The hulking brute with the mohawk, Bido, streaked through the air, aiming a devastating punch at his opponent. True to his appearance, his physical power was the greatest among Bojack's subordinates.
However, Turles, now wreathed in the golden aura of a Super Saiyan, caught the massive fist with a single hand. A cruel smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Heh... don't be in such a rush. Let's enjoy ourselves a little longer. Don't you agree?"
"Guh... ah!"
Turles tightened his grip. The sound of grinding bone echoed as he applied a monstrous amount of pressure. Bido's face contorted in agony. It was a simple, brutal display of dominance—catching a full-power strike and crushing the hand that delivered it.
Bido lashed out with a desperate knee, but Turles blocked it with his own leg, the impact rattling Bido's joint and sending a jolt of pain up his spine.
"Hup!"
Turles buried his free fist into Bido's gut. The giant doubled over, blood-flecked saliva spraying from his lips. Turles reached up, grabbed Bido by his mohawk, and yanked his head back, forcing the pirate to look him in the eye.
"You've got terrible luck, pal. I'm sure you're hot stuff back in whatever hole you crawled out of, but you picked the wrong planet to mess with."
He punctuated the sentence with a knee to the stomach. Bido's eyes bulged. Desperate, the pirate swung a wide hook, managed to graze Turles's cheek, but it was a shallow victory.
"I actually don't hate your lifestyle," Turles mused, ignoring the trickle of blood on his face. "Wandering the stars, smashing planets for fun, eating well, getting drunk... it's a good life. We're birds of a feather, you and I."
Turles laughed and hammered his elbow into the top of Bido's skull. The giant went into a tailspin, crashing into the earth with enough force to cause a localized tremor. As Bido struggled to stand, Turles descended like a meteor, pinning the giant to the dirt with a heavy boot to the spine.
"Gah...!"
"I've got a business proposal for you. Why don't you and your crew join our side? I've grown fond of this rock, so I'm not handing it over. But if you get on your knees and beg, I might find a use for you."
Bido flared his ki, trying to push Turles off. In response, Turles's aura exploded with a violent, roaring intensity. His muscles swelled, his frame growing larger as the golden light surged like a bonfire.
This was a form that pushed past the initial wall of the transformation—Super Saiyan Grade 2. It consumed energy rapidly, but it granted him a level of power that, in terms of raw ki, rivaled even Lisette. Against such a monstrosity, Bido was hopelessly outclassed.
"It's a good deal," Turles growled. "You handle the 'unpleasantness' in the shadows—kill the idiots who think they can raid this world—and I'll let you live. Our Goddess is a decent Guardian, but she's still soft. She thinks she's being cold, but she doesn't have the stomach for the real dirt. That's why Earth needs people like us. We're the ones who bury the trash so the 'civilized' folk don't have to smell it."
Turles had developed a twisted affection for Earth. It was the home of Goku—the living legacy of Bardock—and he had grown to like Suno and the old Android 8. But having been a villain, he saw the reality Lisette chose to ignore: evil is best fought with evil. If the world was to be protected from galactic bottom-feeders, it needed a monster in the dark.
"Follow me, and I'll handle the Goddess's paperwork. Or..." He ground his heel into Bido's back, bones snapping under the pressure. "You can die here."
"I... I can't..." Bido wheezed. "If I... betray him... Lord Bojack will... kill me..."
"Don't worry about him. We're going to slaughter that bastard anyway."
"You don't understand... you don't know... how terrifying he is..."
Turles clicked his tongue. Bido wasn't acting out of loyalty; he was paralyzed by fear. He was a broken dog who could only obey the loudest bark.
(I see. He's just like the old me,) Turles thought. (Bound by fear. He's useless as a tool if he won't turn on his master.)
"Then you're of no use to me. Die!"
Without a shred of mercy, Turles leveled his hands at Bido's back and unleashed a point-blank barrage of ki blasts.
"Gah... NO! STO—GAAAAAAAH!"
The forest echoed with Bido's screams, but Turles didn't stop. He fired again and again, executing the pirate with clinical precision.
