The Dragon Team hadn't fought an enemy all together yet. Being proud martial artists, they tended to engage their enemy one on one unless special occasions let themselves be known. Regardless of that fact, this time the Earth's defenders acted like they had been preparing for such an attack their entire lives. Flickering and vanishing in rapid succession and shuffling past and around their tyrannical opponent as they positioned themselves around and over Lord Slug who casually observed his opposition with a disgruntled look.
"Ka…!" Goku chanted out, pulling his hands behind his back.
"Me…!" Krillin chanted behind Lord Slug.
"Ha… Me…!" Tenshinhan yelled out repeating the motions of his fellow warriors on the other side to Krillin.
Chiaotzu cried out, extending his hands aimed down toward Lord Slug as his aura took a more ethereal, violet gleam and began rotating in enigmatic, nebula-esque shrouds while fields of rampant electricity stretched out from the floating ghoul all the way to the space conqueror. All three martial artists unleashed their Kamehameha waves all at once while Chiaotzu used his psychokinetic grip to lock the fearsome enemy in place.
The connecting ends of the beams howled in an uncontrollable reaction as azure orbs dyed out in infernal blaze and spread with violent, competing blasts as their combined, world-shaking might swallowed each other up. Each martial artist made sure to channel their Ki so that their blasts do not decimate the entire world and only affect their opponent, focusing their desperation to fend off the extraterrestrial invader.
As the widespread smoke dissipated and the airborne rubble settled, Lord Slug appeared from the center of destruction with his new spacesuit torn-up and ragged and shallow dirt and burns riddling his body but both his eyes and his expression burnt bright with passionate fighting spirit. He viewed engagements and troubling assaults such as these as a challenge to his newly gained might, not just a mere return to his youth but an outright upgrade. Never has the Super Namekian felt more super than at that moment.
"Damn, I might have spent a bit too much power fighting him the first time," Goku cursed, observing the failed attempt to defeat his enemy quickly with a reaction of aloof disappointment that only someone like him could have experienced in a middle of a fight to decide the fate of the entire world.
"Those Senzu would come in real handy right now, I'm running a bit short…" Krillin huffed, sweating all over his forehead while displaying the wounds that he sustained during the battle against Commander Zeeun and didn't have healed before joining the main battlefield.
"Incredible power, I didn't hold back one bit!" Tenshinhan faltered, wrought with shock. Deep down he knew that his opponent didn't even have an opportunity to block the combined attack properly due to Chiaotzu's psychic paralysis and took their attack solely with the toughness of his own body.
"Bugs, as long as I am free to act upon my evil nature, your lives are mine to be taken freely!" Lord Slug howled out while hammering both of his fists downward and opening his jaw that enlightened with a golden gleam. "Darkness Blaster!"
It would have taken a Namekian to contain a mouth-blast of a magnitude similar to that which Lord Slug used in his attack. The beam easily surpassed Goku's Super Kamehameha in vigor and thunderous howl. A golden stream of energy incarnate, sparking with electric outbursts on its edges. The beam enveloped Chiaotzu whole. Tenshinhan reached out for the shape of his friend that became a mere shade of coal-black inside the blinding flash but all three of his eyes were forced to turn away and embrace cover for the luminosity threatened to make the martial artist collapse all by itself.
Chiaotzu's black figure rippled inside the howling blast of destruction before being blown away into mere dust and disassembling before Lord Slug's mouth beam even reached the peak of its destructive power and careened off into space to blast its way through whatever planets it found in its pathway. Tenshinhan trembled on the ground, feeling his friend's Ki no longer being where he last sensed it but refusing to look up and accept the reality that not a single speck of dust remained of his lifelong best friend and the only partner who stuck with him through thick and thin.
"Chiaotzu!" Tenshinhan cried out into the dark sky that refused to provide an answer. The three-eyed martial artist might have wanted to be punished by a lightning bolt or awarded by seeing his friend emerge and reveal having tricked everyone, having slipped away with an uncanny psychic technique only known to him alone…
But the gloomy sky refused to speak. That grim silence was infinitely worse than any cruel punishment would have been.
"Y-You bastard!" Goku bellowed out, shaking in wrath at the sight of the death of his friend. "You attacked him with full-power even though he knew he couldn't take it!"
"Hmph, so what? The little zombie pissed me off with his psychic abilities. I'm enjoying this new body far too much to be restrained by some annoying gnat like that," Lord Slug stretched his arms out before him, admiring his own malevolent beauty and absolute power.
