Seemingly submitting to the bombarded at first, the planet eater suddenly gave a deafening shriek and a massive, repulsive force exploded from its body. Shattering the binds and dispelling the beam attacks hitting it from all directions, Zeru struck the Z-fighters with a gale of wind that ripped them out of the sky and sent them spinning back to earth.
Caught completely by surprise at the power of the blast that parted the ocean and shredded the coastline like rice paper, most of the weaker members of the group quickly succumbed to the shockwave. The tougher ones though or those that managed to shield themselves before the attack hit them, recovered quickly and secured defensive positions.
Those that remained airborne included Piccolo, Gohan, Vegeta, Zangya, Android 18, Krillin, and, remarkably, Videl. The others though had been successfully grounded and now had to go through the process of pulling themselves together. Tien, after landing hard against a plateau, was being helped up by Chiaotzu and Yamcha. Elsewhere in a distant field, Android 17 struggled to pick himself up alongside Goten and Trunks, both of whom had been knocked onto their backsides after getting smacked down by massive chunks of rubble and debris.
In spite of their best efforts, the creature was still alive and kicking.
"Well that didn't work," Videl spoke, clenching her fists in frustration.
"You've gotta be kidding me! How strong is this thing?" Krillin shouted, ignoring the bruises and scuffs he'd sustained from the invisible attack. "This is so unfair!"
"I think fairness is one of the last things on this monster's mind, man," Gohan answered, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Honestly. This is starting to get ridiculous," Android 18 spoke, narrowing her eyes on the invader as it rose up from the enormous crater it had been pressed into.
Snarling angrily when it floated away from the hole, Zeru's eyes shone a bright red before it suddenly launched a pink ball of energy towards the group. The attack expanded at an incredible speed as it approached its targets, forcing all of the warriors in the air to move evasively. However, it was only until the attack blew past them that they realized it was heading straight towards the naval fleet floating several kilometers out.
Reacting in alarm, Videl powered up and gave pursuit, easily overtaking the sphere and landing on the aircraft carrier it was targeting. Startling the crew currently on station, the raven haired crime fighter threw her hands up and with a yell of effort, launched two golden blasts at the approaching attack. The beams collided with the incoming sphere and began an intense tug-of-war match between her and the mass of energy. Despite there being no link between it and its source, the orb still had enough power to give the girl a ridiculously hard time.
Feeling the ball's heat licking at her skin, the teenage warrior growled as she poured more energy into her counterattack. She was doing well against it too, until she saw the ball begin to expand in size and file away at her attack little by little, causing her to look up in bewilderment. "Oh… no you don't!" With a yell, Videl opened up the taps and poured more energy into her blast, determined to save the people onboard the fleet of ships surrounding her and preventing more deaths from occurring.
While Videl had it out with the large attack, the Z-fighters were now experiencing difficulties of their own.
A shockwave ringing out, Vegeta attempted to deck the creature across the face, only to be met with its powerful force field that sent him blasting away in the opposite direction. With the Saiyan Prince dispatched, the enormous invader swung its ribbons arms out, forcing Android 18 and Krillin to scatter, but hitting Piccolo as a result when its limb came in wide and fast. The Namekian was smacked to the ground, sending him across two kilometers of charred landscape.
Occupied with taking out the other Z-warriors, Zeru was unable to respond in time when Gohan, yelling out in anger, slammed a fist across its face, hitting its shield with a terrifying shockwave. The impact of his knuckles caused a loud 'crack' to ring out when he blew past its weakened barrier and nailed it in the cheek, sending it tumbling away. When the alien eventually skidded to a stop, it countered the half-Saiyan with a swift extension of its arm, sending it shooting at him like a lance. However, swift as ever, the demi-Saiyan dodged the attack and countered with a swift ki blast.
Zangya came around and fired a beam as well. But despite their efforts to hit it from two different sides, their shots ricocheted off of the invader's barrier. When the air cleared shortly afterwards, Zeru was then able to fire its other extendable arm at the redhead now hovering in plain sight.
Recoiling in shock, the Hera threw her hand forward and caught the alien's extending arm with the face of her palm. The impact sent her flying back a couple of kilometers, her fingers cutting into its appendage that burned at her skin. Cringing painfully as she shredded the strip of flesh, the woman then grabbed the flexible limb she'd caught and, growling against the pain, stopped in midflight. As soon as her momentum ceased, Zangya then gave a mighty yell and pulled on the alien's limb, yanking the beast from its spot and drawing the asteroid-sized enemy towards her.
When its immense body flew in her direction, the Hera powered up and, cocking her free fist back, cried out and threw a punch towards its forehead. "EAT THIS!" Her knuckles glowing, the girl slammed a punch straight into its face, caving it in and sending it flying with a thunderous 'bang'.
Flipping as it flew through the air, Zeru eventually crash-landed ten kilometers away, impacting the continent and flatting an entire area of valleys. The earth trembling as a result of its fall, the beast eventually used its appendages to sit up, making a gurgling sound while focusing its attention on its opponents.
Seeing its targets scattered throughout the sky, the creature took aim and, with a flash of energy, sprayed a barrage of pink energy blasts in their direction. The shot like attack forced the airborne fighters to drop altitude and avoid the onslaught of energy spheres, which peppered the decimated countryside outside of West City. Numerous dome-shaped explosions tore apart the earth, collapsing anything that was left standing.
After forcing Gohan, Zangya, Vegeta, Krillin and Android 18 back down to ground level, the creature sat up and sprang into the sky. Gaining altitude quickly, it then directed its attention to the warriors on the ground and descended towards them at high speed.
Gohan clenched his fists tightly when the beast's shadow fell upon them, "Here it comes!"
