The next day…
The moment Aeris woke up, she saw Goku looking completely wilted. Piccolo wasn't much better either.
"What happened to you two?"
Aeris looked at them in confusion. It was only the third day. How had they already ended up like this?
Goku and Piccolo looked back at her with extremely complicated expressions.
"Aeris… is there any chance… and I mean any chance… that it's because we've only had two meals in the last two days?"
Aeris put a hand to her forehead. That was when she remembered these two weren't like normal people. They were strong, sure, but their food requirements were just as ridiculous.
Most of the things she ate were compressed rations, so it only looked like she ate very little. And these days she hardly trained that much, so her food consumption was naturally much lower too. Missing a meal or two wasn't a big deal for her.
But these two…
Yeah, no.
They had burned through an absurd amount of energy these past two days.
And the one decent meal they did finally get yesterday…
She had gone and ruined it.
"Ahem… I see. In that case, let's switch things up today. We'll postpone gravity training for now. Alright then, today we're doing combat practice."
The second Goku heard the words combat practice, his eyes lit up like someone had shoved stars into them.
Aeris genuinely had no idea how to reconcile the Goku in front of her now with the miserable wreck from yesterday.
Because honestly…
Yesterday had been too embarrassing to look at.
"We're fighting you, Aeris?" Goku asked excitedly. "Nice! Piccolo, you ready?"
Piccolo looked at Goku like he was staring at a complete idiot. Because he could still remember the bottomless pressure Aeris had given off that day.
Still…
He was interested in the idea too.
No matter what, the person in front of him was his teacher in name. Even if he didn't care for the idea of having a teacher. From the day he was born, he had always been alone. Everything he knew, he had figured out by himself, step by step.
All for the sake of killing Son Goku.
After thinking that through, Piccolo looked at Aeris too. The meaning was obvious enough.
He was interested.
"Alright, alright. If you want to fight me, then be prepared to either kill me or be killed by me. I'm not exactly good at teaching people, but everything I've put you through so far is training I used myself. One way or another, it should help you improve."
Aeris said that calmly enough.
Then her whole demeanor shifted.
"But since you want to challenge me, I, as the one being challenged, won't hold back. Because on a battlefield, your enemies won't hold back either. So, insects…"
Her eyes sharpened.
"Take off your dead weight and do your best to entertain me."
The moment she finished speaking, Aeris shot into the air and flew off into the distance. Hearing that, Goku and Piccolo hurriedly stripped off the weighted clothes restraining them and followed after her.
After flying for who knew how long, Aeris finally stopped over a deserted island and waited for them to catch up.
A long while later, Goku and Piccolo finally arrived.
"You're slow."
As she said that, she raised a hand and fired a barrage of energy blasts at them.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Boom boom boom.
The blasts grazed past Goku and Piccolo and exploded in midair.
The sudden attack startled both of them badly enough to break out in a cold sweat, but they adjusted quickly and dropped to the ground.
"You're here… challengers…"
Aeris looked at them expressionlessly. Even though they were weak compared to her, she was taking this fight seriously.
Sometimes, fighting people weaker than yourself let you learn a lot from them too. The weaker someone was, the more cautious they tended to be, and the more likely they were to pull off something surprising when you least expected it.
Fighting strong opponents could teach you plenty too, of course, but the things you learned were completely different.
There was a saying, after all: when you're poor, you rely on tactics. When you're rich, you drown them in firepower.
Granted, that wasn't exactly how the saying went, but close enough.
So yes, Aeris intended to take this fight seriously.
Seeing this side of Aeris, one that was completely different from usual, Goku and Piccolo both became serious as well. She had already said they needed to fight with the resolve to die, so this definitely wasn't going to be one of their usual small-time scuffles.
The two of them exchanged a glance.
Then they both powered up and charged at Aeris.
When they got close, they suddenly split in different directions, aiming to attack her from separate angles.
But to Aeris, that intention was way too obvious.
"You're trying to use a trick like that to create an opening? Too naive…"
The moment she said that, Aeris powered up too and blasted them away with her aura alone.
"HAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
And she kept powering up.
Her battle power of over eighty million revealed itself in full.
As her aura continued to surge, the ground and even the surface of the sea around them began to tremble.
Piccolo and Goku both swallowed hard at the sight.
"T-This… this… what kind of monster is she…? Is she even human?" Piccolo's pupils shook violently. Under that terrifying pressure, even he was starting to feel fear. Then he glanced over at Goku on the other side, who was drenched in cold sweat too.
Goku looked back at Piccolo, then gave him a small nod.
The next second, both of them started firing energy waves at Aeris.
But those attacks didn't even get close.
They were erased by the pressure of her aura before they could reach her.
Still, the two of them kept attacking, trying to find some point they could break through.
Aeris's power kept climbing.
Crackling lightning started to flash around her.
At last, it seemed her power had reached a threshold and began to level out.
"Well then… let's begin the second dance."
Aeris grinned.
"Come on, little trash. Do your best to entertain me. Hahahahahahaha!"
Then she vanished.
She shot toward Goku at terrifying speed and drove a punch straight into his stomach.
Just one plain, ordinary punch.
And it sent Goku flying an absurd distance away.
When Goku coughed up blood, some of it splattered onto her clothes. Aeris clicked her tongue softly, then turned her eyes toward Piccolo.
"Now then… your turn."
Aeris raised a hand and made a grasping motion in the air. Piccolo was seized by an invisible force, dragged up off the ground, and then smashed down hard.
"Urgh—!"
Piccolo spat out blood.
"D-Damn it… don't look down on me, you bastard!"
As soon as he finished shouting, he fired an energy blast at Aeris.
Aeris lightly turned her body and avoided it.
But Piccolo smiled.
He flicked his fingers in a sharp motion, and the energy blast suddenly bent back at a bizarre angle.
This time it hit Aeris squarely.
But all it did was hit her.
That was it.
Aeris was completely fine.
Still, she found that ki-control technique genuinely interesting.
After all, none of the enemies she had fought before had ever thought to manipulate ki like that. If used well, it really could become the kind of move that landed a beautiful surprise hit.
"Not a bad attack…"
The next instant, Aeris used Instant Transmission and appeared behind Piccolo. She lowered her head onto his shoulder and murmured into his ear,
"But… that's all it is. The power behind it was like a mosquito bite. Pretty pathetic, don't you think, Mr. Piccolo?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she pressed a palm to his lower back and blasted him away with an energy wave.
And right in the gap between Piccolo being sent flying and crashing away, Goku came back in and whipped a kick straight toward Aeris's face.
Aeris tilted her head and dodged it. At the same time, she caught Goku by the leg, swung him down, smashed him into the ground, and followed it up with an energy blast.
But this time, Goku had learned.
The instant he hit the ground, he endured the pain and fired an energy wave beside himself, using the recoil to blast himself away so he wouldn't take Aeris's follow-up attack head-on.
Still, there was no way Aeris was going to let him dodge that easily.
At the exact instant Goku launched himself away, she used Instant Transmission again and appeared directly above him.
Then she kicked straight down.
"Gah—!"
Goku spat out blood again.
Silent readers… I see you 👀Don't be shy—pay your taxes with Power Stones 💎🔥