Unstoppable [T/O]

[Molokai]

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Damēji Heri (Damage Reduction)
Rank: "D", "C", "B", "A", "S"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: This technique is similar to that of Roll With the Punches, except that this technique works on a stacking manner to Roll With the Punches, as well as it works against Blunt, Bludgeoning, and Solidified attacks. The user is capable of withstanding more then usual as their body becomes adaptable towards broad attacks, where the muscles harden making the Brawler durable.
Special: ---
Drawback: Does not work on Slashing, Piercing attacks, or attacks that are not solidified, that hits in a mass amount.
Description: When the user first learns this technique they are capable of only reducing the damage of techniques of Bludgeoning, Blunt, and Solidified Attacks of "D" Rank one rank below then its capability. When the user learns "C" Rank version of this technique they are capable of reducing the "C" Rank Bludgeoning, Blunt, and Solidified Attacks down one Rank as well as as "D" Ranks go down 1.2 times reduced capability. When the user learns "B" Rank of this technique the user is capable of withstanding "B" Rank Blunt, Bludgeoning, and Solidified attacks reducing the power down by one rank. It is capable of reducing "C" Rank techniques 1.2 times reduced, and "D" Rank techniques 1.4 times reduced. When the user learns "A" Rank of this technique the user is capable of withstanding "A" Rank Blunt, Bludgeoning, and Solidified attacks reducing the power down by one rank. It is capable of reducing "B" Rank techniques 1.2 times reduced, "C" Rank techniques down to 1.4 times reduced, and "D" Rank techniques 1.6 times reduced. When the user learns "S" Rank of this technique the user is capable of withstanding "S" Rank Blunt, Bludgeoning, and Solidified attacks reducing the power down by one rank. It is capable of reducing "A" Rank techniques 1.2 times reduced, "B" Rank techniques down to 1.4 times reduced, "C" Rank techniques down to 1.6 times reduced and "D" Rank techniques 1.8 times reduced.
Limit: Must know Sekondo Nen (Second Sense) "B" before going into.

-0/110-

Taisen had been training in a new style for the last couple of days and was feeling surprisingly sore. Soreness meant that his muscles had softened and that simply wasn't acceptable. It was time to buckle down and really get back to basics. The most basic of basics, to him at least, was to be unbreakable.

He created five shadow clones and sent them all to go collect branches from the surrounding woods. While he waited for them, he prepared himself. He put his arms out directly to his sides and spread his legs out to just past shoulder width, then he focused on his breath and centered himself. By this time, the clones returned and surrounded him, each one toting a wrist-thick branch and ready to use it.

With a small nod, he indicated to them to begin. The first clone came up and swung the stick as hard as it could muster at Taisen's midsection. It nailed him right on the floating rib on his left side and actually made him wince. The fact that he winced disgusted him, how had he let himself get so weak? The next hit drove into his right trap muscle and distracted him from his self-deprecating, bringing him back into the harsh world of reality. Five people just as strong as himself were trying to beat him down with sticks, and he had to endure for as long as possible. As the third one swung and collided with his right leg, the sheer impact sent a ripple through his leg and created a smacking sound that echoed through the trees.

Of course, the clones weren't holding back at all. If they did, how was he supposed to get any stronger? He was taken be surprise by the strike that was against the back of his head, which was followed up by one right on the top of it. This double head-smack made his teeth rattle and hurt more than he had expected it to, but the continuing onslaught didn't give him time to reflect on why. The clones had become more and more enthusiastic about it as he continued to refuse to show signs of his pain, each one determined to be the one who finally breaks him. So, they started going at him two at a time. Hitting him on both sides of his ribs at the same time, then following up with his left arm and right leg at once.

Two of them then got the bright idea to hit his inner and outer thigh of the same leg, back and forth for about ten hits apiece. This one actually had Taisen's jaw clenching to resist the urge to move to stop the attacks. Not only was the pain great, but fighting the animal urge to avoid the pain took a lot of mental control as well. A third clone took to going after the shin and calf of the same leg the two were assaulting, and Taisen started to feel like he might have some trouble putting up with this one. Surprisingly, though, just as the pain seemed to be peaking to a point where it would not longer be bearable, he felt a numbness fill his leg and the pain ended. The clones must have noticed this, because they all started swinging even harder, actually trying to physically break his bones in order to break him down. They had the right idea, too. One doesn't chop down a tree with a single blow, and even the mightiest tree will fall if it's cut down from the bottom.

