Outbursts of lightning lashed out in all directions once Nappa charged out at Chayote, telegraphing his next attack as clearly as his blind fury allowed him by carrying his right-hand bent and in position for a knife-edge chop. With a simple thrust of her palm, Chayote restrained Nappa's chopping arm with her own right while her left punished the brute's face with a barrage of straights that reloaded and re-entered the fray just as the last one had concluded.
Taken aback by the violent response, Nappa staggered back, his hands twitching over his busted face. The Saiyan looked worried to touch his face and deal with the rapid bleeding as it might have seemed to him that any pressure on his skull would have caved it in. He did not notice Chayote moving in from up above him with an overhead kick that sent Nappa crashing down into the uneasy waves below.
The waters howled and erupted in a bubbling burst when Nappa rushed out, oblivious to the blood running down his eyes though the red he saw in them was not due to the bleeding of his busted face, it was in how much he wanted his opponent ripped apart by his own hands. Chayote blinked out and vanished up to Nappa's face, throwing a vicious hook into the Saiyan's chest, having decided to break his body as well as his face.
Nappa roared out in pain as the force of the punch alone was sufficient enough to send him crashing back own but he didn't just need to feel the fact that Chayote had left him with something extra, he could see the violet Ki blast trying to make its way through his chest and pushing him down underwater where it detonated in a pillar-shaped explosion, sending enough water into the atmosphere for it to shower the entire archipelago for a few minutes.
"You can definitely take a hit, I'll give you that," Chayote pouted her lips, feeling irritated by the fact that Nappa slowly ascended from what was supposed to be his watery grave, wiping the blood off of his face in an awkward slouch and a wheeze to his breath. His Saiyan armor got blown clean off and no longer protected his body which meant that he couldn't take any successive rough hits like that.
"This… This shouldn't be possible. We've spent years conquering planets and fighting to our fullest! There is no way in hell that we should be outpaced by some Earthling lovers!" Nappa yelled out, releasing all of his pent up aggression which he was unable to release as Chayote outpaced him every step of the way into a single resonating blast of his aura. "Bardock and his goons, you and Kakarot, you're all just pests to Saiyan elite like us and I'm the pest control!"
"Just can't get the clue, can you?" Chayote sighed in disappointment. Frankly, she was a bit disappointed in herself too. She's been fighting this Saiyan seriously this whole time even though she was confident that she'd have been able to best him with just half of her power, even though then it'd have been an actual battle.
"I'll kill all of you myself!" Nappa bellowed and threw his index and middle fingers up.
Chayote felt a surge of Ki down below, she wasn't sure what that was all about but it made her wary as the surge soon surpassed Nappa's own Ki signature. A mighty explosive wave rose from underwater and washed away at Chayote in an instant. The wave emanated with heat and forceful pressure and resisting its force felt like hell itself. Its drafting effects lasted for a while though once Chayote pushed back against its bright and powerful pressure only the resulting smoke was left to deal with.
The entire archipelago was thusly reduced to pebbles. Nappa's technique took a large chunk out of the faraway mountainous shoreline too. Chayote dived right out of the smoke though Nappa must have been expecting it. He thrust his arm forward, releasing a violet blaze of Ki that appeared to be infused with the air itself and expanding in a wave of immense pressure as it thrust Chayote back. It was only a temporary mean as the female Saiyan recovered and resumed her dash immediately after.
The head of the charging Saiyan smashed against Nappa's throwing the exhausted giant back. Chayote grabbed around as much of Nappa's roided out neck as she could, digging her fingers and nails into it to maintain a better grip and smacking him with the front and back of her hand a few times before wrapping her tail around his neck and throwing him down into the whirlpools of his own making.
"Heh…" Nappa chuckled to himself in a restrained and croaking voice. It was very much unlike him to speak in such a reserved tone though his body was thrashed by now and he had fired most of that brutish spunk that he had at Chayote already. "You don't hit as hard as you used to. Getting tired?"
