Goku and Piccolo decided to take it to one another almost at the same time. The pair lunged and collided in the middle with Goku's knee meeting Piccolo's elbow and the two lingered at their struggle for what seemed to their perception as the entire eternity. Power surged throughout their entire bodies, resonating in their point of contact before the resolving shockwave sent both of them apart, only to kick back at the enemy and send a flurry of fists and feet their way.
The combatants shifted in and out the ranges of visible perception, colliding to exchange hundreds of blows only to disengage and then go right back at it again. In the beginning, neither of the pair gave way but in what King Piccolo thought as his breakthrough moment he had extended his arm to grab Goku by his childish leg and pull him in for a crushing blow. Goku instead used the opportunity to pull out the red staff he held on his back and point it at Piccolo's face.
"Power Pole, extend!" Goku yelled out as the staff's other end dug into Piccolo's jaw, exceeding the length even of his own extended limb and stumbling him momentarily. The young Saiyan was too fierce and bloodthirsty to let this opportunity slip, he was close enough for a combination of strikes so he let King Piccolo have it, concluding it with a devastating kick straight to the front of Piccolo's face.
"Ka…! Me…!" Goku cupped his hands by his side while floating above airborne King Piccolo, planning to crush the Demon King into the ground with a Kamehameha before Piccolo landed on his butt himself.
King Piccolo shot his eyes wide open, canceling his temporary daze to extend his hand forward and send Goku flying with a blast of Ki energy. Goku wrapped his arms around his knees and cannonballed himself back and onto his feet. The Saiyan dragged his wristbands across his face to check for blood but found nothing, after the momentary check-up on the damage suffered, the boy once again prepared for another round of his settlement of matters with the Demon King.
"Damn Saiyans…" King Piccolo manipulated himself via levitation to end up back on his feet as well, having used his flight to halt his fall in order to blast back at Goku earlier. "One moment I've no idea who the hell you are, the other you're all over my plans!"
"Why did you have your goons kill Krillin!?" Goku roared out from his position, his demand for answers made him recall every ounce of the rage he felt at that moment, it bolstered his toughness and made red pulses of blood close in on his vision. If this continued, all he'd see would be red but, somehow, Goku had never felt more powerful than right now.
"Krillin? You mean that baldy? He was in the World Martial Arts Tournament, I reckon. All of the martial artists must be exterminated in order for my world domination to be successful. That was the plan, anyway…" King Piccolo replied with a callous smirk.
"So he didn't do anything to you?" Goku clenched his fists together and closed his eyes to compose himself, he liked the surge of power and the feeling of invincibility that he had when mad but the fury was beginning to seem like too much at one point. "You had him killed just because he's strong, is that it!?"
"Hmph… He's not just strong, he's a martial artist. I've underestimated your kind before and paid the price. A martial artist scumbag sealed me into a rice-cooker, just like I've done to that Great Ape. It must be hurting, not being able to enter your true form, knowing that I'll seal you up right away?" Piccolo tilted his head to the side as if mocking Goku and calling him out.
"What are you talking about?" Goku shook his head. "Don't try to steer me away from the fact you ordered Krillin's death!"
Piccolo raised a curious eyebrow, wondering if this boy was some kind of a dumbass or if he simply misread the exact power of a Saiyan. He had thought that Saiyans were all Great Apes naturally that had taken the appearance that most resembled the locals of the place they've inhabited, which was why both that girl earlier and Son Goku looked so much like humans if it wasn't for their tails. Now he was beginning to wonder about that, though this boy was far too focused on one thing to be of any indication about the Saiyan abilities.
The eyes of King Piccolo gleamed crimson, two miniature stars of scarlet lit up and Goku felt a tight, psychokinetic grip around every fiber of his being locking him in place. He tried to talk, he tried to struggle but it was of no use. Just like against Chiaotzu he felt completely frozen in place. The pressure that the Demon King put against his body was different to Chiaotzu's, Piccolo was far more powerful and therefore his psychokinesis didn't just hold Goku in place, it crushed and tried to reduce him to a singularity the size of a dot.
"Th… That's dirty…" Goku hissed with the first chance of speech he fought through to. "Using… Chiaotzu's technique…"
King Piccolo dashed up right to Goku as if he owned the boy now and delivered a tyrannical kick to the boy's body. Goku belched as he had little air to wheeze out in the moment of impact and he felt King Piccolo's boot almost digging its way to his spine with that kick. King Piccolo dashed up to Goku once more while the boy was airborne and chopped his arm at Goku's abdomen again as if attempting to cut the Saiyan into two. The hard hit into the white floor of infinite void made Goku cry out in pain as he felt everything around him go blank for a millisecond. That was, however, more than enough for the Demon King as Goku recovered just in time to witness King Piccolo descending from high above with his knee crushing Goku further into the ground but the floor didn't budge like any normal surface would have. The Room of Space and Time seemed invincible in all of its dimensions but Goku's body was anything but.
