Let's do this [T][O]

[Molokai]

??/120

The shingles on the roof gave way easily under Taisen's weight, causing him to slide uncontrollably down the steep side until he tumbled back down to the street. This being merely a single-story tavern, the drop wasn't so much as an annoyance. However, much as he'd come to expect, the Chaos wasn't far behind, exiting through the hole with a mighty leap and bearing down upon him. The resulting crater from Taisen being slammed into the ground would appear to spell his demise, and by all means should have. Whether he survived because this was a contest of will and thus bodily limitations meant nothing or because he suddenly gained several hundred pounds and grew to be over nine feet tall in an instant is up for debate.

Whichever was the cause for his survival, a huge fist erupted from the ground where Taisen was said to lay. This massive appendage smashed against the whole upper body of the Chaos and vaulted it into the air. Before it came down, for that was how high it had gone, the titan-sized Taisen crawled out of his hole and bellowed at the sky. The sky returned this roar by dropping the Chaos back on top of him. Or, more specifically, it dropped it on his uplifted knee, which all but wrapped it's spine around the hulk's leg in doing so. Just for good measure, the nine-foot four-inch, thousand pound demi-god slammed it's hammer-like fist into the exposed chest of the Chaos and created a little crater for it. Despite this, which was infuriating but not surprising, the Chaos rose from it's hole with a hop.

Taisen was now much slower than it, and it was still stronger than him. Despite his strength being doubled, the amount of potential unlocked by that level of chaos was still greater. However, the gap between them had been lessened, and his freight-train like appearance meant he wasn't just going to be tossed around any more. It leaped upwards to strike at his head, and he swatted at it like a very large fly, causing it to bounce a number of times before coming to rest against a telephone pole. Chasing it on it's journey through pain, Taisen slammed his gargantuan foot against where he believed it was. The telephone pole was greatly dismayed by this and toppled into the nearest alley to demonstrate it's feelings. The Chaos, however, was nowhere to be found.

When it finally did reappear, it was punching the hulking brute in the back of the head with all of it's considerable strength. In response to this, his immensity stumbled a few steps before turning around and experiencing another fist in his solar plexus. One of his hands hit the ground to stabilize him, which still put him at towering over every human being ever born, but another powerful blow was landed against his jaw. Even with his massive bulk, these hits were getting harder and harder to take. He could roll with the punches, his natural toughness could absorb the impact, but sooner or later that kind of a beating would catch up to him. Before he was willing to go down, he swept his tree-trunk arm in an attempt to swat the Chaos away. Just to give him time to think, time to bleed.

[Ancestor Febrie]

+20

[Molokai]

60/120

The mighty limb caught the Chaos broadside and vaulted him down the isolated street to bounce and grind to a painful-looking halt. Of course, if felt no pain, and didn't feel that the damage was beginning to build up and slow it down. It hadn't been able to damage Taisen as much for one simple reason. Taisen is able to think. This thing, thic Chaos, it had no semblance of strategy, couldn't think to hit in vital areas to do maximum damage. It couldn't even control itself well enough to put it's weight into each hit; it was punching with it's arms. It was merely aiming it's rage and hate at Taisen, everything else was as precise as a land slide. Without Taisen reigning it in, it couldn't so much as control it's breathing. That was how he would gain his advantage over it. At his current size, he could easily break it's limbs.

Even without feeling pain, a broken leg is just that; a leg that is broken. It can't possibly work because it's now in more than one piece. Slowly but surely, Taisen would break it until it's entire body was damaged beyond functionality. Assuming he didn't get broken first, he knew that this plan would eventually work. Naturally, no sooner had he come to this conclusion that the semi-broken body of Chaos came charging through the dust. Confidence boosted by his thoughts, Taisen extended his fist to meet the oncoming monster, who quickly ducked the concrete column and kept coming. Luckily, Taisen had two hands, and the second one erupted from it's sidelong position and stopped the charging Chaos with the back of his fist. Since the Chao's face stopped while its legs didn't, it soon found itself on it's back beneath the behemoth.

Content at this point to use his massive bulk to simultaneously dig its grave and pummel it to pieces, Taisen smashed his cinder-block fist against it with all of the rage and hatred he could muster. Each subsequent blow would drive it deeper and deeper into the Mist village peat and tear its body further and further asunder. Rage coupled with frustration coupled with triumphant ecstasy fueled each mighty descent of flesh and bone as the invincible Chaos almost began to show pain. Apparently if you hit something hard enough and often enough, even an unstoppable monster can begin to regret picking a fight with you. But it was too easy. It felt like it was all coming to an end too soon. Taisen almost hoped that the Chaos had more, because he felt like he just got his second wind, and he wanted a fight.

