Chapter Forty-Six
Raditz grimaced as he watched the Namekian warrior launch an energy attack down at him and Tien. Moving off instinct, the Saiyan had no time to baise in the size of the energy beam and rolled forward in front of the stunned triclops.
Not knowing if Tien would be quick enough to dodge the beam, he knew he had to do something else. Quickly flaring his energy and dipping into his stance with cupped hands at his side, Raditz channeled his energy into a counterattack just as powerful as Piccolo's Makosen.
"Kamehameha!" The Saiyan chanted, unleashing his blue energy beam with just fractions of a second to spare. As the demon king's golden energy attack crashed down into the planet, Raditz's energy beam sparked to life and struggled for dominance against the encroaching ki missile.
Tien Shinhan watched from just feet away as Raditz's energy cackled brilliantly but shielded his eyes from the flash that two energy beams emitted from such a close range. Looking at the larger golden beam, the triclops shook his head as he realized that Raditz's own energy attack was slowly being overpowered by Piccolo's massive demon wave.
"Are you finished acting like a deer in headlights yet or should I have left you to get out of the way yourself?" Raditz grunted painfully as he poured some extra energy into his attack. Left speechless by the remark, Tien sighed as he pulled himself to his feet.
Feeling as the ground underneath the two martial artists began to give way and crumble from the intensity and weight behind both energy beams, the Saiyan's body burned but he couldn't give up or he and Tien were both dead.
"I'm not going to be able to stop him on my own." Raditz admitted through a grunt and obvious strain. "You have to find a way to throw off his focus or this thing's going to destroy not just us but whatever remains of this city."
"I'll do what I can," The triclops immediately replied. Knowing that Piccolo would be focused more so on the energy struggle between he and Raditz, Tien knew best that an attack from behind would do just the job.
Piccolo's fangs bared through the fierce scowl on his face. With his entire focus on the energy struggle, the demon king internally thought over just how impressive of a fight these humans had put up in their little resistance against his forces. They had caused him many troubles and slain every minion he had spawned for the conquest. For all of their troubles though, they were still going to be slain by the future overlord of the universe.
Too focused on Raditz's larger power, whether it had been from being lost in his concentration or whatever the case was, the Namekian terror was just about to surge his power and overload his attack before out of the corner of his eye, he saw a green dot phase into view.
"This is for my teacher!" Tien taunted grudgingly as he cocked one his feet backwards. Shooting forward with a powerful kick, the human warrior was able to hit with just enough force to send Piccolo into a nearby building and save Raditz. "You good?" He said as he flew down to check on an exasperated Saiyan warrior that had just narrowly avoided death's touch.
Raditz turned to spit and wiped some sweat and dust that had been blown into his face during the energy struggle. Looking at the Namekian sized hole in the building that Piccolo had been knocked through, the Saiyan shook his head as his aura flared angrily around him.
"Not until I see his corpse." Raditz barked as his energy expelled around him in a fiery indigo aura. Forcing it outwards, two separate entities branched outwards and formed into two clones of Raditz as the Saiyan used his tri-form technique. "I'm not sure that we can win this. Maybe if we don't give him a chance to attack, we can better our odds." The three Saiyans said in unison.
"I see." Tien retorted, using his own energy to create three copies of himself with the multiform technique. "I have your back, champion. Don't let up." The multiplied triclops assured his partner.
Piccolo groaned in more-so irritation than pain, using his telepathy to clear large pieces of debris stopping him from rising to his feet. Now back on his feet, the demon king cursed himself for forgetting about the three-eyed man that had attacked a clear opening that he'd given the two human fighters.
"I promise that won't happen again." The demon king assured himself as he clenched his fists tightly at his side and focused his ki. Launching himself upwards and through the roof of the skyscraper he'd been knocked into, Piccolo sneered as the building gave way and collapsed on itself.
"Now where did the trash fly off to?" Piccolo growled as he closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. Snickering slightly, the demon king instantly threw both arms across his chest to absorb the blunt force of a punch that had ripped through clouds to reach him. "There you are." He said as his yellow eyes snapped open to see the raven haired Saiyan attacking him.
"I meant it when I said you're going down." The Saiyan groaned as he threw another punch and watched as Piccolo easily weaved out of the way of it. The tyrannical demon king was just far quicker than either he or Tien!
