Chapter 5: The Challenge of Conoracha.
"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just say Hell?" Fionn enquired. He turned to Bardock.
"Did he just say Hell?"
Bardock could not provide an answer, as he simply stared at Tenshinhan as if the man had lost his mind. Nonetheless, he took it upon himself to re-iterate Fionn's question.
"Are you serious?"
Tenshinhan nodded, a look of supreme satisfaction and confidence on his face. It did nothing to assuage Bardock's doubts about his state of mind.
"There's someone there I want you to meet".
Bardock and Fionn looked curiously at each other. This was something they definitely hadn't bargained on...
"There's only one minor problem with that little plan. You can't get in to Hell unless you were judged and assigned there. It's just not done," Fionn eventually said.
Tenshinhan held up his finger.
"Not exactly. Believe it or not, Hell is actually very easy to enter; it's the leaving part that's tricky. The entire area of Hell itself stretches for hundreds of thousands of miles, and is surrounded by an invisible net which prevents any souls from leaving, but not from entering. In fact, most people stay well away from the vicinity of the wall, because it's possible to wander right into Hell without even realising it, and then you're stuck.
Because of this, the wall itself has become known as the Gateless Barrier."
Bardock failed to see the point of this.
"If that's true, then why the hell do you want to go there? If there's no way out, we'll be stuck there for all eternity, even if we do meet this person you know".
"I never said there was no way out. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few ways of leaving; secret exits and such, but they are only known to a select few people in charge of running the afterlife. I myself don't know of their locations".
Bardock was beginning to get frustrated; Tenshinhan's rant was going nowhere.
"So how exactly are we supposed to leave the place then?"
Tenshinhan smiled once more. He beckoned for Bardock and Fionn to come closer.
"Place your hand on my shoulder."
They did so, with more than a little hesitation. They had absolutely no idea where this was going...
"You can thank your son for this, Bardock. If it weren't for him, I never would have learned this particular technique".
Fionn glanced at him quizzically.
"What technique?"
"A little something called... Shunkan Idou."
Tenshinhan raised an arm and touched his forehead with two fingers on his right hand. Beside him, Bardock and Fionn slowly became aware of something very odd happening to their bodies. They had become...almost weightless; they felt as if they could float on the back of a light breeze. Suddenly, the air around them began to distort, their vision blurred and then...darkness washed over them.
The darkness was all encompassing; it surrounded them, it spanned millennia, it lasted...for a fraction of a second.
When his vision returned, Bardock turned to Tenshinhan and shouted angrily.
"What the fuck..
He stopped and looked around him,
"...was that?"
Their surroundings had changed completely. They were no longer at the base of the gorge on the side of Eregal Peak, they were...somewhere else. All three of them stood in the middle of a vast plain, covered in something which resembled grass and other strange looking plants. The sky burned an inhospitable red colour, with belts of angry black clouds stretching for as far as the eye could see. Various mountains were dotted along the horizon. Far from being scenic, the closest thing Bardock felt they resembled were blood tipped thorns. It was like someone had taken all the features of the afterlife and twisted them into something vile and unrecognisable.
Bardock turned back to Tenshinhan.
"This is...Hell?"
Tenshinhan nodded.
"And you've been here before?". Bardock continued to stare around with awe.
"Once or twice. Don't worry; it's not all as bad as this place. Hell is just like the rest of the afterlife; different sections are modelled after different planets."
Bardock and Fionn were speechless.
"Let's get going. I want to find this person as quickly as possible so that we can leave as quickly as possible. I never like to stay down here for too long."
Bardock and Fionn, still struck with disbelief at being immersed in such malevolent surroundings so suddenly, nodded in agreement numbly.
"If possible," Tenshinhan continued, "I want to try and avoid making contact with any of the native inhabitants. Some of them are fantastically strong, and all of them are down here for a reason."
"Damn straight!"
A voice screamed from some unknown location, jerking Bardock and Fionn out of their daze. Tenshinhan had already assumed a defensive stance; he had been here before, and he knew fine well that the inhabitants of Hell were rarely friendly.
The three warriors formed themselves into a protective circle, so that they covered each other's flanks from attack. Strangely enough, they were unable to determine the source of the voice.
Without warning, a massive ki attack flared out of nowhere and headed straight for their position. They all sensed it simultaneously.
"Jump!" Tenshinhan roared.
All three of them took flight and pushed themselves upward as hard and as fast as possible to avoid the explosion the blast would cause.
