The Forest

[Twilight Justice]

The clone would soon be glad he had been conserving energy or curse himself for having taken so long and allowed himself to move so predictably with a leisurely pace.

There was indeed a massive amount of power being exerted elsewhere, and it was precisely because of that and T's immense focus on finding Draeken that T's senses would probably go off like air raid sirens when Than's power seemed to come out of no where.

Instead of coming from around him, Than had also taken efforts to hide himself by climbing to great altitudes to avoid being detected. Now, when T did take notice, he would be able to look to the sky and see not one but dozens, perhaps hundreds, of tiny, golden blasts showering down on his location.

The blasts were only a few centimeters wide each, but their spread was over a quarter mile in any given direction, and they were luminous enough that they practically eliminated any shadow large enough for T to use to escape.

Whenever a blast hit the ground, it exploded in a small but forcible blast, and behind them descended Thanatos himself. Brimming with enough power to grab anyone's attention, he gathered his accumulated energy into his hand, still half a mile above ground, falling headfirst toward Truinthil, and shouted without any restraint, firing a blast that eclipsed all of his others straight at Truinthil. If the others exploded on impact with the ground, one could guess what this one would be like.

"TRUINTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!!"  

[Truinthil]

Leaping from tree to tree at his leisurely pace, Truinthil stopped short suddenly and wrinkled his brow. There was something massively wrong occuring and within half a second he realized he had been too focused on Draeken and looked up. His eyes widened then and he launched himself forward, exerting just enough energy in front of himself to serve as a plow so he wouldn't have to waste time dodging between trees and other such obstacles in his path. The result was a rapidly lengthening streak of dust and debris as he put on incredible speed to escape the deadly barrage heading down towards him.

Though the bits of energy were small, Truinthil was no fool and knew they packed a punch. His eyes darted furtively for any shade of any sort to dart into and as the barrage neared. Spotting a large tree that had been gutted by fire likely in part because of a lightning strike he ducked into it and found a sliver of shadow to squeeze himself into. As the barrage would collide with the ground the energy that found it's way into the rift he had used to travel that small shadow would chase him through and catapult him out of his intended exit some three miles to the north.

Landing on his left foot, right knee, and right palm and sliding a dozen feet before coming to a stop Truinthil glared in the direction he had come from. "Oh this day just get's better and better! And without so much as a salutation of any sort!"  

[Twilight Justice]

Even when T reappeared, his name was still ringing through the air from Than's shout. Even from this distance, Than's bristling energy was still as tangible. T would be able to tell just how spread out Than's energy was, like Than wanted his foe to be able to feel his energy just by breathing the air. Showing off was an understatement.

The massive blast T had narrowly avoided didn't come without recoil, and it had kept Than suspended in the air longer. Not wasting a second zeroing in on T's new position. His seven wings were still extended, an aurora circling the space between and around his wings - Than's personally developed flight technique to give him greater aerial agility. At least it didn't seem to him like T had caught on yet. As always, he wasn't clad in a shirt, and he wore form fitting black pants with golden protectors on his ankles and lower shins. On top of that, all he had was a red sash tied around his waist, a black bracer around his right forearm, and a small shield mounted on his left, mechanical forearm. Now it was a matter of getting to T. Than allowed himself only three seconds to consider and decide. As he'd done to fire his large blast, energy started rapidly accumulating in Than's arm, and a moment later he hurled as much of it as he could high into the air.

The energy ball detonated and lit up the entire area like an augmented flash grenade, white light flooding the forest for just a few seconds. It seemed like Than was trying to blind T so he wouldn't be able to see him approaching.

"Inazuma KICK!" From the direction of the light, the voice sounded like it was coming right at Truinthil, which it was, but not how he expected. Blinding Truinthil was only a secondary and unnecessary objective. In reality, Than had launched himself straight at the ground with his meteor-kick like technique. As T would find out, the brilliant flash bomb had created numerous, large shadows beneath him and the trees. With such ample space,Than plunged straight into the ground at high speed, using his own innate shadow abilities to follow T in the same way he'd escaped before.

No more than a moment after shouting his attack, T would easily be able to sense Than's presence suddenly much closer, emerging from T's own elongated shadow, coming at his torso with a kick. T probably didn't want to find out how strong it was.  

