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The wild battle cry that burst from Goku's throat made Krillin and the others freeze on the spot. A second later, they all wore the same complicated expression.
This Saiyan was hopeless. A complete battle junkie.
Anyone else facing a monster like that would be thinking about survival, about how to run. But not Son Goku. The guy was like a shark that smelled blood. Not only did he not want to avoid the fight, he probably wished he could dig three feet underground just to drag his opponent out and jump straight into the flames.
Piccolo sat cross-legged off to the side, eyes calm and fixed on the screen. When the words "Super Saiyan" flashed by, something stirred deep in his mind. A faint sense of familiarity.
It felt like a name he'd once heard, long ago. A title powerful enough to overturn the balance of the universe.
But the memory shattered like glass struck by high-voltage current. No matter how hard he tried to focus, he couldn't piece it back together.
On-screen, the battle had already moved from the sky down to the hardened arena floor.
Cell moved like a ghost, catching a split-second opening in Goku's guard. His assault came down like a torrential storm. Wind roared. A blur of fists swallowed Goku whole.
The hyper-speed barrage left Goku barely any room to counter. He was forced back, step by step, toward the edge of the arena.
The boundary of defeat was right there.
But at the very instant he was about to be pushed out—
Goku adapted.
In less than a millionth of a second, he synced himself to Cell's rhythm. His aura dropped sharply, compressing inward. Then he exploded upward with a vicious knee strike.
Boom!
The blow slammed into Cell and sent his massive body flying into the air.
Whoosh—
Before Goku's afterimage even faded, his real body had already turned into a streak of golden light, flashing above Cell's head. Without mercy, he drove a devastating punch down toward the back of Cell's skull.
Thunderous impact!
The punch struck… an afterimage.
But the terrifying energy packed inside it didn't vanish. It tore through the air, screaming as it went, before crashing into the arena below like a falling mountain.
The explosion was deafening, like the birth cry of heaven and earth.
A mushroom cloud of dust erupted, swallowing the entire arena in an apocalyptic haze.
In the next heartbeat, Cell appeared behind Goku, delivering the same killing blow.
He hit nothing but a slow-fading afterimage.
From that moment on, the fight became a game of ultimate speed. You throw a savage punch, I leave behind a phantom. I launch a killing strike, you've already shifted positions.
They were moving with such precision that every blow caught only a blurred shadow of the other.
Bang!
Two waves of power collided midair, shaking space itself. Then both fighters retreated in unspoken agreement, creating a small pocket of distance.
Heavy breathing filled the silence.
Sweat beaded on both their foreheads. That brief exchange beyond physical limits had drained them more than it looked.
Cell grinned, twisted and exhilarated. He forced his breathing under control.
"Son Goku, you've got some real skill. I didn't expect a fight this satisfying. You've exceeded my expectations."
Goku clenched his fists, chest heaving. He had managed to keep up with Cell's pace, but that standoff had wrung nearly every ounce of energy out of him.
"Same to you!" Goku shot back, barely containing his excitement. "This is how a fight's supposed to be! Now we're talking! Let's keep going!"
That declaration ignited the next round.
Both figures vanished again, leaving only blurred streaks behind.
This time, the clash erupted at the center of the arena.
In two seconds flat, Cell unleashed nearly fifty brutal flying kicks.
Goku blocked or deflected every single one, counterattacking in the gaps with unbelievable speed.
Cell refused to fall behind. Even against Goku's punches, which were fast enough to leave only phantom trails, he intercepted each strike with frightening accuracy.
Their positions shifted constantly.
Every corner of the arena flickered with traces of their battle. The audience couldn't even process where they'd been a second ago before they were already at the next lethal collision point.
Watching it made everyone's hearts tremble.
They finally understood just how monstrous these two were—in speed, in destructive power.
Suddenly, the fight rose into the sky.
Cell's eyes gleamed with almost pathological excitement.
"This game is far too entertaining. But if it ends because of something as boring as an out-of-bounds rule, that would be such a waste."
Goku blinked, confused.
Cell sneered. "From this moment on, the rule that stepping out means defeat is abolished. It's meaningless for beings like us."
Before Goku could respond, Cell thrust his left hand toward the arena below and pushed his energy to a terrifying peak.
A dazzling golden sphere condensed in his palm, radiating pure annihilation.
Goku's face changed instantly.
He dove toward the spectator area, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Everyone! Get away from the arena! Now!"
The camera cut to Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, Gohan… Vegeta, Trunks, Android 16.
Every one of them understood the danger in an instant and retreated at top speed.
Then, just like that, the golden energy sphere in Cell's palm vanished.
As if he had dismissed it himself.
And then—
BOOM!
The arena below erupted in a world-shattering explosion.
