08-09-2016, 03:40 AM
“So, what brought you out to the Pale Moors, Goku?”
Justin was back in good spirits – at least, for the most part. Camp had been broken and now the long, hard trek across this decrepit landscape could begin. At first, Goku had hovered overhead to help provide a wider field of vision – but it didn’t take long for him to realise that it was seriously exhausting to keep that up! Now, the party trudged together, doing their best to keep up their spirits with light conversation. It was a flimsy defence against the continuous malaise inspired by the PaleMoors, but it was a start.
“Oh? Is that what this place is called?”
It would have been a lore more effective as a countermeasure if Goku didn’t seem to have all the wit and intellect of a potato.
“Yes.” Justin said, as patiently as he could. “How could you not know that?”
Goku laughed, and gave an easy shrug of his shoulders. “Well, the gate to this place looked kind of creepy with all the grey stone and mould—“
“You mean moss.”
“Yeah, sure. Anyway I figured that there had to be some reason everyone else seemed to be avoiding it, so maybe there were strong guys through there!”
This time, it was Gabriel’s turn to laugh, shaking his head at the naivety of his new traveling companion. “Well, I can’t fault your logic. There definitely are a lot of ‘strong guys’ in this place, that’s part of the problem.”
Goku sighed, looking around the windswept moor. Even the grass seemed to have had the life sucked out of it; brittle and dark, the ground beneath his feet was unpleasantly hard, and there was no sign of anything moving out there. No sign of any enemy to fight at all. As far as he could tell, there were only two hazards in this place. The cold wind, which bit relentlessly at their faces as they were forced to walk into it… and boredom; a far more nefarious foe which could not so easily be banished.
“Hey, hey, Justin, how long is it going to take to get there, anyway?”
The astronomer pursed his lips, looking up into the sky as though he could discern that fact from the movement of the clouds above.
“Difficult to say.” He said, “We have to keep going. I believe the piece has fallen somewhere north of a regional landmark known as the Black Gate.”
Goku strode ahead of the group, turning so he could look Justin in the eye as he continued to walk backwards. “Oh? Is that far?”
“A few weeks travel under ordinary circumstances.”
Goku’s foot suddenly dug into the earth; the unpleasantly-firm ground treacherously giving way and sending him toppling over backwards with a cry – despite his best efforts to save himself by whirling his arms around dramatically. “Owaaaaah!”
Landing with a heavy thump, Goku rubbed at his rear end and tutted “Weeks, weeks! What have I gotten myself into? I’ll go crazy just walking for weeks!”
Gabriel’s hand clasped over his own, and the shorter man found himself being dragged back up to his feet by the Captain, who could not keep his amusement from his lips.
“Perhaps you should worry more about keeping your eyes on the road than about how long it will take us to get across the Moors.” He suggested. “There is danger everywhere for the unwary traveller.”
Goku dusted himself back down, and sighed. “So you keep promising, but we’ve been walking for HOURS and nobody has tried to stop us yet!”
It didn’t help their newfound friend that they had made the decision to stay off the roads. Whilst it was true that the roads offered some scant degree of safety from the roaming monsters and foul beasts which called the Pale Moors their home, they were watched by the far more calculating monsters who ruled over the place. If they were going to be successful in their mission, they had to keep the powers that be guessing about the true purpose of their quest; and most especially the place they were actually going to. That meant braving the countryside itself rather than the network of dirt-packed roads which serviced the few settlements in the region.
Lunch was another education for the astronomer and his retinue. Watching Goku eat was like watching some terrible beast tear apart its prey. Justin had wondered, perhaps, if the breakfast display was simply a case of the warrior being especially hungry after taxing himself against the zombies of the previous night. After watching Goku devour enough rations for three men in the time it took him to eat half of his own… that did not seem to be the case. It was lucky for all concerned that they had continued to bring the extra supplies they had packed for the dead men… and even so, Justin found himself wondering if their little party would have to contend with the hungry saiyan just as surely as every other threat out there before this business was concluded.
“Aaah, that’s so much better!” Goku exclaimed, sitting back and resting on his hands now that the rumbling in his belly had finally subsided. “So, Gabriel, you seem pretty strong! What do you call your style?”