"Krillin," Goku turned to his friend with a flake of worry in his eyes. Chiaotzu had a larger power level than Krillin has after attacking Lord Slug with his strongest Kamehameha wave. There was not a single doubt in mind that if his friend got hit by an attack even remotely that powerful – he'd be a goner just as easily as Lord Slug took Chiaotzu away from them.
"You monster! Chiaotzu was already killed once, we can't wish him back anymore!" Tenshinhan quivered, struggling to understand the complex influx of emotion overflowing through him as he was never one to allow his feelings to get the better of him.
"Huh? You waste Dragon Balls on something meaningless like that? Wishing trash back to life? Useless, you mongrels deserve to have your Dragon Balls rot away…" Lord Slug expressed his disgust with Tenshinhan's surging fury.
"Rot away?" Goku's eyes widened.
"That's right, the reason why I chose to assimilate myself with a youthful clone is that I realized that the Dragon Balls on your planet are inert. None of our mystical or scientific methods picked up on any signal of Prometheum energy," Lord Slug looked quite glad to utter words that further served to crush the misplaced confidence in his enemies.
"I've heard enough from you!" Bardock howled, charging past his crushed and relenting comrades in a reckless assault that reinspired some of their hope to fight back. Lord Slug took it to the defensive, grunting in pain from each blocked strike as he bellowed from any power blows that he skipped and let land. This reckless vanguard of a rebellious Saiyan revealed to the refreshed space conqueror that he was nowhere near as invulnerable as he thought himself to be against these foes.
A destructive wave emanated from Lord Slug's body, forcing Bardock away from his back while the space tyrant himself dashed right at his opponent, imposing his superior physical bulk on him. A chop to Bardock's cheek sent the Saiyan reeling and his stare hazing away as a bloody gash opened up on Bardock's face on the opposite side to his cross-shaped scar. Slug's cross to Bardock's chest threw the Saiyan off guard and sent him stumbling as the Namekian used his unnatural physiology to extend his arm and deliver a far stronger blow in the process.
Using his limbs as whips, Lord Slug proceeded to lash the rebellious Saiyan with chops and hammering slams before charging with a knee strike that sent Bardock flying. Just as Lord Slug intended to continue his punishment of the Saiyan that stepped out of line, attempting to take over the battlefield by himself, a loud, shrieky yet brave yell filled the air and Lord Slug had just enough fighting instinct in him to abandon his plans for a grand beatdown and raise his hand up in the direction where the howling came from.
"Leave my grandpa alone!" Gohan roared as he charged in with a headbutt, bursting with Ki enough to form a nova of energy around him as he crashed into the enemy like a falling star, lacking the proper control to stream his overflowing power into a Ki wave.
"What a tenacious runt… I see it comes to me to end this ridiculous Saiyan breeding ground!" Lord Slug cursed as he secured a tighter grip around little Gohan's head and applied pressure strong enough to break Gohan's concentration and leave him powerless in his grip.
"King Kai's Fist X 5!" a sharp yet determined plight filled the desolate South City streets, distracting Lord Slug from his attempt at crushing the skull of the vigorous little Saiyan welp.
A silencing fist dug deep into Lord Slug's face, pretty much forcing the cruel conqueror to release the child as the scarlet outburst of rampant energy sent vicious roars and shockwaves across the entire city block with each pummeling strike of the combination. Each strike in the chain was polished to perfection as Chi-Chi was not just a mother ready to sacrifice her life for her child but also a polished martial artist in her own right. Fists transitioned into palm strikes, crosses into hammering strikes and chops. Kicks ravaged Lord Slug like slashing blades before the furious mother snapped just a few inches higher so that she could stomp both her feet into Lord Slug's face until her one heartbeat of incredible power concluded.
"Chi-Chi…" Goku just couldn't settle down and contain the shock. "King Kai's Fist X 5!? King Kai told us not to use it more than twice or once if we're using it times two!"
"I can't believe I'm saying it but… Goku's wife might be even more reckless than him," Krillin scratched his cheek, overcoming his terror for just a moment of respectful consideration.
"Human wretch!" Lord Slug bellowed as he turned back to Chi-Chi who seemed to have run out of one heartbeat of spectacular might and flashing speed that the King Kai Fist offered the user. Due to using the technique on such an unstable scale, the woman seemed to be completely paralyzed in place as the weight of her own body seemed too heavy to bear, let alone the desired, dauntless task of pulling her own child back into safety.