"AGH... AAAAAH...!"
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Eventually, the screaming stopped. The giant's body went limp. Turles kicked the smoking corpse away with a look of pure disgust.
"Hmph. Nothing but a small-time thug in the end. Pathertic."
He fired one final blast, vaporizing Bido's remains until only ash remained. He felt a fleeting moment of regret for the lost "tool," but his focus immediately shifted. He tracked Vegeta's ki signature and took flight.
For once, he wasn't looking for a pawn. He was heading to support the warriors he had finally begun to recognize as his own kind.
***
Zangya sprinted through the dense forest, her breathing shallow. Gone was the arrogant smirk she had worn upon landing.
She glanced over her shoulder to see two green, elastic arms snaking through the trees, weaving like cobras as they pursued her. No matter how many sharp turns she made, the reach of the Namekian's limbs seemed infinite.
Suddenly, the arms retracted. Had he given up?
No. Piccolo appeared directly in front of her, his arms returning to their normal length in a blur of motion.
"Persistent brat!" Zangya snarled, firing a ki blast.
Piccolo swatted the energy aside with his forearm as if it were a nuisance. He closed the distance in a single leap, and the two entered a high-speed melee. Fists and feet collided in a series of sonic booms that shattered the surrounding trees.
Exploiting a fraction of a second, Zangya blurred behind Piccolo and swung a knife-hand at his neck. Her hand passed through empty air.
An afterimage!
"KAA-AH!"
Piccolo's battle cry rang out as he delivered a heavy kick to her face, sending her tumbling through the dirt. To a human, kicking a beautiful woman in the face would be unthinkable, but to Piccolo, it was irrelevant. He was a Namekian; he had no concept of gender. To him, there were only allies and enemies.
In truth, none of the defenders on the field today were likely to show her any "chivalry." Vegeta and Turles were former planetary conquerors who had wiped out entire civilizations without regard for age or sex. Lisette was a woman herself and didn't care about the gender of her targets. Even Trunks, who might have been more gentle in another life, had been hardened by a future where mercy was a death sentence.
"Curse you!"
Zangya snarled, her hands glowing with intense blue energy.
"Shoot Blaster!"
She launched a massive orb of energy. Piccolo didn't dodge; he caught the blast with both hands, his feet digging into the earth. He realized that if he let it pass, the trajectory would cause a catastrophic impact on the planet's surface.
He groaned as the energy pushed against him, Zangya's smile widening as she thought she had him pinned. Then, Piccolo roared and threw the orb straight into the sky.
"Is that your best shot?" he asked, his voice cold.
"W-What...?"
"My turn."
Piccolo moved his hands with flickering speed, firing a chaotic swarm of ki blasts. Zangya scrambled to dodge, weaving through the barrage. This was a common tactic—using a curtain of fire to keep an opponent at bay—but Zangya noticed that the blasts were incredibly weak. They weren't even aiming for her.
He's wasting his energy, she thought. He can't even hit me!
She realized her mistake a second too late. The blasts hadn't disappeared. They were hovering in the air, surrounding her in a perfect 360-degree sphere. She was trapped in a cage of glowing light.
"Oh no..."
"It's over. Hellzone Grenade!"
Piccolo slammed his palms together.
The hundreds of hovering blasts converged on the center instantly. Zangya had nowhere to run.
"LORD BOJACK, SAVE MEEEE!"
Her scream was swallowed by a titanic explosion that leveled the forest for miles. When the smoke cleared, nothing remained of the pirate queen but a charred, unrecognizable heap that crumbled into dust.
"Hmph. That was easier than expected," Piccolo muttered.
He immediately lost interest in the dead. He turned his senses toward the remaining battles. While the others had finished their tasks, Vegeta seemed to be struggling.
Without a word, Piccolo took to the skies, heading toward the final confrontation.
***
Status Report
Bujin: Executed by Lisette.
Gokua: Bifurcated by Trunks.
Bido: Executed by Turles.
Zangya: Incinerated by Piccolo.
Remaining Enemy: Bojack.
***
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