The Saiyan Gamer


Chapter 23: Thorn

Like most predators, in the darkness of the night was my preferred time to hunt. Considering my unique advantage, it was especially perfect for me. Crouching at the top of a building, I silently watched a group of people huddled around a fire.

"Looks like we survived the first day," One of them, a kid that was probably as young as Root said. "Wasn't as bad as I expected."

"That's because we didn't get into any fights," Another said, one closer to my age.

"And we're in a group anyway we'll kick their asses," A third kid said.

"Not if literally, anyone above third-class tries to fight us," Yet another grimaced, his head in his hands.

"No one above third class would attack us. We don't give them any points, so it would be a waste," The final member of their group said as he threw a piece of wood on the fire. "Let's eat. Tomorrow we'll need to start fighting or we won't get enough points to pass."

No points, but five flags…immediately upon reading the mission prompt, I realized that it wasn't as crazy as it sounded. Ten, or even fifteen flags didn't mean I had to fight fifteen life-or-death battles. In fact, if I chose wisely, it could be relatively easy. It was also a perfect time to figure out how high my power level had to be to overwhelm my opponents.

Still, I wasn't only going to fight weak people. I was itching for combat far more intense than the kind they could offer me. But for now, these ones would suffice.

I located the weakest one after watching a little longer and formed a soundless Ki ball in my hand. After making sure that no one was around, I pointed my palm at him and fired. The attack hit dead center, exploding against his back and lightning up the area in a sickly orange light.

Enemy Defeated!

500 EXP Awarded!

The rest of the group jumped back in surprise, looking around for me with wide, panicked eyes. Unfortunately for them, I'd already moved to my next target. I flew in from above, and to his credit, he managed to look up just a second before my kick struck the top of his head and sent him face-first into the concrete below.

"Two down…" I stood up, stretched my back, and glared over at the last three members of the group. "Who's next?"

The two older boys shared a look, before looking down at the youngest. I wasn't surprised, seeing as he was the strongest one out of them. Even still, his power level was just above 800. My power level is almost double his.

"You're not going to fight me all at once?" I asked as I settled into the basic fighting stance that Bardock taught me.

"In a tournament where our families are watching?" He scowled, as he pulled out a dagger from behind his back. "This tournament is about proving your strength as a Saiyan. Working as a team is annoying enough."

"I understand," I replied, my muscles tensing and my eyes meeting his. "Your pride will be your downfall."

"I don't plan on losing that easily!" He yelled, before making his move.

He sped at me and began slashing and stabbing. I dodged each attack with practical ease, his attacks sailing past me effortlessly until I decided to make a counter-attack. Dodging a stab that would have taken out my throat, I lifted my arm and caught his in a tight grip. His eyes widened as I drew him in, but it was too late.

My head crashed into his nose and he jerked back, but I wasn't done. My leg hooked behind his and as I took him to the ground, I grabbed a hold of his head and forced it into the concrete with as much force as I could exert without killing him. The ground shuddered and split beneath me, crumbling a few buildings around us to dust.

When I let go, he was knocked out cold.

Enemy Defeated!

1000 EXP Awarded!

A rush of adrenaline flowed through my blood, and as I turned to face the remaining two, I smirked, "Who's next?"


The Next Morning

"Come on! You have enough flags, you don't need mine!"

"I know… But I'm going to take it anyway."

He tried to argue further, but after I slammed his head into the ground a few more times, he slipped into unconsciousness like the rest. I rolled off of his body and smiled down at the adult body, before taking his flag and stashing it in my safe place. That makes ten.

"Alright. Now I'm getting bored," I yawned to myself. "I need to find someone strong, and then I can go find Kakarot and Leeku."

I was getting bored fighting third classes, and a new revelation worsened that boredom. I hadn't realized it earlier because I wasn't used to sparing my enemies, and I'd never won a fight against Kakarot, Raditz or Turles, but whenever I defeated someone but didn't kill them, I received less experience than if I had. That, combined with the fact that most of my targets had levels so low that I received barely any experience at all, quickly became annoying. It did make it a little harder to spare them, but I decided that the mission reward would make up for it.

