Episode 36: Clash of the Titans

[Jamal Armstrong]

Tec was slightly disappointed that Gorem would not allow the full destructive nature of Seismic Trigger to reveal itself. It would have been significantly worse than being crushed by the gravitational force earlier. Its velocity was high enough for a crater to still be formed from its landing on the ground, but it was nothing compared to what he wanted to happen.

"I would have killed them already with an earthquake if we didn't care," Tec told Allen in response to his technique being dangerous to the audience's well-being. Judging by the power Seismic Trigger gave him, Tec was way more than capable of doing so immediately if that was his aim.

"Do not worry, Allen. I'm not in the mindset of wanting to kill anyone out there, save for one person who you might want to deal with too. I wouldn't want you doing that if this happened to be Vestal, so I'm not going to do that to you. Do keep in mind that there is a much faster way that I could deal with them other than using seismic activity, but they are not my opponent; you and Gorem are, so you'll have to deal with whatever I choose to use, dangerous or not."

Deciding that he had done enough to decrease Gorem's stamina so far, Jamal played this next one as a buff to what will come later. "Ability activate! Propulsion Boost!"

Tec zapped both of his fists with an electric current to forcefully revive them. They returned to his body. Once there, they underwent a process where a faint brown light switched on and off for three seconds before going into a full covering of energy before disappearing. The same process occurred on Tec's rings and rocket boots. Needless to say, this was an extremely lethal ability.

The basic premise of this ability was to double the potency of his attacks. The specific mechanics behind the ability was increasing the thrust behind the propulsion within Tec's body. His speed was undoubtedly increased based on this principle, enough to keep up with Ventus Bakugan. The impact of his attacks would also be more catastrophic since more force is being put into them. Pairing that with the earlier reaction time buff from Heavy Metal, Tec was now considered to be a hyper-lethal force.

"You'll see how much I 'care' once your Gorem gets hit by Tec again," Jamal threatened.

[Allen Silva]

Instead of calming Allen's mind, Jamal just made it worse with his current comment on how he could kill them all. That was the talk of a psychopath." You sure as hell don't care for the safety of these spectators. So Jamal, is this how you would fight on your own turf?" Allen posed one more question for the subterra Spartan to ponder. He knew that Jamal would have some sort of elitist response to the question." With reckless abandon and no real thought on where you are. Because of that's the case, how are you better than the Hurranians?"

Gore was the only one to notice Jamals next ability being played. And based off his last ones devastating power, he didn't want to eat this one." Allen, I don't like the sound of that. This is gonna hurt. "

" I got you bud. Ability activate, Kinesis barrier." Allen kicked on Titan Gorem's signature defensive ability. Gorem lifted the stone hammer from the ground, spinning while doing it. This creates a barrier of wind that would be nigh on impossible for even Vulcan's new abilities to penetrate. And worse comes to worse he always had that in his back pocket.

[Jamal Armstrong]

Jamal silently laughed at how butthurt Allen was just by him saying that he could get the audience killed any time he wants to. Some people do not like hearing the truth. Another truth was that Allen is lucky Jamal is the one on stage and not Damian; his Helios was the one any comments about reckless abandon should be directed to. He's probably going to end up hurting someone.

"You know, you're really starting to piss me off," Jamal warned him in advance. How dare Allen compare Jamal to the Hurranians. Those bastards are a plague. They ransack society every second of the day because they can. Tec's move was a hazard, but he never embraced it to the extent of having it affect everyone else. It wasn't hard to guess that Jamal could say anything to Allen and he'll make everything said to turn out to something nefarious in nature.

Jamal pulled an ability with a bronze covering on the sides of it. This was about to get ugly.

"Ability activate! G-Factor!" Tec's most powerful ability, G-Factor was the single ability that could put any opponent in its place. It didn't matter how big or small the foe would be; their bodies were going to be put to the test here, not just their power levels. Helios was forced out of his Third Layer just by being mercifully crushed by this ability.

"You're definitely not going to like this one, Gorem. You'll be lucky to even walk when I'm finished with you." Tec's bracelets gleamed in a bronze coloring whenever this ability is active. He has complete control over gravitational forces. He held his right palm out to begin his attack. The bracelet cycled to produce a repulsive gravitational wave that easily disrupted Gorem's motion and sent him rocketing to the barrier. The hammer he wielded smashed into the barrier and made a huge crack in it. Both solids crash landed on the ground in front of them, the one Tec wanted to dig six feet for him.

