The atmosphere of Planet Namek looked as if it had been ripped apart by sheer brute force.
There was no warning. No probing attack.
"HAARRRGH!"
Goku let out a beast-like roar, and the ground beneath his feet instantly collapsed into a crater hundreds of meters wide.
Then he vanished.
Not the kind of disappearance caused by speed leaving afterimages behind.
He simply disappeared from sight entirely.
Even sound lagged behind him.
Frieza floated in the air with his arms folded, still wearing that elegant, arrogant smile. Even his long tail swayed lazily behind him.
Boom!
Before the last syllable of his mocking words could even fade, a fist wrapped in dark crimson energy slammed directly into Frieza's perfect face.
Time seemed to freeze.
Frieza's pupils shrank to pinpoints, blood vessels bursting across the whites of his eyes.
The punch was impossibly heavy. It felt like a meteor traveling at full speed had smashed straight into his nose.
The defense of his so-called "Final Form" crumbled like wet paper.
His smooth, refined features twisted violently from the impact.
His cheek caved inward. His nose shattered instantly. Purple blood tried to spray out, only to be forced back beneath the skin by the pressure of the punch, leaving dark bruises spreading across his face.
"Ugh...!"
Even his scream was crushed back down his throat.
His mind went blank from the impact as his body blasted backward like a fired shell, tearing a straight line through the sky.
"It's not over yet!"
Goku's voice was hoarse, filled with reckless determination.
If he only had one minute, then he would burn every second of it to the limit.
The crimson blur flashed again.
Goku moved even faster than Frieza's flying body, appearing directly in his path like he had been waiting for him all along.
"Above you!"
Goku clasped both fists together like a blazing war hammer and brought them crashing down onto Frieza's exposed spine.
Crack!
A sharp, sickening sound echoed across the battlefield.
Frieza's body folded backward at an unnatural angle from the pain.
Like a falling meteor, he crashed straight into the ground.
Namek's hardened crust shattered like tofu beneath him, opening a bottomless pit.
Magma and underground water erupted skyward together, dyeing the purple heavens blood-red.
"That monster... he's actually getting overwhelmed..."
In the distance, Piccolo clutched his chest. Even after Krillin's divine healing technique restored him, his heart still felt ready to burst from his throat.
He stared at the smoke-covered battlefield in disbelief.
Was this really Son Goku?
That pressure... that suicidal fighting style...
At this point, Goku looked more terrifying than an actual demon.
"He's gambling with his life."
Krillin sat calmly atop a boulder, though a trace of seriousness flashed deep within his eyes.
He understood the side effects of the Kaio-ken better than anyone.
It was a technique that burned life force itself in exchange for explosive power.
"Sixty million power level is insane. It's enough to overpower Frieza's normal state for a short time, but the cost is total physical collapse."
"Goku's trying to end this entire fight in under a minute."
Beneath the rubble, Frieza felt himself losing his mind.
Pain.
Unbearable pain.
Ever since he was born, aside from a few lessons from King Cold during childhood, he had never suffered injuries like this.
It wasn't just physical agony.
It was humiliation.
Absolute humiliation.
He had been beaten by a Saiyan.
A tailless Saiyan wearing an unfashionable orange gi. A lower-class warrior whose power level should have been insignificant.
Yet now he was being pummeled like a training dummy.
"Unforgivable... absolutely unforgivable..."
Frieza shoved away the massive rocks pinning him down.
His once elegant face was now horribly swollen. Purple blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. One eye had swollen nearly shut, making him look grotesque and ridiculous at the same time.
"I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart piece by piece!"
Just as he prepared to unleash his power and rush back out, the crimson nightmare descended again.
"HAAAH!"
Goku crashed down from above without a trace of finesse, both knees slamming brutally into Frieza's abdomen.
Pffft!
Frieza spat a mouthful of blood several meters into the air. His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets as stomach acid mixed with blood poured from his mouth.
"This punch is for the Namekians you slaughtered!"
Boom!
Goku's left hook smashed into Frieza's jaw, sending shattered teeth flying.
"And this kick is for Piccolo!"
Thud!
A savage kick blasted into Frieza's face, launching him like a ball through multiple mountains.
Frieza was completely overwhelmed.
The increase in speed and strength from the twenty-times Kaio-ken was monstrous.
Even after raising his power to thirty percent, roughly thirty-six million, he was still helpless against Goku's berserk sixty million.
He couldn't even stabilize his footing.
His body had become a leaf trapped in a hurricane, helplessly battered by the raging crimson storm.
"Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!"
Frieza screamed internally as the last traces of his composure rapidly disappeared beneath his fury.
"Why can't I follow his movements?! Why are his punches this heavy?!"
"No! Impossible! I am the ruler of the universe! I am the strongest!"
Frieza twisted his body violently, whipping his tail like a steel lash toward Goku's neck.
Smack.
Without even looking, Goku caught the tail with one hand.
Blood seeped from every inch of Goku's body now, but his eyes blazed brighter than ever.
"You already used that trick!"
Red light exploded from Goku's eyes as he spun his arm in a full arc, swinging Frieza straight into a towering mountain peak.
BOOOOM!
The entire mountain collapsed instantly, burying Frieza beneath an avalanche of debris.
"Huff... huff..."
Goku floated in the air, breathing heavily.
The deep crimson aura of the Kaio-ken flickered unstably now, dimming and flaring like a candle about to die.
His skin had begun turning charred black in places.
His body was reaching its limit.
Ten seconds remained.
Goku could feel it clearly.
If this dragged on any longer, his body would collapse even if Frieza never touched him again.
"I have to finish this... with one attack."
Suppressing the metallic taste rising in his throat, Goku slowly drew both hands to his waist and assumed the familiar stance.
"Ka... me..."
The air around him began to spiral violently toward his palms.
Not just the air.
It felt as though even the light of the planet itself was being sucked into the growing sphere of blue energy.
Under the amplification of the twenty-times Kaio-ken, the density of this Kamehameha reached a terrifying level.
Crimson lightning crackled within the blue glow like a sign of destruction itself.
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