'I miscalculated.'
He and Gas had traded blows for what felt like minutes, a blistering exchange of power that left the landing platform cracked and broken.
Gas... might've been a little bit more than he could chew.
Their power levels seemed to be roughly the same, but the gap in combat skill was blatantly evident. His spars with Marzette barely helped, as although she was more skilled than him, they were two different kinds of fighters. She was a martial artist, while Gas? He was a brawler.
And it was quite hard to predict someone who both kept pulling new moves out of their ass and kept learning as they fought.
Knox would feint, only for Gas to already be shifting to counter the real attack he hadn't even decided on yet.
'It feels like I'm fighting a combat AI or something.'
In a burst of speed, Gas vanished, reappearing above Knox and bringing the morning star down in a heavy swing.
Knox crossed his arms, meeting the blow head-on.
The impact sent a shockwave through the air, and Knox's boots dug furrows into the platform below.
With a grunt of effort, he shoved upward, deflecting the weapon and forcing Gas to flip backward. But the Heeter used the momentum, landing lightly and immediately firing a rapid volley of Ki blasts at Knox's feet.
The platform erupted, forcing Knox to leap into the air. Gas was there in an instant; a giant fist made of Ki aimed straight at him.
Knox sent a quick ki blast, using the momentum to push him out of the way, twisting with a spin and delivering a savage kick to Gas' side.
Gas absorbed it with a sharp exhale, grabbing Knox's leg and hurling him toward the abyss.
'He keeps trying to push me back... why?'
Knox tumbled through the air, righting himself just meters from the lip of the asteroid's atmosphere. A drop of sweat came down his forehead as he looked at the endless sea of space yawning behind him.
'Ah.' He realized. 'So that's his plan.'
Gas didn't let up. He lunged forward; another blast aimed to finish the job and knock Knox into the void.
"Enough!" Knox roared, batting the blast aside with a surge of his Ki. "Try that again, and this won't be a fight any longer."
Surprisingly, Gas paused. Then he narrowed his eyes. An unspoken question hung in the air with his glare:
What could Knox possibly do about it?
"You can't survive out there," Knox stated, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the vacuum. "I can. How do you think I got here without a ship? Keep trying to push me off, and I'll grab you, and we'll take a little trip together. See how long you last."
Obviously, it was a complete bluff.
Sure, he could survive with the barrier technique, but it wouldn't surprise him if Gas saw him do it and immediately figured it out on his own. As far as surviving in space went, they were on an even playing field.
After glancing at the destroyed landing platform and confirming Knox did indeed not have a ship, Gas relaxed a fraction.
But then his glare doubled in intensity.
"No, that's a lie," He asserted. "Saiyans can survive in the upper atmosphere, but even they need air. I won't be tricked by an invisible ship and a hidden tail."
"An invisible-?!" Knox barked out a laugh. He shook his head and simply he pushed his Combat Visor up onto his forehead, revealing his hazel eyes. "Look. No black eyes. No monkey tail. Not a Saiyan. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm just built different."
Gas stared, his stoic expression finally cracking with genuine surprise.
"But, then, how were you keeping up?" Gas said, the first hint of confusion coloring his flat tone. "The last person to not be overwhelmed... was a Saiyan."
Now it was Knox's turn to be confused. "The hell are you talking about?"
"It doesn't matter. You'll understand soon." Gas simply shook his head, the moment of vulnerability vanishing as quickly as it appeared. His expression hardened back into its mask of cold lethality.
Without another word, he lunged again, the morning star rematerializing in his hand.
Knox met him in the middle, grabbing the morning star handle before locking him into an elbow strike.
Gas shifted, the elbow gracing his nose as he dodged just slightly out of range. Then he countered with a kick to Knox's ribs.
With a grunt, Knox twisted away and spun with a kick to Gas' side.
Yet, as he threw the kick, he saw Gas' lips move, his words barely audible over the roar of their clashing auras.
"And there it is."
He sounded... almost disappointed.
A fist, moving faster than any before it, slammed into Knox's jaw. The impact was staggering, snapping his head back and sending him reeling. Stars exploded in his vision.
'What?' Knox couldn't comprehend it. 'What just happened? He wasn't that fast a second ago...'
He shook his head, dismissing it as a lucky shot. He came in again, this time with a combination he'd used against Marzette in their mental spars. A combo of jabs and strikes, with a cheeky psychokinetic shove in between meant to disrupt the opponent's maneuverability.
Gas weaved around his attacks as if he saw them coming, and before the psychokinesis could even take hold, he let off a slight pulse of Ki.
His counter was a palm strike to Knox's chest.
"Gah!"
Knox gasped, skidding backward as air was driven out of his lungs.
Suddenly, it felt as though the gap in their power was widening with every exchange. Not only did it feel like Gas was faster than him, but he... was suddenly as skilled as Marzette?!
"Your movements are becoming predictable," Gas stated, his voice flat, devoid of taunt.
Predictable? How? He was using everything!
He was punching in the perfect method his [Striking] skill guided him with. His [Dodging] was immaculate as well. And even his [Psychokinesis] was putting in work. There was no way to use any techniques like the Solar Grenade, as they took up too much charging time, so he truly didn't have any other tricks.
