Turles stepped out of the spaceship and immediately spotted the figure hovering in front of the Tree of Might in the distance.
The number displayed on his Scouter made him frown.
He pushed off hard, blasting apart the ground beneath his feet. His figure shot forward like a cannonball, reaching the foot of the Tree of Might in a few breaths.
To his left was his subordinate, Reiz. He'd managed to hold the other guy off, at least.
The one on the right was apparently this planet's prince, a guy with pretty decent battle power.
Turles then looked up at Raditz, hovering in midair. The energy gathered in his palm had begun to dissipate.
He didn't rush to attack. Instead, he casually made his way to a nearby fruit.
"Not many people in the universe have battle power as high as yours."
Turles spoke as he reached out and plucked the fruit.
"What's your name?"
Raditz didn't answer. He just stared at the face before him, identical to Sun Wukong's, and felt a little dazed.
So similar.
Far too similar.
If Sun Wukong was an innocent boy raised in the sunshine, then Turles could have passed for Kakarot, a Saiyan who'd grown up without losing his childhood memories.
"Your strength is decent." Turles held the fruit up before his eyes. "How about joining us?"
"Come with us. We can wander the universe, destroy any planets we don't like, enjoy the finer things in life, and do whatever we want."
"There's no freer life than that. So, what do you say? Come with me!"
The more Raditz looked at that familiar face, the more jarring the contrast became.
"Freedom? How can you be free with that kind of battle power?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Turles burst out laughing. "Looks like you don't understand what the Tree of Might's fruit does. Eat one and you'll grow stronger."
Then he ate the fruit in his hand. Its juice entered his body, and his muscles suddenly swelled.
His battle power jumped from sixteen thousand to thirty thousand!
"How about it? Join us and you can enjoy these fruits too. You won't have to struggle on the brink of death to grow stronger," Turles coaxed.
"No. I'm not interested in your fruit, and I'm not interested in you," Raditz said.
Turles kept smiling, but his eyes turned cold. "What a shame."
"Then you can die here."
Before the words had even left his mouth, Turles vanished from where he stood.
Before, he might not have been able to beat this guy. After eating the fruit, he was confident he could crush him with ease!
There was a whole one-to-two gap in battle power between fifteen thousand and thirty thousand!
Turles's fist shot toward Raditz's abdomen. The force of the punch was already upon him, but Raditz suddenly disappeared.
Turles's fist smashed into the rocks on the ground, sending chunks of stone flying.
"Not bad speed."
Turles sneered. "Try this!"
"Ha!!"
The next moment, he shot high into the air, gathering a large number of energy spheres in both hands and rapidly hurling them at Raditz.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The overwhelming barrage engulfed the area where Raditz stood in a frenzied series of explosions.
Waves of hot air billowed everywhere. Watching from a distance, Daiz was dumbstruck. Would he have any chance of dodging an attack like that? He'd probably be reduced to dust.
Turles stopped moving. The Scouter no longer showed any battle power signal, so it seemed his attack had successfully taken out the other guy.
"Ugh. Low-Class Warriors really are useless."
"I'm different. I've eaten countless fruits from the Tree of Might."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Turles was already imagining himself using the Tree of Might to make the entire universe submit to him.
"Hey! Done laughing yet?"
A sudden voice came from behind Turles.
Turles spun around and put some distance between them.
"You're still alive?!"
"Isn't that obvious?"
Turles stared at the Scouter, confused by the reading: a battle power of only five.
Was it broken?
"You're lucky you managed to escape that," Turles sneered. "But with battle power like yours, you can't beat me now."
"If you get on your knees and apologize right now, I might spare your life and let you join us."
Raditz: "..." You really don't know when to quit.
"Open your eyes and take a good look at my battle power."
With that, Raditz gathered his ki. A fierce gale whipped around him.
"Ha!!!"
The reading on Turles's Scouter, which had been five, shot upward in an instant!
"10,000..."
"20,000..."
"30,000..."
"40,000..."
"Bang!"
A sharp crack rang out.
Turles looked even more bewildered, with a trace of unease in his expression.
Was the Scouter really broken?
If it wasn't, then the other guy's battle power was already over forty thousand—higher than his own!
Impossible!
"Looks like the Scouter really is broken."
"You stubborn bastard. You won't get away this time."
Turles clasped his hands together, then slowly spread them apart, forming a golden sphere.
He launched it toward Raditz.
Raditz charged forward too, speeding straight toward the energy sphere.
Just before reaching it, he opened his left hand and swept it forward, batting the incoming sphere away.
Then, without slowing down at all, he barreled straight toward Turles.
Turles froze.
"What..."
Before he could finish, a fist he'd been building up for some time slammed into his chest.
It struck him squarely.
An overwhelming force surged into him. Turles doubled over like a shrimp, his eyes bulging and his mouth gaping open.
"Pfft!"
He flew backward and slammed into the trunk of the Tree of Might, making the entire trunk shudder.
Sliding down the trunk, Turles dropped to one knee and clutched his chest, his eyes full of disbelief.
That punch had hurt him—and made one thing painfully clear.
The difference between them.
The Scouter's reading had been real?!
The next moment, his expression changed dramatically.
He dodged out of the way.
One energy wave after another came flying at him, bombarding the area he'd been standing in.
"Gah!!"
Turles screamed as the blast sent him flying, leaving him hanging from a branch of the Tree of Might.
Raditz hovered in midair and lowered his hands.
So this was the Prince's Battle Technique. He could do it too.
"Damn it..." Turles gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead bulging.
He reached out and plucked another fruit from a nearby branch, then wolfed it down in a few bites.
Energy flowed into his body again.
His strength was returning, and he was even stronger than before.
"Still not enough."
Turles picked another fruit and started eating it in big bites.
"Whoo—"
Only after finishing the third fruit did he float toward Raditz, perfectly composed.
"You've really made me angry this time!"
Raditz looked at him without attacking. He simply said, "They say the Tree of Might's fruit is an offering to the gods."
"As a mortal, can your body handle eating so many in such a short time?"
"Gods? They're just mortals with great stren—"
Before he could finish, Turles felt his stomach churning. A searing current surged up from his abdomen, and his body began trembling uncontrollably.
"Gah!!"
Turles screamed again and fell to the ground. His battle power began to drop, eventually stabilizing at just over twenty thousand.
Raditz: "..."
Well, I guess that prediction came true.
He looked down at Turles, who was still struggling to get back up, as blue energy slowly gathered in his right hand.
This time, Turles wouldn't be able to dodge.