Five Days...

() Bam!!!

With a sharp impact, a figure went "flying" through the air. Betkas once again plunged into the waters of Mira Liquid Lake...

Bardock stood a thousand meters away, completely calm and without moving...

"That makes twenty-one times today..."

The Green-Haired Youth, Salahir, narrowed his eyes. A crescent smile played on his lips as he spoke...

"Still a long way to go..."

At that, Bardock murmured...

"Ha!"

Betkas surfaced and swam to the shore, gasping for breath several times. His heart was full of helplessness...

"It's already been five days... And these past few days have really turned my life upside down..."

Betkas climbed out of the lake. All his injuries had completely healed, and even his stamina had been fully restored by the lake's miraculous golden water. It was astonishing—this stuff was every bit as good as a Senzu Bean...

"By the way... How many times has Bardock knocked me into the lake today?"

Betkas lay on his back, staring up at the dazzling sun as he thought over everything that had happened in the past five days...

Ever since he learned that Bardock had so much "experience," Betkas had clung to him, insisting they train together. Though the training was completely one-sided... For instance, Bardock could easily dodge Betkas's attacks, while a casual "One Finger Death Touch" from Bardock could send Betkas flying or even leave him gravely injured...

That was the absolute difference in their strength. Even though Bardock was far weaker than he used to be, killing a "little guy" like Betkas was as easy as lifting a finger...

Perhaps if Bardock went all out right now, even Kid Buu might not be a match for him. After all, someone who could reach Fifth Form Super Saiyan was no joke...

Each time, Bardock carefully kept Betkas right on the edge of death, like he was "playing baseball." Just before Betkas died, he would land in the lake—then, like that singer... Wait, I'm getting off track...

Anyway, it was an endless cycle like that. But Betkas made noticeable progress each time. At least now, he could dodge a few of Bardock's attacks or withstand a few of them. Of course, that was only because Bardock wasn't going all out. Otherwise, Betkas would have been "beaten to a pulp" long ago.

For the first three days, he had focused on developing his own techniques. The past two days had been spent training like this. After all, he couldn't stay on this planet for long. If Frieza found out about him, things wouldn't be fun...

Bardock could deal with Frieza, but when Betkas had asked him about it, Bardock had silenced him with just one sentence...

"Kakarot will take care of that guy. I don't want to do anything unnecessary."

That short sentence had made Betkas promptly shut his mouth. In the original story, Bardock seemed to have gained some ability to foresee the future, and he had even seen Son Goku face off against Frieza. So his words weren't hard to understand.

And so, Betkas immersed himself in training every day, striving to experience the kind of "Great Explosion" Bardock had mentioned as soon as possible.

"By the way... Why haven't I had a 'Great Explosion' yet? By rights, with my current strength, even if I don't have two hundred thousand, I should at least have a hundred thousand..." Betkas shielded his forehead with his right hand, puzzled.

He had been beaten to a pulp by Bardock so many times over the past few days that he had lost count of how often he'd returned from the brink of death. It was only natural that his strength had increased dramatically, with a little of that progress coming from his own intense training...

But what he was really hung up on was the "Great Explosion" Bardock had mentioned...

Bardock had once explained clearly: "Any Saiyan with a battle power over ten thousand has a chance to experience a 'Great Explosion' after returning from the brink of death... Once you get that chance, your battle power can soar past a million..."

After hearing that, Betkas had been all too "willing" to get beaten up, even if he could only last a few moves. There was proof that it could happen...

For example, in the original story, Son Goku was gravely injured on Namek. After he was healed, his strength shot from a mere hundred-odd thousand all the way to three million...

Vegeta had also been healed by Dende when his battle power was just over a hundred thousand, and he broke through to around two and a half million... Even Bardock himself had gone from a battle power of sixty thousand to barely two million after Frieza gravely injured him and he was sent back in time, where he was healed. Those three were clear examples of people who had experienced a "Great Explosion"...

You could call them luck incarnate!!!

So, even for the sake of his own life, Betkas was willing to risk it all. He fought Bardock with everything he had each time, and as a result, he almost always got to experience "I Believe I Can Fly!"...

But after training for two days straight, it seemed his luck wasn't very good. The chance to experience a "Great Explosion" still hadn't come his way... He had only made a little progress.

Since he didn't know how to control ki and didn't have a scouter, he couldn't tell exactly how strong he was now. Still, his battle power probably wasn't below seventy thousand...

Bardock seemed to know how to control ki, but apparently had no intention of teaching Betkas. That left Betkas feeling rather frustrated...

He'd wanted to learn it, so he could control his ki properly. That way, he wouldn't have to keep worrying about revealing his strength in front of Frieza and the others...

But who knew what Bardock was thinking? He simply had no intention of telling him...

So much for that "wishful thinking" of his...

"Forget it... Let's keep going. There's still plenty of daylight, and I'll be leaving before long. I should get as strong as I can."

Betkas rose to his feet and slowly made his way back to the training ground Bardock had chosen...

Bardock stood motionless at a certain spot, his face expressionless as he watched the area ahead with a sharp gaze...

"Oh, dear... Your friend's in danger. Mr. Bardock is getting serious."

Salahir watched Bardock with a smile and suddenly murmured...

Betkas still had no idea that his most "speechless" moment was about to arrive.