The desert didn't breathe. It braced.Every grain of sand knew it would not be where it had been when the next strike landed.
Vegeta's aura burned clean, cold, an outline of discipline. Kakarot's roared wild and red, the Kaio-ken's flame chewing at the edges of his own body. Two philosophies, two bloodlines, two hungers collided in the silence before motion.
They blurred.
The ridge in the distance cracked before sound arrived. Krillin shielded his face, Gohan clung to his sleeve, both of them watching and not watching at once.
Vegeta ducked under a left hook that carried enough force to humble a mountain. He chose to take the grazing shock of it along his shoulder, banking the pain for later. His counter came as three short jabs, economic, surgical, each targeting the same rib he'd marked earlier. He wanted that rib to remember him.
Kakarot grunted, chest tightening, but drove through—forward, always forward. His heel snapped up, a back kick that tried to remove Vegeta's jaw from his inheritance. Vegeta tilted half an inch; the kick brushed his chin and left only the memory of intention.
The System intruded like a calm professor amid thunder:
[Engagement Metrics]Exchanges Logged: 243 (within 0.7 sec)Hit Ratio — Vegeta: 41% (precision, economic)Hit Ratio — Kakarot: 47% (brute pressure, Kaio-ken amplification)Projected Outcome (current levels sustained): Stalemate → attrition → Kaio-ken collapse (self-damage).Recommendation: Force opponent into attrition loop. Observe failure point.
Vegeta smirked, lips wet with a small line of blood. "Stalemate, is it? You hear that, Kakarot? Even fate thinks you'll fold first."
"Then I'll just prove fate wrong," Kakarot answered, and his smile wasn't arrogance—it was stubborn sunlight.
They clashed again, aura against aura.
The desert floor didn't just crack this time—it sank. A bowl carved itself under their feet as if gravity had decided to worship them by kneeling.
Krillin dragged Gohan backward another fifty yards, heart rattling. "This is… insane," he muttered. "That's not a fight, it's—"
"—a storm," Gohan whispered, voice tight with awe and terror. His small hands clenched at his gi, eyes glued to the flashes that only sometimes resembled men.
Vegeta drove a feint high, then vanished low. His elbow buried into Kakarot's gut, just under the solar plexus. The man bent, coughing once, but answered with an uppercut that would have taken Vegeta's head if the prince hadn't leaned a fraction late—enough to let knuckles graze.
Blood from his lip sprayed red across Kakarot's chest.
Both men laughed.
It was awful. It was beautiful.
The System ticked again, pleased.
[Brink Skim: 2/2]Micro-damage banked: significant.Zenkai Efficiency: +5% (locked until post-battle recovery).Warning: Kaio-ken output rising erratically. Risk of self-collapse (Kakarot).Optional Exploit: Prolong battle → allow opponent to burn out.
Vegeta licked the blood from his lip, eyes bright. "You're eating yourself alive with that trick. How long before it chews your bones?"
"As long as I need it to," Kakarot shot back. His aura pulsed, deep crimson now, veins standing in his temples.
Then Kakarot changed the tempo.
Not forward—not pressure. He pulled back, drew in breath, stance tightening. Ki swirled into his palms, condensed, focused. Vegeta recognized it a half-beat before memory filled in the name.
"Kamehame—"
Vegeta laughed, savage and delighted. "Yes. Show me!"
The wave ignited in Kakarot's hands, blue white, furious, an ocean funneled into a barrel. He thrust forward—
"—HA!"
The beam roared, carving sand into glass in its passage, a column that could have rewritten the desert into an absence.
Vegeta planted his feet. His aura flared gold-white, a corona of pure contempt. He thrust both palms forward and poured ki into a counter-beam, thin at first, then thickening, screaming white against Kakarot's blue.
The desert became a forge. The ridge lines melted. Krillin and Gohan shielded their faces against wind that cut like knives.
The beams met, screamed, shoved each other like titans wrestling over the ownership of daylight.
The System chimed into his skull like church bells:
[Beam Struggle Engaged]Opponent Output: ~18,000 PL (Kaio-ken surge → ~54,000 temporary).Host Output: ~22,400 PL (efficiency boosted).Projected Outcome: Opponent advantage (sustain). Survival requires tactical exploit.Option: Micro-Vector Ki stream (finger shearing). Reward: Technique Evolution.
Vegeta's teeth bared. He split his ki, fine as needles, threading the edges of his beam until it hissed into dozens of smaller vectors. The light carved inside Kakarot's wave, unraveling the edges, fraying the beam until its core had to burn harder just to hold.
Kakarot roared, red aura blazing hotter, forcing himself beyond limits that did not ask to be moved. His wave thickened, blinding, forcing Vegeta to plant harder, veins standing in his forearms.
The desert broke.
The ridge behind Vegeta shattered. The ridge behind Kakarot collapsed into itself. Between them, a straight scar of absence widened, glass cooling where sand had been.
They held. Seconds. An eternity.
Then Kakarot screamed, body lighting red, Kaio-ken x4, the air around him collapsing into vacuum and then exploding outward. His beam surged, swallowing Vegeta's by inches, by feet, by yards—
The System screamed into his mind:
[Critical Threshold]Survival odds: 41% and falling.Option Unlocked: Great Ape Protocol (conditional).Trigger: Tail intact, Blutz Wave substitute (Ki simulation).Warning: Planetary collateral catastrophic. Reward: Survival + Zenkai x2.
Vegeta's smile went feral. Oh, you tempt me, don't you?