26 A Father's Fall

The sound of Bardock's Scouter exploding caused a shockwave to go through the Remaining Saiyan.

It was impossible...

There's 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? What was that thing you just did?" The monster in front of them asked.

Being adressed, Bardock could only grit his teeth in frustration. This was going to be harder than he thought. A lot harder.

Damnit... Where's Zyleth when you need him?

"Bardock... What's the plan here?" Tora asked.

"I'm open to suggestions..." Bardock replied, never taking his gaze away from the alien inhabitant.

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 the suddenness of it all before he felt a 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 curiosity. "Impressive. You're the only I've met who's been able to take a punch."

"You bastard!"

"Shugesh don't--" Tora reached out for teammate but it was too late.

Shugesh charged at the alien with a clenched fist and swung his attack towards its face. 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, aiming to end the fight quickly. The inhabitant slowly backed away and ascended towards the sky, avoiding Shugesh's attack with minimal movement as he slowly moved back.

Seeing the alien being 'pushed back' by Shugesh caused the other Saiyans to form 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.

"Yeah, it was just a plain old misread!" Said one of his underlings added in agreement.

The surrounding Saiyans confidence in this fight had now been regained. Hearing what the others were yammering, Bardock gritted his teeth and looked towards the sky. "It wasn't a misread..."

"What do you mean?" Fasha asked, hearing what Bardock had muttered under his breath.

"That punch was the real deal... We have to help Shugesh now!"

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 courtyard floor. Prying him off the ground, the alien then slammed Shugesh into various pillars surrounding 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.

He 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 slammed his foot into the alien's side, sending him flying into the castle wall.

He quickly rushed over to Shugesh and tried to assess the extent of his injuries.

"Shugesh! Wake up!"

"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.

"At least for the time being." The alien added.

The rest of Team Bardock descended from the sky and they all faced the alien, ready to 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.

"Pity. I don't enjoy slaughtering the weak."

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 gravel." Antauri answered before turning towards Bardock with a calm gaze. "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 condescending.

"RRAAAGH!"

Bardock powered up to max and immediately took off towards Antauri, with his team quickly following suit.

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"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 castle.

"They must've. 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 further back.

"Wait, wasn't that--?!"

The Saiyans all looked towards Bardock and Tora, seeing their damaged states.

"Up there!"

They 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 he 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 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 spared with Zyleth enough times to know when someone's holding back..." Bardock replied with a groan before outstretching his hand 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 signal.

"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 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 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.

"It doesn't matter... I'm using it anyway..." Bardock said as he focused his energy on 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 energy beam suddenly shot through Bardock and Tora's chest, causing them both to spit out 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 them.

"If you had actually managed to transform that is." Antauri said as he descended to the ground and walked towards the fallen Saiyans.

Looking behind him, 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.

Bardock yelled out in defiance as he forced himself to stand up on his feet. Antauri's eyes widened for a brief second before he mouth turned upwards into a 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 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, covering the area in black smoke.

Without checking to see if his blast had killed the alien, Zyleth descended from the sky and landed beside his father.

"Father!"

Seeing his son, Bardock looked at Zyleth with a proud smile and asked, "What took you so long?" before falling unconscious.

Putting his ear to Bardock's chest, Zyleth silently listened for a heartbeat and let out a sigh once he had confirmed that his father was still alive.

"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.

"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 and confusion as his aura had briefly shifted to a black and red color before returning to its purplish-black hue.

"Fight you? I'm here to kill you." Zyleth told him.