They got about 200 metres into the air before the attack struck the ground where they had been standing only seconds before. Even at that distance, the sheer force of the blast could be felt. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the ground for nearly half a mile around was a massive crater.
"Amazing power," Fionn muttered to himself. He then yelled to his companions. "Keep your guard up! Whoever it is, he's no amateur!"
"No shit, genius". The voice boomed once again. This time however, the source revealed itself.
Down in the epicentre of the crater, a single alien materialised out of nowhere. Even from that distance, Fionn, Bardock and Tenshinhan could see his features clearly. He was humanoid in shape, with leathery brown skin and two long devilish horns which protruded from above his eyes. A thick mane of dark hair whirled around him. He was only average in size, but his stature belied an incredible attack power, as had just been demonstrated.
Two others materialised on either side of him. They were of the same species, but these two were even smaller. Despite that, however, Bardock could sense a huge amount of energy emanating from all three of them.
The first alien spoke.
"Excellent. Nice manoeuvre."
He smiled.
"There's been a shortage of new blood around here recently." His features darkened. "We haven't killed anyone in a long time."
Fionn grimaced. Technically, a warrior couldn't be killed in the afterlife, since they were obviously already dead, but if their body were damaged to a certain degree, their soul would be forced to leave the shattered shell; they would have to spend the rest of eternity as a puff of ethereal smoke. For a fighter who had devoted their entire existence to the betterment and improvement of their body, it was a fate worse than death.
The first alien beckoned to his partners.
"Malachi. Jermotte. Go, kill them both, but leave the Saiya-jin for me".
"Hai, Conoracha-sama". The two complied, then disappeared from their leader's side. They reappeared barely a second later behind the trio of Tenshinhan, Bardock and Fionn.
"Shit", Fionn cursed. "They're fast".
Malachi roared, then dashed towards his Fionn- his target of choice. Jermotte did the same and went for Tenshinhan. Without the opportunity to sufficiently power up, neither of them were anywhere near full strength, and so it was all they could do to merely avoid the alien's furious assaults. Their defensive techniques were admirable, and they managed to block most of the blows directed at them, but a few of the lightning-fast punches kept snaking in past their guard. The aliens' fists felt like sledgehammers.
Tenshinhan broke away from his opponent momentarily, and used the opportunity to attract Fionn's attention.
"Fionn!", he yelled. "This way!"
He dived earthwards at fantastic speed, followed closely by Fionn. As he had anticipated, the two aliens were soon hot on their heels.
"Perfect", he thought to himself, before whispering to his partner, "Fionn, cover your eyes!"
Directing all his ki downwards, he managed to halt his rapid descent, and came crashing to a halt only a few metres off the ground. He turned and twisted upwards so that he was facing the two oncoming enemies. Quickly he scanned the sky above him- there was no sun of any description, but enough of a light source to get the job done. Raising his hands to either side of his face, he roared, "Taiyouken!"
For a hundred miles around, the sky turned bright, as the entirety of light energy in the region was gathered by Tenshinhan and focused back in one direction- straight in the faces of his enemies. They screamed in pain as the intense light made contact with their eyes, and they immediately halted their descent as they frantically began clawing at their faces in some attempt to regain their vision. Tenshinhan took this opportunity to act.
"Fionn, now's our chance! Release your ki quickly, or we don't have a hope against these guys!"
Fionn obliged and began to power up, as did Tenshinhan. He calmly regulated his breathing as if he were preparing to meditate, then concentrated solely on releasing his dormant power. The results were evident within seconds, as energy crackled around them, and their muscles bulged with newfound strength. Tenshinhan knew they didn't have much time, maybe another 10 seconds at most, so he rushed it much more than he usually would. Careless, he thought, but he didn't exactly have much of a choice.
Sure enough, within seconds Malachi and Jermotte had shaken off the effects of the devastating Taiyouken technique, spotted their victims once again, and continued their trajectory towards the ground.
"Tenshinhan!", Fionn shouted. "They're almost here! Are you ready?"
"Yeah! Let's take the initiative this time! Agreed?"
"No problem. Ready when you are!"
The two gathered as much ki as they could muster and forced themselves upwards, straight towards the oncoming aliens, who had obviously never considered their enemies to adopt such a direct approach. Almost simultaneously, Fionn and Tenshinhan swung upwards with two vicious right hooks which took the aliens completely by surprise. The impact was phenomenal, and Fionn could hear the distinct crack of his opponent's jaw breaking. The punches sent them flying backwards, and it took quite a lot of effort to stop and get themselves into a stationery position. They then flew closer together, and wiped the blood from their battered faces.