Carefully, I made my way away from the scene of the fight and into an abandoned building. Once I found a secluded spot in the building, I sat down, made a fire, pulled out a piece of meat from my safe place, and began to cook it.

Food in this city was extremely sparse, but thankfully I had no need to search. I still had plenty of Meta-Wolf meat tucked away. I ate in silence, watching as red dots moved through the map around me.

Word of me eliminating lower-level groups must have been getting around because groups of two and three were disappearing, becoming much larger. I'd defeated far more people than I should have needed to because some of the groups that I came across had already lost their flags. Of course, I didn't realize this until they were already unconscious. Unfortunately, that led to others being warry of me.

Oh? What's this? I watched as a large group of maybe 10 started heading in my direction. When they reached the entrance to my building, only one entered and the rest surrounded it.

Footsteps echoed through the empty building as someone searched for me. I pulled out my sword slowly and walked out of my room, leading into a much larger space. I was surprised to see that the person standing in the middle of the space was Kakarot. Or well, that was what I thought until I used Observe on him.

Level 21

Thorn

Species - Saiyan/Skrull

Gender - Fluid

Age - 18

HP - 31,582/46,864

Ki - 48,851

Reputation - Neutral

Power Level - 2,646

Thorn is the son of a Saiyan and Skrull. He has inherited the Skrull ability to transform his body into any shape or form that he's seen before. This is the first time in several years he's entered the tournament.

He doesn't know much about you except that you were seen with Omato and Bardock, so you must be relatively important. He wouldn't have attacked you if you hadn't knocked out so many others.

He is currently feeling hopeful that you'll fall for his trick.

He's about 60% stronger than me. I wonder how difficult this fight will be.

"Hey man! I've been looking for you!" Thorn spoke, and to my surprise, it sounded just like Kakarot. "I've got a few flags, want to team up?"

I stared at him for a few seconds, before putting the Fang of Flame on my shoulder and sighing. "Alright."

He smiled at me, way too wide to be one of Kakarot's, before turning his back to me and walking back towards the exit. Either he thought his disguise was good enough, or maybe he was an idiot, but either way, it presented an opportunity that I was not going to let slide. A level 21 would give me about 24,000 experience points, and I only needed 10,000 experience points until I got to level 19

Lowering my sword quietly, I lined it up with a place I knew would be an instant kill if it hit. His heart. The anatomy book was good for many things, including helping me to identify where exactly on the body would be a critical hit. The heart was the critical hit to end all critical hits. Hopefully, Skrull anatomy doesn't differ too much from Saiyan anatomy.

The decision to kill him was... harder than expected. It was much easier to kill someone than to knock them out, and I knew that I'd get more experience if I killed him, but something inside of me was screaming. It screamed for a fight. A real one. Not one where I knew I was going to win. A real life-or-death battle that would sate my hunger.

The voice only got louder until I lowered my sword and stood up straight.

"I know you're not Kakarot," I called in a loud voice.

He paused midstep, frozen in place, before slowly turning around. While he did, his skin, clothes, and hair shivered, rolled, and changed colors. When it settled, his skin was grass green, he was bald, and he was wearing black clothing.

Sneering at me with sharp, pointed teeth, he asked, "How did you know?"

"Does it matter?" I lifted my sword so that it was pointing up, mimicking the stance Vishtar used when fighting me. "I could have killed you but I decided that I wanted a real fight."

"Kill me?" He said, recoiling as if he'd been slapped. "You're a confident one. You haven't even met me and you think you have the power needed to defeat me?"

"I don't need to know how strong you are, just how strong I am," I began to power up, my Ki flowing out of my body and engulfing it completely before moving up my sword. The heat from the blade filled the large space.

"That looks like-" His eyes narrowed dangerously at the blade, and in response, he pulled out his own weapons. Or rather, his body morphed to form two weapons. His left arm became a large ax, and his left a shield. Now looking at me with suspicious eyes, he said, "That looks like the sword Chief Omato carries around. Where did you get that?"

"Like I said before, does it matter?" I asked. "Now, are you going to keep asking questions, or are you going to fight me?"

That was all the prompting he needed. His Ki was a dark blue in color and it exploded out of him so viciously that the building around us exploded outward in a spray of concrete shrapnel. He flew at me, ax lifted above his head, ready to strike. Fast.

