Piccolo Jr. opened himself up, placing his arms to the side. It was a dead giveaway of a Ki attack incoming and Chiaotzu looked like he could tell. The poor guy had blue all over his pale face but despite his constipation-mimicking expression, he was adamant about doing his best and weakening Piccolo Jr. as much as he could in order for Earth to be saved from subjugation.

A flurry of chunky Ki blasts each of which was almost as large as Chiaotzu himself left Piccolo's arms as he continued to throw them out without aiming them at all. Despite the release of the Ki blast being lacking in precision, the attacks appeared to correct themselves in mid-air and careen right for Chiaotzu. The Earthling martial artist did his best to evade the barrage of Ki blasts, using his levitation and small size to outmaneuver the attacks but they continued to correct their trajectory, catching him by surprise in the process.

The complete merger of the rushing Ki blasts detonated in a single, widespread explosion comprised of a handful of smaller detonations. Chiaotzu's yell from inside it became overpowered by the hefty sonic boom spreading from the blast, making it feel like one's eardrums had burst from the wave washing past. Tenshinhan stumbled closer to the ring, almost crawling in to defend his friend.

"Wait, Ten-san!" Chiaotzu yelled out. The little fellow got busted open pretty bad during the attack. His hat that concealed his almost total baldness got ripped up to shreds, dirt stains covered both the pale skin of the ghoulish martial artist and his tattered fighting attire while fractures of blood running down the entire body of the injured martial artist showed just how dire his situation truly was. "I haven't lost yet! I can still make him lose more stamina!"

"Chiaotzu, you're gonna get yourself killed again!" Tenshinhan yelled out. Despite his pleading, he was powerless to stop his friend, even by force as had he had enough force to take the stage he would have already. Now it took most of his concentration to not collapse and pass out after performing the Mafuba already.

"Not yet!" Chiaotzu cried out, his body lit up with a vibrant, cerulean glow while he extended his fingers outward. "Barrage Dodonpa!" he yelled out, firing his strongest technique at Piccolo Jr. There was a chance that the reincarnation of Demon King Piccolo would waste a decent amount of his stamina as far as taking on an equal opponent went while dealing with this attack.

It did not seem that Chiaotzu's hopes were justified at all as Piccolo Jr. just swatted the incoming beams aside with one hand with the deflecting hand suffering just mild burn marks on the outer side afterward. The deflected beams scattered around the arena, detonating in the distance when they've traveled as long of a distance as they could.

"I'll have to use that technique, Ten-san!" Chiaotzu looked to the side. One of his eyes was closed as blood from his cracked forehead trickled down over it and it appeared to have been hit by the explosion of one of the Ki blasts in the barrage that had hit him earlier.

"Chiaotzu, no!" Tenshinhan pounded the edge of the ring, hammering his fists down. "You've done enough, give up now!"

The blue glow around the little ghoul intensified. It appeared to seep into the very silhouette, the very outline, and the essence of the pale martial artist. When Chiaotzu's body could no longer support all the swelling up psychic energy, it released it into a burst of round aura, shimmering around Chiaotzu and forming tendrils of psychic energy around him on the edge of where his psychic aura could reach. Branches of energy that caressed the thin air, as if threatening to grab it and rip it apart. Chiaotzu yelled out from the pressure that his own intensifying aura put on his already banged-up body but he managed to contain the energy output.

"What's Chiaotzu doing? I've never seen this technique during training…" Krillin turned to Tenshinhan with a freaked out look on his face.

"He's creating a field of psychic energy around him at the point when he releases all of his Ki. It's like he's using psychic energy to draw out more and more of his energy and manipulate it by force!" Tenshinhan grit his teeth as traces of tears appeared around the edges of his eyes. Veins popped around the sides of Tenshinhan's skull and his entire body tensed up to the limits of his power as if he was sharing some pain alongside his friend. Perhaps their bond was close enough that they were doing just that, in one sense or another.

"That's amazing! I never knew psychic energy could be used like that!" Krillin cheered on Chiaotzu, even though his gut didn't stop telling him something was going wrong.

"No, you don't get it, there's a reason why the body only puts out a certain amount of energy at one time. There's a limit to how much Ki it can handle. By forcing so much energy out this way, he risks decimating his own body with it!" Tenshinhan turned back at the rest of the Dragon Team.

"Don't worry, he doesn't intend on dying out there…" Goku shook his head. He looked confident in Chiaotzu's abilities to handle the pressure, in fact, he was almost marveling it in a way Chayote would have considered ruthless. Although she had to admit – Chiaotzu did have a handle on things in there and he used his psychic energy not only to draw more power out but also to suppress it back down when he thought things got dangerous – he fully intended on surviving this attack.

