"Who are you?" Goku asked warily, staring at the man who had suddenly appeared before them. In his sight was a handsome man clad in black, with a black outfit bearing a fan crest on the back.
The man had a gleaming katana with a purple sheen slung over his shoulder, and a devil-may-care look on his face.
"Lord Musashi, you actually came," Raditz said, unusually respectful.
"Lord?" Vegeta glanced thoughtfully at Musashi when he heard Raditz.
Let's roll the clock back a bit.
After Slug enlarged himself, his power climbed to over three million. Goku unleashed the Twentyfold Kaio-ken, but he was still a cut below Slug. No matter how nimble a giant body is, compared to fighters in normal size like Goku, it's inevitably a bit sluggish.
Slug was no exception, so at the start of their fight, Goku absolutely toyed with him, using his small frame and the Afterimage Technique to make Slug suffer.
But Slug didn't rise to become a major power in the universe because of a few useless underlings, nor because of the technology his faction wielded. Compared to the Frieza Force, Slug's tech lagged by decades, and his so-called Demon Clan couldn't even operate under sunlight for long.
Even his four strongest lieutenants couldn't stay in the sun for more than two hours, let alone the grunts. That single weakness—no sunlight—would be enough for many factions to wipe them out. Yet despite all these shortcomings, Slug still outstripped rivals and made a name for himself across space.
He relied on his own ability: a base power level of two million, plus a gigantification that added another million.
With a stratagem, Slug seized a momentarily distracted Goku in one grab. To be fair, Goku's power level wasn't so low he couldn't resist at all—but raw physical strength, while part of combat power, isn't reflected in the scouter figure.
In Slug's giant grip, Goku had no way to break free. This was the second time—he'd nearly been crushed to death once before by Raditz in Great Ape form. Now it was Slug. If Piccolo hadn't risked his life to save him, Goku might have been gravely wounded again—or even dead.
To rescue Goku, Piccolo tore off both his ears, and the Z Fighters stood by whistling nonstop, finally suppressing the arrogant Slug.
It turns out Namekians have a non-lethal weakness: they can't stand whistling, or rather, their hearing is so sharp that the shrill sound is unbearable. It makes them extremely uncomfortable, to the point their bodies can't take it. Enlarged, Slug's hearing was magnified manyfold, so he could handle it even less.
Not lethal, but enough to pin him down and prevent him from acting freely.
As for Vegeta and Raditz? One disdained taking advantage of an opponent's weakness; the other couldn't be bothered. Either way, Goku would be fine in the end.
At that moment, a man suddenly appeared before them, charged Slug with katana in hand, sliced the whistling-suppressed Slug into pieces, then spewed flames from his mouth and burned the scraps to ash.
Thanks to Namekian talents, as long as the critical part of the brain isn't destroyed, they can regenerate indefinitely—though it burns a great deal of stamina.
The one who did all that was Uchiha Musashi.
"Son Goku, huh? Truly a remarkable genius." As Goku and the others sized up Musashi, Musashi was sizing up Goku and the others too.
You had to admit, Goku and Vegeta really were the twin protagonists of the Dragon Ball world. Whether Goku on Earth or Vegeta on Planet Vegeta, they'd had a mostly smooth rise.
The friends who trained alongside them and the enemies who opposed them were eventually left far behind.
From Yamcha to Krillin to Tien and Piccolo, in the end none could keep up with Goku's pace. Vegeta's side was similar: Raditz, Nappa. Without Meruem's intervention and a stroke of fortune, Raditz at best would be on Nappa's level now—if not worse. Nappa, after all, was from a noble Saiyan line, while Raditz was a mere low-class warrior.
The Z Fighters did grow later on, but the growth was limited, and they ultimately couldn't match Goku's pace. In the Frieza saga, Krillin could still trade a few blows and even toy with Frieza for a moment.
But in the Androids arc, Cell could stand there and let him punch all day without reacting. At least Tien burned his life to block Cell for a brief span.
By the Buu arc, Krillin was essentially no different from an ordinary Earthling in the eyes of Buu and Dabura—just low-level fodder, perhaps a bigger piece of fodder than most.
Even Piccolo, a Namekian prodigy, wasn't an exception. By the Buu era, he'd fallen from the front line to support—and even comic relief.
"You're pretty good too. You're strong. At least not weaker than me," Goku said, eyes brimming with fighting spirit as he looked at Musashi.
Vegeta was stunned to hear it. He hadn't expected someone whose strength rivaled theirs.
"I'm not here to pick a fight. I came to tell you something. In less than ten days, that guy Frieza will arrive on Planet Namek. I hope you'll go to Namek together to stop his ambition and return peace to the universe," Musashi declared righteously. Little did he know, even without Frieza, a plundering species like the Chimera Ants boded no good for this galaxy or the universe.
"Hmph ╭(╯^╰)╮ spare us the lecture. I'll deal with that Frieza myself," the tsundere prince finally snapped.
"Vegeta! Don't be rude to Lord Musashi!" As the Saiyan prince—albeit of a fallen kingdom—Vegeta shouldn't have been scolded like that by another Saiyan. But this was Musashi, one of the highest Chimera Ant leaders besides a handful like Meruem. Having become a Chimera Ant himself, Raditz naturally took Musashi's side.
Musashi waved a hand to calm Raditz.
"So you're Prince Vegeta? Your power is indeed astonishing. Perhaps by now your battle power already surpasses Frieza's first form," Musashi said deliberately, stressing the words "first form." He was sure Vegeta would catch that detail.
"Wait! What did you just say? Frieza's first form? What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me he has a second form?" Sure enough, Vegeta was all ears for anything about Frieza. He dreamed of killing him. As long as Frieza lived, Vegeta couldn't grow freely the way Goku did.
Frieza was like a nightmare—a mountain pressing on Vegeta's heart.
"What? You didn't know? A former elite of the Frieza Force who doesn't know Frieza can transform? That's odd. Even Zarbon, one of the two lieutenants at Frieza's side, knows," Musashi said pointedly.
"Cut the crap and tell me already!" Vegeta snapped. He'd thought that even if he wasn't Frieza's equal yet, he wasn't far off. He hadn't expected the Frieza he'd seen wasn't his full strength. The thought irked him badly.
"Simply put, our King recently fought Frieza's brother, Cooler. In the course of battle, Cooler's body changed—his strength more than doubled. From his own mouth we learned this is a unique ability of Frieza's race called transformation. With each transformation, their power increases by more than a factor of two. And we learned from him that Frieza has three transformations—four forms in total. His true strength is unfathomable," Musashi explained.
Faces went pale at the news. Vegeta might barely match the first form at best—so how strong would the fourth be?
The Z Fighters did the math in their heads.
If the first form was one million, then after the first transformation the second form would be two million, the third form after the second transformation would be four million, and the final fourth form after the third transformation would be eight million.
That Slug just now only had three million, and even that was already beyond their ability to handle.
Frieza was terrifying indeed.
In truth, canon Frieza's real power is around 120 million—and the current Frieza is even stronger!
If the Z Fighters knew the real number, everyone but Goku—maybe even Vegeta—would likely lose the will to fight.
The gap was simply too vast, the disparity too great.
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