>>Koji's Tale 2 - Chapter 7

"Tarboz's Deja-Vu"

          Tarboz stared awestruck at Koji's new transformed state.  His black hair stood upright, and his black eyes appeared intense and seething as the golden flaming aura surrounded the teenaged warrior.  For a few seconds, Tarboz was like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming automobile, transfixed by the radiance and wonder of what he beheld and momentarily oblivious to the terrible danger the lad now posed.  Koji scowled menacingly at Tarboz, snapping the Changeling out of his trance and startling him.

          The moment Tarboz's eyes widened to signify that his deer-like trance was broken, Koji struck!  Before Tarboz could completely recompose himself, Koji seemed to disappear from the spot where he was standing and reappear right in front of Tarboz to deliver a devastating punch to the Changeling's midsection, doubling him over and stunning him!  Koji followed that up with a thunderous roundhouse kick to the head, knocking Tarboz across the landscape!  Tarboz skidded across the barren valley between two mountainous structures like a stone across water, skimming the surface of the planet and leaving his mark in each place where he briefly touched down during his skid!  Tarboz finally ended that skidding with a backwards, head-over-heel tumble roll into the base of a mountain!  The booming impact caused the ground to shake as Tarboz lay prone for a few moments!

          "Wh-what is this new transformation?" Tarboz asked rhetorically to himself after he pulled himself to his feet and glared at the golden flamed boy.  "How did he get this kind of power?  No!  I refuse to be beaten by this little monkey again!  I'll show him!  My power is greater than his!"

          Tarboz flew at Koji with a charging battle cry, but Koji held his ground confidently, watching the Changeling's approach!  When Tarboz reached Koji's position, he unleashed a flurry of hand-to-hand attacks in a furious effort to take him down, but the golden flamed youth easily blocked and evaded every single attack thrown at him by the angry Changeling!  Tarboz's frustration grew as he began to realize what the child's transformation had yielded him!  Koji appeared almost at ease as he defended himself against the furious assault, as if his transformation had placed him on a new level entirely!

          "What's with this kid?!?" Tarboz thought to himself as he continued to attack the young Saiyan futilely.  "It's as if my every move is in slow motion to him!  He's toying with me!  Where did he get this power?!?"

          At that moment, Tarboz disengaged the fight and flew back away from Koji, putting some distance between himself and the young warrior!  Koji just stood his ground, continuously glaring at the Changeling in his rage!

          "Okay!" Tarboz yelled at Koji as he charged up his finger and pointed it at the lad.  "Let's see you deal with this!"

          The finger bolt was true and sure, but Koji sidestepped it so fast that it appeared that he just teleported a few feet to his left!  Tarboz was incredulous over Koji's speed!  The finger bolt hit a mountain in the distance and exploded massively in the background, displaying the power of the blast!

          "What?!?" Tarboz screamed in wide-eyed disbelief.  "There's no way!  How could he be that fast?!?  How could he dodge at that range?!?"

          Even more frustrated, Tarboz charged up a kienzan disk attack and threw it at the boy, but Koji remained unintimidated and undaunted!  Tarboz smiled as he watched his saw-like energy attack streak towards Koji!

          "Now I've got you!" Tarboz cried out in estatic glee at the thought of cutting the Saiyan to pieces with his kienzan disk.  "No matter where you go, my disk will follow you until it catches you, and then it will slice you into little pieces, monkey-boy!"

          Koji aimed his hand towards the incoming disk and charged a blast in his hand while calmly watching the advancing disk's approach!  Tarboz still smiled confidently as he eagerly anticipated his victory!  Koji released a bolt-like energy blast, and it split the disk in twain!  The split disk dissipated in mid-air, but Koji's bolt continued towards Tarboz!  The Changeling almost screamed in terror, and he just barely managed to dodge the bolt!  The bolt hit a mountain in the distance and exploded like a small nuclear bomb, throwing a mushroom cloud into the sky!

