Caulifla staggered backwards, gasping for air as her Super Saiyan aura flickered off. She glanced up uneasily toward Tien, the three eyed warrior's body now back to its normal hue, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his somber face as he exhaled.
"Hell of a punch you got there, Earther. Even my universe's version of your kind didn't have anything like that in their bags of tricks."
"It's Tien. And thank you. Pushing it up to 50 is a recent development in my training as a martial artist so you're the first opponent I've had a proper chance to use it on."
Caulifla grimaced. "Lucky me."
Tien then held out his hand as he cupped his fingers into a strange position resembling that of a rough triangle shape.
"I-Is he seriously going to try and combine the Kaio-Ken with the Tri-Beam?" Krillin gawked.
Yamcha shrugged with an uneasy expression. "It's the only shot he has at taking her down, in fairness. Tien knows he got lucky on the first Saiyan so if this Captain Caulifla's anything like, say, Goku, she's probably got all sorts of transformations to pull out of her spiky hair."
Down below, Tien's aura flared back up while his entire being was cloaked in crimson once more Caulifla set her legs into a wide bracing stance, her bare feet planted firmly on the ground, arms crossed at the chest in an X shape for blocking.
"Bring it on, Three Eyes member!" Caulifla grinned in spite of her situation.
"Neo Tri-Beam!"
Tien's voice was drowned out over the swell of the Kaio Ken burst of power as he cranked it all the way to times 60. The technqiue wasn't like any of the Super Saiyan transformations in that it wasn't a state of transformation made to last minutes on end. It was an instant of increased power distilled to a moment, sometimes even less.
But even all that against this strange Saiyan girl wouldn't be enough to close the power gab between them and Tien knew it. Hence the Tri-Beam. It had held Cell back once despite the massive power gap then and he had only become stronger since that fateful day he had been prepared to die to try and protect the Earth.
The wide golden beam of ki swept over Caulifla's entire body, engulfing her completely from view.
"Ha!" Tien gritted his teeth as he mustered another blast of his own life force for another attack. Then another. And another.
And-
Tien didn't feel his knees buckle from under him until he had already crashed to the ground as his entire body screamed as if he had been lit on fire.
Under the thick veil of smoke, Caulifla let out a barking cough as she stepped out. Her hair had become somehow even spikier, and the golden aura of one of the Super Saiyan transformations once more but it was not the first or even the second state that Goku and the others had used.
On the sidelines, Vegeta snorted, unimpressed. "Of all the transformations, that one?"
Caulifla cracked her newly thickened bull-like neck as she dusted her spandex-like suit off with an scorched hand. The trim, fit form of the captain's previous figure had given way to a bulging muscular behemoth of broad shouldered brawn that now stood before Tien. Her full body uniform showed off every bulge of her biceps, every hardened muscle of her newly thickened thighs.
"Huh." Goku commented, blinking. "Looks like they can do Grade III, too. Neat!"
In the stands, Krillin chuckled uneasily as he glanced up at Yamcha. "That buff enough for ya, man?"
Yamcha stared down at the shorter fighter, gulping as his face went red.
"S-Seriously?" Yamcha stared at the shorter man. "I was kidding. Master Roshi, help me out here."
"Herm." Roshi stroked his long white beard as a few drops of blood began to pour from his nose. "Perhaps I've been too picky in my tastes with women,"
"I'd say I'm surprised that the old perv find's miss baroness von brawn over there hot but I'm not." 18 sighed and shook her head.
I wonder if Gohan could do something like that. Videl mused as she and the others stared at the newly muscled Caulifla in awe. Clearly, he should keep up with his training with Piccolo even more. For my and Pan's sake. Yes. And not because I want a hunkier version of him all to myself. Although, I wonder if he has as much fondness for girls with muscle as he does girls with short hair...
By the gods you could grade meat on those abs! Chi-Chi thought, partly awestruck, partly revolted by the sight of womanly raw power before her. At first I thought she was somewhat respectful being a military girl n'all but this is obscene! T-Totally obscene and not because I'm secretly jealous or anything!
"Huh." Goten blinked. "Hey Trunks, could girls always do that?"
"Saiyan girls can, apparently." Trunks muttered, red faced.
"Oh. … Do you think our universe has some long lost girl saiyans, then?"
"Shut up Goten."
"What? They'd have to be really strong and stuff and we could fight em and-"
"Shut. Up. Goten."
Back in the arena, it had taken all of Tien's remaining energy to keep himself conscious and slowly stumble back up to his feet as Caulifla casually strolled towards the three eyed fighter. Each step made the ground rupture in small fissures in her wake with each ponderous, dense step from her newly thickened legs.
