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Goku didn't flex his muscles dramatically or shout. He simply took a step forward and, before the eyes of everyone in the arena, disappeared.
It didn't leave a blurry smudge or a trail of dust. Its image simply flickered and vanished like a television turning off. It left behind three afterimages scattered across the crater of the tatami.
"Zanzoken. The Image Illusion," Kaiju thought, feeling a shiver of pure excitement run down his spine.
Any normal martial artist would have panicked, frantically turning their head to search for the Saiyan. But Kaiju wasn't normal. He had spent six months on Yardrat meditating on the nature of the spirit. He closed his one good eye, plunging his world into total darkness. He didn't need light to see Son Goku; the hero's Ki signature was as bright and warm as a miniature sun.
Back. Up. To the right.
Kaiju pivoted on its left heel, turned its torso ninety degrees, and raised its right forearm like a perfect shield.
¡CLANG!
The sound was similar to two steel beams colliding. Goku's fist, aimed directly at Kaiju's temple, was blocked in its tracks.
Goku's black eyes opened in genuine surprise.
"Wow! You could see me!" she exclaimed, still in mid-air.
"I didn't see you. I felt you," Kaiju replied with a sharp smile.
Without losing a millisecond, Kaiju twisted his wrist, trapping Goku's arm, and channeled his Ki into his legs. With a brutal jerk, he used the Saiyan's own momentum to violently throw him against the concrete floor of the crater.
Goku spun like a cat in mid-air, landing on his feet with such force that his boots cracked the stone even more. He immediately used the rebound to launch himself toward the Kaiju like a human spring.
The fight turned into an indecipherable whirlwind.
There were no more pauses. The blows flew at hypersonic speed. Kaiju dodged a spinning kick that passed millimeters from his nose, ducking to land a liver shot, but Goku blocked it with his knee and countered with a downward elbow. Kaiju deflected it with the back of his hand and unleashed a flurry of straight punches to the chest.
¡Pam-pam-pam-pam-pam!
The shockwaves from their impacts generated gusts of wind that forced the referee monks to retreat and cover their faces. The other competitors, including Krillin and Tien Shinhan, were petrified, watching as a complete stranger cornered Goku in a battle of pure technique and speed.
In the stands, Tohka floated with her arms crossed, her amethyst eyes scanning every microsecond of the fight.
"Mental note number 9503," he murmured, his voice dripping with a mixture of clinical astonishment and concern. "The impact density generated by both combatants currently exceeds fifty tons per square centimeter. The Creator is compensating for his wingspan disadvantage by utilizing a movement efficiency of 99.8%. However... his human opponent is adapting in real time."
And it was true.
Goku, the undisputed genius of martial arts, began to read the rhythm of Kaiju.
In the midst of a rapid exchange, Kaiju feinted a low kick and threw a punch straight at Goku's face. Goku didn't block it. Instead, he grinned, tilted his head back just a millimeter so the fist grazed his chin, and braced himself with both hands on the ground. Using the ground as a pivot, Goku launched a double kick with both feet straight at Kaiju's chest.
The impact lifted Kaiju off the ground, sending him flying towards the roof of the immense pavilion.
"Damn, he read my feint!" thought Kaiju, spitting out a little saliva from the blow that had knocked the air out of his lungs.
But Goku wasn't finished. Before Kaiju could even reach the ceiling, the Saiyan was already there. He had used the Buku Jutsu to intercept it in mid-air.
Goku clasped his hands to his side. A sphere of bright yellow light formed in his palms in a fraction of a second.
—¡Kikouha!
A barrage of energy spheres shot towards Kaiju like a meteor shower at point-blank range.
Kaiju hovered in mid-air. If he used the power of his Celestial Eyes, he could have transmuted the energy or created a dimensional shield to absorb it. If he used the Kaio-ken, he could have smashed through it with sheer brute force. But he had vowed to himself to win as a martial artist.
He channeled all his Ki into his hands, enveloping them in a dazzling white aura.
—¡HAAAA!
At a frenetic speed, Kaiju began deflecting each of the energy spheres. His hands were blurs of light. Pash! Pash! Pash! The bursts of yellow Ki ricocheted off his deflected palms and hit the walls and ceiling of the arena, creating small explosions that rained dust and debris down on the astonished audience.