So one can imagine his surprise when the Chaos somehow caught one of his immense punches, its hands barely wrapping around his giant fingers. The effort it took to stop that much strength was off the scales, and the unimaginable amount of strength contained within a concentration of pure bloodlust suddenly became enough to throw a giant from a foot under the ground. The throw didn't do that much damage, as Taisen simply rolled back to his feet once he hit the ground, but he suddenly had the distinct sensation that the Chaos had just gotten stronger. Looking at it as it burst from the crater and dusted itself off, he realized that he may just be in over his head. The inky blackness that consumed it's eyes had spread, turning its whole face pale white, with cracks around its lips and nose, and the black forming veins extending in all directions from its eyes.

It had just reached a whole new level.

[Molokai]

??/120

Each step of the new monster caused a small crater to be formed in the ground. Not because of its weight, for that hadn't changed, but because of the sheer muscular power inherent with each footfall. Taisen had yet to feel so much as fatigued, the feats of strength he performed being a result of his enhanced body and really requiring very little effort to speak of. But the new thing he now faced was simply unreal. He charged it, empowered by his impending victory, and it didn't go according to plan at all. One second he was about to punch its lights out, it's not entirely clear what happened the next second, but the second after that he was three feet deep into a brick wall with the Chaos feeling as fresh as if it just had a shower and a shave.

Whatever this new thing was, it was clearly above and beyond what it used to be. If fact, it may just have been above and beyond anything the world had ever seen before. But the most frightening part was that it had lost that angry look that signified it had no control. Its face was passive beneath the deformities, its posture relaxed, its mind lucid. Not only had it just kicked everything up a notch and set the bar for the rest of the world, it was completely in control of itself. A creeping chill prickled Taisen's spine as it stood and stared, waiting to see if he would emerge from his hole to keep fighting. It felt to him that his shoulder might have been dislocated, and the simple possibility of that boggled his mind. So much so that he had to spend another few seconds sitting in his wall hole before he could wrap his brain around it and start moving again.

Instead of attacking him right away, it let him crawl forth from the crater and pop his shoulder back into place before popping it's neck like a badass and setting off with a speed so unreal Taisen couldn't do anything but wonder how much this was going to hurt. He had to remind himself as he felt his bones crack and his body bruise that this was a contest of will, and that as long as he didn't quit he couldn't die. About the time his skull slammed into the ground and his neck compacted in on itself, he found this to be really, really hard to do. At this point, if this had been an arm-wrestling contest, he would have lost instantly, because the strength this thing employed was astronomical. This might have been manageable if it hadn't been as fast as a race horse on top of it all, while Taisen was decidedly slower due to the bulk he carried.

So severe was the beating the super-chaos gave him that he lost his grip on the path of destruction and shrunk back down to his normal size. Naturally, he felt to the Chaos as if he had just dropped weight from a bowling ball to an action figure, so it decided to play with him by throwing him farther than he had been thrown so far. It strolled calmly in the same general direction as Taisen hurtled uncontrollably through the screaming air, content to let him stew in his own discomfort until it got there. If it was possible for him to die at this point, it was a miracle that he hadn't. He savored the gap between hitting the ground and the Chaos completing its casual walk to him, using the time to bleed and try to think of something. By the time he could see the blacks of its eyes, he still had no idea.

[Ancestor Febrie]

+20

[Molokai]

80/120

Taisen had reserves. He knew he had reserves. His chaos wasn't the only boost he kept hidden up his sleeve. The only question was could anything he could muster be enough to even slow down the unstoppable creature the Chaos had become? His only choice was to try. He was faster now that his size had returned to normal, but all of his strength was contained in the little toe of this beast, so that was little consolation. Could he possibly out-speed it into submission? The way it had moved without him even noticing suggested to him that that was also out of the question. At least, it was out of the question while still retaining his reasonable thought. If he simply got angry enough, he could match it's speed and lessen the strength gap, but would that prove to be helpful?

It was lucid, Taisen could see that much by the way that it now moved with a purpose. If it was capable of rational thought with it's indomitable strength and impressive speed, losing his own thought would put him in a worse position, no matter how much his physicality was enhanced. This was more than just a tactician's battle, more than just a barroom brawl. In both of those situations, Taisen had something to his advantage. No, this thing had the strategic striking finesse with the power of pure brute savagery to a degree nobody had ever seen before. If Taisen didn't start busting out the dirty tricks, he'd be beaten to a literal pulp in a matter of seconds. No more time to think, the creature was upon him with a foot aimed for his face, and since he hadn't thought of standing up, it was going to hit.