          "This can't be!" Tarboz blubbered in shock and disbelief at the spectacle of the teen's power.  "This just can't be happening!  I refuse to accept this!  I am a Changeling!  He is a Saiyan - just a monkey, and a teenage monkey at that!  How can I lose to an inferior species like this?!?  It's not possible!  Everyone knows that the Changeling race is the most powerful in the universe!  These monkeys are supposed to be pushovers compared to us!  Then why is he giving me so much trouble?!?  Why can't I beat him?!?"

          With a rage-filled battle cry, Tarboz charged a massive ball of energy above his head!  Larger and larger the energy ball swelled in his hands until it was the size of an average city!  Koji still didn't seem intimidated by this!

          "Alright, monkey-boy!" Tarboz snarled in his near-unbridled rage as he paused before attacking.  "Dodge this one if you can, but, if it misses you, it will still finish this fight!  You see, this attack will destroy whatever it hits, and , if it misses you, it will blow this stinking mudball into the next dimension!  You and all of these losers who live here will all be dead, but I will live on because I can breathe in space and you can't!  Try to block it, and it will destroy you!  It's over for you, monkey-boy!  I've won!  Goodbye!"

          Tarboz laughed as he threw the giant energy sphere at Koji, and Koji grimaced in his fervent resolve to stop the blast from hitting the planet!  The giant energy ball moved much more slowly than any of Tarboz's previous attacks, but the power contained within it was unmistakable!  Koji realized his predicament as he watched the gigantic death ball approaching his position!

          "I have to stop it!" Koji thought to himself as he dug his feet into the ground to prevent himself from being moved backwards and tensed every muscle in his body for the effort he was preparing to give.  "He's right!  If this planet goes, I won't have any air to breathe, and Changeling's don't need to breathe to live!  If I don't succeed, I'm dead, and the deaths of my people, my only remaining friend Chih, and all of these people here will have been in vain!  I don't know how Tarboz survived the battle on Ferella, but I have to finish him here and now!  If I can stop his attack, I'm going to make sure that our bloodfeud ends here!  I have to do this!"

          Koji screamed in his effort as he thrust both hands up and forward to meet the death ball!  The death ball made contact with his palms and began shoving him backwards as Tarboz laughed!  Koji's feet carved trails in the ground as he was pushed backwards, but he continued to resist the death ball!  He screamed more intensely, and his flaming energy aura flared in response!  The ground beneath him trembled violently under the strain of housing such an epic contest of power as this!  Farther and farther, the death ball pushed him back, closer and closer to a mountain!  Glancing back over his shoulder, Koji saw he was about to be slammed into that mountain!  Knowing that it would be the end if that collision occured, Koji's desperation turned to rage, and his rage turned into a power surge!  With an even more intense yell, Koji launched the titanic death ball skyward with the velocity of a missle being fired!  Tarboz's eyes widened in abject disbelief and total shock!
          "No!" the awestruck Changeling screamed as he watched the death ball fly out of the planet's atmosphere.

          Once the death ball left the planet's atmosphere, it streaked towards a larger planet in the distance!  The death ball slammed into that larger planet and exploded!  From the battle site, Tarboz and Koji could see the bright, sun-like fireball form in the sky where the larger planet was destroyed!  Moments later, large chunks of that larger planet began raining through the atmosphere and down onto the battlefield like a meteor shower!  The planet fragments crashed to the ground with crater-forming impact as Koji and Tarboz finally turned their attention back towards each other!

          "That was too close!" Koji thought to himself as he glared with fervent intensity and renewed determination at the stunned Changeling.  "I've got to finish this before he can cough up another one of those!"