Fionn and Tenshinhan continued upwards until they were directly opposite their two opponents. All four of them adopted fighting stances, as they glowered at each other with supreme hatred.
"Okay," Fionn said through gritted teeth. "Round Two..."
Meanwhile, Bardock was having problems of his own. The alien's leader had singled him as the focus of his attention...
"Do you want to know why I picked you, Saiya-jin?" Conoracha asked with glee.
Bardock gave him an intimidating stare and didn't respond.
"It's because I sensed that you are the most powerful out of your little group. And..." He raised his hand in front of his face and laughed. "...I want the best possible fight I can get." He paused and studied Bardock thoughtfully for a moment.
"Hmmm, you know something? The way you are at the moment you wouldn't pose even the slightest threat to me."
His face darkened.
"Power up. I want to fight you at your best."
Bardock found it hard to hide his surprise, but he refused to waste such a good opportunity. Conoracha was right; at his current level of strength he wouldn't even scratch him. If he wanted to win this fight, he would have to raise his power to the maximum level.
He crossed his hands in front of his face and howled at the top of his voice. Within seconds, his body began to glow and pulsate; he could feel his muscles and tendons hardening in preparation for battle. The process only took several moments, but he needed to go an extra bit to get his absolute maximum. After a minute or so, he knew he could go no further, so he relaxed and halted the power up. Now he was ready to fight.
Conoracha could obviously sense this, and he immediately leapt forward to initiate the fight. Bardock stood motionless as Conoracha crossed the distance between them in only a fraction of a second, even when the alien drew back his arm in preparation for a devastating punch. At the last second, Bardock vanished, causing Conoracha to pass straight through the spot where he had once been. The alien's surprise at Bardock's speed allowed the Saiya-jin to momentarily take the advantage, as he reappeared behind Conoracha and dealt him a vicious elbow to the back of the neck, sending him crashing headfirst into the dusty ground.
Bardock then brought up his foot and prepared to crush the aliens' head in, but Conoracha's speed was equal to his own, and he simply vanished, causing Bardock's foot to crash harmlessly into the ground, creating a large crater.
He reappeared right beside him and launched a punch at Bardock's head, which was caught easily enough in mid-air. Bardock kept a firm grip on the fist so that Conoracha was unable to escape, then shot a kick at his midsection. Even though he was unable to dodge, the alien twisted his leg up and took the kick on his shin. He then drew his face back and headbutted his opponent for all he was worth.
Blood spurting from his nose, Bardock staggered back and lost his grip on Conoracha's fist. He recovered almost immediately, and leapt towards the alien before he had a chance to get too far away. The two showered each other with earth-shattering blows for several minutes, before fatigue dictated that they would have to stop.
They retreated to within a few feet of each other and kept their guard up, panting heavily all the time.
"You're...good...", Conoracha said in between his laboured breaths. "I've never met...a...Saiya-jin...as strong...as you are".
Bardock simply grunted. He was in no mood for talking.
A sly grin crossed Conoracha's face. "But..."
He drew both his hands into fists, and planted his feet firmly on either side of him.
"...you're...not...strong...enough"
Bardock raised his head in surprise, as Conoracha began to raise his energy even higher.
"Fuck!!" he thought to himself. "He wasn't even using his full power?!"
The sheer force of Conoracha's energy knocked him of his feet, as the wind picked up and swirled around the alien. He let out an inhuman hiss, which escalated into an almighty roar. The ground around him was torn to pieces by his increasing ki as he completed his power up.
Bardock picked himself up of the round and brushed the dust from his face. Conoracha stood before him, fully rejuvenated and stronger than ever. How the hell was he supposed to beat him now?
The alien laughed heartily.
"You put up a decent fight, Saiya-jin. For that you get to die quickly."
He flew towards Bardock with blinding speed, extended his fist, and rammed it into his stomach using his momentum to boost the impact. Bardock's body convulsed with the pain, and he spluttered to cough up the blood from his damaged lungs. He instinctively bent over to grasp his stomach, whereupon Conoracha brought his hand down and dealt him the deathblow to the back of the neck.
The last thought that passed through Bardock's head before his face made contact with the ground was his son.
"...Kakarotto...I'm sorry..."
