God's Garden - Mighty Brothers XX

Bang!

The air crackled with energy as Norvin's fist connected with Echo's. The force of the blow sent tremors through his arm, a jarring vibration that felt both exhilarating and familiar. The world around him was a blur of orange and blue limbs, a reflection of himself in the world of a certain type of looking glass. He saw a flash of his own 'face', a mirror image with reverse colors, a strange feeling of familiarity washing over him.

'This is way too rad!'

'Focus!'

*HIT!*

Smash! Bang! Smash! 

Bright yellow and red colored energy constructs that looked like they belonged in a video game calling out 'HIT! ' appeared every time they clashed and one of them came out on top in the exchange.

The impact echoed through the forest. Echo had faked a straight push-kick, stomping the lead foot he had sent streaking towards Norvin back down; Norvin had moved to block the kick while jumping backwards. Norvin didn't have quite enough time to raise his arms into a guarding position and Echo's follow up fist found its mark. Norvin felt the sting of the powerful blow Echo had just administered across his chest as the impact threw him back.

'Tsk Tsk. Told you to focus, kid.'

"Oooof!"

Norvin was flying backwards through the air, several saplings were splintered into saw dust before Norvin managed to flip to his feet and create two trenches in the soil with his toes while he slid back. 

He didn't have much time to shake off the attack, Echo was already in his face before he had fully come to a stop, throwing a surprisingly telegraphed right cross. 

Norvin grabbed the arm as it neared him with his left hand, deftly raising his right knee for a counter attack while pulling down on Echo's seized arm.

CRACK!

*HIT!*

'Who isn't focused? It sure ain't me!...Eh?'

The ability, 'Infinite Stellar Refinement', provided the pair with significant assistance in terms of the speed with which Norvin's body was remembering the previous similar strikes Echo had dished out. Echo seemed to be at a similar skill level as Norvin, growing in prowess along with him. They were feeding off of one another's growth as well.

Norvin would remember and practice moves and combos he had seen in media, over and over again until he had something near to a mastery over them from the special repetition he could perform. In turn, Echo would then be able to use those same techniques against Norvin when they trained and Norvin would be able to start adapting to those attacks, which would advance Echo's defense. Rinse and repeat.

'Still you, kid.'

Echo had been forced to look towards the sky from the force of Norvin's knee hitting the chin area of his helmet. Echo responded to Norvin while looking upwards and then pulled his head back down with extra force, not stopping when 'eyelevel', attempting to counterattack with a savage headbutt.

'Tricky!' 

Norvin's eyes went wide behind his goggles-like visor. He tilted his head side to side to avoid the multiple strikes that Echo went for with his spikey helmet. 

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

When Echo attempted headbutt number five, Norvin decided to meet him head-on, bringing his own helmet down to meet Echo.

Clang! 

*HIT!* *HIT!*

Both combatants staggered backwards, shook their heads, then rushed towards each other once again.

The wind was howling as they tore across the forest at breakneck speeds, smashing through the foliage, snapping trees in half as if they were nothing. Any rocks or boulders were no match for their raw power. Bright flashes of azure blue and copper orange flashed back and forth between the trees, their movement seemed erratic but also in sync with each other, as if they had done this dance many times before.

*HIT!*

Snap!

Norvin heard the sickeningly loud crack of a tree as he touched down on the ground from an impressive series of flips and handsprings, the bark of a tree was splintered. He had landed another shot on Echo, sending the sub-body barreling into the aforementioned tree after rolling and bouncing across the forest floor first.

Norvin twisted his neck side to side and settled into one of the new stances that he had adopted during their last couple days of sparing. 

His azure and coper-orange counterpart, stood back up and mirrored his every move. Their forms, a near perfect copy but a twisted version of themselves, orange where he was blue and blue where he was orange. The azure and coper-orange on Echo flashed and that mirror image was right in front of Norvin again with a fist raised.

He heard the sound of his own excited laughter inside the helmet encapsulating his head. These last few days of training had been nothing short of exhilarating once the idea to use this transformation had occurred to Norvin. This form from the show 'Ex-aid', was able to split into two, giving Echo a body to fight Norvin with. Once again, Norvin had chosen to use another Kamen Rider type transformation. He truly seemed to favor the Rider forms. 