Taisen did the very first thing that came to his mind and put his head behind his arm, elbow facing forward. The pain that subsequently erupted through his arm further confirmed that this was probably the most muscularly powerful being on the planet. But for some reason he didn't fly quite as far as he expected to, and a quick inspection revealed that none of his bones had broken. Now, it was incredibly unlikely that this was because it wasn't strong enough. Chancing a look at it, it appeared as though it was favoring the foot that had just thrown the kick. It became immediately obvious that it had pulled the kick at the last second, likely viewing the elbow and having enough sense not to fully commit. But more important than that was that it was favoring the slightly injured foot, revealing that it felt it.

Upon closer examination, it seemed that the smashed bones of its face and the numerous lacerations along its back and arms were also bothering it a bit. Admittedly, they weren't slowing it down one bit, and certainly not bothering it as much as they would have bothered a normal person, but the fact that it could feel pain was heartening. Maybe all Taisen had to do was endure until the thousands of shards of glass in its body caused it to bleed out. Or maybe he had to give it more shards of glass to speed up the process. As it approached to give him another hell-punt, it finally occurred to him to stand up and face it, only to charge immediately to his right and bust through the nearest wall. He wanted the inside of this building to be a bar, and so it was. Strutting with confidence, the Chaos didn't expect for a second the chair that slammed into its chest.

[Molokai]

??/120

The chair didn't do half of the damage it should have done, but by this point Taisen had come to expect that. Somebody somewhere must have thrown a chair, because it was fucking on. Furniture shattering against the Chao's chest staggered it a few steps, which wasn't much, but it was enough for Taisen to grab it by its collar and heave it the rest of the way inside. Another cheap piece of furniture was smashed to teeny-tiny bits as Taisen brought the Chaos down on top of a table and pushed it through to the floor. Not hanging around to get grabbed, he immediately stood up and took a nice chianti off the wall to smash against its head. The meaty, heavy bottle actually gave two solid hits before it shattered, filling the Chaos's wounds with stinging alcohol and blinding it with blood and bubbly.

While it was still trying to recover from being bashed with expensive wine, Taisen slipped around to grab it by its hair and throw it against the bar. Rather, he threw it into the bar. Its bulk combined with Taisen's great strength took out about half of the bar and sent several racks of classy booze careening onto the intruder's head. At this point, he was trying to stay on a roll and not give it time to recover and pummel him to dust, so he followed this up by snagging a pool cue from a nearby table. When the chaos was about halfway to recovery, Taisen snapped the cue against the side of its head and could swear its eyes spun in place for a moment. But, because his interest was in incapacitating the unstoppable beast, he took the broken half of pool cue and nailed its hand to the floor.

Naturally, it immediately went to retrieve the giant stake holding its appendage to the floor, so Taisen took this opportunity to bring a steel barstool down upon its unsuspecting form. At first, nothing happened to the stool, although the Chaos flinched at the impact. After the second hit, when Taisen was beginning to get angry that the Chaos kept moving, a large dent appeared. The third hit wrapped the stool around the prone form and rendered the steel frame useless. For some reason, the Chaos's body just wouldn't break. It just wouldn't go down. It just wouldn't die. Taisen got angrier and angrier with each successive hit that didn't halt the Chaos's movement once and for all, and was thoroughly surprised when the uninjured hand of his victim grabbed his wrist mid-swing and held it there authoritatively.

The next attack was less of a surprise, but was still very, very close. The Chaos, with the pool cue still sticking through its hand, pulled the cue out of the ground and tried to stab Taisen in the throat. If Taisen had tried to catch its wrist with his hand he would have been overpowered and promptly ended. Luckily, the thought occurred to him to present his elbow instead. This action caused the sharp, bloody end of the cue to stop just short of his vital arteries and put the two of them in a small stalemate. Ending a stalemate with a foot in the ass isn't the most glorious way imaginable, but the force of the Chaos's boot presented greater problems than humiliation. Tossed like he weighed nothing, Taisen flew head-first into the remnants of the booze shelves that the Chaos had destroyed earlier. The Chaos pulled the cue from its hand and went to finish its job.

