Episode 54: All Strength Summoned! The Promise Made
Chapter 107:Loyalty
“C’mon Slukis! This is your chance!” BHM shouted.
“Alright Slukis, you did it!” Soda yelled. The other members of the Blue Team also cheered for him. His attack had just taken out the final member of the Red Team, and now the White Orb was in his sights.
“The big guy got beat? I didn’t see that coming.” Xtream spoke.
Ginger, who stood next to him, followed by saying, “That was the same thing he did to beat me.”
“No way…” Fedetra started as she looked down at the battlefield. The other ORDER members were just as surprised to see Tippem laid out on the ground, motionless. The participants on the Red Team were either silent, fearing the worst for their chances, or trying to encourage Tippem to recover.
“I did it…” Slukis thought as he realized exactly what he had done. “My team…I did it.” He then took a step towards Tippem. An intense pain shot through his body. He ached all over from the fight, but he knew that victory was so close, so he bared the pain.
On the ground, while Tippem’s body was motionless, he still felt life inside of him. “His attack was powerful enough to break my shield.” He thought, “That doesn’t happen too often.” He tried to move his body, but realized he couldn’t. “Nothing is responding…this might be the end for me. At least I had a good run.”
Just as he thought it was all over, he heard another voice from inside him. It spoke, “I promise to stay by your side. I won’t ever let you down.”
“That voice.” Tippem thought, “Those words…”
Tippem remembered his childhood vividly. He was raised as a young child in an orphanage. The people in charge had told him that he had been left at their front door in a basket when he was still a baby. A note, presumably from his mother, read, “Please do what I could not and take care of him.”
However, the caretakers ignored the note. The children in their care were treated horribly. They were forced to work every day, and all the money they earned went into the pockets of the owners, while the orphanage itself benefitted from donations. They were beaten if they ever talked back or misbehaved. The meals were poor and scarce, and the beds were cold and hard.
Many orphans attempted to run away, but realized soon that it was very hard for them to live on their own. Tippem heard stories of those who had escaped; how most came back to the orphanage and were treated even worse than before, and the others died on the streets.
So he endured the orphanage until he was 13. Over time, their tough regiment hardened Tippem, and he found the workload easy, the food satisfying, and the beds comfortable. Outraged by Tippem’s “defiance”, he was thrown out. This is when he started to make his living on the streets. The orphanage had hardened him into a warrior, and he stole and fought for whatever he needed to survive. Years passed, and he became notorious in the area. No one wanted to mess with him.
One day, a tough newcomer arrived. Those that respected Tippem wanted him to take care of the new guy. So he confronted the guy and made this challenge to him, “If I win, you leave this area. If you win, you can have everything I own.” The man accepted, and the two fought it out. The fight was intense and lasted nearly an hour, with both men unwilling to take the fall. Finally, Tippem delivered a knock-out blow to the man, which put an end to the battle.
“Congratulations.” A voice spoke as soon as Tippem had won. He turned to see an old man in a white and red robe standing beside him.
“Who are you?” Tippem asked, defensively.
“I am Dama. I sent this man here as a test for you, and you passed.” The man replied, “While you fought, I detected a large power inside of you. You have true potential, and I want you to join me in a new group I am creating called ORDER.”
“ORDER?” Tippem repeated, trying to take all of this in. “What will it be about?”
“We will be dedicated to the cause of not only ending violence and war in the world, but also providing a place where everyone will have a home, a family, and a chance to succeed.”
“A noble goal.” Tippem spoke, “But sounds pretty farfetched.”
Dama followed, “No one will have to go through what you did again.” Tippem’s eyes lit up at this statement. He was surprised to learn that Dama was aware of his upbringings. “Everyone will have a chance in the world we envision. Just come with me, and help create an ideal world to live in.”
A black portal opened up behind them. Dama entered into it and disappeared. Tippem remained behind for a minute, thinking about whether or not to go with this man. He chose to enter.
Two years later, Tippem had grown considerably. He finally had a nice place to live and plenty of food to eat. His attitude changed as well. He became light-hearted and friendly towards others. Dama had allowed him to see the world in a new light, and he saw that not everyone was like the cruel people at the orphanage, or the people he met on the streets. There were kind people, who were willing to help others, after all.
After realizing his power and learning to control it, Tippem was suddenly hit by everything that Dama had done for him. He had picked him off the streets and turned him into somebody who could change the world. When Tippem had mastered his powers, he confronted Dama and spoke, “Dama, thank you for everything. I am forever in your debt.”
