The Juggernaut stood before the fighters with a devilish grin, his eyes intense and shifted to each one as if to challenge each one of them. The monstrously large bulged muscles twitched with every moment in excitement. His gaze shifted as he waited for his challenger, but hoped they would play smart and all come at him at once.

"What do you say, Tarble? Should we allow the group to play with Nappa?" Vegeta smirked with his own assurance in his minion's victory. His attention only slightly shifted when Raditz stood and placed himself behind him.

Tarble looked to the saiyan warrior, and saw the battle frenzy he was about to start. The young saiyan breathed in deeply, his mind focused on Goku and attempted to sense his Ki. He could not sense him yet, and time was still needed for him to show up. ~Goku, I truly hope your training was enough to save us.~ Tarble thought to himself. "The rules stand as it is. Survive Tournament, One on one."

His own friends looked at Tarble like he was crazy. This was their chance to team up on their foe and they should take advantage of it. But Tarble's eyes did not waver from its focused glare at his own brother. Thoughts began running through their mind, wonders of if Tarble was more like these Saiyans then they thought, if their lives were worth anything to the saiyan.

~What is your plan, Tarble?~ Tien's voice called into Tarble's. Tien knew it would be bad to argue vocally, and hoped that Krillin and Gohan would keep to themselves. ~We should take the advantage and take out to brute. Then the remaining of us can take on Vegeta~

~I am not strong enough to fight Vegeta, with everyone else it will be a slaughter. We need to buy time for Goku to arrive.~ Tarble responded, this thoughts focused on the plan. ~If we go all in with Nappa, he will take a few of you out and the rest will be side lined for Vegeta and my battle.~

~So, your banking on the idea we can hold them off tell Goku arrives.~ Tien let out an audible short chortle.

"Tarble, you're insane if you think I am going to listen to your silly game's rules and lead to our deaths!" Krillin finally called out. "I say we all charge him and then Vegeta. If Tarble wants his little fight, he does it on his own terms." The Gohan nodded in agreement, Chiaotzu looked to Tien who shook his head.

"Looks like you have some mutineers in your ranks. They seem adamant on taking the advantage given to them… after all it would be better to speed things up and start losing your pawns." Vegeta mocked his younger brother, arms crossed as he was amused by the dissention in Tarble's friends.

Tien took a step forward, Krillin and gohan attempted to follow behind but his hand lifted to stop them. "I will fight him alone. Watch him and plan how you fight him if I lose. Do not interrupt though, not tell I surrender or cannot fight." Tien had no reason not to trust Tarble. Through the years of their lives, Tarble had never done anything he did not feel was right. Tien knew that Tarble would not risk them unless it was the only option. The fellow human left the group and took his place before Nappa.

"Still only one to challenge me… I guess a line up is better than a pile for a slaughter." Nappa said before he belt out a laugh.

"Don't think we will be so easy. I am going to enjoy beating you down after what you did to Yamcha." Tien popped his neck before taking stance. The two warriors stared each other down for a moment, before a blur of force. Gohan tried to keep his eyes on the events, only to be reprimanded for not using his sense properly.

Nappa attempted a close line. Tien dropped back in response, his hands planted to the ground and allowed him to push off his feet and deliver a hard kick to the Saiyan's back. Nappa turned to face his opponent, only to have another kick go for his face. The saiyan grabbed his opponent's leg and smirked, Tien reacted quickly though and lifted his hands from the ground. He used Nappa's hold to his advantage and sent a barrage of blows to the Saiyan's stomach before he released a blast to his chest. Nappa forced to let go by the quick series of attacks and growled as he realized he let his guard down to his human.

Vegeta looked down at his minion who was being made a fool of, unsure how the human's would have trained so much. "Raditz, it seems these humans are much more powerful than your readings originally suggested. Did you help train them?"

Raditz tended to his wounds and watched the fight. "I trained with them, they may have gained some strength from that. In truth though, is that the humans are quite adaptive. Tarble forced them to train hard for you, and this is the byproduct of his work. He only trained me a little, as I could not get his trust in the year."

Vegeta lifted his hand to his chin to think, he stroked the bare skin with his gloved hand. ~What could you be thinking Tarble? Even with the humans on par with Nappa or just a little weaker, you cannot hope to win.~ He thought to himself.

Nappa and Tien's battle continues with an ever heightened anger shown from Nappa. The brute soon found no reason to hold back. Tien surprised by the sudden burst of speed from the large man. One large hand grasped his shoulder and limited his arm movement, and before he could lift his other to guard his face, three heavy blows made contact. Tien could feel teeth break, his jaw dislocate, his skull rattle. His arm lifted to guard his face gave Nappa a new target, his knee slammed into Tien's stomach. Tien felt the wind knocked free from his own lungs as a mixture of spit and blood spilled to the ground, a hard slam of both of Nappa's fists crashing his body to the ground.

