing the priest towards the descending block and out of harms way.

And so the six way race was on, Loki managed to evade a swipe by Gertrude even as the ever sneaky George hid his reiatsu, managing to blind-side Loki and sneak up from the flank. It was only thanks to Loki's efforts to avoid a second attack from Gertrude that Loki had turned his head just enough to see George from the corner of his eye as the paw slashed towards his rear right leg. Loki slapped at George with his tail, finding the gel costume to be much harder than he had anticipated, instead of knocking his attacker away it merely served to knock him off balance while Loki was turned slightly by the force of his own blow.

Both George and he were nearly clawed as the Nameless soul darted between them, dozens of long spikes erupting from it's body as it attempted to carve a channel between the pair – instead the Nameless soul's greed allowed George to slip to one side while Loki slipped to the other. As he sprinted forwards Loki changed directions quickly, seeking to dislodge an opponent from his trail as Samantha hastened after him, only two steps behind – just out of claw's distance. He kicked downwards, creating a block of reiatsu in the air which he used to gather his weight before thrusting himself backwards into the air the way he had come, his arcing flip taking him over Samantha who skidded into a turn less graceful than his own; yet now the boot was on the other foot and Loki chased after her fleeing figure at top speed.

He had closed the distance between them to just ten paces when he felt rather than saw Jun, who moved to attack Loki from the left side, the unexpected move caught Loki unprepared and he was barely able to shift to the right as he turned to the left, running in the opposite direction to the newcomer. His chase of Samantha forcefully aborted as both he and Jun slashed at each other's flanks each carving trenches down the near side of the other.

Elsewhere the battle was just as chaotic, there were none that had managed to escape unscathed in the fluid moving free for all which the game of 'tag' had descended into.

Nearly twenty minutes of this passed as each of the souls was forced into a corner again and again, yet with no 'sides' there was no end to the conflict; despite that, the drain of just twenty minutes of the fight was incomparable to the dozens of hours of individual training. Just as he managed to wrestle Samantha to the ground Loki sent out the thought wearily, 'Let's stop there for a while,' Sitting back on his heels he panted deeply and looked at the others who had begun to gather around him – given that each was made of Gel they had no need to breathe and none had been getting tired, yet the strain of maintaining such movement was beginning to test Loki himself. He was so tired – and hungry.

Even as he thought that, Samantha who had long since rolled back to her belly and had simply been looking at Loki without sound – pushed to her feet. “I'll be back in a bit,” she said it simply and Loki could feel her desire to hunt after such a long time. He simply smiled in response, not needing to answer her as she turned and ran away over the dunes. Allowing the souls the freedom to move in the Gel shapes without constantly looking over their shoulder or being aware of their every action had been necessary while training, yet as Samantha hunted Loki wondered if he should allow her such free reign – she could be severely hurt while she was gone.

After nearly twenty minutes however Loki felt a sudden surge in his reiatsu from his attachment to Samantha, energy began pouring into him. At first he did not know what had happened – was she returning the power he had given her? Then he realised that the energy must belong to whatever prey she had managed to consume. Another twenty minutes passed before she returned, dragging behind her the broken and bleeding form of another Hollow a cross between some sort of two headed deer and a lion. “See?” she declared triumphantly, “no problem.” Had the Nue form that she wore had a luxurious head of hair she would likely have shaken it out as she smiled proudly all but purring, like a cat presenting a rat to it's master. “Since you are hungry you can have this.”

Loki had no intention of pointing out that he didn't feel very hungry any more since he had shared her earlier meal through the link between them, instead he was happy for the thought. “Thankyou.” He said simply as he smiled in response.

Samantha's gel took on more of a flushed tint, “It's just so you don't slow us down.” She stated tersely, turning her back on each of the other Nue costumed souls. Loki gulped down the morsel readily, feeling contented as the reiryoku within gave him a surge of energy.

Without further ado, Loki stood up from where he had been resting and called the Nue together, it had been nearly an hour since he had first shaped them and given just how powerful they each were he knew he would need to maintain the gel seeds soon. Sending a new wave of reiatsu through the five other Nue costumes, Loki carefully examined the Gel seeds, carefully reconstructing the parts that had begun to degrade, with that they could continue with the next phase.

“Now we will do something a little different,” Loki declared with a small grin on his face, “this time all of you will target me alone.”

“I hope you aren't looking down on us.” Samantha stated coldly, all signs of her earlier warmth gone as she stood there with her legs and gel looking extremely rigid, her tail had begun to snake back and forth in irritation. “You might be fast, but even without suppressing your power we are not so easily dodged.”

Samantha was right of course, even though when he was not diminishing his own power he was stronger and faster than any of the Gel seed controlled shapes they could make, yet he was certainly not so fast that he could evade them all. “I take it you have some sort of plan?” Jun said quickly to forestall any disagreement between them.

Loki nodded as he looked at each of the Nue in turn, “I will send you as much energy as I can, but I still don't want any of you to use Sonido or Sonido de Reverberacion. But this time I will.” The final one among them that Loki looked at was Samantha, for whom he added, “After all you will need a bit of a handicap.” That seemed to mollify her slightly, though she still seemed a bit upset.

