Final Flash!

Vegeta was sent flying straight through a mountain before embedding himself in another.

"Damn it!"

Gritting his teeth, Vegeta struggled free.

His blue battle suit was covered in dust, leaving him looking utterly disheveled.

Wang Shen hovered in midair with his arms crossed, gazing calmly at Vegeta as his anger surged.

That strike.

Though Vegeta looked battered, he hadn't actually been seriously hurt.

After all, if Wang Shen had gone all out, Vegeta would really have died.

The point of this fight was simply to make Vegeta behave himself from now on.

"Vegeta, still want to fight?"

Wang Shen goaded him.

"Karotis!"

Vegeta roared and shot into the sky, attacking Wang Shen again.

This time, he was faster, and the golden aura blazing around him flared even higher.

Having learned from his previous defeat, Vegeta didn't charge straight in. Instead, he tried attacking Wang Shen from every direction in quick succession.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

He kept changing his position and the direction of his attacks.

Wang Shen remained unruffled, easily handling Vegeta's storm of attacks.

He dodged or blocked.

Unexpectedly, during one attack, Vegeta formed an energy sphere in his hand.

The moment Wang Shen blocked it with his palm, it exploded.

In the instant of surprise, Wang Shen finally showed the slightest opening.

Vegeta seized the moment and kicked him in the back.

Just as a smug smile tugged at Vegeta's lips, Wang Shen took the kick head-on without budging.

"What!?"

Wang Shen gave him a wicked smile and moved to grab Vegeta's leg, ready to use the same trick again.

Seeing Wang Shen's smile, Vegeta's heart lurched. He instinctively retreated as fast as he could, barely escaping.

Wang Shen raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

"Not bad, Vegeta."

"Hmph. I don't need you to tell me that."

"If we keep fighting, you won't be a match for this prince."

Vegeta was confident again.

"Is that so?"

Wang Shen smiled faintly, rolling his neck and rubbing his fists together.

"Since you're so eager, I suppose I should give you a proper response."

Whoosh!

Power burst beneath Wang Shen's feet, sending him hurtling straight at Vegeta.

The familiar move and impossible speed made Vegeta's heart leap. He went on high alert.

His body instinctively wanted to dodge, but the pride of the Saiyan Prince wouldn't let him.

Unwilling to back down, Vegeta rapidly formed energy spheres in both hands and fired them at the charging Wang Shen.

"I am the Saiyan Prince!"

He formed and fired them without pause.

Prince Tactics!

In the blink of an eye, Wang Shen was completely surrounded by golden energy spheres.

The space in front of him was packed with them, leaving not a single gap.

To Wang Shen's surprise, rather than being startled, he was delighted. He charged even faster, growing more excited by the second.

Prince Tactics really lives up to its name!

Wang Shen treated the surrounding energy spheres as if they weren't there and charged straight through the explosions toward Vegeta.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In the blink of an eye, Wang Shen broke through the cover of the explosions and appeared in front of Vegeta.

He threw a simple punch. Like a towering tidal wave, it crashed down with a thunderous roar.

With nowhere left to retreat, Vegeta threw a punch of his own.

Crack!

Their fists collided, unleashing a storm of air that swept in every direction.

Vegeta held out for only an instant before he was sent flying again.

Faintly, the sound of tearing muscle could even be heard.

This time, Wang Shen didn't stop. He blurred forward and appeared behind Vegeta.

If he'd said he would beat some sense into him, then he'd have to get serious!

He kicked Vegeta in the lower back, sending him soaring into the sky.

Wang Shen followed close behind, pummeling him with punches and kicks until Vegeta was helplessly battered back and forth through the air.

Finally, a high roundhouse kick slammed Vegeta down.

Under the terrifying force, Vegeta's eyes rolled back. He spat out blood, crashed to the ground, and plunged into a mountain range.

He tore straight through an entire mountain, which collapsed with a tremendous crash!

Crackle!

Wang Shen stood on empty air, his golden hair fluttering as he stretched out his whole body. Even the tail that had been wrapped around his waist came loose, swaying freely behind him.

He'd trained for so many years, always under Whis's tutelage, and had never had such a satisfying fight.