However, it didn't take long before the other two got it into their heads that they could assist the three hitting the one leg by hitting him in other places. One place that nobody had hit yet was his left bicep, which was the location of a sensitive bundle of nerves, often used by schoolchildren to give each other "dead arms". A dead arm with a stick done by someone of Taisen's strength was brutal, and the force of the strike was enough to physically knock his arm a few inches in the direction of the strike. Meanwhile, the other was going after his floating ribs and one of the three had taken a particularly hard swing right on his knee cap.

The kneecap one did him in. He dropped down to his good knee and the clones ceased. While he wasn't quite ready to give up yet, he would need a break for a while before he was ready to continue again.

[Molokai]

-?/110-

After a short rest, in which Taisen realized that he wasn't going to be walking for a while on that particular leg, he stood up and got back to it. He wasn't going to improve if he gave up just because it was hard. This time, he gave the clones the directive to go for other parts of his body, since he wanted his entire body to become stronger, not just that particular leg.

Resuming his open position, the clones enthusiastically started clobbering on his ribs, back, chest and core. Most attacks were centered on either that area or the head, so it was a good place to practice taking hits. His floating ribs were still sore from the hits earlier, but not anywhere near as much so as his leg. Two of them were busily taking turns hitting each side of his ribs, while the other three switched up their attacks frequently to keep him on his toes. Any one of these blows would be enough to crack a normal person's bones, and Taisen was taking them like a champ even though the pain was steadily starting to increase. He knew a good deal about which parts of a person's body really sucked to get hit on, and therefore his clones knew too and were aiming for them specifically. His upper ribs were mostly protected by his oblique muscles, and his abdominals were made of steel, so they made a point of hitting him specifically in the part of the ribs that wasn't very covered by muscle.

In the interest of variety, one of them came down hard on his trap muscle and actually caused his knee to buckle slightly just with the sheer force of it. Now, Taisen's traps were impressive as hell, but that particular muscle is also the location of another pressure point that hurt like hell when it was hit. Add that to being hit really, really hard with a big ass stick and suddenly it was hard to do something as simple as holding his arm up. Feeling the need to be thorough, the clone then brought the stick down upon the other side just as hard, and all of a sudden the simple act of standing in place became agonizing. The other clones still wailed away at his ribs and midsection, slowly wearing down his ability to tank those strikes as well.

He could tell the clones were really going at it, though, because they swung those damn sticks so hard they were actually beginning to tire themselves out. It took a lot for Taisen to become tired, and between the five of them they couldn't chop the real one down without breaking a sweat. Guess that meant he wasn't as weak as he had feared, but that didn't change the fact that he was approaching his limit of pain tolerance. It wasn't just pain, either. Each blow ripped apart his muscles and created micro fractures in his bones, and eventually he would have to stop and give himself time to heal otherwise he would only succeed at injuring himself. That point hadn't yet arrived, but it was getting close.

It was a blow against the back of his head that made his world start spinning. At that point, his concentration finally broke and he started to teeter. The clones, just as competitive as him, saw their opportunity and took it. Two hit him along his back, pushing his balance further forward. Another went for his solar plexus as he went down, and the last two clobbered his knees. Once he got to the ground, the group continued to gang-beat him with the sticks for a solid thirty seconds before he finally regained enough of his composure to dismiss them. A puff of smoke and a rain of sticks and the abuse finally ended. Taisen just laid there in the mud for a while before eventually willing himself to get up and limp over to a place where he could sit. It would take him some time to heal up enough to go at it again, but by the next day he was sure he'd be out and at it again.

[Father 'Suke]

+20

[Molokai]

-20/110-

After a day of healing, Taisen was stiff and sore and severely not looking forward to day two. However, if training was easy than anybody could be the best. With a renewed sense of being ready to get beaten up, he returned to his spot and summoned his clones again. The sticks the clones had used the previous day had just been piled up nearby, so they quickly took them up and surrounded him menacingly. The joy the clones gained from beating him probably said something about him being a severe masochist, or would that be sadist? Possibly both.

Anyway, he opened his arms and stood ready again to be tortured, joints and limbs all feeling sluggish from the repeated clubbing. Wasting no time at all, the clones went straight for his torso. His sore floating ribs from the previous day ached and throbbed between each strike, and the clones were merciless. No enemy would hesitate to strike a point they knew was already injured, so why should he avoid doing that in training? While three clones hammered away at as much of his entire torso as they could swing at, the other two took to his knees. The sides of the knees, right on the slight divide between joints, was both a very vulnerable and very painful place to get struck. So, naturally, they hammered away at that exact point with gusto.