Then all was dark.
"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just say Hell?" Fionn enquired. He turned to Bardock.
"Did he just say Hell?"
Bardock could not provide an answer, as he simply stared at Tenshinhan as if the man had lost his mind. Nonetheless, he took it upon himself to re-iterate Fionn's question.
"Are you serious?"
Tenshinhan nodded, a look of supreme satisfaction and confidence on his face. It did nothing to assuage Bardock's doubts about his state of mind.
"There's someone there I want you to meet".
Bardock and Fionn looked curiously at each other. This was something they definitely hadn't bargained on...
"There's only one minor problem with that little plan. You can't get in to Hell unless you were judged and assigned there. It's just not done," Fionn eventually said.
Tenshinhan held up his finger.
"Not exactly. Believe it or not, Hell is actually very easy to enter; it's the leaving part that's tricky. The entire area of Hell itself stretches for hundreds of thousands of miles, and is surrounded by an invisible net which prevents any souls from leaving, but not from entering. In fact, most people stay well away from the vicinity of the wall, because it's possible to wander right into Hell without even realising it, and then you're stuck.
Because of this, the wall itself has become known as the Gateless Barrier."
Bardock failed to see the point of this.
"If that's true, then why the hell do you want to go there? If there's no way out, we'll be stuck there for all eternity, even if we do meet this person you know".
"I never said there was no way out. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few ways of leaving; secret exits and such, but they are only known to a select few people in charge of running the afterlife. I myself don't know of their locations".
Bardock was beginning to get frustrated; Tenshinhan's rant was going nowhere.
"So how exactly are we supposed to leave the place then?"
Tenshinhan smiled once more. He beckoned for Bardock and Fionn to come closer.
"Place your hand on my shoulder."
They did so, with more than a little hesitation. They had absolutely no idea where this was going...
"You can thank your son for this, Bardock. If it weren't for him, I never would have learned this particular technique".
Fionn glanced at him quizzically.
"What technique?"
"A little something called... Shunkan Idou."
Tenshinhan raised an arm and touched his forehead with two fingers on his right hand. Beside him, Bardock and Fionn slowly became aware of something very odd happening to their bodies. They had become...almost weightless; they felt as if they could float on the back of a light breeze. Suddenly, the air around them began to distort, their vision blurred and then...darkness washed over them.
The darkness was all encompassing; it surrounded them, it spanned millennia, it lasted...for a fraction of a second.
When his vision returned, Bardock turned to Tenshinhan and shouted angrily.
"What the fuck..
He stopped and looked around him,
"...was that?"
Their surroundings had changed completely. They were no longer at the base of the gorge on the side of Eregal Peak, they were...somewhere else. All three of them stood in the middle of a vast plain, covered in something which resembled grass and other strange looking plants. The sky burned an inhospitable red colour, with belts of angry black clouds stretching for as far as the eye could see. Various mountains were dotted along the horizon. Far from being scenic, the closest thing Bardock felt they resembled were blood tipped thorns. It was like someone had taken all the features of the afterlife and twisted them into something vile and unrecognisable.
Bardock turned back to Tenshinhan.
"This is...Hell?"
Tenshinhan nodded.
"And you've been here before?". Bardock continued to stare around with awe.
"Once or twice. Don't worry; it's not all as bad as this place. Hell is just like the rest of the afterlife; different sections are modelled after different planets."
Bardock and Fionn were speechless.
"Let's get going. I want to find this person as quickly as possible so that we can leave as quickly as possible. I never like to stay down here for too long."
Bardock and Fionn, still struck with disbelief at being immersed in such malevolent surroundings so suddenly, nodded in agreement numbly.
"If possible," Tenshinhan continued, "I want to try and avoid making contact with any of the native inhabitants. Some of them are fantastically strong, and all of them are down here for a reason."
"Damn straight!"
A voice screamed from some unknown location, jerking Bardock and Fionn out of their daze. Tenshinhan had already assumed a defensive stance; he had been here before, and he knew fine well that the inhabitants of Hell were rarely friendly.
The three warriors formed themselves into a protective circle, so that they covered each other's flanks from attack. Strangely enough, they were unable to determine the source of the voice.
Without warning, a massive ki attack flared out of nowhere and headed straight for their position. They all sensed it simultaneously.
"Jump!" Tenshinhan roared.
All three of them took flight and pushed themselves upward as hard and as fast as possible to avoid the explosion the blast would cause.
