Vegeta's crown slammed hard into the ground, his whole head planted upside down in the dirt like an ostrich. It looked like something out of a gag manga.
The next instant, a massive wave crushed the entire earth. Vegeta stopped holding back, exploding all his ki at once.
"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!"
When had Prince Vegeta ever been humiliated like this? He charged at Gohan like a madman, his fists raining down like a storm. But even this dense barrage couldn't land a hit.
"Vegeta is truly angry, otherwise he wouldn't be acting so recklessly." Nappa watched the furious Oozaru, his heart surprisingly calm. "But his approach is extremely irrational. Unleashing all his power in a fit of rage when the enemy's strength remains unknown will only weaken him."
"Hard to hear such words from you, Nappa." Raditz teased. "Vegeta is stubborn and headstrong. He's going to suffer a big loss today."
Just as the two Saiyans assumed Vegeta was acting rashly from anger, neither noticed that the angrier he got, the clearer his mind became. Everything he did had purpose.
Finally, while Gohan was dodging, he accidentally grazed Vegeta, causing his speed to drop by a fraction.
'An opening.'
Vegeta opened his massive jaws and fired a Mouth Blast. The massive pillar of light directly devoured Gohan's body.
"Finally, I've got him."
That wasn't all. Vegeta immediately thrust both hands forward. Yellow balls of ki rapidly condensed between his palms before firing outward.
"Hah!"
One blast after another, one wave after the next. Countless ki blasts blanketed the entire earth.
There it was: Vegeta's exclusive fighting style. Prince's BS Fighting Style (Barrage)!
"Haah... haah..." The attack continued for ten minutes before Vegeta finally stopped. Even in Oozaru form, his stamina was nearly depleted.
"This should end it for sure."
Vegeta gasped for breath, his eyes locked on the massive dust cloud stirred up by his attack. But smoke didn't mean damage this time, Gohan had not fallen. Raditz's laughter rang out, and Vegeta's shock contrasted with Nappa's confusion.
Raditz could sense that Gohan's power level had already broken through 300,000, far surpassing Vegeta.
"Impossible."
Vegeta stared at the scene before him in disbelief. At sixteen, Gohan's potential would be unlocked by Old Kai, making him the single strongest warrior. The version of him before Vegeta now was barely showing a fraction of that power.
Vegeta, like those villains who eventually struggled in despair, trying to land a lucky blow against a Gohan who had already surpassed him.
"Die!"
This time, Gohan caught Vegeta's fist with one hand. Even at five years old, he possessed incredible strength.
"You ruined my clothes."
A crack less than a centimeter wide had split open his yellow martial arts uniform. When Gohan pointed this out, his expression carried something complicated.
"This is my favorite one."
With that, he swung a punch, and Vegeta went flying backward, an ant knocking down an elephant with one strike.
The current Gohan was kind and didn't go looking for trouble, but he was nothing like the gentle-natured Gohan of canon. That Gohan would most likely avoid confrontation if provoked. This Gohan, if provoked, would give them a solid beating.
Don't strike first, but strike back hard. That was Gohan's current standard of conduct.
Truly worthy of being Naruto's grand-disciple.
"Let me fix this."
Gohan simply extended one finger, pointing at the damaged spot on his clothing. As a faint glow surrounded him, the torn fabric gradually repaired itself.
That was magic unique to the Demon Clan. As the Future Demon King, how could he not be from the Demon Clan?
"N-No... that can't be..."
One punch had left Vegeta severely wounded. If it weren't for the enhanced vitality and recovery that came with Oozaru transformation, he'd already be on the verge of death. Even though Vegeta refused to acknowledge it, the fact that he wasn't Gohan's match was an ironclad truth.
At that moment, an energy wave sliced through Vegeta's tail, and his body began to shrink gradually until it returned to its original form. By now, he lay on the ground, barely alive.
Raditz strode quickly to Vegeta's side, looking down at him.
