For several seconds, Frieza simply stared at Brian.
The tiny patch of rock beneath Brian's feet continued to crack.
A thin line traveled from Brian's fingertips across the stone.
Then another.
Brian wasn't destroying it.
He was studying it.
The rock was part of the seabed, and the seabed was already weakened by the pressure of their battle. Frieza's repeated blasts had fractured enormous sections beneath the ocean.
Brian could feel those fractures through the ki he'd fed into the stone.
They formed a network.
A massive one.
His eyes slowly widened.
The whole area is unstable.
Frieza raised an eyebrow.
"You seem unusually pleased with yourself."
Brian looked up.
"Do you know what's funny?"
"I doubt it."
"You're the one who damaged the planet."
Frieza's expression remained blank.
Brian tapped the cracked rock with his foot.
"And now you're standing on top of all that damage."
Frieza looked downward.
Only for a moment.
That was enough.
Brian kicked off the rock.
He didn't fly toward Frieza.
He flew downward.
Straight toward the ocean.
Frieza's eyes followed him.
"Ridiculous."
He extended one finger.
A Death Beam flashed downward.
Brian twisted.
The beam passed beneath his shoulder.
He continued falling.
Twenty meters.
Ten.
Five.
Then Brian plunged beneath the surface.
The ocean closed above him.
Frieza hovered in place.
He could still sense Brian.
A small power signature.
Moving deeper.
Frieza smiled.
"Have you forgotten that you cannot breathe underwater?"
He raised his hand.
The ocean split apart.
A gigantic sphere of water was lifted into the air around him.
Frieza stared into the transparent mass.
There.
Brian.
Thirty meters below the surface.
Motionless.
Frieza narrowed his eyes.
Brian was crouched against the ocean floor.
One hand pressed against the seabed.
His eyes were closed.
Frieza's smile faded.
"What are you doing?"
Brian couldn't hear him clearly through the water.
But he didn't need to.
His fingers felt the vibrations.
The fractures beneath the seabed were spreading.
Brian pushed a tiny amount of ki into them.
Not enough to explode anything.
Just enough to connect them.
One fracture.
Then another.
Then another.
Like threading a needle through broken glass.
Brian opened his eyes.
Got you.
He kicked upward.
Frieza immediately dropped the water sphere.
Brian shot toward the surface.
Frieza fired.
Brian twisted between two beams.
A third caught his shoulder.
Blood sprayed through the water.
Brian gritted his teeth but kept moving.
He broke through the surface.
Frieza was waiting.
A fist struck him across the face.
Brian spun sideways.
Frieza appeared above him.
Another strike.
Brian blocked.
The impact drove him downward.
Frieza followed.
Brian hit the water—
—and smiled.
Frieza noticed too late.
Brian's palm struck the surface.
"Now."
The entire ocean floor moved.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The seabed ruptured.
A gigantic section of Namek's crust rose from beneath the ocean like a continent being dragged upward.
Water exploded into the sky.
The shockwave threw Frieza hundreds of meters upward.
Brian was launched in the opposite direction.
He spun through the air, barely maintaining consciousness.
His body crashed onto a slanted slab of rock.
He rolled twice.
Stopped.
Silence.
Brian lay there breathing.
Then he laughed.
"Ha..."
He pushed himself onto one knee.
"That worked."
Across the battlefield, Frieza emerged from the cloud of debris.
His expression was no longer amused.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
He wiped it away.
He looked at the blood on his fingertip.
Then at Brian.
"You..."
Brian slowly stood.
Frieza's aura erupted.
The clouds above Namek twisted.
The ocean began pulling away from the battlefield in enormous waves.
Brian's smile disappeared.
He's angry.
Frieza vanished.
Brian's instincts screamed.
He raised his guard.
CRACK!
Frieza's knee struck his stomach.
Brian's feet left the ground.
Before he could recover, Frieza grabbed him by the throat.
Brian's hands immediately locked around Frieza's wrist.
Frieza accelerated upward.
The ground disappeared beneath them.
Hundreds of meters.
