Things were moving fast. In the blink of an eye, a battle of Destroyer-candidate caliber had broken out.
Champa felt a wave of helplessness. These guys were truly playing with fire. Even though he had warned them that Grand was stronger than all of them combined, they still had the nerve to challenge him.
Then again...
Daring to challenge those stronger than yourself—that was exactly the kind of warrior's spirit a Destroyer candidate was supposed to have.
"Fine, then make it quick!" Champa shouted. He shot another glance at Grand, his eyes practically pleading for him to show some mercy.
Grand flashed a quick "OK" sign.
Champa didn't quite recognize the gesture, but he got the gist that Grand had agreed to hold back. With that settled, Champa, the Old Kai, and the others cleared the area, moving toward the lakeside to join Beerus.
"Hey, fat-pig, your candidates have some nerve, don't they? Thinking they can actually take on Grand," Beerus remarked, lounging back in a beach chair with a mocking grin.
Champa merely glared at Beerus but didn't bother to snap back.
Back on the field, Grand stood calmly on the grass. He beckoned the group forward with a casual wave of his hand. "Let's not waste time. All of you, come at me at once."
"At once?"
Roz and the others were stunned. They had assumed they would be challenging Grand one by one. They hadn't expected him to demand a one-versus-twenty handicap.
"Talk about arrogant! Let's see if you can back that up!"
Flushed with anger, Roz led the charge. As he lunged toward Grand, a vibrant purple glow erupted around him. It was Ultra Ego! In this state, the stronger Roz's resolve became, the more his power would swell. With his will peaking, Roz's strength instantly skyrocketed into the early stages of the third level of the Godly Realm.
"Ultra Ego? Level three Godly power... now that's a bit interesting," Grand mused, his lips curling into a faint smile. He had half-expected them to rely on Super Saiyan transformations instead.
"But that little bit of power isn't going to cut it against me."
Grand watched as the purple streak tore toward him. Roz's speed was staggering, causing the very fabric of space to tremble in his wake. Yet, in the face of this onslaught, Grand didn't transform at all. He raised his index finger and gave a light, casual tap forward.
That single finger met Roz's massive fist head-on.
BOOM!
The collision triggered a terrifying shockwave, a gale of destructive energy that swept across the surroundings like a hurricane.
"This... what kind of power is this?!"
Roz had planned to bury his fist in Grand's face, but he had been stopped dead by a single finger. Worse, his fist couldn't budge another inch forward.
In the distance, Hit—who usually stood with his hands tucked coolly in his coat pockets—finally pulled them out. His expression turned dead serious. To stop a level three Godly strike with a single finger? It was impossible.
The other Destroyer candidates looked even worse. Their eyes were wide, their mouths agape, standing there like a group of statues. They knew Grand would be powerful—Lord Champa wouldn't have praised him otherwise—but they never dreamed he would be this monstrous.
After all, Roz was the strongest and most gifted among them!
"One minute and fifty-nine seconds left."
Grand retracted his finger and stepped back. He looked at Roz and the crowd behind him, including Hit. His silence spoke volumes: Don't waste any more time. All of you, together.
"Then together it is!"
Hit shot a meaningful look at the remaining candidates from Universe 6. At that, the group felt a collective shiver. Hit was a solitary assassin, a man far stronger than Roz, yet even he was calling for a group assault!
"Fine! Let's do it!"
The remaining candidates charged. The Saiyans among them didn't hold back, erupting into Super Saiyan 3 mid-flight—the hard-won fruit of their grueling training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
Rumble—!
The combined power of eighteen other candidates—ranging from the early stages to the peak of the first level of the Godly Realm—exploded at once. Though none had broken into the second level, the sheer volume of energy was enough to devastate the battlefield. Gales howled, the earth shattered, and parts of the Destroyer's palace began to crumble. Cracks spider-webbed across the entire planet.
"Now we're talking."
Grand rolled his wrists, showing zero signs of panic against twenty opponents. Then, he moved.
He took a single, light step. In the instant he moved, three fists and five kicks slammed into the space where he had just been standing.
CRACK!
The collision of level-one and level-three energies caused the vacuum of space to splinter like glass. Grand tilted his body slightly, and another barrage of attacks whistled past him. He moved like a graceful spirit, his casual evasions making the desperate strikes of Roz's team look clumsy and slow.
By the lake, Beerus and Champa weren't surprised. The gap in martial arts mastery between the candidates and Grand was simply too vast. Even if there were ten thousand more opponents, Grand would still be this composed.
Vados and Whis, however, shared a knowing look. Grand wasn't glowing with silver light, yet his movements were saturated with the essence of Ultra Instinct.
It was clear: Grand had truly peered into the realm of the Angels.
"This... this can't be real!"
Roz and the others stood frozen as every single one of their attacks hit nothing but air. Effortless, graceful, and completely untouchable—this was a level of martial arts they couldn't even fathom.
"One minute and thirty seconds left," Grand said tonelessly.
"Damn it!" Roz gritted his teeth, his fists shaking. "I don't believe this! Keep going!"
