Looking at Ethan blocking his path, a sense of despair rose in Piccolo's heart.
"Damn it!"
At this point, Piccolo suddenly understood that he was facing the most dangerous situation of the day, and he had no other choice. Rather than continue being humiliated by the enemy, it was better to fight them head-on.
As a Demon King, he still had that much ruthlessness.
Two beams of light suddenly shot out from his eyes. This attack was like a signal flare, and the decisive battle between Piccolo Daimao and Ethan broke out ahead of schedule.
"Alright, he is a Demon King after all. Expecting him to obediently follow my plan was a bit unrealistic."
Dodging Piccolo's beam attack with a slight shift of his body, Ethan knew he had to act.
Once he decided to act, he would not be like those Saiyans who kept messing around in battle, constantly toying with their enemies. Instead, he would go all out.
He landed a punch on Piccolo's cheek, making him dizzy, then followed with an uppercut that struck Piccolo Daimao heavily in the chest.
If it were not for the Namekians' astonishing physical resilience, that blow alone would have killed Piccolo.
Next came a heavy hammer blow with both fists clasped together. As the dust kicked up by Piccolo gradually settled, everyone clearly saw Ethan smashing him into the ground with both fists.
Watching the legendary Piccolo being easily beaten by Ethan, with almost no ability to fight back, Master Roshi, in a daze, finally began to believe what Ethan had said earlier.
"It seems... Ethan really does have the power to kill Piccolo Daimao."
"Is the gap between me and Ethan really this huge?"
From the recent fight between Goku and Piccolo, Tien Shinhan judged that his strength was similar to Goku's. In a real fight, the outcome would probably be fifty-fifty, with either of them having a chance to win depending entirely on their performance and luck in the moment.
Then, looking at Ethan fighting Piccolo, it felt just like when Piccolo Daimao fought Goku earlier. The gap was extremely obvious. Even Bulma could tell who was stronger.
"Ethan is amazing!"
Bulma and the other ordinary people would not think Piccolo was just a name. They had clearly seen the scene of Piccolo brutally beating Goku earlier. This only proved that Ethan was too strong.
Piccolo, pinned to the ground by Ethan's knee and unable to move, with fists pounding his face like a machine gun, already sensed that his end was near. In despair, he began trying everything possible, gathering all his power and preparing to unleash a powerful burst.
"Die!"
Ethan felt the change in the opponent's energy. While Piccolo was still gathering power, Ethan's swinging fist suddenly grabbed his neck, and as he flipped into the air, he threw him upward.
As he flung Piccolo away, Ethan also gathered all his power, concentrating it in his left hand and pointing it diagonally at Piccolo in midair.
In the early stages of Dragon Ball, everyone had many techniques, but by the middle stage, most techniques were abandoned, and in the later stages, there were hardly any so-called techniques left.
Combat returned to the most basic hand-to-hand fighting and the use of energy, with a sense of returning to simplicity, or perhaps Toriyama was too lazy to come up with fancy names anymore.
Ethan, however, had understood these principles long ago. So even though Ethan's current power level was not as high as Goku's when Raditz came to Earth, in a real fight, he could use his own power more effectively and display strength beyond that level.
In this battle, Ethan was not using much more power than Piccolo, yet he was still able to suppress and brutally beat him, giving the opponent no chance to turn the tide.
But!
For certain special reasons, Ethan still had to put on a show.
"I've given you so many chances. If you still won't take them, don't blame me."
Looking at Piccolo in midair, whose energy showed a strange fluctuation, Ethan knew this guy had finally made his decision. This would ensure the subsequent plot, and the power Ethan had been building in his hand was finally released.
"Rest in peace, you unlucky bastard!"
An energy blast about as thick as an arm, shaped like a shuttle, shot from his hand and instantly pierced Piccolo Daimao's chest, leaving a fatal hole in his body.
Namekians possess decent regenerative abilities, but once their own energy is depleted, they do not have the strength to regenerate. These fatal injuries can still kill them.
The heavily wounded Piccolo underwent a violent explosion. The energy he had been gathering was already on the verge of bursting, and Ethan's attack caused it to completely lose control.
Most importantly, this explosion covered up the fact that Piccolo had secretly spat out a special egg. He thought he had done it very discreetly, but he did not know that even the chance to spit out the egg had been deliberately left to him by Ethan.
"That fireworks display wasn't very pretty."
