Vegeta clenched his fist, staring straight at Cooler.
"You're still using scouters? How primitive."
His golden aura surged as he pointed forward, impatience sharp in his voice.
"Enough wasting time, Cooler. I've been waiting here for a whole month. Fight me already!"
Cooler hadn't even spoken yet when Salza burst into laughter.
"HAHAHAHA! You? Fight our Lord Cooler? Don't make me laugh—know your place!"
Neiz and Dore moved at the same time, flanking in from both sides.
"That's right. Lord Cooler doesn't even need to lift a finger. The three of us are more than enough to kill you!"
Vegeta actually let out a short, incredulous laugh.
Three lowlifes…
…actually daring to surround a Super Saiyan?
He almost found it funny.
"Cooler," Vegeta said coldly, "you're really sending trash like this to die?"
Arms folded, Vegeta's mouth curled into a razor-sharp smirk. In his eyes, these three weren't even worth him moving.
Cooler still didn't speak.
He was studying Vegeta—almost as if he was confirming whether there was another Super Saiyan hiding nearby.
Salza saw the contempt in Vegeta's eyes and instantly flew into a rage.
"Bastard! Don't think killing Frieza makes you invincible! When the three of us fight together, our battle power multiplies exponentially!"
He thrust both palms forward.
"You're dead, Saiyan!"
A shockwave blasted toward Vegeta.
Vegeta casually flicked his hand.
The shockwave was swatted away like dust.
Before Salza could even retract his stance—
A gigantic fist tore through the air from Vegeta's right rear side, wrapped in a booming pressure burst.
Dore's punch.
Vegeta didn't even turn his head.
His left hand snapped back first—faster than the strike itself—and clamped down on Dore's wrist.
Five fingers tightened.
CRACK!
Bone-splitting sound.
Simultaneous scream.
"Too slow."
Vegeta flung the limp arm aside, then brought his right leg down like a battle axe.
Dore's three-meter body slammed straight into the rock layer like a broken sack.
Spiderweb cracks exploded outward—stretching more than twenty meters.
Neiz hadn't even finished forming his energy sphere when his vision was suddenly filled by a deep-blue combat suit.
His pupils shrank violently.
"Sh—!"
In the next instant, Vegeta's knee drove into his stomach.
Neiz's mouth flew open, a raw scream bursting out of him.
Then Vegeta's elbow came down like a guillotine—
CRACK!
Neiz's shoulder shattered.
His body was smashed into the ground like a ragdoll.
And right then—
Salza finally rushed in.
Vegeta's lips lifted slightly.
His palm shaped into a claw.
He slid past Salza's attack with ease—
And at the same time—
His hand pierced straight through Salza's abdomen.
Salza's eyes went wide.
Complete disbelief.
"H-How… I can't… even fight back…"
Vegeta looked at him like he was nothing.
"Hmph. With skills this pathetic, you thought you could fight me?"
His smile was cruel.
"So weak it's painful to watch."
Vegeta withdrew his hand.
Salza collapsed heavily to the ground.
—
And then—Vegeta felt it.
A lethal sense of danger.
He snapped his head around.
Cooler's eyes had lit up with twin beams of red light, firing straight at him.
Too sudden.
Too fast.
Vegeta barely had time to raise his arms to block—
But at the exact moment the beams were about to hit—
A golden streak flashed across the air and slammed into the lasers.
BOOM!!
A violent explosion.
The two energies cancelled each other out.
Goku drifted down beside Vegeta, instinctively asking, "You okay, Vegeta?"
Vegeta lowered his arms, face twitching.
"Who told you to stick your nose in, Kakarot?!"
Goku: "…"
Cooler's laughter pressed down from above as he looked at Goku.
"So it's you."
His smile sharpened.
"Back when you were being sent away from Planet Vegeta, I noticed you."
His eyes narrowed.
"I simply didn't bother killing you back then."
"And now… you actually became Frieza's enemy."
Goku didn't answer.
Whether Cooler "noticed" him or not didn't matter. That was ancient history.
Vegeta's fists creaked.
"Kakarot, let me make this clear—his little sneak attack wouldn't have hurt me."
"You blocking it was completely unnecessary."
His gaze turned icy as he pointed at Cooler.
"Now I'm going to deal with that coward."
Goku blinked. "Oh? So you were confident you could block it."
Then he scratched his head with a straight face.
"My bad. I thought you were about to get seriously injured, so I stepped in."
Vegeta's forehead veins bulged.
"Shut up! Like he could seriously injure me!"
He jabbed a finger toward Cooler in the sky, voice burning with pride.
"Kakarot—watch closely."
"I'm going to twist Cooler's head off."
Goku immediately nodded and made a polite "after you" gesture.
"Alright. Go ahead."
—
High above them, Cooler's fingertips gathered an energy sphere, his smile calm and disdainful.
"So you blocked that? Fine."
"But this time… let's see how you block—"
He didn't even finish speaking.
Vegeta vanished.
He reappeared behind Cooler.
Cooler's eyes widened.
He didn't even have time to react—
Vegeta drove a savage kick straight into his weak spot.
THUD!
Cooler was blasted away.
The energy sphere he'd been forming collapsed instantly.
His body slammed into the mountain range—splitting the entire ridge like it had been cleaved by a gigantic blade.
Boulders exploded outward like a rainstorm.
Cooler was buried under debris and dust.
Vegeta flicked the dirt off his boot and sneered.
"What a noisy bastard."
Of course—both Vegeta and Goku knew an attack like that couldn't truly injure Cooler.
Sure enough—
Moments later, Cooler flew out of the ruins.
He wiped at his mouth—there wasn't even any blood to smear—then smiled.
"Not bad. You've got some skill."
Vegeta's grin turned sharper.
"Only some? Keep talking. I'll beat the words out of your mouth."
He shot forward.
And in the next instant—
Prince's Assault erupted.
"Ah—da-da-da-da-da—!"
Vegeta's fists came down like a machine gun, a relentless storm.
Cooler hurriedly raised his arms to block.
The fight didn't "start" so much as ignite.
Zero warm-up.
Straight into white-hot brutality.
Punch for punch.
Kick for kick.
They crashed from the sky into the ocean—then blasted back up from the ocean into the sky.
Goku stood with hands on his hips, watching…
…and yawned.
Just one casual yawn.
But Cooler saw it.
He had been trying to crush the Saiyans with pressure.
That yawn felt like humiliation.
Cooler immediately pulled back, furious.
"Bastards!"
"You're nothing but two filthy monkeys who survived under Frieza's shadow!"
"And you dare look down on me?!"
His killing intent surged.
"Let me tell you something—"
"I'm far stronger than Frieza ever was!"
Vegeta's mouth curved upward again.
He raised his thumb—pointing it at himself like it was second nature.
"True."
"If you were at Frieza's level, you'd already be dead by my hands."
Cooler's brow twitched.
"What did you just say?"
Vegeta looked down at him from above, thumb still raised, voice slow and merciless—each word like a blade.
"I said you're weak."
"Even if you're stronger than Frieza…"
"You're only stronger by a little."
"But that 'little'… is nowhere near enough."
His green eyes narrowed.
"Because you're facing me."
"Super Saiyan Vegeta."
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