The despot snapped his jaw wide open once more, resolute to obliterate the protective mother alongside her beloved child but a pair of fists clutched into an ax-handle slam drove into the lower jaw of the Super Namekian while another pair of fists slammed into the top of his head, forcing the Super Namekian's mouth shut while Tenshinhan's eyes burnt brightly with the desperation of grief and all sense of self-preservation cooked to dust inside of that intense flame. The martial artist had engaged the enemy with an extra pair of arms as they were necessary to oppose the inevitable revelation of yet another Darkness Blaster.
"Your evil shall claim no more lives today!" Tenshinhan cried out for some spirit of cosmic justice to hear his plight. The martial artist's shape split into three additional doppelgangers of physical shape, each one donning four arms as they proceeded to launch a valiant, grief and fury led offensive against the oppressive space conqueror.
Every warrior clutching for their wounds or watching out for a treasured friend or family member by their side struggled to calculate or comprehend how many punches came Lord Slug's way and no matter the rampant and abundantly clear difference in clashing powers, Tenshinhan got more than his fair share of licks in, even though the magnitude of said punches didn't look to be sufficient to defeat the enemy. Lord Slug merely stumbled, still on his feet with a battered and swelling face as he turned his attention back at the worn-out, three-eyed warrior before him with a livid glare.
"Is that all the love and respect you had for your friend? I always knew those to be useless feelings, when clashing with the wall of all-conquering evil they falter and break just like your puny friend did…" Lord Slug taunted Tenshinhan for failing to even knock him down with all of his resolute strength. His taunts stuck a truthful dagger in – a warrior might have experienced a temporary boost and a reckless abandon of all common sense when under extreme emotional duress but even that situational boost in power faded away and, like Bardock knew all too well due to relying on such a tactic quite often, it took more than what it offered as trade the first place.
"You're wrong!" Tenshinhan yelled out, letting out all of his aggression and need to punish the evil Super Namekian where he lacked the stamina to do so. "A great martial artist has taught me that the path of the light, a path walked alongside someone precious and shared is the only path to true power. Chiaotzu… I'm going to send this monster to hell with your technique!"
Tenshinhan activated his Multi-Form once more. While his Four-Witches Technique faltered momentarily, having the stumps threaten the fighter to disappear back underneath his shoulder blades, through severe physical effort Tenshinhan forced the extra pair of arms back while his doppelgangers appeared with the extra pair already, pointing all four index fingers each at Lord Slug.
"Barrage Dodonpa!" Tenshinhan chanted out as each additional copy of him performed twice the usual number of Dodonpa beams, all at the same time, forming a barrage of devastating shots of gleaming Ki energy that surpassed even Lord Slug's Darkness Blaster in its shine from before. Despite his content facial expression after throwing all he had into the mix, Tenshinhan soon met absolute horror of seeing his enemy encased in a Kiai bubble with a rich smile of defiance twisting his pummeled face.
Before anyone could react, Lord Slug extended his hand, pulling Tenshinhan in for a bone-crunching blow to the gut, and flung the lifeless martial artist into the air while raising his hand up while his malicious smile only grew more sadistic as he sensed yet another defiant fool about to meet his end. A yellow energy wave that began as a round orb many times the size of Slug's fist erupted into a fully powered wave that hurried to obliterate every sign of Tenshinhan and his feelings of kinship and allegiance to the light from having ever existed.
"Tenshinhan!" Krillin cried out, dashing at his airborne ally, declaring to himself that he'd never allow a friend of his to die before his very eyes. He would save Tenshinhan or die trying. Despite his proclamation, the warrior froze with his friend in his arms after realizing that he didn't have enough time to escape the blast zone after having shielded his friend from certain doom. Krillin's eyes whited out, overcome by light.
An azure beam engaged Lord Slug's Big Masher attack from behind Krillin and began struggling against it in an attempt to push it away. Krillin looked up and behind him, gazing with a shocked look at Bardock having dashed in the way of the wave that would have destroyed both Earthlings at once with an attack of his own.
"C-Come on…" Bardock grunted in severe pain as he could only struggle against Lord Slug for so long. "Don't let my recklessness be in vain, get the hell out of his way!"
"Bardock…" Krillin muttered. "You don't have a way to escape the blast now, why?" he asked.
"You fool," Bardock smirked. "If all of you Earthlings fall out like flies, I'll have no crew to rescue my wife Gine with… Now go, let me take this green bastard on and see how far I can get!"
Krillin let Tenshinhan slip from his grip. Not too far away from the ruined city street, Gohan dived down and under the limp and unconscious body of his father's friend and stopped his fall while gently placing Tenshinhan down. The bald martial artist cupped his hands together and drew them behind him.