The Captain was a little taken aback by the question, and had to genuinely consider it for a few moments. “Well.” He said at last, “I trained under Swordsmaster Lionheart, so I suppose it would be the Lionheart style.” Casting his mind back to the stern-faced Swordsmaster, Gabriel had a hard time imagining that he’d ever accept anything so needlessly baroque as a style named after himself. His was a functional, decisive style of combat; he’d been given a sword and taught how to kill his enemies with it. Why did that need a name?
“Ohoh! Lionheart Style? That sounds impressive!” Goku enthused, “I definitely want to have that sparring match soon!”
Gabriel looked at the hunk of bread in his hand, stale and unappetising, as though it might hold the answers to his questions. After taking another reluctant bite from it, and swallowing it down, he turned his attention back to the man who could actually answer them, though.
“You seem to enjoy fighting a lot, Goku. Why is that?”
For the first time, the newcomer seemed to hesitate – to actually think about the question which had been asked of him. “I suppose.” He said at last, “It is just what I’ve always done! I like to test myself, and martial arts have been my life ever since I was a little kid.” He smiled, a faint little grin daring to tug up at the corner of his lips. “If you asked Vegeta, I guess he’d say it is my saiyan blood.”
Gabriel shared a look with Justin, and several of the other guards surreptitiously put their hands on their weapons. None of them recognised the term, but if it turned out that this guy was some sort of demon…
Gabriel tried to sound relaxed. “Saiyan?”
“Oh right! You guys probably don’t know what that is!” Goku exclaimed, “Ah, basically, it is a kind of alien? There’s not many of them left because they were a warrior race who really loved fighting!”
Odd that he’d refer to his people in the past tense, but then again, there really weren’t many of them left. Two full-blooded ones at any rate.
“I see.” Lied the Captain, “And is that how you fly around without any means of support?”
That, too, had been the cause of a little disquiet amongst the men – but then, magic was hardly some mysterious unknown in the Kingdom, and it had been easier to think of Goku as some sort of wandering wizard of martial arts than anything else. Who questioned the ways of wizards?
“Eeeeeh…” Goku began, “I guess it probably didn’t hurt, but really that’s a technique I learned when—“
Suddenly, the conversation was interrupted by a loud, soul-shaking scream. The martial artist was on his feet in an instant, and the guards drew their weapons, forming up around Justin with all the smooth precision of a well-oiled machine.
“Where did that come from?” Gabriel asked.
Goku’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”
If there was one thing that Goku was finding difficult to deal with, it was the loss of his senses. Over decades he had honed his ability to feel ki; to learn the intricate way that energy played through all living things. He didn’t know whether the strange ‘dead’ monsters that this place seemed to be infested with would even fall under that purview, but he would at least be able to feel the life force of his allies. Oh, it would have been nice to have his full strength and speed back, absolutely, but without his ability to sense energy it felt as though he were rendered half-blind to the world.
Instead, as the creeping sense of dread fell upon them, Goku was forced to take to the air again so that he could keep a watchful eye on all of them. The last thing he wanted was to be caught off-guard and watch one of them die for his mistake. This, of course, meant that he was by far the most obvious target.
The second shriek was coupled with the sound of something whistling through the air, and this time Goku was looking out for it. The spear which came streaking in was aiming directly for his heart; made of bone and yet razor sharp, it was more by luck than judgement that he was able to twist to the side, and the deadly missile struck deep into the earth.
There! The creature which had fired the spear was a horrifying example of the Pale Moors’ twisted inhabitants. A wretched, skeletal figure bent and misshapen, wrapped in tattered yellow cloth. Even as Goku watched, it reached into the folds of its cloak and pulled from within itself another long length of bone. The dirt-encrusted length flowed and melted like candle-wax until suddenly hardening into another barbed spear, its pointed tip eager to taste the flesh of the living.
Fear struck Goku’s heart as the creature lifted its weapon, and the air was rent asunder with a third shriek. This time, several of the guards – and Justin – were sent to their knees, shaking and trembling under the assault. Goku’s head snapped around, and he had just enough time to see the well of scarlet bloom on Justin’s nose before Gabriel shouted a wordless cry of warning…
This time, there was no chance of dodging. Acting purely on instinct, Goku pivoted his position in the air, and his foot crashed powerfully into the top of the spear. The impact sent a shudder running through his entire body, and the weapon’s course was successfully diverted, carving a deep furrow into the earth once more.