[Truinthil]

Grimacing at Than's energy aura that was radiating everywhere Truinthil shook his head. Children needed to learn when to respect those above them. He stood erect and was about to dart forward when Than started doing unexpected things. First was the flash bomb that nearly incapacitated Truinthil's sight temporarily. Then was the shouting out the attack. With all the ambient energy in the air it was hard to pinpoint where the attack was coming from, but he could tell just barely that it wasn't coming directly at him. To Truinthil this suggested either an area effect style attack like the barrage he had just avoided or something more along the lines of styles he had himself adopted in recent times. This left him with few options of avoiding whatever was coming and being nearly blind at that particular moment narrowed those choices further. His best choice then since it wasn't directly aimed at him was to choose a direction and take it without hesitation.

All this processed through Truinthil's mind in about the same amount of time as it had taken for Than to decide what to do after zeroing in on him. Dropping again to his knees for the most brief of instances he then launched himself straight into the air as if he were attempting to break free of the earth's gravity. At best he would have avoided the attack and at worst he'd collide with Than and tangle the man up before he was expecting to come into contact with him. Half a second after his feel had left the ground however he felt a shift in Than's energy and looked down in fury to see that Than had indeed used something more along the lines of his own tactics. Using Truinthil's own shadow. He was also angered because he had only barely managed to avoid that attack and only because of pure dumb luck. He couldn't rely on that at all. This was going to get interesting very fast. He had to find an opening to counter attack and find it soon.  

[Twilight Justice]

Even if T didn't sense energy, he would've heard Than coming at him from below the way he was screaming through his attack. As fas as he was, Than knew there was just enough distance between his attack and T that he'd have time to avoid major damage. The fact pissed him off the same way he was now pissing T off. As he emerged from the shadow, Than's wings disappeared, along with the energy they'd been using to propel him.

Giving how apparently lucky T was with dodging, Than needed to take this chance when it was presented. The momentum of his kick still carrying him upward, Than waited until the instant he was soaring past T, the b*****d's reflexes saving him from the kick, and then he spun himself around to face T, or rather the direction the man had used to avoid his attack. For that brief instant, T would get a clear look at Than for the first time in probably years. His body had grown, matured, and been refined by Than's relentless training regiment. Was this fight the reason he'd trained so hard?

His anger-filled face was visible, his darker-than-remembered blue hair following his flight, the left side of his face badly scarred from the injury that had taken his left eye, and his already grey right eye now clouded over in a milky hue, having long lost its sight. Yet, his anger couldn't have been more clearly directed at Truinthil's position. Yelling out in rage once more, Than threw both of his hands toward T, his robotic left arm trying to grab hold of him, or his clothes, or something that wouldn't let T escape, while his right hand opened and fired his energy violently at the man's abdomen, wanted to blast the villain so many times he'd be blown in half. This wasn't the little Thanny, son of Mastema, of the old days; Thanatos was out for blood.  

[Truinthil]

As Than soared past him, Truinthil grinned in eager anticipation. He saw the rage contorting the man's face. He all but felt the raw emotion mixed in with his energy. This was certainly going to be a good brawl. He knew then and there that only one of them would be walking away from this fight. The way Truinthil viewed it, a fight without risk was hardly any fun at all. "Bring it little man!"

Truinthil parried Than's left arm with his right, slapping it away while preparing his left for a strike with his fingers aimed for the man's ribs. It was doubtful it would be a kill strike, but perhaps some minor damage. A broken rib or two perhaps. Before Truinthil could strike however, he saw the energy roiling in Than's other hand and cursed under his breath knowing he had no other choice than to take the blast full force.

Curling up as much as he could in the brief moment before the attack struck, Truinthil managed to wrap a hasty, but ultimately useless shield of energy around himself. That shield however was simply there to buffer against the attack just long enough for Truinthil's body to brace against the attack as best as it could, his bones and skin becoming more dense.

The resulting explosion from the energy sent Truinthil hurtling back towards the Earth at an insane speed. Impacting, he skidded to a halt after a few hundred feet leaving a furrow in the ground as well as himself half buried. That grin remained on his lips despite a small trickle of blood that traced down his chin and his eyes staring blankly to his right. He appeared broken, but anyone that had fought either this clone of Truinthil or the original himself would know to err on the side of caution in the face of such an apparently easy victory. Even as he lay there seemingly knocked senseless he was preparing a counter attack that required only trace amounts of his own personal energy, leaving it almost impossible to detect.  