"Take this! Psychic Explosion Wave!" Chiaotzu flew right at Piccolo Jr., encased in an immovable cocktail of his Ki energy as well as psychic energy necessary to draw all that hidden power out and control it. Piccolo Jr. didn't appear all that impressed, dismissing the threat of the little shrimp altogether. He didn't even break his stance of straight back and his arms back over his chest.

The careening ghoulish martial artist slammed into Piccolo Jr. like a missile of psychic energy and detonated all that he had built up all at once in an awesome display of earth-shaking power. A pulse of energy reverberated through the entire Papaya Island with blue Ki emanating from inside the ripping fissures as a pillar of concentrated energy pierced the sky and blasted off into the cosmos, penetrating the atmosphere like a knife through a thin layer of plastic.

Chayote was blown back by how long Chiaotzu's psychic rampage continued. It was almost as if the mad ghoul had continued to shine and draw his Ki outward in a destructive tear when he noticed that his attack was deemed feeble by Piccolo Jr's arrogance. There was not a single martial artist on the Dragon Team that didn't require to take a step back and brace themselves in order to keep standing. By the time that the blast subsided, it was even more difficult to stay stationary as everybody's bodies became too accustomed to the chaos of the psychic riot around them.

"Chiaotzu…" Tenshinhan muttered, looking at the arena and witnessing the chilling display of his friend, burnt out and unconscious in his enemy's grip. Piccolo Jr. held the exhausted and bleeding out martial artist in his left hand, raised on his eye level as he continued to stare the burnt-out martial artist with his ruthless and beady eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Piccolo Jr. hissed. "This little shrimp actually had some power in him after all…"

"Stop, Piccolo!" Goku stepped up and entered the arena. "He's already done. You don't have to kill him. Put him down."

"Ever the naïve idiot, huh, Son?" Piccolo Jr. smirked at Goku. "Living in a bright and pink-colored world where fighting is just for fun, where everybody is trying their best and when it's not enough, they recover, train some more and give their heartiest try again, huh?"

"Contestant Son Goku has come to assist contestant Chiaotzu, therefore contestant Chiaotzu is disqualified from the tournament! The winner is Piccolo Jr.," the announcer commented on the situation, making the ruling official as if the situation wasn't clear enough as it was.

With just a slight twitch of his hand, Piccolo flung the pale martial artist to the side. Tenshinhan kicked off in a pain-ridden flight to catch his injured friend before he passed out. A cruel smirk never faded away from the face of Piccolo Jr., he turned his head at the airborne and powerless martial artist and opened his mouth, forming a mouth blast from his jaws to decimate Chiaotzu's body entirely.

Before he could fire the blast that would have incinerated both Chiaotzu and Tenshinhan who rushed in to save his friend from being hurt even more from the fall, both still in mid-air, the blast faded away and Piccolo Jr. closed his mouth. He scratched his abdomen area with this clawed hang and sighed. Then, the reincarnation of the Demon King removed his torn up cape which had taken some damage from Chiaotzu's attack and entered a fighting stance to take on his shocked challenger.

Goku would not have been in time to save them both, his Ki had been completely suppressed at that moment. It was then that Chayote realized how screwed they might have been. Her fellow Saiyan had not a single ruthless bone in his body, he completely trusted Piccolo Jr. to just let Chiaotzu go and stayed suppressed. Had Piccolo just blasted Chiaotzu away or even turned his attack at Goku while his guard was down – the world might have just been doomed, at the very least, they would have suffered casualties.

"So, I guess there's still some of Kami down there somewhere?" Goku commented on Piccolo Jr. refusing to finish his opponent off as he had originally intended and not even taking a cheap shot at Goku himself during the time when his Ki was completely suppressed.

"Damn that Demon King Piccolo!" Piccolo Jr. grit his fangs. "That goddamned bastard cursed me with that divine essence. It's a part of who I am now! It's even worse than you thought. Kami is gone forever but it's as if whatever influence he had on King Piccolo affected me as his reincarnation as well. Oh well, it wouldn't have been good sportsmanship to blast that shrimp anyway."

"I don't think I get it, is Kami still in there, or not?" Krillin scratched his bald head, confused by Piccolo's explanation.

"Not really. But his fusion with the Demon King appears to have had some sort of effect on the way Piccolo Jr. came out anyway. It's as if your father dyed their hair red and then you were born ginger as well. Technically, you didn't dye your hair red, but the color is still there." Yamcha explained.

