DB Multiverse

Chapter 109

Translated by npberryhill

Cold was unafraid. This Saiyan was no match for him, and would be quickly and easily defeated, he was convinced. No one ever stood a chance against him. The words he had just spoken to Baddack were indeed true: no foe of his ever lived to see the future. Well, with one exception.

Videl of universe 9 would have a future. Of course, this tournament was different, not a fight to the death or an execution as he had done countless times in his own universe. And this exception didn’t cause King Cold any hesitation. His faith in his own power was unshakable, even after having witnessed the strength of beings like Vegetto and Broly. And he was also cautious. While at home he had no fear of remaining in the second reduction form, that was not the case here.

His first opponent alone had proven worthy of seeing his first reduction form, a transformation Cold rarely had the opportunity to use. It wasn’t his favorite, although Freeza occasionally enjoyed using it to terrorize his subjects. And like himself, Cold knew quite well that any warrior he faced in this tournament could be concealing certain things: transformations, trump-card techniques, magical abilities... Returning to his original form was preferred, just in case. In his first match, Videl had expended the full potential of her abilities during their battle, and only given up when all else failed.

Baddack, a Saiyan, was the last representative of his entire race in universe 3. While they were mere monkeys that Freeza had exterminated with the simple flick of his hand (or rather finger), he also knew of the Super Saiyan legend. It seemed in several of the universes this legend had come true, a Super Saiyan managing to somehow defeat both of his sons (and himself). Baddack was one of these, and wore a demeanor of battle experience about him... this would be a full powered fight from the start.

In the first round, he’d faced his own son Raditz — a low-class warrior who claimed to have far exceeded the level of Ginyu. Pah! Ridiculous! Ginyu was, at one time, the strongest being in existence, after the members of the Cold Family... before he was unceremoniously executed by his former lord.

But Cold would later come to confirm that conclusion: Ginyu had not been as strong as Raditz, who was weaker than Baddack — and he was presumably limited to the initial power range of Super Saiyan level 1. In his present state, Cold was far and away stronger than that.

The first blow that they had landed on one another, a double forearm strike, had provided confirmation to the Frost Demon. He’d hardly felt anything. Had Baddack been holding back or was that the extent of his power? To be certain, Cold allowed the Saiyan the privilege of the next attack. He blocked it without difficulty, finding both the speed and power to be easy enough to manage, continuing to match the Saiyan by avoiding a few blows and returning simple blocks for others.

Undeniably, Baddack was beneath his level.

At last, he counter-attacked, still holding back the lion’s share of his strength, to again gauge his foe. He attempted a knee strike to the ribs, which was dodged, then another punch which was avoided. Slowly, he began to also accelerate the rate of his blows, forcing Baddack to parry rather than simply dodge.

Within moments, Cold had realized his blows were far too powerful for Baddack to handle. Were he to land a direct attack it would be devastating on such a frail body. Even his sons couldn’t have handled blows like this.

After barely managing a two handed block over his head, the Saiyan leapt backwards, putting some distance between them. His teeth were grit, and he had to be hurting already, in spite of having not taken any really damaging blows. But this was just the beginning.

“Such raw power! I have to avoid taking any direct hits.”

Cold allowed him no respite. With each dodge, he attacked more quickly, more violently. He chased after Baddack immediately, his cape fluttering behind him as the Frost Demon displayed his relentlessness. Baddack’s panicked expression brought a grin to his face, the Saiyan clearly surprised at how quickly things had turned against him. The enjoyment was doubled when considering how Baddack had attempted to use his visions to dissuade the Frost Demon from battle. It was a clever tactic, and Baddack had proven smart enough to survive the genocide of his people after all — but in this fight, the advantage was lost. Was it due to overconfidence in his visions, perhaps a misinterpretation? Cold cared not.

Baddack attacked desperately, swinging for Cold’s handsome face, but the latter dodged with extreme speed. His retaliation came as a complete surprise, the Saiyan not even seeing the blow that was planted in the right side of his stomach. He was left breathless by the first strike, and then a second slammed into his face and sent him careening to the ground.

The Saiyan was down, but back up again before even five seconds had passed.

‘Good. Very good,’ Cold thought. ‘He is certainly resilient, but how long can he keep up this pace?’

The Frost Demon was only warming up, and could go on like this for days. He would prevail on endurance alone rather than damage at this rate.

Baddack spat a wad of blood onto the ring, but his face showed no weakness or fear. Rather, determination instead. He clenched his fists and the golden aura unique to his species surrounded him once again. Cold remained stoic, still, standing tall. He would take his time with the primeape, savoring his victory and enjoying each strike.

Baddack finally attacked, throwing a punch forward. Cold merely held out a hand and stopped it, clenching his fist around the bones until the Saiyan began to howl in pain — he kicked wildly against Cold’s chest to try and free himself.

The armor held fast, but Cold felt very little from the strikes regardless. Then, still grasping the Saiyan’s hand, he swung his arm around, dragging his opponent across the ground, then kicked him through the air a few feet away. Once again, he was slightly impressed when the Saiyan managed to catch himself in the air, stabilizing his body. But Cold was ruthless, snatching his leg in mid-air by curling his tail around it. The Emperor of Universe 8 then landed several blows against the primeape before again slinging him down into the ground. His tail relaxed its grip, releasing the warrior.

