Fight of the Legendary Warriors

Old Reunion
After deciding to train himself once more, Ray Martinez headed towards dai valley, a place where there was no people for miles and anyone could fight till their hearts content.

He arrived and smiled at the barren land scape hoping to regain what he had lost a long time ago.

Slowly approaching on a small mule, Van sighed at the immense heat of the area. "Wheeeeew! This trail goes on for miles." Spotting a faint figure in the distance, Van raised an eyebow. "Oh? Is that Ray? No....it has to be a mirage from the heat."

The intense heat gave Ray much greater focus and clearer use of his instincts, he then felt the presence he had not felt in a long time.

He shunpo'd right near the presence and opened his eyes,"It's been too long Van." Ray said smiling.

Yawning, Van opened of his eyes. "It is you! Haha it certainly has pal. Many things have changed since we last saw each other. How are you? I heard from Anna that you have a son now."

Ray chuckled as he drank some water,"If you can call him that, he's 17 and already a powerful warrior.... It seemed like yesterday when i was training him." Ray sighed as the sweat poured down his face.

"How bout your two children?" Ray asked.

"Oh you heard about them? Haha. They are a couple of knuckleheads. I even sent them off to Kenji's school for some training and to mature them a bit." Van sighed as he looked up at the sky. "In any case...what are you doing all the way out here? I didn't expect to find anyone out here."

Ray sighed as he sat down and drank some more water,"I don't know myself with the kids i got back home grown up, and Aki wanting to relax more. I guess coming would give me a chance to find something." He said as he grabbed a full hand of sand and let it blow with the wind.

"Why don't you just have more kids with Aki, if you know what I mean. Heh" Van smirked as he nudged Ray in the side.

Ray chuckled as he looked at him,"I already got four kids living with me, Heck more children?! No thank you." he said blowing sand in his face.

Van thought to himself before exclaiming, "FOUR!? I only know of the 1. Wow someone has definitely been busy. Sheesh, that's some stamina you have there my friend. Hahaha"

Ray looked at him and hit him in the arm,"No you idiot..... Two of Aki's siblings wanted us to take care of their kids so we let them stay." Ray had a sad look on his face,"One of the kids got his girlfriend to leave the Soul-Society so we welcomed her to the family and including Ryu that's four." He sighed and got up to crack his neck.

"It was great catching up but i gotta get back to training." Ray said as he started walking away.

Van smiled as he sat back on his mule, "Oh! Alright. That's fine. I could always use another nappy nap. Haha"

Ray stopped as he then wondered something, how long it has been since he fought a powerful person,"Van.... intrested in fighting me?" He said while his back was turned to him.

Van sat up quickly with a smile plastered on his face. "A fight? You certainly know how to entice a person. I can never turn down a fight, especially with a good opponent. And from what I can tell, you've gotten stronger by leaps and bounds."

Ray turned around as he took off his cloak and showed scars from training as well as some of his fights that he had with powerful people.

"I'm ready to go when you are." Ray stood at the ready.

"Heh. Its your challenge so why don't you make the first move old friend?" Van smirked as he stood slowly sprinkling crystal particles along the ground.

Ray smiled as he charged in using Shunpo and easily came face to face with Van as he went in for a punch.

"Now, now. Don't be so hostile, you start to lose focus." Van ducked back a bit before motioning his hands toward the ground causing the crystal to spring up into large spikes aiming to impale Ray throughout his body.

Ray managed to back away as he dodged the spikes but got hit on his cheek as he licked it, Ray focused his energy and shunpo'd around creating no more than 20 replicas as they each went in one direction towards Van.

"Splendid my friend. But yet again, you are acting like a very naughty boy." Placing a palm upon the ground, Van summoned a forest of crystal trees to surround him. "Now then, allow me to continue." Motioning his hands in a circular fashion, Van caused the trees to emit several protrusions aiming for the different clones.

Ray quickly started to study each tree trying to figure out what kind of attack the tree's were going to pull, he wasn't taking any chance as the replicas surrounded him.

"Not a chance!" Motioning his hand toward Ray, Van made an uplifting motion causing several pillars to rise around Ray and his clones, effectively making a prison wall. "Heh. Looks like the crystal I sprinkled into the Earth payed off afterall."

Ray growled as he had fallen for such an obvious trap and didn't expect it, but he then smiled as the replicas along with him breath deeply and fired a giant shock wave trying to break it.