[Molokai]

??/120

The Chaos's committed lunge with the sharpened half of pool cue was narrowly avoided, leaving it lodged in the floorboards between Taisen's outspread legs. Not wanting to give it another chance, Taisen brought his feet together and pushed himself forward with his hands. Mule-kick of Might, he would have called it if he had time for naming silly moves. Since he hadn't, and this was in fact a far too serious situation for moves with names, it was simply a kick to the face that got the unstoppable monster the hell away from him. Taisen kept his momentum going and chased the Chaos through its flight, grabbing a small table on the way. With expert timing, he assisted the Chaos's return to earth with help of the table, again smashed to countless pieces between the two of them.

The Chaos was bleeding, its body was filled with glass and splinters, its limbs were breaking, it was slowly but surely being defeated by its slower and weaker adversary. It was beginning to realize that its transformation into the ultimate being had been too late, that the damage it had sustained in its out of control form was taking its toll, and that the damage it had failed to do before its transformation probably would have saved it. It only felt half of what was being done to it, in fact it was only affected by half, which is why the real Taisen was having such a time getting it to stay down. It was faster, it was stronger, it was better in every way, shape and form. It looked like he wanted to look, it fought like he wanted to fight, it was smart, capable, and more importantly free in all the ways he was not.

But he had gained an early advantage. He had surprised it once and kept up the pressure so it hadn't had time to recover, and that was now beginning to spell its demise. As the table smashed atop of it, driving glass deeper into its back and wood deeper into its front, it showed pain for the first time. It winced and cringed, knowing that the pain it was feeling was only half of what Taisens capability was. It struck out at his knee, and with its great strength it would easily have bent it in the wrong direction with the greatest of ease. But despite its great speed, Taisen was still a master of taijutsu, and wouldn't likely be caught by such a thing. Almost as punishment for this attempted injury, Taisen's foot caught the Chaos's ribs and sent it skidding across the room, causing more pain from the glass shards than the kick itself.

It coughed and sputtered, showing for the first time since the fight began that the advantage didn't belong to it. But Taisen was still frustrated by this, because surely it should have submitted to him by now and given him its power. But it wasn't quite ready to roll over and die, not just yet. It wanted to show Taisen just what kind of power he was going to achieve, and for that it wanted to hit him. Just once, but with the full power of the ultimate level of Chaos, just because it wanted to show him what for. If it could draw out that rage it knew dwelt within him, it may just regain its dominance by taking advantage of his irrational state. But this was no longer a battle of competing for control over Taisens body. Now the Chaos wanted Taisen to prove he could handle its power before it gave in to him.

[KARKAT]

+30 <3

[Molokai]

??/120

Taisen was pretty much content to kick this thing while it was down until it finally stopped breathing and he gained its power. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready to lie down and take that if it had anything to say about it. His heavy, steel-toed boot stopped abruptly in the hands of the Chaos. Rather than have his ankle spin like a top as the Chaos wrenched it violently, he jumped and allowed himself to twirl unceremoniously until he fell to the ground. He clicked his heels together just as the kick from the Chaos came, which had him sliding across the floor and smashing through the remainder of the furniture. The force of that kick had simply felt like a push as far as the Chaos was concerned, and Taisen crashed through space like he had just reentered the atmosphere.

Not really in the mood to take another hit like that, Taisen rolled back to his feet as soon as he slowed down enough not to fall right back over and squared himself against the Chaos. He caught where it was, still lying in a pile of blood and alcohol, and realized that it had that much power on its dying legs. Even facing its own demise, it could muster power that Taisen had never even dreamed of. He wanted that power. He really, really wanted that power, and in order to get it he was fully prepared to stake it in the heart. Luckily, with all the chair and table debris in the convenient bar, it was the easiest thing in the world for him to find one. Taking the sharpest looking chair leg he could find and holding it backhand, he stalked toward the dying Chaos to finish it once and for all.

It put up a bit of a fight, struggling back to its feet and swaying slightly as it stood, but Taisen wasn't about to let it swing at him. With a swift kick, he sent the corpse of the pool table hurtling through the air to put the Chaos back down. With a skillful display, it put out its fist and busted the thick table into two pieces, neither of which hit the bulk of it. However, the amount of effort this appeared to take sent it into another bleeding fit and it dropped to its knees anyway. It looked up at Taisen. Not feebly, the way a dying man who's tired of it all looks, but nobly, the way the most powerful creature ever created looks at the one who defeated it. With a sound between a grunt and a roar, Taisen drove the wooden stake into its back, piercing its heart and putting it down.