That "disappeared" energy blast had already fallen, detonating with force surpassing a nuclear strike and devouring everything nearby.
Blinding white light filled the screen. Even the camera couldn't pierce it.
Several seconds later, the light finally faded.
The dust settled.
Where the sturdy arena once stood, there was now a bottomless crater, like the impact site of a meteor from outer space.
Goku hovered in the air, stunned.
Not by the attack.
By worry.
He scanned frantically for Krillin and the others. Soon, he spotted them at the crater's edge. All alive.
Relief loosened his tightly wound nerves.
But Cell's willingness to endanger innocent lives struck a nerve deep inside Goku. That disregard for life ignited something darker in him.
Cell landed calmly, as if oblivious to the anger now burning in the Saiyan.
"Now," Cell said with a cruel smile, "the entire earth is our arena. Victory will be decided by surrender… or death."
Goku forced down the rage churning in his chest and let out a cold laugh.
"So that's it. A fight to the finish?"
"Of course," Cell replied, lifting his chin. "It's the only rule worthy of us."
Goku's clenched fists creaked softly.
Strangely enough, Cell's new rule aligned perfectly with Goku's deepest desire—a fight without restraints. The arena had held him back. Now there were no limits.
It was time to show his true strength.
Cell stretched his limbs as well. Until now, neither of them had unleashed power capable of shaking the gods.
That moment had arrived.
"With this vast battlefield," Cell said, "we can finally fight without holding back."
Before he finished speaking, Goku seemed to sense something. He vanished from where he stood, retreating like a phantom.
In that razor-thin instant, guided by pure combat instinct, he barely dodged an energy blast even more powerful than the last.
Boom!
The beam smashed into the earth, triggering yet another cataclysmic explosion.
—
In the Super God Universe
Morgana stared at the cascading apocalyptic scenes on the screen, utterly frozen.
She wasn't imagining it.
Within that absurd explosion, she had felt a genuine threat to her divine body. A bone-chilling brush with death.
How was that possible?
She was a supreme being who commanded demonic laws. And yet a purely physical energy strike could threaten her existence?
She refused to believe it.
"Where the hell did these monsters crawl out from?" she muttered. "That speed. That power…"
If she ever encountered them, she swore she would avoid a head-on clash at all costs.
Either one of those lunatics could outmatch her in raw destruction and agility. Facing them directly would give her zero chance.
Unless she struck from her own specialty—something unexpected. A dimensional-level attack.
—
On the Xiongbing Company Command Deck of the Super Seminary
Ge Xiaolun's pupils trembled. "My god… an explosion like that. Could my 'Galaxy Power' even tank it?"
Zhao Xin clutched his head. "Forget tanking it! With their speed, I wouldn't even touch them! They're too damn fast!"
Cheng Yaowen grimaced. "If you two are saying that, what about me? Hey, Goddess—you call yourself the Light of the Sun. Could you block that kind of attack?"
Leina stiffened.
Her instinct was to snap back arrogantly like always. Something like, "That? I'd deal with it in seconds."
But logic told her: shut up. You can't take that.
Not at her current level.
Still, hearing that doubt in Cheng Yaowen's tone lit her pride on fire.
"What kind of question is that? I'm a goddess! You know what that means? A god! That trash attack? I'd swat it away with one hand!"
Hands on her hips, she struck a "who dares challenge me" pose.
The others knew her too well by now. After training together for so long, everyone had a clear idea of each other's strength. She was all bark sometimes—but also stubbornly sincere.
They just smiled indulgently and turned their eyes back to the screen.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?! You think I'm not strong? Say something!"
When no one responded and kept watching the fight instead, she stomped her foot in frustration before sulking back into her seat.
—
In the World of Hitori no Shita: The Outcast
Feng Baobao suddenly shot up from the couch and kicked the person lying across her lap.
"Whoa! That's so cool!"
Zhang Chulan rolled off like a dead fish, rubbing his cheek. "Cool is cool! Why'd you kick me?!"
She glanced at him blankly. "You were in the way. And look at them… then look at you. Same species, right? How's the gap that big?"
A massive red question mark practically rose over his head.
I'm weak. So what?!
—
In the World of Detective Conan
"Hey, hey… the two guys in that video are completely unscientific!" Conan's fish-like eyes widened as his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Punching a crater into the earth was one thing. But those beams slicing through the sky? In his view, they were on par with nuclear explosions.
This was straight-up fantasy invading a scientific worldview.
"Isn't this the kind of nonsense that only happens in cartoons?!" he almost shouted.
Haibara Ai's gaze remained cold and steady.
"It's a scene from another dimension," she said calmly. "You can't use our modern societal framework to define every possible form of existence."
"....."