The group swarmed him again. This time, Grand didn't just dodge; he started to play back.
THUD!
CRASH!
Fists met feet; ki blasts were deflected. As time ticked away, the candidates unleashed every technique they had mastered in the Time Chamber. The battlefield expanded, and the planet's surface was being torn apart, with more than half of the terrain effectively demolished by the chaos.
"Try a punch from me."
After slipping past three simultaneous punches, Grand gave a mischievous smirk and lunged forward with a light jab. His target: Roz.
Roz didn't back down. The purple aura around him intensified, reflecting a surge of willpower like never before.
"Hakai!"
Roz thrust his palm forward, unleashing a burst of pure Destruction energy. Little did he know, that spark of Hakai was nothing in the face of Grand.
BAM!
Grand's fist shattered the Destruction energy instantly, turning it into harmless purple stardust.
"No way!"
Roz's pupils dilated. That was the power of a Destroyer, and it couldn't even scratch a hair on his opponent's head. Before he could process the shock, Grand's fist connected heavily with his jaw.
Pfft!
A spray of blood left his mouth as the force of the blow sent him spiraling across the horizon.
"One minute left. Your turn."
Grand turned his gaze toward the remaining candidates. They flinched under his stare. At this point, it was painfully clear that Lord Champa had been telling the truth. This man was stronger than all of them—terrifyingly so.
"Roz was defeated just like that?!"
"Damn it, we are the Destroyer candidates of Universe 6! Even if we're going down, we aren't backing away!"
"He's right! Lord Grand, use your full power! Even if we die, we won't bring shame to Universe 6!"
"Charge!"
Their hot-blooded shouts echoed across the world. Grand found himself impressed. Their power might have been lacking, but their resolve was top-tier.
"Full power? I'm afraid you guys wouldn't survive that," Grand laughed helplessly. He had promised Champa that he would take it easy. If he actually killed them, Champa would never let him hear the end of it. There was no grudge here, so there was no need for lethality.
Grand transformed into a streak of white light, flickering across the broken ground like a phantom. When the light faded, the candidates were all on the ground, unconscious.
"To be a fellow candidate... how can he be this strong?" Roz muttered, pushing himself up and slamming a frustrated fist into the dirt. Twenty against one, and they still—wait, where was Hit?
"Hit! Where are you?!" Roz roared.
They had agreed to a coordinated attack, but Hit had vanished at the climax.
Suddenly, Hit's voice cut through the air.
"Time Skip!"
With a dull hum, the entire battlefield seemed to freeze. In this monochromatic world, everything and everyone was paralyzed—except for the legendary assassin.
Hit's purple silhouette blurred across the frozen landscape, appearing instantly behind Grand. His face held a hint of disappointment. Grand was impressive for taking down nineteen candidates, but Hit felt he could have done the same.
He aimed for Grand's vitals—the heart and the temple. But just as he was about to strike, Champa's warning rang in his head: Whatever you do, do not show Grand any killing intent!
On a strange whim, Hit shifted his aim at the last second, targeting the back of Grand's neck to knock him out instead.
However...
"I appreciate you holding back at the end. Not bad. Because of that, I'll make sure you stay safe during the actual Destroyer-candidate tournament."
Grand's voice resonated clearly within the frozen time. Then, with a loud crack, the frozen world shattered like a mirror.
"Im... impossible!!"
Hit hadn't even been attacked. He was still standing behind Grand, his hand still raised mid-strike. But his Time Skip dimension had been forcibly broken.
By the lake, the lesser gods were baffled. Shin's eyes were wide. "Ancestor, how did Hit get behind Grand so fast?"
The Old Kai frowned. "I'm not entirely sure myself."
Beerus glanced at Champa. "So, this is that 'time manipulation' you were bragging about?"
"What do you think? Impressive, right?" Champa replied proudly. Truthfully, even he hadn't fully understood the move at first until Vados explained the mechanics of the "Time Skip."
"Impressive? It was alright, I guess. Didn't Grand break it anyway?"
Beerus knew the outcome was a foregone conclusion, so he hadn't been paying strict attention to the details of Hit's movements.
"Lord Beerus, that man is actually quite remarkable," Whis noted seriously. "He can manipulate time much like an Angel."
"Manipulate time like an Angel?!" Beerus, the Old Kai, and Shin all turned pale with shock.
"Indeed," Whis said, his eyes narrowing. "It isn't a simple time-stop. He skips over time and 'stores' the skipped seconds to create a pocket dimension. In that space, he is the only one who can move."
The explanation completely lost Shin, and even the Old Kai looked a bit dazed. Beerus, however, seemed to grasp the concept, looking at Hit with newfound intrigue.
"So you're saying he can basically create a space similar to a parallel world? Well, when you put it that way, he really is something."
Beerus crossed his arms, the last traces of condescension vanishing from his eyes. Hit might have been lacking in raw power compared to the elite, but his survival skills were truly in a league of their own.
<><><><><><><><><><><>
Want more chapters? Support my Patreon/Razerizz