In the real world, his eyes snapped open and the most intense noise he ever heard filled his head. It was a ringing. Not like a telephone ringing, but a constant, high-pitched tone that came and went in waves. With each wave it got louder and louder, until it was so loud he felt it more than he heard it, until it reverberated through his skull and drowned out everything else. He wanted to clasp his hands to his ears to stop the noise, but for some reason he was paralyzed. Even if he could move, the sound existed inside his head, so it wouldn't have made a difference. Just before it became literally unbearable, it stopped. He suddenly felt like his whole body relaxed when he didn't know he was tense. The world was in black and white, but all of his thoughts were present, and when he stood up, his footsteps left craters.

[KARKAT]

Learned~<3

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

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.

0/90

Recently, one of Taisen's clones that he sent to investigate a disturbance at the gates, found itself confronted with an exceptionally powerful shinobi. The church that hides the gate was almost completely destroyed, and more than likely Chase was lost as the powerful enemy escaped. These all culminated to one conclusion; that Taisen needed to get stronger if he were to keep up with the world. In order to do that, he would get beaten senseless until his body became immune to being beaten. This was how he would progress to being invincible, and this is why three shadow clones with large, heavy sticks surrounded him with devious looks on their faces. Taisen stood in the middle of the circle wearing a loose, comfortable outfit, legs bent in a squat, arms out in front of him, looking grim.

The first clone stepped forward, cocked its stick back, and smashed the meaty limb into Taisen's ribs at full force. A crack was heard, and it wasn't immediately obvious if it was his ribs or the stick. Pain erupted across his side and almost overloaded his brain, the strike being forceful enough to scoot him an inch along the ground. Meanwhile, his clone examined the stick to discover the source of the cracking noise, and for some reason made a face when it was discovered that the stick had splintered a bit. Without giving its creator any warning whatsoever, it switched up its position and brought the damaged stick along Taisen's other side. The stick snapped and whipped around, striking the front of his abdomen as well as putting a huge welt on his ribs. Both of the strikes hurt a lot, an effect less than what could have been but more than desired.

There really was a science to all of this, a science that Taisen only understood because when he was beaten in his childhood he discovered that it stopped hurting after a while. Perhaps the slavers understood the science as well, and weren't beating him for punishment or sadistic enjoyment, but were in fact toughening him up so he could last longer in the arena. Whatever their reasoning was, the result was the same. The impacts create micro-fractures within bones and muscles, which then proceed to heal like all wounds do. Bones are porous on the micro-scale, and the micro-fractures cause the edges of these pores to overlap. When these overlapping edges heal, they fuse, causing the bone itself to steadily increase in density. The higher the bone density, the harder they are to break.

Muscles undergo a similar effect, as does skin, and the nerves will be deadened as well. So the idea is that the beatings will toughen up his body so that subsequent hits won't actually affect him quite so much. The only problem is that between now and then he was going to be in a lot of pain. Along comes a second clone with a second stick while the first one went off to find another, and the beatings continue. Instead of aiming for his ribs, it decided to see if Taisen's thighs were stronger than wood. Turns out they were, but the huge bundle of sensitive nerves on the part of his leg that got his caused a cramp that quite literally put him on his ass. He had to sit there and not use his leg muscles at all until the pain stopped before getting up and asking for another. This was going to be a long day.

[Molokai]

??/90

Wolff's law, that's what it was called. The idea was simple, that the bones of a healthy animal will adapt and reform themselves to handle the loads they're placed under. Taisen, placing sudden, sharp loads on his bones with the application of big guys with big stucks, planned on reshaping his bones to handle huge impact forces. Thinking about all of this reminded him that he wasn't a complete moron, and distracted him from the fact that his clones were having way too good a time beating the hell out of him. Every time the huge stick impacted against his ribs, he wanted to cry out and recoil away from the blow, wanted the sadistic fuckers to stop with the beating so he could go rest. But, he kept thinking about the later benefits, about how if somebody were to strike him like this later, it wouldn't do a damn thing to him.

For some reason, the clones seemed to have an unusual fixation with trying to break his ribs. When he flinched, they became encouraged and thought they could get him to wimp out, so they became more enthusiastic about it. Two of them were taking turns whomping on either side of his exposed ribs, producing disturbing cracking noises that may or many not have been the sticks, and the third stood in the background preparing a surprise for later. Sooner or later, Taisen would have to stop and take a break, preferably before he suffered a break, and give his bones a chance to heal. See, bones don't just magically become harder by smacking them a lot, they need time to heal to actually gain the hardness they needed.