As they began this time, each of the Nue costumes had taken a place surrounding Loki in a large circle. As Samantha and the Nameless soul who were on the opposite sides of the circle from each-other darted in towards his flanks, Loki attempted to dart backwards, yet as he did so he found Jun and George blocking his way - it was even more difficult than he had expected it would be. As Loki created a block of reiatsu and leapt upwards he noticed that Gertrude had already beaten him up there and was forced to make a second block of reiatsu just above him, even as his feet were leaving the first.

As he spread reiatsu through his limbs he hastened the movement heavily, his form cannoning to the side even as Samantha moved to cut off his escape. Yet as his enhanced speed took one step he found that George had managed to predict his escape – the sneaky thief so familiar with running away that he had pinpointed where Loki would attempt to land. George managed to take a slash at Loki who was forced to ward off the blow, allowing the nameless to extend it's arm at high speed, the blow shooting over the fifteen feet between them in a flash.

Loki shifted his weight to the side even as he directed reiatsu to his limbs, with a sudden burst in speed he jumped backwards, out of the way of the incredibly oversized paw and out of George's range at the same time. Yet even as he did so Loki was forced to change his intended direction mid step, George had once again anticipated his move it seemed and sent directions to Gertrude who was waiting where Loki had wanted to escape to.

Even as he realised it, Loki was using the Solid Sky technique again, without really focusing on the effort he had created three more blocks, the first pushed into his left fore leg's shoulder while the second pushed into his right rear leg's hip between the two his orientation spun quickly; finally he kicked backwards even as his legs lined up with the third block, the result was like shooting out of the starting gate – without needing to slow down he completely changed his direction mid stride.

There was a blast of reddish brown reiatsu which streaked just behind him, from his left, turning his head slightly Loki could see Samantha aiming yet another Cero at him. Quickly shifting his directions again and again he evading two more blasts, yet it seemed he was getting his timing down even as the George directed the other Nue costumed souls to positions that would impede his path and force the change. As the struggle continued Loki received nearly a dozen shallow gashes, and scores more near misses, however he finally called time when Samantha managed to blast off both of his right gel legs and scorch his scales – courtesy of the Nameless managing to drive two gel spikes through his left flank while Jun grabbed hold of Loki's tail with his teeth.

”TIME TIME!” Loki yelled and at the same time sent the thought urgently; around him the other Nue gathered quickly even as Loki managed to reshape his form, repairing the massive damage incurred. As he looked at Samantha he could see the faintly smug expression on her face; each knew that the body of Verlassen was in no immediate danger and as such they had been careful to avoid any critical areas – but other than that, none of the souls had held back at all. “I get the feeling you enjoyed that,” Loki murmured quietly to Samantha who purred happily, though he felt none of her earlier annoyance at least.

“That went quite well I think.” Loki concluded as he regained his breath, though none of the others had used Sonido and each was nearly a full rank less powerful than he; while fighting five of them at once, managing to keep them at bay for nearly thirty minutes of simply running and not taking the attack to them was a considerable achievement.

After nearly quarter of an hour had passed, Loki felt rested enough to continue into the final part of their training. ”We still aint done?” George complained.

“Nope – one more thing left to do.” Loki answered with a lop sided grin. “For all the direction changing, does it actually work?” He asked, all traces of humour disappearing from his tone as he spoke.

“Course it does, ya damn Gorilla, otherwise I'd have torn ya up back there a dozen times over.” George spat a glob of gel to the side – it seemed to be a habit rather than anything else, for the man lacked anything like a saliva gland.

“I mean -,” for a moment words failed him before he began again. “We can tell it works well enough when I am the only one using Sonido,” Loki said with a thoughtful expression on Verlassen's face, “but what happens if others are ALSO increasing their speed.” Would their speed be insufficient for the task? Was changing their directions any use at all at such speeds or would others simply keep up.

To Gertrude and the Nameless soul, Loki asked them to only use regular movements, to move as fast as they could yet not to enhance their movement beyond that. Of George and Jun, Loki requested they use Sonido during the next exercise, while Samantha and Loki would use Sonido de Reverberación. As Loki increased the reiatsu he was sending each of the gel seeds, he reduced his own power to match the level of energy they could use. With two Nue using each of the forms of movement he wanted it to be as even a playing field as possible; as much as possible, Loki wanted it to be the way of movement that would determine the victorious in this test.

“Let's Go!” Samantha cried gleefully, and Loki could feel the other Nue inhabiting souls stir in response, at the same time they each began moving. Directing reiatsu to his legs, Loki shot forwards, flickering towards George, the man had shown himself in the previous exercise to be a little too dangerous to allow to run free. However as the crackling sound ripped through the air to signify Loki's arrival, George used Sonido himself, darting forwards as he travelled around the rear side of Gertrude in an attempt to distract Loki from the 'kill.' However Loki did not buy into it, instead he changed directions as soon as his first step was finished, chasing after George and the two began a swift chance.

