Chapter 77: Am I Bullying Frieza Again? (Patreon)

Goku and Frieza kept unleashing their power, the fight growing fiercer with every exchange.

Golden aura and purple waves of ki collided again and again in midair. Each impact tore the surrounding air into ripples visible to the naked eye.

The rock below had long since given way under pressure at this level. Centered on the two fighters, the ground caved in around them, leaving an enormous crater several kilometers across.

A howling wind whipped gravel through the sky.

Oryon stood at the edge of the battle with his arms crossed, watching, his face perfectly calm.

His black hair stirred gently in the gale. The shockwaves parted on their own before they reached him, not even strong enough to lift the hem of his clothes.

Piccolo watched the two fight, sweat dripping from his brow.

He had thought that, with his potential unlocked and a golden transformation gained, he would be able to keep up. But at the Power Levels these two were fighting at, he still couldn't get a hand in.

He remembered the Grand Elder's words: if he merged back into a single being, he would be no weaker than Frieza.

But then he thought of Kami's bleeding-heart nature and hurriedly shook his head.

He had inherited part of King Piccolo's way of thinking, and he was ashamed of that foolish, kindhearted mindset.

Frieza lacked combat experience. His strength came mostly from his innate, overwhelming power and the instincts of his transformed body.

Against an opponent of equal strength, a needless flicker of hesitation always crept in between his attacks and his defense.

Goku, on the other hand, was just as unaccustomed to his newly gained Super Saiyan power. Every punch and kick carried far more destructive force than he expected, throwing his balance off.

But his ability to adapt to a fight was far beyond Frieza's.

Within a few minutes, Goku had begun to find the rhythm of this power.

Frieza swung a fist. Goku sidestepped and drove a knee toward Frieza's stomach.

Frieza blocked with his arm, but the force still sent him skidding back dozens of meters.

He had barely steadied himself when a golden flash filled his eyes. Goku's fist had stopped less than half an inch from the tip of his nose.

"What are you hesitating for?"

Goku's green eyes stared straight at him, his voice full of pure puzzlement. "Are you afraid?"

Frieza's blood-red pupils contracted sharply.

He seized Goku's wrist and let out a shrill roar. A ball of purple energy gathered in the palm of his other hand.

"Afraid? Me, afraid of a monkey?"

Frieza's voice had lost its composure, and he snarled in fury. "Take this! This attack is called the Supernova!"

He hurled the enormous purple ball at Goku.

The instant it left his palm, it swelled again, its diameter passing one hundred meters. The energy on its surface roiled and boiled like magma, and even space itself bent slightly in its wake.

The shockwave knocked Goku back a few steps, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the ground.

He gazed up at the purple sphere that blotted out the sky. He didn't dodge. Instead, he broke into an excited grin.

He drew both hands to his side, palms together. Golden light burst from between his fingers, a stark contrast to the purple Supernova.

"Kamehameha!"

A golden wave of energy blasted from Goku's palms and met the purple Supernova head-on.

The instant the two collided, all of Namek shuddered. The clouds above the point of impact evaporated at once, and the shockwave sliced the ground into countless jagged slabs.

The two forces held each other at a standstill for a moment. Then the golden light gradually gained the upper hand and pushed the purple Supernova back, inch by inch.

Frieza's expression went from rage to shock, and from shock to distortion. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples, and poured more power into the Supernova.

The purple glow surged again as he tried to force the Kamehameha back.

Goku roared too. His golden ki flared once more, and the Kamehameha swelled a full size larger and rushed forward with even fiercer force.

At last the purple Supernova could take no more. It cracked open from the center, then exploded.

The shockwave hurled Frieza away. His body tumbled through the air more times than anyone could count before crashing into a distant mountain peak.

The mountain collapsed with a roar, burying Frieza beneath it.

Goku lowered his hands and took a few breaths.

The golden aura still blazed fiercely around him, and Super Saiyan power kept surging up inside him as if it would never run dry.

But the next second, the pile of rubble blew apart from within.

Frieza burst out of the dust, radiating murderous fury. He looked nothing like the refined, unruffled figure from before.

"Monkey... you stinking monkey!"

Frieza's voice was shrill enough to hurt the ears. "I'll make you vanish along with this planet!"

He brought both hands together above his head, and a ball of energy, far denser than the Supernova, formed in his palms.

This ball wasn't nearly as large, but its density was far greater. Its color had shifted from purple to something close to black, and hairline cracks were appearing in the space around it.

He aimed the ball at the ground below him. The vicious look on his face said everything.

Oryon raised an eyebrow.

Frieza meant to destroy Namek's core directly and blow the whole planet apart.

