"Android 18, you should feel honored. Once I absorb you two, a perfect, invincible superman will be born into this world!"
"He'll be the ultimate warrior Dr. Gero spent years striving to create."
After absorbing countless people and growing much stronger, Cell was now terribly overconfident. He didn't take Lazuli seriously at all.
It would be best if Lazuli willingly let him absorb her. Otherwise, forcibly absorbing her would merely waste some time.
Cell prattled on, completely unaware that with every word he spoke, the chill in Lazuli's eyes grew stronger.
Perfect? Invincible? The ultimate warrior?
Hah!
What a joke.
Cell's words filled Lazuli with disdain.
They were both made from the combined cells of various martial arts experts.
Mo Yuan only had to train on his own to gain terrifying power.
But Cell?
Lazuli could clearly sense the muddled energy surrounding him, along with the resentment of countless people.
Clearly, Cell had gained his current strength by absorbing the life energy of countless humans.
Anyone who relied on outside forces to grow stronger was obviously defective.
Besides, Cell wasn't even that strong.
She had no idea where he got the confidence to think he could absorb her and Lapis.
In the end, Lazuli reached a conclusion.
Cell was a defective idiot!
Cell wasn't completely brainless, either.
While using his words to distract Lazuli,
he was secretly gathering strength in his tail behind him, waiting for an opening.
"So you're not willing?"
When Cell saw that Lazuli remained unmoved, a chill flashed in his eyes.
Lazuli stared at Cell with a cold, expressionless face and said nothing.
She didn't believe a single punctuation mark of what Cell said.
"Hah! If you're unwilling, I won't force you..."
As he spoke, Cell turned around as if he were about to leave.
However.
The instant Cell turned around, the needle-like tail behind him moved.
Like a venomous snake striking from its den, it shot toward Lazuli with blinding speed.
Lazuli seemed not to react at all. She made no move to dodge.
"Kyahahaha! Become one with me!"
Certain of his victory, Cell burst into a wild, arrogant laugh.
But.
Faced with Cell's supposedly sure-fire attack, Lazuli only felt bored. She even wanted to yawn.
Too slow.
Cell's surprise attack was simply too slow for Lazuli.
Just as Cell's tail was about to hit her,
Lazuli moved.
The girl's slender, fair hand slipped out from her embrace.
The seemingly slow movement caught Cell's lightning-fast tail with perfect precision.
"What?!"
A tremendous force clamped down on his tail. Cell was stunned, the smug look on his face replaced by panic.
Lazuli pinched Cell's tail and examined its needle-shaped tip. "Is this the thing you use to absorb human life energy?"
"What are you doing?"
Lazuli ignored Cell.
She gathered the ki inside her body into her hand. Pure white energy wrapped around it.
Then, using her hand as a conduit, the energy spread along Cell's tail.
Scorching heat!
A searing pain surged from his tail.
"Ah!!"
The burning agony made Cell scream at once.
Like his backside was on fire, Cell tried to run, but Lazuli still had his tail in her grasp.
Held fast by her terrifying strength, Cell couldn't pull his tail free.
Just as the excruciating pain was about to spread from his tail throughout his body, Cell acted decisively. Without hesitation, he cut off his own tail.
Drip.
Purple blood fell from Cell's severed tail onto the ground.
Cell's eyes bulged. He couldn't believe what had just happened.
According to the information Dr. Gero had given him,
his current strength should have surpassed Android 17 and Android 18's.
Yet now he was completely helpless against Android 18's attack.
Impossible!
What Cell didn't know was that this timeline had already changed drastically because of his and Trunks's arrival.
Even before training, Lazuli and Lapis had been stronger than Android 17 and Android 18 in the Future Timeline.
And that was before they trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
At their current strength, unless Cell had already reached his perfect form, there was no way he could beat the two of them. (Of course, Lapis was the stronger one.)
Cell had lost all desire to fight. He only wanted to escape as quickly as possible, keep absorbing humans, and return to absorb Lazuli once he was strong enough.
But if he wanted to flee, he'd have to see whether Lazuli would let him.
Cell was weak right now.
But he could quickly increase his strength by absorbing humans.
If they let him roam free, he could become a threat to them.
Besides, this ugly monster was even plotting to absorb the two siblings.
She absolutely couldn't let him leave.
Having made up her mind, Lazuli launched the first attack.
She instantly used High-Speed Movement.
Lazuli appeared behind Cell.
Her long, slender, alluring legs became deadly weapons.
She struck straight at Cell's huge head.
With such an enormous gap in strength, Cell couldn't react at all.
When Lazuli's kick struck his head, Cell felt as if his brain had turned to mush. He briefly lost consciousness.
His whole body shot through the air at high speed, as if he'd been hit by a speeding truck.
Lazuli pressed her advantage and swiftly caught up with the airborne Cell.
Next, Cell got to experience what it felt like to be kicked around like a soccer ball.
Except he was the ball.
Lazuli seemed to have found a new toy and had a wonderful time playing with him in midair.
Although this toy was... really ugly, it still felt pretty good to kick.
Cell could only take the beating. He couldn't do a thing to fight back.
No, this couldn't go on. He'd be killed.
Cell knew perfectly well that once Lazuli had had her fun, she would kill him.
His desperate will to survive cleared his mind.
He began searching for any chance to escape.
After playing with him for a while, Lazuli grew bored too.
She decided to finish Cell off.
Lazuli kicked Cell toward the ground while gathering the terrifying ki inside her body into her hand.
Now!
Cell seized the opening as Lazuli made her move. He raised both hands beside his head, palms open.
"Solar Flare!!"
A dazzling flash erupted from Cell.
Even though Lazuli's body had been modified and was far tougher than an ordinary person's, her eyes were still extremely vulnerable to the direct glare.
Her vision suddenly turned white. A sharp pain stung her eyes, and she couldn't help closing them.
Cell took the opportunity to suppress his ki completely.
Then he fled into the forest, using the trees for cover as he quickly escaped the area.
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