đ Saiyan of the Red Dawn
Chapter 5 â The Second Hunt
(Part 2)
The dropship skimmed just above the canyon rims before settling onto a narrow plateau.
Kael stepped out into a hard, howling wind.
Dust stung his face, mingling with the smell of iron and old blood.
He tightened the straps of the weighted gauntlets.
Each one felt like a slab of forged gravity.
Every motion pulled at his shoulders, reminding him how easily power could betray its wielder if untempered.
Above his left eye, the scouter pulsed, overlaying a red grid across the rocks.
TARGETS: SIX
SIGNATURES: ACTIVE
PRIMARY: RECCO (CP ~90,000)
He let out a slow exhale.
No transformations, he reminded himself.
No blazing up to break his limits in a single burst.
No shortcuts.
Only discipline.
He began the descent.
The canyon walls rose in sheer, pale cliffs on either side. Eddies of sand curled around his boots.
He felt every step in the burn of his thighs and the strain of his shoulders, the weighted gauntlets turning even simple climbing into a trial.
This is what you wanted, he thought, almost smiling.
To be tested.
Hours passed.
He moved like a shadow through the gullies and dry washes, pausing every dozen steps to listen.
The scouter whispered data in his earâpower fluctuations, movement projections.
They're patrolling, he realized.
Recco isn't a fool. He's established a perimeter.
He crouched behind an outcrop of crumbling stone and peered around it.
Three of the deserters milled around a flickering campfire in a natural amphitheater below.
All wore the old, scuffed armor of Frieza's ranksâpurple plates cracked and scored from a hundred skirmishes.
One of themâa horned brute nearly Kael's heightâwore a battered scouter of his own.
Kael touched the side of his visor.
ANALYSIS:
SUBJECT: BRUTUS
COMBAT POWER: ~35,000
Strong enough to kill me if I'm careless.
But he wasn't afraid.
He felt a clean, bright purpose in his chestâthis was the proof of everything Varis had taught him.
He drew a long breath, centering himself.
Observe.
Learn.
Strike.
He watched them for another hour, memorizing the timing of their patrols, the rhythms of their banter.
Eventually, the biggest one turned away to relieve himself behind a boulder.
Kael's moment.
He flowed over the lip of the canyon wall without a sound.
His boots hit the sand behind the brute.
A single, precise chop to the base of the neck.
There was a muffled crack.
The horned deserter dropped without a cry.
Kael caught him under the arms and eased the corpse behind a pile of shattered crates.
His heart hammeredânot with fear, but exhilaration.
This is the hunt.
The scouter pingedâone of the other signatures had noticed the absence.
Kael darted along the shadowed edge of the amphitheater.
He pressed his back to a rock and waited, still as the stones themselves.
A short, reptilian deserter trudged around the corner, frowning and muttering.
The moment it passed, Kael stepped out and locked an arm around its throat.
It thrashed, but the weighted gauntlet made his hold unbreakable.
He twisted sharplyâanother wet crack.
Two down.
The last of the trio stood by the fire, looking back and forth with a dawning sense of unease.
Kael emerged into the circle of torchlight, silent as a phantom.
The deserter whirled, opening its mouth to screamâ
Kael's fist crashed into the side of its skull, caving it in.
The body slumped at his feet.
Three remain.
And now, they would know he was coming.
Good.
He dragged the bodies into a pile and knelt beside them.
A lifetime agoâback on Sadala, or in the first weeks of his trainingâhe might have felt guilt.
But he understood something new now.
Survival was never clean.
And he would not apologize for it.
This is strength, he thought.
Not just to kill, but to choose when to kill.
The scouter pulsed againâthree signatures approaching from deeper in the canyon.
One burned brighter than all the rest.
Recco.
Kael rose slowly, rolling his shoulders under the gauntlets' weight.
He flexed his fingers and felt the measured, controlled heat of his ki gathering in his limbs.
No transformations, he reminded himself one last time.
Discipline.
The three figures emerged from the darkness, weapons drawn.
Kael smiled.
He stepped forward to meet them.