Luckily, the clones were aware that they were trying to toughen up his entire body, not just try to break him down. So, after a few failed attempts at chopping his knees off, they started going up and down his calves and thighs. Striking directly on the calf muscle wasn't too bad, it just generated an ache not unlike a cramp. It was the hits right on the shin bone that sent the sharp, surprising pains rocketing into his brain and threatening to break his concentration. Muscles improved with frequent exercise, but bones only got stronger by being microscopically fractured and then allowed to heal. Thus, the painful bone strikes were the most vital and unavoidable ones. As important as they were, though, they still sucked.

Ceasing the clobbering of his ribs for a moment, the clones decided to take a few whacks at his arms. It was almost impressive how much of a finely tuned machine the five clones became as they surrounded and beat into submission their creator. No two of them ever hit each other's sticks, and there was never longer than a second when one part of his body wasn't being hit. If ever Taisen decided to start a gang of himself, he could tell they'd specialize in gang-beatings. Amazing where the mind goes when trying to stay off of the immense pain racking a body. At some point, one of the clones hit the top of his fingers, and his face contorted with agony as he tried very hard not to lose his composure.

Another amazing trait of the body is that after so much pain the mind will actually start blocking it out all on its own. On hikes that last for miles, the pain in the knees and feet will escalate continuously, until they reach a point at which the pain just kind of stops. Similar to that phenomenon, Taisen was hoping it would happen with the beating sooner or later. Preferably sooner. Mostly, the pain wasn't significantly more intense than anything he had ever experienced, he was just very mentally aware of it because he didn't have his chaos or the adrenaline of trying not to die. There's an idea, use chaos to dull the pain. While technically that would work really well, since it would dull the pain and allow him to go for longer, for some reason it felt like cheating. Maybe later, when he was physically incapable of standing, he would use it to his advantage.

[Father 'Suke]

+10

[Molokai]

-30/110-

Ceaselessly, the beating continued and the numbness was beginning to set in. His extremities were beginning to feel cold beneath his boots and gloves. His shoulders ached with the strain of holding his arms straight out while the clones tried to beat them down. Even the clones themselves were starting to get slightly sluggish with their swings, almost as if their muscles were fatiguing. Could clones get muscle fatigue? They were certainly going hard enough to find out. Perhaps it was just Taisen's waning ability to keep his mind present and accounted for that was weakening the clones. Maybe the whole world was just slowing down as his synapses slowly clicked off, one by one.

A strike to the head brought him crashing back into the world of reality, blazing through a sea of stars and pain on his journey back home. Then, another strike to the head tilted the entire world and made the ground spin beneath his feet. As he teetered, a third strike again straightened him out. He vaguely recalled seeing fights where guys would be knocked out then punched again so fast they woke up before they fell over. He wondered if maybe that had just happened to him. A fourth strike halted his wondering in its tracks. Apparently it was head day in the gym of self torture. Taisen was always hard-headed, guess it was important to make sure his skull was literally so.

At some point, Taisen started vaguely realizing that there were less clones than before. Or maybe he didn't make as many this time? Or maybe he miscounted? Or maybe. . . Suddenly it hit him like a giant ass log swung by a super strong madman. One of the clones had left and got a bigger stick. A much bigger stick. Then proceeded to swing it at him while he was busy trying to remember if he still remembered how to tie his shoes. The epic blow knocked him more or less literally onto his ass, and the culminated micro fractures covering his entire body screamed in agony.

Naturally, the rest of the clones stood back to see how their creator would respond to being utterly destroyed by a clone hitting him with a goddamn tree. The tree-wielding clone was not so cautious, and brought the entire wooden monstrosity down on top of the sitting Taisen. It flattened him. A second blow essentially started nailing him into the ground. By the third, he was buried so deep it didn't even seem like it was hitting him as much as it was the ground around him. The fourth blow was all Taisen could take, the final shock of the hit caused all of the other clones to spontaneously combust, so to speak. The clone that held the log, having vanished, dropped it, and the real Taisen just laid beneath it, mostly buried in the soft, loamy soil. Perhaps he'd sleep there. Perhaps he'd just up and die there. At this point, Taisen would mind neither.

[Father 'Suke]

Such a beat down +10

[Molokai]

-40/110-

Taisen was in a pretty great deal of pain. Turns out, he was strong enough to handle five enemies of at least his own strength, provided they all hit him with nothing but sticks and weren't actually trying to kill him. Still, it wasn't enough. Unless he could survive anything, literally anything, there would always be weakness left to eradicate. Rising from the hole he had dug himself in to, he pushed the log away from him and limped back to a place where he could rest more comfortably. Soreness became his life, his world, for the brief period of the walk. Unfortunately, he knew that just a little bit of pain would take forever to actually improve anything about him. For him to actually get stronger, he would have to come close to dying.

