Frieza tightened his tail around Vegeta's throat, his fist rhythmically hammering into the Saiyan prince's back.
Given the chasm between their power levels, a single blow should have been fatal. Vegeta was only alive because Frieza was holding back—savoring the cruelty. To kill him instantly would be a waste. Frieza wanted him to drown in the realization of his own foolishness, to die slowly in a cold bath of terror and despair.
Frieza casually reached out, plucked a Namekian crab crawling on a nearby rock, ate it whole, and resumed the beating. He was relishing the excessive violence against an opponent who had already lost the will to fight.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over them.
Frieza wasn't entirely unguarded; he expected someone might try a desperate intervention. But the intruder exceeded even his calculations, burying a heavy kick directly into the tyrant's face.
"Gah!?"
Frieza released Vegeta, sent hurtling through the air. He smashed through rock formations and cut across several islands before he could even attempt to arrest his momentum.
The attack was too fast, too heavy. Before Frieza could regain his posture, the attacker—Piccolo—was already ahead of him. Piccolo delivered an upward kick, launching the emperor into the stratosphere.
The assault didn't stop. Piccolo pursued him, blurring past the ascending Frieza to deliver a Double Sledgehammer to the crown of his head, sending him screaming back toward the earth.
Piccolo dove after him, fist cocked for a final blow. At the last second, Frieza rolled away. The punch struck the ground instead, the sheer pressure of the impact splitting the entire landmass in two.
"You're not getting away!"
Piccolo unleashed an Explosive Demon Wave. The high-output energy torrent surged toward Frieza, who caught it with a single hand. Even for the emperor, the blast was formidable; he was slowly pushed back by the sheer force.
But Frieza was still the king of the universe. With a snarl of effort, he swatted the beam aside. Unharmed but visibly enraged, he glared down at the Namekian.
"You... Namekian bug!" Frieza hissed. "That hurt... That actually hurt!"
"Save it for your eulogy!"
The two collided in mid-air. Fists and feet clashed at speeds that defied the human eye, the sound of the impacts lagging seconds behind the movement.
They vanished. A millisecond later, the space between them detonated. The sky erupted in a series of shockwaves, vaporizing clouds and leveling the surrounding terrain. They flickered in and out of existence, trading the lead in a dance so fast that Krillin and Gohan could no longer track it.
"TSAAAAA!"
"KIEEEEEE!"
Arms, legs, knees, and elbows—every part of their bodies was a weapon. In the heat of the melee, Piccolo fired beams from his eyes, but Frieza dodged by arching his back, spinning mid-air to crack his tail against Piccolo's jaw.
Piccolo halted his flight instantly and extended his arms for a counter-grab.
"Hah!"
Frieza unleashed a Death Saucer—a razor-sharp energy disk that severed Piccolo's extended arm.
Piccolo didn't flinch. He closed the distance with his remaining arm, thrusting the stump of the severed one into Frieza's face. In a wet explosion of bio-energy, the arm regrew instantly, and Piccolo's hand clamped onto Frieza's head like a vice.
"KA-AH!"
A point-blank energy blast! Piccolo detonated the energy directly into Frieza's face before diving, slamming the tyrant into the ground with tectonic force. Another island shattered, but the battle simply moved into the ocean.
They tore through the water, the resistance of the sea seemingly non-existent to them. They locked hands in a test of strength before Frieza kicked Piccolo back up into the sky.
"TATATATATA! WARYA!"
"KIEEEEEE!"
They screamed as they resumed their zero-range brawl. The shockwaves split the sea and whipped up a hurricane-force wind that threatened to blow Krillin and Gohan away.
Then, a gap appeared. Piccolo exploited a millisecond of lag in Frieza's guard, his fist connecting squarely with the tyrant's chest. The impact sent Frieza's small frame whistling through the air, passing directly between Krillin and Gohan. Piccolo followed a heartbeat later.
Frieza accelerated, weaving through the terrain to shake his pursuer before coming to a dead stop and kicking Piccolo squarely in the face as he approached. Piccolo spun in the air, recovering instantly to fire beams from his eyes.
"S-Staggering... Piccolo is actually holding his own!" Krillin shouted. "Is assimilation really this powerful?"
"He's incredible!" Gohan cheered.
They watched with a mix of awe and a lingering sense of being left behind. But their hope was tempered by reality.
"No... at this rate, Piccolo's in trouble," a voice said. "Frieza is still stronger."
"Goku!" Krillin spun around. "You're awake!"
"Dad!"
Despite having his neck broken earlier, Goku stood tall, his body fully restored by the Senzu Bean. But he hadn't just healed. His power had surged to a new height, his aura vibrating with a terrifying intensity.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. It's going to be okay now. I'm going in."
Goku took flight, positioning himself right beside Piccolo.
"Goku! About time!"
"Yeah, sorry. But I'm ready now. Let's do this."
"Hmph. Teaming up with you again makes me want to vomit... but it's the best hand we have," Piccolo grunted, taking his stance.
They were facing an opponent who stood above them all—a being whose existence threatened the lives of billions. Goku and Piccolo cast aside their pride as individual martial artists. Today, they were simply the defenders of the universe.
"By the way, Piccolo... you feel different," Goku noted. "No, you feel like the old you. That dangerous edge you had when we first fought."
"I was just getting soft in my old age," Piccolo smirked. "Remember this, Son Goku: once he's dead, you're next."
"Heh. I'm looking forward to it."
The two legends stopped smiling and turned their gaze toward the emperor.
"TSAAAAA!"
"WARYAAAAA!"
"Monkeys and bugs!" Frieza roared.
