The four black dots on Gaara's forehead pulsed and Sora felt the link pull to its limit.
Sand erupted outward in a massive ring, forcing Sora to leap back as the ground caved in beneath him. Gaara's arm began to swell with sand pouring from inside of his own skin.
It hardened, thickened, reshaped into a far more monstrous and more beast like claw.
Sora narrowed his eyes.
He had already established that there were two chakra systems inside, but now they were fighting for dominance.
That's when Gaara lunged forward.
The enlarged arm slammed down, Sora reacting immediately by forming a large golden wall in front of him. Hardened nature energy condensed into a thick, near translucent barrier.
The claw collided.
The barrier cracked but held long enough for Sora to push himself off a rising sand platform he had pushed upward with his newly gained control. He redirected himself midair then drove a fist into the beast's elbow joint.
Golden energy wrapped around his forearm like played armour, amplifying the impact.
The punch caused sand to explode out in a shockwave, making the arm collapse.
And then it immediately built itself back.
More sand poured in, much denser than before.
Gaara's other arm began transforming next. His shoulder split with veins of packed sand. A distorted face began forming on the right side of his own, jaw stretching open unnaturally.
Sora stepped forward with a grin.
Through the link they had established, Sora could feel the scale of the beast. The reserves were ridiculous.
And he pulled chakra from it.
The square mark on the back of his hand pulsed and the sand moved to his will.
Gaara hurled a tidal wave of sand forward. Sora's eyes flashing bright as he took control of a portion of it, splitting the mass down the center and forcing it upward into a wall. The two sand forces collided violently, exploding outward in a storm of sand.
The two young boys stared at each other, both manipulating the battlefield they stood on.
Gaara's human features are gone now. His body was expanding, torso thickening as sand layered over his body. A singular tail formed behind him, slamming into the desert.
Sora swiped his hand and formed three large golden bullets above him, thick, wide slabs of hardened nature energy.
He aimed a finger gun in Gaara's direction as his eyes flashed once more.
"Bang!"
The constructs flew forward like falling pillars, crushing into Gaara's changing form.
The impact drove Gaara into the ground, sand bursting upward in a dome. Sora immediately followed through, riding a wave of sand he had created and drove both palms down into the center mass.
Golden armour wrapped around his arms as they crashed down.
The collision dispersed the forming torso, Sora had managed to stall the transformation.
Gaara's eyes widened slightly as Sora had somehow managed to stop his demon from taking over.
Then they widened further as Sora ripped control of the sand beneath his feet, forming a platform that catapulted him forward. Sora twisted midair and drove a punch straight toward Gaara's face.
The impact shattered Gaara's ultimate defense and snapped his head sideways.
Gaara skidded across the desert, carving a path.
However, before Sora could press, the sand surged again, Gaara's monstrous form having fallen completely, returning to his original style.
A dome collapsed inward around Sora from every direction.
But the boy simply stomped and the sand obeyed him.
The sand he was standing on hardened instantly as he seized control through the link, compressing it into a dense base that resisted the crushing pressure.
That's when Sora thrust both palms outward and shot out multiple golden constructs similar to battering rams, forcing the dome outward.
The dome exploded.
Gaara rose from the debris, blood running from his lip, eyes wide.
Then he smiled.
The sand around him began moving far sharper now.
Blades formed midair and launched toward Sora from multiple angles. Sora barely managed to dodge them, his eyes tracking the movements in advance.
Mid dodge, he stole control of two incoming blades, altering their vectors so that they would slice back toward Gaara.
Gaara countered instantly, sand intercepting sand in a clash that forced them both back.
They moved again.
Sora moved in low, using the sand as stepping points, constantly shifting the terrain to stay unstable. Gaara responded by flattening the battlefield, suppressing Sora's control with his own.
The tug of war intensified.
Sora formed three more massive constructs above him and sent them down in erratic timing. Gaara thrust both hands upward, sand colliding with the slabs mid fall.
The first construct shattered while the second broke through partially, smashing into Gaara's shoulder and driving him knee deep into the sand.
The third…
Gaara vanished as the sand engulfed him whole.
Sora didn't hesitate, immediately dismissing the final construct and placing both palms on the floor.
Through the link, he could feel Gaara's movements beneath the surface. He compressed the sand layer around Gaara from multiple directions at once, attempting to crush him from above the ground.
The desert floor shook.
Gaara burst upward in an explosion of sand, his arm now monstrous again.
The large arm connected with Sora's ribs before he could defend.
He felt something crack.
Sora was launched back, skipping across the sand, rolling before digging his hands into the sand to stop himself.
