Dragon Ball: Taro Saga Chapter 6 — Primal Instincts

"RAAAAH!"

White light flared around him as his aura snapped into place, blasting a ring of dust outward. He surged forward instantly, boots punching into the ground as he shot toward the creature.

The beast charged at the same time, claws tearing through rock with long scraping lines. Its huge body moved far faster than something that size should have been able to. Taro threw himself low, sliding over the ground in a burst of dust. He swung upward at its belly and drove a hard punch straight into the scales.

The impact rattled his bones.

The scales didn't give.

'They are too hard. I need to find a joint. A soft spot or something.'

The beast's jaw dropped and snapped at him. Taro rolled aside as its teeth clamped shut with a crunch loud enough to echo. He pushed off the ground and sprinted along its flank. The creature swung a foreclaw at him. He ducked under the first swipe, but the second came immediately and caught him across the ribs. The force blasted him backward a few dozen meters. He hit the ground, skidded, and rolled until he slammed into a cluster of rocks. Pain flashed up his side in a hot line but he had to force himself upright just as the beast lunged again.

Taro jumped back and the stinger stabbed into the spot where he had been standing. The tail pulled out with a jerk, dragging shards of stone with it. The creature whipped the stinger sideways without pausing, aiming straight for Taro's head. He dropped to one knee. The stinger sliced across the air above him with a whistle, missing him by only inches.

'I can't get a pattern on this thing... it's too unpredictable, I need to try and force an opening.'

He shot forward, aiming for the front leg. He hammered a rapid barrage of punches into the joint, each one driving deeper, trying to slip between scales. The beast roared and lashed out again. Its claws scraped the wall as it pivoted its whole body toward him with surprising fluidity. It lunged with its entire mass. Taro flipped to the right. The beast plowed through the space he had occupied and slammed chest-first into a rock slab, sending chunks of stone flying. The ground shook from the force. Taro used the moment to sprint up the creature's side, his feet pushing off the ridges between its scales. He reached its shoulder and drove both fists down as hard as he could.

For the first time, the creature jerked in pain.

There. That's the spot.

He swung again, but the beast reacted faster this time. Its body twisted violently, throwing him off balance. Taro grabbed a ridge of scales but lost his grip as the creature bucked its shoulders sending him flying. He hit the ground hard on his back. The air blasted from his lungs. He rolled instinctively as the creature pounced and landed where he'd been lying. The shockwave from its landing vibrated through his spine.

Taro scrambled to his feet and barely dodged another swipe. The claws passed across his chest and ripped open his shirt and the bandages underneath. Blood welled instantly and if to make things worse the tail struck again. This time he ducked too late. The stinger grazed his shoulder and tore open a shallow gash that burned instantly. He hissed and jumped back. The beast lunged forward on all fours, jaws snapping at him. Taro pivoted and sprinted along the basin, using his smaller size and faster acceleration to stay half a step ahead. Claws slammed behind him repeatedly, each strike leaving deep craters in the ground. He counted them in his head, watching its rhythm, hoping to try and find an opening.

One. Two. Pause. Swipe.

One. Two. Pause. Swipe.

On the next pause he twisted wuickly, planted his feet, and fired a small burst of Ki at the beast's face. The blast crackled against its snout but did almost nothing except irritate it.

It charged harder.

"I need more power," Taro muttered, biting down as he forced energy into his arm. "Just hold together."

He jumped out andskidded to one side as the beast slammed into the wall, cracking the rock and shaking dust loose. He was getting slower as time went on, he'd been using all the power he had to keep ahead of the creature; it wasn't looking good for him. 

But he had one plan left to try. 

He dove sideways, rolled to his knees, and raised his palm toward the beast. His Ki sparked violently, forming a small sphere at the palm of his hands.

"Come on... stay together... stay—"

The sphere sparked as he finished pushing all the power he could into it. "HAAAAH!!!" Taro thrust his hand forward. The blast shot out like a rocket and rushed towards the creature. It struck the beast's shoulder joint and the explosion blew the scales open with a loud crack. Flesh tore. Bone showed. The creature dropped to one knee with a loud, pained bellow. Taro pushed to his feet, chest heaving, eyes wide.

'It worked. It actually wo—'

He didn't finish the thought.

The creature lunged with its entire weight.

Its head crashed into his torso with such force that he felt his entire ribcage compress inward as if someone had wrapped a steel band around him and yanked it tight, and the impact tore him off his feet before he could even register what had happened. His back arched in midair while a shock of white-hot pain ripped through his chest, and for a heartbeat he had no sense of where the ground was until the world twisted around him in a blur. 