“Hah! So, did your visions warn you that you’d be seeing the ground so up-close?” he burst out laughing. When no reply came, he quieted down. Had he killed his foe? It wouldn’t be that surprising — once again, he’d used too much strength...

He approached the potential corpse, kneeling down and grabbing him by the ankle, then standing to his feet again. The Saiyan was suspended in midair before him, completely inert. No, he wasn’t dead...yet.

“So this is a Super Saiyan. Supposedly your kind killed us in a number of universes...?”

Baddack made no reply, still unmoving. Cold glanced around at the other Saiyans present at the tournament. There was the one from Universe 12 who had defeated his son Coola, the quartet from Universe 13 who reigned supreme, the incomprehensible Vegetto and his daughter from Universe 16, and the clique from Universe 18. Among them all, Baddack was probably the weakest.

“Pah, what a joke!” the Frost Demon added. “You’re totally at my mercy, helplessly upside down.”

Baddack finally opened his eyes, seeming quite calm all of a sudden, almost rested.

“Upside down? You’re the one who’s upside down!” he said, grinning and landing a hard punch in Cold’s belly, quickly increasing it to a flurry.

This time his armor was giving way, and the blows were powerful enough to make him backpedal from the ring. The chain of attacks was quite powerful, and continued with impressive speed. Cold had been taken for a fool, unprepared, having thought himself already victorious. What an uncharacteristic mistake, one unworthy of him...

The kick the Saiyan landed in his face finally seemed to wake him up. He was about to counter attack, but Baddack had already dodged out of range instinctively. Cold never lost sight of him though, and noticed right away the aura beginning to shine from the Saiyan’s right hand — an energy attack!

It was, again, too fast for him to dodge and he took the brunt of the blast directly in his face. The explosion boomed across the stadium, and would’ve been far more damaging had Cold not deployed his aura defensively at the last second. Clearly, he still had great reserves of speed and power, but he would not let himself be fooled by another facade.

As the smoke began to clear, Baddack could be heard mocking the Frost Demon Emperor.

“Monkey scum,” Cold grumbled. “How dare you laugh! You will not leave this ring alive...”

He tightened his fists, his skin torched and scored but having not taken any serious damage — though his suit of armor was crumbling yet again. Most infuriating was the look of confidence proudly worn again by the Saiyan.

“Hehe! Your defeat is getting closer...”

Without so much as a word, Cold suddenly exploded with one hundred percent of his power. His muscles instantly doubled in size, vastly increasing both his speed and power. Even more satisfying, his sudden transformation had taken all the wind out of the Saiyan’s sails.

“Papa went to 100%... in a single second!” Freeza gasped.

“What, that?” Coola replied, arms crossed. “It’s no big deal, how long do you need?”

“...A few minutes, tops.”

“Hah! Give me four or five seconds...” Coola laughed. But he was lying so as to not lose face. In fact, rather than perfecting his transformation to the maximum bulked up state, he had instead spent his time learning the 5th augmentation form. Why waste time bulging up muscle mass when one can simply transform to a level even stronger, making it obsolete?

Anyway, seeing their father in his original form was already exceptional. To think that he could expend a hundred percent so quickly, Coola would’ve never expected. He had intended one day to challenge his father and take his place as Emperor of the Universe... but now, perhaps, that wouldn’t be so so simple, even with his fifth form...

Trunks turned to Android #16 beside him. “What do you think? Is he even stronger than you now?”

“That is correct.”

“It’s incredible. His power is pretty much on par with Semi Perfect Cell, y’know, after he absorbed #17. I never imagined he could become this strong...”

In the area of Universe 18, Goku commented as well.

“If that Baddack guy wants to win, he’ll have to hold out until Cold gets tired...”

Vegeta raised an eyebrow. “That Baddack guy is your father, may I remind you.”

“Wait, for real? That’s him too?”

“Uh... it doesn’t matter if he’s from universe 10, 13, or 44,000, you clown! He’s your father!”

“Oh, hehe,” Goku chuckled, embarrassed. “I almost forgot his name... but now that you mention it, he does share a striking resemblance to Raditz...”

Vegeta was in utter disbelief.

“We were all wrong,” Piccolo interrupted.

“Hmm? What is it, Piccolo?” Gohan asked.

“We’ve always assumed that none of Freeza’s family bothered with training, as they were already far and away elite among the entire universe. Clearly, we were wrong. Freeza here, is able to maintain his original form. Cold does it as well, easily. Future Trunks killed him, yes, but back then he was still using a reduction form. As for Coola, even then he was able to perform an additional transformation stronger than the 100% form.

Vegeta huffed. “Today, who honestly even cares? They’re nothing compared to us now.”

Gohan was silent a moment before replying. “But aren’t you a little curious, Vegeta? What if they had been training all this time like we have... if they’d spent a year in the Room of Spirit and Time for example? Look how much we improved... I wonder what effect it would have had on them...”

“It doesn’t matter,” Vegeta insisted. “We’ll never know what might have happened. But, if it amuses you, why don’t you go ask them all: Baddack, Bojack, Nappa, even Cell... I don’t have time for this, I’ve got fights to watch.”

Up in the ring, the Saiyan and the Frost Demon were preparing for round two.