"Shoot it down!" Vegeta yelled, taking a stance.
Pulling their hands back, the group stepped forward and with simultaneous yells of effort, fired five powerful beams at the incoming monster. The attacks shot towards the hulking alien like a barrage of missiles, aiming to knock it out of the sky and out of the fight. But before they even came close to colliding with their target, Zeru's eyes flashed brightly before launching a barrage of large, red energy disks at the incoming strike. It countered the team's blasts effortlessly, slicing the beams to pieces and dispelling their remains on the wind. With the obstacles ripped apart, the monofilament barrage continued on course towards the grounded warriors.
The five warriors gawked in shock when they saw their attacks get shot out of the air. Upon which they leapt out of the way, dodging the barrage of disks that slammed into the ground and decimated their part of the country. The coastline was diced to pieces, seconds before the disks exploded in a fiery hell storm and reduced the whole area to a smoking crater.
Dust hanging over the damaged area, a series of figures could be seen moving amongst the rubble. When the veil eventually lifted seconds later, it revealed Gohan, Zangya and Vegeta rising up from the dirt covered in multiple burn wounds and cuts, while Android 18 and Krillin helped each other up from the pile of rocks. The latter of the two had suffered a serious head wound from the bombardment and was bleeding down his face.
Needless to say, neither of them was in any good shape.
"Hey… I might be overreaching a little bit, but do you guys happen to know anymore Super Saiyans hiding out there in the universe? Because we sure as hell could use their help right about now," Krillin spoke, looking wistfully across at the clearly winded trio who were regarded as the planet's most powerful fighters. When all he received were blank stares from both Zangya and Vegeta, the former monk grinned painfully, "Just asking."
Huffing, the one-armed prince spun around and watched as their adversary Zeru touched down several miles out. With its immense form blocking out the horizon, he then looked on as it began to dig into the earth, drawing an irritable huff from the warrior. "That giant, multi-armed freak. I can barely pick myself up and we haven't even come close to putting it down." His anger causing a few sparks to flash off of him, the man then slammed his fist into the ground out of frustration. "Damn it! This is pissing me off!"
"I can't believe how powerful that thing actually is. We're giving it everything we've got, but not even a Super Saiyan 2 can beat it," Gohan murmured, standing up and turning his ire on the invader. After watching it dig through the rubble for several minutes, the teen then saw it lower its head to the ground and extended what he immediately identified as a proboscis from its mouth. With it, it stuck it into the ground and began to drill. "Shit. That can't be good."
"What? What's it doing?" Android 18 asked, looking up at the enormous beast in confusion alongside her husband.
"It's buried its mandibles into the planet's surface. If it reaches the mantle layer, it's going to start sucking this planet dry," Gohan informed, clenching his fists tightly and gathering his energy as fast as he could. While this news came as no surprise to Zangya, it certainly caught the others' attention.
"Are you serious?" Krillin asked with disbelief reflected in his gaze.
The demi-Saiyan nodded, "Yeah. King Kai told me everything. This creature is a parasite that survives by sucking the energy out of any planet it happens to come across. If we let this thing win and feed on the earth… over the next day or so… there won't be a single thing left standing. The trees, the land, the ocean, the animals… everything will die."
Vegeta glared hard at the teen, "And you didn't think of telling us any of this earlier, why?"
"Well, this thing has spent the past couple of hours generously kicking our asses across the continent, so I haven't exactly been given an appropriate time to interject," Gohan replied, glancing across at the pissed off prince with his warrior's glare firmly in play. "Listen, if we have any hope of destroying this thing, we need to combine all of our power and attack it at the same time. If my observations are correct, a fully charged attack from you, me and Zangya should be more than enough to put this alien down for good."
While Vegeta's expression steeled, the Hera kneeling alongside them glanced across at the young man with an obviously forced smile. "That sounds fantastic. Any idea on how the hell we're going to do that? Every time we gain any sort of rhythm against the bastard, the damn thing breaks it with that annoying shield it has." Due to the efforts made by Bulma and Vegeta, the creature's ability to produce a continuous force field has been greatly upset. On the surface this seemed like a good thing. But this resulted in a secondary issue in which the alien was now creating a single barrier at random to deflect their more punishing blasts from landing.
Say what you would about the beast, it could certainly take a hit when it wanted to. Not only did it have a gaping hole in its chest, but its sternum was cracked and half off its face had been blown to kingdom come.
Not even Frieza could continue fighting at such a capacity.
"We're going to need to catch it off guard," Gohan informed, crouching down and powering up. "Hit it from all sides and soften it up. Once we've exhausted it, we'll ground it and take it out with our strongest attacks. That ought to knock some sense into it." His golden aura warping around him and bolts of electricity streaming up his body, the young warrior made his instructions well and truly heard by all those present.
Vegeta, smirking at the hybrid's statements, stood up as well and allowed his aura to spring forth once more, "Now you're speaking like a true Saiyan. Just stay the hell out of my way."
"No problem," the teenager replied confidently.
Zangya, stepping up alongside the duo to join them, also clenched her fists and powered up, her energy blasting off of her and causing her hair to bellow upwards. "This planet is my home as much as it is everybody else's." Eyes flickering mischievously, she then gave a nod towards the plan and the young man who'd thought of it, before setting her gaze onto their target, "I'm ready whenever you are."
All three of them sharing similar expressions of battle readiness, they continued to watch the creature tunnel into the ground before taking off and shooting towards the creature in a blur. Breaking up in mid-flight, the trio of super powered warriors scattered and swept towards the extra terrestrial from its flanks, leaving Krillin and Android 18 to watch nervously from afar.
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