He re-summoned the clones all over again, a feat that was difficult as hell with his already depleted chakra supply from the first set. From there, he actually posted himself against a tree so there wouldn't be any give to lessen the force of the impacts. Along came the clones again, armed this time with rocks. Big, head-sized rocks. Yes, Taisen was in fact about to let himself be stoned in order to get stronger. With a sensation of dread, he allowed the first clone to throw its stone, which nailed him squarely in the chest. The impact knocked the wind out of him as he heard a concerning cracking noise. Clearly, the clones still weren't in the mood to hold back. Taisen suddenly found himself struggling to draw breath, but he had to stay strong. An enemy trying to kill him wouldn't stop just because he couldn't breath.

Another stone came from the hands of the second clone, this time hitting him in the abdominal area. The strong and well-developed muscles in that particular area managed to absorb some of the impact, but that didn't stop his already-sore ribs from buckling under the pressure. Bones do have a natural flexibility to them, but Taisen's ribs were bent almost to their max and the sudden impact was hurting them even more. Slightly hunched and breathing heavy over his damaged diaphragm, he had to will himself to straighten up again through the crunching of his ribs. The clones exchanged a concerned look at each other as they decided which one would throw the next stone. It seemed they were starting to worry that they might go too far.

Regardless, sooner or later one of them had to do it. When finally the third one threw the rock, it nailed his left shoulder. Deeming this to likely be a flesh wound, the fourth one threw its rock immediately after, hitting more directly on the ribs of his right side. The shoulder felt like it might have been dislocated, but any thought he might have had about that was immediately silenced by the definite breaking of at least one of his ribs. He had almost forgotten about the sharp stab of pain when a bone breaks, since it had been so long since anything had the strength to injure him so much. The wounds he received from the mission to Enrai had hurt, but not as much as the ribs breaking from repeated wearing down. This time, he buckled and had no choice but to stop. He slumped and sat down against the tree, but not before the fifth clone threw its rock.

Everything exploded into stars then faded to black as Taisen was knocked clean out by the rock against his skull.

[Father 'Suke]

+10

[Molokai]

-50/110-

Who knows how much time had passed since Taisen's clone had knocked him out? Minutes, hours, days, it could have even been weeks for all he knew. Actually, it was really more like a couple of minutes at most. But still, he woke up feeling sore and injured then headed off to the place he loosely considered to be home. There he slept for probably a few days, waiting for his everything to heal up. On the third day, he rose. Still feeling a little bit sore, he knew he still had some work to do before he was strong enough to survive what would be ahead. Instead of just being beaten upon by clones with sticks, he decided he'd make it a little bit more interesting and headed instead to a roadside tavern. It took a few hours of travelling, and he got pretty significantly far away from the village, but eventually he came across a small shack which was meant to provide drinks and beds for weary travelers. He entered, ordered a drink, sat down at the bar, and looked around the room for someone to pick a fight with.

Soon enough, he found who he was looking for. A gruff-looking fellow sat a few seats down, nursing what appeared to be his umpteenth mug of whatever it was. Taisen made a point of staring at him until he noticed. The large, bearded man looked back and said, "what the hell are you looking at?" To which Taisen simply replied,
"The ugliest chick I have ever seen."

That was all it took. Beardy-man was already moving to punch him in the face by the time he finished his sentence. Resisting the urge to clobber the drunkard, Taisen let the man hit him then looked him dead in the eye and said, "Is that all you got? Bitch." By this point, the whole tavern was staring. The bearded man flushed with pure rage as Taisen stood up to face him. Another punch across the face barely felt like anything to Taisen, to which Taisen rolled his eyes to get him even more riled up. It was at this point that it finally occurred to the drunk man to pick up a weapon. He swung his mug at Taisen's head and smashed it against his steel skull. The pieces of shattered glass cut his skin a little bit, and the alcohol burned both the cuts and his eyes. Finally feeling like he had the upper hand, the bearded man punched Taisen as hard as he could in the same place that the beer had just hit.

By this time, the drunken guy's friends had decided to join in on the party. Another man, similarly large, similarly facial haired, but significantly more sober, smashed a bar stool against Taisen's back. Somewhere in the bar, someone threw a chair and the whole bar erupted. Taisen finally decked the man he initially started a fight with and knocked him clean out. However, the one friend had become three, all sober, pissed off, and bearded. Another chair was smashed against his back, hurting his previously injured ribs. A second took it upon himself to tackle Taisen against the bar, then grab him by the waist and throw him into a nearby table. Then all three set upon him, clobbering on his head and ribs with all of their combined might.