Sweat ran down Goku’s forehead, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. His ki sense might have abandoned him, but he could still feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, his heart beating faster at the prospect of another of those screams. They weren’t just natural sounds; they were an attack of some sort, trying to bear down on his will and make him an easier target. They had almost worked.
There was something almost mechanical in the way the skeletal figure reached once more inside itself, and this time, Goku wasn’t just going to stand there and let it have its own way. Streaking across the sky, Goku accelerated as fast as he could, hurtling towards the malevolent entity with renewed vigour.
“Oh no you don’t!”
As he closed on it, he could see the malevolence burning in the creature’s eye sockets. What had seemed purely dark before now revealed themselves to have tiny, burning embers in each dark pit. The hate that the creature had for its mortal quarry was plain to see… as was a sudden glint – a shine, as though Goku had fallen for its trap.
The monster’s mouth opened to unleash another shriek, but this time Goku’s fist was the answer that it got instead. The blow crashed into the side of the monster’s jaw, and the ancient bone shattered under the impact. What would have been a mind-melting shriek became little more than a pitiful mewl – the creature’s fearsome howl silenced with the straightforward, simple technique.
But rather than another spear, this time, the front of the damned soul’s robes exploded outwards as the creature’s ribcage burst forth into eight sharp spines.
Goku had enough time to register surprise – his eyes widening – but not enough to even begin to mitigate the damage. The spikes shot forwards with shocking speed, and before he could start to try and defend, two had stabbed deep into his shoulders, four into his chest, and two more down into the soft flesh of his thighs.
“Gwah!”
Blood began to flow, and even though there was no jaw with which to smile, those twinkling eyes seemed satisfied.
Gabriel stayed close to Justin – it was his duty to make sure that the astronomer made it through this alive, after all. As Goku closed on their adversary, the Captain tried to make out what he could of the monster. Yellow robes? Decrepit form? He hissed through his teeth.
“Juliet, do you recognise what that thing is?”
The most studious of the Guards stepped forward and squinted, cupping her hand over her eyes to make out more of the creature. “Shepherd of Bone.” She said, “This isn’t good, if that thing gets its claws into him—“
Almost the same instant that she said it, Goku’s fist crashed into the side of the creature’s jaw, and the trap was sprung.
Swearing, Gabriel surged forwards. After just the briefest hesitation, the guards followed.
Goku felt as though his bones were locking up; his skeletal structure seized by some strange outside force. Behind him, he could hear his allies coming across the distance to try and help. He couldn’t see, but he could hear the heavy armour crashing against the ground.
“NO!” He shouted, “STAY BACK!”
Fear had been banished from his heart, now, and there was only a pounding thrill in its place. He could feel this monster wrestling with him, trying to usurp control of his body through its strange magic. It thought that it had him trapped in place. Now it was time to show it the mistake that it had made.
Goku’s teeth ground together as he grunted, and his will pushed back against the invading force. Momentary surprise registered in those dark eye sockets, and the creature responded in kind. Trembling with the effort, straining for all he was worth, Goku’s hands came together at his side. The sweat now running down his body wasn’t due to fear; it was due to the intensity of the effort needed to force his form into motion.
It felt as though every bone in his body was grinding against each other, trying to push against his flesh, but he refused to let that stop him! The pain was intense, and he didn’t know how much longer he could stand before all the willpower in the world wouldn’t keep him on his feet. He wasn’t going to let this thing attack his friends, though! And he definitely wasn’t going to let it use his bones to do it!
Energy surged wildly around him as he gathered it, forced it into shape… he couldn’t go for a big one, but the monster had already proven to be quite brittle. Now that it was pinned in place – its ribcage locking them both together, all he had to do was…
“Kamehame … HA!”
If there was one set of motions his bones knew how to go through under any circumstance, this was it! His arms thrust forwards, and the bright lance of brilliant blue energy surged out. At point blank range, the creature was struck directly in its core. There was a blinding flash of light, Gabriel found his eyes averted all of a sudden…
And when he opened them again, Goku was still standing, arms stretched forwards. Smoking bones rained down all around him, and the warrior was completely out of breath. Blood flowed freely from the round, neat holes left in his body.
“I just need… a few, minutes.”
And with that reassuring statement given, Goku collapsed to the earth once more – his last thought before he passed out being that he was actually grateful for how hard the ground here could be.
