On a nearby planet, where there weren’t any intelligent life forms, two Saiyans stepped out of their space pods.
“So, what do you have in mind?” Maro asked.
“Well… this,” Zukishi clenched his jaw and cut his own tail, using a sharp ki aura around his hand.
Maro opened his eyes widely, “what are you doing?…”
An extreme pain jolt ran across Zukishi’s body.
“Quickly, reattach your tail!
It’s not too late!” said Maro.
“Don’t worry about it,” Zukishi said as the pain calmed down, his facial expression calming down.
He threw his tail inside his space pod, in a quiet cold box.
“So, here’s what’s going to happen.
You’re going to transform into a great ape, and you are going to spar with me while I’m in my basic form!” said Zukishi.
Maro may not be his match.
But if he turned into a great ape, Maro would surpass Zukishi by a great margin.
And given the fact that he’s a low-class warrior, he wouldn’t be able to control himself so much in the heat of the battle, which would turn this exercise into real life and death.
Well, he has some control over his great ape form.
But he’s still too dangerous.
“This is….
This is madness!” Maro shook his head, rejecting the idea.
“I don’t want you to die, nor do I want to work for another asshole!
I have family to raise!”
Zukishi sighed.
Maro was a family man who fought to support his family.
Not all low classes were warriors, and some had to do odd jobs.
Not all of them get sent to low-level worlds, anyway.
“Don’t worry.
I’ll pay you,” he raised his hands, “Just pull yourself away when I’m near death.”
Zukishi, this way, would definitely increase his power level.
Though, the process won’t be so quick.
After all, healing tubes in this world weren’t instant.
And they didn’t have a magical healer or Senzu beans.
Recovery would take from weeks to months.
But the Zenkai boost he would get would push him hard.
Maro’s eyelids shook.
He, as a Saiyan, knew about the Zenkai boost.
He took a deep breath and said, “Many claim that we are a warrior race.
But to put your self in death and life’s brink, that’s what is a real warrior!
I’m ashamed to think I could deter you.
I’ll give it my best,” said Maro with an emotional tone.
He raised his head and looked at the sky, his eyes landing on the moon.
His body, which was only two meters tall, began expanding rapidly, hair covering spots, even the bald spot on his head.
His eyes turned red.
What stood before Zukishi was a massive 30 meters ape.
‘It’s power level is more than twenty-two thousand.
I think I’m in for a real beating…’ he smiled, “Let’s do our best.”
“Alright,” replied the ape with a hoarse voice.
Deciding not to wait, Zukishi charged Ki into his hand, forming a shiny yellow ball.
He thrust his arm, the ball leaving his hand at a massive speed, hitting against the ape, creating an explosion that generated strong winds to crack the massive rocks around.
The ape, barely fazed, jumped at him, swinging its massive arm.
‘So fast,’ thought Zukishi as he dashed to the side, barely dodging the massive hand that almost got him.
His heart thundered in his ear, excitement filled his nervous system.
It was as if he was getting high, knowing that he was against an opponent with almost four times his power level.
Zukishi, following his muscle memories, flipped and went to the great up, while focusing his Chi on his arm, punching heavily.
He may be 3 times weaker, but a punch of all of his might would count to a great Ape using a third of its punching power, which would cause damage to it, even if it’s slight.
The ape growled, and quickly, it lifted its leg, hitting Zukishi with a knee that sent him flying high into the sky.
It seemed that his punch angered the ape, drawing its natural instinct.
The ape flew in the sky after him, hitting him with a heavy punch.
He crossed his arms to take it.
And so he did.
As he got even higher, the ape vanished from his view.
Knowing where this would be going, he quickly turned and raised his guard.
The giant sent him flying to the ground with a volley throw.
Finding himself plummeting with a massive speed, all he could do was covering his body with Chi to create a slight barrier.
Saiyans may be fighters.
But essentially, he was a human.
And humans really love using techniques.
As he fell, he caught some blood.
Maro seemed to get over-excited, taken by the instinct and the heat of the fight, charged his Ki to his mouth and shot a beam at him.
Feeling danger, Zukishi pushed his energy higher and flew across the ground.
‘I can’t sense Ki.
But neither can he.’
Zukishi quickly threw a bunch of weak Ki blasts around, creating clouds of dust, covering the view.
The ape stopped, quietly confused.
Just then, a massive beam of light hit the back of its head.
It turned, growling in slight pain.
“Waaaa!”
Only an angry scream escaped Maro’s mouth, and he chased after Zukishi, who tried to run, but was too slow.
At the end, he got rag-dolled by the ape, got a beam thrown at him one after the other.
“Stop!” Zukishi growled.
Now, he was planted in some mountain, his armor shattered into pieces, blood and wounds covering him.
Many of his bones and ribs were broken.
The ape slammed its chest repeatedly, before calming down slightly.
Not wanting to take down any risks, he aimed his hand at the sky.
“It pains me doing this.
But fuck it.” He muttered as he charged his Ki, pain taking over him as he aimed at the moon.
A Ki beam left his hand, almost instantly hitting that moon, exploding it into pieces.
Although it was a painful sight, Zukishi didn’t really care.
The planet was a mere dwarf planet with an even smaller moon.
There were many other locations like this across the universe, where a galaxy contained 400 billion planets.
Maro’s ape transformation got worn off, his body shrinking, morphing into that uncle-looking one.
Maro looked at Zukishi, eyes wide open!
“I got carried away!” he quickly flew to Zukishi, trying to examine if he was still alive.
He only found Zukishi laughing despite the pain.
“This is what I call training.
Glad you didn’t pull back your punches,” Zukishi praised, “Now.
Carry me into my pod and take me to heal.”
Maro forced a smile as he wrapped his arm around Zukishi and flew with him away.
“Zuki.
To put yourself on the brink of death is truly remarkable,” said Maro, smirking, “I’m curious to see how much your power level has reached…”
“Yeah… but we’ll hold that off for now,” Zukishi replied as they reached the small spaceships.
Each got into his.
Zukishi gave it a voice command, telling it to get back to planet Vegeta.
Since they didn’t wander far away, only a few light days away, it took a couple of hours to get back to their home planet.
While recovering on the way, he reattached his tail back.
And surprisingly, it stuck itself back and acted as if it had never been separated from him.
When they reached planet Vegeta, Maro quickly took Zukishi into a hospital, where a bunch of warriors were in tubs, covered in green liquid.
Usually, this place was filled with infants and low-class warriors who went to the wrong planet.
Or some people who got jumped by other Saiyans for a little conflict.
An alien in charge saw Zukishi, recognized him, and quickly took him in.
“What happened?” the alien asked.
“For a high-class warrior to be in this state.
Did he fight against someone so strong!”
Maro rubbed his chin.
Since Zukishi asked him to keep it a secret, he said, “yeah, something like that.”
“Really?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Maro said, “Just heal him.”
Zukishi was then taken by a team of nurses, female Saiyans by the way, and got carried to a massive tube.
After they attached a breathing device to him, they filled it with a green liquid that covered his body.
The doctor in charge looked at a screen and said, “this is quite bad.
The injuries are quite intense.
He fought someone above his power level by leagues.
It will take him 1 week at least to recover.”
Zukishi, who was inside the tub, could hear everything.
‘One week!
Inside a tube!
Man!
At least put me in a coma!
I don’t want to be bored to tears!’ he screamed in his head.
As if reading his thoughts, the doctor pressed a button, and Zukishi turned sleepy.
It felt as if an instant had passed when he opened his eyes again.