"Come on, transform then…" King Piccolo taunted the boy, watching him writhing and grunting in agony. "Become your true form – a Great Ape so I can seal you up alongside your sister, girlfriend or whatever… My sons will have no equal to threaten their reign!"
"I… I've no idea what… You're talking about…" Goku grunted while wiping the blood off of his face, one of his eyes was beginning to swell up, the lid of his half-closed gazer obstructed the view from his right somewhat. "Stop trying to deflect that you've murdered Krillin!"
"Of course I've had him killed, hell, I'll kill your friend myself if he manages to survive Drum after I kill you!" King Piccolo yelled out at Goku, feeling sick of the boy's defiance of his best effort to push him to transform. Unlike with that girl, knowing that this boy held such a frightening transformation in hand and knowing exactly how to deal with it, King Piccolo spared no ounce of his strength to push him to transform at last.
"Stop saying that! Stop it!" Goku roared out, his eyes went blank as his Ki surged in all directions, even forcing the Demon King on his back foot and covering up in order to stay standing. Just when King Piccolo moved his hand away from obstructing his view, Goku's fist dug its way into his own belly, sending the ancient Evil Tribe overlord belching and crouching up as salad goop dripped from his mouth.
The young Saiyan placed his arms to his side and began vibrating ever so subtly, images of Son Goku jumped out from the main embodiment of Piccolo's fury and confusion but those Afterimages soon faded away, only the main Son Goku charged right at the baffled Demon King. King Piccolo threw a devastating cross at the boy's face, confused that Goku would still test the range and reach of their limbs but the Goku he hit was just an Afterimage.
Goku blurred in from behind the Demon King and crashed an overhead kick into King Piccolo's behind, sending the Evil Tribe ruler on his knees and elbows. King Piccolo bellowed in pain when Goku's feet began a literal downpour of stomps at him back, powerful enough to propel his foot back up and cock it back for another go just as the other pair finished its cycle. King Piccolo jumped to his feet, throwing his arms up and expelling an explosive wave of Ki to blast the damned child away from him but Goku's image just faded away again as if it was never there.
Like a speeding arrow, the boy hurled at Piccolo from far away, aiming for King Piccolo's gut which Goku had worked on so fine previously but this time the Demon King thought he had begun to figure out this step-up in Afterimage. He threw his knee up, right at Goku's chin but the knee went through thin air and a double ax handle strike to the top of King Piccolo's head made the decrepit demon feel like his head had split into two.
The Demon King stuck out his tongue, gasping for air when Goku's legs wrapped around his throat and the monkey boy began raining down hammer strikes at his face from up above before pushing himself off of King Piccolo's face and delivering a wrecking kick to King Piccolo's face which sent the demon spinning on his feet. The Saiyan didn't appear to be finished just yet, as he charged right back at his stumbling opponent when King Piccolo's arm elongated and bent over his head, twisting onto behind him and reaching out to grab Goku by his abdomen but going right through the boy and then snapping back into place while Demon King Piccolo turned back to face Goku with a busted open face, covered in purple streaks.
"Y-You brat!" Demon King Piccolo bore his fangs at Goku who stood a fair distance away, almost as if he had never attacked his enemy and let his Afterimages do the work. That wasn't so, the demon knew it, he felt those hits, he felt the emotion, the resonance behind them. Those fists had heart and feeling to them that King Piccolo just had to respect at least a little bit, even if the reason behind those emotions made him sick. "What was that you just did?"
"It's called an Afterimage Strike," Goku said, overflowing with a different kind of fury altogether from a moment ago as if pounding the Demon King a couple of times helped him let some steam off. "It's an improvement over the old Afterimage Technique but it won't work unless you can sense Ki really good and are skilled with the Afterimage itself."
"I see… So I wasn't just daydreaming and having a nasty nightmare…" the Demon King chuckled to himself, still feeling quite chipper and prepared to finish his battle. "Interesting, you know, the wisdom of Kami is now within me after I've used the Dragon Balls to fuse with him. Now that I reach out to it, I begin to understand your technique a little bit better. Yes… The seeing without eyesight, sensing the disturbance in your opponent's Ki instead of having to see how and when you're being attacked, the effortless replacement with an Afterimage and the rapid movement to correct your attack accordingly. Scary stuff…"
"I've had plenty of time in this room to train and plenty of motivation to knock you flat!" Goku entered his fighting stance with a serious look on his face.
"You? Knock me, the Great Demon King Piccolo flat!?" King Piccolo laughed out. "Even right now, you just landed a few lucky shots. With just an ounce of my limitless battle power, I can make you dance before me, like an obedient little human wannabe that you are!"
"You talk a lot," Goku replied without skipping a beat. "Now I see why you have that winged creep kill Krillin, it's because you can't kill someone as strong as him by just talking."
"Why you…" King Piccolo clenched his fists until a little blood squirted out of them when his grey nails dug into the flesh of his own hands. The Demon King crossed his arms over his head and then moved them aside, sending concentrated Ki beams from his eyes right at Goku. The Saiyan hopped back, avoiding the eye lasers and racing around them to attack King Piccolo head-on. As the Demon King turned his head to track the boy's movements, Goku blinked away from his vision and then appeared from the left – the opposite side, digging his elbow into King Piccolo's cheek so hard it nearly snapped the Demon King's neck.