"That's rich coming from you," Chayote gave the rising Saiyan who appeared to be having trouble just elevating him to Chayote's level a strict look. She was irritated by the Saiyan's resistance to being done in and she was doing her best to restrain from using too much power as she'd still have to deal with either Bardock or Vegeta soon enough.
"It shows. You see, us elite Saiyan warriors are used to eradicating entire civilizations and conquering worthy planets or destroying the useless ones. Meek trash such as yourself probably just whips out her strength once in a while to fight some strong guy and then goes back to being lazy. If you're getting winded already, this next one's gonna blow you away. This here's my ultimate technique!" Nappa proclaimed before taking a wide-guard fighting stance and charging at Chayote.
The Saiyan woman blocked the thrust kick and the subsequent barrage of kicks though the finishing touch of his rush attack sent Chayote sliding back through the air even though her block. Chayote was about to taunt Nappa about little to no effect being left on her from his entire rush attack though it appeared that Nappa's true ultimate technique was yet to come. The brutish Saiyan flexed his entire body, spreading his arms and legs out as he tucked his neck and dropped his jaw in preparation for the fruit to all that swelling up Ki inside him.
Just as a bright gleam appeared in Nappa's mouth, Chayote got herself together and snapped right up to the giant's face. Absolute horror perplexed Nappa's wide eyes once he saw his opponent right up his face with milliseconds left to when his blast would be ready. Utilizing that ample amount of time, Chayote shot her knee up at Nappa's chin and shut his mouth before his mouth blast could leave it, resulting in an internal detonation that appeared to implode Nappa's body from within and drop him with whited out eyes and deflated body mass down to float onto the uneasy ocean.
Feeling Nappa clinging to life by a completely irrelevant sliver, Chayote turned back to the direction where Vegeta and Bardock had been clashing. The two had moved significantly from fighting just behind the two. Chayote could sense their battle had taken them further to the south-east, toward the many tropical islands that covered the area. The female Saiyan clenched her fist, wondering if she had truly figured out which side she'd be willing to support if she had to choose. Realizing that it was best to decide that matter once she saw which side held the advantage and which side would end up winning, the Saiyan took off toward their battlefield.
A handful of Saibamen charged at a lone young man amongst them. Upa's eyes snapped open before the rushing pests could deliver the finishing blow and pulled out his tomahawks, spinning them around in his hands while turning around his own axis, resulting in a mighty, turbulent gale picking the little green men up and throwing them all up into the sky.
"It is true that in terms of combat I am weaker than you, though this is my planet and its forces bend to my will. Begone, those that threaten it!" Upa let out his battle cry as he clanged the tops of his tomahawks together and made the skies turn black in an instant, having mystical lightning storms ripping the Saibamen apart where they floated weightless and helpless in the face of the vortex of wind.
"Hmph… You might be a fragile little twig, Kami, but it seems like you have things under control here," Piccolo made sure to find an opportunity to mock the Earth's guardian at the same time as he commended him. The Namekian held a beaten to a pulp Saibaman in his own hand which he promptly flung up and decimated with a mouth blast.
"I do not need you to watch my back, Piccolo," Upa gave the reincarnation of the Demon King a scolding glare. A glare which Piccolo must have found amusing as the Namekian just snickered to himself with a shrug.
"If that's what you think I was doing here, you're hopelessly misguided. Anyway, I'm headed to fight the actual Saiyan threat. These are your people to protect, do your job. Whether they live or die, it doesn't bother me either way," Piccolo turned toward the rampaging Ki to the south of Mt. Paozu and in the archipelago to the south-east to that location as well.
"I wonder about that… You did come here first, after all," Upa smiled, even though Piccolo gave the Kami a furious glint from his eyes, Upa did not mean it as an offense at all.
"You've done it now. Don't you dare get yourself killed, your life is mine to take," Piccolo grumbled while looking away the whole time before taking off.