"You should be thankful to Demon King Piccolo," Goku addressed his opponent. "If it wasn't for him deciding to fuse with Kami and to make you, his next reincarnation, into a martial artist, you'd have been dozens of times weaker than you are now."

"What a real stand up guy!" Piccolo Jr. mocked Goku's words with a dismissive smirk. "Tainting his entire being, becoming that which he hated the most just for the sake of power, dooming his every future reincarnation to the same fate, the same knowledge of what he did… A simpleton like you has no right to comment on anything he said and did."

"His goon killed my friend, he killed many more and hurt all those innocent people that couldn't defend themselves!" Goku replied. "I've got every reason to knock him and every reincarnation of his flat for that!"

"Oh? How about you try and see just how vast the world of pain I'm going to show you is?" Piccolo Jr. smirked, both martial artists tensed up and slicked their stances up before charging at one another and clashing in the middle of the arena, jolts of lightning cracked out and slithered across the area ripping the nearest rubble of the temple's roof to half and setting it on fire from the point where their elbows connected together.

It was only now that Goku's Ki began to swell up and reach its peaks that Chayote realized that his Ki wasn't enough. Even to the dipped power level of his opponent thanks to Chiaotzu, Goku's full power was just not enough. He was just a little inch short. It was no tragic difference, just a tip to where if Goku played his cards right, if he managed to catch his opponent off guard and display superior martial arts skills and a better array of techniques – he might have just pulled it off.

Goku's fist decked Piccolo Jr. hard enough to almost have the Namekian spit out his teeth. Piccolo's neck stretched out to ungodly proportions after the hit, opening him up for a combination of blows, and Goku was about to deliver. Goku's fist opened up, unleashing a point-blank Ki blast that took Piccolo off his feet and sent him flying, the Saiyan then followed it up with another Ki blast that dug into Piccolo's chest. Goku raised his arm from the elbow up, directing the Ki blast to careen upward to where it could safely detonate.

Piccolo grunted but his grunts got drowned out by the explosion of the Ki blast. His opponent was not yet done, however, he slid across the surface of the decimated fighting ring until he stood directly underneath where Piccolo appeared from the cloud of smoke and began firing Ki blasts upward, looking to hit his falling and off-guard opponent. Chayote couldn't see the transition, she had been tired out by her own fight to keep up but the very next moment after a handful of Ki blasts hit Piccolo Jr. in the back, Goku appeared above him, having vanished and moved there in a snap instant, only to drive both his legs into Piccolo Jr's face with a diving double foot stomp and sent him crashing down.

Tenshinhan returned to the stands with unconscious Chiaotzu in his hands. Yajirobe handed him the Senzu sash without saying a word and the three-eyed warrior took it from him, helping his friend with the last bean in the sash. Placing Chiaotzu down on the still intact step, he left his friend to recover at his own pace while Tenshinhan tuned back into the battle for the fate of the world mentally.

"Goku can do it!" Krillin cheered. "He's keeping up with Piccolo Jr.!"

"It's too early to tell but at least he's not hopelessly outmatched…" Yamcha gulped down in relief. "It's crazy how much more powerful Goku got doing basically the same kind of training he did. Then again, maybe it's because we all did the same kind of training he did that he became this strong? After all, he's had an edge on all of us this entire time…"

"It's still far too early to make those sorts of calls. Though I must admit, Chiaotzu's gambit made Piccolo's tire himself out just enough for this match to be this even, Goku would have struggled without Chiaotzu's trouble." Tenshinhan sighed before turning to his recovering friend. "You did it Chiaotzu, Goku's doing his best now."

Chiaotzu nodded with a smile, he still looked messed up though the blood over his pale skin was dried out and the Senzu would have done little to nothing to help with the dirt all over him.

"That's right! Goku-sa will kick this demon's ass and if he loses – we'll be able to finish him off for him!" Chi-Chi pumped her fist into the air before cheering out for her husband out loud.

The two combatants continued to clash all over the stage, exchanging blows though Goku's superior martial arts skills translated in his performance. It wasn't difficult to tell that he had used the Time Chamber on God's Temple to train with all sorts of finest martial artists Earth had throughout its history and now he was putting all of that knowledge to the test. Piccolo Jr. might have still had a very slim edge on Goku in terms of power and speed but Goku compensated for it with skill.

A flurry of punches followed a pair of effortlessly avoided strikes from Piccolo Jr., a jumping high-kick that sent Piccolo Jr. flying again after Goku's foot dug into Piccolo's chin and dazed him a decent deal. Goku rushed in after his opponent and thrust his hands outward, performing a Kiai blast similar to Chi-Chi's though executed in a more offensive manner. Whereas Chi-Chi always had her Kiai form a bubble of energy, Goku released them as invisible shockwaves from his hands, improving their range and power but reducing their radius of coverage.