Dama replied, “You did the right thing, Tippem. Soon the time will come when we make our dreams a reality.”
Tippem then told him, “Yes, and I will be right there with you on that day. I promise to stay by your side. I won’t ever let you down.”
A bright red light then shot up from the ground and extended into the sky. Slukis stopped in his tracks, and the others looked on in awe as they saw the fallen man rise to his feet.
*Chapter End*
Chapter 108:Final Stage
After everyone believed that Tippem was down and out, they now watched him float back onto his feet in the midst of a red light. A white burst of energy exploded out of him, causing Slukis to be blown off his feet and the others to struggle to remain standing. His sunglasses cracked in half from the sheer power and fell from his face, revealing his eyes for the first time in the competition. They were dark red, which meant only one thing. He spoke, “Dama, I will fulfill my promise to you. Guide me, Final Judgment!” His short hair turned completely red, symbolizing his transformation. The five machines lifted themselves from the ground and became ten. The machines then swarmed around Tippem’s body at an amazing speed.
“Tippi’s Final Judgment form?” Ritti questioned, “Wow, I’ve never seen it before. It looks cool!”
“He’s only had to use it a few times before, and only once in actual battle.” Tartite followed.
“Yes, he used it when we had a battle.” Skevipaar spoke.
“That’s right.” Tartite continued, “It was in order to get readings on the limits of your powers. The only ones who witnessed it were you, I and Dama. To think he would use it now though…I’m shocked.” Iykkari looked on with interest at this new form of Tippem, as did everyone else who stood by.
His opponent, Slukis, was in complete disbelief. “No way, that last attack should have finished him. Where is he getting all of this strength from?” Slukis fired a charge into the ground, and it came up underneath Tippem.
However, to his dismay, the explosion didn’t even phase the shield around Tippem. He easily blew the smoke and debris away using only his energy. Then, he turned towards Slukis, and Slukis thought, “Screw it, I can’t fight him like this.” Slukis turned around and ran away from the ORDER member.
“You won’t get away this time.” Tippem spoke aloud, and the 10 machines separated from his body. They floated into the air in a circle. He thought, “Dama, for you, I will now end this. This field shall be transformed into your graveyard! SHATTERING MACHINE DRILL!"
As soon as he spoke that, the machines shot a beam of red light that dug deep into the ground. The machines then spread outwards, and Slukis decided to merge into the ground to try and avoid the attack. The machines created ten deep lines in the ground with the light drills that spread through the entire battlefield, all the way up to where the other participants watched. A red glow emerged from the lines in the ground and the earth beneath them started to shake. After a couple more seconds, red energy surged up through the ground. Everyone was in awe to see a giant red circle of light, the size of the entire battlefield, extend into the sky and completely disintegrate all the earth that touched it.
When the light disappeared, the field had been completely transformed. Tippem stood on the same patch of grass as before, but now, all around him laid a giant crater. The drills of light had dug at least 15 feet into the ground, leaving nothing behind. “Slukis…no.” Soda muttered.
“Holy crap…” Crimson remarked. Her partner, Karichi, was speechless, as were most of the participants who stood by. The ground underneath them had been unharmed, but the terrain in front of them had been turned into a giant doughnut.
Even in the laboratory, Moltar and Shadow were left speechless by the attack. They had just witnessed a giant beam of light incinerate everything in a large radius. Dama was more focused on his teammate, his first student, Tippem. “Tippem…thank you.”
Back on the battlegrounds, everything was quiet. A minute passed, and there was no sign of Slukis. Tippem, still in his Final Judgment form, thought, “My Final Judgment attack pours an abundance of energy into the ground. Once it settles down there long enough, it shoots upwards, taking out anything above it. I figured you would try to hide in the ground when you saw my attack, but you probably didn’t think it would dig so deeply into the ground. Even you couldn’t have gone that far down so quickly.”
A small rumble then occurred in the crater below. Tippem continued, “There was only one way to escape the attack, and that would have been to retreat out of its range.” Another rumble occurred, and a small crack appeared on the surface. “But there was no way he could have escaped that quickly.” More cracks then appeared on the surface. “This fight is over, I have won.”
Just then, to everyone’s surprise, Slukis burst from beneath the ground. He stuck his right arm out in front of his body, and held a bright white light in his hand. Tippem’s eyes opened wide in shock as he turned to see the opponent he thought he had beaten flying up towards him. Slukis yelled with determination, “I won’t lose to you! I’m going to win!”
*Chapter End*
