Monster

"9,999, 10,000."

Reke pushed off with his right thumb, launching himself up from his one-finger push-up position.

Thinking back on everything that had happened over the past month, Reke still felt like he was dreaming.

He had never imagined he could go from doing a thousand two-handed push-ups to ten thousand one-finger push-ups in just one month.

Too fast! His progress was far too fast!

Even without added weight, he was doing this under one-fifth of Planet Vegeta's gravity.

Every day, he made huge strides compared to the day before. There was no sign of a bottleneck at all.

He clenched both hands, feeling how much stronger he was than a month ago. For the first time, Reke truly saw hope of one day challenging those powerful fighters.

"Next, let's try this."

Standing in the open space in front of his home, he raised his right hand and aimed it at a large tree fifty meters away.

Blue light gathered in his palm, growing brighter as more and more energy collected. Before long, an energy sphere three meters across had taken shape.

"Ha!" Reke shouted.

The energy sphere shot toward the tree and struck it in less than a second.

"Boom!"

Wood chips flew everywhere as a massive tree, thirty meters thick, toppled backward.

The spot hit by the energy sphere had been completely blown away. A section of the trunk was gone, causing the whole tree to collapse.

After firing the energy sphere, Reke didn't feel a thing. It had been as effortless as taking a breath and letting it out.

He had gained all this from sorting through the memories that had been transmitted to him. Unfortunately, he still hadn't encountered an opponent on equal footing, leaving the combat techniques in his memories with no chance to be put to use.

Without a Scouter, Reke had no way of knowing how high his battle power was now. He could only compare it to his strength before.

A conservative estimate put it at more than twice what it had been. In other words, his battle power was now over 100.

Based on what he had sensed in the surrounding area before, no one within a radius of two hundred li had a higher battle power than him.

That also made him even more reckless in his actions.

After finishing his physical training for the day, Reke filled his stomach, then sat cross-legged inside the cave.

He closed his eyes and began cultivating his ki.

Reke's daily routine now consisted of physical training during the day and, at night, sensing ki using the method Gohan had taught in the anime.

According to the anime, everything in the world had ki, even stones.

He wasn't sure if it was because of his efforts over the past month or because his body had grown stronger, but today Reke could feel it.

Just as the anime had described, there was ki inside his body.

His body relaxed, his mind focused. With a single thought, he began trying to control the ki inside him, bit by bit.

A gentle breeze stirred around him. Reke could feel an invisible force gathering where his body met the ground, slowly lifting him up.

This was different from his earlier attempts to fly, and it was different from firing an energy sphere.

He could feel and control this invisible force. Before, he had simply left everything to his body without sensing a thing.

Reke stopped meditating, opened his eyes, and pushed aside the rock blocking the cave entrance before stepping outside.

This was the first time since moving here that he had seen Udrapa Planet at night.

Once he was standing, he copied Kakarot's Kamehameha pose from the anime.

He spread his feet apart, one in front of the other, and cupped his hands beside his waist like a flower bud. Then he controlled the invisible force inside him—his ki—and gathered it in his palms.

More and more energy built up. Reke kept compressing it until all the ki in his body had gathered into shape. Then he thrust both hands forward.

A wave of energy shot out.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Unlike the energy sphere from before, this blast didn't stop after hitting a tree. It kept going, knocking down seven or eight trees before blowing the last one to nothing. It left a crater thirty meters across in the ground.

Seeing the power of his ki blast, Reke was stunned.

He couldn't believe he had done this.

The quiet night was shattered by Reke's attack.

"Roar!"

"Woo!"

Roars from wild beasts echoed through the forest.

Reke's actions seemed to have broken some ancient rule the forest had followed for ages.

The roars drew nearer and nearer, as if every creature in the area had come charging out. Reke could clearly feel the ground shaking.

"Not good."

Realizing something was wrong, Reke hurried back to the cave and blocked the entrance, leaving just a tiny gap for air.

The creatures of the forest had all arrived at the site of the explosion.

Luckily, Reke had moved fast. If he'd been even a little slower, they would have caught him.

Holding his breath, Reke peered through a narrow gap and saw all kinds of wild beasts packed outside.

"Damn, what's that?" Reke's eyes widened as he spotted a monster over a hundred meters tall.

Even from several kilometers away, Reke could feel a wave of menace coming from its body.

A deadly sense of danger washed over him. Reke's tail stiffened in fright, and the fur on it stood on end.

"Ha!"

The monster seemed to sense someone watching it. It opened its mouth and roared at the sky.

"Boom!"

A fierce gale burst outward from it.

Every living creature within a radius of five hundred meters exploded.

"Ugh!"

Reke grunted and fell to the ground, clutching his ears in pain. He clenched his teeth, afraid that any sound he made might draw the monster's attention.

He didn't dare look at it again. He lay on the ground, struggling through the agony.

"Damn it, I've really gone too far this time!"

"Why is this godforsaken place so terrifying at night?"

Reke was filled with regret. If only he'd tried it during the day.

Outside, the monster roared again and again. Reke clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. His internal organs were injured by the shock waves, and every cell in his body rebelled against the pain.

Reke had completely lost track of time. He fought the pain with everything he had.

He had never experienced this kind of agony. He wanted to scream to ease it, but his survival instinct kept him from making a sound.

He clenched his teeth. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth. He had gone deaf, and blood ran from both ears, proof that his eardrums had ruptured.

He grabbed at his hair with both hands, ripping out a fistful along with his scalp.

Reke had lost all awareness of his surroundings, drifting back and forth between unconsciousness and wakefulness.

Hold on. I can't pass out.

Those words filled Reke's mind. All he could do was hold on, hold on, and keep holding on.

He didn't know whether he would ever wake up if he passed out now, and he didn't dare take the chance.

Only after the monster outside stopped roaring did Reke's mind finally relax. He fell unconscious.

The monster's roars had left the air within a hundred li thick with the smell of blood. A deathly silence hung over the area; not even a single insect chirped.

Normally, the smell of blood would have drawn one wave of wild beasts after another, but now not a single creature dared approach within a hundred li.

The monster's lingering pressure remained in the area for a long time.

It wasn't until dawn that some wild beasts cautiously tried to approach from the outskirts.