"Vegeta!" Bardock roared out, charging at the Saiyan prince. His bloodthirsty rush attack was interrupted by Vegeta's explosive wave as the Saiyan prince threw his limbs outward and let out a furious roar, glistening the surroundings with a blue light and throwing Bardock back to skid across the ocean surrounding the tropical island they've settled to battle on to.
"Is this your visualized dream of having the balls to confront my father? Interesting, allow me to show you the power that you will never achieve!" Vegeta smirked at Bardock while the injured Saiyan brawler rushed back to his battlefield.
Just as Bardock rushed in to sock his opponent in the face, Vegeta smacked his opponent senseless with the back of his hand, throwing Bardock out of the loop for a bit. The Saiyan prince then turned around for another smack, this time powerful enough to send his opponent flying and not just disorient him. Vegeta was quick to race after his airborne opponent with a barrage of fists to weaken him further. A couple of knee strikes to the mid-section turned Bardock's resistance off once the brawler began fostering hopes of raising his hands up to protect himself again. Then a stiff rising kick to the mid-section sent Bardock over the clouds.
Vegeta snapped before his airborne opponent who still appeared to be reeling from his earlier beatdown, another vicious flurry of fists and knee strikes later, Vegeta finally decided to put his opponent down with a double ax-handle slam to send Bardock crashing into a crater of his own making down on the little island they've been duking it out on. The Saiyan prince was in no rush to finish off his opponent, instead, he chose to lower himself from the clouds in a slow and controlled descent, gloating over his enemy without even needing to utter a word.
"What's the matter?" Vegeta opened himself up as a taunt. "Don't tell me I've beaten that fighting spirit out of you already?"
"Eat shit and die, welp!" Bardock roared out, jumping back onto his feet and unleashing a barrage of Ki blasts at Vegeta from a close-range. With a vanishing attack, the brawling Saiyan closed the measly distance between himself and Vegeta up, throwing a pair of body shots before delivering a rising uppercut and stunning his opponent momentarily. Instead of wasting his landing, Bardock slammed his hands in a double-ax handle slam and delivered a spinning kick to Vegeta's mid-section that sent the Saiyan royalty skidding back on the sand.
With a calm and composed face, Bardock glared at Vegeta as the prince lowered his block and returned to his fighting stance. Bardock's fist clenched in fury as he recalled the struggles that he and his squad went through in order to get to this point and while he never, even in his worst nightmares, imagined having to face not the king but his prince as well as being injured after a tough battle with the rest of his squad being on death's door, his iron resolve powered him through the rampant difference between the two of the men and allowed him to hold his own for the moment.
"I will admit, I'd have rather recovered from this battle before liberating the Saiyan race. Though the locals don't trust me enough to heal me as they've healed themselves and that's on me. I'd also rather be bashing your old man's face in, you might be a smug piece of shit but you're not the one that ran the Saiyan race into the ground by groveling before Frieza. Then again, even if do win, the victory would feel shallow with my squad battered and broken…" Bardock replied.
Vegeta vanished from his location, snapping right up to Bardock with his foot shooting into Bardock's gut, driving all air from the brawler's body and fazing out his eyes for a moment. Vegeta jumped with an uppercut, sending the stunned Saiyan flying before vanishing again and appearing over the soaring Saiyan to stomp him back down to the ground with a straight stomping dive. Once Bardock was properly crushed beneath his feet, Vegeta delivered a stiff though more demeaning kick to the face of the fallen Saiyan, sending him skidding across the island to the edge of its shores.
"Battered? Broken?" Vegeta laughed out, looking proud of the work he's done on Earth. "You imbecile, they're all dead already. The Saibamen got to few of them while I and Nappa got to dispose of a pair of them. I ended up disposing of the woman by accident, there was an annoying building in the desert that I wanted to blow up. Her power level was so insignificant in that state that I barely even noticed it was gone. Nappa disposed of that big and brainless guy, seemed fair that the executioner would fit the victim."
