Impossible...
It was impossible...
That was the thought of every Saiyan who witnessed Bardock's Scouter explode. The sound of Scouter exploding caused a shock to go through the each and every one of the bodies of the remaining Saiyans.
There was only one monster that ever caused a Scouter to explode, and they've been serving under him and his son for decades.
"What was that?" The monster in front of them asked, tilting its head to the side a small bit as he took a step forward, "What was that thing you just did?"
Being adressed directly, Bardock could only grit his teeth in frustration. This was going to be harder than he had originally thought.
A lot harder.
"Bardock... What's the plan here?" Tora asked.
"I'm open to suggestions..." Bardock replied, never taking his gaze away from the alien inhabitant.
Where's Zyleth when you need him?
The inhabitant narrowed its gaze at Bardock before he suddenly vanished and reappeared, standing right in front of him, "I asked you a question."
Bardock's eyes widened at fast the alien had moved before he felt a sudden sharp pain shoot through his body.
"RRRRGH!" He groaned through gritted teeth before clutching his abdomen and stumbling back a few steps.
"Bardock!" Shugesh exclaimed, looking at his leader with worry before turning towards the alien with rage.
"Oh?" The alien looked at Bardock with intrigue and the slightest bit of curiosity, "Impressive. You're the only I've met so far who's been able to take a punch and survive."
"You bastard!" Shugesh yelled out.
"Shugesh don't--" Tora reached out to grab his teammate but it was too late.
Shugesh charged at the alien with a clenched fist and swung a heavy attack towards its face, aiming to take its head off in one punch.
Glancing over at the large Saiyan, the alien tilted its head a small bit and avoided the attack with ease. This caused Shugesh to become even angrier as he pushed forward and struck out at the alien with more heavy blows.
The inhabitant slowly backed away and ascended towards the sky, avoiding each of Shugesh's attack with minimal movements as he slowly moved back.
Seeing the alien being "pushed back" by Shugesh caused the other Saiyans to feel a false sense of security.
"I knew it! The Scouter just had a misread! I knew there couldn't be anyone who could break a Scouter on this backwoods rock!" One of the other Saiyan team leaders exclaimed in a hopeful tone.
"Yeah, it was just a plain old misread!" Said one of his underlings nodded his head in agreement.
The surrounding Saiyans were all noe starting to cheer Shugesh on, their confidence in this fight having now been regained in full.
Hearing what the others were yammering, Bardock gritted his teeth and looked towards the sky, "It wasn't a misread..."
Fasha, who had made her way over to help Bardock stand, heard what he said and quietly asked, "What?"
"It wasn't a misread!" Bardock repeated, standing up on his own, "That punch was the real deal! We have to help Shugesh now!"
Not wasting anymore time, Bardock instantly flew up into the air and blitzed towards his teammate. Hearing the words of their leader caused Tora, Fasha, and Borgos a split second of pause before they immediately followed after him.
During the fight, Shugesh was getting more and more frustrated with the alien, "Is dodging all you can do?!"
"No." The alien said simply before appearing behind Shugesh and grabbing him by the back of his neck.
It flew down at the ground with shocking speed before planting Shugesh into the castle courtyard floor. Prying him off the ground, the alien then slammed Shugesh into various pillars that surrounded the courtyard walls.
Shugesh's eyes went blank at the extreme pain of it all, his body going limp in the alien's grip.
"Done already?" The alien asked with a disappointed expression as he let go of the unconscious Saiyan.
Its eyes studied the large creature on the ground before a sudden shout snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Get away from him!" Bardock yelled as he drove his foot into the alien's side, sending him flying through one of the pillars and into the castle wall.
With time to breathe, Bardock quickly rushed over to Shugesh and tried to assess the extent of his injuries.
"Shugesh! Wake up!" He yelled, trying to shake his teammate awake.
"He's only unconscious."
Hearing the deep voice yet again, Bardock looked over and saw the alien walking out of the smoke as he brushed the dust off his body. Looking closely, Bardock could see that the alien didn't look as if he took any damage from that hit at all.
"For the time being." The alien added.
The rest of Team Bardock descended from the sky and they all faced the alien, ready for a fight.
"I assume by the looks on your faces that it's too much to hope that you'll just grab your comrade and go on your merry way?" The alien asked with an expressionless look.
"Damn right!" Fasha exclaimed, holding up her right fist.
"Pity. I don't enjoy slaughtering the weak." The alien responds.
That remark caused the four Saiyans to grit their teeth with anger.
"My name is Antauri." The alien suddenly introduced himself with a small bow.
"What?" Bardock asked with a confused face as he stood up and got into his fighting stance.
"It is customary in our culture for warriors to introduce each other." Replied Antauri before standing up straight.
"Then why didn't you introduce yourself earlier?" Tora asked.
"I didn't see the need to before as I thought you were all weak and feeble." Antauri answered before calmly turning towards Bardock, "You took a blow from me. You're worthy enough to hear my name."
Instead of feeling honored, Bardock felt annoyed.
This "Antauri" hasn't taken anything seriously since he had shown up. So to hear him say that he was "worthy" was nothing more than condescension in his mind.
"RRAAAGH!"
Bardock powered up to max and immediately took off towards Antauri with his team quickly following suit.
---
"I don't hear anything... Do you think they killed it?" One of the Saiyans asked as the rest of the surrounding teams walked towards the broken castle gate.
