Elsewhere on Earth, Tien and Chiaotzu had teamed up against a prisoner whose body looked like it had been forged entirely from metal. Tien drove a heavy punch straight into the Metal Man's chest, only to recoil when the impact sent a sharp jolt of pain through his own fist. His opponent barely seemed to notice.
"What is this guy made of?" Tien flexed his aching hand, staring at the completely unbothered prisoner. "It's like punching a solid block of steel."
"My attacks aren't doing anything either," Chiaotzu said.
One of the Galactic Patrol officers supporting them quickly explained the problem. "He's a Metal Man. Their bodies are made from an extremely durable metal, so ordinary attacks have a hard time hurting them."
Another officer suddenly remembered something much more useful. "Wait, Metal Men have a weakness! They're extremely sensitive about their pride. If you insult him badly enough, he might lose the will to fight."
Tien slowly looked over at him. "You want me to beat him by insulting him?"
"Galactic Patrol officers shouldn't verbally abuse people," the officer replied with complete seriousness. "So we'll leave that part to you. Insult him until he drops!"
Tien stared at him in disbelief. Apparently their moral standards only prevented the Patrol from doing the insulting personally.
The Metal Man didn't give him much time to complain. He charged and swung a massive fist, forcing Tien into the air. Since brute force clearly wasn't working, Tien reluctantly decided to try the ridiculous weakness they had just been handed.
"All right, listen up!" he shouted from above. "You... rock-headed idiot!"
The Metal Man stared blankly at him.
Chiaotzu shook his head. "Tien, his head really is harder than rock. That doesn't sound like an insult."
Tien grimaced. "Fine! You five-hundred-pound fatass!"
The Galactic Patrol officer raised a hand. "Actually, Metal Men weigh much more than that. Probably several tons at least."
The other officer nodded helpfully.
Tien's eye twitched. "Why are you correcting my insults?! I'm terrible at this!"
While Tien struggled to find something properly offensive, the Metal Man renewed his attack and forced him back onto the defensive. Chiaotzu watched for a moment before deciding his friend clearly needed professional help.
"You brainless chrome-dome!"
The Metal Man immediately stopped and turned toward him.
Chiaotzu leaned forward and spat several times for good measure.
That did it. The prisoner abandoned Tien entirely and charged Chiaotzu in a rage, apparently far more wounded by the insult than by anything they had hit him with.
One of the patrolmen watched in admiration. "Now he knows how to insult someone."
Chiaotzu waited until the furious Metal Man was almost upon him before delivering the finishing blow.
"You rusty hunk of scrap!"
The reaction was immediate. The Metal Man froze as though Chiaotzu had struck him directly in the soul, smoke beginning to leak from his body as all the anger drained out of him. A moment later, he toppled backward and landed flat on the ground, twitching helplessly with no desire left to continue fighting.
Tien could only stare.
Chiaotzu looked over at him. "Tien, you're really bad at insulting people."
Tien decided he had nothing to say in his defense.
Elsewhere, Android 17 and 18 had taken complete control of their battle against Seven-Three and Shimorekka. With no ordinary ki for Seven-Three to drain, the artificial warrior's copy of Moro's abilities had lost one of its greatest advantages, and neither prisoner could keep up with the Androids' relentless attacks.
17 drove a kick into Seven-Three and sent him tumbling backward across the battlefield. His artificial body was already badly damaged from Kale's earlier assault, and the beating from the Androids had pushed him even closer to his limit.
17 raised one hand, energy gathering in his palm. "That's enough. Time to finish this."
He never got the chance to fire.
A figure appeared beside Seven-Three and caught the battered artificial warrior before he hit the ground. Moro had finally descended from his ship, one hand gripping Seven-Three by the head as he examined the damage.
Jaco's face tightened immediately. "Moro! He finally came down!"
The rest of the group became equally tense. They had spent all this time fighting Moro's empowered prisoners, but the presence standing in front of them now felt fundamentally different.
Moro looked at the barely conscious Seven-Three with mild annoyance. "Didn't I tell you not to use my abilities so casually?"
Seven-Three was too damaged to answer.
Shimorekka staggered over, bruised from his own fight with Android 18. "I'm sorry, Moro-sama. We couldn't handle them without it."
"This one's Copy Ability may still be useful later." Moro casually tossed Seven-Three toward him. "Take him back and restore him."
"Yes, Moro-sama!"
Saganbo descended from the ship at the same time and immediately reinforced the order. "Get Seven-Three back aboard."
Shimorekka gathered the damaged artificial warrior into his arms and flew toward the spacecraft without hesitation.
Android 17 watched them leave. "We're just letting them go?"
Piccolo didn't even look in their direction. His attention remained fixed entirely on Moro.
"That's the real one. Forget those two."
Now that Moro was standing in front of him, Piccolo finally understood why Jaco had been so frightened. The ki surrounding the ancient wizard felt wrong in a way ordinary evil ki never did, as though countless other presences had been compressed into his body.
Gohan felt it too. "His energy is horrible. It almost sounds like... people screaming."
Kale clenched her fists beside him. "I can feel it too, Gohan-nii. There's something incredibly evil mixed into his ki."
Jaco swallowed hard. "That's because the energy of everyone he's killed and consumed is still inside him. What you're sensing is all the life he's stolen."
Moro appeared more interested in something else.
"Where are the two Saiyans?" he asked pleasantly. "Goku and Vegeta."
Gohan stepped forward. "My dad and Vegeta are still training, but they'll be back. Our job is to protect Earth until they return and defeat you."
"Excellent." Moro's smile widened instead of disappearing. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."
Gohan frowned. "What are you so happy about?"
"Look around you." Moro spread his arms toward the defenders gathered across Earth. "This planet is overflowing with powerful mortals. Finding so much rich life energy concentrated on a single world is rare."
His gaze moved slowly across Gohan, Kale, Piccolo, and the Androids as though he were deciding what to order from a menu.
"It almost feels wasteful to consume everything at once. I'm trying to decide how best to enjoy all of you without letting any of that energy go to waste."
Android 18 grimaced. "What a disgusting creep."
Saganbo stepped forward before anyone else could attack.
"Moro-sama, would you allow me to deal with them?"
Moro glanced toward him.
"Please."
Saganbo bowed respectfully and waited.
"Very well," Moro said at last. "But don't kill them. I intend to consume their life energy myself."
"Understood!"
Saganbo turned toward Earth's defenders, eager to prove that he was considerably more useful than the prisoners they had already defeated.
Moro decided to make sure of it.
He extended one finger, and a concentrated stream of energy shot into Saganbo's body. Power surged through the bandit leader almost immediately, his ki climbing higher and higher as Moro began forcing out even more of his latent strength.
The fights against the escaped prisoners had only been the opening act.
Now Moro was finally putting his strongest subordinate onto the battlefield.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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