Earth, Arctic Ice Fields
The ten-meter-tall Piccolo swiped a massive palm through the air and swatted Vegeta out of his charge.
"Argh!" Vegeta crashed into a serrated ridge of ice with a strangled cry.
"Hyah!" Goku flash-stepped behind Piccolo while the motion was still fresh, driving a heel into the back of the giant's knee.
Thud!
Piccolo dropped to one knee. The ice beneath him splintered like glass.
"Final Flash!"
A blinding lance of energy erupted from Vegeta's hands. Enlarged as he was, Piccolo's speed lagged by a hair his towering frame made for a perfect target.
With no time to evade, Piccolo threw his head back and loosed a Mouth Blast to meet it.
The two beams collided with a roar. Shockwaves ripped through ice dozens of meters thick; black seawater geysered up through the cracks.
Water met energy and burst into a canopy of steam.
In moments, a white fog swallowed the battlefield.
Boom!
The detonation came late and violent. When the twin beams blew, a wall of wind and water rose like a tidal mountain. It took a full ten minutes for the fury to fade.
When the mist thinned, the center of the field had become a churning inland sea.
"Strong way too strong!" Nappa whooped, unable to hold back his excitement.
Raditz, by contrast, watched with a face like still water.
Back on the ice, Vegeta stood tall upon a broken spire. "Piccolo, I admit it you've earned the right to fight us."
"Yeah. Didn't think you'd get this strong," Goku added, as surprised as he was delighted. "Stronger than our two-and-a-half years of fieldwork!"
"Credit where it's due," Piccolo said, voice dry but sincere. "If not for your son, I wouldn't be here."
"Oh, cut it out," Gohan rolled his eyes. "Who knew you'd figure out 'compressing' after Giant Form to juice your power."
"Let's keep going!" Goku's fighting spirit surged; he darted in again.
"Bring it!" Piccolo dipped his hulking frame and shot a straight punch first.
Goku somersaulted in midair, landed on Piccolo's fist, then sank his hands into the giant's forearm, locking tendons and muscle.
"Yah!"
He heaved arched back then flipped, slamming Piccolo onto the ice.
Crack!
"Piccolo, your strength is way up, but that body's too bulky. Your speed can't keep up," Goku said, pointing out the flaw of the giant state.
"Kakarot, shut up. If even you can see it, you think he can't?" Vegeta sniped.
"Right… which means you're still holding back, huh?" Goku grinned.
"Heh. I'll give you this, Vegeta is sharper than you," Piccolo said, rising as the punctures in his arm knitted shut.
Vegeta narrowed his eyes, intent. What else was the Namekian hiding?
Piccolo didn't make them guess. "Goku, as far as I know, you Saiyans can't stack the Kaio-ken once you transform, right?"
Goku blinked, then went pale. "Piccolo… don't tell me you can use Kaio-ken in that form."
"That's right."
Zip!
Piccolo's bulky outline vanished.
Thud!
Goku kicked up into empty air red light flashed around Piccolo as he slipped past and disappeared again.
Piccolo's shadow bloomed overhead. Hands clasped, he hammered down with a double-fist cannon punch.
Boom! Sssch!
Goku hit the frigid sea like a meteor.
"So fast!" Vegeta breathed.
Gohan, Tien Shinhan, Krillin, Nappa, and Raditz were equally stunned.
They could all use the Kaio-ken Tien and Krillin especially but once Super Saiyan entered the picture, stacking it was suicide. The body simply couldn't take it.
Piccolo, because of his physiology, had once barely managed the first step just a single "doubling" and even then, not for long.
But enlarged, then compressed, he hadn't just multiplied his battle power; his body had hardened dramatically.
Result: he could run Kaio-ken even in Giant Form.
Only a single step x1, a crude "double."
But don't forget: at this size and compression, his power had already hit 500 billion.
With Kaio-ken layered on imperfectly it still spiked to around 900 billion.
Overwhelming Goku wasn't surprising at all.
"Monstrous," Vegeta muttered, dropping back to base. Even at his peak Super Saiyan 2 Full Power, one-hundred-fifty-fold he topped out near 750 billion. He was short by fifteen hundred billion no, by 150 billion and this wasn't life or death. No point forcing it.
Goku, on the other hand, only got more fired up.
"Piccolo, you're incredible! Didn't think you had that up your sleeve. Then I won't hold back either! Haaa!"
He wiped the blood from his lip. Golden waves of ki speared the clouds.
780 billion. A hair above Vegeta by about 30 billion but Piccolo's pressure still felt heavier.
No matter. If anyone understood Kaio-ken limits, it was Goku.
"Piccolo, even if you can stack Kaio-ken like this, you can't hold it long, can you?"
"Correct. So what?" Piccolo knew exactly what Goku was aiming for: stall until the Kaio-ken burned out.
"In that case… here I come!" Goku laughed and blitzed forward, a golden streak tearing the sky. Piccolo braced, red aura billowing.
Crack!
Giant and man met fist-to-fist. Their figures blurred out; only the drumbeat of impacts remained, echoing over ice and sea.
Goku's battle fever climbed with every exchange; pain sharpened his focus and will. He fought better the harder it got.
Piccolo, by contrast, was paying the tax. The longer he ran Kaio-ken in this state, the choppier his aura grew.
One rising, one falling soon they were dead even.
Vegeta's hands curled; he wanted back in. Pride kept him still. Interrupting at the start had been disrespect. Doing it again now would be worse.
On the sideline, Gohan murmured, "So Piccolo still hasn't used the Dragon Balls he hasn't reached that orange form yet."
Then he nodded to himself. In two and a half years, Piccolo had juggled compressing his Giant Form and ferrying Goten, training him, looking after him. When would he have had time to hunt down Dragon Balls?
Getting this far already was no small miracle.
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