Justin was back in good spirits – at least, for the most part. Camp had been broken and now the long, hard trek across this decrepit landscape could begin. At first, Goku had hovered overhead to help provide a wider field of vision – but it didn’t take long for him to realise that it was seriously exhausting to keep that up! Now, the party trudged together, doing their best to keep up their spirits with light conversation. It was a flimsy defence against the continuous malaise inspired by the PaleMoors, but it was a start.
“Oh? Is that what this place is called?”
It would have been a lore more effective as a countermeasure if Goku didn’t seem to have all the wit and intellect of a potato.
“Yes.” Justin said, as patiently as he could. “How could you not know that?”
Goku laughed, and gave an easy shrug of his shoulders. “Well, the gate to this place looked kind of creepy with all the grey stone and mould—“
“You mean moss.”
“Yeah, sure. Anyway I figured that there had to be some reason everyone else seemed to be avoiding it, so maybe there were strong guys through there!”
This time, it was Gabriel’s turn to laugh, shaking his head at the naivety of his new traveling companion. “Well, I can’t fault your logic. There definitely are a lot of ‘strong guys’ in this place, that’s part of the problem.”
Goku sighed, looking around the windswept moor. Even the grass seemed to have had the life sucked out of it; brittle and dark, the ground beneath his feet was unpleasantly hard, and there was no sign of anything moving out there. No sign of any enemy to fight at all. As far as he could tell, there were only two hazards in this place. The cold wind, which bit relentlessly at their faces as they were forced to walk into it… and boredom; a far more nefarious foe which could not so easily be banished.
“Hey, hey, Justin, how long is it going to take to get there, anyway?”
The astronomer pursed his lips, looking up into the sky as though he could discern that fact from the movement of the clouds above.
“Difficult to say.” He said, “We have to keep going. I believe the piece has fallen somewhere north of a regional landmark known as the Black Gate.”
Goku strode ahead of the group, turning so he could look Justin in the eye as he continued to walk backwards. “Oh? Is that far?”
“A few weeks travel under ordinary circumstances.”
Goku’s foot suddenly dug into the earth; the unpleasantly-firm ground treacherously giving way and sending him toppling over backwards with a cry – despite his best efforts to save himself by whirling his arms around dramatically. “Owaaaaah!”
Landing with a heavy thump, Goku rubbed at his rear end and tutted “Weeks, weeks! What have I gotten myself into? I’ll go crazy just walking for weeks!”
Gabriel’s hand clasped over his own, and the shorter man found himself being dragged back up to his feet by the Captain, who could not keep his amusement from his lips.
“Perhaps you should worry more about keeping your eyes on the road than about how long it will take us to get across the Moors.” He suggested. “There is danger everywhere for the unwary traveller.”
Goku dusted himself back down, and sighed. “So you keep promising, but we’ve been walking for HOURS and nobody has tried to stop us yet!”
It didn’t help their newfound friend that they had made the decision to stay off the roads. Whilst it was true that the roads offered some scant degree of safety from the roaming monsters and foul beasts which called the Pale Moors their home, they were watched by the far more calculating monsters who ruled over the place. If they were going to be successful in their mission, they had to keep the powers that be guessing about the true purpose of their quest; and most especially the place they were actually going to. That meant braving the countryside itself rather than the network of dirt-packed roads which serviced the few settlements in the region.
Lunch was another education for the astronomer and his retinue. Watching Goku eat was like watching some terrible beast tear apart its prey. Justin had wondered, perhaps, if the breakfast display was simply a case of the warrior being especially hungry after taxing himself against the zombies of the previous night. After watching Goku devour enough rations for three men in the time it took him to eat half of his own… that did not seem to be the case. It was lucky for all concerned that they had continued to bring the extra supplies they had packed for the dead men… and even so, Justin found himself wondering if their little party would have to contend with the hungry saiyan just as surely as every other threat out there before this business was concluded.
“Aaah, that’s so much better!” Goku exclaimed, sitting back and resting on his hands now that the rumbling in his belly had finally subsided. “So, Gabriel, you seem pretty strong! What do you call your style?”
