Now!
Just as the situation was about to descend into despair, an idea struck Son Gohan.
The pressure he felt had reached nearly its maximum. This was exactly what he had been pursuing all along!
Son Gohan decisively exited the Kaioken state at once and canceled his Kamehameha. Then, he began gathering the ki within his body, hoping to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break through his current limits in one fell swoop.
In the original work, the breakthrough to Super Saiyan had never actually been explained in detail. Even Akira Toriyama had only said that S-Cells erupted with power after being stimulated.
This eruption caused all the S-Cells to act together, producing a mutation in the ki within the body and making it stronger!
Based on the biological knowledge Son Gohan had learned in his previous life, he could roughly conclude that the increase in power came from a mutational eruption of the mitochondria—the energy factories within the S-Cells.
Now that he could pinpoint the source of his power, Son Gohan had a clear idea of how to improve it.
But merely stimulating the S-Cells in his body was useless, because the body could judge for itself whether it was truly facing life-threatening danger.
And his current situation was clearly one of extreme danger. Pikkon's attack was about to hit him, and its immense energy fully met the conditions!
As for emotions, the anger Saiyans relied on most was an extreme emotion. Likewise, an intense desire to win pushed to its peak was also an extreme emotion.
So he had the pressure, and he had the emotion. What was he still missing?
Boom!
Flames filled the sky and completely swallowed Son Gohan, drawing startled cries from all the martial artists watching.
"Hahaha, what a shame. He was so close."