They got about 200 metres into the air before the attack struck the ground where they had been standing only seconds before. Even at that distance, the sheer force of the blast could be felt. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the ground for nearly half a mile around was a massive crater.
"Amazing power," Fionn muttered to himself. He then yelled to his companions. "Keep your guard up! Whoever it is, he's no amateur!"
"No shit, genius". The voice boomed once again. This time however, the source revealed itself.
Down in the epicentre of the crater, a single alien materialised out of nowhere. Even from that distance, Fionn, Bardock and Tenshinhan could see his features clearly. He was humanoid in shape, with leathery brown skin and two long devilish horns which protruded from above his eyes. A thick mane of dark hair whirled around him. He was only average in size, but his stature belied an incredible attack power, as had just been demonstrated.
Two others materialised on either side of him. They were of the same species, but these two were even smaller. Despite that, however, Bardock could sense a huge amount of energy emanating from all three of them.
The first alien spoke.
"Excellent. Nice manoeuvre."
He smiled.
"There's been a shortage of new blood around here recently." His features darkened. "We haven't killed anyone in a long time."
Fionn grimaced. Technically, a warrior couldn't be killed in the afterlife, since they were obviously already dead, but if their body were damaged to a certain degree, their soul would be forced to leave the shattered shell; they would have to spend the rest of eternity as a puff of ethereal smoke. For a fighter who had devoted their entire existence to the betterment and improvement of their body, it was a fate worse than death.
The first alien beckoned to his partners.
"Malachi. Jermotte. Go, kill them both, but leave the Saiya-jin for me".
"Hai, Conoracha-sama". The two complied, then disappeared from their leader's side. They reappeared barely a second later behind the trio of Tenshinhan, Bardock and Fionn.
"Shit", Fionn cursed. "They're fast".
Malachi roared, then dashed towards his Fionn- his target of choice. Jermotte did the same and went for Tenshinhan. Without the opportunity to sufficiently power up, neither of them were anywhere near full strength, and so it was all they could do to merely avoid the alien's furious assaults. Their defensive techniques were admirable, and they managed to block most of the blows directed at them, but a few of the lightning-fast punches kept snaking in past their guard. The aliens' fists felt like sledgehammers.
Tenshinhan broke away from his opponent momentarily, and used the opportunity to attract Fionn's attention.
"Fionn!", he yelled. "This way!"
He dived earthwards at fantastic speed, followed closely by Fionn. As he had anticipated, the two aliens were soon hot on their heels.
"Perfect", he thought to himself, before whispering to his partner, "Fionn, cover your eyes!"
Directing all his ki downwards, he managed to halt his rapid descent, and came crashing to a halt only a few metres off the ground. He turned and twisted upwards so that he was facing the two oncoming enemies. Quickly he scanned the sky above him- there was no sun of any description, but enough of a light source to get the job done. Raising his hands to either side of his face, he roared, "Taiyouken!"
For a hundred miles around, the sky turned bright, as the entirety of light energy in the region was gathered by Tenshinhan and focused back in one direction- straight in the faces of his enemies. They screamed in pain as the intense light made contact with their eyes, and they immediately halted their descent as they frantically began clawing at their faces in some attempt to regain their vision. Tenshinhan took this opportunity to act.
"Fionn, now's our chance! Release your ki quickly, or we don't have a hope against these guys!"
Fionn obliged and began to power up, as did Tenshinhan. He calmly regulated his breathing as if he were preparing to meditate, then concentrated solely on releasing his dormant power. The results were evident within seconds, as energy crackled around them, and their muscles bulged with newfound strength. Tenshinhan knew they didn't have much time, maybe another 10 seconds at most, so he rushed it much more than he usually would. Careless, he thought, but he didn't exactly have much of a choice.
Sure enough, within seconds Malachi and Jermotte had shaken off the effects of the devastating Taiyouken technique, spotted their victims once again, and continued their trajectory towards the ground.
"Tenshinhan!", Fionn shouted. "They're almost here! Are you ready?"
"Yeah! Let's take the initiative this time! Agreed?"
"No problem. Ready when you are!"
The two gathered as much ki as they could muster and forced themselves upwards, straight towards the oncoming aliens, who had obviously never considered their enemies to adopt such a direct approach. Almost simultaneously, Fionn and Tenshinhan swung upwards with two vicious right hooks which took the aliens completely by surprise. The impact was phenomenal, and Fionn could hear the distinct crack of his opponent's jaw breaking. The punches sent them flying backwards, and it took quite a lot of effort to stop and get themselves into a stationery position. They then flew closer together, and wiped the blood from their battered faces.