          With a burst of unbelievable speed, Koji closed the distance and began pounding Tarboz with a punishing flurry of hand-to-hand attacks!  The fury of Koji's attack began bruising and bloodying the battered Changeling as it also began driving him backwards!  Koji pressed his attack, brutalizing Tarboz mercilessly and relentlessly!  Tarboz seemed helpless against the onslought!  Koji appeared to be holding nothing back as he put a great deal of strength, speed, and accuracy into each and every attack!  After several moments of this rapid-fire flurry of attacks, Koji executed a spinning kick, hammering Tarboz right in the chest with it!  The thunderous impact knocked Tarboz through a mountain, and the mountain crumbled to the ground as a huge cloud of dust and smoke rose from the site!

          "The last time we fought, I left after I didn't see him anymore," Koji thought to himself as he gazed upon his handiworks with a grimaced expression.  "This time I won't make that mistake!  He's not leaving this place alive!"

          Koji motioned upwards with both hands and yelled, focusing his energy on the place where he knocked Tarboz!  The result was that all the debris from that spot were hurled skyward with great speed, and the cloud of smoke and dust were quickly dispersed in the process!  This maneuver revealed Tarboz huddled on the ground as if he was hiding behind something that was no longer there!  Tarboz realized that his former hiding place was no more, and a look of sheer terror came across his face!  He tried to flee by flying away, but Koji's speed was too much for him, and Koji intercepted him, arriving between the fleeing Changeling and his intended destination!

          "Going somewhere?" Koji inquired rhetorically, savoring his advantage over his enemy.  "I thought you Changelings were tougher than this.  I didn't know that you were also cowards as well."

          Tarboz hovered there in mid-air, cowering before Koji.  He didn't say a word.  He just trembled and blubbered in complete horror.

          "What's the matter?" Koji continued to taunt his petrified foe.  "Cat got your tongue?  Never thought I'd see the likes of you speechless.  It seems as though all you've ever done is run your mouth about what you dreamed you were going to do.  Aren't you going to kill me like you did my father?  What's wrong?  Certainly one fifteen-year-old Saiyan couldn't be that much trouble.  After all, I'm just a monkey, right?"

          Tarboz screamed in panic as he tried to fly away in the oposite direction, but, once again, Koji's speed enabled him to easily intercept the frightened Changeling in mid-flight!  Koji stopped Tarboz in his tracks with a devastating uppercut to the midsection, doubling Tarboz over and causing him to spit up blood from the force of the impact!  Koji followed that up by punting him up under the chin, knocking Tarboz skyward like a rocket!  Koji then pointed both hands together towards the hurtling Changeling and began powering up a massive energy blast!  Electricity crackled around the forming ball of energy between Koji's hands as his golden flaming aura flared even more!  Koji uttered a drawn-out yell as he powered up his attack, and the sky above went black!

          "Here's a little something for you to remember me by ... when you get to the next dimension!" Koji snarled before releasing his awesome energy blast with an intense, rage-filled warcry.

          The blast actually shoved Koji back a little bit with a "kickback" effect like that of a shotgun, and it streaked towards Tarboz, who was helpless to do anything about it!  Tarboz saw the blast's approach, and his eyes widened even more!  His scream was one of unfathomable terror, but it was soon silenced by Koji's blast!  The explosion lit up the blackened sky like a brilliant sun moved too close, causing all who might have been looking at it to turn away and shield their eyes from the brilliance of the explosion!  The explosion sent a gust of pure force out from it in all directions, and Koji had to struggle to remain aloft in the maelstrom that resulted!

          When the explosion subsided and its brilliance once more dwindled away, Koji looked up to see the sky lighten to normal once again, and Tarboz was gone.  Koji hovered there for a moment, his golden flaming aura still surrounding him and his black hair still standing upright.  He seemed to be focused on reaching out with his senses for something.

          "Good," Koji thought to himself after a few seconds in silence.  "Tarboz's energy has completely disappeared from this dimension.  I can no longer sense his life force, or his power level.  It is done.  My father has been avenged.  This piece of my history has finally been laid to rest."

          Upon this realization, Koji's hair returned to its normal position and the golden flaming aura vanished.  He was once more in his normal state.