"Look at what you did, Allen. You really should be more careful. There are spectators over there," Jamal grudgingly delivered. Tec then shot his left fist at Gorem. Utilizing the drastic increase in propulsion power, a hit could be a one-shot, or at least come close to it.

[Allen Silva]

Allen finally thought the brawl was going his way. He had put out Kinesis barrier, and defended against Vulcan's stronger abilities. That is until he unleashed what appeared to be his ace in the hole, the G-factor ability. Gorem was repulsed before Allen had time to think, smashing the barrier, and causing some serious damage to the subterra bakugan.

Allen knew he had no choice now but to play his trump card. So he rummaged through his pockets, looking for the two that would change the complexion of the brawl." Since your going all out, I guess I get to show you what I found. The new power my answer gave me." Allen offered that consultation to his opponents.

Gorem took this time to get to one knee, and retrieve his weapon. Brandishing it once again, it was time to fight back." Now the real fight begins. If you thought my fist hurt then, you better get ready." He managed to groan out as he watched Vulcans fist close in.

"Dual ability activates! First up, Kinesis Rejector."

Gorem's hammer blew with a bright light, giving it the power to beat back any attack coming at him. And that he did, as Vulcan's hand was sent right back at him, giving Gorem time to activate his next ability.

" and now here it is, Advanced Fusion ability, Kinesis Dominator."

The Gorem bakugan hammer broke. But in its place, he forged a much larger, much stronger hammer from his energy. He brought the hammerhead down, trying to smash a devastating blow on the Spartan's bakugan. " eat this! My true power."

(Boss Theme 2)

[Jamal Armstrong]

"'Advanced' what...?"

Things were starting to get very interesting. It didn't take a gauntlet to figure out the level of Allen's strength. Gorem was in the realm of "hazard" if that were a category, which, in layman's terms, means to get away as soon as possible. People say that the Iron Juggernaut had unbelievable staying power before, but now...Allen was the man among men.

Were it not for the fact that Allen was an undeniable threat to him, Jamal would have admitted that they were equals. Two figurative titans on their own planets going at each other with their heightened powers would have been even scarier had neither of them worked up their bodies enough to withstand the blows.

"Tec!" Jamal alerted. He had high-caliber defense, but that didn't mean following Gorem's instructions was good for his health.

"Handled." Tec's bracelets spun to generate gravitational force. He positioned his hands in a way that would gesture Gorem to give him a high-five from how the hammer was about to be swung. Doing this made the gravitational force pull in the opposite direction of Gorem, making it excruciatingly difficult for him to follow through with the hammer blow. Doing this required 200x the Subterra dimension's gravity, which was already higher than Earth's. It would have been 100x had Gorem kept that ability of his under wraps, but now that it was out, Tec had to account for the possibility of Gorem being able to withstand the lower levels of gravity Tec can produce.

He then throttled it to 400x to repel Gorem once again. The rings on the bracelets then started flashing in red as they have overheated, so they would have to go through a cooldown process before he could produce gravity again. That was the key weakness in G-Factor, but would Allen be able to figure that out?

[Allen Silva]

That G-Factor ability was a real pain. Not only was it capable of stopping the advanced fusion ability, but it was also strong enough to blast Gorem back once again. This time though, something was quite different. His bracelets were now flashing red. It appeared like Vulcan still couldn't control the backlash from his extreme power. That isn't to say Allen and Gorem could keep there's up forever. In fact, with the damage already done to him, he was on the shorter end of its duration. He had to end this fast.

" I got a plan, but it's going to suck a little bit. Do you think you can handle it?" He asked.

" if its all we can do, I'm game. I don't think I'll stop feeling that last shot." Gorem almost whined.

"Here goes something, Ability activate, Goliath Fortress."

This ability, although it was from a previous form, was still a ability to be reckoned with. If it wasn't Vulcan, he would say that it's a endgame move. But now, he hasn't the slightest clue.

Gorem released the large familiar that was the big point of the ability. Because of the boost, it became even larger, and certain parts of it were exponentially harder than before. Gorem brought its fist down, attempting to cause as much damage to Vulcan as possible before he can reuse that ability.

[Jamal Armstrong]

Tec looked up at this mountainous beast that Gorem just summoned. It was a beast to behold, but not to have intimate contact with. That thing was going to cause this entire arena to collapse, if not just leave Tec's body in pieces.

