"Good! Very good, Vegeta!" Frieza's icy words rang out.
Frieza pulled himself free of the mountain and slowly descended to the ground.
He had indeed been badly injured, but not enough to keep him from moving.
"Though I don't know where you got your information, since you know I can still transform, are you really that confident you can defeat me?" Frieza spoke as he began to unleash his power.
His strength had always been so overwhelming that it was difficult to control perfectly. That was why he suppressed most of it and set several transformation stages for himself, so he could wield it more effectively.
He had transformed into his second form once in recent years, but he remembered showing it to his father many years ago. Even his trusted aide Zarbon didn't know about it.
Now, he had no choice but to do the same.
Otherwise, Vegeta really could kill him in his current state.
"Stop wasting your breath and get on with it. You'd better not disappoint me again." Vegeta grinned, his smile unbearably arrogant.
At his words, Frieza's expression changed at once.
He raised both arms overhead and clenched his fists. As an immensely powerful aura surged out of him, his body began to undergo a drastic transformation.
Whether from pain or something else, Frieza's expression looked as if he were badly constipated.
After a long while, it seemed he had finally worked up enough energy...
"Yaaahhh!!!" A hysterical scream burst from his mouth.
Vegeta, standing closest to him, could clearly feel his power swell dramatically.
As this power erupted, Frieza's body quickly twisted, until he was transformed into a complete monstrosity. His head in particular looked far less imposing than it had in his second form.
"Heh heh heh... Vegeta, apart from my father and my elder brother, you're the first person to see me in this form. You should be happy. It's an honor to die at the hands of me, the king, in this form." Frieza's voice had changed as well.
Having unleashed even greater power, he had regained the confidence he'd lost for the second time.
"Have you noticed? This scene feels awfully familiar. It seems that not long ago, you were just as full of yourself." Vegeta sneered in disdain.
Frieza's combat power in his third form might indeed be close to three million.
That was nearly on par with the power Vegeta possessed now.
Even so, that still wasn't enough for Frieza to defeat him in his normal state.
With Vegeta's combat ability, even if their power levels were equal, he was confident he could keep Frieza under control.
This pampered Universe Emperor hadn't fought seriously in years. In other words, when it came to combat experience, Frieza would be utterly outclassed.
Frieza didn't get angry. Instead, he laughed, his mocking expression making him look even more demonic. "This time is different from before. I should indeed give you some credit. If I'm not mistaken, your combat power has reached two million, right? That's why you think you can beat me even after I transform a second time.
"Unfortunately, you've misjudged how strong I am after my second transformation. I can tell you plainly: my combat power has now reached three million."
"Oh? Is that so? Then show me what you've got. Don't tell me you're still as useless as before." Vegeta wasn't the least bit afraid, his face full of teasing.
Frieza looked as if he'd swallowed a turd, his expression utterly foul.
He'd meant to show off and then mock Vegeta, but Vegeta had shut him down completely.
"You really are asking to die... Very well, then I'll let you experience the terror of facing death. Once I've had my fun tormenting you, I'll send you to Hell." With that, Frieza strode toward Vegeta.
When he was standing just a short distance away, Frieza wickedly stuck out his disgusting tongue. It looked like a lizard's and dripped with foul-smelling saliva.
"You'd better put that away, or I can't promise I won't cut it off." The stench at such close range was more than Vegeta could bear.
"You still dare to run your mouth? You should be thinking about how you'll cling to life at my hands!" Without another word, Frieza suddenly launched his attack.
At such close range, he moved so fast that the naked eye could barely follow him.
That speed would have been fatal to weaker opponents. But Vegeta had already finished warming up. How could he possibly fall for it?
"Ohohoho! Dance for me! Feel the storm descend beneath my absolute speed!"
He unleashed hundreds, then thousands of relentless fingertip energy blasts.
Vegeta kept dodging. He vaguely remembered Frieza using this technique to utterly cripple Piccolo after he had fused with Nail.
"Frieza, Frieza... You're using such a pointless move against me. You really are absurdly overconfident." As he spoke, Vegeta dodged and strode forward.
The two of them were already close. At this range, Vegeta dodged Frieza's lightning-fast attacks and still advanced. Frieza blinked, then backed away in disbelief.
In the blink of an eye, Vegeta closed in, disrupting Frieza's rhythm.
"You're still disappointing me." As the words left his mouth—
Bam!!! The sound of a fist sinking into flesh rang out.
Frieza was blasted backward by Vegeta's punch.
This time, however, he didn't fly through the air like before.
His body in third form was far tougher and stronger, so he only slid dozens of meters across the ground, leaving two deep, clearly visible furrows behind his feet.
Frieza's eyes were bloodshot as he roared in fury. "Impossible!!! How can you also have three million in combat power?!"
Clearly, Vegeta's attack hadn't been enough to make Frieza question everything, so he simply concluded that Vegeta's combat power was limited to that.
"Oh? Are you so sure I only have three million in combat power?" Vegeta sneered and moved at high speed again, appearing in front of Frieza.
The speed kept Frieza from daring to blink. Vegeta's fist came straight at him, and Frieza immediately raised an arm to block.
But Vegeta's punch was a feint. He switched to a knee strike and hit Frieza again, sending him flying.
"You're so weak, Frieza. How can such a small increase in power make you think you can turn the tables?" Vegeta continued taunting him, then launched another attack.