[Twilight Justice]

And so it was brought.

With T plummeting to the ground, Than's ascent came to a stop and he turned upright again. Another rage-filled cry shattered the fleeting quiet after T came to a stop, as noticable as Than's energy, which still flooded the area; was Than completely berserk?

"ALL OF YOUR AMBITIONS.... ALL OF YOUR PLANS... ALL OF THE SUFFERING YOU CAUSE ENDS HERE!!" If the pace so far was any indication, Than wanted to keep T on the defensive. With his energy all over the place, it was easy for Than to detect when something else was happening; thus, it was clear T was up to something. Not willing to give him time to think of something else, once again, Than gathered highly concentrated power into his mechanical arm, pointed it to the sky, and let loose a blast, seemingly using the recoil of the continuous beam to hurl himself right at T's ground embedded position.

It would take less than five seconds for Than to close the distance between him and T, and it seemed he was going to slam right into T. But no more than 100 feet from the man, Than suddenly brought his hand over his head, and the beam followed. In that moment, it would become clear that the beam had not propelled Than; he only made it look that way. It was no beam... it was a massive energy blade.

The concentrated, golden blade came over Than's head, dozens of meters long, and came directly down on T's position. Being half buried, there was no where for T to move physically to avoid the attack, and there was clearly enough power in it to cut through the earth if T tried to bury himself deeper. Berserking or not, Than was still cognitive enough to feign and fake attacks to try and catch T off guard. Its only seeming flaw that the sides of his body not facing T were unguarded, with the blade in full swing.  

[Truinthil]

Truinthil didn't move as Than closed in, energy blade bearing down upon him. He didn't like being stuck on the defensive, but the attacks that Than was using left him little choice. What Truinthil had prepared, however, was both a defensive and offensive attack. He had to modify it last moment, but it would serve it's purpose well enough.

As the blade pierced Truinthil it was quite likely that Than, being as trained as he likely was, would notice that there was no give. No resistance met the blade at all as if he was hollow.

At the same instance the blade pierced his body, bone like masses erupted from his chest, five from each side, curved outwards then back in to attempt a strike at Than's exposed sides in an apparently improvised pincer style attack. The tips of these bone-like protrusions ended so finely that they would pierce armor like a knife through butter. They were also incredibly dense and would not break easily, but Truinthil knew something as hasty as this would have a low chance of actually inflicting anything more than an annoying wound to the man.

Before the blade had even made contact Truinthil had already prepared a likewise hasty escape in the few seconds that Than had taken to close on him. A thicker spike of the bone-like substance shot from had shot from his body diagonally behind him, angled to his right, Than's left. From that spike Truinthil expelled energy as he reformed himself underground. By the time that half the blade had buried itself in Truinthil's 'chest' he exploded from the ground two hundred meters away, aimed straight for Than, sword materializing in his right hand which he held behind himself already prepared to swing the massive blade that was nearly identical to the monstrosity that Old D had often used. As he would close on Than he would arc that large blade towards the man's abomen, energy encasing the sword in an obvious attack that was meant more for providing a surface to expel that energy in an explosive manner than to cut, similar to a claymore. His strike would bring the blade between the second and third bone mass aimed for Than, providing the man didn't manage to escape the hastily planned attack. If that were to be the case Truinthil would have to attempt to readjust in mid swing if not abort the attack all together.  

[Twilight Justice]

"Finally..." At least Than's research hadn't been wrong, as confirmed when T's bones came flying at him. With his sword embedded in the empty shell's chest, it suited Than's instinct to swipe at the incoming barbs. When his hand moved, so did the blade, cutting through the bones on one side and making them fall like useless poles. With the attack on his right side done, the energy blade dissipated as soon as Than stopped willing the energy to condense, and it dispersed into Than's aura, which was still washing out everything in the area.

