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Journeys of Time 4: Proving your Hide

This story is copyrighted to SashaWS/ArtisticEastern, containing characters owned by various people used with permission.

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Hearing the authority in the feminine voice calling out a dare to them, even the spunky Janch was feeling her knees slowly giving in from fear as the guards motioned for them to enter. Without even giving a second to think, Tenchi walked right in first, followed by Peridot and the rest, Janch obviously entering last as she didn't want the guards to think she was afraid. However, their wyverns were told to wait outside, something many of them objected to before their riders calmed them down and went back to stand with the rest.

In a throne made from what seemed to be hardened meteorite iron, sat a dragoness wearing a white scale armor, her body black as the night itself, the hair purple like the finest grape juice tied up with a light blue ribbon, her eyes ice blue like her horns and from what Tenchi could see, and probably the others too, she had a dark turquoise chest or at least they guessed since only her throat was visible, and that body seemed to have been toughened up by the rough climate and many battles as where the armor did not cover, she was sporting some minor muscles. In her left hand, she was wielding what seemed to be a massive metal version of a carpenter's mallet.

Looking over each of her 'guests', she smirked confidently in that she would have them soon begging for mercy. "So you dared to enter after all. Either you are really determined in a great cause or a fool that follows a blind road in the darkness. I am Icebreaker Zinava, the tribe prime of the Shadowfrost. What brings you to Kilskara?" Tenchi bowed to be polite, "Greetings, miss Zinava. I am..." Tenchi was interrupted by Zinava, "I do not care who you are. What is your purpose for coming here, outsider?" Tenchi grunted at the audacity of the female, but kept it to herself, "We have arrived here from a realm to find this tribe. We come in peace to seek our lost kin."

Zinava broke into a laughter, "You speak of peace and yet you step over the graves of my tribekins? You got some nerve to claim this." Tenchi calmed herself, "We didn't know that we had accidentally walked into a graveyard. It is dark here and we could not see anything." Zinava growled and struck the ground with her massive weapon, forcing most of them onto the ground, "Quit with your lies! You are here to kill us! You are sent by ancient enemies! I can see it in your eyes!" Tenchi finally broke under the false claims and growled at Zinava, "What do we need to do to prove we have peaceful intentions then?"

As the impact finally subsided, as the weapon had created a powerful gravitational pull on them, the others stood up and noticed that Zinava was grinning in a rather sinister way before she spun her weapon around, "Well, it has been a few months since we had a good dispute settled in combat. I challenge you to a trial. One of you will face off against five of my greatest warriors and if you can defeat all five of them, then I know that you are coming in peace. However, if you fail, you will live the rest of your life here as our personal slaves." Janch's head seemed to clear when hearing about a trial with combat, "Okay, I am ready to..."

Janch was silenced by Zinava, "Only rule, as I challenged you, I get to pick who fights for you. And seeing as the growly one of you have what seems to be a fake arm and eye, I will pick her." A soft laughter could be heard and everyone turned to face Sasha that was currently lowering her head, allowing the hair to fall over her face. Zinava growled at her, "What's so funny, you wyvern spilling?" Sasha moved the hair out of her eyes and took a deep breathe before looking at the angry dragoness, "I am sorry, but do you really wanna do that? I mean, I am not objecting to your choice here, but have you never heard the expression to never judge what your eyes can see?" Zinava looked at Sasha before replying, "No, but I heard the expression that everything from the back of a wyvern is not worth your time to converse with."

Sasha's face turned into one of anger as she turned away, "Of all the damn insolent. Fine, I wanted to be nice and warn you, but if I were you, I would have the healers be ready." Zinava just laughed, "I do not care about what you say to me. Lets go outside. If you keep putting up that act of lack of confidence, I might personally challenge you, only to see your face as you lose." Sasha just ignored her before they were leaving and followed Zinava outside of Kilskara, the cold air not even affecting her. It wasn't long before four slightly armored males and one heavily armored warrior came walking from the crater and into the cold air, their armors looking like regular iron ones, but were covered in dark marks, probably dark enchantments.

Setting up an area for the trial, Zinava shattered half a icicle pillar, fragments landing around the area in a perfect pattern, making Jigo whistle, "Hey, not a bad thing you did there." Zinava ignored his compliment before she jumped onto one of the ice shards and looked down at the ring she had made, "Okay, outsider. Lets start you off simple. Ganydus! Get in there." The first male jumped inside as Tenchi pulled out all of her weaponry and threw them to Sasha, "Here, mom, take good care of them. I promise that I will play nicely with them." The male laughed and drew his sword, "You wanna abandon all your weapons to fight me with your bare fists? You are so dead." Tenchi lifted a hand and waved him closer, "Come on then and show me." Ganydus quickly rushed in with his sword in hand, swinging it down for Tenchi to catch in her left hand.