After killing Piccolo, Ethan also finished off Tambourine, the demon.
Although there had been some unexpected twists, everything was still proceeding according to plan. Ethan stopped dwelling on the details, turned, and shrugged at Krillin beside him. "Sorry, it seems Piccolo didn't want to fight you."
"It's alright, anyway..."
Krillin did not finish saying "anyway what," but everyone could guess. If he wanted to use a strong enemy to temper himself, there was a much stronger and more terrifying existence standing right in front of him than Piccolo.
Ethan was so strong that Master Roshi felt it was unreal. The terrifying Piccolo was actually dead? Ethan's power was simply too exaggerated.
But in the end, it was a good thing that an evil demon had been killed. They no longer had to worry about this evil Demon King conquering the world and bringing terrible fear and destruction to all of Earth.
"Although no one knows, we've basically saved the world!"
Bulma suddenly felt a little regretful. If only she had known, she would have brought her equipment and recorded this battle. Even if she could not show it to ordinary people, she could have kept it for herself to watch later.
"Someone will know."
Ethan tilted his head and looked at the sky. He knew that high above Korin Tower was the Lookout, where Earth's Kami resided. That person was definitely watching Piccolo. Ordinary people on Earth would not know about them eliminating Piccolo, but Kami would definitely see it clearly.
"Let's go. According to the plan, we'll go to Kame House first."
"Oh, right."
Ethan suddenly seemed to remember something. He immediately used Flight to catch up to the spaceship that had secretly flown away while everyone was not paying attention, and killed the demon named Piano on board.
As for the Pilaf Gang, Ethan sternly warned these idiots that if they did anything excessive again, he would immediately send them to hell.
Given their actions, killing them on the spot would have been deserved, but Ethan decided to give them another chance. In the original story, after the Pilaf Gang suffered at the hands of Piccolo, they did not do anything else significant and completely exited the main Dragon Ball story, although they remained active in various spin-offs.
Ethan was in a good mood today, so he did not mind giving them a chance. As long as they did not go asking for death like in those expanded works, they should be able to live well, because the Pilaf Gang was not short on money.
After taking care of the aftermath, Ethan returned to his companions. Everyone was already on the plane, just waiting for him to come back.
Hearing that Ethan had gone to eliminate the remaining demons, no one asked any further questions. Ethan had killed the demon named Tambourine very easily, simply striking him down casually. Seeing how quickly Ethan returned, they guessed the remaining stragglers were also at that level.
If they were only that strong, then even if they were not killed, there was no need to worry. If they came out to cause trouble again, their strength would be enough to eliminate them.
"It seems I'll be troubling you for a while. I really hope to receive your guidance."
Tien Shinhan had originally agreed to stay at Bulma's house for a while because he felt awkward refusing everyone's enthusiasm.
After realizing the huge gap between himself and Ethan, he began to look forward to the days ahead. He really wanted to know how Ethan usually trained. He firmly believed that he could learn Ethan's training methods, then improve his own strength and close the huge gap between them.
"Oh ho, then you'd better prepare yourself mentally!"
Among the martial artists present, only Krillin had trained with Ethan. He knew how terrifying Ethan's training methods were. It was a hell no normal person could endure. Even after so much time had passed, he was still unwilling to recall that painful experience.
"It's alright, I'm not afraid of hardship!"
Tien Shinhan had that kind of determination and perseverance, but Krillin did not know how to explain it. That kind of training, like falling into hell, was not something you could get through just by enduring hardship.
While everyone was traveling by plane, Master Roshi leaned over to Ethan.
"Is there something you want to ask, Master Roshi?"
"I wanted to ask, is that enemy of yours... very strong?"
"Uh... very strong." He had not expected Master Roshi to still remember this. Fortunately, this enemy was not someone he had just made up, but someone who really existed.
Moreover, Frieza caused trouble all over the universe. It would not be excessive to pin any amount of blame on him. It could even be considered revenge for the races and planets he had destroyed.
"How strong? Is your current power still not enough?"
"My current power?" Ethan shook his head lightly. "I can't even deal with that guy's underlings."
Ethan had described Piccolo this way before, and Master Roshi had thought Ethan was exaggerating at the time. But with Ethan emphasizing it again, he could not help but believe it.
"Really that strong?"
"Let me put it this way. If that guy wanted to destroy Earth, he could do it with a flick of his finger."
(To be continued.)