Watching his crystal fall apart from the strength of the vibrations, Van smirked. "Not bad pal. Not bad at all." Flicking his wrist, Van formed a crystal spear in his hand. "But let's see you try this on for size!" Stepping back a ways, Van threw the spear with tremendous force behind it.

Ray transformed into his lion form and quickly dodged the spear by using the muscles in his hind legs to spring up faster as he transformed back in mid-air and sent a shock wave right at Van.

Creating several crystal walls in front of him Van protected himself from the brunt of the shock wave, still being pushed back however. "Heh!"

Ray landed as he calmed himself and started think of ways he would defeat Van's crystal manipulation, he concentrated into his arms causing his nails to grow into lion claws as he shunpo'd straight towards the wall and slashed at it.

"Oh? That's new pal. Haven't seen that trick before." Van clapped his hands together creating a large tiger made out of crystal. "Time for me to get serious it seems." Charging at Ray from behind the crystal constructs atop the tiger, Van created several small darts that he hurled at his friend.

Ray used his shock wave to redirect some of the darts away but was impacted by a few as he flew and landed on the ground.

He groaned as he pulled them out, then focused reistu into them healing the wounds quickly as he smiled,"Alright not bad." Ray smiled.

"No time for rest old pal" Van smirked as he made the crystal tiger jump into the air and break it apart, causing it to shatter into several crystal spears that rained down upon Ray.

Ray drew his sword and easily slashed all the crystal aiming only at him while the rest were surrounding him in a circle.

He smiled as he send another pair of replicas towards him as they all had swords and went in for the attack.

Allowing himself to get stabbed, Van smiled as he burst into a cloud of crystal particles. "Oh wow. Glad that wasn't me. Heh." Appearearing fromone of the crystal spears frm behind Ray, Van aimed to pierce Ray's back with a crystal sword.

Ray barely managed to escape as his shoulder was now cut though dislocating his arm, reistu poured into his shoulder sealing the wounds while Ray shifted his arm back into his shoulder. "Man Van you're really something else." Ray said as he stood up.

"You aren't bad yourself. But I'm sure you've been holding out on me pal. Don't feel the need to do so. If you do, then I'm afraid that you may get seriously injured." Van smiled as completely emerged from his crystal.

The winds blew as Ray stood there thinking about what Van told him, was he really holding back all this time? He looked at his hands trying to grasp the meaning when he realized that unlike fighting an enemy he was fighting one of his closest friends. He closed his eyes and realized that if he didn't go with everything he got it would be an insult not only to him but to Van who gladly accepted his call. Ray opened his eyes and suddenly exploded with ferocious energy appearing around him.

"Heh heh heh. That's more like it!" Van smirked at the release of energy as he began to release his own, casing the grund around him to crystallize. The two conflicting spiritual signatures began to clash causing the sky to darken into a storm. "Looks like the heavens are watching this conflict. Let's make it one that doesn't dissapoint."

Ray nodded as he drew out his sword slowly causing the ground to be split as he held it in his arm, he shunpo'd zigzag pattern trying to confuse Van as he went in for the slash to his right side.

"Oh?" Van looked on in surprise as he quikly drew one of the swords at his side parrying Ray's attack after being pushed back quite some distance. "You have definitely grew stronger, but..." Van pointed his hand below where the blades met. "Mekura" Firing a silver beam at his friend's gut Van smirked.

Ray's left hand quickly intercepted the attack as the beam was absorbed into it, Ray smiled as he threw his blade down onto the ground and shot back the beam through his right hand only more powerful.

The beam flew into a void that Van had opened as he steped inside grabbing Ray's sword that he threw on the ground in the process. "Tsk, Tsk. To throw away your weapon is something only a child would do." Swinging Ray's sword around Van smirked, "Heh. What now?"

In that instant Ray materilized his hollow mask causing the telekinesis to make his sword return to his hand as he intercepted while he then took off his mask to save energy.

"Who's the child exactly?" Ray said as he started pushing back.

"Eh, I kinda just let you have it back. I didn't feel like exerting any strength to hold a weak weapon like that." Van teased as he stuck out his toungue. Opening another rift, Van fired six blasts of Mekura into the void as six different voids opened around Ray aiming towards him, before he charge in himself.

Ray shunpo'd while he managed to deflect away four of them but the other two he once again absorbed only this time he concentrated the redirection towards his blade. Ray then jumped as he went in with his powered up sword straight at Van.