I jumped back and the ax destroyed the ground in front of me with ease. He followed me quickly as we burst out into the night sky. I dodged several of his attempts to slash me, before finally throwing up an attack after dodging to his left. My sword sliced smoothly through the air, but mere inches before it could cut into his arm, his shield came up and the attack was deflected.

The weapons he forms out of his body are extremely durable. I noted as the fight continued. I continued to dodge his attack, occasionally throwing up an attempt, only for it to be blocked at the last moment.

He was faster than me, but not that much faster. Why couldn't I hit him?

"For someone with such a fancy sword, your swordsmanship is extremely weak!" He cackled. "You had me scared for a second there!"

I scowled, but I knew that it was true. Bardock couldn't teach me shit about swords, so I tried to copy what I remembered from fighting Vishtar. I got a skill-based on his fighting style, but it didn't level up much at all because I didn't have a clue what I was aiming to improve.

Tilting my head back, I dodged the ax by a sliver, before attempting another swing. This time, though, Thorn was grinning. Instead of simply deflecting me, his shield transformed into several smaller hands and they caught my wrist in a tight grip.

"Since you don't know how to use this sword, you may as well give it to me!" He cackled, but the moment he moved to grab it from me, it disappeared, moved safely into my safe place. He frowned but didn't pause. He was already in motion, spinning me around so fast that it took all of my focus not to lose my sense of direction.

I tried to kick him but his arm extended like a rope away from his body. Finally, after spinning me a few more times, he threw me down towards the closest building, and I wasn't able to stop myself as I went crashing into it and out the other side.

By the time that I managed to regain my balance, he was there. Thinking fast, I lifted both of my hands and started firing Ki ball after Ki ball at the hole I'd just made with my body. Several of them hit their mark, one after the other, destroying the rest of the building and sending his smoking body hurtling into the ground.

But the fight was far from over. He hit the ground like a speeding rock on water, but by his third skip, he was already up and looking around for me. I didn't disappoint, coming from behind with a kick attempting to sweep him off of his feet. He noticed me at the last possible moment, though, and a simple hop cleared him of my attack.

Spinning in place, he kicked me in the face, sending me rolling across the ground. Before I could recover fully, he was already there, a giant fist coming down at me from above. I didn't have time to dodge this one, and intense pain exploded all over my body as his gigantic fist drove me several stories deep into the ground.

Even despite the pain, I felt better than ever. I exploded out of the body-shaped hole with a bloody grin on my face. His was matching mine as we stared each other down.


POV Change

"That guy looks tough," Kakarot bounced on his heels as he stared out of a broken window at the fight happening a distance away.

Leeku watched silently from next to the smaller Saiyan, her eyes bouncing from Sprout to Thorn. She knew him, of course, having grown up in the same village. They didn't interact much, but she knew that he was a tough opponent, even if he was a little soft personality-wise.

News of a white-haired Saiyan going around beating up anyone in his path spread like wildfire, and she had no doubt that the only reason that Thorn was fighting Sprout was because Thorn felt bad for the weaklings who lost their chance of passing the trial.

Unfortunately, it looked like this fight was definitely a case of Sprout jumping into the deep end without looking to see what was lurking beneath. Thorn might have been soft, but he wasn't weak. Why hadn't Sprout come to find them earlier?

"He is," Leeku replied, taking a seat halfway out of the broken window. She winced as she did, her hand flying to an injury on the right side of her torso.

The fights were tough, but she almost had enough flags. It wasn't easy by any means, and her clothes were covered in both her blood and the blood of her enemies. Her strategy of using her bow to snipe her enemies was quite useful, especially in this city full of high rises.

"Should we help him?" Kakarot asked, but even though she barely knew the kid, she saw right through him. He just wanted to fight someone much stronger.

"Go ahead if you want to, but you'll only get yourself killed," She rolled his eyes. And it was true. He was far more injured than her. "Besides, look how excited he looks."

"Fine," He whined. "He better win. I still wanna fight him."

Leeku nodded her head solemnly as they watched on. "Yeah… He'd better win."