What she didn't expect from doing this was the sheer impact of her hand striking the ground from the difference in their level of power, Zinava grinning, "It is over, she is not strong enough to... WHAT?!" Tenchi quickly spun around after placing her second hand down onto the ground and delivered a powerful kick to the back of Ganydus helmet, sending it flying before she bulked up and Ganydus was moving backwards from the force, only to notice Tenchi looking at him up close, "My turn." In what could only be described as pure martial prowess, Tenchi delivered strike after strike with her legs alone, making Ganydus stumble backwards more. When he did not expect it, he looked down to find Tenchi's thighs holding him in place before she quickly used the strength of her arms combined with the momentum to send him head first into the ground, following up with having him slide into one of the shards, unable to get up from the impact.

Zinava growled, "Beginner's luck, lets see how you fare against Hyxi. Get in there!" A larger male jumped inside the makeshift arena and growled, "The Icebreaker wills it, so it shall be done!" He swung a massive flail around him before attempting to strike Tenchi with it. Tenchi allowed it to hit her before she held onto it hard and giggled like a little dragonlet, "My turn!" The male growled, "Quit mocking me and fight like aAAAAHHH!" Tenchi being to spin around faster and faster for every full circle before letting the flail go and Hyxi found himself joining Ganydus against the ice wall and Zinava growled, "Weaklings! How can you lose against a simpleton like her?"

Sasha grinned, but didn't say a thing as the pissed off dragoness growled out, "Cryox! Get in there and do not dare to fail!" The third male jumped inside the arena, but unlike the other three, his armor broke off as his body was getting covered in ice shards, the other tribe members cheering him on, "Go Cryox! Pulverize her!" Tenchi grinned, "Come on, this will be easy." She got ready to punch as Cryox rolled into a ball and rolled up along the wall, speeding up more and more until he disappeared, making Tenchi look around for any sign of him until she felt how something hit her and sent her right into a wall, the thing that hit her soon coming at her with full impact and Tenchi's screams of pain could be heard as more and more of her body was being ripped apart slowly, her eyes focusing to see Cryox spinning so fast and with such raw energy that her own body could barely hold against it.

The pain filled Tenchi's senses and fueled her before she grabbed Cryox and managed to stop him, "I won't let you get away with this!" Her body was bulking up a bit more before her hair shifted to a dark red color and her body was covered in lightning marks, forcing Cryox to unroll from the sheer force of power that Tenchi was emitting before she delivered one hard punch in his gut, following by a second one and then a third that went straight for his chin. That punch was enough to send him into the ice wall too, but also through it, skidding across the snow for a long bit.

Zinava was looking in pure shock and fear, "W-What is this?!? How did she become so powerful? Thorach, destroy her!" Sasha smirked as she watched the fourth warrior jump into the ring and spoke up, "I tried to warn you, but you didn't listen to me. I created Tenchi on the request of the Father himself and the other creators. Her whole life was a struggle to survive. She was hunted by an elite force of dragons that brutally raped her and took one of her arms as a sick trophy. She was first trained by a mentor in combat with guns, or as you would call it, manaless spell projectiles. She kept on surviving until she met my daughter Peridot." Peridot smiled and waved as Sasha continued, "Who brought her back to me, although back then she was just my daughter's lover. But when I got to see for myself who she really was and also got to see who her mother truly was, that is when I began to train her and watched her overcome the shadow of her past, then I witnessed her journey from the defeater of the past to the day she was granted the title of Goddess of Justice and also took out an ancient enemy of her tribe, which she brought back with the help of those of the tribe that were still alive. Now she came here to offer an alliance, which you denied because you didn't trust her."

Zinava looked at Sasha, fear in her eyes as she asked, "Just who is she?" Sasha closed her eyes, "I thought you didn't care who she is." Zinava swallowed, "Just tell me who she is!" Sasha looked down into the arena where Tenchi was now skewered on a rapier, but soon had it pulled out as she punched the insolent warrior through the ice wall, her body covered in claw marks, bite marks and even one or two missing teeth, her confident smirk telling all Zinava had to see before Sasha replied, "She is Tenchi, the Prime of the Primes, the ultimate Prime of the Frostclaw Tribe, herald of the Firestone Tribe, the slayer of the Shadowtail Tribe and the guiding light of the Frostgate Tribe. She is the one who will send your last warrior out of the ring and into the intensive care. For your own good, blow off the trial and save an innocent soul the need for medical care."