Frieza smirked cruelly and slammed the ball toward the ground.

Just as it was about to touch the surface, a black figure flashed past.

Oryon cut in from the side and lashed out with a leg, striking the ball with precision.

The ball was kicked off course and shot straight up into the sky, climbing higher and higher until it broke through the atmosphere and exploded in outer space.

The light of the blast rolled back down from on high, painting the whole sky a ghastly white.

The smile froze on Frieza's face.

He slowly lowered his head and saw Oryon standing on the ground below. Oryon looked up at him with his arms crossed over his chest, with an air that said he hadn't taken Frieza seriously from start to finish.

"You..."

Oryon said lightly, "You can blow up the planet if you want. Do it after we leave."

A growl of utter humiliation rose from Frieza's throat.

He felt insulted, insulted in the most offhand way by a Saiyan monkey who hadn't even transformed. He was Frieza, Emperor of the Universe. He had personally destroyed dozens of planets, and no one had ever dared look at him like that.

Shame and rage tangled together and twisted his face completely out of shape.

And just then, a System prompt sounded in Oryon's mind.

[Ding! Oryon deeply bullied Frieza. Target's Power Level: 80,000,000. Obtained 600 days of cultivation progress.]

Oryon's eyes flickered.

He looked down at himself. He had knocked Frieza's energy ball aside without even transforming, and only because he'd prepared for it in advance. And Frieza, petty as he was, actually counted even that as bullying.

Then again, no one in the world had ever deflected Frieza's planet-destroying attack before. Oryon was the first.

Reasonable.

What was even more outrageous was that he'd gotten 600 days of cultivation progress in one go. The reward was so generous it made his head swim.

Then the power of that cultivation progress flooded into his body.

The muscles all over his body began to ache violently, as if he'd been pumped full of excess energy, every muscle fiber tearing and reforming. His bones cracked in rapid succession, and it felt like magma was flowing through his meridians.

The whole process lasted a dozen or so seconds before the swelling, searing pain gradually faded.

He clenched his fist and felt it out. The power inside him had climbed another level.

He let out a contented breath, and the corner of his mouth curled up before he knew it.

He hadn't been able to join the fight with Frieza, but he'd bullied Frieza in his base form all the same.

Frieza hadn't unlocked 100% of his strength, but Oryon in his base form was even weaker than that. And yet it was exactly this enormous gap in strength that let him rake it in.

Goku warned him, "Frieza, your opponent is me. Don't go wrecking other people's planet!"

"Don't order me around!"

Frieza bellowed and launched an even more frenzied assault, but Goku shrugged off every one of his attacks with ease.

Goku's counterattacks came more and more naturally. His golden fists fell on Frieza like raindrops, driving Frieza back step by step.

Frieza was gradually adapting to the release of his power, too, and his Power Level kept climbing.

He wasn't far from his full state of 120,000,000 Power Level.

Suddenly Goku raised a hand in a time-out gesture.

"Stop, Frieza!"

Frieza froze for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

Goku explained, "You're the strongest opponent I've ever fought, but I've figured out all your tricks, so let's not fight anymore."

"Go home and train hard. When you've gotten stronger, let's have a proper fight!"

"Heh, heh, hehehehe, ohohohohoho!"

Frieza doubled over laughing.

"Damn you! You're actually letting me go? You're insulting me!"

Frieza flicked his hand, and a disc-shaped blade of purple energy shot from his palm.

The disc's edge was astonishingly thin. It spun toward Goku with a shrill, piercing whistle.

It was one of Frieza's signature moves, a cutting energy attack very similar to the Destructo Disc on Earth.

Goku sidestepped the first disc, and a second came slicing in from another angle.

He leaned back to dodge the second, and the third followed right behind, dropping from above.

He dodged seven or eight of these discs in a row, his expression growing more impatient.

"You're annoying."

Goku got serious again. His speed shot up to its limit.

Frieza's hands, still steering the discs, hadn't even registered it yet when Goku appeared behind him.

Goku slammed a fist into the back of Frieza's head. Frieza was smashed into the ground, gouging out a huge crater.

Goku dove after him, grabbed Frieza by the tail, swung him up, and hurled him toward the sky.

Frieza lost his balance in midair, and the discs he'd fired lost their guidance and doubled back along their original paths.

Goku shouted in alarm, "Duck, Frieza!"

Frieza didn't react in time.

A purple disc sliced open Frieza's right shoulder. The second severed half his tail, and the third cut diagonally across his waist, nearly slicing his body into four pieces.

Frieza plummeted from the sky, purple blood spattering along his path.