His previous wounds ached under the new abuse, but still he resisted the urge to really fight back. He threw a token elbow at one of them just so they wouldn't get the idea that he had given up, and as he did so an entire bottle was smashed against the back of his head. Not just a regular glass bottle of beer, but a huge ceramic jug of sake. Hit him in the head so hard the whole thing just shattered. Also, the momentum caused the guy's fist, still clutching the ceramic handle, to hit in the same place almost exactly as hard. At this point, he finally turned to face his attackers and felt a strong fist against his barely-healed ribs. As he doubled over, one of them took it upon himself to knee him in the face. Another chair against his front knocked him up and over the table. Rolling over it and flopping onto the ground, the three huge men surrounded him and started kicking like crazy on every part they could reach.

Rather than curl up to try to defend, or actually get up and hit back, he stayed down in an all-fours position and let the steel-toed boots smash against his ribs. After a time, the kicks moved to his arms, legs, and face. One of them picked up the shattered remains of a chair and started beating him with it like a billy club. All of this, Taisen simply tanked. After a minute or two, he grabbed one of their ankles and pulled him onto his ass, then punched him swiftly in the nuts. Never had such a glorious beard produced such an effeminate scream, but it was enough to get the others to go at him even harder. Sooner or later, he'd see about getting literally everyone in the bar on the gang beating bandwagon. For now, he kept taking the hits and biding his time.

[Molokai]

-?/110-

Two very large men stood over Taisen, kicking and beating him with broken chair legs. Each strike worsened the injuries he had already given himself on his quest to make himself harder to hurt. After a few minutes of savagery, they slowed down and seemed to be getting tired. Once they stopped entirely, Taisen stood as if they hadn't done a thing to him.

"My turn," was all he said before grabbing the nearest one to him by the lapel and literally slamming him into an adjacent table so hard that the table split in half. The only remaining one of the four large and intimidating men that Taisen had picked a fight with looked at him in horror. What kind of psychopath would do something like this, Taisen imagined him thinking. It was unfortunate for the bearded man that Taisen wasn't yet satisfied that he had trained enough, because Taisen grabbed the man by the scruff and belt and threw him across the room into another table surrounded with tough-looking guys. These guys seemed to be quite a bit younger, and more fit. As they got up with a speed and suddenness that could only come from martial arts training, Taisen finally found who he as looking for.

All three of them rushed him from across the room. One of them hurled a sake bottle at his head, which he stood there and took, feeling the burn on his cuts. The one who got there first did some crazy vault-kick over a table and nailed Taisen squarely in his chest, staggering him and opening himself up to an impressive flurry of punches to his midsection. As one guy beat him, the other came around and kicked him hard in the legs, causing him to lean directly into an oncoming knee. The knee sent him stumbling into the waiting arms of the third guy, who had crossed the room surprisingly fast. With a practiced swiftness, he threw Taisen against the wall and dropped him onto the floor head first. It was the face-stomping that came immediately after which sucked the most so far.

Wishing for the face-stomping to end, Taisen punched one of the guys in the side of the knee, knocking him far enough to the side for him to scramble up for a second. These guys weren't impressed, though. They immediately took to kicking him in circles, passing him around the triangle like a bullied kid on the playground. This time, Taisen kept his arms up and let his limbs take more hits. Important to balance limbs and torso, everything had to be strong. These guys had legs like steel bars, and knew how to kick with their shins instead of their feet. Each strike to his thighs and arms felt like it might be the one to break the bone, and honestly that would have been ideal. It still seemed like they were holding back, though. Time to fix that.

After one of the rounds of kicks, Taisen dipped down and kicked the legs out from under one of them, spinning him in the air and thoroughly embarrassing him. In the same fluid movement, he decked another in the face and bloodied his nose then promptly head-butted the third. Hopefully the demonstration of his ability to keep fighting back would convince them that they couldn't hold back. Turns out, he was right. The first guy jumped back up like a badass and kicked him so hard in the leg that it started cramping and he had trouble standing on it. Then, the second and third guy pulled some crazy synchronized flip-kick maneuver and basically smashed his collarbones. That hurt, almost as much as the clones using the sticks. Now he was getting somewhere.

