Nail's eyes blazed with righteous fury.
"You think I'll believe a single word out of your mouth?! Another invader! Another murderer! If your kind had never come here, my people would still be alive!"
To him, every off-worlder wore the same bloody face. Frieza, Zarbon, Dodoria, Vegeta; they were all the same species of monster.
Vegeta didn't even bother rolling his eyes.
"I never said I was a saint. I just don't take credit for other people's crimes. Frieza is the one burning your villages. Not me."
He floated forward, arms loose at his sides, voice calm and cutting.
"Right now, the lizard and I want the exact same thing dead. That makes us allies, whether you like it or not."
Nail's lip curled. "Allies? With you? I'd sooner die!"
His aura detonated.
Green-white ki roared outward in a cyclone, tearing stone from the cliff face, whipping the ocean below into a frenzy. Forty-two thousand, fully unleashed.
Any normal warrior would have been crushed just by the pressure.
Vegeta didn't move an inch.
"Then die."
The word was soft. Final.
His own aura answered, violet-white, vicious, and far deeper than the sky. The fake scouter on his ear screamed through numbers until the lens cracked.
20,000 → 35,000 → 45,000…
He stopped there. No need to flex the full fifty yet.
Nail's pupils shrank. Shock, then pure refusal to accept it.
"Even if you didn't kill them yourself, you reek of blood! You're here for the Dragon Balls, same as the rest!"
He launched.
A green blur, fist cocked, the full weight of Namek's pride behind it.
Vegeta lifted one forearm, lazy, almost bored.
CLANG!
The impact rang like a church bell. Shockwaves rolled across the sea.
Vegeta didn't slide back a centimeter.
Instead he used Nail's momentum, pivoted, and kicked off the air, shooting upward and away from the Grand Elder's spire.
(Old man was fragile. One stray blast and the timeline goes to hell.)
Nail roared and pursued.
Vegeta flicked a hand.
A single ki blast the size of a basketball streaked down.
Nail slapped it aside without breaking stride. The redirected sphere punched into a distant island, erasing it in a pillar of fire and steam.
Vegeta smirked.
"Quit preaching and fight, Namekian."
The real battle began.
Fists blurred. Elbows cracked against guards. Knees drove into ribs that refused to break.
To Nail, it was humiliation incarnate.
Every strike he poured his soul into was read, deflected, or turned against him. Vegeta moved like he already knew the script; light on his feet, cruel economy in every motion, a permanent half-smirk that said this is nothing.
To Vegeta, it was the best warm-up he'd had since Earth.
Nail was fast. Strong. Skilled. Better than Recoome, better than Jeice.
And still nowhere close.
Ten seconds in, the gap was already obvious.
Twenty seconds in, it was a massacre wearing the mask of a spar.
Nail's breath came harder. Blood trickled from a split lip. His perfect guard had cracks.
Vegeta hadn't even taken a real hit.
High above the clouds, the prince finally spoke again, voice low and amused.
"You're the strongest this planet has. And you still can't touch me."
He vanished.
Reappeared behind Nail, elbow already descending.
"Pathetic."