Van smirked as he flung his body upward, pulling Ray's leg down in the process. "Come on pal, simple tricks like this can't be enough for you. Absorbtion? Heh. I learned how to deal with that kind of ability while training with Anna." Forming several large pillars of crystal, Van smiled as he raised them into the sky before dropping them arond the area Ray was in. "Heh...he's sure to dodge this. In that case....." Van began circulating crystal shards into the Earth around him.

Ray slammed down as the crystals came towards him, he focused energy around him and blasted upward which caused the crystals to be shattered while one piece managed to hit Ray on his knee. "Man, gotta say your really strong bro." Ray pulled as he tried to heal it but couldn't close it all the way.

"Haha. Thank you. All my sparring with Kenji really did the trick. The guy is one dangerous dude. And you ain't too bad yourself." Van smiled before launching a spear of crystal towards a downed Ray.

Ray sidestepped dodging it but with his messed up knee fell down as he struggled to get back up,"No need to lie, we both know right now I'm looking pathetic." Ray said as he got up but was barley holding on.

"Heh, well. To be honest yea. Just a bit though. I think you and I both know that if you grow intune with your abilities you can grow even stronger than you are now. I can feel more strength inside you that's just waiting to burst out. But you have to allow yourself to grow and gain more expereince." Van suddenly stopped talking as he burst into a fit of laughter, "I sound like a real screwball don't I? Heh heh."

Ray looked down and realized that he's grown weaker,"I guess so, i lost my sync and now I ain't strong." Ray said as he looked at the wounds as they reopened.

"Its not that you aren't strong, you just need to find your focus once more. You're spiritual energy constantly fluctuates and you seem to be wavering at different points." Van smiled as he sat down across from his friend.

Ray sat there looking down on the ground as tears fell, suddenly something snapped in his head as all visions of his battles came running all over. In all he was devestated, eliminatied, and wounded but one thing never left his side: his willpower. Ray got up and backed up a bit as he focused fusing all of his energy back into one making his spirit complete once more. "I may not have brains like you Van or skills like Kenji or even the potential like Shade but my willpower gives me all the force I need!!" Ray's energy erupted as the ground shook tremendiously. He grabbed his sword and smiled.

"Oh is that so? Well showme how that willpower willaid you against me. If you aren't careful, I;ll be the one to break that willpower into dust. Heh" Van smiled, as he raised a hand taunting his friend.

Ray chuckled then focused as he knew that now it was going to get even more intresting, this time he gathered energy around the place and made two lions that stayed by his side. He started running while the two were running beside him, he then ordered one to stand in front while the other stood behind.

"Oh this is new. What could you have in store for me?" Van smiled as he moved his foot along the ground "Good, good. There seems to be a great amount below us now. Heh heh."

Ray with both in the same positions as then suddenly Ray transformed into a lion himself and all three ran together causing energy to be absorbed into them creating a slip-stream that aimed right at Van.

"Heh. Oh? Very well." Van then swiped his foot along the ground creating a large mountain made out of crystal in orer to hinder Ray.

The slip-stream collided but did not perish as the force of the energy erupted three way making all three lions back on their feet. Through this time they were all the same looking due to the energy absorbtion as they then started circling around creating a dust storm.

A Twist In the Battle
Confused by what was happening, Van braced himself for an attack. "What is this technique? Hm. Looks like you have more in you than I even knew about. After all this time, you still have some abilities I don't know about." Drawing a sword Van smirked, "Seems to be that I was the one holding back. Dance on the River Styx, Ryoiki!" A blaze of fire emerged from the sword, wrapping Van in a veil of energy. As he emerged, a golden spear could be seen in his hands. "Let's really get things started."

One lion appeared very big as it crashed into the mountain of crystal causing it to shatter, then the second lion appeared from the right side of the storm as Ray appeared wearing his hollow mask as he dropped down from the top of the storm aiming straight at Van with his blade.

"You're gonna have to be more careful than that." Aiming toward Ray and the second lion, Van prepared himself. "Tejina!" Spinning his spear around him, Van created a dome of blue flames around himself.

Ray was heading towards the dome while his lion was destroyed but he wasn't going down like this as he stabbed the dome with his sword for an instant and pushed himself away a good few feet.

Van smirked. "Wrong move pal. Take a good look at your weapon and your body." He pointed to Ray as his sword and the body parts that came in contact began to be covered in ice. "That's Ryoiki's signature ability. I figured a physical person such as yourself would try to attack head on. Looks like you won't be doing much of anything while the ice burns away your energy."