"If I had a dime for how many times I've heard that line." Piccolo manically jeered as he shot forward and attacked with a knee to Raditz's gut. Just as his knee found itself into the Saiyan's stomach, the demon king's eyes widened as his leg shot into a puff of smoke and another fist smashed into his nose.
Staggering backwards, Piccolo's hand reached up and wiped some purple blood from his face as the demon king looked back up to see two identical Saiyans glaring at him with no intentions of letting up. The demon king licked his lips in anticipation, the eternal warrior in him up for the challenge.
"Impressive." The demon applauded his Saiyan challenger.
Not saying a thing, Raditz and his doppelganger shot forward with unparalleled speed. As one Saiyan hunched downwards and prepared to attack with a sweep kick, the other jumped upwards and reeled his arm backwards in preparation of a ki-enhanced punch. Perfectly coordinating with one another, Raditz was able to catch his foe slipping and connected with a strong punch to Piccolo's large and unprotected chest.
"Two times the fleas," The demon king said with a triumphant laugh as he braced for the impact. "Twice the fun." He added with a growl as he then used his prowess instincts to duck under a kick.
Seeing an opportunity for a counterattack afterwards and using a muscular arm to knock one assailant away and then the momentum and sudden shock to grab the other Raditz by his face, Piccolo snarled menacingly as he jumped into the air and slammed his open palm and the Saiyan's entire body into the ground. As rock and concrete gave way from the sudden impact of a young adult Saiyan being slung relentlessly through earth, entire buildings in the area quivered in fear as Piccolo hovered from the crater with an intense glare.
"Piccolo, take this!" Tien grunted as he reappeared behind the Namekian warrior. Attacking with a punch, the triclops was able to divert the warrior's attention enough for three other triclops to jump the demon king and swarm him in a dogpile. "Dodon-pa!"
Just as King Piccolo flared his aura wildly to free himself, the devious warrior was forced to protect himself from the burrowing ki drill. Expelling his ki outwards from his palms just as he reached for the triclops' ki beam, the demon king remembered how Drum had defended the concentrated ki ray. Negating the thin beam of energy with his cunningness, the demon king kicked himself forward with enough force to leave behind a large footprint in the ground as he burst forward.
Moving towards Tien with malicious intent, the green demon cocked back an elbow and then, swaying it madly, the titan king rammed into and through the triclops. Feeling a heavy attack knock into his ribs and sweep him off of his feet, Tien Shinhan let out a painful grunt as he was knocked through a small tree and fell to the ground while rolling some meters away from where he left a small crater in the streets.
"Not too bad." The triclops fighter managed to let out, very slow to pull himself back to his feet. "I won't stop though, Piccolo. I can't let evil run rampant." The noble crane student stressed as he brought his forearm to his mouth and wiped some blood using the green wristband he wore.
"An honorable but foolish reason to fight." Piccolo grunted, hovering menacingly over to where the crane student was pulling himself back into a fighting stance. "Believing that the universe would bend to an inferior race as you humans." The Namekian spat in what sounded like disgust.
Raising a muscular green arm, the demon king poked his index finger outwards and a second later after a small cackle, a golden beam of energy shot from the digit and quickly began to make its way towards Tien.
Slow to recover from Piccolo's last attack, the triclops barely sidestepped out of the way with enough time to save himself from a lethal hit. Thinking himself clear, the three-eyed man lost his footing and hissed in pain as the ki beam pierced through the triclops ankle. This caused Tien to trip over his limp foot as he instinctively reached for it.
"Shit." Tien groaned in anguish. His entire shoe had melted and a hole the size of a golf ball had been seared through skin, bone, and muscle alike. "Why isn't my body moving?" He complained as he tried to push himself to his feet even with the gruesome mess that was his ankle.
As if the injury already didn't look bad, when the triclops attempted to put any type of weight on it he would collapse right back to his knees. 'I-I can't even put the weight of my calf on it. He had to have severed a vital tendon.' He thought to himself in both realization and horror. 'It's like I did Yamcha during the tournament. I can't even carry myself off of the battlefield.' Tien self-reflected consciously. Were he and this demon any different? Was he finally paying for every deed he had done reminiscent of Piccolo's?