[Father 'Suke]

+20

[Molokai]

-70/110-

These guys must have been some kind of martial-acrobats or something, because as soon as they started taking Taisen seriously they seriously stepped their game up. Their thrashing around had created a kind of arena circled with tables and people shouting in tongues, and the three badasses were pulling crazy flips and stunts. With one leg cramping and still buckled over from the flipping double kick, Taisen could only watch as a knee going up met his face going down. For some reason, the three of these guys worked in awesome harmony and always seemed to know what the others were going to do. The tightness of their bond was second only to the tightness of their dope ass moves, and Taisen would have been impressed if he hadn't been on the receiving end of them. With a speed and suddenness that seemed otherworldly, Taisen was grabbed by the shoulders and thrown backwards across the room before his hands could even reach his nose.

Hitting the ground head first, then rolling onto his neck and finally slamming his lower back into a chair, Taisen looked up at the foot coming down on his face. God damn, these guys were really fast. An explosion of pain and flashing lights burst from Taisen's nose, and as he exhaled he felt a splash of blood go down his chin. First people to have made him bleed in a while, had to give them credit for that. Before another stomp could be applied to his countenance, Taisen kicked out and hand-sprung back to his feet. Trying to seem like a badass, he grabbed his now broken nose and popped it back into shape. As much as he wanted to get tougher, he couldn't risk ruining his pretty face in the process. Unless it was a badass face scar. A face scar would be awesome. Hell yeah.

Now surrounded, Taisen made a show of looking over his shoulder at each of them and pivoting around like he hadn't felt a thing all fight. If the each rushed him one at a time, he could probably stand a chance of taking them. It seemed, however, that they were smarter than that because the all rushed him at once. Taisen kicked backward and caught one of them in the groin, but as he looked back to aim he got decked right in the jaw. Moving to retaliate, his forward momentum was halted by a kick to his solar plexus, then the resulting backward momentum was summarily halted by another kick to his lower back. Stumbling forward, more following his fist than actually punching, he ran head-first into a well-timed elbow. This elbow leaned him forward and put him in the perfect position for a straight kick-ball style kick to his ribs. The force of this was so great that it physically lifted him a few inches off the ground, and he actually felt the wind get knocked out of him.

Nose bleeding, most of his ribs cracked, having trouble breathing, generally feeling like a total asshole for starting this fight in the first place, Taisen was brought back to his days fighting in the arena. Of course, if this had been an arena he would have just torched them all by now and collected his winnings. Speaking of torching, the alcohol and sweat in his glass cuts was still burning, and it was starting to get harder to see. All of a sudden, Taisen had a premonition. A kick landed on each thigh at the exact same time, and as his jaw dropped in pain and surprise, his premonition came true. One final punch, timed and aimed perfectly at his open, gaping mouth, stopped all of his pain and put him right to sleep. As the stars faded from view, Taisen remembered what it was like to rest and wondered where he would be when he woke up.

[Father 'Suke]

+10

[Molokai]

-80/110-

It felt vaguely as thought Taisen had been sleeping for hours. Maybe even days. Hell, it could have been months for all he knew. When his eyes slowly creaked open, dried blood cracking and falling from his face, he beheld the night sky and could faintly make out the moon behind the rustling leaves. As his senses slowly clicked on one-by-one, he smelled booze, blood and dirt, heard the sounds of laughter and clinking glasses somewhere off to his left, tasted exactly what he smelled, and finally felt the unending agony over his entire body. Even his eyelids hurt, he realized, forcing his eyes to stay open. Everything hurt.

It took a long time for those guys to wear him down, even though he had almost beaten himself crippled right before picking that fight. Still, even with all of that, he should have lasted much longer. He had gotten soft. It had been too long since he had a truly challenging brawl. That being said, what just happened was indeed truly challenging. After some minutes, or maybe hours, he managed to gather up enough willpower to pick himself up out of the mud he had been sleeping in and stagger off as quickly as he could away from the bar. Limping, counting his broken bones, he realized he would have to wait to heal before he could begin another toughness exercise. However, lacking the strength to get back to the village he found the driest, coziest spot under a tree and decided to sleep there for the night.

For the next few days, Taisen took it relatively easy. His body ached and desperately needed food, so he found a stream and plucked a fish out with is bare hands like a total savage. Unlike a total savage, though, he then took the time to build up a small fire pit and lit it with a snap of his fingers, where he then cooked the fish and ate it right then and there. He couldn't bring himself to return to the village until he felt he could say his training session paid off, so he stuck around and reduced the local fish population until he was healed enough to go back to the weird woods bar and pick another fight.