The Captain was a little taken aback by the question, and had to genuinely consider it for a few moments. “Well.” He said at last, “I trained under Swordsmaster Lionheart, so I suppose it would be the Lionheart style.” Casting his mind back to the stern-faced Swordsmaster, Gabriel had a hard time imagining that he’d ever accept anything so needlessly baroque as a style named after himself. His was a functional, decisive style of combat; he’d been given a sword and taught how to kill his enemies with it. Why did that need a name?
“Ohoh! Lionheart Style? That sounds impressive!” Goku enthused, “I definitely want to have that sparring match soon!”
Gabriel looked at the hunk of bread in his hand, stale and unappetising, as though it might hold the answers to his questions. After taking another reluctant bite from it, and swallowing it down, he turned his attention back to the man who could actually answer them, though.
“You seem to enjoy fighting a lot, Goku. Why is that?”
For the first time, the newcomer seemed to hesitate – to actually think about the question which had been asked of him. “I suppose.” He said at last, “It is just what I’ve always done! I like to test myself, and martial arts have been my life ever since I was a little kid.” He smiled, a faint little grin daring to tug up at the corner of his lips. “If you asked Vegeta, I guess he’d say it is my saiyan blood.”
Gabriel shared a look with Justin, and several of the other guards surreptitiously put their hands on their weapons. None of them recognised the term, but if it turned out that this guy was some sort of demon…
Gabriel tried to sound relaxed. “Saiyan?”
“Oh right! You guys probably don’t know what that is!” Goku exclaimed, “Ah, basically, it is a kind of alien? There’s not many of them left because they were a warrior race who really loved fighting!”
Odd that he’d refer to his people in the past tense, but then again, there really weren’t many of them left. Two full-blooded ones at any rate.
“I see.” Lied the Captain, “And is that how you fly around without any means of support?”
That, too, had been the cause of a little disquiet amongst the men – but then, magic was hardly some mysterious unknown in the Kingdom, and it had been easier to think of Goku as some sort of wandering wizard of martial arts than anything else. Who questioned the ways of wizards?
“Eeeeeh…” Goku began, “I guess it probably didn’t hurt, but really that’s a technique I learned when—“
Suddenly, the conversation was interrupted by a loud, soul-shaking scream. The martial artist was on his feet in an instant, and the guards drew their weapons, forming up around Justin with all the smooth precision of a well-oiled machine.
“Where did that come from?” Gabriel asked.
Goku’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”
If there was one thing that Goku was finding difficult to deal with, it was the loss of his senses. Over decades he had honed his ability to feel ki; to learn the intricate way that energy played through all living things. He didn’t know whether the strange ‘dead’ monsters that this place seemed to be infested with would even fall under that purview, but he would at least be able to feel the life force of his allies. Oh, it would have been nice to have his full strength and speed back, absolutely, but without his ability to sense energy it felt as though he were rendered half-blind to the world.
Instead, as the creeping sense of dread fell upon them, Goku was forced to take to the air again so that he could keep a watchful eye on all of them. The last thing he wanted was to be caught off-guard and watch one of them die for his mistake. This, of course, meant that he was by far the most obvious target.
The second shriek was coupled with the sound of something whistling through the air, and this time Goku was looking out for it. The spear which came streaking in was aiming directly for his heart; made of bone and yet razor sharp, it was more by luck than judgement that he was able to twist to the side, and the deadly missile struck deep into the earth.
There! The creature which had fired the spear was a horrifying example of the Pale Moors’ twisted inhabitants. A wretched, skeletal figure bent and misshapen, wrapped in tattered yellow cloth. Even as Goku watched, it reached into the folds of its cloak and pulled from within itself another long length of bone. The dirt-encrusted length flowed and melted like candle-wax until suddenly hardening into another barbed spear, its pointed tip eager to taste the flesh of the living.
Fear struck Goku’s heart as the creature lifted its weapon, and the air was rent asunder with a third shriek. This time, several of the guards – and Justin – were sent to their knees, shaking and trembling under the assault. Goku’s head snapped around, and he had just enough time to see the well of scarlet bloom on Justin’s nose before Gabriel shouted a wordless cry of warning…
This time, there was no chance of dodging. Acting purely on instinct, Goku pivoted his position in the air, and his foot crashed powerfully into the top of the spear. The impact sent a shudder running through his entire body, and the weapon’s course was successfully diverted, carving a deep furrow into the earth once more.
