Ambushed

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

Lola patted Plus on the shoulder, clearly sharing his feelings.

Before Plus could recover, Lola turned and vanished from the spot.

Meanwhile, Reke flew at full speed. The corners of his mouth curled up as he muttered, "Heh, bet you're dumbfounded now."

"Whoosh—"

As for why Reke had flown back to retrieve the spaceship instead of using the controller, there was a simple reason.

He didn't understand technology and had no idea whether Frieza would receive a signal if he started up the spaceship from here. So he'd rather make the trip himself.

He didn't want the peaceful life he'd worked so hard to secure to be ruined, forcing him to spend his days on the run from Frieza.

In this real world, Reke didn't know Kakarot and the others. If he died, that would be it. No one was going to use the Dragon Balls to bring him back. When it came to his own life, he couldn't be too careful.

This time, when he passed the Rock Monster Mountains, Reke assumed the creatures were asleep. He didn't bother going around and flew straight through.

What he didn't know was that these monsters had woken up months ago, roused by the roar he'd let out while in Giant Ape form. They hadn't gone back to sleep since, and had remained on high alert.

So the moment he entered the mountain range, the monsters spotted him.

Most of them simply couldn't keep up with his speed. By the time they'd started to move, he'd already left them far behind.

But when he reached the middle of the range, a fight broke out without warning.

A fist came hurtling at him with a rush of wind. Reke only had time to channel his ki to strengthen his defenses before the enormous fist slammed into him and sent him flying.

Pain shot through his body. His bones crackled, his internal organs churned, and there was no doubt about it: he was hurt.

"Damn it, you bastard! No fair!"

Reke gritted his teeth against the pain and struggled to steady himself.

Fear lingered in his heart, but his anger quickly flared.

He stopped and glared at the thousand-meter-tall giant in front of him, eyes blazing. This was the one he'd sensed earlier—the one with a battle power of 100,000.

"You bastard, you're asking for it." Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Reke roared and charged, not caring whether the creature could understand him.

He blurred into view beside the monster's waist and struck with a sweeping blow.

"Bang!"

The monster took the hit and immediately drove its knee at Reke.

Reke hurriedly dodged, retreating a thousand meters and avoiding the monster's attack.

He took a closer look. The monster hadn't reacted at all to his blow, which meant Reke's attack had done absolutely nothing.

"That bastard's really tough! It's on a whole different level from the last one."

The thick layers of stone covering the monster made Reke's head ache.

He hadn't expected these creatures to be so strong, let alone have such ridiculous defenses.

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

Reke hadn't held back with that last attack. He wasn't like Kakarot, who'd mess around with little tests. He'd used at least ninety percent of his full strength.

The monster's defenses hadn't budged, while Reke had nearly lost his cool.

The monster's battle power was around 100,000, about the same as his. Its defense had to be at least 150,000.

Reke kept his eyes fixed on the monster, searching for a flaw or weakness.

He searched for ages, but the thing felt even more infuriating than a tortoise shell. There was nowhere he could attack.

This only went to show how little combat experience Reke had.

Reke also couldn't understand how something so huge could move so fast.

The monster wasn't going to take turns with him like they were playing a game, and it wasn't going to give him time to think.

As Reke studied it, the monster's eyes lit up and it fired two purple energy beams at him.

The incoming attack interrupted Reke's train of thought.

He hurriedly dropped lower, skimming just above the ground as he dodged the monster's attacks.

"Rumble!"

The beams set off explosions wherever they swept, blasting out one massive crater after another.

Reke wasn't the kind of person who took a hit without hitting back. As he dodged the beams, he fired energy blasts at the monster.

But the monster ignored them completely. They had no effect at all, and only drained Reke's ki.

Seeing that his attacks were useless, Reke stopped wasting energy.

The two of them chased and fled, covering hundreds of miles in no time.

Everything in their path—obstacles and living creatures alike—was destroyed by the monster's energy beams. Even its own kind vanished beneath them.

Reke was suppressed the entire way, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

He gritted his teeth and stopped running. Dodging the beams, he kept closing in on the monster.

Just as he was about to reach it, Reke unleashed a massive burst of ki and left an afterimage in his place.

He shifted positions and appeared behind the monster. In the space of 0.1 seconds, he landed hundreds of punches on the back of its neck.

The monster pitched forward, and the beams stopped firing.

Reke's eyes lit up. It felt like his attack had worked, and he was about to press the advantage and finish the monster off—

A huge hand came sweeping down over him. Reke leaped back, keeping his eyes fixed on the spot he'd attacked to see what effect his blows had had.

When he spotted a tiny crack, he felt a spark of joy. But before even a second had passed, the crack vanished before his despairing eyes.

Reke felt his confidence drain away.

How the hell am I supposed to fight this? This is cheating!

The monster seemed to have no weaknesses at all.

As if venting his frustration, Reke unleashed King's Tactics on the monster's face, firing one energy blast after another.

The monster was barely affected, while Reke wore himself out.

Thick smoke billowed around the monster's face. Reke didn't even expect his attacks to have done anything.

He wasn't about to stay here and fight the monster to the death. That barrage had helped vent some of his anger, and now he planned to find a way out and come back for revenge another day.

Anyone who'd watched Dragon Ball knew its biggest flaw: the so-called rule that smoke meant no damage.

When the smoke cleared, it was just as Reke had expected. He hadn't even knocked a speck of stone off the monster's face.

But Reke had also been lucky.

The instant the smoke cleared, he noticed the monster's eyes move.

Reke immediately realized that the monster must have closed its eyes while he was attacking.

The monster's eyes were small compared with its enormous body. But next to Reke, who was only 1.2 meters tall, each one was several times bigger than him. That gave him an opportunity to attack.

Now that he'd found its weakness, getting close enough to reach its eyes was the next problem.

Reke didn't know Solar Flare, so he couldn't blind the monster. Instead, the monster kept its gaze fixed firmly on him.

Then he spotted the monster's feet, and his eyes lit up as an idea came to him.

He still didn't know if it would work, but he was ready to make one last attempt.

If it failed, he'd retreat.

With that, Reke shot toward the monster once more.