He spat blood, then grinned. "Good."
Gaara's breathing got heavier.
Sora could feel the beast's chakra getting more aggressive again.
Gaara grinned like a maniac as he thrust a hand forward, dozens of hands made of sand shot upward from the ground around Sora, grabbing, clawing, trying to constrict him. Sora reacted by forming a nature construct beneath his feet and flying into the sky.
As he tried to fly up, a sandy hand caught his ankle, another latched onto his wrist and tightened like a vise.
His eyes flared one more time.
He pulled inward.
He forced more of Gaara's chakra into his own reserves and forced the hardening sand to disperse.
Sora quickly landed back on the sand and charged.
Gaara tried to summon a wall of sand to defend himself, but Sora punched right through it.
Another wall of sand rose, but Sora ripped through that one too.
He reached Gaara and drove an elbow into his jaw, followed by a knee to the sternum.
Gaara coughed, the sand retaliating instantly, forming a large spike from behind.
Sora twisted mid strike and formed a compact golden barrier along his spine just in time to absorb the piercing impact. The force still drove him forward into Gaara's range.
Forehead to forehead.
Their eyes locked.
Gaara's crazed light blue eyes stared back at Sora's bloodshot, almost drunk golden eyes.
"You feel it too, right?" Gaara whispered, almost a rhetorical question.
Sora did.
And he nodded.
The second presence was far closer to the surface now, far angrier.
The sand exploded between them, forcing the two to separate for a moment.
Gaara landed several meters back, panting harder now. Cracks were forming along his skin, fine lines where sand pressed outward from inside of him.
Sora's breathing got heavier too.
The chakra drain he'd been feeling was long gone, he had almost infinite reserves right now. But something else was happening.
The link was widening.
He was starting to fully connect to the thing inside of him, understanding that this creature was about to come out any second now.
Gaara suddenly raised both arms and the desert responded in full.
A massive wave of sand surged forward, cresting high enough to cover anything in the sky.
Sora braced for impact.
He didn't block, his eyes focused and he raised both of his hands, feeling each and every grain of sand.
Just like before, Sora seized a portion of the giant wave mid surge, forcing a split down the center.
The two halves collided around him instead of on him, creating a perfect safe spot through the middle.
He quickly sprinted through it.
Gaara's expression turned desperate as he slammed his fists downward, causing sand pillars to erupt in sequence beneath Sora's path.
Sora leapt from one to the next, forming golden constructs beneath his feet mid air to redirect his trajectory. He closed the distance again and this time he didn't strike Gaara directly.
He struck the sand beneath him, the impact compressing the sand violently upward, destabilising Gaara's footing.
At the same time, Sora wrapped dense golden constructs in the form of armour around his fists and delivered a brutal rain of blows.
He uppercutted Gaara's jaw, hooked his liver, hooked his ribs and drove a straight into his sternum.
Each hit was reinforced with constructs of earth affinity nature energy.
Gaara staggered.
The sand couldn't respond fast enough, his ultimate defense failing.
And that's when it happened.
Gaara fell backward, one last grin on his face as he muttered something while forming a hand seal.
"Playing Possum Jutsu."
His eyes suddenly closed and his body went limp.
Gaara's unconscious body started to shift and move unnaturally as the sand beneath him began swallowing him whole.
The sand poured out from cracks in his skin and flowed up from the desert, his skin turning the same shade as the sand, as his form hardened.
His body started to convulse violently as he swelled.
Sora stepped back, trying to comprehend the severity of the situation.
Gaara's unconscious expression shifted into one of relief and then glee.
"Finally…" a monstrous voice muttered, his voice warping from Gaara's into whatever the beast was. "I'm free…"
The sand around his body started to crack, expanding grotesquely as the tail from before regrew and his entire form began to change into something more animalistic.
Sora tightened his stance, finally understanding the true form of his opponent.
"What the hell actually are you?" Sora asked, catching his breath quickly before he lost his composure.
Gaara couldn't answer, he was unconscious.
And it didn't seem like the beast he was turning into wanted to entertain any of Sora's questions.
Sora's eyes became focused as he felt the connection between him and Gaara weaken slightly, slowly becoming a little worried.
And then he snapped out of it.
Sora? Worried? Come on.
Absolutely not!
As a matter of fact, he was ecstatic at the sight of such a terrifying opponent! How would he ever hope to become a god if he wasn't able to defeat such a minor foe.
…
…
Bonus chapter because it is my birthday!! It's also Sora's birthday too!!
A large amount of my friends drew some fan art! I'll show you guys but also block out any potential spoilers… 🤫