"Oh, look at this. Our 'Prince' Vegeta looks so pathetic right now, doesn't he? How about considering loyalty to our King? Ahahaha."
Having been bullied by the guy all this time, finally getting to release all that pent-up resentment made Raditz feel as refreshed as drinking ice-cold water in the scorching summer.
Sweet.
However, such mockery also earned Raditz, Vegeta's intense grudge. Once Vegeta found his chance in the future, well, let's offer a minute of silence for Raditz.
"Vegeta is our opponent." Tien and the others finally arrived at this late hour.
Raditz said casually, "Triclops Alien, you all are too slow."
Tien hated being called a Triclops Alien, even though he knew he was a descendant of the Triclops race.
Raditz was nonchalant. "Want to fight?"
Over the past year, the two sides had clashed from time to time. Fighting wasn't anything new.
While the two sides argued, the severely wounded Vegeta silently began crawling toward the spaceship that had brought him.
"Vegeta." Only Nappa noticed Vegeta's movements, but he didn't stop him. After all, years of being together did create some bonds.
If even Nappa could notice, wouldn't Tien and Raditz have spotted Vegeta's little trick? They let him go on purpose.
After a long while, Vegeta finally crawled into the spaceship. He pressed the launch button and put on the life support device. As the ship gradually lifted off, Vegeta made a solemn vow in his heart.
"D-Damn little brat. Damn Earthlings. When I return next time, I'll kill every single one of you, and destroy this planet along with you."
One week later, Planet Namek.
A massive spherical spacecraft descended slowly, and the Z Fighters from Earth filed out one by one.
*Clap clap clap!* They had barely stepped off the ship when the Namekians greeted them warmly. Over a dozen had been waiting at the landing site since early morning.
Don't let the small number fool you, for Planet Namek, this was an enormous gathering. The entire planet had at most a hundred or so inhabitants, most of them elderly or children. Fortunately, Namekians were a genderless species, or the number of warrior-type Namekians would have been just a handful.
"There's a desolate feel to this place. The air's a bit thin." Tien stepped off the ship and said quietly.
Yamcha, Krillin, Chiaotzu, Raditz, and Nappa followed him down.
"Is this Planet Namek?" Gohan was the last off the ship. The moment his feet hit the ground, he looked around. "It feels similar to where I trained before."
Whether it was something imprinted in their genes, Piccolo also preferred places that resembled Namek's environment.
"Everyone, listen up. For the next month, your training location will be here." Naruto waved them over, gathering them in front of him. "If any of you can raise your power level above 100,000 in one month without relying on the Kaio-ken, you can proceed to the next stage of training."
Naruto briefly explained the training method for the month.
"Master Naruto!" The moment Gohan saw Naruto, a rare smile crossed his face. "Aren't you training with Father and Godfather?"
Godfather was Gohan's respectful term for Piccolo. Sometimes he also called him Uncle Piccolo or Teacher Piccolo.
"We are training, just on Planet Mistral not far from here." Naruto patted Gohan's head and pointed . "The current me is just a Shadow Clone sent here specifically to guide you."
"I see." Gohan nodded.
Naruto looked up at the sky, estimating the time, and continued, "Get ready. In about an hour, your opponents will arrive. They are the strongest warriors on this planet, the warrior-type Namekians."
"Tch, just Namekians. How strong could they be?" Nappa muttered dismissively.
After the Battle of Earth, Nappa's power level had risen to 10,000 following his recovery from near-fatal injuries. The massive increase in strength had inflated his confidence considerably.
The early Saiyan ability to surge in power after recovering from near-death was simply too overpowered. Fortunately, it had an upper limit.
While Namekians were considered a race with considerable combat prowess in the universe, they fell far short of the warrior race of Saiyans. In fact, Nail, the warrior-type Namekian in canonline, was several times stronger than King Vegeta, mainly because Namekians weren't a warlike people.
But now, even an ordinary warrior-type Namekian's power level placed them at a top-tier level across the universe.
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