I realized what was happening, but it was already too late. Even with my trained reflexes, I didn't have enough time to react at all before the girls sprung the trap. As Pepper's final Blitz Spear slammed into my crossed arms, my world seemed to literally turn white around me. "REGALIA CANNON!"
'"AAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed in pain at the top of my lungs, not even having enough presence of mind to curse myself mentally for not noticing the way Lynn had used the way I'd 'knocked her out of the fight' to burrow deep underground and use Pepper as a distraction to charge up a full-powered Regalia Cannon that I couldn't have even perfectly blocked at full power.
The blast could've lasted a second, or it could've lasted a day. I couldn't tell through the agony.
What I did know, though, was that when it finally stopped, the ground rumbled, the hole that the blast made closing by itself as the earth shifted. My tattered body fell into the spot where the hole had been, instantly getting buried under rocks and dirt that I didn't have the strength to immediately dig myself out of after using all my power to survive the blast.
Thus, silence reigned in the battlefield for several seconds.
In the sky, Pepper panted, looking at the reformed landscape below. She barely had enough energy to fly at this point, but still, she extended her senses to the ground below. She could sense life beneath the surface of the sand, but Lynn's impressive power level overpowered everything else, making it difficult for Pepper to tell my exact location, or whether I was conscious or not.
Finally, the dirt started rumbling, and a figure popped out, floating into the sky as a dirt cloud slowly dissipated around them.
Purple shirt under a set of Saiyan battle armor. Straight, black hair, and an aura so dense and wild that you could almost reach out and touch it.
"How are you doing?" Pepper asked the older Saiyan. Blood ran down Lynn's forehead, her armor cracked at the belly, fragments falling off, while her arm hung limply at her side, clearly broken.
"I lost consciousness for a moment when Tarble kicked me. It's…" She grimaced, "Not as bad as it looks. You feel worse than me."
"Yeah… I'm wiped." Pepper admitted, "But I can keep going… Can you?"
Lynn grimaced, "...Barely holding it together." She admitted, "Don't expect another attack like that one."
"False… Super Saiyan." The words came from the ground, ragged gasps.
From me.
I'd managed to dig my way out of the dirt, but my energy was at an all time low. I didn't even bother to fly, which didn't really matter, because Pepper had been slowly descending since before Lynn ever burst from the ground, and now dropped the final few feet, when she heard my raspy, sand-clogged voice.
Lynn followed, wincing from the damage she'd taken earlier. Still, out of the three of us, she was in the best shape, if she could still hold her FSSJ state.
Yeah, it definitely was False Super Saiyan. Now that I had the chance to look, I recognized it on sight.
In the FSSJ state, Lynn's normally-straight hair bristled down her back like a porcupine, though it didn't look all that different from usual at a distance, and her eye color was opaque, clear. Her aura was also notably different from the normal clear, taking on a dark, golden tint that seemed similar to Tater and my SSJP auras, but notably different at the same time, darker, rougher, less… natural, but… that felt like a big part of why it amplified Lynn's power level so much.
Still, it didn't change anything.
My entire body was on fire. I felt like the only thing keeping me going was the drive to not lose, and a single glance at her energy showed me that Pepper was basically the same way. Pep's power level right now, based on my senses, was in the middling hundred thousands, probably. Even mustering everything she had, she probably couldn't break ten million on a scouter at this point. I wasn't much better, though I'd bet money that my current SSJP form's combination of efficiency and lack of strain gave me a nearly insurmountable advantage.
In a one-on-one setting, right now, Pepper wasn't my match. Lynn, on the other hand, was stronger than both of us by a lot right now, but straining herself badly just staying in that state right now.
While it was clear that she'd practiced extensively with FSSJ behind my back, it was just barely stable. Her aura was fluctuating wildly, practically screaming wordlessly at the world just trying to hold itself together.
"You've been holding out on me, Lynn… If you'd told me about this, then you might have realized just how outmatched you are." I forced a grin onto my face.
Lynn and Pepper smiled back. "Trust me." Pepper started,
"We do."
Pepper used the Hyper-Motion technique to take point in the series of exchanges that happened next. Her fist flew towards my face, but it was actually an afterimage and she was throwing an elbow from the side that I barely managed to dodge under by flinging myself several dozen feet past her, only to land on my hands and throw an impromptu kick at the air beside me, which grazed Pepper's forearm, but didn't actually do damage, instead helping her launch into a windmill kick that was actually a fake-out where she released a shockwave of energy directly from her foot, turning the kick into a spinning backflip that pushed her away from me, the shockwave from her ki washing over my body without doing any real damage.
When I went to chase after her, though, Lynn took advantage of the moment to launch a quick and powerful offensive that forced me to run away with multiple Hyper-Motion technique uses that kicked up massive dust around us, but saved me precious stamina.
From the outside, the remainder of the battle probably looked like a bunch of simple darting around and kicking up dust, faster than a normal eye could ever hope to follow, as the three of us abused the Hyper-Motion technique and our close combat abilities to their limits.
Below the surface, though, all three of us were barely hanging on as the tide of battle ebbed and flowed at random, several dozen, maybe even hundreds of times.
Though both of the girls could match me, neither was actually strong enough to beat me by themselves, and they knew it. Add Lynn's flagging stamina to the mix, and you had a very specific tactic repeated over and over again.