"They must have. Team Bardock's one of the strongest Saiyan teams on Planet Vegeta. There's no way that--"
Their casual conversation was interrupted when Bardock and Tora were sent flying through a wall, crashing into one of the Saiyan teams that was standing further towards the back.
"Wait, wasn't that--?!"
The Saiyans all looked towards Bardock and Tora, seeing their damaged states.
"Up there!" One of them shouted, his finger pointing to the sky.
All of the Saiyans immediately turned their heads up to the sky and saw the alien from before holding an unconscious Fasha and Borgos by their collars.
"How disappointing..." Antauri said as it let go of the two Saiyans, dropping them onto the ground.
The surrounding Saiyans couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"No way..."
"I thought it was a misread! Are you telling me that monster's power level was real?!"
"It doesn't matter!" One of the Saiyan leaders suddenly yelled out, "There's no way that thing can take all of us at once!"
The Saiyan leader suddenly rushed at the alien with his team. Antauri glanced at them with an uninterested gaze before turning to confront them as well. Seeing some of their fellow Saiyans rushing off to fight that monster caused the rest of them to throw themself into the fray.
"You think that they stand a chance...?" Tora groaned as he struggled to his feet.
"No... Not at all..." Bardock replied, still lying on the floor in pain.
"Why's that...?" Tora asked.
"Because I've sparred with Zyleth enough times to know when someone's holding back..." Bardock replied with a groan before holding his hand out towards Tora. "Give me your Scouter..."
Tora quickly took off his Scouter and tossed it to Bardock.
Pressing the button on the side, Bardock connected the Scouter to King Vegeta's, "King Vegeta... I'm sending you... the latest battle power that was read by my Scouter..."
Scouters used by Saiyan teams had a feature that connected all of them together. That way data could be easily accessed and shared in case something were to go wrong.
Like exactly what was happening currently.
Once it had been sent, the King had seen the number displayed, or rather lack thereof. The battle power that had been sent had only displayed as an error.
[What the--?!]
"We... We need to transform into Great Apes!" Bardock shouted desperately.
[Absolutely not! If you use the power of the Great Ape, you could destroy everything in the castle!]
"We can't... He's... toying around with us as if we're nothing more than bugs... Without the Great Ape--"
[I do not care! Find a way to win without it!]
The communication was then promptly cut off and Bardock angrily slammed his fist into the ground, causing cracks to appear in the rocks.
"Damn it!" He exclaimed before pushing himself onto his feet.
"I'm guessing Great Ape is out...?" Tora asked, his expression grave.
"It doesn't matter... I'm using it anyway..." Bardock said as he focused all of his remaining energy into making a Power Ball.
"The King isn't going to like it..." Tora told him.
"The King can kiss my ass..." Bardock replied, "It's our only shot of getting out of here alive..."
"Yes, it is."
A beam suddenly shot through Bardock and Tora's chests, causing them both to spit out a a decent amount of blood from their mouths before falling backwards onto the ground.
Slowly tilting his head up, Bardock saw Antauri floating above them with two of his fingers outstretched and pointing at the both of them.
"If I was incompetent enough to let you transform that is." Antauri said as he descended to the ground and walked towards the fallen Saiyans.
Looking behind the alien, Bardock saw the bodies of the other Saiyans on the ground.
He didn't know if they were still alive or not.
"Y-You..."
"I know all about the Saiyan's ability to transform into giant apes. News on the planet travels quite quickly." Antauri told Bardock before holding up his palm towards the Saiyan, "Especially during a war."
Bardock yelled out in defiance as he forced himself to stand up on his feet. Antauri's eyes widened for a brief second before his mouth turned upwards into a small smile.
He knew that Bardock had no strength left, but to see him fight so hard just to stand had made Antauri feel a modicum of respect for the Saiyan Warrior.
"Remarkable. I have to admit, although weak, you certainly have a warrior's spirit." A ball of purplish-pink energy formed in his palm as he gave Bardock a respectful gaze, "Stand proud, Saiyan. You were strong."
As Antauri was about to fire, a large beam of purplish-black energy suddenly struck him from above.
"HAAAAAAA!!!" Zyleth roared as he unleashed a full power Kamehameha Wave at the alien warrior.
The blast formed a purplish-black dome before exploding directly on top of Antauri, sending Bardock and Tora both back due to the impact.
Without checking to see if his blast had killed the alien, Zyleth vanished from the sky and reappeared behind Bardock and Tora, stopping them from hitting anything.
"Father!" Zyleth yelled out as he placed softly placed them on the ground.
Seeing his son, Bardock looked at Zyleth with a proud smile and asked "what took you so long?" before falling unconscious.
Eyes widened, Zyleth put his ear to Bardock's chest, silently listening for a heartbeat. Once he heard it, he let out a sigh once he had confirmed that his father was not dead, but only unconscious.
"A child?"
Hearing the voice, Zyleth looked over and saw that the alien was still alive, walking out of the crater and looking at him with narrowed eyes.
This time, scratches were visible on his armored skin.
"They sent a child to fight me?" Antauri asked no one in particular.
Seeing the alien who had hurt his father so severely, Zyleth's was filled with an overwhelming sense of hatred.
He stood up and walked towards Antauri, his energy overflowing with rage.
Antauri looked at the child with intrigue, which briefly turned to confusion as the child's aura had shifted to a black and red color before quickly returning to its purplish-black hue.
"Fight you? I'm going to kill you." Zyleth told him.
[Word Count: 2,104.]