He hadn't been able to let loose completely, but Vegeta made a decent punching bag.

Looking down at Vegeta, buried beneath the mountain and still nowhere to be seen, Wang Shen couldn't help sighing with disappointment.

At this point, neither Son Goku nor Vegeta stood a chance against him.

Perhaps only Vegito or Gogeta, once they appeared later on, could give him a fight that would make him go all out.

If he was willing to wait for them, that was.

A peerless powerhouse, the strongest warrior in the universe.

He was a Saiyan too, and he admired them.

Wang Shen had a feeling that fighting Vegito would benefit him greatly.

"Bastard!"

A dazzling golden beam shot into the sky, and an explosion blasted all the rocks into dust.

Vegeta finally emerged.

The blue armor on his upper body was in tatters, and his bodysuit was riddled with holes.

A trace of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

"Vegeta, that's enough. You're no match for me."

Vegeta looked so miserable that Wang Shen felt a little sorry for him.

Vegeta had been his childhood friend, after all.

And in his previous life, Vegeta had been his favorite Dragon Ball character—even more than Son Goku.

Wang Shen couldn't bring himself to keep toying with Vegeta, so he tried to reason with him.

"I'm sure you've noticed that your Super Saiyan form is different from mine."

"My Super Saiyan form is a deeper level of the Super Saiyan state. You'll reach it someday, too."

"Shut up, Karotis! I don't need your pity!"

Vegeta slowly rose into the sky, glaring at Karotis.

He had long since realized that Karotis's power was unfathomable, his aura almost completely free of any trace of its former wildness.

But he couldn't accept that the Super Saiyan form he, the Saiyan Prince, had struggled so hard to achieve had already been surpassed again!

And by his childhood friend, no less!

"Karotis, do you dare take my final attack?"

Vegeta roared.

The energy inside him surged violently, and streams of white vapor rose from his body.

Driven by overwhelming frustration and fury, Vegeta seemed to be brushing against the threshold of Super Saiyan Second Grade, the Ascended form.

Wang Shen's eyes shifted as he guessed what Vegeta was about to do. He answered seriously,

"Go ahead. I'll take it."

If he didn't handle this attack properly, the one destroyed would be Earth.

Wang Shen spread his arms, opened his heart, and let his aura settle into stillness as he carefully sensed the changes in his surroundings.

In his perception, Vegeta in the distance was like a gigantic nuclear bomb on the verge of exploding—unimaginably dangerous.

"Ahhhhh!"

A flash of delight crossed Vegeta's eyes before vanishing. He clasped his hands together in front of himself.

All the energy he had gathered earlier converged between his palms, and bolts of lightning crackled out.

The immense energy squeezed the surrounding space until it twisted.

"Final... Flash!"

Vegeta roared as a terrifying beam of energy blasted from his hands.

It broke through every obstacle, surging forward without hesitation.

Vegeta's attack was indeed terrifying.

Wang Shen could feel the golden fur on his tail bristling slightly.

He raised both hands, lowered his stance, and caught the Final Flash head-on!

Whoosh!

Wang Shen pressed down hard with both hands.

At last, a blazing golden aura ignited around him, its color deeper than Vegeta's.

After a short while, Vegeta could no longer keep up the attack.

Wang Shen turned the terrifying energy into pure light, which faded away on the wind.

"With that attack, you've already surpassed Son Goku."

"Ha... hahaha..."

Vegeta laughed bitterly, his face ashen and twitching.

His golden hair faded, returning to its original black.

He had been thoroughly defeated.

Whoosh!

Wang Shen vanished and appeared abruptly behind Vegeta.

He struck him with a chop to the back of the neck.

Vegeta immediately fell unconscious.

Wang Shen caught Vegeta by the shoulder, preventing him from falling out of the sky.

Looking toward the research facility, he murmured,

"Huh, the research facility still got destroyed by Trunks, but Android 16 has already been released, too."

"Piccolo still couldn't avoid getting a beating from Android 17."

As if he'd spotted a strikingly beautiful face, Wang Shen suddenly smiled.

"Android 18 really did wait for me here instead of leaving like she did in the original story."

"Looks like I haven't been wasting my efforts after all."