The second he walked in, all sounds stopped. The inside was just as brown and dingy as last time, with dim, sick-looking yellow lights dangling from the ceiling and a general stench of stale beer and unwashed men. Unwashed though these men were, they all looked gruff and tough and very, very displeased to see Taisen coming back for round two. Three men in various parts of the room stood up and Taisen gave them a look that said, "bring it on" before picking up the nearest mug and nailing the furthest one from him. Somewhere, somebody threw a chair and suddenly the entire bar was in an uproar. Most of the patrons surged him like a great, smelly human wave and hauled him back out the front door before he could pick up another mug. Dropping him again in the dirt, they surrounded him in and made a makeshift fighting arena with their bodies.

From the crowd came the largest man Taisen had ever seen. Must have been eight feet tall, shirtless and hairy as a bear. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact the giant man was wearing shoes Taisen might very well have mistaken him for a bear. The giant grunted something about the bar not being big enough for the two of them, then rushed him before he had time to wonder if he meant that literally or not. Since Taisen was here to take hits to make his body tougher, he elected to let the giant clobber him just to see what he was up against. An immense fist the size of Taisen's entire head smashed against Taisen's entire head, but Taisen remained planted. He could feel that there was a lot of force behind the blow, but after just a few days of healing he was better equipped to handle it.

With a frustrated roar that did sound very suspiciously like a literal bear, the giant man punched Taisen again and actually lifted him off his feet with the sheer force of the blow. Landing deftly on his feet, Taisen inspected the spots where he had gotten hit and found them less sore than he had expected. Perfect, his highly adaptable body was already responding to the increase in demand. Feeling empowered now, Taisen did his own charge and found he had to jump to get a solid blow on the giant's face. It was almost as if most of the punch was absorbed by the beard, but enough of it got through that the giant's head turned from the impact. Further enraged by this, the giant grabbed Taisen's head, his whole head, like a basketball, and used it to keep him in place while he drove a massive fist into Taisen's midsection.

He did this again, and again, and again while Taisen just allowed himself to take it, reveling in the fact that he was able to take this hits so well. Still, there was some pain, and after only about five hits Taisen had to make it stop. Naturally, he made it stop by grabbing the tree trunk attacked to the paw holding his head and gave a double-kick at the knees of the great beast. This sent them both to the ground, which was when Taisen realized he hadn't quite thought this one through.

Now beneath the behemoth, Taisen found himself being dragged into a full mount position where the animal-man started raining hammer-fists down on every part of Taisen he could reach. Putting his arms up, Taisen let them take some of the blows, but naturally let at least a couple get through to make sure his entire body was training evenly. Once the bear-man started to slow, presumably because moving limbs that size took a ridiculous amount of energy, Taisen took his chance to buck the beast off and scramble back to his feet. Important to keep mixing it up so he body couldn't adapt in time, and also so his opponent wouldn't get bored.

Now breathing heavily, the bearded bear man seemed like he was getting frustrated that all of his strength wasn't enough to break Taisen down. Little did he know, Taisen was actually starting to feel a little bit broken down. The giant's strength couldn't be denied, and it wasn't until the mount that Taisen realized his ribs had never fully healed. Aching from the repeated blows, Taisen gritted his teeth as the giant charged him like a furry steam train. When they collided, Taisen pushed back so he wouldn't get knocked over and started sliding backwards, leaving boot trails in the dirt. Momentum is quite an amazing thing, and beasts like this are hard to stop once they get going. Once it seemed like the beast was going to stop, that's when Taisen took his moment to headbutt the giant right in the chest and create some separation.

This guy might not be as fancy as the triple chuckle brothers from earlier, but this fight was definitely going to be fun.

[Molokai]

-?/110-

Taisen had always fancied himself to be a big guy. Sure, there were people two were taller than him, maybe more muscular too, but nobody would ever accuse him of being small. Nobody, until Barry. Barry was the name Taisen had given the giant, bear-like man he was now fighting. Why? Because it sounded like bear-y and Taisen liked to think he was clever sometimes. Now, Barry was eight feet tall, well over four hundred pounds, and definitely bigger than Taisen. Of course, there was no question that Taisen was physically stronger, and if this were a fight Taisen intended to win it would have been over already. However, winning wasn't what he wanted. What he wanted was a massive man to pound him senseless. Barry was doing a fantastic job of exactly that.

After the headbutt, the two faced off for a few seconds. Taisen was waiting for Barry to hit him again, and Barry was probably trying to decide of this silver-haired weirdo was for real. Suddenly overwhelmed with impatience, Taisen did the rushing this time and was masochistically delighted when he was met with a giant fist stopping him dead in his tracks. This time, Barry decided to use his concrete legs to hit Taisen, and he was surprisingly swift about it. As Taisen reeled from the punch, a kick like a horse on steroids caught him across the ribs and sent him flying into the crowd. The crowd, like a wonderfully elastic wrestling ring, threw him back into the pit before he even landed in the mud. When he did land in the mud, it wasn't much time at all before Barry stomped on his back and started digging.