Taking advantage of the smoke from the explosions, Kaiju disappeared using his own version of the quick move, reappearing right behind Goku in the air.
"My turn!" Kaiju shouted, interlacing his fingers to deliver a hammer blow to the Saiyan's back.
But Goku had eyes in the back of his head. He dove down before the blow could connect, spinning in mid-air to fire a Ki blast from the sole of his boot, propelling himself downward and out of Kaiju's reach.
Both landed simultaneously at opposite ends of what remained of Tatami D.
Silence once again filled the room, broken only by the creaking of the shattered wood and the breathing of both combatants.
Kaiju had a couple of scratches on his cheek and his clothes were covered in dust. His lungs gasped for oxygen, but the grin on his face was so wide and unhinged that he almost looked like a villain. He felt like every cell in his body was singing.
In front of him, Goku wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his lip. His heavy boots were sunk into the concrete. He no longer smiled innocently; his gaze was intense, burning, the gaze of the ultimate warrior who had found a real challenge much sooner than expected.
"Your moves are flawless, Number 84," Goku said, letting out a small, excited laugh. "Your Ki is incredibly pure. You have no blind spots. If I had fought you three years ago... you would have torn me to pieces."
Kaiju straightened up, bringing one foot back to steady his stance, feeling the broken ground beneath his boots.
"That's the best compliment I've ever received, Goku," Kaiju replied with absolute sincerity. "But I notice your breathing is barely rapid. And I still hear a very heavy sound every time you move."
Goku blinked, surprised that the boy had noticed, and then let out a nervous laugh while scratching the back of his neck.
"Ah, yes... Kami-sama made me promise not to take them off until the finals, but..." Goku looked around, noticing the level of destruction they had already caused. "I think if I keep fighting like this, I'll end up losing by being knocked out of the ring."
Goku unfastened the thick blue wristbands from his arms. He let them fall.
¡CRAASH!
The wristbands hit the stone floor with a brutal crash, sinking the concrete as if they were lead anvils falling from the sky.
Kaiju's face lost its smile for the first time in the fight. He knew exactly what that meant. Goku's boots and shirt also weighed hundreds of kilos. The hero had been fighting at hypersonic speed... with added weight.
"Damn it," Kaiju thought, feeling a drop of cold sweat trickle down the back of his neck. "The sleight of hand is over. This is going to get really ugly."
The dust kicked up by the impact of Goku's heavy clothing took a few seconds to settle. When it did, the craters left in the solid stone by his boots and wristbands spoke for themselves.
On the nearby tatami mats, the other martial artists swallowed hard. Tien Shinhan clenched his fists, sweating profusely, while Krillin's jaw dropped to the floor.
Goku rolled his shoulders, craned his neck to both sides, and bounced a couple of times in place. He looked as light as a feather, almost floating above the broken tiles of Tatami D.
"Phew... much better," said the Saiyan, with a wide, relaxed smile. "My shoulders felt a little stiff. Okay, number 84, shall we continue?"
Kaiju barely had time to nod.
In the blink of an eye, Goku was gone. There was no illusion technique, no Ki blast, not even the sound of the wind shifting. It was pure, raw, and overwhelming physical speed.
"Quickly!" Kaiju's mind screamed. His Spirit Control, honed on Yardrat, detected Goku's Ki signature moving to his right. His brain processed the information perfectly, but physics was unforgiving: his human body, no matter how well trained under 10G, simply couldn't react in time to that absurd speed.
¡BAM!
A devastating impact sank into Kaiju's ribs. The air left his lungs in an agonized hiss. Goku's side kick lifted him off the ground and sent him flying like a projectile through the arena.
Kaiju crashed into one of the enclosure's support columns, cracking the concrete all the way to the ceiling, before falling heavily to the ground.
Tohka, from the stands, stepped forward, her amethyst eyes gleaming with a lethal light. "Mental note number 9504," she whispered, her voice devoid of any melodious tone, replaced by the coldness of a killing machine. "The Creator's structural integrity has decreased by thirty percent in a single blow. Cancelling observation protocols. Preparing execution of target..."