"Dang...that's tough..." Tec was slightly stunned by how powerful this spawn was. It almost sounded like he was going to give Gorem some props. That definitely wasn't happening here.

"Tec, keep it together! Ability activate! Primo Aegis!" There would be a slight difference regarding how this ability is used. This normally relies on kinetic energy, but Tec is unable to generate it because of the G-Factor cooldown. He had to use the next best thing: propulsion.

The boost in this force would greatly aid Tec in surviving this attack, because he needed the help. Tec was brave enough to meet with this "Goliath Fortress" fist to fist. His thinking was along the lines of his fists operating on rocket propulsion, so if that's powered up, then he should be able to deliver an identical hit, right?

He decided to see if he could shatter it with that idea using both of his fists, but he was met with a different outcome. The weight of Gorem's familiar was very high, estimated to be several tons of force. Tec was getting beaten in that power struggle, but he wasn't being pushed back nearly as much as he should have thanks to the rocket propulsion from his boots keeping him balanced. Tec was able to crack the stone formation with his hit though. That should count for something at the very least.

"This...is...really...heavy..." Tec grunted. He didn't know how long he would be able to keep that up, but he was trying.

[Allen Silva]

Vulcan tried out a brand new ability to try and defeat the Goliath Fortress. Luckily that led to him going head on with something he couldn't really comprehend. Sure he was capable of slowing the behemoth down a considerable amount. But this left him wide open for a direct attack from Gorem.

" time for a follow up. Ability activate, Rave Wrecker." Allen kept up with his advantage. This one would give him a whole new trouble though. Instead of beefy power, this relied on a barrage of punches. With the boost from Kinesis Dominator, this became a almost impossible to comprehend flurry of armored punches. And since Goliath Fortress still existed, this was a double whammy of massive proportions. Vulcan had two options, eat it and give Allen a win. Or he could wait out any sort of cooldown and unleash that annoying ability again. Either way, it was Gorem's brawl now

[Jamal Armstrong]

"...Uh oh..." Tec did a poor job of letting the opponent know that he was in a sticky situation. Even if he didn't say anything, how could anyone not notice?

This did look bad. Tec was going to get knocked out without question if he took the full force of Gorem's attack. At the same time, if Tec tried to stop Gorem, the familiar will hit him and end the battle instead. Jamal was very aware of this, so he was banking on G-Factor coming out of cooldown so Tec would survive this assault. There weren't any more realistic ways of getting out of this one, save for one other option, but it wouldn't do the job fast enough.

"Four...three...two...one..." Jamal was counting down the seconds needed in his head. It was fortunate Gorem had been repelled earlier. If he was any closer, that may have been it. That Advanced Fusion Ability was really something on an entirely different level. Its complete bypassing of Tec's earlier defenses was telling.

"Go!" Jamal demanded. The bracelet rings turned bronze again to grant Tec access to the ability again. He kept the gravity expulsion at 200x to make it excruciatingly difficult for Gorem and his familiar to get rid of him by blunt force trauma. They now had to fight an entirely separate battle to make contact with Tec.

"That technique of yours made Gorem's body stronger than anyone here, but the question is: How long can you keep that up?" Jamal inquired, knowing that power on that scale had to have a limit. Tec launched his hands above their heads. He had their direction pointed down towards the arena as he released a gravity wave throughout the entirety of the arena. This made all the combatants - yes, including Tec - have to fight at this level of gravity. The giant familiar who was causing a bunch of problems for Jamal was now starting to crumble under this intense force. As for Gorem, he may not be used to this yet, but Tec? He barely felt a difference.

"Ability activate! Heatblast Cannon!" The removal of Tec's fists from his body revealed the cannons that lied underneath. He aimed at both Gorem and his crumbling familiar. It went through a brief charging sequence before unleashing a large and wide stream of energy that can only be compared to a rocket launching itself into space.

[Allen Silva]

He got Vulcan to utilize his g factor once again. That moral victory was something that Gorem needed with the way the fight had preferred. The one thing that ruined it for him was that his Goliath Fortress, the strongest offense that he had, crumbled like a sand castle under the emense pressure of g factor. Gorem did no better, being shoved into the ground. Unable to move, they had to find a way to turn this around asap, or risk losing the brawl.

Vulcan though, didn't give them time to think of another move. He was already charging up a blast that, no doubt, was going to end the brawl right there of it hit even close to flush. Allen knew that Gorem had maybe six more abilities in his enhanced form before collapsing from exhaustion. First things first Allen set up a ability to even the playing fields. It wouldn't rid them of the g factor, but at least the hear cannon should disappear.