He slammed into the boulder behind him with a violent, bone-jarring crack that split the stone down the center, and the collision emptied his lungs in a single explosive rush that left him choking on air that refused to come back in. His vision blew out to white, then collapsed to darkness, then flickered in and out with disorienting patches of color as he slumped forward and slid down the fractured rock, unable to stop himself from rolling onto his side.

His body felt like it was made of wet sand as it collapsed beneath him, his arms refusing to respond no matter how desperately he tried to push himself up. A dry, tearing cough ripped through his throat and sent flecks of blood dripping from his mouth onto the dirt, and his spine throbbed with a deep numb heat that made it difficult to tell whether he was still in one piece or just too dazed to feel the full damage.

The creature's roar followed immediately afterward, low and furious, and the sound vibrated through the ground as it dragged its injured weight toward him with claws that scraped long, jagged lines into the rock. Even wounded, it moved with a relentless angerr that made the basin feel smaller with every step it took, and its shadow crawled across the ground until it reached his legs.

Taro forced his left eye open in a painful squint, the world swimming in a watery blur as dust floated through the light in wavering currents. His breath rattled in his chest in shallow pulls and he tasted iron with every inhale, yet there was a stubborn insistence inside him that refused to let his thoughts fade into the panic clawing up from his stomach.

He pressed his palm into the dirt, not to rise but simply to remind himself that he could still move at all, and the coarse grit bit into his torn skin while his thoughts gathered themselves through the haze of pain. He knew he was losing and he knew this creature had him outmatched in every obvious way, but he also knew that he was still conscious, still breathing, and still capable of moving even if it was barely.

He was such an idiot, he'd been trying to fight a wild beast as if he'd been fighting a person. He wouldn't make that same mistake again. He turned his head and spat a thick streak of blood onto the ground, the motion sending another pulse of agony through his ribs. "If fighting you like a martial artist doesn't work," he said, "Them I'll fight you like an animal."

"EAAAAAHHH!" Taro let the rest of his Ki explode out of him. 

The creature lunged, its claws tearing through the ground as it closed the final distance, and Taro threw himself forward instead of away, ramming his shoulder into its jaw in a reckless charge that knocked its head sideways long enough for him to climb onto its snout. He braced both feet on its face, grabbed one of the scale ridges above its eye, and drove his thumb down hard into the soft socket. The beast thrashed immediately, its roar blasting hot breath across his legs, and its head whipped violently from side to side as it tried to dislodge him.

Taro held on with one hand while he hammered his other fist repeatedly into the wounded shoulder joint he had blasted earlier, each punch sinking in deeper now that the scales were blown apart. The creature reared up onto its hind legs, its massive body rising under him like a bucking bronco, and Taro felt his grip slip just enough to tell him he had one second before it threw him off completely.

He took that second to act.

He hooked both arms around the beast's neck, let himself drop, and dragged all his weight downward with a wild yell. The beast's balance finally broke, and it crashed onto its side in a violent collapse that sent up a cloud of dust and shook the ground beneath them. Taro scrambled toward its throat, aiming to crush the windpipe with both legs, but the beast twisted faster than he expected and swung its tail around in a tight vicious arc.

The stinger punched into his left side just above the hip.

"FUCK!"

A hot, stabbing shock tore through him and burst outward in a spreading wave of venom that crawled up his torso like burning ice. He screamed through his teeth and grabbed the stinger with both hands, ripping it out before it could dig deeper, and blackish fluid dripped down his body as the wound throbbed in sickening pulses.

The beast lunged again with a sudden surge of strength despite its wounds. Its jaws snapped open wide, rows of teeth jagged and wet, and this time Taro was too slow to fully evade. The lower half of its maw clamped down around his forearm, crushing bone and tearing muscle in one brutal bite. Pain exploded through his entire body, that shot from his shoulder to his skull, and for a moment the world pulsed red and went solent as his arm vanished past the creature's lips.

He yelled though it was not in fear, not in panic, but in raw anger and raw refusal at becoming this animals dinner, and he braced his foot against the beast's lower jaw, shoving with everything he had to keep it from biting down fully and severing the limb at the elbow. His remaining hand grabbed the upper edge of its mouth, fingers slipping on blood and saliva as he fought to pry himself free.

The creature thrashed its head, tightening its grip, dragging him across the ground like a rag doll, and Taro felt the bones in his forearm grind and splinter. The venom burned hotter. His vision blurred. His body began to falter.

But he still had Ki.

