The Prince's Fury

A searing pain spread through Raditz's entire body, a sour ache and convulsion racing like electric current through his nerves, and a sudden terror seized his heart.

A Battle Power of eighteen thousand—no joke, indeed!

He hadn't expected King Vegeta's attack to be this devastating, far more formidable than any opponent he'd faced before. That single punch alone made him feel the surging energy and fury radiating from King Vegeta.

King Vegeta, in a rage!

As the Saiyan prince, his Battle Power had already crushed that of adult warriors when he was just five years old. His talent surpassed every other Saiyan, and King Vegeta had hailed him as the hope of their race. In his own eyes, he was the strongest Saiyan—even his father, King Vegeta, was merely older; given time, he would surpass him too.

Those so-called elite warriors were all garbage to him! Low-class warriors like Kakarot and Raditz didn't even register in his sight. Back when Raditz served on his team, he never dared speak loudly and had to ask permission for everything. King Vegeta only kept him around because Raditz worked without complaint.

But now? Two low-class Saiyans dared to provoke him, even threaten him!

Worst of all, Raditz wanted to show power surpassing his!

Impossible!

King Vegeta roared, hammering punch after punch into Raditz's body. The force shattered the tough Battle Suit and shook the ground into a crisscross of ravines and utter chaos.

"Raditz, where's that power you wanted to show? Let me see it!!!" King Vegeta pulled back, gathered strength, and landed a vicious hook to Raditz's jaw, sending him flying.

The figure tumbled dozens of meters backward, skidding along the ground for a long stretch before finally stopping in a cloud of dust.

"Huh? Raditz got knocked down!" Tien Shinhan exclaimed in shock.

From their angle, they saw Raditz ambushed by King Vegeta, then beaten to the ground without any chance to fight back. Could King Vegeta really be that strong? The group tensed up, fists clenched.

Yamcha worriedly asked, "Goku, didn't you say Raditz barely trained seriously this past month? Is that why?"

"No, my brother trained hard. But every eight hours of training, half the time was spent on basic physical conditioning."

"Maybe he's gotten sluggish?"

"Not at all. Feel carefully—his ki hasn't weakened!" Goku said with a confident smile. "In fact, that ki is still swelling, reaching a height I've never sensed before!"

"This..." The others' voices caught in their throats.

They were all masters of ki control. Once they calmed down, they immediately felt Raditz's still-powerful ki.

Looking back at him, sure enough, Raditz slowly pushed himself off the ground and stood up again.

"Hmph, you can still get up. Not bad," King Vegeta sneered. "Seems you weren't completely bluffing. Taking that many of my punches and still standing means your strength has improved a lot. If I'm not wrong, both you and Kakarot have Battle Powers over ten thousand!"

Raditz wiped the blood from his mouth and nodded. "You're not wrong."

"No wonder you've gotten cocky! But so what?!" King Vegeta bellowed as he closed in, his form vanishing into thin air.

Raditz startled, then sensed danger behind him. Every hair on his body stood on end as he instinctively twisted around. But the attack had already arrived—a vicious elbow strike. Raditz quickly crossed his arms to block. Then King Vegeta leaped to the front, sweeping a kick. Raditz twisted his body at an impossible angle, dodging again.

King Vegeta watched Raditz keep evading and arrogantly roared, "No matter how much you improve, my Battle Power is still higher than yours! There's a difference in talent between us—an unchangeable fact! Understand?!"

As he spewed his boasts, he gathered power in his hands. White light flared, and Energy Blasts fired in rapid succession!

Boom! Boom! Boom—

With each blast, the earth trembled. People thousands of miles away thought an earthquake had struck and fled to open ground in panic. Even Tien Shinhan and the others broke out in cold sweat, a needle-sharp pressure piercing their bones and making their skin crawl.

The endless bombardment shattered the already cracked ground into countless fragments. Huge mushroom clouds rose between heaven and earth as smoke and dust scattered with the wind. The area was stripped bare, stone chips scattered everywhere. In the deep crater, Raditz lay still, unmoving.

"Hmph, trash is trash. Finally done for, huh? Get up and show me if you can! You..." King Vegeta's mouth froze mid-sentence. Raditz hadn't been blown down at all.

His sturdy frame slowly walked out of the smoke, stepping out of the pit to stand before King Vegeta again, as immovable as a mountain.

"Sorry, warm-up's over. I've got a handle on your strength now." Raditz placed his hands on his hips and let out a light shout, erupting in a brilliant white aura.

"You...!"

King Vegeta's face twisted in shock as an invisible pressure slammed into him. The number on his scouter jumped wildly from over 10,000, finally stopping at 20,000.

You've got to be kidding? Twenty thousand Battle Power!

"Impossible! It's impossible! You're just a low-class warrior!" King Vegeta broke into a sweat, his body going cold, his breath catching.

He'd imagined many possibilities for Raditz, but never that he'd surpass him. In his eyes, he was unsurpassable! Besides, they'd only been apart for two years—what could that little time accomplish? No matter how much he improved, he was still a low-class warrior. That was a talent set at birth, unchangeable!

His pride as the Saiyan prince was deeply wounded. King Vegeta ripped off his scouter and crushed it to pieces.

"That scouter must be broken! Raditz, you can't surpass me!"

Raditz brushed the dust off his clothes, rolled his shoulders and wrists until they cracked, like he was warming up before exercise. Aside from his tattered Battle Suit, he had no other injuries—even the blood at his mouth was nothing.

Getting caught off guard by King Vegeta's assault was indeed carelessness, but it had also let him gauge King Vegeta's strength, speed, and fighting style. A two-thousand Battle Power gap was no small difference at this stage, and Raditz wasn't afraid.

"Now, it's time to show my true power." Raditz assumed a fighting stance, his gaze suddenly sharp as a blade.

King Vegeta and Nappa stared in shock, while the others watched with anticipation—especially Goku, whose blood was already boiling!