Never before had Taisen ever seen someone dig a grave using the body of the person for whom they were digging it, and here he was on the receiving end of such badass way to kill someone. He decided that Barry must be trying to kill him, because he could tell that any one of these blows would have been more than enough to kill a normal person. Then again, it wasn't likely that Barry actually got in too many fights, since his frown alone was almost as intimidating as the beard sitting upon it. Stomping Taisen into the dirt, Barry seemed to be truly enjoying himself. It was almost as if one could see a smile-shaped indent forming within the tangle of beard. Seemed he finally thought he was going to break down the annoying silver guy after all.

Alas, Taisen wasn't about to be broken down. While being stomped on, he slowly started forcing himself into an all-fours position. Seeing this, Barry kept on stomping harder and harder to try to force him back down. Frustration and anger fueled his every step, and pretty soon that same frustrated anger started welling up in Taisen. Once he was almost fully upright, Taisen deftly dipped to one side and the stomp missed entirely, sending the big man off balance. Rocketing upwards, Taisen drove his fist into the man's beard with enough force to send them both high into the air. When Barry hit the ground, the earth shuddered, but Taisen stood. Muddy, bloody, and not ready to give up, Taisen knew this fight was going to go on for as long as it had to.

[Molokai]

-?/110-

Taisen could count the amount of times he hit back on one of his hands, yet he was now the one standing and Barry was lying in the mud. The crowd's Pentecostal shouting had silenced as they all waited breathlessly to see if their bearded hero would rise.

Rise he did, with what little could be seen of his skin beet red with pure rage. This man was a Brawler, and Taisen had finally opened up his true destructive potential. They charged each other, meeting in the middle like two titans who would tear down mountains to come out on top. This time, they matched blow for blow. That was all Taisen could do to keep Barry from actually, genuinely overpowering him. Each one of Barry's punches was three times as strong as any he had delivered before, and he was doing them much, much more often. He had forgone kicks, as they took way too much finesse to handle when under the influence of Rage, but he didn't appear to need them.

His speed was also increased, and for the first time in years Taisen as in a real brawl with another brawler. Punch for punch, blow for blow, Taisen and Barry wailed away at each other just waiting to see who would buckle first. This was often how brawls went. No blocking or dodging, just hitting and getting hit until one or the other had to stop. This is why Taisen had often won so many times in the past, he was very nearly impossible to harm using normal martial arts. Barry was no normal martial artist. His strength was surprisingly close to Taisens, although Taisen could tell that Barry was using all of his strength while he was still holding back. Still, the power was impressive, because the only reason Taisen still surpassed him was his Kamyuja bloodline.

Blood streaming from his nose, ears, mouth, ears ringing, eyes swelling shut, Taisen fought bitterly to keep standing. He had started escalating the amount of force he was using, and Barry was taking it like a champ. He was close to seventy percent of his max effort now, and still this beast of a man wasn't going down either. All the while, each one of his return punches kept wearing down Taisen's bones, damaging them so that when they healed they would be tougher than ever. This is what Taisen had been hoping for, this is why he was here. Once this fight was over, win or lose, Taisen would be at a truly legendary level of toughness.

That legendary toughness would have to wait, though. One particularly nasty uppercut cost Taisen his footing and gave Barry the opportunity he needed to press the attack even further. Punch after punch to face, chest, ribs, even arms, pushed Taisen against the human ropes. There, the crowd screamed at him in tongues and tried to hold him up for more punishment. Barry did something truly impressive at this point. He took a few steps back toward the center, then charged. At the last second, he jumped and used every last bit of his weight, momentum, and leg strength to deliver a massive double drop-kick right to Taisen's chest. This knocked him through the crowd and scattered it, then put him in the dirt where he realized that that kick had done it.

Barry walked over to him as he laid bleeding in the mud. Looking down, he could see that Taisen had no intention of getting up. He turned back to the crowd, threw his fists in the air, and roared. Then everyone went back to what they were doing before Taisen showed up. Taisen, meanwhile, passed out while lying in the mud. Again.

[Yoshi [Lynx!]]

+30 - Really sexy training.

[Molokai]

A mysterious amount of time later, Taisen awoke feeling broken, beaten, and as strong as ever. He slowly crawled out of his mud hole and headed off in the direction of the village, bloody, limping and prideful.

-exit-