See, the science lies in the bone's internal structure, little honeycombed sections called trabeculae. With incredible impact, these little columns break and overlap, then heal into each other and become thicker, denser. The trabeculae of Taisen's ribs were almost at their limit, and it would soon descend into simple breaking rather than reshaping and thickening. Hopefully the clones would figure that out before it got to that point and move on to another part of his body. This kind of cycle of beatings would probably last all day, then all of the next day will likely be relaxing and healing, perhaps a trip to the medical complex to have this process sped up, and then right back to it until Taisens wielding big sticks ceased to do damage or cause pain.

Another effect of this very strange sight of a man beating himself was the deadening of nerves. On top of the bones literally being reformed to resist the impact, the nerves that would send pain to his brain are being purposely damaged so that they don't send pain to his brain. Yes, as well as not actually being damaged, hitting himself over and over again makes everything hurt less as well. While this time it was purposeful, his natural toughness up until now had simply occurred as a necessity of his life. Before being sealed in the box, being beaten for show and for punishment day in and day out had made him very nearly invincible. Now that there was a science and a purpose behind it, Taisen planned on becoming literally invincible.

[JiMmIyZ - Hel]

+20

[Molokai]

20/90

But invincibility was a long and painful road yet to travel. Both of Taisen's flanks, the whole side and almost meeting in the center, was now bruised nearly black. Why would somebody who didn't have a death wish purposely subject himself to this kind of abuse? It would be crazy to say he was doing it to make himself harder to kill. And yet that was precisely the reason he claimed to be doing it. Crazy or not, though, his ribs had had enough, and any more would actually start to be a detriment to his goal. So, it would seem reasonable to stop doing that at this point right? Wrong. Instead, the clones with sticks and slight sadomasochistic leanings would move on to beating his thighs until the muscles and bones therein resisted breaking and damage.

The femur is the largest bone in the human body, and the thigh is the largest muscle. Not to mention that there are at least two highly sensitive pressure points on the thigh, both of which are capable of rendering the leg impossible to stand on if struck hard enough. As soon as Taisen thought that, the clone thought the exact same thing and slammed him with all its might right on the bundle of nerves. Taisen buckled, not so much because of the pain, but more because the strike caused his leg to involuntarily cramp up and refuse to support him. Surprise, surprise, the other clone took this as an opportunity to hit the same corresponding nerve on the opposite leg, thus all but crippling him. This was a huge, huge problem, and the only way to fix it was to let them keep hitting it until the bundle of nerves died.

But dear lord, was it painful. Every time the very, very strong clones of the taijutsu master brought down their very, very hard sticks on his very, very sensitive nerves, all of this muscles cramped up and put him on the ground. After about three times of dropping to his knees and suffering until his muscles loosened up, he managed to tough it out for two whole hits before it happened again. While the healing process would eventually reveal if his nerves had truly been killed or are just being temporarily numbed, Taisen felt as though progress was being made. Sooner or later he stopped buckling whenever he got hit and was able to endure by making a face and flexing at the point of impact. The clones did what they were supposed to do and started hitting him harder and harder, but he still wouldn't go down.

The sadism of these clones against their own creator was really something to behold. Maybe somewhere deep down inside, Taisen didn't particularly like himself or somehow thought he deserved punishment. Whatever pain was causing the clones to lash out against him, it wasn't at the forefront of his mind quite like the pain was. He didn't particularly remember anything from before the seal was opened. What he did remember was that he was some form of gladiator and that somehow shaped him into the kind of person that beat himself in order to get stronger. He believed he was frequently beaten as either training or punishment, but his guess was as good as anyone's. A cracking noise was heard, and it was uncertain if it was his leg or the stick that just slammed into it.

[Molokai]

??/90

Strangely colored bruises were starting to spread from where the heavy wooden bludgeons were striking his flesh. Far from the normal black and blue, there were now hues of green and pink and brown, making Taisen's thighs and ribs appear as though they were rotting from the inside out. Necrosis, it's called, and something about the idea gave Taisen pause for thought. During this pause, which in retrospect probably shouldn't have been a surprise, one of the clones accidentally hit him in the head on purpose. This proved to be a good excuse to stop and rest for a moment, to wait for the throbbing to die down and see if he would ever be able to move his legs again. The clones, too, seemed winded. Apparently Taisen's wavering strength was affecting them.

Knowing that, it seemed logical that once he got beaten and weakened enough that the clones wouldn't have the energy to continue, at which point he could successfully call it a stopping point. Whatever percentage of his body was broken and scarred at that point would have to do for a few days until he was well enough to make more clones. He would have to be careful, though. If his fingers broke and he didn't get them fixed properly it could potentially inhibit his fighting and his handseal formation. Despite only forming one or two handseals over the course of his lifetime, he rather liked his shadow clones and would be very disappointed if he lost the use of them, which would be especially traumatic if it were the clones themselves that caused the loss.