Zinava saw how sincere Sasha was and looked down at Tenchi who beckoned with her hand for Zinava to bring in the last one. Zinava felt that it was wrong, but her best warrior had always been undefeated. Judging by the damages on Tenchi's body, she would not stand up from an assault with him. Yet, the thought if Sasha's words were true, how could she... Her thoughts were interrupted by Tenchi calling out to her, "Hey, miss Zinava. I can see that you have a lot to think about when it comes to realizing my backstory. I respect the concern and seeing as I got so many scars right now, I could probably end up dying if your last warrior is as strong and tiring for me as these four have been so far. I noticed also that you have no health care here. After this trial, no matter if I win or lose, I will honor them with having them all healed up. Killing them would not show peaceful intentions. I am not here to kill. I am here to allow someone a chance to talk up about the pain she felt that one day." Vana began to tear up as Tenchi lifted a hand and beckoned, "Please, lets make it fair for the both of us."

She could hear applauds from her family and soon applauds were heard from everyone around the arena and even Zinava gave her an applaud before calling out, "Solan! You heard our challenged one. Give them a true battle!" The heavy set of armor landed with a crash on the ground before breaking apart to reveal a dragoness wrapped up tightly in what could be seen as a hijab, only with the face covered up more. She seemed to almost levitate above the ground before she simply snapped her fingers to create a snowstorm that was almost freezing Tenchi instantly on contact, but Tenchi merely closed her eyes before forming her fiery claws to heat up the ice and crack it apart around her as the dragoness seemed to be in a good spirit as two pillars of ice soon formed near herself and crushed her in between them before they disappeared into the ground, making Tenchi quickly look around to try and find her before striking the ground to melt all the snow, forcing the dragoness to escape the ground quickly before landing on the ground, "Impressive."

The cheers went louder and Zinava just watched with a smile as she thought for herself, "No matter the outcome, I will admit that she is strong. And I might take back what I said about the challenge to that yellow one." The dragoness snapped her fingers before grabbing two ice swords and charged in to strike Tenchi with them, both of the blades shattering against Tenchi's arms before she noticed how the dragoness had jumped into the air, forming a massive mallet, even bigger than Zinava's own one, Tenchi lifted her arm to try and shatter it, but Jigo gasped out, "That is subzero ice!" Tenchi didn't hear him and when the mallet cracked against her arm, she was growling out as shards impaled her, leaving her unable to move as Zinava stood silent and everyone else did too.

The silence was broken by Sasha speaking, "The special offer for mercy is completely free for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6..." Zinava looked at her before Alex spoke up, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Zinava began to sweat before Sasha and Alex said in unison, "Offer has expired!" Like a timed bomb, Tenchi growled out and created a shockwave that blew apart the ice wall and had the dragoness laying in the snow as Tenchi slowly began to walk closer to her, the fear obvious in her reaction as she was trying to get away from Tenchi, who was soon grabbing onto her leg and pulled her back straight into a fist, shattering most of her teeth and left the dragoness gasping in shock and Zinava to do the same as she spoke up, "Please! Stop! I yield!" Tenchi wasn't hearing as she pulled every shard out of own body and tossed aside, her right foot grinding against the dragoness' head as she was crying from the pain, Tenchi looking down at her before spitting, "You think this is funny, huh? I wanted to have a honorable fight and you go and use something like this!"

Zinava rushed over and cried as she grabbed Tenchi, "Please, stop! The trial is over!" Tenchi ignored her and kept grinding the dragoness' head harder before she felt a hard strike at the back of her head with a hard surface, knocking her out of the rage-filled moment before she lifted her foot from the dragoness' head, Peridot quickly rushing over to heal her as Tenchi pulled out the last shard from her body and turned to walk away, "Come on everyone, we better get ready to work now. We lost." Zinava cleared her throat, "Miss... Tenchi. I was about to call off the trial since I didn't see a need for further testing of your trust. But what you said is what made me not honor myself, but honor your determination to battle on to prove even if could just get what you wanted after four rounds. Now please, allow my guards to escort you to a location where you can sleep. I will want to speak to you tomorrow morning." Tenchi nodded before watching how Zinava was about to lift up the dragoness, but was stopped by Peridot who quickly stood up before allowing her to pick the injured girl up, still healing her.

As they walked back, Tenchi looked at Sasha, "Did I go too far?" Sasha was looking at her quickly and then looked forward, "Perhaps, but your spirit showed them that you aren't their enemy." Tenchi smiled, "Thanks mom..." Tenchi fell forward and Sasha caught her before gasping, "She lost a lot of blood. We got to give her medical care now!" That night, Azura and Peridot worked their best to heal up six injured patients, leaving one of them still wrapped up at the request of Zinava herself. They did not ask her why, neither did she tell them. It wasn't until the next morning after Tenchi had gotten out of bed that they noticed the dragoness missing just as the same male from when they entered Kilskara came to pick them up, "Icebreaker Zinava wants to meet you."

The End.