[X] Ride the dragon to the skies
"Call forth the dragon," you told Herb. He nodded in response and the two of you dash towards Blondie to finish it. You leap to the air as Herb twists and strikes Blondie with the Gekkaja, forming the vortex and sending her flying once again. This time, though, you were sent along with her. As Herb maintained the tornado below with his cold ki and the Gekkaja, you were above gathering all the ambient ki to pull off the Hiryu Korin Dan. Like before, Blondie's ki surged as the harsh winds battered her back and forth, but unlike last time the tornado didn't catch on fire.
You watched below as you gathered ki, making sure that nothing went wrong. So far, Herb had the tornado under control; exuding cold ki and...drawing power from the Gekkaja? You looked closer and realized that yes, Herb was drawing ki from the Gekkaja; cold ki in fact. Herb seemed to be channeling his ki through the staff and withdrawing it back, along with interest, as cold ki to empower the Hiryu Shoten Ha. You thought that you had to bend the top of the staff to be able to use the Gekkaja's power, but apparently that wasn't the case; you were just simply using it wrong.
Blondie on the other hand, was stuck in the tornado like last time; being struck by the harsh, cold winds and unable to do anything about it. Unlike before, Herb's cold ki that permeated the vortex made it so that she couldn't set this one on fire, meaning that she was stuck in a tornado while you gathered up ki like Goku powering up a Spirit Bomb. Not that far from the truth, really. You see her body straining from the immense ki coursing through her system, though it looked as if that strain was...lessening. Which was possible, given you were seeing her adapt to such massive power before you attacked her again.
Well, it didn't matter now because your attack was ready; the Hiryu Korin Dan was large enough to put a small mountain to shame. In fact, going back to the DBZ reference, it was bigger than Goku's Spirit Bomb on Namek. Thankfully, it wouldn't be as destructive. Probably. Maybe.
Eh, too late to turn back now; and frankly Blondie was probably gonna cause just as much mayhem if you just left her alone. You flung your arms down, sending the massive sphere of energy hurtling down as well. You announced your finishing blow as you do so, "HIRYU KORIN DAN!!!"
The ki blast hits Blondie head-on and sends her flying to the ground, presumably. You can't tell due to how utterly massive said blast is; hell, you can't even tell if Herb was able to get out of the way of the blast radius or not. The titanic sphere hits the earth and erupts in a enormous flash, blinding you and probably everyone in a hundred mile radius for a brief moment. As your vision returned, you found yourself falling to the ground below; without the vortex to keep you aloft, you had nowhere to go but down.
You adjusted yourself midair and land on your feet, your ki reinforcing your legs so you don't break them. You look around and whistle, taking in the aftermath of your attack. You've easily vaporized the part and just about everything in a five block radius around it. You feel a pang of guilt, hoping that nobody was hurt or killed by what you did; though judging from the few helicopter-plane things in the air, you guessed that everyone was already evacuated. What with two massive tornadoes and a gigantic energy blast coming out of nowhere and all. You see Herb glide over to you, heavily beaten up and exhausted, but otherwise ok; a loose hand just barely holding onto the Gekkaja.
"It's done," he announced, before handing the Gekkaja over to you, "Take it; you're going to need it for our battle tomorrow. Though I must admit Saotome, you manage to get into the strangest situa-"
Herb doesn't finish his sentence, as you both feel a now familiar ki above you; heading rapidly to your location. Exhausted as he already was, Herb could do nothing as Blondie came crashing in like a blazing phoenix and striking him with an uppercut, sending him flying off to the distance. You yourself just barely manage to jump away to buy you some distance, shock and disbelief almost rooting you in place.
How?! How could she have possibly managed to come out unscathed?! She was just barely maintaining control of her ki before, so there's no possible way she could've managed to use it to defend herself! And yet, if anything it feels as if she has more control over her now godly ki reserves; power that dwarfed Saffron's, that was far greater than the power that she could just barely hold onto before.
Then, it hits you; the vortex, Herb's cold ki. The very thing that let you gather all the available power you could was the very same thing that let Blondie hold on to her titanic amounts of ki, the chilling vortex was actually cooling her body down and assisting her adaptation to her added ki; letting her use it to further power the insane defense she's been running on this entire time. Now Herb was down for the count, you were facing someone who's power now dwarfed someone who could casually vaporize mountains, and all you had were your half exhausted ki reserves and a magic ice stick.
All your techniques were worthless, the Gekkaja pointless because you couldn't get close, and there was nobody else to bail you out. Even the Saotome Secret Technique wasn't worth it because Blondie could outlast you and catch up no matter how fast or far you run. There was nothing left.
...Except, maybe there was? You had the idea earlier in the fight, and seeing Herb and the Gekkaja helped lay the foundation for how to do it; all you needed to do was try it yourself. Entering the Soul of Ice, you push your ki into the Gekkaja and feel it, examining how the staff worked so you could attain the final piece to the puzzle. You feel the ki you pushed into the rod chill and become cold ki, the heat that the staff took from it going into the vortex you felt within the staff; empowering and expanding it. The Gekkaja then reached out to the environment, pulling at the ambient heat around you and converting it into cold ki; then exuding that cold ki to pull at even more heat.