Another eye laser hit Goku square in the chest and sent him flying back with black smoke rising from the charred hole in his Turtle School uniform. Not to be the one to be brought down this easy, Goku rolled back and landed on his feet, ready to engage the enemy again but another eye laser hit him right in the forehead as the Great Demon King Piccolo had predicted Goku showing off his tenacity and fortitude and hopping back on his feet right after being brought down.
"Now do you see the great difference between our strength?" King Piccolo spread his arms out to embrace the feeling of victory brimming in his chest. "Although I must admit, Saiyan, I was prepared to be done in by you, to be driven to the point of death so that my plans could have been realized…"
"Wh… What do you mean?" Goku wiped his forehead of traces of blood with his slightly burnt wristband while sitting up and then returning to his fighting stance.
"Nothing soft weaklings like you need to be worried about. You know… That girl was really hesitant to transform into her Great Ape form too, she waited until I beat her to the very inch of her life, to be certain, I had almost thought I'd killed her when I tossed her lifeless body into that ditch. Maybe you Saiyans can't fully control the transformation? No sensible creature would resist a power so mighty that it could drive even me, the Great Demon King Piccolo to a corner so adamantly." King Piccolo pondered.
"I already told you, I don't know what you're talking about!" Goku yelled out. "Don't talk like you've beaten me already. I'm not giving up yet!"
"That's what you all say…" King Piccolo smirked. "Even though your resistance is a tad more valiant than that girl's, you're still no match for me, it's time I beat that cruel reality into your face."
"Don't gloat about hurting my friends!" Goku yelled out while charging at the Demon King head-on. Another streak of red eye lasers parted the white void of the Room of Space and Time but Goku rolled aside to dodge them, then raced around to the blind-spot that King Piccolo's eyes couldn't reach and kicked at the side of King Piccolo's knees, forcing the Great Demon King to bark in pain and collapse to one knee.
Piccolo's hand went in to grab Goku's head and halt the Saiyan from getting overzealous with his attack. Using his unharmed foot for a dash, Piccolo drove Goku's head into the floor and went as far as his one good foot could carry him before lifting him over his head and driving an adamant fist into Goku's belly, forcing cries of pain and blood out of the boy's mouth and all over King Piccolo's hand that held it.
"You're embarrassing yourself…" King Piccolo smiled and threw Goku as high up as he could before firing another eye laser at him high up in the air. The Demon King wondered if he had connected with the boy as he could hardly tell with the seemingly infinite vastness of the dimension he engaged the last frontier of human resistance in but the boy's desperate cries of pain that reached his sensitive even in his old age, pointy ears rung like pleasant music.
Goku's body hit the floor with a resonant thud but the ridden with bruises and burns arms pushed the boy's body back up. Even if he stumbled a bit in his stance, Goku was back up and beaming his angry eyes back at the Demon King.
"Die already!" King Piccolo grunted in frustration as he sent another streak of eye lasers at Goku, looking to cook the boy good and proper before reducing him to a mere corpse. The boy pulled out his elongating pole and drove it into the ground, using it to propel himself over the eye beams and then slamming it into King Piccolo's head, using more and more of his brutish strength to force Piccolo's head to the ground and the Demon flat on his belly.
Gooey warmth woke King Piccolo up from his stumble as he peeled his busted face up off the ground, seeing the accumulating puddle of purple goop underneath him with blurry vision as more of his blood streaked over his eyes when he tilted his head up – he, the Great Demon King Piccolo was injured in a meaningful way! Not only was this boy resisting more than his female counterpart, he actually had the strength to injure him! It was just fortunate that it was the girl and not him that couldn't have been killed as this boy was a far graver threat to his rule.
With a flying side kick, Goku sent King Piccolo flying and down on his back. The blurry vision and the constant bleeding made it too difficult for the Demon King to respond or defend himself at the moment of impact. Evil Ki surged in the Demon King's arm like lightning before he sent it slicing up the void in a slashing projectile that hit the rushing boy right in the chest and sent him flying back on his bottom, once again, crying in pain and smoking but once again rising and insisting on fighting with graver and graver injuries each time he was taken down.
Even if he was having an advantage in this fight, as he clutched the several cracks on his forehead and the top of his head, the Demon King realized that he might have ruled out this boy as his potential slayer far too soon. It looked as if this Saiyan and not the king of the Evil Tribe himself was the real mad demon of battle. Son Goku fought like a demon too, growling, punching and kicking without thinking, functioning on pure rage…
In the most painful moment of his emerging and accumulating injuries shrouding his thoughts, King Piccolo regretted just for a blink that he had this boy's friend killed. It was beginning to seem that this alone and not the noble desire to protect his world was what brought the decrepit demon into conflict with this immovable object that was the Saiyan will to fight.