" ability activate,Equilibrium Purge."

Gorem charged up energy internally, getting himself ready to turn back the clock on Jamal's last move. His increased energy this process easier and faster, meaning he wouldn't have to deal with the weight for too long. Once fully prepared, he let loose a almost explosion of energy, reaching around the battlefield. This rod it of the negative effects of G factor and the heat cannon. It didn't rid Gorem of the pain though, which would have been useful. At least now he could attack himself.

" now then, Ability activate, Megalith Boxer." Allen kicked on the stronger version of his last offensive ability. This time, not only were Gorem's punches faster, but the rest of his movements got a massive buff as well. He knew that there was only a small opening to exploit. And he was planning to exploit the he'll out of it.

[Jamal Armstrong]

The momentary stun to the gravity effect was annoying, but it would work to Jamal's benefit. That gives Tec's hands more time to let off of the gas, translating to them cooling down a little before being used again. The only problem now was making sure Tec didn't get knocked into submission before they could be called upon.

"I see the look of desperateness in your eyes, Gorem," Tec noticed. "Running low on power now, aren't we?"

Letting Tec do all of the trash talking, Jamal deployed two abilities: one for defense, and one for offense.

"Ability activate! Weighted Stronghold!" Forcing Jamal to even consider going into his upper-tier defensive abilities was a rarity. Allen should be given a round of applause for doing so, all things considered. This technique was designed to keep Tec afloat in times of struggle.

Rather than worry about the defensive mechanics of his armor, this ability focused on Tec's actual skin underneath the armor. The effects of this ability would only be seen by the opponent because of portions of Tec's skin being visible. The composition of his skin remained the same, but its formation changed to match that of a streamlined diamond. This increased Tec's defensive parameters to the point where even Gorem could not make him submit to blunt-force trauma in his enhanced state; however, Gorem would still do some decent damage against Tec, but it will be greatly reduced.

"I've got to get Gorem out of his face... Ability activate! Target Fist!" This involves Tec manually targeting a certain area with a cursor and having his fists decimate the area. As it stands, Tec was unable to do that with Gorem steadily pushing him back with the barrage of punches. Jamal could perform this function for him on his BakuMeter as a plan B.

Jamal picked two points on the battlefield so that the entire area could be affected by this. Once the coordinates were set, the fists throttled to 500x gravity to fire the force as a high-grade offensive towards the ground. The impact is meant to crush targets on contact, specifically those who are not comfortable with that level of force.

[Allen Silva]

Vulcan's defense was on point. Even with the upgrade from the enhanced fusion ability, it was able to take the barrage for long enough to come up with a move of his own. Not only that, but it was a real shocker of a move, as it placed another gravity field on the arena. Unfortunately for Gorem, he had already used equilibrium purge earlier, so that wasn't going to help. So now all Gorem could do was play in order to win before the gravity crushed him down. And there was only one ability that could do that.

Allen prepared said ability. Well, technically he set up two abilities, but only one was actually going to do anything. He was weary of the time that Gorem had left before he was defeated." Dual ability activate. Rockslide entombment plus Vesuvious entombment."

Rockslide entombment created a prison of earth around Vulcan, keeping him inside. This though was only a set up for what came next. Vesuvious entombment was what should do the real damage. It formed a small hill like structure on top of Vulcan, giving him no room to move. That, coupled with the gravity effects of his own ability, will hopefully crush him , ending the battle.

[Jamal Armstrong]

Tec's fists were immediately set to cooldown after launching those blasts. Gorem must have been giving up if he were to try to make Tec receive more damage first. That simply wasn't going to happen the way Allen planned it.

"Ability activate! Sensory Fire!" The rings around Tec's upper body lit up in a bright red color. Explosions started to rock the structure Gorem just encased him in until it all started crumbling down. This was due to Tec's ability, making the rings constantly shoot energy beams in all directions. The rate of fire made the pieces of the structure remaining after its fall disintegrate just as fast as Gorem's survivability.

The only issue was the gravity itself about to crush both combatants. Jamal did not say what he thought about this out loud, but Tec's next action pretty much said it all. Another key attribute to Target Fist was the situational ability to cancel the said attack if used in conjunction with G-Factor. All Tec had to do was have the hands ball up, and the gravity waves disappeared.

