Elsewhere, on a barren stretch of wasteland
"Looks like my luck's pretty good. I got matched with just an ordinary Saiyan Empire soldier." Yamcha folded his arms, relaxed as he waited for the opponent approaching from afar.
Beep beep beep
The scouter flickered a few times. The soldier's expression turned disdainful.
"Hmph! A trash weakling with a power level of five!" he sneered, raising a hand and firing an energy blast straight at Yamcha.
"Spirit Ball!"
Before the dust from their clashing blasts had even cleared, Yamcha was already in close, chaining attacks together.
"Wolf Fang Fist!"
"Yah-dah-dah-dah-dah !"
The Saiyan soldier spat blood and went flying.
"I won!" Yamcha's mouth curved upward. "If a 'matched' opponent goes down this easily… then I really did get way stronger overnight."
"To think I, Yamcha, could actually become a top-tier fighter of the universe one day hahahaha…"
But after a long moment, nothing happened.
"…Huh?" Yamcha looked around, annoyed. "Didn't I win? Hey! Anyone? You whoever's running this hurry up and let me advance!"
A flat voice echoed from all directions.
"Killing your opponent, or rendering them completely unable to act, counts as victory."
Yamcha muttered under his breath, flying toward the fallen soldier. "So annoying… I have to knock him out for real?"
Just then, a golden light wrapped around the Saiyan soldier.
"Beating me? Not even close. Have you ever witnessed a Super Saiyan?" The soldier tossed aside an injector and rose proudly into the air. "Now die!"
He became a bolt of golden lightning, unleashing a storm of fists and kicks at Yamcha.
Bang bang bang
They traded dozens of blows in an instant.
Boom!
With a thunderous impact, Yamcha finally couldn't hold it. A kick slammed into his gut and sent him crashing into the ground.
"Damn it!" Lying in the crater, Yamcha grit his teeth. "A mere foot soldier… pushing me this far."
Why? Why does it always have to be me always stuck being pathetic?
Yamcha snapped his head up, fire in his eyes.
"I'm a Saiyan too now!"
"Super Saiyan transform!"
"Haaaaaah !"
With his roar, a golden aura shot into the sky. Yamcha's hair flared up into shining gold, whipping in the wind.
It was only the most basic Super Saiyan form.
But the power it gave him left Yamcha so stunned he couldn't speak for a long moment.
"What?!" The Saiyan soldier skidded to a halt midair. "You're a Saiyan too?!"
The scouter's reading rocketed into a number he couldn't even dream of reaching.
"Why is your transformation's boost so much higher than mine?!"
Yamcha lifted his chin, standing tall and proud.
"You're just a half-breed. Me? My bloodline is the most noble and the purest among Saiyans! If you don't want to suffer, you should surrender now!"
The soldier jolted. He hadn't expected this Earthling who looked so easy to crush… to be a pure-blood Saiyan.
But he didn't look desperate.
"So that's it bloodline suppression." He grinned. "Too bad. Victory isn't decided by purity alone. And the Saiyan Empire will never allow its warriors to surrender!"
He pulled out a vial of vivid green seeds and jammed them into the dark-purple ground beneath his feet soil that pulsed like living flesh.
"This planet's soil should give birth to some very special Saibamen."
Gloop… gloop…
Six fleshy lumps swelled up from the earth, rapidly ballooning, rupturing, and birthing six monsters slick with dark-purple slime.
They had the recognizable Saibaman shape, but their skin was an ominous, sickly violet. Even worse the "hair" atop their heads was a silver-white style eerily similar to Fused Zamasu.
"Saibamen? And you think this trash matters?" Yamcha scoffed, then jabbed his thumb toward himself. "I'm Super Yamcha!"
The Saiyan soldier wasn't afraid in the slightest.
Because the scouter was screaming.
Those six mutated Saibamen were terrifyingly strong each one carried close to sixty percent of Yamcha's current power.
"Well?" the soldier laughed smugly. "Not bad, right? Saibamen grown in this planet's soil!"
"Now it's one versus seven!"
"Heh. Six slightly stronger ants, that's all."
In Super Saiyan form, Yamcha's confidence inflated to the limit. He'd fought Saibamen before. And his strength now was nothing like back then.
He curled a finger at the soldier and the six mutated Saibamen, taunting them.
