A vast, featureless planetoid loomed in the sky, a blank orb of grey stone. It decelerated, its mass enough to shake the world as it settled into orbit. Hal crouched within the tangled mass of the Tree of Might’s roots, focused on the massive power level within.
“Slug in his prime is stronger than Frieza’s full power form,” Hal’s eyes flickered as he glanced at the possible futures. A smile pulled at his lips as he settled on his path. “He’s not in his Super Namekian form yet, but as an old man final form Frieza should be more than his match… I’m not quite up to his raw power, but that doesn’t matter.”
An assortment of alien warriors soared through the open space between the worlds, led by an ancient, cloaked Namekian. They raced over Hal’s position, towards the central trunk and the under-canopy of the tree. Silent and without a trace of ki, Hal drifted from under the withered plant and looked to the planet-ship above.
“FIrst things first, you’ve got to go,” Hal took on a nostalgic stance, arms behind his back with his palms cupped close together. “Kaaaaa… meeeee… haaaaaa… meeeee… HAAAA!”
A blue-white beam lanced into the sky, headed toward Slug’s spaceship. The Namekian twisted around, mouth widened in horror, as Hal’s attack slammed into the mobile fortress world. A flash of explosive force and the vessel was reduced to dust and ash.
“HOW DARE YOU!” Slug bellowed out his rage and blitzed Hal’s position. His body expanded, from a bulky man to a wrinkled Titan. “I’ll rip you limb from limb for stranding me on this world!”
“Kio-ken… times fifty!” Hal’s aura exploded, a cyclone of red-yellow flame that battered against the startled Super Namekian’s face. Fire wrapped his fists as he pounced forward, locked onto the giant’s face.
The world blurred as he slipped around the massive hands, up an arm and toward Slug’s aged face. Thunder sounded as his knee slammed into the Namekian’s forehead. The giant staggered back, dazed by the blow.
Eyes squinted half-shut, Slug’s hand’s slapped towards Hal’s body. They missed by inches, palms clapped together in a gust of wind. Driven on a rush of flame, Hal landed a second blow to the Namekian’s head.
“WHO ARE YOU!!!” Slug roared as he stumbled back, arms raised defensively. Hal ignored his question, mind focused on his three-minute-sight. “...you must have eaten all my fruit to be this powerful!”
Wrath twisted the Namekian’s features as his fists tightened. An explosion of ki rippled through the air, one step behind Hal as he danced out of its path. The enraged behemoth launched into a savage series of attacks, each one dodged by less than a hair.
Hal flipped upwards, one hand on the giant’s wrist. A push carried him over Slugs arms and planted his feet against the green man’s temple. An explosion of ki rocketed him away and carved a chunk from the giant’s face.
The Namekian’s martial style was reminiscent of Nail, familiar under his eyes. Hal slipped in and out, just ahead of blows that could crush his body to powder. His three-minute-sight was filled with visions of his many agonising deaths, crushed under Slug’s fists so other versions of himself knew exactly how to dodge.
“Stand still and let me hit you!” Slug’s breath heaved in and out from his lungs, almost winded from the effort of their short battle. “What kind of fighter avoids every blow?”
“The kind that says alive,” Hal snorted at the Namekian’s poor reasoning and landed another blow to Lord Slug’s head. One after the other, he rained attacks against the giant’s skull, until the Namekian staggered back. “I won’t lie, you’re very strong… but Namekians have weaknesses and your endurance is ruined with age.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I’ll… kill… you…” Slug sank to one knee, a hand pressed to the earth to support his frame. His eyes bugged out from his head, wild and feral. “We’ll… die… TOGETHER!”
Light erupted from beneath his palm, an explosive beam that burrowed toward the planet's core. Triumph and loathing blossomed on the Namekian’s face as he cackled a foul laugh. Hal’s lips twitched into a smile as he fortified his defences.
The world transformed to fire, an eruption of molten slag and rock. The planet inverted, converted to fragments and light. Hal rode out the waves of ki driven debris, eyes locked on the man responsible.
Slug was still alive, one of two survivors of the apocalyptic explosion. Wrapped in a layer of ki, he clung to life with a stubborn hand. Hal drifted to the Namekian’s side and gave a cheerful wave, an act that caused the giant to flail.
