Clash

Raditz's question caught Talot before he could answer, while Bardock and Gine burst out laughing instead.

Of course, they were not mocking or ridiculing him. They simply found Raditz's reaction adorable.

At the same time, Bardock and Gine were laughing at Talot too.

Talot had always acted so maturely that they had gradually come to see it as normal.

It was only after Raditz pointed it out that they realized it.

Five-year-old Talot had been teasing Raditz like an adult, suddenly giving off the air of a precocious child.

The laughter completely changed the atmosphere.

Talot seemed to realize something and laughed as well, while Raditz was similarly swept up in it.

For a while, laughter filled the room.

After dinner, Gine cleaned up while Bardock went to soak in the bath, leaving only Raditz and Talot staring at each other.

"Let me see what your Battle Power is now, Talot." With their parents present earlier, Raditz had not been in such a hurry to find out.

Now that dinner was over, it was the perfect chance to see Talot's Battle Power. He was also thinking of loosening up a little.

"I'm pretty curious about your Battle Power too." Talot had roughly estimated Raditz's Battle Power from the strength of his ki, but whether it was accurate was another matter.

They both activated their Battle Power Detectors.

As a series of beeps rang out, two numbers soon appeared on the lenses of their detectors.

Raditz was pleased that Talot's Battle Power had finally started to rise.

"I told you, you had the same Battle Power as me at birth. There was no way you'd fall behind forever. You've finally caught up! But you're still far behind me, so you need to work even harder.

"You should have agreed when I asked you to come with me last time. If you had, your Battle Power would have risen to over four hundred by now."

Raditz's slightly self-satisfied words stirred a strange ripple of emotion in Talot.

Though Raditz was quite arrogant now, both his words and his true thoughts were genuinely concerned with his family.

It made Talot feel somewhat ashamed.

They were not truly family, yet Raditz genuinely cared about him.

Meanwhile, Talot had been so heavily influenced by the original plot that he had never considered taking Raditz with him and starting to change the future from this moment onward.

After spacing out for a moment, Talot suddenly came back to himself.

Sentiment was sentiment, but this was not the time to dwell on it.

"I'm different from you. Just as Uncle Bardock said, even if we're both Elite Warriors, you have your own path to walk, and I have mine." Talot stated his decision in a simple sentence, then changed the subject. "Your Battle Power has already reached 550. You must have gone through quite a bit of training these past few months."

"Not bad! I'm not the only one around Prince Vegeta. If I don't work hard and show exceptional talent, people are bound to look down on me." Raditz's blunt words revealed that his life had not exactly been easy either.

Still, he was probably enjoying it now. His narrow perspective limited his imagination, making him believe that Saiyans had to be loyal to their king. Prince Vegeta was the future king, and all Raditz wanted now was to grow stronger and become Vegeta's right-hand man.

"Getting stronger is a good thing, but don't easily lose sight of your original intentions. You're surrounded by a group of elites, so you should understand that." After thinking it over, Talot still gave him a reminder.

Any intelligent life was often easily swayed when young and immature.

Even adults could change with their environment and all sorts of circumstances.

"Do you really need to tell me that? Of course I know! So, how about it? Want to have a fight with me? I won't bully you. I'll only use Battle Power close to yours. Think of it as some after-dinner exercise."

Raditz was not particularly calculating, and he seemed sufficiently confident in himself.

"A fight? I don't mind." Talot did not refuse.

He had always trained by himself. Though he occasionally imagined opponents to fight, he had not actually had many chances for real combat.

After all, he lived among Low-Class Warriors, and they did not dare attack him casually.

Besides, he was still young. Adults would not spar with him either.

"Then let's go. We can't really cut loose here." Raditz chuckled and rose to his feet.

Talot nodded and followed behind him.

The two informed Gine, then left the house after receiving her permission and headed to an open area outside.

Saiyans were few in number to begin with. Although nearly two thousand Low-Class Warriors lived in this area, that was still sparse across such vast land.

"Come on, Talot. Attack me however you like!" Facing Talot, Raditz stood with his hands on his hips, showing no intention of guarding himself or taking the initiative.

He truly believed the gap between them was enormous, so there was no need for him to get serious at all.

And he was right. A Battle Power of 360 and one of 550 were worlds apart.

At this level of strength, let alone a difference of one or two hundred Battle Power, even a gap of twenty or thirty, or thirty or fifty points, was enough to easily defeat the other side.

"Then be careful." Talot did not hesitate, keeping his own strength at the 360-point mark.

He did not particularly care whether he won or lost this fight. He merely wanted to test his combat ability and his body's reaction speed against Raditz.

Even if he had to surrender or pretend to be defeated in the end, that would be fine.

Charging straight ahead, Talot became several afterimages. The distance of more than ten meters was crossed in the blink of an eye.

He threw a heavy punch at Raditz.

Faced with such a fast attack, Raditz did not panic. He casually raised a hand and slapped Talot's fist aside.

Then he swung a backhand punch at Talot.

With his attack blocked, Talot clenched his other hand and threw a straight punch.

Thud!!!

A dull impact rang out as their small fists collided, and Raditz and Talot began to test each other's strength.

"Not bad. You're pretty strong too! But you're still far weaker than me." No matter how one looked at Raditz's smiling face, it carried a slightly wicked air.

Talot was already used to that expression. "Is that so? A fight isn't just about strength."

Without any intention of using more power, Talot rode the force Raditz exerted and retreated, searching for an opening.

Seeing this, Raditz immediately launched a fierce barrage of punches and kicks.

The sheer onslaught made Talot's scalp tingle for a moment.

Fortunately, he had not spent all this time idling around. Even without real combat experience, he retained the memories of a lifetime, along with the meditative combat experience brought by his rich imagination.