If there's one thing Raditz has learned in the last two weeks, it's that his new teacher is a complete and utter bastard. The old lizard won't even let Raditz infuse his body with Ki while training. Something about "relying on his body's natural strength without Ki."

This wouldn't be so bad, but Abjis is perceptive. He knows when Raditz is trying to cheat, and he is merciless. The training is torture, and the punishments? Well... the less he thinks about that, the better.

"Come on, Saiyan! Get up! if you can't even take these hits without collapsing, then you'll never be able to stack up against Abetox and his minions." Abjis shouts inside Raditz's head.

Right now, they're "sparring" with each other. No Ki allowed, which should be great! Raditz's body is far more powerful than his elderly mentor... except he's also garbage at fighting, while Abjis seems to be a genuine martial arts master. Frankly, Raditz is convinced that this is just an excuse for Abjis to beat the crap out of him. With a groan, he crawls back to his feet, taking a fighting stance as he glares at his opponent.

"Dammit Raditz, you're doing it wrong! If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. Keep your hands further from your face, and stop putting your feet so close together." Raditz's teacher shouts.

Raditz corrects his stance as quickly as possible, having learnt not to drag his feet by now.

"You'll never learn my speed technique if you can't even master simple hand-to-hand combat! We're going to keep doing this until you beat me. I won't teach you anything else until that happens."

Raditz perks up slightly at this. "So, all I have to do is beat you? Then you'll teach me to go as fast as you?"

Abjis rolls his eyes. "Begin!"

As the elderly reptile launches himself at the Saiyan, Raditz begins to deeply regret his life's choices.

"24,994..."

"24,995..."

"24,996..."

Goku's arms tremble under his weight as he fights against the gravity of King Kai's planet. The blue deity has an... unusual approach to training. After chasing a literal monkey for the past three weeks, he was looking forward to finally being able to learn King Kai's techniques. Unfortunately...

"Keep going! Your body is still too weak to handle the Kaioken!" the Kai shouts from atop Goku's back. "Four more! Four more pushups, and then you can rest."

Gritting his teeth, Goku continues to lower himself to the ground.

'I sure hope that this Kaioken technique is as good as he's suggesting...'

Raditz sidesteps a punch from his master, deflecting the following kick a split second later. He continues to defend himself for several seconds, watching the lizard-man, waiting for an opportunity to counter. The old man launches himself at Raditz, feinting a spinning hook before catching the Saiyan on the jaw with a powerful roundhouse kick. As Raditz stumbles backwards, Abjis's body goes low, sweeping his pupil's legs out from under him, winning the match...

...or he would have, if Raditz hadn't predicted this.

Raditz kicks off the floor just a moment before his legs are swept, catching his teacher with a jumping knee strike to the jaw. Momentarily stunned, Abjis is unable to react in time to stop Raditz from grappling him. Twisting his body, Raditz slams the reptile into the ground with a hip toss.

Both of the fighters freeze in stunned silence at this unexpected development.

'I... I won?!' Raditz thinks ecstatically, a wide grin blooming upon his face.

'I'll be damned. He actually won...' the slightly shell-shocked reptile thinks to himself.

After several more seconds of silence, Abjis snaps out of it. "Took you long enough, we've been at it for over a month now. Help an old man up, would you?"

Raditz grabs the clawed hand of his mentor, heaving the reptile to his feet.

"So... are you willing to teach me that speed technique now...?" Raditz says hesitantly.

A toothy grin appears on the old lizard's face as he replies. "Of course. A deal's a deal. You should have the technique down before the month is over. Since I'm such a nice teacher, I'll also show you the proper Telepathy technique..."

"But first." he begins. "We'll have to train your body up a little bit more. A week or two of sparring with Ki techniques allowed should get you in tip-top shape. Are you ready?"

Raditz stares at his mentor with eager eyes. "Ready when you are, old man."

"Good. Let's begin." the lizard says, instantly flooring Raditz with an elbow to the jaw.

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Goku has been on King Kai's planet for a little over a month now. The gravity weighs on him almost as much as the lack of good food does. Just a few more months of this, and then he can go home to Chi-Chi's cooking...

Goku is momentarily lost in his daydreams, before the blue Kai hits him upside the head.

"Damn it Goku, are you even listening to me?!" he shouts.

"I'm listening." Goku replies instantly.

"Then what'd I just tell you?" King Kai demands.

"..."

"That's what I thought. Now that you're actually paying attention, I think it's time I finally taught you how to do the Kaioken." he says with a flourish.