"Don't waste time. All of you, come at me together! I'll finish this in one shot!"
"ROAR !"
The six mutated Saibamen exploded into motion, pouncing from six different angles. Claws tore through the air, the wind screaming as they closed in.
"Perfect!"
Yamcha bellowed and vanished.
A golden blur threaded between the monsters so fast it left only afterimages.
Every clash of fists and feet detonated with a heavy boom, kicking up sand and dust.
One Saibaman struck from behind, jaws packed with jagged teeth snapping for Yamcha's throat
Yamcha whipped his elbow back.
Crack!
Half its head exploded, green fluid spraying everywhere.
"Hmph! Spirit Ball!"
He rubbed his hands together once, an orb forming instantly in his palm. With a casual flick, he sent it flying, blasting two more Saibamen away with pinpoint precision.
The fight turned completely one-sided.
In Super Saiyan state, Yamcha's speed and power crushed them outright.
"See that? This is true Saiyan strength!" Yamcha grew more exhilarated with every exchange.
He launched a kick that sent the last standing Saibaman flying into distant rocks where it burst into a puddle of purple sludge.
Yamcha landed smoothly, powered down, and smiled like a victor.
"Well? Now…" he looked at the stunned Saiyan soldier. "Ready to admit defeat?"
And then
A Saibaman he'd already knocked down, one that should've lost the ability to move
Shot out of a pile of rubble.
Pat-pat-pat!
It crawled on all fours and latched onto Yamcha with a death grip, its face twisted into manic, triumphant glee.
Its body swelled, aura turning violently unstable.
"No!" Yamcha's pupils shrank. He tried to transform again
Too late.
BOOM !!!
A blinding white light swallowed everything.
The shockwave flattened the wasteland for hundreds of meters, carving out a scorched crater.
When the smoke thinned, Yamcha lay motionless at the crater's center, thin wisps of smoke curling off his body.
A cold voice echoed through space.
"Basic Testing Ground No. 98. Saiyan faction contestant advances."
The Saiyan soldier vanished in a teleport flash.
The earth squirmed and healed itself. At the bottom of the crater, tendrils pushed up from beneath the soil, writhing toward Yamcha's body.
Then
A soft, gentle beam of healing light enveloped him.
Inside a room packed with surveillance screens, Fu watched Yamcha's situation through the monitors.
"Zamasu… this one was too careless in battle. His power hasn't reached its limit yet, so you don't get to eat him for now."
"I'll give him another chance on purpose. Let's hope his performance next doesn't disappoint me."
The next second, the healed Yamcha was dropped into a new basic testing ground.
Elsewhere, above a magma lake, the air shimmered with heat.
Piccolo's expression was grave. In front of him, a stasis pod hissed as its door shook, white vapor spilling out.
A warrior stepped out vacant eyes, bare torso, muscles knotted like cable.
Bio-Broly.
"ROAR !"
No probing. No hesitation. Bio-Broly lunged like a green meteor, driving a fist straight at Piccolo's face.
Piccolo crossed his arms and took the blow head-on.
Boom!
A tidal wave of flame erupted beneath him. The force drove Piccolo into a searing pit, molten rock swallowing him whole.
So this is the legendary Super Saiyan… Piccolo's heart tightened. And this is only a basic testing ground match.
He didn't dare underestimate it.
His body shifted into a yellow-green form. He forced Bio-Broly back with sheer strength, then split into four surrounding the enemy from different angles.
"Special Beam Cannon!"
Four spiral golden beams fired at once, punching clean through Bio-Broly's limbs and torso.
But there was no blood.
At the wounds, green fluid writhed and the holes healed visibly in seconds.
Bio-Broly didn't feel pain. It only roared louder and charged again, even more savage than before.
Piccolo kept dodging, mind racing.
A monster rebuilt by technology… physical blows and ordinary ki blasts weren't enough. He had to vaporize it instantly leave not even a cell behind.
Then I only have one option.
Piccolo's eyes sharpened. His real body leapt back, hands clasping near his chest as he began condensing power.
The other three clones rushed in, locking Bio-Broly down with everything they had.
Rumble !
The clones detonated at the same time, a blinding blast swallowing Bio-Broly completely.
Now!
"Special Beam Cannon!"
A beam several times thicker than before condensed to the extreme lanced into the center of the explosion, dragging a long spiral tail of light behind it.