“Looks like you're running low on air…” Hal projected his words with his biofield, directly into Slug’s sensitive ears. He floated out of the Namekian’s reach, a false expression of pity on his face. “It must be annoying to be so reliant on the planet under your feet to stay alive.”
“How are you still alive?” Slug’s voice echoed within Hal’s skull, edged with hatred and disgust. “Why wont you die!”
“My people can live freely in the vacuum of space, but it looks like Namekian biology isn’t up to the task,” Hal shook his head as Slug’s ki dimmed. His giant body shrank back down, barely enough life left to hold back the ravages of the void. “Don’t worry, your death will benefit both the universe and myself… I just hope I get rewarded based on your full power…”
Twin beams of concentrated heat speared from Hal’s eyes. They travelled along his gaze, into the old Namekian’s heart. A final burst of ki flared out, a wave that rocked him backward from the last Super Namekian.
“Let’s see how many points that was worth…” Hal’s eyebrows raised, face slack as he scanned his total Soul Points. The number had gone from near zero to more than eight and a half million. “I’m so close to a Semi-Divine draw… maybe I should hold off on the Platinum ones and set my sights higher?”
A final scan around the system and Hal sighed. Slug was a welcome bonus on top of a reward filled day, but it was best to not push his luck. Frieza and his cold blooded family were just as capable of detecting the Tree, all of whom could wipe the floor with his current self.
“Time to get going,” Hal tossed a capsule into open space and summoned out his spacecraft. Larger than a mansion, it held all the facilities a person could need and more. “I’ll shift locations, then I want to take a closer look at my lottery rewards!”
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“How many more reports are there…” the Supreme Kai of Time stamped a paper and shifted it into the correct pile, one more of an endless mountain of documents that waited for her approval. “Can’t I take a vacation? The boss should be able to delegate these things after all, and I…”
A flurry of feathers interrupted her complaints, a white and red hurricane that scattered the reports from her desk. Tokitoki squawked, talons wrapped up in Chronoa’s hair. She flailed her arms and dislodged the bird, face twisted as she took in the mess.
“Stay off my head, you miserable bird!” Chronoa sank to her knees and scooped the papers towards her in a crumpled pile. Maybe she could have her secretary reorder everything, while she took a needed break… “What’s this?”
Stuck between her desk and a decorative fern, covered in a layer of dust, was a red trimmed file. It must have slipped down there some time ago, forgotten in the chaos that went with her job. She pried it free and shook free a dusty cloud, hand over her nose as she squinted at the underlined forward.
“Warning, urgent action required. A full multiversal division has occurred from the primary timeline, investigative action is needed…” Chronoa’s eye twitched as she bounded to her feet. “Why didn’t anyone tell me that we had a divergent multiverse event! This has been stuck down here for years!”
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“This should be as good a spot as any…” Hal landed his ship onto the surface of the planet called Namchino. The light of its blue sun uplifted his battle worn body, even through the shielded viewports of the spacecraft. “Hey, Jor-EL, is this place viable as the capital of New-Krypton, or is the gravity too high?”
“Kryptonian technology includes gravitic manipulation, it is the foundation of the phantom drive,” Jor-EL’s hologram flickered to life beside him and gaze out over the lush planetoid. Hal had inserted him into the ship’s computer, a medium between him and the operation of the vessel. “The crystal in your possession will create a fortress capable of controlling its internal gravity, and its industrial capabilities will let you expand the effect over time.”
Hal nodded his head and lowered the boarding ramp. Water heavy air rushed into the cargo bay. Loam, an earthy musk that brought to mind a healthy and secluded forest. The sunlight cast a strange tint over the alien jungle, a picture perfect world in monochrome blues.
“The sun here is perfect,” Hal stepped onto the damp, mossy soil, focused on the willow-like forest around him. They rose higher than any oak tree of Earth, branches divided into countless, low-hanging fronds. “I’ll plant this thing over by the beach and get this show on the road!”
***Power Levels and other notes***
Hal: 980,000 (Max kio-ken: 50x)
Old Slug: 1,300,000 (49,500,000 in Super Namekian form)