His upper half lay on the ground, his body cut into several segments, his right arm hanging by only a strip of skin, most of his tail gone.

His face was full of disbelief and agony, his mouth stretched wide, broken screams tearing out of him.

Goku stared at the ruined Frieza and frowned.

"What did you do that for?"

"I told you I'd let you go..."

Frieza kept begging, reaching out a hand.

"H-help... help me..."

Frieza stretched out his one remaining hand toward Goku, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible.

"Please... help me..."

Goku's frown deepened.

He crouched in front of Frieza and looked at the enemy who, only seconds ago, had wanted him dead. He was silent for a moment.

Then he reached out. A warm current of ki welled up from his palm and flowed into Frieza's body.

Frieza's color improved a little, and his severed wounds stopped gushing blood.

Goku looked over at Oryon and Piccolo and dropped his Super Saiyan transformation.

"Let's go!"

Oryon smiled faintly and said, "He doesn't plan on letting you go, you know!"

Goku turned around and saw Frieza, propped up by the ki Goku had shared with him, wobbling into the air and hovering there.

Frieza glared down at Goku, gathering the last of his strength into a ball of energy in his one remaining hand.

"Die, Saiyan monkey!"

The energy wave roared down from on high, aimed straight at Goku on the ground.

Goku looked up. The look on his face turned from shock to disappointment.

He drew both hands to his side again. "Kamehameha!"

He brought his hands together and thrust them upward. A golden wave of energy blasted up from below and struck Frieza's wave head-on.

The two forces held for barely half a second. Then the Kamehameha swallowed Frieza's wave, kept rising, and swallowed Frieza's body as well.

The golden pillar of energy pushed Frieza higher and higher, through the clouds, through the atmosphere, and finally into the depths of space, where he became a fading point of light.

Frieza's body vanished without a trace in that golden light. Not so much as a scrap was left behind.

But Oryon had seen it. Goku was still holding back.

Frieza's body had only been pushed out into space, and odds were that Goku hadn't killed him.

Goku lowered his hands and dropped his Super Saiyan state. His hair and eyes returned to black.

He gazed up at the sky, lost in thought, and it was a good while before he turned to look at Oryon.

"It's over."

Oryon grinned. "Didn't think it'd be this easy. Let's go. How about you carry Vegeta?"

Vegeta, lying on the ground barely alive, saw that Goku had won and burst into hearty laughter.

He lay on his back, drenched in blood.

"Kakarot... you won... heh, ha ha, it really is fate! Frieza... was beaten... by a Saiyan..."

Goku walked over and crouched beside him. Seeing Vegeta in such a miserable state, he tried to comfort him. "Vegeta, stop talking for now. You're badly hurt."

Vegeta shook his head and gripped Goku's wrist with what little strength he had left. His fingers were ice-cold and trembling, but his grip was fierce, as if he meant to squeeze out every word he'd kept buried in his heart for decades.

"Kakarot... do you know how the Saiyans really died out?

"It wasn't a meteor... it was Frieza who did it!"

A twisted smile spread across Vegeta's face. "He was afraid a Super Saiyan would appear among the Saiyans, so he blew up all of Planet Vegeta...

"I was taken away when I was five. I've been his dog ever since...

"My father, my people, my homeland...

"All of them ruined by him...

"All of them killed by him...

"Now you've killed him. You've avenged the Saiyans!"

Goku's expression was calm as he listened.

He looked at Vegeta and slowly shook his head.

"I didn't fight him to avenge the Saiyans."

Vegeta's eyes went wide. He could hardly believe his ears. "What did you say?"

Goku answered earnestly, "I fought Frieza to protect my friends, and the Namekians on this planet.

"The Saiyans did a lot of terrible things. They attacked other planets everywhere, killed the people there, and then sold off those people's homes.

"That's why the Saiyans were wiped out.

"How should I put it? In Earth terms, I guess you'd call it retribution."

Vegeta's lips parted, but he couldn't get out a single word.

Retribution? The Saiyan blood he'd always taken such pride in, his people, his father, his homeland, and in Kakarot's mouth it was just one word: retribution?

An indescribable fire surged up in his chest. He wanted to explode, but his wounds and blood loss pinned him down so completely that he couldn't even sit up.

"Kakarot... are you even a Saiyan...?

"Where's your Saiyan pride?

"You actually stand there and say your own people being wiped out was retribution?"

Goku shot back, "I don't know what Saiyan pride is.

"I'm just someone who grew up on Earth. I only found out about the Saiyans later.

"And what I said isn't wrong. If you do bad things, sooner or later you'll suffer for it, right?"