Rapid Growth

"You're the one who goes all out every time you attack. You leave yourself no room to maneuver in a fight, so don't be surprised when someone takes you down."

With a deeply dissatisfied scolding, Sephiria's graceful figure suddenly appeared beside Roland. She shoved a pale hand forward, striking Roland with tremendous force. A fierce wind whipped around them, and Roland staggered before hurtling backward.

"Get up! In a real fight, do you think your enemy will give you time to rest?"

As expected, another fierce attack came at once.

Roland spat out a mouthful of blood. When he looked up, he met Sephiria's murderous glare.

It was an ordinary morning: bright sunshine, a clear sky, and pleasant weather. But for Roland, this stretch of time could only be described as a nightmare.

For more than ten days, Sephiria had come to train Roland every day. The training was different from before; she taught him many things he needed to watch out for in battle, and he learned a great deal. The one thing he couldn't accept was that this woman never held back. She hit him especially hard every time, and wouldn't stop until she'd beaten him half to death.

As Sephiria put it, "A real enemy won't give you a chance to get back up."

What a profound truth.

Roland climbed to his feet and looked at Sephiria with determination. His body flashed forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, and in an instant he was beside her.

Sephiria gave a slight nod, a hint of a smile on her lips. Just as Roland thought he had her, she leaned slightly to the side and dodged his attack, then swept her slender arm through a graceful arc.

A crystalline light suddenly blazed, flickering like starlight. Roland was struck again.

The battle continued.

Roland's movements gradually grew more fluid. He began to think consciously during fights, weighing what worked and what didn't. With Sephiria's deliberate pointers, his body rapidly absorbed the lessons of battle.

"Keep up with my speed. I'll lower my strength to about your level. If you can withstand my attacks, you'll qualify as a warrior."

Amid the howling wind, Sephiria's body flickered from place to place, her black hair flying. She looked toward Roland in the distance, then suddenly flashed out of sight. Her figure blurred where she had stood, and the next moment she was beside him.

She turned and threw a straight punch.

Afterimage!

Roland narrowed his eyes and searched for Sephiria, his gaze darting about.

Suddenly, a faint disturbance in the air caught his attention. Roland reacted at once, swaying as he performed a quick feint and reappeared ten meters away. Just as his figure vanished, a slender hand struck the spot where he had been.

"You're finally making some progress." Sephiria nodded, then continued her attack.

"Ugh!" A sudden pain shot through Roland's chest, followed by a heavy impact.

Grimacing, Roland gasped for breath and leapt into the air. He quickly changed direction midair. Just one step away from Sephiria, he shifted his posture again, leaving a blurred afterimage suspended in the air. Somehow, he appeared behind her, both hands reaching for her tail.

"Your fighting technique is up to par, but you lack experience."

Sephiria's icy voice sounded beside his ear. The warm sensation made Roland realize something was wrong, and a bead of cold sweat appeared on his back. He hurriedly twisted around and darted away.

Sephiria chuckled and raised two fingers, held together like a blade.

"Air Strike!"

Her cool shout rang out, and the air seemed to churn, boiling in an instant.

Whoosh!

A brilliant wave of energy burst forth. Faced with this, a flash of electricity passed through Roland's eyes. He raised his arm and clenched his fist, his young face set with determination.

"Starry Sky Cannon!" He threw a punch, and countless stars flashed into being.

A surging force suddenly erupted, as if it had found an outlet, pouring out in a flood.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two energies collided in midair, unleashing a cataclysmic blast. A massive mushroom cloud rose from the ground, the earth split apart, and a powerful shock wave stripped away a layer of soil, leaving behind a circular depression.

"Cough, cough..." Blood trickled from the corner of Roland's mouth. His clothes were in tatters, and the strain of using so much energy made his head spin. He soon passed out.

After Roland fell, Sephiria appeared beside him, picked him up, and carried him to a lake. Then she lowered him into the water.

Whoosh!

A flash of light appeared as Hertz finished training in the Gravity Chamber and came over to Sephiria. "Roland mastered every technique in just over ten days and became a true warrior. He's an incredible learner. It took me until I was about ten to reach his level."

Perfectly controlling a power level of 1,000 at the age of ten was an impressive achievement, even among elite warriors.

Hertz was an elite warrior who had been through countless battles. He had only reached a power level of 1,000 after turning ten, and didn't reach 4,000 until he was twenty-six.

Sephiria stared blankly at Roland in the water and nodded. Others might not know it, but she knew the truth: Roland wasn't an elite warrior at all. He was just an ordinary mid-level warrior.

And yet this mid-level warrior trained even faster than an elite warrior. It was simply unbelievable.

The Gravity Chamber might explain how quickly his power was growing, but fighting skills and experience could only come from real combat. Sephiria had felt it firsthand: Roland grew every day, absorbing her ideas about battle like a sponge over just a few short days.

Her little brother Roland possessed a truly terrifying ability to learn.

Roland soon woke up in the lake. When he heard that Sephiria had tossed him into the water and left him there without another thought before heading off to train in the Gravity Chamber, he could only smile helplessly.

She was just as obsessed with training as Vegeta. Whenever he couldn't find her, he knew she'd gone to the Gravity Chamber again. Proper rest helped the body recover; balancing work and rest was no less effective than training relentlessly. Unfortunately, Sephiria wouldn't listen.

"Roland, I have something for you."

After the meal, Sephiria brought out something that looked like a USB drive.

"What is it?"

As she ate, Sephiria explained, "I copied this from the communication records between the Yugarites and the Frieza Force when I destroyed their command center. It seems to contain information about all the Saiyans' missions."

"What?" Roland was astonished. He hurriedly wiped his greasy hands and took the drive, examining it.

When Hertz heard that it contained information about the Saiyans, his expression grew serious too. "Does that mean we can find the members of our race who are scattered out there?"

"Probably," Sephiria replied. "If the Frieza Force hasn't found them yet, quite a few may have survived. But the organized Saiyan squads must have been destroyed along with Planet Vegeta. Most of the Saiyans scattered across the stars are low-level warriors or even weaker noncombatants."

The mid-level and elite warriors all had their own squads, and had returned to Planet Vegeta after receiving orders from the Frieza Force. Only the neglected low-level warriors and those exiled as children had been left without anyone looking after them.

Some might still be surviving on remote planets.