Yet whenever George changed direction he was forced to slow down, Loki on the other hand faced no such difficulty and the distance between them soon narrowed. With an almost casual swipe as he passed close by Loki aimed at the Nue controlled by the Nameless soul; though he aimed for its head the Soul managed to sway ever so slightly as it began to dive to the side – it was a move that saved it from having it's head severed by Loki's claws yet still resulted in a massive furrow through the Nameless soul's left shoulder, all but severing the limb. At almost the same time, Loki felt a flash of pain as he realised that the Nue controlled by Gertrude had been destroyed. Of the two Nue that were being moved without Sonido one was destroyed and the other badly damaged and it had not yet been one minute since they began.

Still pursuing George, Loki could feel an increasing rush of excitement despite the dull throb of a headache from the loss of Gertrude; for it was clear that it was only a matter of time before he caught George.

Even as he thought that, his prey looked to slow down to step again, yet as Loki increased his pace George sprung his trap – instead of using Sonido again; this time the wily thief changed form, curling himself into a ball as hundreds of spikes sprouted from his body. Loki barely had enough time to alter his direction, shifting his weight and kicking downwards as he created a block of reiatsu beneath his feet; this sent him in an almost vertical ascent into the air, it was there that he nearly collided with Samantha who had been pursuing Jun, yet both she and Loki both created a block of reiatsu, quickly kicking off the rectangular prism and launching themselves away as Samantha took a passing shot at Loki with a detached spike of gel which she thrust out of her flank.

As Loki evaded the attack he left George for an instant, instead shooting towards the Nameless, who had barely managed to reshape it's foreleg. Turning towards Loki as it felt him approach, the Nameless attempted to duplicate George's defence, yet Loki was too close for the Nue to reshape itself in time, instead Loki spun, belting it with his long muscular tail which was covered in nearly three inches of gel.

The airborne misshapen Nue was sent smashing into George's prickly defence and Loki used the opportunity to charge up a cero, the small ball of reddish brown energy forming from his gathered reiatsu and converted reiryoku, quickly assuming the compressed and destructive sphere; in another instant he released it and the surge of energy coursed forth – blasting through the broken and barely functioning form of the Nameless controlled Nue even as it was speared by George's spikes, the resulting explosion blasted the Nameless controlled Nue into tiny chunks and once again Loki felt the sudden pain of loss.

However while George might have been spared the headache, he too was badly affected by the exchange – the blast had sent him tumbling and half of his spikes had been snapped off. Loki bounded towards him with a burst of Sonido, however even as George turned to face him, Loki changed directions, circling around his partned and slamming into his damaged flank, reshaping one of his legs into a single long blade as he did so. There were two solid thuds as behind Loki the two halves of George fell to the sand.

George's front half attempted to rise before sending streamers of Gel to connect to the back – however Loki did not give him the chance, instead he darted over towards the head and cut it in twain; there was a sharp pain in Loki's head as George was defeated.

Spinning sharply Loki turned towards where Samantha and Jun were engaged in their 'game', so far Jun had managed rather remarkably well for one so averse to combat – it seemed he had managed to not just elude Samantha but to wound her several times during the course of the fight. Yet the difference between the two was abundantly clear as Loki circled the pair, looking for a sign that he could strike them down.

Yet it was not to be, for only a moment later more than eight long spikes emerged from Samantha's back, extending and puncturing Jun, pinning the man to the ground while another thrust through the fine brown roots or 'brain' visible in his head. As the fourth soul was defeated Loki once more felt a stab of pain, yet he was given no chance to capitalise through any attack on Samantha for she was already disentangling herself from the fallen Jun.

“Well I guess this means that the technique works,” Loki muttered quietly though he knew that Samantha was not going to be satisfied without reaching a conclusion between them.

Even as Loki enhanced his limbs with reiatsu he could feel a similar surge coming from her, twin crackling sounds as the two all but disappeared over and over again the two attempted to reposition themselves, circling around to look for signs of weakness, lunging suddenly or taking to the air. Yet as soon as one had spotted a weakness and attacked, the other would change their direction and Sonido away again using the blocks of reiatsu and altering their direction and orientation as they increased their speed again.

After nearly twenty minutes, the long game of tag continued to drag on until Loki began to grow fatigued and noticed that chunks of gel were falling off of Samantha; neither could manage to beat down the other, the most they had managed were a few incidental scrapes and scratches – the worst of which was a gash on Loki's side that had long since healed. Yet with the gel seed within Samantha crumbling due to the strain, the fight could not be resolved. With their rapid movements and the accompanying static, it would be difficult to speak to her, so Loki instead sent his thoughts towards Samantha. 'Okay, let's call it quits here. I'm knackered and you are falling apart.'

With that Loki stopped his rapid steps and a few moments later Samantha joined him; though she had no lungs and was therefore not out of breath, it seemed she too was tired from the constant exertion. “I won,” she declared happily.

”What?! No way!” Loki retorted, ”I got you eight times and you only got me six.”

Samantha made a harrumphing sound, “Maybe – but I cut your side reaaaaally bad and I got your back pretty good too.” Samantha seemed torn between outrage at Loki daring to challenge her win and her happiness at the exchange.