The Last Trump Card

Raditz, Nappa, you two had better not let me down when it mattered most...

An Xiu murmured to himself.

What was happening before his eyes had already exceeded his expectations.

Because he was too far away, he had not heard King Cold personally mention that he still had two transformations left.

He had assumed that after the first transformation, Super Saiyan 2 at its peak was King Cold's limit. He had not expected there to be another transformation.

In truth, from the very first moment An Xiu saw King Cold, he had been deeply surprised.

There was no other reason.

It was simply because—this King Cold was far too powerful!

Of course, that was relative to the current main cast. To An Xiu, King Cold was still someone he could slap to death.

But combat power at the peak of Super Saiyan 3 was practically the pinnacle of power in the Z Era.

He had never expected it to appear at this point in time, much less manifest in King Cold.

It left An Xiu utterly baffled.

He could only attribute it to the possibility that the Dragon Balls timeline he was currently in was perhaps not the same as the canonical one.

No wonder the system had assigned such a seemingly simple yet practically impossible mission.

Fortunately, An Xiu had prepared a backup plan beforehand. Otherwise, he would have been completely screwed.

The Fusion Dance—shortly after making that wish to Shenron, An Xiu had taught the technique to Raditz and Nappa.

The two had practiced in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for three days and three nights before finally mastering it.

Then, over the following month, they fully integrated it into their fighting styles.

After fusing, their merged form's base combat power reached the combined peak of their individual power.

After transforming into Super Saiyans, they had even comprehended Full-Power Super Saiyan 1, something neither of them had mastered alone.

Their strength was comparable to that mysterious Gohan An Xiu had encountered in another timeline.

In other words, as long as the two successfully fused, defeating this King Cold would be easy.

However, after observing for so long,

An Xiu had also noticed that there was something off about this King Cold.

Aside from his strength differing from the original story, his habits had become drastically different as well.

Compared to the King Cold in An Xiu's memories—the one who loved scheming and petty tricks, and did not even have the courage to fight—

this King Cold was extremely battle-hungry. He even constantly held back his strength just to enjoy a proper fight.

Not only that, this guy was somewhat softhearted... At first, An Xiu had thought it was merely because King Cold was being overconfident.

But after witnessing him several times,

despite clearly having opportunities to eliminate some of them outright,

he chose not to do so. He even deliberately held back against Krillin and the others, who were far weaker than himself, rather than killing them.

An Xiu had already realized something was wrong.

Especially after King Cold seriously injured Piccolo and enraged Gohan into transforming into Super Saiyan 2,

only to suddenly break character and attack Krillin and the others, prompting Goku to transform into Super Saiyan 2 as well—this behavior only deepened An Xiu's suspicions.

A few possibilities formed in his mind.

First: this King Cold might be a transmigrator like him...

Second: this King Cold had traveled back from the future. He had not been defeated by Trunks, but had deliberately returned to this point in time for revenge...

Third: this King Cold had been reborn after being killed by Trunks. He had trained hard, raised his strength, and investigated everything in advance...

Judging from the current situation, it was highly likely that King Cold was a transmigrator. But to confirm the truth, An Xiu would still have to get the answer from King Cold himself.

Just as An Xiu was lost in thought,

beside him, Trunks saw King Cold transform once more and watched the situation become extraordinarily unfavorable. He clenched his fists, his anxiety and worry written all over his face.

If he had not known that he lacked the strength and would only drag everyone down, Trunks would have rushed in long ago.

But faced with this crisis, he could no longer think that much.

"No, I have to go help stall him. At least... at least I need to buy Gohan and the others a chance to recover with Senzu Beans."

Trunks's voice trembled. Before he had even finished speaking, he was already preparing to join the battle.

As for An Xiu beside him,

although Trunks knew that An Xiu was very strong,

he did not know An Xiu's exact stance, nor had he ever considered dragging him directly into this.

Naturally, he did not ask An Xiu for help.

However, just as his body rose into the air and he was about to power up and rush over, An Xiu suddenly reached out and stopped him.

"Don't rush. The situation may not be as bad as you think. At least in a battle of this level, going over with your current strength would be useless."

An Xiu's expression remained calm.

Hearing this, a sense of helplessness welled up within Trunks, but his anxiety did not lessen.

"Am I supposed to just stand here and watch?!"

"Yes."

An Xiu nodded, then reassured him, "But you don't need to worry too much. Someone among them still has a trump card and hasn't used their full strength yet. For now, just sit here and watch."

"If things go wrong, I'll step in."

An Xiu added, "After all, not only would you be useless if you went over, you'd just get in the way."

I...

Trunks was left speechless.

He did not say anything else. He merely stood there quietly, watching the distant battlefield.