Sweat ran down Goku’s forehead, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. His ki sense might have abandoned him, but he could still feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, his heart beating faster at the prospect of another of those screams. They weren’t just natural sounds; they were an attack of some sort, trying to bear down on his will and make him an easier target. They had almost worked.
There was something almost mechanical in the way the skeletal figure reached once more inside itself, and this time, Goku wasn’t just going to stand there and let it have its own way. Streaking across the sky, Goku accelerated as fast as he could, hurtling towards the malevolent entity with renewed vigour.
“Oh no you don’t!”
As he closed on it, he could see the malevolence burning in the creature’s eye sockets. What had seemed purely dark before now revealed themselves to have tiny, burning embers in each dark pit. The hate that the creature had for its mortal quarry was plain to see… as was a sudden glint – a shine, as though Goku had fallen for its trap.
The monster’s mouth opened to unleash another shriek, but this time Goku’s fist was the answer that it got instead. The blow crashed into the side of the monster’s jaw, and the ancient bone shattered under the impact. What would have been a mind-melting shriek became little more than a pitiful mewl – the creature’s fearsome howl silenced with the straightforward, simple technique.
But rather than another spear, this time, the front of the damned soul’s robes exploded outwards as the creature’s ribcage burst forth into eight sharp spines.
Goku had enough time to register surprise – his eyes widening – but not enough to even begin to mitigate the damage. The spikes shot forwards with shocking speed, and before he could start to try and defend, two had stabbed deep into his shoulders, four into his chest, and two more down into the soft flesh of his thighs.
“Gwah!”
Blood began to flow, and even though there was no jaw with which to smile, those twinkling eyes seemed satisfied.
Gabriel stayed close to Justin – it was his duty to make sure that the astronomer made it through this alive, after all. As Goku closed on their adversary, the Captain tried to make out what he could of the monster. Yellow robes? Decrepit form? He hissed through his teeth.
“Juliet, do you recognise what that thing is?”
The most studious of the Guards stepped forward and squinted, cupping her hand over her eyes to make out more of the creature. “Shepherd of Bone.” She said, “This isn’t good, if that thing gets its claws into him—“
Almost the same instant that she said it, Goku’s fist crashed into the side of the creature’s jaw, and the trap was sprung.
Swearing, Gabriel surged forwards. After just the briefest hesitation, the guards followed.
Goku felt as though his bones were locking up; his skeletal structure seized by some strange outside force. Behind him, he could hear his allies coming across the distance to try and help. He couldn’t see, but he could hear the heavy armour crashing against the ground.
“NO!” He shouted, “STAY BACK!”
Fear had been banished from his heart, now, and there was only a pounding thrill in its place. He could feel this monster wrestling with him, trying to usurp control of his body through its strange magic. It thought that it had him trapped in place. Now it was time to show it the mistake that it had made.
Goku’s teeth ground together as he grunted, and his will pushed back against the invading force. Momentary surprise registered in those dark eye sockets, and the creature responded in kind. Trembling with the effort, straining for all he was worth, Goku’s hands came together at his side. The sweat now running down his body wasn’t due to fear; it was due to the intensity of the effort needed to force his form into motion.
It felt as though every bone in his body was grinding against each other, trying to push against his flesh, but he refused to let that stop him! The pain was intense, and he didn’t know how much longer he could stand before all the willpower in the world wouldn’t keep him on his feet. He wasn’t going to let this thing attack his friends, though! And he definitely wasn’t going to let it use his bones to do it!
Energy surged wildly around him as he gathered it, forced it into shape… he couldn’t go for a big one, but the monster had already proven to be quite brittle. Now that it was pinned in place – its ribcage locking them both together, all he had to do was…
“Kamehame … HA!”
If there was one set of motions his bones knew how to go through under any circumstance, this was it! His arms thrust forwards, and the bright lance of brilliant blue energy surged out. At point blank range, the creature was struck directly in its core. There was a blinding flash of light, Gabriel found his eyes averted all of a sudden…
And when he opened them again, Goku was still standing, arms stretched forwards. Smoking bones rained down all around him, and the warrior was completely out of breath. Blood flowed freely from the round, neat holes left in his body.
“I just need… a few, minutes.”
And with that reassuring statement given, Goku collapsed to the earth once more – his last thought before he passed out being that he was actually grateful for how hard the ground here could be.
![[Image: x1oIYhu.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/x1oIYhu.jpg)