He pulled his trapped arm deeper into the beast's throat instead of trying to withdraw, feeding it further in until his hand pressed against the softer flesh inside its mouth. The creature gagged and tried to shake him off, but he planted his foot harder against its upper jaw and locked his muscles in place.

He gathered the last of his Ki, dragging it through his chest like a spark through dry tinder, ignoring the venom tearing at his veins. Light flickered at his fingertips, sputtering once, then stabilising into a white sphere.

"Choke on it," he growled.

He shoved his hand forward.

The blast detonated inside the creature's mouth with a thud. The pressure shot backward through its skull, blowing its head apart from the inside out in a violent eruption of bone fragments, black blood, and shredded tissue. The jaws finally loosened, releasing his mangled arm as the beast's entire body convulsed once, then collapsed onto its side in a lifeless heap.

Taro fell with it, landing on his back and staring up at the sky, his chest rising in shallow breaths while dust drifted down around him like settling ash. His left arm hung uselessly at his side, crushed and blood-soaked, and the venom continued its slow burn through his torso. His ribs throbbed. His lungs wheezed. Every inch of him hurt.

But he was alive.

And the creature wasn't.

He let out a breath that was half laugh, half groan.

"That... was one hell of a... bad idea," he muttered, his voice shaking with pain and adrenaline.

Taro lay on his back for several long seconds, chest jerking in shallow breaths while the venom crawled up his torso. Every instinct begged him to close his eyes, just for a moment, just long enough for the agony to dull. But the moment he let his focus slide he knew he would black out, and if he blacked out now he would never wake up again.

He gritted his teeth and forced air through his lungs.

"Stay awake," he whispered. "Stay awake."

He rolled onto his side with a groan that scraped out of him in a sound he didn't even recognise, and he planted his good hand against the ground. His fingers dug into the dirt as he dragged himself forward inch by inch, his legs scraping behind him. The broken ribs stabbed deeper with every pull. His vision blurred and sharpened in erratic pulses.

But he kept moving.

The dead creature's body lay only a few meters away, its shattered skull slumped in the dirt and its organs spilling faintly through the torn hide. Heat still radiated from the corpse. The smell of blood, scales, an flesh filled the air enough to sting his nose.

Taro swallowed hard, nausea pushing up his throat.

'Don't think about it. You need to eat...'

He dragged himself the last stretch, his chest sliding against the dirt until he reached the carcass. His body trembled uncontrollably from blood loss and shock, and his good hand shook when he pressed it against the beast's side to steady himself. Up close, the creature's hide steamed from the inside-out blast, and stunk terribly. His stomach twisted at the sight, and for a long moment he hovered there, breathing through clenched teeth, trying not to retch.

He didn't want to do this. Everything in him recoiled at the idea. Even as a Saiyan, even with instincts screaming, even with his hunger gnawing like an iron clamp around his gut. He pressed his forehead against the beast's hide, panting through the pain and the dizziness. "I don't have a choice," he muttered. "I need food to heal. Just stop being a bitch and... do it."

He pushed himself upright on shaking knees, braced his good arm against the carcass, and leaned down toward the torn flesh where his Ki blast had burst through. The meat was still warm, steaming gently in the open air.

His throat tightened.

His stomach growled so loudly it hurt.

He shut his eyes, opened his mouth, and bit down.

The taste hit him instantly—metallic, gamey, bitter, nothing like any cooked meat he had ever eaten. Blood filled his mouth in a hot rush. His body shuddered violently, rejecting it for an instant before pure instinct kicked in and overrode everything else. His hunger surged like a wave making him force the food down.

He tore away a second chunk, then a third, ripping through flesh with his teeth because his hands were too weak to help. Warm blood ran down his chin and dripped onto his chest. He didn't stop to wipe it away. He didn't stop at all. Every bite hurt but stopping would kill him, and his Saiyan biology refused to let him die quietly or refuse a meal.

He braced himself against the creature's ribs and kept eating. If he stopped now, the venom would finish him.

But If he kept going, he had a chance.

And Taro wasn't done yet.

He kept eating long after his body should have stopped, long after the pain should have overridden instinct, long after logic should have told him he was pushing himself past any sane limit. His stomach cramped, his throat burned with every swallow, and the taste of blood filled his mouth until he could barely tell flesh from air. Bite after bite, tearing strips of meat free with numb jaws and shaking hands, chewing until he could swallow, choking down whatever he could keep down because every mouthful mattered.

By the time his body finally gave out, the creature was little more than a ravaged skeleton with scraps of hide still clinging to the bone. The sun had moved across the sky, the heat had risen, and Taro's mind had slipped in and out of clarity until the world finally dimmed and vanished completely. He collapsed inside the creature's hollowed ribcage, exhaustion consuming him faster than the poison ever could. He didn't even remember hitting the ground. He only knew darkness swallowed him whole.