The Saiyan let out a battle cry and released a concentrated ball of energy in pursuit of his flying opponent, who had his guard down after being overwhelmed by the Kiai attack. The Ki blast expanded and enveloped the reincarnated Demon King before detonating in a sparking blast. Goku charged in, looking to exploit the moment of weakness after his Ki blast detonated when Piccolo Jr. would be either recovering or plummeting back down. Throwing his arms and legs out in a powerful combination of strikes and kicks, Goku caught his overwhelmed opponent emerging from the blast zone and translated his honed martial arts skills on him before finishing his combination of strikes off with an elbow strike to the gut of the reincarnated Demon King.

Just as Piccolo Jr. was about to fly off and hit the area outside of the ring somewhere at the edges of the Papaya Island, Goku appeared behind him and kicked him back into the vicinity of the ring and saw the humbled Piccolo Jr. slide across the destroyed arena with his face and chest until he had either ringed out or come dangerously close to doing so. The tournament announcer crept up to Piccolo and did his best to tell if the reincarnated Demon King had been ringed out or if he just came close to being ringed out but he genuinely couldn't tell.

That much could have been taken from his very confused expression.

"I'm sorry, contestant Goku, I just can't tell if your opponent is ringed out or not…" the announcer shrugged.

"That's okay…" Goku breathed out a hefty sigh, finally catching a moment to rest up as all the rapid movement and punishing his opponent's improper usage of his vast power with superior martial arts skill drove him into a bit of a need for a breather himself. "I saw him going for a ring-out. I figured he'd try to score some time to recover that way and stop himself at the very last moment so I kicked him back into the ring. It would be silly to think he'd get ringed out so early on into this match…"

"Ringed out?" Piccolo grumbled and rose from being knocked down. He flung aside his torn up and dirty turban that now just had strands of cloth falling over his face letting the unbound turban get in his way by sliding off onto one or another side of the Namekian's head, just getting in the way. "As if I would ever lose to you by mere ring out! Don't you dare think for a second that my revenge and ambition will be stopped by some dumb rules of your stupid tournament!"

"They're important to me. Do whatever you want, I'll uphold the tournament rules until one of us loses," Goku replied with a strict tone. "You've lost a fair deal of power already. If you've got any hidden techniques stored, you may as well show them now."

"Oh? You think you've got me on the ropes then?" Piccolo mocked his opponent with a sharp tone of his voice as he dragged the back of his hand across his eyebrow ridge and his lip that were bleeding. The reincarnated Demon King smirked at the sight of his own blood, realizing that he was being pushed to the edge by the strongest opponent he had ever faced and, unlike his predecessor who would have dreaded such a thought, Piccolo Jr. couldn't stand still in excitement from being able to cut loose and show the full extent of his power off.

"Maybe, maybe not… But if you just rush at me and try to take me on in close combat – you'll lose." Goku shrugged, still wary of his opponent's vigor and keeping his fighting stance ready if he'd need to respond to an attack.

"Oh… You've done it now, I had been saving this technique, it felt bad using it because it felt almost unfair to crush you with such drastic power-up but… It would be so sweet to smash that smug attitude and shove it right down your throat!" Piccolo Jr. hunched over and raised his arms up by his side, unleashing his Ki in a malevolent golden flame that burnt hot-red at the edges of his demonic aura. There was a clear physical strain to the entirety of Piccolo's body, veins popping out, and pumping blood with enough intensity for it to be visible on the outside. A drastic buff applied to the muscles of the reincarnated Demon King as well.

"So you did have something in store, huh? Can't wait…" Goku smirked.

"Just a little bit of a glimpse at the Hell I'll soon send you to. And it's oh-so-beautiful!" Piccolo Jr. sent a malevolent smile right back at his opponent. The silhouette of his body lit up with golden, transcendental light, not too much different from Chiaotzu's previous show of force. However, the Namekian's body appeared to grow with each successive surge of energy pushing his outlines from the inside. It was as if his body turned extremely malleable and required a drastic growth in size to somehow contain the immense boost in power he had been going through.

It did not take long for Goku's excitement to turn into shock and then dread as Piccolo Jr. loomed over his opponent having grown a dozen times larger in a span of a couple of seconds. Piccolo Jr. had been a great deal shorter than his predecessor, though far stronger, yet it had never occurred to anyone that it was because of some sort of transformation that Piccolo Jr. not only did not normally use but one that he could push to far greater heights than the Demon King Piccolo ever could.