Tater's shirt violently rippled against his skin as he sensed out the battle between Tarble and the unknown assailant from a barely safe distance, several miles off. He wasn't wearing his battle armor; he'd only started flying toward the site after feeling the evil power level from his home, which had only become possible from the massive distance when the scale had flared to the hundred million range.
Throughout the battle, the power levels had flared from the twenty million range all the way up to just past the two hundred million range, for short moments. The ki saturation in the air made Tater's full power genuinely feel like a tiny flame against a raging storm, barely able to sense anything two feet in front of him, save for the two figures generating the eye of the storm completely on their own.
By that same logic, he knew that it would be nearly impossible for Tarble to account for his presence if he got any closer. That didn't mean that he was so comparatively weak that he'd be unable to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, but based on Tarble's carefully regulated ki signature, interfering would definitely do more harm than good, at this point in time.
Still, he couldn't bring himself to go any further. If Tarble was in trouble, Tater had to be in a spot where he could swoop in.
He didn't feel it when Slug's power level suddenly exploded. From a distance, it simply felt like another high-level clash between the two powerhouses.
But the large Saiyan definitely felt what happened next.
Tater was extremely familiar with Tarble's energy signature. He knew what Tarble felt like when he was genuinely pushing, and he knew what Tarble felt like when he was calculating every move for optimal efficiency.
In someone as controlled as Tarble was, during battle, the shift between the two was instant and dramatic. Like a pressure cooker suddenly blasting open. His power level didn't get higher, and his control didn't get sharper, but Tater could instantly tell that Tarble was genuinely fighting with everything he had, at a level that he wouldn't be able to keep up for very long.
The battle was shifting into its final gear. If Tarble needed aid, he'd call for it soon.
Whether Tater's current power level would be of much use against the monster that his friend was fighting was still to be seen.
…
I slammed my fist toward Slug's face once, twice, three times, using the exact same motion in rapid fire, barely fast enough for eyes to follow, my fist carrying so much power for that single moment that it seemed to have its own gravitational pull for a short period.
Slug managed to dodge the first two times, but he hadn't expected the third. It slammed into his jaw with a loud CRACK!
Neither of us seemed to care, though. Slug had put a minimal amount of effort into protecting himself, while the majority of his strength went into a powerful swinging counter that slammed directly into my ribs.
I had about a half-instant to respond. I channeled energy into the spot before the hit landed. For the first time throughout the fight, I was tanking one of Slug's hits dead-on, on purpose.
The change in tactics caught the evil Namekian off-guard for a moment. The force behind the punch made my rib make a loud sound that caused me to grit my teeth in annoyance and a bit of pain.
But my whip-kick landed squarely in an undefended area with a loud BANG!
Slug flew backward, a mid-tier shockwave rippling through the air.
We pounded into each other with complete abandon, as brutally as possible, now that an extended fight was impossible. I broke several of my own ribs, split my knuckle, and at one point, spat out a large glob of blood due to some internal injury that I didn't have the time to care about. It hit Slug in the eye, forcing him to eat a full-body tackle as he wiped it off.
Slug got worse than he gave, however. At one point, I dislocated his arm, broke his jaw, and opened up a large gash on his chest.
That was when I noticed it.
His injuries didn't heal until he broke off to take a breather.
Slug's regeneration had notably slowed.
…But it didn't change anything. It wasn't an opening… he still regenerated. His power level still wasn't dropping. Neither was mine, but his stamina was going to eventually beat mine out, the hard logic made it only a matter of time.
I didn't have time to waste.
Generating a ki blade in my hand, I raced in and swiped at Slug. It cut a thin line across his bicep. He broke the blade with a small, close-ranged blast that didn't give me a single moment's pause, pushing us back into a high-powered trading of blows that ended up leaving several minor injuries on each of us when we finally pulled back again.
Like always, Slug's healed in real-time, accompanied by a fluttering of his energy level.
By now, the S-Cells in my lower back were screaming at me, overworked and begging for rest from the constant overload. I could feel them on the verge of the failure threshold.
Pushing them at this rate for much longer would lead to a painful meltdown, causing my S-Cells to systematically and painfully 'pop', exploding individually until I didn't have enough of them to sustain the transformation at all, for a period of several weeks.
I needed to finish this battle before that happened, or it'd be my death, just like Zeck's.