"You bastard!" Bardock roared. His eyes went white while his entire body appeared to swell up past and beyond the point it should have been able to reach in his current beaten state. The sudden outburst of azure aura from the Saiyan berserker even caught the prince himself off-guard as while he couldn't feel Ki signatures and his scouter was destroyed – basic survival instincts translated to him the fact that something was very much off with this outburst.
Despite this moment of confusion, Vegeta got the grip of himself before Bardock could begin pressing his newly surging power on him and charged to match the rushing Saiyan head-on. The two clashed one with the other in a contest of strength though where Bardock appeared to have gone completely berserk, his opponent was just toying with him and looked mostly amused by the amount of force that this low-ranking footman of the Saiyan military managed to pull out from him.
A knee to Bardock's stomach appeared to crush all of the renewed vitality and fighting instinct within the Saiyan warrior and send Bardock to his knees. Whereas the spirit of the Saiyan warrior still raged fiercely inside him, his body was simply past the point where he could accomplish the things that his furious mind set out to do. Without much resistance from the collapsing Saiyan's part, Vegeta flung Bardock up in the air as his own body lit up with an azure gleam of his own.
"It really does bring me joy to see a nobody like you being blown into oblivion and forgotten. Nobody to remember you, your family, and squad decimated by my own hand. Oh well, at least you'll get to see your goons and your sons really soon. I'll make sure to send your timid wife your way soon enough as well," Vegeta mocked the powerless Saiyan before he raised his arms up to deliver the final blow. A stream of blinding, blue flash streaked up from Vegeta's own intense aura, beaming up to Bardock with the goal of reducing him to dust.
Bardock's fighting spirit seemed to reignite in mid-air, prompted by the words that Vegeta intended to be the last coherent thing he'd hear before being obliterated. The taunt that made him realize what was at stake, the revenge that he'd squander if he allowed it all to end here. It didn't matter how close his body was to dying, how much power he'd left or how hopeless this fight seemed.
"Gine? Don't you dare talk about Gine!" Bardock flexed his entire body back to life and reignited his crystal-clear aura before throwing his hand out to deliver one, final, full-powered Ki wave to resist the prince's attempts to decimate him. Bardock's large energy wave appeared to struggle against Vegeta's push initially, though Bardock did not intend to die out without a struggle. The roaring Saiyan sent a rapid barrage of Ki bursts to further energize his blast which allowed him to stalemate Vegeta's beam for a while.
While Vegeta appeared perplexed at first, looking almost worried enough to make an inner resolution that he'd never again taunt this low-ranking trash just so he could avoid further miraculous revitalizations and power surges such as these, once he sensed Bardock's momentary power-up running out and saw the gleam of Bardock's aura fading away, he realized that he was worrying for naught. His push finally prevailed over the rebellious Saiyan though he wouldn't need to wait the time necessary for the clash to resolve as Bardock had simply run out of strength and began collapsing into the center of the clash himself.
When his energy burst, at last, prevailed over the vengeful Saiyan soul, Vegeta looked up to see if any trace remained of Bardock though he was surprised to not even see one speck of dust landing on the soil around him. He had blown entire civilizations up into oblivion and never had he seen a kill so empty and clean. The absolute pointlessness of Bardock's struggle appeared to leave the Saiyan somewhat confused with himself at first though then his eyes noticed something unusual up in the sky.
Bardock's limp and debilitated body hung over the shoulder of a petite feminine figure as her tail flapped about though whether it was because of the excitement or because of irritation it was too early to tell. Chayote's head turned so that one of her eyes could look at the prince before she landed and put Bardock's body beside her. She doubted if the prince would give her the leeway to bring the beaten Saiyan anywhere else.
The moment she looked forward to the least came to be, at last, she'd have to choose between the Earth and her allegiance to the Saiyan royal family and the Frieza Army. One thing was punching out a Frieza Army member that intended to hassle her first, a whole different thing was declaring that she was done with Planet Vegeta in front of the prince of the planet himself. She'd have to deal with Vegeta, with the king and maybe even Lord Frieza.
Chayote would have to deal with what would come next.