Piccolo took a large step forward and smirked at the incapacitated martial artist. His painful grunts were like music to the demon king's ears. The Namekian warrior's lips curled into a genuine smile as he crouched and grasped his clawed green hand around the human fighter's neck. Standing straight up, King Piccolo heard the human struggle to breathe as the wounded Tien was lifted off of the ground by the eight foot demon.
"I'll admit it… I really didn't think it possible that you humans could form a resistance against my kind when it came time to exact my revenge." King Piccolo coldly barked at the barely conscious human being. Practically bursting the triclops' eardrums with his screams, the demon king made sure to tighten the grip on his prey's jugular as he spat. "291 years of banishment in eternal darkness. I wasted too many years stuck in that inferior appliance to let you humans defeat me." The alien sociopath added just as aggressively with a demonic laugh.
"Admit it, y–you fear us humans Piccolo. Mutaito found a way — to defeat you then," The human barely managed to get out just faintly enough for the demon king to hear, sheepishly laughing afterwards after taking a direct punch from his foe. With a swollen eye, Tien did not yield or stand down to the tyrannical being. "Killing me won't do anything but inspire the next fighter to take you down." Tien finished, groaning as he filled his mouth and spat a blood-filled loogie on the demon king.
Piccolo glared at the battered but resilient triclops in unadulterated rage, snarling like a rabid animal at the human warrior. Still grasping the man's throat tightly, the demon swung his head forward and headbutted his opponent. Breaking the man's nose instantly, Piccolo only then used his free hand to wipe the noticeable amount of blood and saliva on his face.
"Your kind thinks there is a place amongst history for you." The demon groaned irritably, still slowly exerting more and more pressure onto Tien's neck. Making sure to cause enough pain to not kill the triclops, Piccolo sternly continued with his rant. "There are no happy endings when it comes to genocide. You won't be inspiring anybody, you and your feeble race will only be long forgotten."
"Put him down!" The voice of Raditz finally rang through the air as winds swept around the two brawlers. Ripping through the air towards the green man, the tailed Saiyan was about to attack with a quick cross before, seeing just a sudden blur, Tien's body was slung at him by the demon king. "What the h–" The young Saiyan grunted before, using the triclops as a projectile, Piccolo retaliated and he and Tien were both sent backwards.
"Death to your entire species!" The demon king spat the next second, not letting the two warriors regain themselves as Tien collided with Raditz and laid on top of the warrior, unconscious. "Super Demon Explosive Wave!"
Harnessing his energy into another powerful energy wave in his hands, Piccolo chuckled horridly as Raditz was forced to watch as ki poured into the demon's hands and electricity cackled vibrantly as the demon king seemed to be pouring as much energy as he could handle into the attack. However much he tried to move, his body couldn't find the strength to lift the dead weight that was Tien's unconscious body.
He thought of Bulma and tears began to form, knowing that she'd hear about his failure to defeat Piccolo. He thought of the millions of people on earth that he had failed to protect. Piccolo had won the fight. As the burst of light charged towards him and Tien, Raditz shielded his eyes, knowing the overwhelming heat would be more than enough to kill him.
"Tenma Defense!" The voice of a child cried out through the raging winds.
Feeling a pair of feet crunch the ground apart in between him and Piccolo, the Saiyan opened his eyes to see somebody had jumped into the path of the attack and seemed to be protecting him and Tien. Although the brightness of Piccolo's energy wave didn't give Raditz a good look at his savior, from behind all that the world champion could see was a brown tail poking from between the small boy's blue cloak and white gi.
"It can't be." Raditz thought aloud as the light died down and he saw the boy's wild hair shooting out in different directions – identical to the hair that he had last seen on his father.
As the mysterious boy maintained a thin teal ki barrier around not just himself but Raditz and Tien to defend against Piccolo's ki attack, the older Saiyan could not believe his eyes but still said the first thing to come to his mind as he and the doppelganger of his lost father locked eyes.
"Kakarot?" Raditz said in sheer disbelief that he was staring at the brother he had believed killed many years ago as a newborn child.
Power Levels
King Piccolo: 850
Raditz: 725
Tien Shinhan: 500
Kakarot: 800