"Eh? Power level 35,000!" Burter stared at the scouter's reading in disbelief. "This oaf can actually raise his battle power at will?"
Ox-King charged again, an unstoppable force of nature. The very earth buckled and shattered under his stampede. With a guttural roar, he launched himself into the air, driving a fist like a piledriver down toward Burter's head.
Burter merely smirked. A light tap of his foot sent him floating backward, hovering effortlessly out of reach. Ox-King's punch slammed into empty air. He landed with a heavy thud, staring up in dumbfounded confusion. "You… you can fly?"
The other Minotaurs gasped, their bovine eyes wide with shock. Flight was a legend to them.
"Don't tell me," Burter sneered, looking down his nose. "With over thirty thousand in power, you never even learned Bukūjutsu? What a primitive."
"I can't fly! Fight me on the ground like a real warrior!" Ox-King bellowed, pounding his chest.
"Tch. Natives." Burter descended with a sigh of contempt, his boots touching the cracked earth. "Fine. I'll humor you."
The moment his opponent landed, Ox-King was on him, a massive fist aimed to pulverize Burter's face. Burter didn't bother to dodge. He met the blow head-on.
BOOM!
Fist met fist. The impact was a physical shockwave that rippled outward, pulverizing the stone around them into powder.
BAM! CRACK! WHOOSH!
The battle escalated. Their movements became a blur of violence, their afterimages flickering across the ravaged landscape. Each collision sent thunderclaps echoing through the valleys. Mountainsides sheared away under the force of their exchanges; boulders became airborne projectiles.
BANG!
Another titanic clash of fists forced them apart momentarily. Burter regarded his opponent with a flicker of reluctant respect. "For a cow-man, you pack a hell of a punch. I'll give you that. How about it? Ditch this rock and serve the great Lord Frieza. With strength like yours, you could go far."
"Bribery?!" Ox-King's eyes blazed. "Die!" Without warning, he threw his head back and a searing energy beam shot from his mouth directly at Burter.
The attack came too fast, too close. Burter's arrogant dismissal turned to alarm. He twisted aside, but not fast enough. The beam grazed his left shoulder, shattering his armor and leaving a nasty, smoldering burn.
"YOU MUTT! I'LL KILL YOU!" Pain and humiliation ignited Burter's rage. His aura flared violently as he stopped toying with his prey. He vanished.
SMACK!
A fist Ox-King never saw coming connected with his jaw, sending him spinning through the air. Before he could recover, Burter was there again. Ox-King crossed his arms to block, but a devastating kick sank into his gut, driving him into the ground with enough force to create a small crater.
Ox-King was strong, but he was slow. His raw power was no match for Burter's superior speed and refined technique.
Hovering above the crater, Burter gathered a crackling sphere of energy in his palm. "Goodbye, cow."
"The Boss is in trouble!" the Strategist shrieked. "Everyone! Covering fire! NOW!"
A volley of weak energy beams lanced up from Ox-King's men, pathetically splashing against Burter's gathered power. They were little more than gnats.
But someone else acted. Seeing his rival in mortal danger, Ox-Sage roared and fired his own mouth-beam at Burter. Forced to dodge, Burter's killing shot went wide, detonating ten meters from the crater's edge. The explosion was massive, carving out a pit a hundred meters across.
Ox-King, though not hit directly, was caught in the blast wave. He was hurled from the crater, his hide scorched and bleeding.
MOO—OOO—ROOOAR!
The sound that erupted from Ox-King was not of pain, but of primal, untamed fury. He rose from the smoke like a demon, his injuries seemingly fueling him. A wild, bloodthirsty aura erupted from his body, thick and palpable. His power didn't wane—it skyrocketed. His eyes glowed a furious, solid crimson, all reason swallowed by boundless battle-lust.
"Th-this aura…!" The Elder stumbled back, his voice trembling with awe. "The legendary Berserker State! He's actually achieved it!" Even Erhua stared, her earlier disdain replaced by shock. In Minotaur lore, a warrior who could enter the Berserker State was a destined champion of the tribe.
"The Boss is a Berserker Bull! WAHOOO!"
"So awesome! So manly!"
"Boss! We worship you!"
His subordinates erupted into hysterical cheers.
"Power level… 76,000?!" Burter's scouter screeched a warning. "Impossible! The scanner must be faulty!"
"DIE!" The word was a guttural snarl. Ox-King vanished from his spot, the ground where he stood exploding downward. He reappeared in front of Burter in a microsecond, his fist buried deep in the alien's abdomen before the sound of his movement even arrived.
WHUMP!
The air blasted from Burter's lungs. He folded over the fist, his eyes bulging, before being launched backward like a discarded ragdoll.
"BURTER!" Recoome and Jeice cried out in unison.
Captain Ginyu moved in a blur of purple, intercepting Burter's limp body mid-air and landing gracefully. He set his wounded soldier down gently.
"Cap…tain…" Burter gasped, clutching his ruined midsection. "I'm… sorry… I've… disgraced the team."
"So," Ginyu mused, turning his gaze to the heaving, crimson-eyed Ox-King. "This is why Lord Frieza sent the Ginyu Force. A pleasant surprise." He took a few slow, deliberate steps forward. "Your power is not insignificant. I'll offer this once: join the Ginyu Force. I'll make you my vice-captain."
"SHUT UP!" Ox-King's reply was another earth-shattering punch that vaporized a cliff face behind where Ginyu had been standing. The Captain had already sidestepped it with casual ease.
"A shame," Ginyu sighed, shaking his head. Then, his demeanor shifted. "Then I'll just have to break you."
RUMBLE—!
An aura of terrifying density exploded from Captain Ginyu. The sheer pressure of his ki flattened the surrounding stone, carving a perfect, smooth bowl into the earth for dozens of meters.
"The Captain's true power!" Jeice whispered reverently. "A battle power of 120,000! That bull doesn't stand a chance!"
"Now," Ginyu said, his voice calm. "My turn."
He vanished.
A fraction of a second later, a brutal kick connected with the back of Ox-King's skull, sending the berserk Minotaur hurtling face-first through what remained of the mountain range.