Return Voyage!

Betkas gritted his teeth, staring at the wound on his chest. Hatred burned in his heart for that long-dead old Chicks Alien. At the same time, he grew more desperate to find a way to learn how to sense and control ki. Otherwise, when he ran into a strong opponent, he wouldn't even have the ability to fight back—like with this one. If he could sense ki, he wouldn't have taken that piercing strike to the chest. Luckily, at the last moment, he barely dodged the vital spot, and the attack only hit his chest. The damage wasn't instantly fatal, but it was definitely a severe injury for him. If it weren't for the Saiyans' incredibly tenacious life force, Betkas would have been finished long ago. Forget the Great Ape Transformation—even playing dead was a tough problem. But at least it gave Betkas a taste of near-death. For the first time, he realized how close death really was. He had died once before in his past life, but that death had been without sensation—he hadn't experienced anything. This time, though, he had to witness it firsthand, especially the knife-like pain tearing through his chest.

Betkas struggled to pull a remote control from the pocket of his Battle Armor. With a trembling hand, he pressed a red button on it. In an instant, he let go of the remote, and it clattered to the ground. Betkas closed his eyes, panting heavily. With this injury, he had no choice but to go back. The facilities here weren't enough to heal him. Right now, he really wished he had a Senzu Bean—then he could recover.

Back at the spot where Betkas, Vegeta, and Nappa's spaceships had first landed, Betkas's ship seemed to answer a call. It rose high into the air and then shot straight toward Betkas's direction.

Like a meteor streaking across the sky...

And at the same time...

Nappa and Vegeta were fighting with different mindsets. Nappa had run into dozens of Chicks Aliens in a capital city, but luckily for him, none of the enemies he faced were stronger than him. So he just had to put in some effort to take them out.

Vegeta, on the other hand, was different. After seeing the Artificial Moon Betkas had created earlier, he had been on guard. He was proud, but he knew this wasn't the time for arrogance. Any pride had to be backed by absolute strength. Since Betkas, who was on par with him, had been forced to use his last trump card to survive, Vegeta couldn't afford to be careless.

Sure enough... he had just run into two incredibly strong Chicks Aliens. At first, Vegeta couldn't overpower them and even took a few minor injuries. But when the two Chicks Aliens let their guard down, Vegeta used the Artificial Moon technique and transformed into a Great Ape. In just a few minutes, he wiped out both of the super-strong Chicks Aliens.

After all, the tenfold power boost from Vegeta and Betkas's Great Ape Transformations put their battle power at over thirty thousand. That was nothing the people on this planet could withstand. Even with injuries, their strength wouldn't drop too much—they'd just lose about forty to fifty percent of their output. But that was more than enough to deal with these Chicks Aliens, whose battle powers barely reached ten thousand.

Once Vegeta turned into a Great Ape, he stopped holding back. He kept the transformation going and continued his rampage. The planet's strong fighters came one after another, but they were all blasted to pieces by Vegeta soon after they arrived. So Nappa's side actually ended up being the easiest. Only Betkas had the worst luck, taking a heavy blow.

Now, Betkas had just crawled into his spaceship and was leaving the atmosphere, heading back to Frieza's ship. Maybe he'd be looked down on for this, but Betkas believed that as long as Vegeta and Nappa wiped out all the inhabitants of that planet and came back, everything would be fine.

If he could, Betkas wouldn't want to go back. But for one thing, he didn't have any acquaintances out in space. For another, he wasn't familiar with the power distribution of the universe. If he went to the wrong place, he'd be as good as dead. His only option was to return to Frieza's ship.

So he had already left the planet in a hurry, without even saying goodbye to Vegeta and Nappa. He didn't have time. In his current state, holding on for another hour was probably his limit. Under the threat of death, Betkas really had no time to hesitate. As for whether that bastard Frieza would have someone treat him, that was up to fate. Because he truly had nowhere else to go.

"Lord Zarbon, one of those three Saiyan brats' spaceships has already returned!" A frog-headed alien was operating a large screen when he suddenly reported to Zarbon beside him.

Zarbon raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh? Only one? Did the other two die?"

The frog-headed alien quickly replied, "I'll immediately check the information the ship's sensors picked up." He then started typing on the keyboard with both hands. A flood of data popped up. The frog-headed alien scanned through it, frowning. Zarbon stood nearby with an indifferent expression. They had all tampered with Betkas and the others' ships—for example, by planting surveillance devices inside.

A few minutes later, the frog-headed alien spoke again. "Lord Zarbon, the intel has been obtained." Zarbon gave a slight nod, signaling him to continue.

The frog-headed alien immediately reported, "The one returning is the Saiyan named Betkas. He fought a native with a battle power of around twelve thousand and killed him. He's coming back because his injuries are too severe. The battle analysis is still in progress." After hearing this data, everyone was a bit shocked. Even Zarbon was somewhat surprised, since he knew the strength of Betkas and his group.

Zarbon thought to himself, He killed an opponent four times stronger than himself with just over three thousand battle power? Looks like he's a tough nut to crack. Has potential. As far as Zarbon was concerned, since Frieza had said to look after them, he wouldn't be too harsh. The planet they had sent Betkas and the others to was on the lower end of the cosmic scale—just a test of their potential. As for them becoming a threat to him? Zarbon didn't think he was some weakling who could be taken down by a Saiyan with a mere three thousand battle power. So he wasn't worried.

Zarbon pondered for a moment, then spoke. "Prepare emergency medical supplies. Treat that Saiyan brat as soon as he gets back. He's a subordinate Lord Frieza values. I'll go report to Lord Frieza." Hearing this, the aliens immediately started bustling about.