Piccolo glanced at Vegeta who stood on the opposite part of the stage with his arms crossed. Slowly Piccolo took of his turban and mantle and threw them on the ground causing a large thump and a small crack on the stage floor. Piccolo cracked his knuckles several times and entered his combat stance. Vegeta uncrossed his arms and began charging towards Piccolo. He unleashed a flurry of both fast and hard punches which Piccolo with seemingly little effort blocked one by one. After realizing that it wasn't working Vegeta leapt up into the air and remained hovering above Piccolo and looked down at him with anger. He was just about to stretch out his arm and form a Big Bang when he realized that Piccolo had vanished.

"It seems that Piccolo has disappeared from the stage!"

Vegeta tried to quickly sense where his opponent had gone but with no success, Piccolo must be moving at high speed while at the same time hiding his power. Suddenly he felt a strong power hitting him in the back. He quickly turned around but couldn't see Piccolo firing it. Suddenly he got hit in the back again by another kiai. Piccolo was toying with him, circling around in an irregular pattern and firing kiais at him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Vegeta is getting hit repeatedly by an invisible force! Could it be Piccolo doing this?!"

Suddenly Vegeta felt him, the speed he moved at was tremendous there was no way he could catch up with him at this state. He either had to intercept him or just force him out of hiding. He quickly crouched together and gathering energy quickly and let it all out in an explosive wave. He could hear Piccolo shouting at him to stop through the explosion but he ignored it and against the agreement he had did with the other Saiyans he quickly turned Super Saiyan in the small chaos his explosion had caused. He flew through the flames of the explosion and directly towards Piccolo and started another series of punches and kicks. This time Piccolo had to fight back in order to keep up and after a few punches and kicks he had gained the upper hand after finding an opening in Vegeta's defense he quickly kneed him in the side followed by hammering him, sending him headlong towards the stage-floor where he remained down. The Announcer didn't seem to be focused on that though as he had just noticed Vegeta's golden hair.

"P..People! Unless Vegeta quickly changed his hair color when we couldn't see him I'd say his hair has mystically turned golden!"

"IMBECILLE, CAN'T YOU SEE HE IS DOWN! START COUNTING!"

Piccolo had shouted at him and in the back of his head he remembered the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai and quickly got going.

"5!"

Vegeta slowly got up and looked furiously at Piccolo up in the air. He surely had gotten strong for someone who hadn't had a significant fight or any reason to train since the Androids were around. He was being mocked, looking like a weakling. It was bad enough that he had realized he would never surpass Kakarot or his son but the Namek? He knew he had everyone's eyes on him as he had turned Super Saiyan and the golden aura around him so why not turn it up even further. He quickly let go of more power within himself and suddenly lightning surrounded his aura as his muscles increased in size.

"VEGETA DON'T!"

"WHY, NAMEK? JUST SO YOU CAN MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME!?"

Piccolo didn't know Vegeta felt so strong about this. He was ready to go the distance to win this fight and go further in the tournament. This would be a lot harder than he had thought, he couldn't defeat Goku at Super Saiyan 2 level so chances that he would stand up to Vegeta were slim. He wouldn't lose without trying though and determined as he was his intentions of entering the tournament was to win. He dived down towards Vegeta who got ready for his attack. He unleashed a punch towards him but missed directly and left a crack in the stage floor. He quickly turned around and got punched directly in the face which sent him flying across the floor. He swiftly got up on his legs again and as good as he could he tried to protect himself against Vegeta's attacks. But Vegeta's added strength in Super Saiyan 2 was proving to be enough as each attack he blocked sent shivers through his whole body and after a while his defense got knocked up and he found himself getting slammed face down on the stage. He felt dizzy and he could barely hear the announcer as he lied on the floor but he slowly got up and attempted to stand straight.

"Majunior gets up on the 8-count! But he looks hurt; will he be able to fight back?"

"So, Namek? Not so tough now are we?"

Piccolo didn't reply though he knew Vegeta was right. Perhaps he would stand no chance against #21 if he met him in the finals, perhaps Vegeta should face him instead or maybe #21 would get beaten by Goku? No, he couldn't think like that, if his suspicion about #21 being Cell he wouldn't miss the chance to try his strength out in combat after all that was why he had let Cell go. He would have to win this fight and he think he knew just how.

"Is that all you got Vegeta? Is that all the Prince of all Saiyans got to offer?"

"So the Namek has got a death wish and I hoped humiliation would be enough!"