They moved as one. Having been rivals for years, they knew each other's styles perfectly. Their coordination was flawless, a tag-team assault that forced Frieza to use nearly $70\%$ of his power just to keep up.
Goku blurred behind Frieza only to be met by an elbow, while Frieza turned to fire a blast at Piccolo. Piccolo ducked a kick and tried to sweep Frieza's legs, but Turles and Nappa—who had also recovered—suddenly dove into the fray.
"Tch...!"
Piccolo held two fingers to his forehead. He began gathering every ounce of his energy into a single point. The Special Beam Cannon. It was a flawed technique for 1v1 combat due to its charge time, but in a team fight, it was the ultimate spear.
"Kaioken times twenty!!"
Goku exploded in a crimson aura, charging Frieza and landing a heavy blow to the tyrant's cheek. He followed up with a kick, creating distance between Frieza and the charging Piccolo.
"Now, Goku! Buy me time!"
"KA... ME... HA... ME..."
Goku gathered light in his palms, pouring his over-extended power into the attack.
"HAAAAAAA!!"
The Kamehameha surged toward Frieza. He dodged, but Goku manipulated the beam, making it curve through the air to pursue the emperor.
"Annoying!" Frieza stopped and caught the beam with his bare hands. The heat began to singe his palms, the blast refusing to dissipate.
With a roar of effort, Frieza crushed the beam into nothingness and charged Goku. He delivered a headbutt that sent Goku reeling, following up with a tail whip to the temple.
"You monkeys really shouldn't underestimate me."
"Gah... huff..."
"Die!" Frieza leveled his palm at Goku.
But at that exact moment, a barrage of attacks—a Kamehameha, a Masenko, a Spirit Ball, and a Tri-Beam—hit Frieza simultaneously. Yamcha, Tien, and the others had finally rejoined the fight.
The damage was zero. But the distraction was absolute.
"Filth! You're still alive!?" Frieza snarled.
While Frieza's attention flickered toward the "weaklings," Turles and Nappa moved. Turles landed a right hook that sent Frieza spinning into Nappa, who kicked him back toward Turles. Before Frieza could recover, the two Saiyans grabbed his arms, pinning him in place.
"Now!"
"Kill him!!"
Piccolo didn't hesitate.
"SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!!"
A drill of golden-purple light tore through the air at a speed exceeding lightning.
Frieza's eyes widened. With a monstrous surge of power, he blew Turles and Nappa back and twisted his torso. The beam missed his heart—but it tore a hole straight through his stomach.
Everyone froze. They thought it was over.
But Frieza was not human. He was a monster whose biology allowed him to survive even as a severed torso. He coughed up blood, his face contorted in a mask of primal rage.
"You... maggots... I'll kill every last one of you!"
The moment of Piccolo's "triumph" became his greatest vulnerability. Before Piccolo could even drop his hand, Frieza fired a Death Beam. It pierced Piccolo's chest, sending the Namekian crashing to the earth.
"Piccolo!"
Frieza raised his hand. His target wasn't Goku. It was Krillin.
Maybe Frieza feared the Destructo Disk. Or maybe he just wanted to hurt Goku the most. A beam of light pierced Krillin's head. As the monk's body began to slump, Frieza used his telekinesis to lift him into the air.
"No! Stop it!" Goku screamed.
"Watch closely!" Frieza sneered. "This is the price for defiance!"
Frieza clenched his fist. Krillin's body expanded—and then detonated in a spray of dust and light.
Goku's mind went blank.
Grief, despair, and shock swirled for a heartbeat before being incinerated by a white-hot rage that burned away his reason. Krillin had already been brought back by the Dragon Balls once. This was the end. There would be no second chance.
"I... I won't... forgive you..."
The world began to shake. Goku's power, which had already reached its limit, shattered its shackles. The S-Cells in his body, nurtured by his gentle life on Earth, reacted to his tectonic fury.
The criteria were met:
Combat Power: At the threshold.
Calm Spirit: The years on Earth.
Trigger: Absolute, soul-searing rage.
Frieza watched in horror as the air around the Saiyan began to warp. Goku's hair stood on end, flickering between black and gold. His eyes turned a feral, pupilless white as a golden aura flecked with crimson erupted.
This was the False Super Saiyan—the bridge to the legend.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Goku let out a primal scream. The door to the legend swung wide.
His hair snapped into a permanent, shimmering gold. His eyes returned to clarity, but their color had changed to a piercing, cold teal. His expression was no longer that of the kind man from Earth; it was the face of the ultimate warrior.
"W-What is this...?" Frieza stammered, backing away. "Saiyans only turn into apes... What have you done!?"
"Kakarot..." Vegeta whispered from the sidelines, his voice trembling with a mix of awe and terror. "Is that... the Legend?"
Goku appeared in front of Frieza in an instant. He grabbed Frieza's wrist and began to squeeze, the sound of the tyrant's bones cracking audible over the wind.
"Enough... you heartless piece of trash," Goku whispered, his voice vibrating with power. "To kill the innocent... and then... Krillin..."
"Gah!" Frieza tore his hand away, his entire body shaking. For the first time in his life, the emperor of the universe felt the cold hand of death on his shoulder.
Turles and Nappa watched from the dirt, grins of pure ecstasy on their bloodied faces.
"He did it," Turles laughed. "The low-class brat actually did it."
"The legend is real," Nappa added.
Goku turned his gaze back to Frieza, his golden aura roaring like a sun.
"I am angry, Frieza! I AM ANGRY!!!"
Goku's fist buried itself in Frieza's face, sending the god of the universe spiraling into the abyss.
***
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