Ambush

"This..." Plus stared at the sky in shock, speechless for a long time.

At this moment, Lola patted Plus on the shoulder, feeling a deep sense of empathy.

Without waiting for Plus to recover his senses, Lola turned and vanished from where she stood.

As for Reke, while flying at high speed, the corners of his mouth curled up as he muttered, "Heh, stunned, aren't you?"

"Whoosh—"

If one were to ask why Reke chose to fly back to retrieve the spaceship himself instead of using the remote controller.

To put it plainly, it was because he didn't understand the technology; he didn't know if Frieza could intercept the signal if he activated the ship from his end, so he preferred to make the trip himself.

He didn't want his hard-won peaceful life to be shattered, forcing him into a life of being hunted by Frieza.

In this real world, Reke didn't know Kakarot and the others; if he died, everything would be gone. There would be no one to use the Dragon Ball to resurrect him, so when it came to his own life, one could never be too careful.

Passing through the Rock Monster mountain range this time, Reke assumed the monsters were still in hibernation, so he didn't choose to detour and flew straight across.

What he didn't know was that these monsters had been awakened months ago by the roar he let out when he was a Giant Ape, and they hadn't slept since, remaining in a state of high alert.

Therefore, the moment he entered the mountain range, he had already been discovered by these monsters.

It was just that most of them couldn't keep up with his speed; by the time they prepared to move, he had already left them far behind.

So, upon entering the central area of the mountain range, the battle suddenly erupted.

A gust of wind from a punch struck him; Reke only had time to mobilize the ki in his body to reinforce his defense before he was hit by the massive fist and sent flying instantly.

A surge of intense pain radiated through his body, his bones creaked and groaned, and his internal organs churned; there was no doubt about it, he was injured.

"Damn it, you bastard, no sense of martial honor."

Reke gritted his teeth against the pain, struggling to stabilize his form.

While feeling a lingering fear in his heart, a burning rage began to ignite.

Stopping his movement, he glared with fiery eyes at the thousand-meter-tall giant in front of him—this was the one he had previously sensed with a combat power of 100,000.

"You bastard, you're asking for death." Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Reke didn't care if the creature could understand him or not; he roared and charged forward.

His figure flickered as he appeared at the monster's waist, striking horizontally.

"Bang!"

As the monster took the hit, it countered with a knee strike aimed at Reke.

Reke hurriedly dodged, retreating a thousand meters to evade the monster's attack.

Taking a closer look, the monster showed no reaction after taking his blow, which meant Reke's attack had been completely ineffective.

"This bastard is really tough! It's not even on the same level as the one before."

Looking at the thick layers of rock on the monster's body, Reke felt a headache coming on.

He hadn't expected that not only would this monster have high combat power, but its defense would be even more monstrous.

"How the hell am I supposed to fight this? I can't even break its defense!"

Reke hadn't held back on that last strike; he wasn't like Kakarot, playing around with probing tricks. At the very least, he had used ninety percent of his full power.

The opponent hadn't even had its defense broken, while Reke himself had nearly been broken; his mentality was shattering.

This monster's combat power was similar to his own at 100,000, but its defense was at least 150,000 or higher.

Reke stared intently at the monster, his eyes constantly searching for flaws and weaknesses on its body.

After searching for a long time, the creature felt even more disgusting to him than a turtle shell; there was simply no way to get a handle on it.

This also served to show just how lacking Reke was in combat experience.

Reke also couldn't understand how something with such a massive physique could still be so fast.

The monster wouldn't play a turn-based game with him, nor would it give him time to think.

While Reke was sizing it up, the monster's eyes lit up, and it fired two purple energy beams at him.

Seeing the attack incoming, Reke's train of thought was interrupted.

Reke hurriedly lowered his altitude, keeping his body close to the ground as he constantly dodged the attacks.

"Boom!"

The areas swept by the beams exploded repeatedly, blasting out massive craters.

Reke wasn't the type to take a beating without fighting back; while dodging the beams, he fired energy blasts toward the monster.

As it turned out, the monster ignored his energy blasts entirely; not only did they have no effect, but they were also draining the ki from his body.

Seeing that his attacks were useless, Reke stopped the futile consumption.

The two sides, one chasing and one fleeing, covered a hundred miles in a short span of time.

Everything in their path—matter and living creatures alike—was destroyed by the monster's energy beams, and even its own kin were obliterated in the blasts.

Reke had been suppressed the entire way, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

Gritting his teeth, he stopped running and, hiding within the path of the monster's beams, began to close the distance to its body.

Seeing that he was about to close the distance, Reke erupted with a massive amount of ki, leaving an afterimage behind in his original spot.

He shifted his position, appearing behind the monster and unleashing hundreds of punches at the nape of its neck in a mere 0.1 seconds.

The force of the blows caused the creature's body to lurch forward, and the emission of its beam ceased.

Reke's eyes lit up, feeling that his attack had been effective, but just as he prepared to finish the opponent off in one go, a massive hand descended to envelop him. Reke retreated, his eyes still fixed firmly on the spot he had attacked, wanting to see the results of his efforts.

When he caught sight of a tiny crack, a flicker of joy rose in Reke's heart, but before even a second had passed, that crack vanished before his despairing gaze.

A wave of discouragement welled up within Reke.

How the hell was he supposed to fight this? Wasn't this just cheating?

This monster didn't seem to have a single weak point.

In a fit of frustration, Reke unleashed his King's Tactics at the creature's face, bombarding it with a barrage of energy blasts.

As a result, the monster remained unfazed, while Reke himself was left utterly exhausted.

Looking at the thick smoke swirling around the monster's face, Reke didn't even expect his efforts to have any effect.

He had no intention of staying here to fight the monster to the death; that last flurry of attacks had vented some of his rage, and now he prepared to find an escape route to seek revenge another day.

Any brother who has watched Dragon Ball knows the greatest trope in the series: the "no damage if there's smoke" law.

As the smoke cleared, it didn't disappoint Reke—he hadn't even managed to chip a single speck of stone off the monster's face.

However, Reke was also lucky.

The moment the smoke dissipated, Reke caught the movement of the monster's eyes.

Reke immediately realized that the monster must have closed its eyes the moment it was struck by his attack.

The monster's eyes were not large relative to its massive frame, but to a person of Reke's 1.2-meter stature, they were several times larger than him, which provided him with an opportunity to strike.

Now that the weak point had been found, how to approach the monster's eye level became the new problem.

Reke didn't know the Solar Flare, so he couldn't make the monster lose its sight; instead, he remained firmly locked in the creature's gaze.

It wasn't until he looked at the monster's feet that his eyes lit up, and he thought of a plan.

Whether it would work or not, Reke didn't know yet, but he prepared to make one final attempt.

If he failed, he would retreat.

With that thought in mind, Reke surged forward toward the monster once more.