Vegeta charged towards Piccolo again, the same thing happened again; Piccolo remained even with Vegeta for a while before again being sent down on the floor. The Announcer didn't have time to start counting before Piccolo was up again.

"Is that ALL you got?"

Vegeta lost his grip of his calm state.

"DON'T YOU THINK I HAVEN'T STARTED YET!"

Piccolo felt it, Vegeta was gaining power rapidly and ascending, this was his chance and he dashed towards Vegeta who's hair slowly grew down his back. With a heavy punch he aborted Vegeta's transformation and got in a flurry of heavy punches as he left no opening for Vegeta to defend himself. He finished his long combo by grabbing Vegeta's arm and tossed him up in the air. Quickly he quickly shot out small light grenades, twenty to be exact that surrounded and followed Vegeta up in the air. But it didn't stop there as he fired a even bigger one at Vegeta but strangely it just placed itself behind him. Instead Piccolo stretched his arm out and placed his other hand on the wrist. Lightning began surrounding the energy erupting from his hand. Vegeta tried to break free from the hellzone he was stuck in but it seemed to follow him. A few seconds later he started to charge towards Piccolo with all the grenades surrounding him.

"DESTRUCTIVE WAVE!"

The beam flew at high speed at Vegeta and so did the Hellzone including the large powerful Light Grenade. From what Piccolo could sense and hear Vegeta disappeared in the large explosion that followed, blinding the whole crowd but luckily the explosion wasn't so big that the flames reached the edges of the huge arena. The audience was stunned and so was the Announcer. Piccolo focused and tried to sense Vegeta. There was no way that blast would kill him unless he underestimated his own power. Over a minute passed and still no signs of Vegeta. Two minutes passed. The Announcer got up on the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we cannot seem to locate Vegeta. If he doesn't appear within one minute he will be disqualified!"

Vegeta still didn't show up. Thirty seconds passed, forty, fifty. The Announcer started counting in.

"Five! Four! Three! Two! One! And the winner by…"

Everyone suddenly looked up in the sky. There was Vegeta, slightly hurt but he still had lightning surrounding his aura. He quickly dashed down towards the stage and when he landed on the stage it left two large holes shaped like his feet in it. The Announcer looked at him confused before jumping off the stage.

"The fight between Majunior and Vegeta will now continue as originally planned!"

Piccolo eyed Vegeta up and down. His attack had certainly had an effect on him. His dark leather pants had gotten a few holes in it and the dark red tank had partially been torn off. He was panting slightly and he had definitely lost some power from the combination of Hellzone and Destructive Wave.

"So, I guess the Namek can keep up after all."

"It takes more than brute strength to win Vegeta, all I did was taunting you and it was enough for you to let your guard down and let me deal serious damage to you. Now how about we finish this?"

Vegeta tore his tank-top off and then quickly charged towards Piccolo. Both of them engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. After Vegeta's power loss they were even and the fight kept going on for minutes without either of them showing signs of losing. They flew over whole the arena causing shockwaves all over the place, even destroying some of the monitors and knocking people in the audience down. Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed and neither of them showed any sign of getting tired. They both landed on the marble stage floor squarely and straightened themselves up. And at the same time they both charged towards each other with flying kicks. They both hit each other directly in the face and both was sent flying away in opposite directions. Piccolo landed flat on the floor and Vegeta did as well. At the same time they got up on one knee and sent a kiai at one another. Both got hit by and was sent flying outside seemingly landing on the ground outside the stage.

"Incredible people! After fighting evenly for more than 15 minutes Majunior and Vegeta has knocked each other out! It is impossible for me to tell who was knocked out first so we will have the replay show us the result. Please take a look at the monitors now!"

Everyone's eyes turned to the big screens placed around the arena. It was shown that Vegeta hit the ground just a millisecond before Piccolo, or to be more correct; his hair hit the ground before Piccolo knocked his head in it. The crowd roared out as the Announcer called Majunior the winner. Piccolo looked towards the spot where Vegeta had landed. He was gone, he probably had no interest in watching the rest. He walked back towards the dressing room. Just nodding at Tien and Goku, who gave him thumbs up. He went back to leaning against a wall as he noticed #21 approaching him. He talked quietly so only Piccolo could hear him.

"If that's your best you might as well forfeit right now."

"What do you mean?!"

#21 didn't reply. The tall figure went back to the other side of the dressing room and walked out towards the stage. It had to be him Piccolo thought, it just had to and he would probably see proof of it in the next battle as both him and Goku went towards the stage preparing for the first semfinal.