"Ka… Me… Ha… Me…!" he chanted out slowly as Lord Slug's Ki blast began to dominate Bardock's own challenge to the Big Masher. It was dangerous taking his time in such a vulnerable position but he needed to channel as much of his Ki as possible into this attack. Just when it was about to hit the two of them and blast them into oblivion, Krillin extended his hands with a bold shout. "Ha!"
The combined energy waves began making significant strides in pushing the struggle back to Lord Slug who grit his teeth in spite of the loathsome maggots that couldn't help but spoil his every attempt at snapping their individual necks. Despite his rampant might and howling youth, he still didn't have the force needed to destroy them unchallenged. Each and every one of those despicable bugs knew some way to power themselves up and present a challenge to the mighty space conqueror if only for a second. Still, a second was enough for someone else to avoid death.
A vociferous crack filled the air as all of the colliding Ki beams detonated just up in Lord Slug's face, throwing the space conqueror down to one knee, panting in both pain and weariness. The last thing he had counted on was being challenged by a handful of Earthlings that didn't seem to be offering more resistance than the concrete walls they hid under when this invasion started as well as some random Saiyans that had no right of being in this quarter of the universe, to begin with.
"Damn it, damn you all!" Lord Slug cursed, pounding the ground underneath his feet while Goku walked past Chi-Chi after having rushed to her protection a tad behind Tenshinhan before. Had Goku's motive not been to protect his wife but attack Slug with the same ferocity that Tenshinhan felt in his heart, he'd have outraced the three-eyed martial artist but with the King Kai Fist having already done a number on his body, he was a tad slow at the moment.
Goku, Krillin, and Bardock lined up alongside one another as Gohan retreated, helping his mother who silently moaned in pain after her muscles and bones began breaking down simultaneously from the strain she went through in order to rescue her son.
"You demon, not even if you apologize and promise me to leave will I forgive you!" Goku clenched his fists, ripping his tattered gi off his chest as he prepared to fight the enemy with all of his might alongside his friend and family again.
"You… You won't forgive me, you say?" Lord Slug smirked, quivering in absolute rancor toward the goody-natured Saiyan. "You monkey sap, it is I who will never forgive you!"
Lord Slug rose to his feet once more, hunching his upper body as a rush of physical might overcame him and felt too much to be contained inside his current physical body. It was just so very fortunate that Lord Slug wasn't necessarily restrained to his current, already impressive size as his arms grew three times in size with one, mighty pump while his chest was soon to follow.
"Kakarot, attack now, quick!" Bardock yelled out, startling his shocked son when a red eye-beam hit both Saiyans square in the chest and sent them both flying back, bleeding from their chests as the eye-beams grew in size and power vastly alongside Lord Slug's growth spurt. Within a mere blink of an eye that extinguished the beams that had turned into all-out destructive waves of Ki by the time that Lord Slug took his final, towering size and loomed over the tallest skyscrapers in South City, the terrifying transformation was complete.
"To think that a Super Namekian, a wicked ruler of the Evil Tribe of the entire universe would be forced to resort to my most frightsome form, a potential for strength so vast that I had lost the ability to access it in my ancient age but no longer… Witness the true ruler of Evil Tribe restored to full glory!" Lord Slug basked in his own greatness and guffawed while Krillin looked around to see whom else he could rely on at this point.
Goku and Bardock twitched and grunted in pain, each inside their own individual pile of rubble of a collapsed building to rest in while Gohan still did his best to guide his mother to a safer location in the battlefield. Flashes to be only accurately described as vivid nightmares from his last stay inside limbo after being done-in by King Piccolo's spawn rendered Krillin weak in the knees but the memories of the time past that point, of Goku's wedding, the delicious feast, and the feeling of cool grass as it caressed his bare feet slapped Krillin back to reality and out of the nightmare.
The Earthling clenched his fists and tightened his belt, taking a fighting stance even though he knew full well that he had no hope at all for victory. All he could hope for was inspire his Saiyan friends to get back up and keep fighting on against this dozen times more petrifying threat, ignoring the odds of actually beating it because to confront them would mean to allow the despair to grip them and crush them in its cold, pale hand.
"K-Krillin…" Goku whimpered out, lacking the strength to command his friend to run. Even as his thoughts contacted his best friend telepathically, they sounded oppressed by pain and weary but Krillin shut himself off from his friend's warnings.
This was his planet, that was his friend that Lord Slug killed. It was also his right to fight on to punish this monster for all that he'd done on Earth.