c35: The Shift in Power
"No... impossible? Jiren defeated in an instant? That can't be right!"
The faces of everyone on the Pride Troopers team were stricken with disbelief, their expressions frozen in sheer awe.
Shock. Dread. Utter incomprehension…
Jiren the unshakable god of war in Universe 11, the one who rivaled Gods of Destruction themselves had just been overwhelmed in a flash?
Not only had Linze landed a decisive blow, but none of them had even registered the movement. It was like watching time skip forward.
"He's… too strong. We're simply not on the same level anymore," Toppo muttered, his voice heavy and hoarse.
The muscles in his jaw clenched as he laughed at himself bitterly, feeling the crushing weight of the truth.
"I trained endlessly, just to one day stand at his side again or maybe even surpass him. And now…? What a joke I was."
Even Jiren his closest rival and the one who had approached the realm of a God of Destruction had been swatted away with a single move.
The thought of catching up to Linze now, even with centuries or millennia of training, felt hopeless.
To challenge him again would be nothing more than delusion.
"Even Jiren isn't enough against him?"
"I still can't wrap my head around it!"
"He's not just strong. He's beyond comprehension…"
Quincy, Boone, Kakate and the other members of the squad exchanged glances, each one equally shaken.
To them, Jiren had always stood as the ultimate peak his power capable of matching Ultra Instinct Goku during the Tournament of Power. But now, Linze had knocked him aside like a sparring partner. The shift in the natural order was hard to process.
"Get up, Jiren."
"No point in playing dead. That attack wasn't nearly enough to put you down."
Linze's voice cut through the silence, calm and unshaken, his silver hair swaying in the energy-laced air.
He knew Jiren far too well.
That strike just now had been less than 20% of his total output. No way would that be enough to truly incapacitate Jiren not someone who had stood toe-to-toe with Universe 7's strongest fighters and emerged time and again.
Sure enough...
As if responding to his words, Jiren stirred within the crater.
Fwoosh!
In a blur, Jiren's body flickered and reappeared directly in front of Linze, his crimson aura flaring once more.
His eyes were serious now focused not with anger, but with raw intensity.
He rotated his neck with a slight crack, loosening the tension.
"I'll admit," he said plainly, "that strike… I felt it. It hurt."
His words carried weightpraise, acknowledgment, and challenge.
"But don't think for a second that it'll happen again."
His tone was unshaken, full of unbending resolve. No matter the difference in strength, Jiren's will could not be dominated. Not by anyone.
"Is that so?"
"You're not my equal anymore, Jiren."
Linze's reply was firm, delivered with a quiet but unshakable confidence.
There was no arrogance in his words just truth.
He had gone beyond. Super Saiyan Five wasn't just a transformation it was an awakening. And Jiren, for all his incredible might, was no longer at the summit alone.
You must understandI've been stuck at the peak of Super Saiyan 4 for six or seven years!
During all that time, even though I couldn't break through the limit, my base combat power steadily increased through relentless training in high-gravity chambers amplified by a tenfold time differential using the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
The stronger my base power grew, the more devastating the transformation became.
At my peak as a full-power Super Saiyan 4, I was already beyond Goku's full-power Super Saiyan 4 during the Baby Saga and exponentially stronger than the Super Saiyan Blue Goku who used Kaio-Ken x20 during the Tournament of Power!
" tch—Don't get cocky!"
Jiren growled through gritted teeth, then instantly flared his aura and shot forward in a burst of speed.
Shoo—!
In the next instant, Jiren unleashed a fierce barrage of high-speed attacks, each strike distorting the air and compressing the space around them with sheer force.
But Linze's body moved fluidly, side to side, narrowly slipping past every single blow with uncanny precision dodging everything without so much as lifting a finger.
"I told you, you're not my opponent anymore. The gap between us is too vast!"
Linze spoke calmly, but the triumphant tone was undeniable as he weaved between Jiren's vicious strikes.
He was still riding the high of the transformation. He hadn't expected Super Saiyan 5 to grant such an astronomical leap in strength this was a whole new realm of power.
It felt immeasurably more refined and explosive than Super Saiyan 4.
And if he was right in estimating it, even Ultra Instinct Goku from the Tournament of Power couldn't match him now.
Back then, Goku with perfected Ultra Instinct completely overwhelmed Jiren near the end. If Jiren hadn't tapped into his emotional trauma and broken his own limits, he would've been defeated.
But now, Linze was surpassing even that version of Goku.
So how could Jiren still clinging to the same power ceiling be expected to compete?
"Don't be so arrogant… I won't lose! I can't lose!!"
Jiren shouted furiously, his aura exploding into a crimson inferno. His frustration boiled over as hundreds of attacks had failed to even make Linze flinch.
He had never experienced this kind of helplessness not since his childhood, not since losing everything.
Fwip!
He drove his fist forward with full force, aiming squarely at Linze's chest.
Smack!
The next second.stunned silence.
Linze had casually caught the punch midair, his fingers locked around Jiren's fist without even flinching.
"What?! That's… impossible!"
Jiren's eyes widened in disbelief.
A fully charged blow effortlessly stopped? By one hand?
While he was still in shock, Linze gave a hard yank pulling Jiren toward him
and with perfect timing, he raised his right knee
Bang!
and smashed it directly into Jiren's abdomen.
"Urgh—!"
Jiren coughed violently, a thick sour taste flooding his mouth as he doubled over, his face twisting in agony.
His aura flickered.
Before he could recover, Linze released his grip and delivered a rapid spinning sweep.
Crack!
His heel struck Jiren clean across the face.
Boom boom boom!
Jiren's body went flying shattering three massive mountain peaks and skidding across the ground, carving out a ravine several dozen meters deep.
"But… this can't be happening."
"Dammit…"
A smear of blood dripped from the corner of Jiren's mouth as he slammed a trembling fist into the earth beneath him.
He couldn't accept this refused to accept it.
Just moments ago, Linze hadn't even registered as a serious threat. And now?
Now everything had changed.
Though it pained him, every clash, every counter, every hit made it undeniably clear…
Linze's power had surpassed his own and not by a narrow margin.
By an overwhelming gulf.
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