What else was he supposed to do? Was... was Gas truly out growing him this quickly?
A cold dread began to creep up his spine.
'It's like he's learning... me.' Knox thought. 'He's adapting to my style in real-time.'
But he didn't remember Gas being that good of a fighter. Bardock had managed to defeat him, after all, and that was even in his awakened state. At this stage, Knox should've been destroying him and yet...
Then it all clicked into place.
'I know what this is.'
Within the world of Dragon Ball, most of the main Z-Fighters grew with training or rage boosts. But if one paid attention to everyone other than them, they'd realize that the enemies they faced were rather bullshit.
There were two ways this 'bullshit' manifested. The first was the type of existence Frieza and Broly were. They were insanely overpowered mutants whose power increased as they fought. To the point where Broly surpassed the level of the two Saiyan gods within an afternoon.
The other way it manifested was the method Hit used. While his raw power didn't increase, his skill and techniques increased to insane degrees just by facing a strong opponent.
'Gas has the skill version of Pure Progress.' He concluded. 'Because of course he does...'
Technically, Knox himself had a version of Pure Progress. The System. But it grew far too slowly for him to rely on in this battle.
'Even if I tried to adapt, my skills could only reach Rank D until I figure out how to get past 'the wall'.'
Meanwhile, every exchange was making Gas better and sharper than before. He was a self-correcting algorithm, and Knox was the data set being processed.
And he was running out of moves.
---=[Z]=---
At the same time as their bout, Marzette's world had narrowed to the whirlwind of feral rage that was Macki.
Her antennae twitched rapidly, reading the chaotic flow of the berserker's Ki, using her heightened senses instead of relying on her sight. The Heeter's Ki was far more volatile than Knox's, but it was no less malicious.
In that regard, she was rather easy to predict.
Marzette was the superior fighter, to no one's surprise. Every dodge was economical, every movement was precise, and she was easily darting circles around the berserker.
The fight should've been over as quickly as it started.
But of course, there was a problem.
Her Ki blade sliced shallow, burning lines across Macki's arms and torso whenever an opening presented itself... But the wounds sealed almost instantly, seared shut by her own energy.
"HyaAAgh!"
A haymaker whistled past Marzette's head, the wind pressure alone chipping at her exoskeleton.
She ducked under the follow-up backhand, her blade licking out to slice through Macki's thigh. The Heeter didn't even flinch, responding with a kick that Marzette only partially deflected.
'An inefficient use of energy,' Marzette thought coldly, even as she was forced to skid back several feet. 'But effective. I am more skilled, but she is stronger, faster, and now… tireless.'
Attrition.
It was the true obstacle. She could land a dozen strikes for every one of Macki's, but it meant nothing if she tired out and ultimately lost.
'A change in tactics is required. She did trade her wits for her strength, after all...'
Marzette would have to use a technique she'd come up with to defeat Knox should they ever need to fight at full power.
If he ever... lost control.
As Macki rushed at her, she focused entirely on her own Ki. She pushed her energy into her wings not for complex aerial maneuvers, but for pure, blinding straight-line acceleration.
'Shape the aura into an aerodynamic shape... Push aside the air with a vacuum tunnel... Compress the Ki on the opposite end...'
Within a single breath, she shot to the left.
Before an afterimage of her body could even fade, she reversed direction to the right. Then forward and back. She didn't try to attack from these angles; she simply existed in them for a split second before vanishing again.
Macki's lunge swiped at open air, and her slow mind was visibly confused. She looked left, right, and when she turned around, she finally saw it.
The throne room became a cascade of black afterimages. Three, four, five copies of Marzette flickered in and out of existence, each one a perfect phantom of her accelerated movement.
Her pupilless eyes darted from one to the other, before she let out a roar of frustration, lashing out at the fading afterimage closest to her.
"Graagh!"
Meanwhile, another Marzette appeared behind her.
Macki spun, claws tearing through empty air where another phantom had been. Her attacks grew wilder, more desperate, her animalistic brain unable to process the sensory overload.
'Now.'
As Macki committed to a furious lunge at a phantom to her front, her back was completely exposed.
Marzette didn't hesitate.
She dropped from above, her Ki blade humming.
With a single hand, she pierced cleanly through Macki's back and out through her chest.
"GraaAgh-!"
Macki's furious roar choked off into a wet, surprised gurgle.
She stared down at the glowing blade protruding from her sternum, her power sputtering uselessly against the fatal damage.
The savage light in her eyes slowly flickered and died.
She slumped forward, the blade retracting as she collapsed, finally still.
Marzette landed softly beside the body, breath coming out in controlled pulses. She looked down at the Heeter's corpse with no small amount of disdain.
"What point is there in power without control?" She muttered.
A voice, cold and smooth as polished ice, cut through the quiet from behind her.
"Well, I suppose that's that. Cold comfort, really."
Marzette's antennae shot straight up. The leader. She'd been so focused on the battle that she'd forgotten about him entirely.
She started to turn, her body tensing up to face the new threat.
PZZZAT!!