Inspiration struck you, the final piece of the puzzle falling into place, and you know that you can take Blondie down. You flare out your ki, still in the Soul of Ice, and let it pull at the ambient heat and ki around you. Cold, after all, was merely the absence of heat and energy. As you pull at the heat, you funnel it inwards into yourself, converting it into cold ki and furthering out your hold on the enviroment. The cycle repeats, over and over, your body constantly taking in the ambient ki around you and converting it into cold ki to perpetuate the cycle. Soon, the ground around you became covered in frost; the air shrouded in mist.
In essence, you became a perpetual ki generator; as long as you continued to expand your aura of frost, you would constantly have your body flooded with as much ki as it can hold. Instead of having a pool of ki that grew more massive during a battle, you had a pool that never ran dry. With this, you could match Blondie's own technique and avoid the problems of a battle of attrition.
It wasn't perfect though, your enhanced Soul of Ice; already you felt a burning sensation throughout your body, as it was constantly flooded with heat. You knew that you were doing something wrong, but simply didn't have the time to figure out what. Burning to death from the inside out was a distinct possibility in this fight unless you ended it now.
And that was exactly what you were gonna do; you already knew you were faster than her, so you blitzed Blondie and sent her flying in yet another Hiryu Shoten Ha. This time though, after sending her flying with an uppercut, you strike skyward with the Gekkaja; it's twin crescent points hitting at an angle. One sent a Hiryo Hyo Toppa right at Blondie, the other entered the tornado. From there came the hard part, you focused on the ever expanding cold ki you were emitting; ignoring the ever increasing burning inside your chest and the oddly colored ice growing around you. You grasped at it with all your will, forcing it under your control; guiding and manipulating it so that you can control the other half of your attack: the second Hiryu Hyo Toppa you sent in the vortex, coiling around in a spiral in the winds.
Once it was under your control, you leapt into the vortex yourself and rode it all the way to the top; Blondie still being struck by the tornado spear of the first part of your attack. Once above her, you pulled at the ki around you once more; this time focusing all the hot ki to a point and surrounding it with the vast amounts of cold ki you were putting out, while also maintaining the second part of your attack. Covered in the Soul of Ice, you were pulled down as the hot ki was pushed out; the cold ki crashing down and merging with the second Hiryu Hyo Toppa. You extended your foot and joined with the compressed cyclone; culminating in you flying at Blondie with a razor sharp, arctic cold, divekick from above.
Your kick struck her right at the back of her neck and you announced the name of your new technique, "Hiryu Hyo Toppa revised - Sōryū Tsūga!"
You both ended up flying out of the green tornado, the sounds of shattered glass and crystal following you. The two of you plummet to the ice blue ground below, Blondie crashing to a heap and yourself just barely managing to land in a crouch; consciousness fading in and out. You idly note shimmering gold strands floating about, and look to Blondie. You saw that your final attack gave her an impromptu pageboy haircut along with knocking her out.
Staring to pass out, you slowly stood up; eyes blurring as you turned around to see the fallout of the fight. You notice that there's this massive green...pillar thing, along with a red things on top and a blue thing coiling around it. You try to make out more, but your vision was fading and you couldn't hold on much longer.
Before you pass out, you barely utter out, "I win..."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When you come to, you find yourself in a hospital; bandaged up and all alone. You see the Gekkaja at your bedside and someone coming up to the door of your room. As the door opens, you see a hint of white and blue.
You...
[X] Play dead, so to speak; don't wanna answer any awkward questions at the moment
[X] Get up, you're all better now and don't wanna waste anymore time in here
[X] Hide, then get outta here before you have to deal with any of the fallout of the fight
[X] Write-in
NEW TECHNIQUES DISCOVERED! - True Soul of Ice (A+): By studying the Gekkaja, you've managed to bring the Soul of Ice to a whole new level. By drawing in ambient heat and ki through the cold of the Soul of Ice, you can use both to restore your own ki as well as convert it to cold ki to further the cold aura of the Soul of Ice; as well as pull in more heat and ki. The user can also manipulate the cold ki around them if their control is good enough. Using this technique immediately makes your ki cold, as well as renders emotion ki based attacks inoperable.
Sōryū Tsūga [Twin Dragon Piercing Fangs] (A++): A highly complex variation of the Hiryu Hyo Toppa and Hiryu Korin Dan; it requires the True Soul of Ice to use. By firing off a second Hiryu Hyo Toppa into the vortex, one can control the second attack by manipulating the ambient cold ki emitted by the user and direct it to the top of the tornado. Then, once there; the user can jump to the top and further gather the cold ki and hot ki, using the hot ki to pull the attack towards the enemy and the cold ki, along with a divekick, to empower the second Hiryu Hyo Toppa.