This time, Bio-Broly didn't even manage a scream.
It vanished utterly in the annihilating energy.
Piccolo exhaled, breath rough.
"…Did I win?"
Before the words fully left his mouth, teleport light wrapped around him.
The next second, he was in a completely different environment.
A ruined stone forest collapsed peaks, broken cliffs, shattered remnants.
"Looks like I advanced to the intermediate testing ground." Piccolo scanned the area.
Even though he'd still hidden his true strength he hadn't used his Orange form he couldn't relax for a second.
Piccolo spun.
On a broken wall not far away stood a figure, perfectly still.
Its entire body was pitch-black, streamlined, coated in cold metallic sheen.
Piccolo couldn't sense any ki from it at all.
And yet the pressure it radiated was several times stronger than Bio-Broly's.
Black-gold Cooler.
Even if it was only a mechanical body, Piccolo's danger instinct screamed.
His heart sank.
I just reached the intermediate testing ground why am I already matched with something like this?
Unless…
A thought struck him like lightning.
He replayed the fight with Bio-Broly. To end it quickly, he hadn't wasted time.
From start to finish, it hadn't even taken a minute.
"I get it," Piccolo said softly.
Fu's matching rule wasn't "fair."
The faster you advanced and the stronger the opponent you beat the stronger your next opponent would become.
This wasn't equal matchmaking.
It was a selection mechanism.
Black-gold Cooler's eyes swept over Piccolo with icy contempt.
"Namekian insect…" It raised one finger. "Three seconds."
And then it moved.
No warning.
Its body vanished from the wall, leaving only an afterimage.
Piccolo had been on guard the whole time. His mind fired on all cylinders.
I can't reveal Orange here.
If he used Orange even if he barely beat this mechanical body his next opponent might be Cooler's true form.
Or worse.
Moro.
Or the Broly sealed in ice the one who had absorbed and mastered Beerus' Hakai energy.
With Levos unable to use Cell Max, this card had to be saved for when it truly mattered.
After all, Piccolo was one of the few on Earth's side who actually thought things through unlike the Son family, who charged into everything with nothing but battle on the brain.
He sighed inwardly. To take pressure off Levos, he really was working himself to the bone.
So there was only one choice.
Piccolo's eyes hardened as he decided in an instant.
He threw up a defense posture deliberately late, deliberately sloppy.
In the next beat, a fist wrapped in black metal slammed into his abdomen.
BAM !
Piccolo flew like a cannonball, smashing through multiple ruined stone hills in a row.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rock exploded everywhere, dust rolling up like smoke.
Black-gold Cooler appeared in Piccolo's flight path and drove a knee viciously into his back.
Crack!
The bone-splitting sound cut through the roar of destruction.
Piccolo's vision went black. His consciousness flickered as his body slammed into the ground, carving out a massive crater.
This form of Cooler… really is broken, Piccolo thought bitterly.
He shut his eyes at once, loosening his body, playing dead.
"An insect is still an insect." Cooler's voice was ice. "I thought you'd show me that Orange form from the tournament. Seems I expected too much."
"This ends here."
A Death Beam pierced Piccolo's heart, spraying a burst of purple blood.
Then the sky lit up like a newborn sun.
A gigantic sphere of energy formed at terrifying speed, radiating annihilation so intense Piccolo could feel it scorching his skin.
Boom
The explosion shook the heavens.
The entire stone forest was vaporized. The shockwave plowed through kilometers of land, leaving a bottomless crater behind.
Much later, the cold voice echoed again.
"Intermediate Testing Ground No. 5. Cooler faction contestant advances."
Teleport light flashed, and black-gold Cooler vanished.
At the crater's bottom, Piccolo's charred "corpse" twitched.
Flesh wriggled.
Before long, his wounds had healed by more than half.
Piccolo's eyes snapped open. He shot up and flew out.
From deep within the crater, something let out a resentful howl as if prey that had already reached its mouth had escaped.
"So…" Piccolo's voice was low. "That purple bastard… is working with Fused Zamasu somehow…"
In the next instant, teleport light wrapped around Piccolo again
And sent him into a swamp thick with poisonous fog.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going.
"Want to stay ahead of the game?Advanced chapters are up on my Patron. If you're enjoying the ride, swing by and check them out."
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"