"Despicable. Shameless. Absolutely shameless."
Beerus kicked and punched at the railing, furious as he watched Android 18 get blindsided. He looked one bad second away from leaping onto the stage to punt that green werewolf into orbit.
"All is fair in battle, Beerus. Do not get so worked up. Hehehe."
Quitela of Universe 4 sounded delighted, his voice oily with glee.
Beerus' expression darkened.
"You yellow rat. So all of Universe 4 is as filthy as you."
"What was that, you mangy bald cat?"
"Say it again?"
"I will. Mangy bald cat. Ugly cat."
"You yellow vermin."
The two Gods of Destruction traded insults like fishwives, but it did nothing to help the fight.
On the stage, 18 was about to be hurled off the edge. Shosa's chain blasts had numbed her limbs. She could barely move, much less save herself.
Universe 7 was a heartbeat from their first elimination.
A gleam shot across the tiles.
"The cue ball. The cue ball," Beerus shouted, eyes wide.
Krillin.
He flashed in, scooped 18 into his arms, and fired a Kamehameha one-handed. The recoil dragged them both back toward solid ground. They tumbled in safe.
"That was close," Krillin panted, wiping sweat from his head. He looked at 18. "You okay?"
"I am fine."
She pushed to her feet. "Finish him first."
"Right."
Krillin dropped into stance, eyes bright.
18 moved first, streaking at Shosa. "You sneaky piece of trash."
Pink energy surged in her palm and streaked for his head.
Shosa smirked. "A loser still talking big." He tilted his head and let the blast whistle past.
"It is not over."
The voice came from behind him. Krillin had already looped around. He sprang, caught the same blast in his palm, and snapped it back at Shosa.
"Damn it."
Shosa barely rolled free.
But the game had started. 18 caught the rebounded sphere and slung it again. Then Krillin. Then 18.
Vincent glanced over as the two pinged the blast back and forth and Shosa stumbled in a panic. It looked like a playground game they used to call hot potato, only the potato could level a house. The werewolf's fur was singed in strips, raw red showing underneath.
"Die."
18 palmed the ball. It had swollen to a basin's width. She rocketed in and planted it square in his chest. The explosion punched him high into the air. Krillin darted in and volleyed him with a kick.
"Universe 4's Shosa has fallen from the arena and is disqualified," the Grand Priest announced.
Shosa's portrait grayed out. He popped into a seat in the stands.
"Beautiful. That combo was perfect," Beerus crowed, so hyped he did not notice he was yanking the last few hairs off the Old Kai's head.
"Stop pulling. If you keep that up there will be nothing left."
Beerus still found breath to gloat.
"Serves you right, you stinking rat. Enjoy disappearing with your universe."
Quitela's face twisted. He wanted to snap back, but his man was off the field. He swallowed it and looked down at the stage again, a thin smile cutting across his muzzle.
"End him now."
At his word, another green shape ghosted up behind Krillin and lashed a kick at his back.
Thud.
Krillin was still standing. Whole.
He spun and his stomach dropped. At some point a green fox had slipped up behind him. One more inch and he would have been sailing. Only Vincent's hand between had stopped the boot.
If not for him...
Krillin thought of Beerus in the stands, already halfway out of his seat.
Yikes.
Vincent took the fox head on. "Krillin. I am about to use that move."
"Got it."
Vincent slid on sunglasses without missing a beat.
Krillin shot straight up, body blazing.
"Solar Flare, times one hundred."
Daylight swallowed the arena.
They relaxed for a fraction of a breath.
The fox kept coming. Unfazed.
Vincent reacted in time. Krillin, squinting from his own flash, was not so lucky. A boot came screaming for his face.
"I have it."
Vincent stepped in and caught the kick like it was nothing.
Krillin stared, stunned. "Why did my Solar Flare not work?"
He peered at the fox's face, searching for a clue. Vincent had already felt it in the brief exchange and came to the same conclusion.
Those eyes were dead. He was tracking by nose and ears.
"No wonder the flash missed."
Vincent watched the fox cut through the chaos like it was empty air and smiled. "Then we do this my way. Krillin. Kick me."
"Kick you?"
Krillin blinked. Friendly fire?
"Just kick. Less talking."
"Yes."
He leapt, swinging a full-speed roundhouse.
Vincent opened the Byakugan. The world turned into transparent angles and lines. At the perfect instant he snatched Krillin's old cloth shoe off his foot and jammed it over the fox's long snout.
The fox froze. The world rang in his skull. The sour reek punched straight through his brain.
Vincent did not waste the opening. His fist crashed in.
Boom.
The fox skidded back, scraping a long black line across the tiles, and slipped off the edge into empty space.
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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