...

He woke up days later to a sharp jolt in his ribs and a dry, rasping cough that clawed its way up his throat. His eyes opened to darkness and for a moment he couldn't tell where he was or why the air smelled like dried blood and rot. Then he shifted, and his cheek brushed against something rough and leathery.

He realised he was lying inside the creature's empty torso.

"Not the worse place I've woken up that's for sure," he muttered weakly.

He pushed himself upright with a groan, his good arm trembling as he braced it against the ribcage. Pain flared through his broken ribs but not as sharply as before, and the venom's burning coldness seemed to have faded entirely. His stomach ached, but it was a full ache rather than the hollow, desperate hunger from before. His body felt heavy and stiff, covered in dried sweat that left his skin itching. Blood had matted to his chest and arm and his injured arm hung at his side. He must've just recovered from a fever, at least that's what it felt like. 

"I must've managed to fight off the venom," he said quietly, touching the wound and wincing. "My arms still a mess though. Ribs too. But all in all I'd say that was a successful food shop." He laughed before grabbing his ribs and wincing.

He crawled between the ribs, pushed himself out through the torn side of the creature, and stood slowly, stretching his legs one at a time. When he lifted his arms, the broken one refused to rise more than a few centimeters, sending a sharp twinge through his shoulder, but the rest of his body felt oddly light.

Though being under the sun now made him realise how dry his mouth was, his lips were cracked, and when he swallowed it felt like sand scraping down his throat.

"I need water," he muttered.

He scanned the basin with narrowed eyes.

If something that big lived here, it had to drink somewhere. Predators always stayed close to water sources; even he knew that much. He picked a direction, bent down to assess the ground, and noted faint tracks—indentations in the dirt where the creature had passed regularly. They moved in a curving line around the basin wall.

He followed them.

The trail wound between narrow rock shelves and patches of dry shrubs, and as he walked the air changed. He felt a faint coolness on the wind. Moisture. The scent of fresh earth. He pushed through a final cluster of thorny plants and stopped.

A small oasis lay tucked between two sloping rock faces, clear water collected in a shallow basin no wider than a small room, reflecting the twin suns like two bright coins. Dense green shrubs surrounded it, their leaves thick and vibrant, with small purple flowers blooming in clusters.

Taro exhaled with relief so strong it made his knees buckle.

He stumbled forward, dropped to his hands and knees at the water's edge, and leaned down to drink. The water hit his tongue and he almost moaned. He drank again and again, large gulps that splashed down his chin before he finally slowed to small sips. When his thirst eased, he washed his face, rubbing away dried sweat and blood until his skin felt almost normal again. He stripped off the torn rags he worse and cleaned his chest, wiping away grime and dirt until the feeling of stickiness lifted.

He sat back and let the air dry him for a moment. Then he scanned the shrubs, grabbed a handful, and tore long branches free. Using the straightest pieces, he fashioned a crude splint, wrapping it around his forearm with strips of his ruined shirt. The support steadied the bone and pressed the swelling in, dulling the throbbing ache.

When he stood again, he noticed a tall tree rising above the shrubs at the oasis's edge. Its branches were heavy with pale orange fruits the size of melons, swaying lightly in the warm breeze.

Rumble

"I'll never say no to a free meal..." He crouched, pushed off with a light jump, intending to land halfway up the trunk.

Instead he shot straight past the tree, cleared the top branch completely, and sailed into the air before gravity reclaimed him. He let out a startled shout as he dropped, landing in an awkward crouch that sent a shock through his legs but didn't knock him over.

He blinked up at the tree. "What the hell—?"

He stood slowly, rubbing his jaw as he replayed the leap in his mind. "I didn't use Ki. That was just legs... did I get stronger from—?"

Of course! He was an idiot, he had damn near been killed fighting that beast, and with no radiation he should've gotten a Zenkai boost from it. He dug into his pocket with his good hand, pulled out the scouter, and hesitated for a breath before sliding it over his left eye and tapping the activation switch.

Beep

[183]

Taro stared at the number as the wind rustled the leaves above him.

"...No way."

He lowered the scouter slightly, disbelief mixing with a rising grin. He had nearly doubled his power level in a single battle.

(AN: So here we have it, our boy has gotten a big jump in power, if he went Ozaru right now he'd even be able to fight against Raditz... wow. Anyway I don't expect this beginning arc to go on too much longer so enjoy.)