"Roar~~~"
The deafening roar of a giant beast drowned out Yamiru's response.
"Ah!"
Pilaf and his subordinates were stunned, their ears ringing from the shock.
Son Goku's body, in the midst of the deep, rugged growl, visibly began to swell rapidly, as though inflated.
"Run!" The sisters, seeing the situation going awry, immediately turned and fled.
They were delicate ladies; staying close would only burden Yamiru, so it was better to distance themselves from the uncontrollable Goku. Two years ago, they had witnessed Goku transforming into the Great Ape on Paozu Mountain and knew just how terrifying the Great Ape form was.
His clothes were completely shredded, and his limbs and torso became muscular and thick. Black fur sprouted all over his body, and his mouth extended into a snout, with two rows of sharp teeth like a wild beast.
Thankfully, the ceiling of this eerie ancient castle was high enough, and since Son Goku was relatively short, even in his Great Ape form, he didn't reach the roof.
His size was roughly the same as the massive monster corpse behind Pilaf and his subordinates.
Pilaf and his subordinates sat dumbfounded in the robot seats, unable to believe what was happening before their eyes.
The Great Ape roared again, swinging its tail and knocking over a massive armored warrior, then began to stomp toward Yamiru.
"Wang—" Tights, who had already reached the door with her sister, yelled. She originally wanted to shout at Yamiru to quickly cut off the Great Ape's tail. But then she realized that Yamiru would surely know this already. There was no need for her to remind him. Plus, with Pilaf and his subordinates around, exposing Goku's weak spot to them was unnecessary. So she quickly swallowed her words.
Faced with the Great Ape's stomping foot, if it had been Yamiru from two years ago, he would have been crushed into a pulp. There was no other possibility.
However, after two years of training, Son Goku's strength had improved many times over, many times more than two years ago! And after transforming into the Great Ape, his combat power had increased another tenfold!
The immense energy within that huge body was fully exposed under Yamiru's keen eyes.
Yamiru had no intention of directly clashing with the stomp. He narrowly dodged it.
"This kid, after transforming into the Great Ape, his raw power is probably the strongest living creature on Earth, right?"
Yamiru leapt and landed on the high platform where Pilaf and his subordinates were. Behind him lay the huge corpse of Dabura, which was similar in size to the Great Ape.
"I wonder if this will attract the attention of that deity in the temple?" he mused.
"Why are you running over here! You bastard!" Pilaf and his subordinates shouted angrily, controlling their robot to strike at Yamiru, hoping to push him in front of the terrifying creature, hoping he would be crushed.
To their surprise, Yamiru nimbly dodged and slipped behind the robot controlled by Pilaf, kicking it away.
The robot flew toward the Great Ape, and Pilaf frantically pressed buttons in a panic, launching a barrage of missiles and rockets at the Great Ape's face.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! After the massive explosions, the Great Ape's face only showed some scratches, and it was unaffected. In a fit of rage, it swung its massive palms at the airborne robot.
With an eerie splintering sound and a brief terrified scream that quickly vanished, the robot in the Great Ape's hands was crushed into a pancake of metal and fell to the ground.
"..." The other two robots, piloted by Mai and Shu, stared in shock. They couldn't believe that Pilaf had just died like that.
The Great Ape roared again: "Roar~~"
"Roar my ass, you idiot!" Yamiru retorted, "If you shatter the Dragon Ball, you're going to be in trouble!"
Though the Great Ape lacked reason, it clearly heard Yamiru's voice and was drawn to it, turning and throwing a punch in his direction.
"Let's see if you can match me!"
Yamiru gritted his teeth. Of course, he didn't intend to directly punch the Great Ape. Instead, he dodged the blow and aimed a strike at the Great Ape's arm.
All his hard work over the past two years was finally paying off.
Yamiru's full-force attack caused a huge impact on the mindless Great Ape, whose body wobbled from the blow.
"Heh..." Yamiru smiled through the sweat pouring down his face, his fist trembling slightly from numbness. "I guess it's not completely impossible to deal with him!"
The Great Ape went wild, its eyes turning even redder as it crazily attacked Yamiru.
"Be careful..."
"Why not just cut off his tail?"
The sisters at the door were becoming worried for both the big and the small inside.
"Run, Mai!" Shu, seeing the danger, no longer cared about retrieving Pilaf's body and decided it was best to escape.
Unfortunately, the Great Ape, having been tripped by Yamiru's cunning move, fell into their escape path. As the Great Ape tried to push itself up, it swung a massive palm down, crushing the robot Shu was piloting. The horrific splatter sounded identical to what had happened with Pilaf. Blood sprayed across the glass of the robot Mai was controlling.
"How could this happen..." Mai, originally cold and composed, now looked completely dazed.
The Great Ape couldn't get back up and collapsed again.
It turned out that Yamiru had moved beneath it, using all his strength to grab one of its massive legs. His face turned bright red, and his muscles bulged, causing his clothes to stretch to their limits, nearly tearing apart.
"You bastard..."
Yamiru gritted his teeth. The Great Ape's massive body was actually being lifted.
"Watch carefully..."
He grabbed one of the Great Ape's huge legs and swung it around, then with a fierce roar, threw it off the roof.
"Where's the moon now?!"
The roof was shattered by the impact of the Great Ape, and as it fell, it created another hole. It crashed onto the massive corpse of "Dabura", shattering the dry corpse and rolling further back, smashing through the wall behind it, causing the ground beneath to collapse. The Great Ape, the corpse, and the throne all fell through the floor.
As Yamiru used all his strength, a spark of excitement flickered in his eyes. With his increasing power, he was having fewer opportunities to go all out.
When the Great Ape fell into the hole, Yamiru saw it shrink and transform back into Son Goku.
"Ugh... that took a lot out of me."
Wiping away the sweat, Yamiru glanced around, noticing that the last robot piloted by Pilaf's remaining companion had disappeared. Looking up, he saw the two connected holes in the ceiling, through which bright sunlight poured in. Pilaf's last associate must have escaped through one of those holes. Yamiru sighed inwardly. "How did Goku transform during the day?"
Seeing the situation was under control, the sisters came back. Bulma spotted the Dragon Ball that had rolled to the side.
It was the one-star ball.
"Are you okay?" Tights walked up to Yamiru.
"Yeah, just a little muscle cramp," Yamiru said, breathing heavily and struggling to lift his right arm.
"Oh." Tights squeezed his right arm and found the hardened muscle felt like iron. She squeezed for a while but couldn't make a dent... Glancing at Yamiru's face, she saw he was smiling contentedly. Tights let go and playfully pushed his forehead.
"Is he alright?" Bulma approached, holding the one-star Dragon Ball. The ball's material was strange — it didn't seem to stain with blood. Bulma looked down at the edge of the hole.
Yamiru glanced down as well. Using his keen eyes, he saw that the intense, blazing energy of the Great Ape had vanished, and only the familiar human energy of Son Goku remained.
"It looks like he's awake."
Tights sighed in relief and looked up at the sunlight streaming through the broken hole, puzzled. "Didn't they say he needs to see a full moon to transform?"
Bulma thought for a moment and then said, "Saiyan cells are very special. From what's happened here, it seems that of the two conditions for transforming — full moon and tail — only the tail is truly indispensable. I suspect that the tail cells are different somehow. Maybe they store energy from the moon's reflected light? Seeing the full moon would simply activate the tail's cells through the nervous system, triggering the transformation. And when his brain believes what he's seeing is the full moon, it will activate the energy stored in the tail cells and transform him."
Tights pondered. "I see... But to mistake a round light for the full moon, how naive can he be?"
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