So, while he caught his breath and summoned his wavering strength to stand up, his clones also had a bit of a breather and seemed a little less enthusiastic about hitting him again. It occurred to Taisen that maybe the clones are aware of being clones and know that beating their creator is endangering their existence. It was fortunate they weren't too self-aware, otherwise they'd start thinking about how their only purpose in life was the role of an expendable pawn and get all depressed or something. It was inspiring to see that they weren't gung-ho on hitting him like they were before, and therefore there might be hope that their creator could survive this bit of training. Next on the list, shins.

The shins are like bony clubs built in to the bottom of everyone's legs. The whole front is a hard bone, backed by thick, strong muscles. They're a great weapon that doesn't cost anyone anything to have, but if your weapon is soft it's not going to help you very much. Instead of kicking banana trees to strengthen his shins, Taisen decided to have his clones hit them with hardwood. In theory, the likelihood of permanent or grievous damage was much higher, but considering how Taisen's body operated at levels above and beyond those of normal human beings it should balance out. But, goddamn did it hurt. Thin skin being smashed between hard wood and hard bone at high velocities made for very sensitive nerve endings having something to say about it. But as the sticks came smashing, Taisen gritted his teeth and fought through it.

[Molokai]

??/90

In karate, it's called iron body training. In a gladiatorial arena, it's called practice. The memories aren't clear, just vague recollections of pain and anger. Those times were a long, long time ago. More than a hundred years ago, those arenas where Taisen became the person he is existed. Some time during his stay in the Internal Imprisonment seal, the arenas had been torn down, and gladiatorial slavery had been abolished. This left Taisen free to arise from his slumber and beat himself in the absence of a slaver, punishment for crimes he had yet to commit. For some reason, his shins were on fire. A hard plank of solidified flame was bashing against his exposed flesh again and again and again. Why was this happening? What had he done? When was it going to stop?

He couldn't have lost a fight, because if he had he wouldn't be alive. Maybe his win hadn't pleased the crowd. Maybe he had been the underdog but won anyway, causing people to lose money, and that was why he was being punished. Too bad, the people beating him didn't know that hitting him made him stronger. His body was different from the others, that much was certain. Otherwise crippling blows never injured him as much as they did the other slaves, and after each one it only seemed to get harder to do it again. Again with the fire on his shins. The shins seemed to be their favorite target, because they knew that the skin would tear easily and it would be sore longer. The men with the solid flames seemed to like hurting him, which wasn't surprising considering they didn't have to fight so long as they did a good job.

But Taisen wouldn't break. He couldn't break. It was impossible. His body was unbreakable, his spirit was unbreakable. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, he was invulnerable. Pain couldn't effect him, injury couldn't stop him, death couldn't become him. So long as he could continue to concentrate, he could endure anything they sent at him, win every battle they put him in. Right now, this was his battle. A battle with fatigue, a battle with pain, a battle with the desire to lash out at the wielders of the fire and add them to the pile of bodies in his wake. No, he couldn't hurt them, because they made him stronger. They hit him, and his body grew harder and harder to kill. They wouldn't kill him, for they themselves would be punished. They got to live because they made him stronger.

Those who tried to kill him made him stronger with each failure. The harder they tried, the stronger he got. Brushes with death made it harder to brush with it again. Nearly dying was like a drug, the more times you do it, the harder you have to try to do it again. Goddamn, his shins hurt. His calves hurt, too. They were hitting the back of his legs now. Have to make the pain even, have to make the strength even. The wielders of the fire were precise and meticulous, targeting their savagery beautifully. If they had gone the path of the artisan, they could make wonderful paintings. But they instead channeled that into making Taisen a living monument to invincibility. If he survived enough brushes with death, maybe if he became resistant enough, he could become immune to death. And the pain kept coming.

[Molokai]

??/90

A crunching noise reached Taisen's ears. Then the pain stopped coming. A slow throb echoed through his nerves, creating whispers of agony across his wounded form. Extensive bruising such as this, if he had received this much from a fight he would have considered it a loss. But he was doing this on purpose. Or, somebody somewhere told him that he was doing this on purpose. In his mind, eyes closed and teeth gnashing against the oncoming storm, he saw explosions of light whenever his heart beat. The blasted, unstoppable muscle pumped blood to his wounds and reminded him with each thump of what he was doing to himself. For some reason, the cause of the pain had stopped and he was forced to wallow in the void between now and then.