Brian struggled.
Frieza's grip tightened.
"Do you know what separates you from me?"
Brian's vision blurred.
Frieza's face was only inches away.
"Experience."
Frieza hurled him downward.
Brian dropped like a stone.
The ocean rushed toward him.
He twisted his body.
His back hit the water first.
KRAAASH!
The ocean swallowed him.
Frieza remained above.
Brian sank.
Ten meters.
Twenty.
Thirty.
His body continued downward.
His vision darkened.
His lungs burned.
His arms felt heavy.
Too tired.
His transformations were still available.
He knew that.
But activating one now would consume more energy.
And Frieza knew it too.
Brian closed his eyes.
Come on.
His heartbeat thundered.
Think.
The image of Frieza holding him flashed through his mind.
The timing.
The grip.
The angle.
The acceleration.
Brian's eyes opened.
Experience.
He smiled beneath the water.
Then his aura flickered.
For an instant, it seemed like he was about to transform.
Instead—
he powered down even further.
He let his ki drop.
Almost completely.
Above him, Frieza sensed it.
His expression changed.
"He's given up?"
Frieza descended.
Slowly.
Carefully.
He entered the water.
His eyes searched the depths.
Brian's energy was almost impossible to detect.
Frieza smiled.
"You finally understand."
He descended farther.
Twenty meters.
Thirty.
Forty.
Then he saw him.
Brian was sitting against the ocean floor.
Completely still.
His eyes were closed.
Frieza approached.
"You have nowhere left to run."
Brian opened one eye.
"No."
Frieza stopped.
Brian smiled.
"That's what I wanted."
The seabed beneath Frieza cracked.
Frieza looked down.
Brian's entire hand was pressed against the rock.
The network of fractures he'd created earlier had spread beneath the entire battlefield.
But there was something Frieza hadn't realized.
Brian hadn't been trying to make the seabed collapse.
He had been using it as a ki conduit.
Every tiny pulse he'd released had traveled through the fractures.
And now—
Frieza was standing directly in the center of them.
Brian's eyes sharpened.
"You kept chasing me."
His fingers curled.
"So I made sure you'd follow me exactly where I wanted."
Frieza's eyes widened.
Brian released everything he'd stored.
Not outward.
Downward.
The entire seabed detonated.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ocean floor erupted.
Water became a wall.
Rock became shrapnel.
The battlefield split apart beneath them.
Frieza was thrown upward through the ocean.
Brian was thrown sideways.
Both emerged from the explosion.
Frieza stabilized first.
Brian didn't.
He was falling.
His body was completely exhausted.
His base form barely held together.
Frieza looked down at him.
Then smiled.
"Enough."
He raised his hand.
A massive sphere of energy began forming above his palm.
Brian looked upward.
The sphere grew.
And grew.
The entire sky became red.
Brian's breathing stopped for a moment.
He recognized the technique.
Frieza wasn't attacking him anymore.
He was attacking Namek.
Brian's eyes widened.
"You wouldn't..."
Frieza smiled.
"Wouldn't I?"
The energy sphere began descending.
Brian stared at it.
His body screamed for transformation.
His mind screamed for rest.
His instincts screamed to run.
But there was nowhere to run.
Not anymore.
Brian slowly clenched his fists.
His aura flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then disappeared.
He remained in base.
King Kai shot to his feet.
"He's not powering up!"
Goku's expression became serious.
"He's thinking."
"Thinking?! That thing is going to destroy the planet!"
Goku stared into the crystal ball.
"Yeah."
Brian looked at Frieza.
Then at the descending sphere.
Then at the shattered battlefield beneath him.
His exhausted body trembled.
A small smile appeared.
"Okay."
He raised his hands.
"If you want to destroy the planet..."
His eyes hardened.
"...then I'll just have to make you regret throwing it."
Frieza's smile vanished.
Because Brian wasn't looking at the attack anymore.
He was looking directly at him.
And for the first time since the battle began—
Frieza realized Brian wasn't trying to survive the attack.
He was preparing to use it.