"I'll admit, I could have just gone to Alpha and tanked those blasts of yours but between the two of us, I really, really like using Delta here when I can." She winked and Tien was too tired and exhausted to properly dismiss it.
"Now," Caulifla cracked her knuckles as her newly broadened shoulders stiffened and she took a fighting stance.
"Let's do this, Earther."
Caulifla placed her dominate hand outward under her chin with the other jutting out in front. Her now enormous legs were spread so that they were shoulder width as her body itself to the side.
Tien instantly recognized it as a boxer's stance, having fought his share of punching pugilists from his time under the Crane Hermit's so-called teachings.
"The form kills your speed." Tien was stalling for time as his body did its best to rest as much as it could considering how much he had pushed himself to the limit. His best efforts had resulted in a series of scorch marks and scrapes along Caulifla's face but not much else and that was just in her base form.
Tien doubted she even needed Grade III to beat him but figured the military woman wanted to rub it in after seeing her subordinate lose in the first round of the tournament.
Caulifla arched an eyebrow. "It does. I'm impressed you knew something like that that, Three Eyes."
"It's one of the reasons why my... allies don't use it much as a form."
"Ah." Caulifla nodded. "Understandable. Stupid, but understandable."
Tien frowned, causing his entire body to spasm in pain. "I don't understand."
"Oh this form kills speed, sure. By our high paced standards. But it's still-"
Caulifla vanished for an instant and the next thing Tien felt was a sinking hooking jab to his abdomen as the wind rushed from his lungs and he flew backwards towards the edge of the ring. He course corrected and hovered at the last moment but the flashing black outs as his ribs screamed from internal bruises wasn't a good sign.
Caulifla's purple, bodysuit covered knuckles planted themselves into the side of Tien's face as she delivered a thunderous hook to the Earthling warrior.
"-is pretty damn fast if you can get used to it." Caulifla finished. "Speed is relative and while you might be able to land five blows to my one punch, my punch has more power to it."
Tien winced; those blows felt just as bad as when Buu's legs had struck him from behind. Only his training since then had kept him conscious, and even that was rapidly becoming questionable with the gap having widened so much with Caulifla's transformation.
Still, I won't give up until the very end!
Tien vanished, using all of his remaining ki into his speed as he reappeared behind Caulifla before landing six machine gun-like pressure point strikes to the upper and lower regions of her back.
For an instant, Caulifla stood upright. Then her massive forearm came whirling in a 180 degree arc that completely took Tien by surprise as he was launched backwards, finally crashing outside of the ring in defeat.
"That one was for Cabba!"
"Hang on, Tien." Goku said as he and Gohan helped the triclops up, lifting him up by supporting him under his arms. "We got ya."
"You put up a hell of a fight, Tien," Gohan continued. Tien was, by some luck, still conscious, if barely. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."
"You lucked out, Triclops." Vegeta said as Goku and Gohan carried the defeated fighter back to the stands. "Fighting a Saiyan who couldn't even transform into a Super Saiyan. However, you have clearly improved since Nappa and I landed on Earth."
It was, by Vegeta's standards, a compliment. An attempt at one, anyways.
Tien glared at Vegeta but said nothing as he was placed on a bench to rest. Piccolo smirked down at him.
"You fought well today."
"Thanks." Tien winced. "You-"
At that point the stress and exhaustion of battle finally got to Tien as he passed out into unconsciousness.
"Alright, enough with the distractions." Caulifa called out to the rest of the fighters from Universe Seven. "Now the real fun can start! Price-y boy, get your widow peaked butt up here and I'll show you what a real Saiyan's strength looks like!"
As she said this, she flexed her forearm like a body builder that made Chi-Chi faint from the indecency.
Kale merely sighed. "Why does she have to do this every time she uses that transformation?"
Short chapter but not all of em need to be 3k words plus. And the whole 'Tien always knew the Kaio-Ken' thing is something I can imagine may or may not be a breaking point for some folks. Do I seriously think he actually knows it in canon? No, but there's really no reason why Tien shouldn't, considering how much time he spent training with King Kai in the first place. Sadly, his showing (and Toriyamia's infamous forgetfulness) say otherwise. Also, I would just like to point out that as much as it's more of a boost from what he has in canon (ymmv), it still didn't amount to much in the big picture. Put another way, Tien knowing the Kaio Ken at this point matters about as much as Bardock's 10k power level did IE Not much but hey, it's something, I guess.