Sprout POV

"Come on! Fighting like that, you'll never be able to beat me!"

I threw both of my arms up just in time to block a gigantic fist that came bursting out of the ground at me. The bones in my body creaked as I took the attack and skidded several hundred feet away. Glancing up through my aching arms, I saw Thorn grinning at me as his arms retreated back to his body.

He was right. He had the advantage completely and if it carried on like this, I'd run out of energy sooner than later. Taking my sword out of my safe place again, I settled it again into my bastardized version of Vishar's fighting style.

"That again?!" He laughed. As he did, his arms began to form the same ax and shield from before. "Alright then! If you want to lose, be my guest!"

He blasted off towards me and the fight continued. Dodging his attacks was becoming harder by the second, that fact becoming even more evident when I noticed blood dripping down the side of my face. I ignored it though, even as it dripped into my left eye and clouded my vision.

When the opportunity presented itself, I dodged one of his attacks and swung my sword in an upward arc, aiming to cut his head open from his chin to the top of his head. His grin was wider than ever as his shield began to come up to intercept. Unfortunately for him, I had other ideas.

"Lightweight."

My sword moved like a blur, disappearing in a flash of light. There was no resistance at all as my sword went up and through Thorn's flesh and bone, but immediately, I knew something was wrong. Where are my experience points?

His right arm bulged and twitched, before becoming a large sword and slashing at me from close distance. When I tried to move, I noticed a gigantic green palm blocking my exit. The blade neared, but with lightweight activated, I was fast enough to react.

"Iron body!"

The sword hit my body but stopped there, and I was finally able to look up at Thorn. My attack definitely did some damage to him, but not as much as I'd hoped. Instead of slicing upward and through his brain, he somehow had managed to react and dodge in time, sacrificing his right eye instead. His skin sizzled at the point of impact, not a drop of blood spilling out due to the heat sealing the wound.

"You bast-"

Before he could finish his sentence, I opened my mouth so wide that the corners of my lips burned. I gathered as much energy as I could in the second or so that I had. Simultaneously, I sealed my sword away and threw both of my hands in front of me, each containing a Ki ball. Thorn's remaining eye opened in alarm, but it was far too late. He was too close.

He jumped back, but with a roar, I released all three attacks at once, causing them to combine into one large beam of energy. There was a moment of silence before the explosion caught up to him. Immediately, the ground beneath us completely splintered and collapsed, followed by the buildings around us disintegrated into ash.

It isn't over yet. My smile grew as I flew up and waited for the dust to clear. There was no way he wasn't close to death by now. That attack was my strongest invention yet. I'll have to find a name for it.

I waited and waited until I realized that something was wrong. When I did, that was when the notification hit me.

Enemy Has Fled!

16,000 Experience Points Has Been Awarded!

Level Up!

He… Left… I floated down to the ground, dejected and infuriated. That bastard ran away before I could finish him off! Fuck! And I didn't even get his flag!

I didn't have much time to sulk about it though. On my map, the ten people who had been with Thorn approached me from all sides, landing in a circle around me. I was relieved to find that all of them were third class, but there were still 10 of them, and they were all on the higher end of the spectrum.

Some looked nervous, but they all looked ready to fight. One, in particular, stared at me with narrowed eyes. I recognized him immediately, and his slightly widened eyes showed me that he recognized me too. Instead of acknowledging it, he said, "Give us the flags that you collected and we won't have to do this."

I laughed as I stood to my full height. Full restore washed over my body, completely refreshing me in front of their eyes. I span the Fang of Flame around in my hand, before pointing it at the opposing Saiyan.

"It looks like you've managed to gather a few more friends than before," I chuckled dryly. "It's a shame you've brought them to their deaths. If anyone else would like to leave, now is the time. I only want Cauliflo and," I pointed at Karo, who stood nervously next to his friend, "Him. Anyone who gets in my way, I will not have mercy."

After a few seconds of silence, I smirked a wide and devilish grin.

"So be it."


You asked for an early release, so it has been given! Let me know what you think of the first trial so far and the fight between Sprout and Thorn! And if you don't remember Cauliflo and Karo, they are two of the bullies who attacked Sprout nearer to the beginning of the story.