With 200 meters between them, Than had to take care of the remaining spikes and counter T's offensive. Raising his left arm, Than hoped the metal of his arm and small shield would at least dull the spikes long enough to avoid damage. While trying to avoid being impaled, Than gathered his power in his right arm, but it was different from before. Unlike the intense but controlled power from before, the power accumulating in the palm of his hand was chaotic, wild, and highly disruptive.... and there was a lot of it. This was in fact the very same technique Than had used to kill first Apollo and, more recently, KB, in a different form. "THIS IS FOR ARI!!" Sensing the energy around Truinthil's weapon, Than made an odd move by clenching his right fist and actually throwing a punch at Truinthil when he came close enough.

Only he wasn't aiming for T... he was aiming for the blade. The entire point of the attack in general was to disrupt the target's energy, making him lose control of his own power. The moment Than's fist made contact with the energy around the sword, T would probably realize energy based attacks were not a good idea. If he did nothing to stop it, the explosive power around T's weapon and Than's disruptive technique were about to produce an undirected reaction that was going to be much more powerful than T had originally intended.  

[Truinthil]

As blade and fist neared each other Truinthil, instead of being fearful of the imminent explosion or trying to divert his attack, began laughing with a crazed look in his eyes. He could feel the power of the impending explosion via the tension and palpable density of the two colliding energies. As they neared it seemed to his senses and perhaps to Than's as well that everything slowed down. To his eyes, as his blade and Than's fist neared that tension and density mounted higher and higher until finally, the two opposing forces met and unleashed what would likely look to be all hell erupting upon Earth to an outsider watching from afar, were there in fact anyone watching. Truinthil knew full well that this was going to sting quite a bit, but odds were that no matter how skilled with defensive energies Than was, it would most likely not leave him unscathed either. This sort of suicidal tactics was always more preferable to Truinthil anyway. Most people tended to avoid harming themselves in a fight and he loved to take advantage of that fact.

Despite suicidal tendencies however, Truinthil still wrapped himself in the best possible defense he could muster in that split second before the two forces collided. It wouldn't hold by any means, but it would at least buffer him enough to keep him in fighting shape. This was truly getting fun.  

[Twilight Justice]

Than groaned and rubbed his head, sitting up as the rumbling around him settled. As soon as he put his palm to his head, Than felt a warm streak of blood, as events reassembled in his head, in reverse order. The first thing that came to mind was him throwing a punch at T's blade - a very, very, very stupid idea in retrospect - and T attempting to raise a defense before the collision. Than could easily assume that the subsiding rumbling around him was the aftermath of the explosion the two of them had caused.

As soon as he could, Than stood up on his feet. Given the state of the area around him, the sounds, the scent of dirt, and the sensation of debris all around him, it seemed he'd been blown away from the large explosion and was knocked unconscious from concussive force for just a few moments.

"....If I'm still in one piece...." then T had to be as well, he thought. The once grassy field they'd been fighting in how had a sizable brown patch surrounded by flattened plants around it, thanks to the above ground explosion. Than immediately started to gather his energy again, once again emitting high levels of energy as he had before.It seemed T still hadn't caught onto his yet unsprung trap.... but if Than was going to have any chance of beating T, he was going to have to find the villain first. Cautiously, Than started to float himself above ground, on high alert, waiting for any sign of T while trying to make sure the man didn't get a surprise attack on him at the same time.  

[Truinthil]

Wind. Lots of wind. The sound slowly came to Truinthil as he plummeted towards the ground far below him. As he opened his eyes, his equilibrium suddenly came back with a fierce jolt. Quickly righting himself he spread his arms and legs to slow his descent a bit. He felt a slight pain in his lower chest suggesting a cracked rib and were it not for the air rushing past him he knew his face would be covered in blood.

While he gathered his bearings he reasoned that he had been above Than when the explosion occurred, which of course had rocketed him skyward. He was in the midst of doing the math in his head when Than's rising energy levels caught his attention. Grinning he straightened his body and angled downwards, gaining speed very rapidly. He figured he was still about one thousand feet above the ground, Than rising slowly, closing the gap. The fact Than wasn't rushing meant he didn't know where Truinthil was yet. He could use this.

Suppressing his energy as far as he could while still retaining the ability to call it back quickly if needed, Truinthil angled more and more downward until he was heading straight for the ground, and before that, Than. As he came within a few hundred feet, a distance that would be closed in only a few seconds, he began a flip that would bring his heel down on Than's head, were the man to not notice until it was too late.