Fionn and Tenshinhan continued upwards until they were directly opposite their two opponents. All four of them adopted fighting stances, as they glowered at each other with supreme hatred.
"Okay," Fionn said through gritted teeth. "Round Two..."
Meanwhile, Bardock was having problems of his own. The alien's leader had singled him as the focus of his attention...
"Do you want to know why I picked you, Saiya-jin?" Conoracha asked with glee.
Bardock gave him an intimidating stare and didn't respond.
"It's because I sensed that you are the most powerful out of your little group. And..." He raised his hand in front of his face and laughed. "...I want the best possible fight I can get." He paused and studied Bardock thoughtfully for a moment.
"Hmmm, you know something? The way you are at the moment you wouldn't pose even the slightest threat to me."
His face darkened.
"Power up. I want to fight you at your best."
Bardock found it hard to hide his surprise, but he refused to waste such a good opportunity. Conoracha was right; at his current level of strength he wouldn't even scratch him. If he wanted to win this fight, he would have to raise his power to the maximum level.
He crossed his hands in front of his face and howled at the top of his voice. Within seconds, his body began to glow and pulsate; he could feel his muscles and tendons hardening in preparation for battle. The process only took several moments, but he needed to go an extra bit to get his absolute maximum. After a minute or so, he knew he could go no further, so he relaxed and halted the power up. Now he was ready to fight.
Conoracha could obviously sense this, and he immediately leapt forward to initiate the fight. Bardock stood motionless as Conoracha crossed the distance between them in only a fraction of a second, even when the alien drew back his arm in preparation for a devastating punch. At the last second, Bardock vanished, causing Conoracha to pass straight through the spot where he had once been. The alien's surprise at Bardock's speed allowed the Saiya-jin to momentarily take the advantage, as he reappeared behind Conoracha and dealt him a vicious elbow to the back of the neck, sending him crashing headfirst into the dusty ground.
Bardock then brought up his foot and prepared to crush the aliens' head in, but Conoracha's speed was equal to his own, and he simply vanished, causing Bardock's foot to crash harmlessly into the ground, creating a large crater.
He reappeared right beside him and launched a punch at Bardock's head, which was caught easily enough in mid-air. Bardock kept a firm grip on the fist so that Conoracha was unable to escape, then shot a kick at his midsection. Even though he was unable to dodge, the alien twisted his leg up and took the kick on his shin. He then drew his face back and headbutted his opponent for all he was worth.
Blood spurting from his nose, Bardock staggered back and lost his grip on Conoracha's fist. He recovered almost immediately, and leapt towards the alien before he had a chance to get too far away. The two showered each other with earth-shattering blows for several minutes, before fatigue dictated that they would have to stop.
They retreated to within a few feet of each other and kept their guard up, panting heavily all the time.
"You're...good...", Conoracha said in between his laboured breaths. "I've never met...a...Saiya-jin...as strong...as you are".
Bardock simply grunted. He was in no mood for talking.
A sly grin crossed Conoracha's face. "But..."
He drew both his hands into fists, and planted his feet firmly on either side of him.
"...you're...not...strong...enough"
Bardock raised his head in surprise, as Conoracha began to raise his energy even higher.
"Fuck!!" he thought to himself. "He wasn't even using his full power?!"
The sheer force of Conoracha's energy knocked him of his feet, as the wind picked up and swirled around the alien. He let out an inhuman hiss, which escalated into an almighty roar. The ground around him was torn to pieces by his increasing ki as he completed his power up.
Bardock picked himself up of the round and brushed the dust from his face. Conoracha stood before him, fully rejuvenated and stronger than ever. How the hell was he supposed to beat him now?
The alien laughed heartily.
"You put up a decent fight, Saiya-jin. For that you get to die quickly."
He flew towards Bardock with blinding speed, extended his fist, and rammed it into his stomach using his momentum to boost the impact. Bardock's body convulsed with the pain, and he spluttered to cough up the blood from his damaged lungs. He instinctively bent over to grasp his stomach, whereupon Conoracha brought his hand down and dealt him the deathblow to the back of the neck.
The last thought that passed through Bardock's head before his face made contact with the ground was his son.
"...Kakarotto...I'm sorry..."
Then all was dark.