Krillin and Gohan watched as the brute began to viciously beat their friend and ally. Krillin looked up to Tarble who kept his arms crossed and watched. Krillin could feel his blood begin to boil in fury. He could not understand why someone who grew up with Tien would act so coolly in this moment. Chiaotzu's face horrified as he watched Tien be lifted up, and sent rocketed into a group of rocks.

Tien stood though, lifted by sheer willpower as he held up on arm before his face. "Let us see how you like this." Tien mumbled to himself and focused his ki to his partially open palm. "Kikoho!" he roared out as the held ki soon impacted Nappa. The titan pushed back as his armor broke apart, a massive explosion as Nappa released energy from his body to counter the attack. Tien breathed heavy but stood with sweat dripping from his body, Nappa stood and waved his hand to clear the smoke. Blood dripped down his body as plenty of the attack had damaged him.

"I am going to kill you!" Nappa's anger flooded his mind, the pain of the attack more than enough to set off his warrior nature to become a berserker. The frenzied fighter appeared before Tien, the young warrior barely had time to block as he was propelled to the sky with a heavy kick. Nappa gathered ki in his throat, when the sense of danger. Nappa looked to Vegeta, his eyes warned him not to continue. He instead swallowed his pride and fury, Tien instead fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Chiaotzu rushed to his nearly broken friend, and shook as he looked at his nearly mangled body.

"Who is next?" Nappa's voice growled as his eyes flashed to the group.

"Gohan, let's go together" Krillin called, he refused to follow Tarble's plans. Not if it meant they would fall one by one to this monster. "He cannot handle both of us."

"R-right." Gohan said looking to Piccolo.

"Go, I will make sure to finish him if you two fail." These were the best words of encouragement Piccolo could must for the two warriors.

Goku arrives at the way station to Underworld, Kami took hold of his hand and brought him to earth. The saiyan did not stop his pace, rushed from the lookout and down to Korin tower. He took notice of Yurin, as she drew strange designs. A large circle with a mirror, a knife, a doll, and a ring trapped in their own circles at the edges the greater one. Lines and swirled designs around her as she sat, incense burned and filled the air with a thick cloud that cloaked the circle and the young witch. Goku in too much of a hurry to ask questions, received two sensu beans from Korin and hurried toward the battle field.

Krillin and Gohan leapt forward toward Nappa, fear forgotten and only the need to win at all costs. Vegeta's lips curled as he watched Nappa respond to the assault. A large energy blast arced before them dug deep into the ground. The land raised and the two warriors momentarily blinded by the mixture of dust and debris. The older warrior grinned as he looked to Vegeta, who nodded to an unspoken question.

The brute charged toward the two humans, Krillin leapt to intercept the brute and try to for him back. Gohan took to the air and fired blasts of ki, hoping to slow down the monster. Nappa instead tanked each blast of energy, shoulder charged into Killin and knocked him to the air. The beast of a man grabbed Krillin by the leg and flung him into the barrage of energy fired by Gohan. Unable to keep up, Gohan's eyes widened as the burly Saiyan appeared behind him. A swift kick caused the boy the fly into the still recovering Krillin, instead the two not collapsed on each other. Nappa's hand lifted high into the air, Ki surged to his palm as an aura like flame enveloped his hand.

Tarble sensed the amount of Ki, Nappa pulled a lot of the energy into the attack. His gaze shifted to the older saiyan and watched as he put everything he had into the attack. He knew full well that Nappa was planned to kill his targets with this attack. Tarble's eyes turned to Vegeta, and saw the smile on his face. Tarble knew then, this was part of their plan already. They were not afraid of Krillin, but Gohan was a risk to their power. He was far too young and showed greater power reserves than any of them.

Nappa roared out as he thrust his hand forward, Tarble finally moved since he arrive. He began to rush toward the oncoming attack, but was knocked away by Piccolo's extended arm. The Namekian dashed himself between the blast and its two victims, instead took the attack in its full power. A call out in pain only silenced by the breaking of the ground below, and roar of wind that rushed away from ground zero.

The dust settled and Piccolo stood and was badly damaged, his alien blood dribbled from his lips as his back muscles were exposed to the elements and bled freely. His gaze to Gohan and Krillin was not the hard warrior. "I am… proud of you…" He said before he dropped to his knees and fell to the ground. Kami vanished from the Lookout, and Yurin began to work on her spell.

With one of their strongest fighters gone before he could join the fray, and time still needed for Goku to arrive, how will our friends survive? Find out next chapter 32: Tarble makes his stand.

PL

Nappa – 4000

Tien- 3,600

Krillin- 3,100

Gohan- 3400

Piccolo- 5700