Return!

Betkas gritted his teeth and looked at the wound in his chest, cursing the dead old Chicks Alien. At the same time, he was more determined than ever to find a way to learn how to sense and control ki. Otherwise, if he ran into a powerful opponent, he wouldn't even be able to fight back. Like this one. If he'd known how to sense ki, he wouldn't have taken that blow through the chest. Luckily, he'd managed to dodge the worst of it at the last moment. The attack had only struck his chest, and while it hadn't been immediately fatal, it had definitely left him gravely wounded. If Saiyans hadn't possessed such incredible vitality, he would have been done for already.

Betkas would have been KO'd long ago. Forget transforming into a Great Ape—even pretending to be dead would have been difficult. Still, the encounter had given him a taste of how close he could come to death. For the first time, he realized death could be so near. He'd died once in his previous life, but it had been a death without awareness. He hadn't experienced a thing. This time, he'd been fully conscious of it, especially the knife-like pain in his chest.

Betkas struggled to pull a remote control from the pocket of his Battle Armor. With a trembling hand, he pressed the red button. A moment later, he let go, and the remote clattered to the ground. Betkas shut his eyes, panting heavily. With an injury like this, his only option was to go back. The facilities here were nowhere near enough to help him recover. He really wished he had a Senzu Bean. Then he'd be able to heal completely.

At the place where Betkas, Vegeta, and Nappa had first landed, Betkas's spaceship seemed to answer the call. It rose high into the air, then shot straight toward him.

Like a shooting star streaking across the sky...

Meanwhile...

Nappa and Vegeta were fighting with very different mindsets. Nappa had encountered dozens of Chicks Aliens in a major city. Fortunately, none of them were stronger than him, though he still had to work to take them down.

Vegeta was another matter. When he'd seen the Artificial Moon created by Betkas, he'd started watching his surroundings carefully. He was arrogant, but he knew this wasn't the time for it. Arrogance was only justified by overwhelming strength. Since Betkas, who was about as strong as he was, had been forced to use his ultimate trump card, Vegeta wasn't about to let his guard down.

As it happened, he'd just run into two exceptionally powerful Chicks Aliens. At first, Vegeta had been unable to match them and had barely suffered a few minor injuries. Once the two Chicks Aliens let their guard down, Vegeta used the Artificial Moon technique and transformed into a Great Ape. He wiped out both of them in a matter of minutes.

After all, Vegeta and Betkas were each more than ten times stronger in Great Ape form, putting their power levels at over thirty thousand. No one on this planet could stand up to them. Even when injured, they wouldn't lose that much strength; they'd only be able to use four or five tenths less of their full power. That was still more than enough to deal with the Chicks Aliens, whose power levels were only around ten thousand.

After transforming into a Great Ape, Vegeta no longer held back. He rampaged through the area, destroying everything in his path. The planet's strongest fighters came one after another, but each was blasted to pieces soon after arriving. Nappa had it easiest of all. Betkas was the only one who'd had the misfortune of taking a heavy blow.

Betkas had just managed to crawl into his spaceship. It was leaving the atmosphere and heading back to Frieza's spaceship. Perhaps people would look down on him this time, but Betkas believed that once Vegeta and Nappa wiped out all the planet's inhabitants and returned, none of that would matter.

If he could, Betkas would rather not go back. But first, he had no acquaintances in space, and second, he didn't know how power was distributed across the universe. If he went to the wrong place, he'd be as good as dead. The only option was to return to Frieza's spaceship.

So he'd hurriedly left the planet without even saying goodbye to Vegeta and Nappa. He had no time. In his current condition, he could probably hold on for another hour at most. With death closing in, Betkas couldn't afford to hesitate. Whether Frieza would have him treated was up to fate. He had nowhere else to go.

"Lord Zarbon, one of the three Saiyan brats' spaceships has turned back!" A frog-headed alien was working at a large screen when he suddenly reported this to Zarbon.

Zarbon was taken aback. "Oh? Just one? Did something happen to the other two?"

The frog-headed alien replied, "I'll search the spaceship's records right away." He set to work, tapping away at the keyboard. A mass of data appeared on the screen. The frog-headed alien scanned it with a frown, while Zarbon stood beside him, unconcerned. They'd tampered with Betkas and the others' spaceships, after all, installing devices for monitoring them.

A few minutes later, the frog-headed alien spoke again. "Lord Zarbon, we have the information." Zarbon gave a slight nod, indicating that he should continue.

The frog-headed alien promptly reported, "The one who turned back is the Saiyan named Betkas. He fought a native whose power level was around twelve thousand and killed him. He returned because his injuries were too severe. The battle itself is still being analyzed." Everyone was shocked by the report, and Zarbon was a little surprised as well. He knew the strength of Betkas and the other two.

Zarbon mused, He killed someone four times stronger than himself with a power level of barely over three thousand? He's one tough fighter. He has potential. As far as Zarbon was concerned, Frieza had said to look after Betkas, but that didn't mean he had to coddle him. The planet he'd sent Betkas and the others to was somewhere around the middle of the pack in the universe. It was only meant to test their potential. As for the possibility that they might threaten him, Zarbon didn't think he was the sort of weakling who could be beaten by a Saiyan with a power level of barely over three thousand. He wasn't worried.

After a moment's thought, Zarbon spoke. "Prepare the medical supplies. Treat that Saiyan brat as soon as he returns. He's a subordinate Lord Frieza values. I'll report this to Lord Frieza as well." At once, the aliens began bustling about.