Dragon Ball Scramble

The wind through the valley carried the scent of freshly spilled green blood everywhere.

"Y-You... what kind of monsters are you?!"

The remaining alien soldiers had their fingers clenched tightly around their triggers, but as they looked at their comrades lying in pools of blood, their legs kept retreating on their own. In the more than ten years that the Frieza Force had run rampant, they had never seen anyone reduce a warrior equipped with the latest technological armor to dust using nothing but the force of a punch.

Chen He ignored their trembling. He set the enormous Dragon Ball at his side, his abyss-black eyes sweeping over the broken Namekian corpses scattered across the ground.

In the original story, these peace-loving natives had been nearly wiped out by Frieza's slaughter in their effort to protect the Dragon Balls. Even now, the few young Namekian warriors who had survived by chance clutched the dirt tightly with their callused hands. Though energy beams had blown fist-sized bloody holes through their chests, their dark green eyes still burned with an unyielding fury that would rather die than submit.

"Absolutely... don't hand the Dragon Balls over to these demons!" A young warrior gritted his teeth as pale green blood continuously spilled from his mouth. Looking at the approaching Chen He, his eyes held both wariness and a final trace of hope.

"Don't worry. We're not with them."

Goku walked over and knelt down halfway, unable to bear the sight. He gently pressed a callused palm against the young warrior's shoulder. Though he had suppressed his ki to a very low level, its warmth still surprised the Namekians.

Rumble—!!

The rocky high ground in the distance suddenly exploded. A massive, bloated pink figure covered in protruding lumps of flesh crashed heavily into the center of the camp, carrying an aura so violent it nearly peeled up the earth.

Dodoria.

The close confidant at Lord Frieza's side had a face full of twitching fat. Pressing a crackling scouter at his ear, he stared at the debris covering the ground, uncertainty flashing through his scarlet eyes. "That useless Cui was taken out by Vegeta... but where did trash like you, who suddenly popped up out of nowhere, crawl out from?!"

"Beep beep beep—"

The numbers on his scouter instantly shot off the scale before finally settling at a mere power level of 500. Cautiously, he scanned them again.

"Hahaha! A pathetic power level of 500, and you dare oppose Lord Frieza? Watch me take care of all of you...!"

"What?! That's impossible!!" Dodoria cried out in horror, blood running from the corner of his mouth. How could you be this strong?

"Goku, finish this quickly. Frieza's main ship isn't far from here."

Bang!!

Chen He suddenly appeared in front of Dodoria, his fist burying itself solidly in Dodoria's bloated abdomen.

"Gwah—!!"

Dodoria's entire body bent sharply into the shape of a shrimp. His eyeballs bulged from the overwhelming pain as mouthfuls of blood, mixed with chunks of internal organs, sprayed out wildly. The elite body he had been so proud of was as fragile as a sheet of soaked rotten paper before Chen He.

"Bastard! Bastard, aaah!!"

The intense threat of death made Dodoria lose his mind completely. He flailed his arms hysterically, unleashing countless dense energy blasts that rained down all around him.

Yet amid the chaotic explosions, Goku's orange-red figure moved as leisurely as if he were taking a stroll through his own backyard, effortlessly avoiding every attack.

"Ah... aaah...!"

Goku gave a low shout, and a ring of golden light burst from his body. He darted into Dodoria's blind spot and drove a clean uppercut hard into his opponent's jaw. With a sharp crack of shattering bone, the massive figure was blasted into the air.

"No... don't hit me anymore... spare me!"

Dodoria crashed heavily back to the ground, and all that remained on his formerly arrogant, ugly face was endless cowardice and fear. He struggled to crawl backward, staring in despair at the two expressionless Earthlings closing in on him. He wanted to flee. He had to bring the terrifying news that monsters had descended here back to Lord Frieza!

Chen He stopped three meters away from him.

Rather than continue the pursuit, he turned his head and coldly glanced at the red dots on the Dragon Radar, which were rapidly moving toward another location.

"No time to waste on him. The main force is heading toward the Grand Elder." Chen He picked up the enormous Dragon Ball from the ground with one hand, his black eyes containing nothing but calculation. "Finding the Dragon Balls comes first."

"Alright, I'll listen to you." Goku withdrew his ki and looked with some pity at the bloated figure scrambling and tumbling toward the canyon exit. Then he followed Chen He, and the two transformed into streaks of light that shot into the sky.

Outside the valley, amid the deathly silent cracks between the rocks.

Dodoria gasped for breath, his entire body drenched in cold sweat. Clutching his caved-in chest, he staggered desperately through the rock piles while muttering nervously to himself, "Who the hell were those two... three hundred thousand? No, definitely more than that! I need to report this to Lord Frieza immediately, use the Ginyu Force..."

Suddenly, he came to a dead stop.

Atop the towering cliff ahead, a figure stood with his arms crossed, facing Namek's shadowless sunlight as he looked down at Dodoria from above.

It was Vegeta.

After the near-fatal injuries he had suffered in the battle on Earth, followed by the life-and-death transformation when he killed Cui several days earlier, the Saiyan's almost cheat-like innate trait now revealed itself in full. His battle suit snapped in the wind. Though blood at the corner of his mouth had yet to dry, he had become terrifyingly powerful...

"Dodoria?" Vegeta tilted his head. A cruel, elegant sneer mixed with fanatical obsession appeared on his bloodstained face. "How pathetic. Those two Saiyans beat you into this state, and now Frieza's lapdog gets to suffer too? Have you finally seen what we Saiyans are capable of?"

"Vegeta?! You traitor!" Dodoria was startled at first upon seeing him, but then seemed to recall something and shouted with forced bravado, "Don't get cocky! Do you think you can escape? Lord Frieza only needs to lift a finger to completely wipe out you Saiyan monkeys—"

"Frieza?"

Vegeta vanished from where he stood.

Before Dodoria's scarlet eyes could catch even a trace of him, that icy voice was already pressed ghostlike against his ear from behind.

"The current me no longer needs to obey Frieza's orders. Once I get the Dragon Balls here and gain immortality... the entire universe will belong to the Saiyans!"

Splat!!

It was an effortless instant kill. Vegeta's right fist, accompanied by a violent golden ki wave, pierced through Dodoria's chest from behind as easily as popping a balloon.

"Gah... y-you..." Dodoria's pupils gradually lost focus. Under the scorching golden aura, his bloated body turned into a pile of black ash in an instant.

Vegeta shook the blood from his hand in disgust, then looked up toward the horizon where Chen He and Goku had vanished. Jealousy, hatred, and crazed fighting spirit intertwined in his cold eyes.

"Kakarot... and that damned black-haired bastard. Sooner or later, this prince will figure out how you became stronger." Vegeta clenched his fists tightly. "But before that, Namek's Dragon Balls belong to me, Vegeta, and me alone!"

Whoosh!

The Saiyan prince turned into a fierce streak of light and charged at full speed toward the Grand Elder's location, heedless of the consequences.

High in the sky, Chen He and Goku streaked across the green cloud sea at top speed.

The green dots on the radar were drawing closer one after another. Before the cosmic emperor Frieza could fully react, this life-or-death battle for the Dragon Balls had already reached a fever pitch.