Norvin had used several other transformations and hero forms during his training, including the Nano-bot suit from 'Spiderman Unlimited' for stealth purposes and a Saint Seiya golden cloth form that lasted for a few seconds before the power he had managed to save up for it using 'Imagination Station' had been used up. There were quite a few others he had tried out but asides from the Nano suit, he kept coming back to the Rider, Super Sentai and Ranger forms most of the time while using the Holodex.

Bang!

Their fists clashed again, the sound echoing through the surrounding area. Norvin disengaged, feeling Echo watching him with a joyful intensity that mirrored his own. He dashed away and launched himself towards a towering tree resembling one that bares coconuts, the air rushing past his helmet. He crashed feet first into the tall, thin trunk, the solid yet rubbery wood bending under his impressive power.

He felt the give of the wood and the satisfying sensation of his measured impact, he needed it to stay unbroken, a tool. Using the flexible tree as a spring board, he launched himself back towards Echo, the world blurring for a moment as he prepared himself for the return clash.

'Ready for round two, Echo?' Norvin thought, a grin spreading across his face as he rocketed back towards his training partner.

'Only always, Norvin.' Echo returned a mental message, crossed his arms and planted his feet firmly, ready to receive Norvin head on.

These last several months had been a life changing experience for Norvin, not including the first day that he had bonded with Echo. The sub-body and Norvin had come to understand each other a little bit more, through talking, training and crafting future Oracle totems.

None of the creatures living there seemed bothered by Norvin whenever these fights through the woods were carried out. Echo had been anxious to get rid of Norvin's Oracles before because he knew outsiders were the only thing that could draw in a mob of hungry Meta beasts. 

Norvin had begun to understand how the garden worked by experimenting and listening to Echo's guidance about the denizens who lived here. He had learned that the Meta creatures that seemed to be everywhere would generally avoid him due to his status as a Curator as long as he didn't directly go after them as food.

Which Norvin tried to do, a lot.

He had managed to add more wind resistance to his record. A fire powered beast that resembled a bat had become kebobs, a ten foot-long, icy, shark-like fish Norvin encountered in the river on his first day out of the cave had been turned into sushi and a dark, black creature with fluffy fur resembling a cow, that could manipulate gravity had also been added to the sub-list of resistances he possessed under 'Sovereign's Control'. Norvin had been slowly grilling that one for the last couple of weeks. It had a lot of size and Norvin had been sure to make good use of the big creature.

When he first spotted the jet black animal, it had been in the middle of flattening a set of Gale Howlers. It had just stood there and looked at the ferocious wolves while they snarled and then charged at it. Norvin had been preparing to reveal himself after observing all of this from a distance and jump in after transforming to kill steal; when suddenly a two foot deep, ten foot wide crater imprinted into the forest floor, full of squished wolf, appeared fight in front of the cow.

It had managed to completely liquify one of the canines and had caught the front half of the second one that had been close behind its pouncing kin as well.

Norvin stopped approaching immediately, having been reminded of one of the gravity guns used in a manga he used to enjoy reading.

To make matters worse, the cow slowly wandered forward and started lapping up the blood of the wolf it had just crushed.

Using 'Cosmic Catalogue' had let Norvin confirm that it was indeed a gravity type ability. The cow was too dangerous to get close to. He had retreated a small distance and started to focus a psychic blast, Echo keeping an 'eye' on the seemingly relaxed Meta while it leisurely drank the red fluid it had pulverized the Howler into. 

Norvin had been condensing his energy into a small point on the tip of his finger while staying hidden in some bushes, spiraling it and getting it to turn faster and faster, all while adding energy into the projectile he was willing into being. 

The small, nearly transparent white energy bubble had started out as an sphere but slowly started to gain a point as Norvin rotated it. The longer he added power into it, the more solid it had become. 

At the point of time when the blast Norvin had been forming was a softly glowing, solid white, Echo let Norvin know that his attack had reached a B grade potency. The cow itself was on par with a C grade according to its record. Norvin turned the hand housing the energy into a finger gun, concentrating on keeping the destructive little condensed psychic bomb at the tip of one finger together and spinning. 

He supported his hand by grasping the wrist connected to it with his other hand, supporting his finger gun as if it were a Desert Eagle hand cannon. He slowly aimed at the gravity controlling monsters head and let the shot fly.

Whoosh! Pop!

Norvin was sent shooting backwards a few meters into the brush, causing some noise. Before the cow could even react, its head simply disappeared from the rest of its body, leaving a red mist in the air.