Capture

Under the bombardment of Kikoho, the Replicant turned into a puddle of liquid, flowing rapidly toward Raditz's feet. Focused on suppressing it, Raditz failed to notice the liquid slipping out from the light and continued thrusting his palms forward, trying to wipe out every last bit of liquid metal.

Suddenly, he felt a chill beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw an arm wrapped around his ankle, clamping down like iron pincers.

Replicant!

Raditz reacted instantly and hurriedly flew up and away. But the Replicant clinging to him would not let go. It swiftly gathered all its scattered fragments, took human form, and forcibly slammed Raditz to the ground by his ankle before rising and driving an elbow at him.

As the charging elbow came at him, Raditz swept it aside with his arm, throwing the Replicant off balance. At the same time, a Kikoho shot upward from his hand, hooking beneath its chin and blasting away half its face.

The scorching energy heated even the air. The Replicant's pale blue exterior had been singed red. Blasted backward by the Kikoho, everything from its chin to its nose had been destroyed, and it staggered back several steps.

The other Replicants were no better off. If not for their powerful regenerative abilities, they would have died countless times already.

"Calculation error. Calculation error." The cold electronic voice came through, sending another chill down their spines.

"You only realized your mistake now? We aren't something you can calculate." Raditz stared at the battered Replicant and clenched his fist.

They usually kept their strength at a relatively low normal level, drawing upon it as needed in battle. Sometimes, they even erupted with power beyond what they themselves expected. That was also part of Battle Power—it reduced consumption, maximized efficiency, and could catch certain enemies off guard.

These copied metal toys, however, had only a fixed Battle Power. They neither concealed it nor adjusted it according to their enemies' strength.

Though the Goku they copied fought much like the original, his Battle Power remained at the level of his normal state when he was not fighting at full strength. More importantly, they had overlooked one crucial thing: special techniques. They could not use Kamehameha or Kaio-ken!

Just as Raditz was feeling full of confidence, the cold electronic voice sounded again. "Recalculation successful. Reclaiming energy." At the same time, several metal skeletons appeared by the wall, their stark white forms looking eerie and terrifying.

As the voice ended, the three Replicants turned into liquid and converged in one place, reforming and reshaping. Their body took shape incredibly fast. In less than three seconds, a new Metalmen had formed—and it took on another appearance: Raditz.

"So all the rest went into making the hair?"

Raditz could not help mocking the Replicant that resembled him, but he knew the enemy had grown stronger again.

Vegeta snorted coldly, white Ki flaring around him as he left an afterimage with a whoosh and flashed before the Replicant. How could he possibly pass up such a perfect opportunity to beat the hell out of Raditz?

With a thought, Vegeta swung out his powerful leg and shouted as he swept through the air.

Smack!

The Replicant caught his lower leg with one hand, casually blocking the attack. Without even looking at him, it extended several sharp spikes from its hand, piercing Vegeta's calf, then flung him into the distance with utter indifference.

Vegeta crashed to the ground. Bright red blood flowed continuously from the holes in his leg, staining his Battle Suit red.

But this was Vegeta. Enduring the agonizing pain in his leg after being thrown down, he charged into the air again, slammed both arms down, and hammered a blow toward its head!

The Replicant had not expected the defeated opponent to challenge it again. Caught off guard, it took the vicious hit head-on. Its head absorbed the heavy blow, and its knees buckled as it nearly fell. But the combo was not over. Vegeta roared and drove a knee into its abdomen, then followed with two uppercuts that smashed its cheeks deeply inward and warped its face.

But at that moment, the Replicant suddenly tilted its head in an eerie motion, slipping past Vegeta's heavy punch. It then twisted its body and dodged another kick.

Vegeta was stunned after missing twice. The Replicant abruptly raised its head and glanced at him. Two red beams shot from its eyes, packed with immense energy and aimed straight at him! Vegeta was shocked and hastily stopped attacking, rolling twice through the air before landing.

The red beams pierced through the ceiling of the passageway, leaving behind two pitch-black holes and scorching the surrounding area.

"Damn it! Pulling out a move like that all of a sudden—you're nothing like Raditz!" Vegeta cursed the Replicant for refusing to fight by the rules.

He glared furiously, but the Replicant had vanished.

"Watch out!" Raditz shouted.

But it was already too late...

A massive force drove deep into Vegeta's abdomen. A knee rammed into him, nearly punching straight through his body. The power of that blow was comparable to the Great Ape stomping the ground on Earth, and it made him spit out a mouthful of blood.

Then two uppercuts were returned to him exactly as he had delivered them, one from the left and one from the right, sending Vegeta flying backward into the wall.

This time, the effects of the heavy blows showed. Vegeta collapsed to the ground, supporting himself with both hands as sweat streamed down his face. His Battle Power was far higher than Goku's normal state, and it should have surpassed Raditz's as well. Yet he had actually been knocked down twice by this copied counterfeit!

Vegeta was enraged. Leaning against the wall, he rose to his feet, fury burning in his eyes.

What he did not know was that, beyond copying Raditz, the Replicant had incorporated the results of its own calculations and seen through all of Vegeta's fighting methods. As long as it could predict his moves, even Vegeta could only be forced into passivity.

In an instant, the wall lifted upward like a sliding door, extending black mechanical tentacles! Vegeta was caught completely off guard. The tentacles seized him, rapidly locked him down, and wrapped around his body.

At the moment he was restrained, they heard a voice say, "Capture complete."

Vegeta struggled at first, forcibly snapping several mechanical tentacles that held him. But gradually, his energy dwindled, as though it had been drained completely. In the end, he could only let his arms hang limply.

"Everyone, be careful. Those tentacles can absorb our energy! Don't let them catch you." Raditz floated into the air and warned the others.

He noticed transparent sheets attached to the eerie metal skeletons. The things that had been absorbing energy all along were those transparent substances.

"Goku, let's go together!"

"Wait, look!" Tien Shinhan suddenly cried out, stopping Raditz and Goku just as they were about to move.

Everyone looked over, their pupils trembling. The orange-haired girl instinctively backed away, her face turning pale.

A massive number of Raditz Replicants were walking toward them. At a glance, there was no telling how many there were, pouring out of the white light like a tide.

All of them repeated the same words. "You cannot escape."