But before Tohka could summon Sandalphon, Kaiju raised a trembling hand from the rubble, sternly signaling her to stop. She coughed, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, and forced herself to her feet.
"I'm... I'm fine, Friday," Kaiju panted, a crooked smile spreading across his face. "Damn... so this is the real Goku."
Goku didn't give him time to breathe. With another supersonic leap, he appeared right in front of the boy.
The difference in power was abysmal. Kaiju raised his guard, but Goku's blows were now a blurry, unstoppable torrent. The Saiyan attacked from impossible angles, shifting his center of gravity in fractions of a second.
¡Pam! ¡Crash! ¡Pum!
Kaiju blocked what he could, deflecting a punch to the face, but receiving a knee to the stomach that nearly made him vomit. He retreated, trying to create distance, but Goku was always there, closing the gap instantly.
Kaiju's body was being pushed to its absolute limit. Every time he blocked a blow from the unweighted Saiyan, he felt his bones vibrate and his muscles groan. If he hadn't spent a whole year being crushed by the x10 gravity of King Kai's Planet, his arms would have shattered by now.
"Think, Kaiju, think..." he told himself as he dodged a right hook and took a spinning kick to the shoulder that sent him skidding backward. "I can't match his speed. His reflexes are inhuman. He's a fighting genius, damn it!"
Cornered near the edge of what remained of the mat, Kaiju decided to stop trying to keep up visually. He closed one eye, trusted his Ki sense completely, and shifted into a completely passive defense. He stopped attacking. He became a wall of resistance, flowing with Goku's energy, using the Saiyan's own strength to deflect his punches millimeters away from his body.
Goku, noticing the change in tactics, increased the pressure, launching an even faster assault, but Kaiju held firm. He trembled, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, his breathing a ragged gasp, but he didn't fall. The human boy stoically endured the punishment of the future savior of the universe.
Finally, Goku jumped back, gaining about ten meters of distance. His breathing was now ragged, and sweat beaded on his forehead.
Goku looked at the teenager in front of him with a mixture of surprise and deep respect. Kaiju was covered in bruises, his training clothes were torn, and he was panting with his hands on his knees, but his brown eyes still burned with the same ferocity as the first minute.
"Incredible..." Goku murmured, smiling. "You're tougher than anyone I've ever fought, Number 84. Your bones seem to be made of steel. If this were a stamina match, you might beat me."
Kaiju let out a hoarse laugh, straightening up in pain. "Don't... don't give me false hope, Goku. I can barely feel my arms."
"Hehe, sorry." Goku adopted a serious stance, spreading his legs and lowering his center of gravity. He brought both hands to his right side, cupping his palms together. A blue glow began to illuminate the space between his fingers. "You are a formidable warrior. Out of respect for you, I will finish this with my best technique."
The Ki in the room surged, swirling around Goku. The air began to hum with a deafening frequency.
"Ka...!" Goku began, his muscles tensing beneath his orange gi.
The teenager closed his eyes for a second. He smiled. If Earth's hero was going to use his signature technique, the fanboy inside him couldn't respond with anything else. He wouldn't use magic, or transmutation, or portals.
The young man spread his legs, adopting the exact and precise stance of the Turtle School. He placed his hands on his hips. He invoked his Ki, the same he had mastered on the beaches of that island, and a blue spark came to life between his hands.
Goku's eyes widened in shock at the familiar stance, but he didn't stop his attack. "...me...!"
"Ka...!" the teenager replied, his voice deep and charged with a suffocating energy, as the blue orb in his hands grew, illuminating his end of the ring.
—¡...ha...! —The tiles under Goku's feet began to levitate due to the gravity of the accumulated Ki.
—I...me...! —The wind howled around the young man with jet-black hair.
The two spheres of blue energy illuminated the dark pavilion as if two suns had been born within the stadium. The wind blew furiously, tearing down the flags and forcing spectators and monks to cling to the pillars.
Tohka held her breath, her eyes fixed on the two blinding lights that were about to collide.
Both warriors, the legendary Saiyan and the god pretending to be human, stared at each other across the blue-lit battlefield, tensing their arms to the limit, ready to unleash the ultimate blow.