Strange, his arms didn't hurt. Usually, after a battle, his arms were always sore. He was bad at kicking, he was always worried that somebody could grab his leg and throw him off balance. He liked to keep both feet on the ground, use them what they were meant for. Then he liked to use his hands for what they were meant for, destroying whatever was put in front of him. He knew his lot in life. He was a destroyer. He took what was beautiful that others made and broke it to the best of his ability. And now other people stood around him, trying to destroy him with all their might. Try and try, they didn't expect that they were actually creating. Their random blows were crafting a perfect being, one impervious to disease, injury, and death itself. From the randomness came perfection, how poetic.

But the birth by fire was Taisen's trial to see if he could handle becoming perfect. He didn't fit into the mold in his natural form. He would have to be reshaped in order to become perfect, in order to become invincible, immortal. The pounding and chipping away at his body took away the excess that blocked him from being perfect. As his body healed, it reshaped itself to be closer to perfection. His body knew what perfect was, and it longed for it as much as his mind and spirit longed for it, and thus it needed to be chipped away so that it could regrow into the desirable shape. Somehow, though, the chipping had stopped. Why had the solid flames stopped hitting him? Why wasn't he being molded any longer? Don't stop. Keep shaping him into an invulnerable being. Don't stop.

But it had stopped. Why had it stopped? His arms weren't even sore, so clearly he hadn't battled hard enough. And yet he was alive, so he couldn't have lost. What was happening? Where'd the punishment go? What had just been going on? Suddenly, a rush of wind and a flash of light, and Taisen remembered where he was and what he was doing. In front of him he saw the sky and a ring of leaves, and something cold and hard was pressed against his back. He saw a cloud, drifting across the sky that was directly in front of him. How was the sky like that? Because he wasn't standing. It took him a moment to reorient himself, but he realized that he was laying on his back. The beating had stopped because he had passed out. Definitely time for a break. It wasn't clear if the pain or the memory caused him this to happen, but he wasn't too keen on getting back up right away.

[JiMmIyZ - Hel]

+40

[Molokai]

60/90

It's hard to tell where the memory ends and the fever dream begins. Maybe the two are intertwined, hallucinations corrupting his memory while the memories cause the hallucinations. But why was he seeing these things now? Clearly being systematically beaten triggered some kind of basal, post-traumatic response that sent him to another world while it was going on. This, however, wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Compartmentalizing this sensation, he'd be able to endure more pain and further the physical training to a greater degree than if he had to experience all of it. Awesome, with that decided it was time to get back to. . . Aw, hell. His legs didn't work. Without him noticing, the beating had tenderized his leg muscles and rendered them useless.

At least, that's how it seemed. The possibility existed that he hadn't pounded his own limbs into a useless state, and was simply still dreaming. Yeah, that made sense. He passed out and he still hadn't woken up, and so he would have to fight to regain the use of his legs in order to overcome the hardship of something or other. The details were sketchy and probably bullshit he came up with because he couldn't think of anything else, but it gave him something to do other than get hit. Wiggle your big toe, he thought. Come on, wiggle your big toe. Shit. If it was wiggling, it was hidden by the steel-toed boot. Which wouldn't explain why he couldn't feel it moving. Chances were that he couldn't feel it moving because it wasn't moving. Too bad, he really rather liked his legs.

Turned out he could move his head around just fine, something he discovered when his clones returned from wherever they had gone and stood over him. In his surprise that he was truly awake, he turned his head to stare at each of them individually to convince himself that they were really there. Suddenly it struck him that he was moving, and when he tried to move his arms they worked perfectly as well. Unsurprisingly, his legs also seemed to be functioning properly, although they were still incredibly sore. Rising shakily to his feet, the bruised and broken muscles of his legs crying out in protest at the exertion, Taisen prepared himself to finish off the rest of his body. He did some weird kung-fu thing he kinda made up and stuck his hands in front of him while making an L with each hand.

The clones did what they were best at, and promptly smacked his outstretched arms with all their might. Right on the upper arm, bicep area. Lo and behold, another one of those really, really painful nerve bundles that made him want to cramp up. Along with that blow, two of the clones set up shop behind him and brought their sticks down on his shoulders, right on that big tendon next to the neck. Taisen's face suddenly developed a black hole and the whole thing twisted in on itself. A quick tap on his triceps and deltoids at the same damn time sent his compressed countenance bursting forth into the world with a whimper. With his knees shaking so badly he could barely stay standing, getting hit more was the last thing he wanted for himself. But, until the job was done, he had to keep it up.