"It's ironic how the tables have turned, Allen. It looks like Tec and I are the only ones who can do what we're doing all day. Your time is running out," Jamal mocked. "So how about you try a new trick, 'bud'?" He laughed a little after saying that.

"That's if you can," Tec chimed in. His fists returned to his body. He got in a boxing stance, ready to handle whatever Gorem had left in his body to dish out.

[Allen Silva]

Needless to say, Gorem's plan failed to get off the ground. Fortunately enough for him though, Vulcan not only had to use another ability, but cancel his own to keep himself from losing. That meant Gorem still had a chance of taking down the Flying Fortress. Not so fortunately, he had only two more abilities before Kinesis Dominator faded and Gorem became a sitting duck.

Allen set things up to utilize the last two abilities in conjunction to force some sort of a conclusion to the battle." I got to give it to you. You are the toughest opponent I have fought. That's not just trying to heal my ego, you are a insane brawler. But it's like they say, all good things must come to a end." Allen actually complimented his opponent. The weirdest part about it was that he was being 100% sincere." Dual ability activate. Sentry Golem plus Magnitude Crash. "

Sentry Golem was the first to go off. This ability had Gorem get into a sturdy stance, and then launch a wave of force at the opponent. It might not be stronger than Vulcan's gravity manipulation, but it didn't really have to be. The next ability, Magnitude Crash would cover that nicely. Using this ability, Gorem got into a football style defensive stance, before running at the opponent at full speed. Along with the enhancement from Kinesis Dominator, this made the subterra bakugan into a ballistic missile, with all intent on blasting Vulcan back to Vestal.

[Jamal Armstrong]

Allen may be the Iron Juggernaut when it comes to defense, but his intelligence when it comes to offense is very deceptive. He must have predicted that Jamal would take advantage of Gorem's tunnel vision when he deployed the wave. It was also unfair that Gorem was too fast. If Jamal had it his way, he would have told Tec to fly away, even though that's cowardly to the core.

"Come on then!" Tec awaited in anticipation. All he could really do was defend at that point. Why move when he'll just end up being moved back into Jamal's face as he goes into ball form?

Tec's bracelets came back online for the third time. They spun rapidly to activate; however, the way gravitational force would be used differed greatly from the previous times. He was going to apply it to his own body this time. A silhouette of Tec's figure emanated from his body just in time for Gorem's presence to be welcomed. Tec put his gauntlets in front of him to take the blow early. Tec didn't show any signs of moving a centimeter from that blow, but then Gorem showed up.

With a small lean, Tec pressed his palms against Gorem's shoulders, which would have blown them off of their sockets in an ordinary situation. All that was seen was Tec pushing against Gorem's tackle, and it was working.

Why? Tec's application of G-Factor made his body behave in a different gravity setting. He set it to half of Earth's gravitational pull, resulting in an alarming increase in strength in a much lighter environment.

"Oh really? I'm flattered," Jamal responded. It sounded bit cocky, his laugh giving the impression that it was. "I had a feeling I had a worthy opponent in you when we first met. Now I can say that I was wrong about you earlier. There's no doubt about it now. You can hold your own, even in the unluckiest situations. You've expertly fortified your walls, walls that are near impossible to break down."

Tec was matching Gorem's strength in his Advanced Fusion Ability, so they were struggling to push each other out of the way. The only difference between them now was the duration of their abilities. Gorem had the undeniable advantage in this regard. Jamal did not want to say that he was in a bind. He believed in Tec's strength, and his mental focus had to be stable in order for their performance to match it. This did not have much of an effect on the outcome.

Tec's power was waning as the G-Factor's charge was reaching critical levels. Gorem remained determined to bring him down no matter what, and it showed. When Tec's bracelets overheated, he no longer had the necessary power to keep Gorem from hitting him. He made a few grunting noises, ones that you would sometimes hear in a weight room. As if someone's head would pop up at the sudden noise, all they would see is Tec being ran into the barrier, the entire thing crumbling on top of him.

"..." Jamal swallowed a lot of his pride to come to terms with what just happened. "I see why you're touted as a legend around here... You never know when to stand down...and I respect you for it.."

Gorem was stationed within a yard from the downed Tec. Tec was heavily wounded. One could easily tell that he was based on him only managing a kneeling stance, his right fist lodged into the ground to keep him steady. His bracelets were shown to be overheated for the third time, but this time, it didn't look like it was cooling down; enough damage must have been inflicted to Tec that took that function away from him. That's when Jamal realized that if Tec took that blow full force, he'd be dead.