Goku's eyes instantly light up once he hears this. Switching his full attention to King Kai, he watches expectantly as the Kai begins to speak.

"The Kaioken is one of the most powerful techniques in the Universe. While it won't be very impressive when you first learn it, it'll be invaluable the more you develop your skills with it." he begins. "However, this technique is also one of the most dangerous to use. One small mistake and you'll instantly die. It is literally impossible for a living person to learn it. Since you're dead, your body is far more resilient than it would be while you were alive."

"The Kaioken will put your body into overdrive. All the Ki in your body will circulate at mind-boggling speeds. This will multiply your power, speed, and durability. The higher level of Kaioken you use, the more powerful you'll become, but it will also increase the strain on your body. Circulating Ki at such speeds will create friction in your Ki veins. This will increase the heat of your body exponentially. If your body isn't strong enough to handle the heat, it'll kill you."

"Even if you can handle the heat, your body will still be pushed to its limits by the technique. It'll increase your blood pressure, and overusing it could cause you to die. This technique also requires near-perfect Ki control. Your Ki won't want to follow the normal pathways when they're going that fast. You have to keep your Ki on a tight leash, or it'll run rampant throughout your body. Now come here, try to sense how I move my Ki through my body. Pay close attention..."

Raditz ducks a strike from Abjis, firing a widespread beam of Ki in response. Suddenly, his foot shoots out behind him, right into the stomach of his teacher. He immediately fires a wave of Ki from his foot, launching his opponent into the nearest wall. Before he can celebrate his successful attacks, something crashes into him from behind.

"Focus Raditz! I must've told you a hundred times by now, you are slower than me. You can't take any time to think in the middle of a fight like this. You have to constantly be on the offensive as soon as you make an opening. You aren't able to see my moves, you cannot play defensive." Abjis's voice scolds from inside of his head.

"I know, I know. I just got a little eager. Cut me some slack." Raditz replies.

Abjis scoffs, before launching himself at his pupil.

Goku runs across the tiny planet, hardly feeling the increased gravity as he does his best to keep his Ki under control.

"Kaioken... times two!"

With a scream of exertion, his speed picks up significantly. He easily catches up to King Kai's monkey, Bubbles, with this newfound speed.

"Gotcha!" he shouts in delight, picking up the monkey like one would pick up a child.

King Kai looks at the Saiyan in pure shock, surprised that he has mastered the Kaioken after only 2 months. Maybe... maybe he can learn King Kai's most powerful technique.

"Goku! Put Bubbles down and get over here, I have one last thing to teach you..."

Raditz's back impacts the hard stone of the nearest wall, knocking the breath out of his lungs. His body gets hammered by strikes far too fast for his eyes to follow. The more and more strikes that hit him, the deeper and deeper he gets pushed into the rock. As the next strike hits, he throws out a blast of Ki, which easily gets dodged.

"What did I say about staying on the defensive? It won't work. I've literally carved a new tunnel with your face. If you aren't going to start taking this seriously, then--"

Abjis's words are suddenly interrupted as something explodes against his back, launching him straight into a bear hug by his student.

"Gotcha!" Raditz shouts in joy, before slamming his mentor into the ground with all his considerable strength. "You may outspeed me, but you can still be tricked. When that Ki blast missed you, I maintained my control on it. You were too busy lecturing me to notice that it was heading right at you!"

Before Raditz can take further advantage of Abjis's predicament, the worried voice of the old lizard shouts in his head.

"Alright Raditz! That's enough! I think your body is finally strong enough to handle my Ki techniques. So uh... let's stop this sparring session here."

Raditz stares at his master, dumbfounded by the shamelessness of the elderly reptile.

Trejar and his platoon are patrolling the tunnels, utterly exhausted.

They've been in battle after battle with no time to rest. Everybody has. Ever since that monster wiped out Sorot and his small army, they've been bombarded by constant attacks from Abetox's faction. Trejar isn't sure how they learnt of Sorot's death, but he wouldn't be surprised if there were traitors. They've been getting more and more common lately. Hell, Trejar had to execute his own second in command not even a month ago. Fools, all of them. If it wasn't for the greed of Abetox and his lackeys, then their planet wouldn't be such a barren wasteland.

His thoughts are suddenly cut off by a loud explosion of Ki from behind him. Before he can react, he's sent crashing into the nearest wall as dozens of opposing soldiers begin to attack his platoon.

Trejar launches himself at the nearest enemy, ripping their throat out with a quick slash of his claws. The next soldier in his way meets a similar fate, before he actually comes across one that can fight back. Trejar's attacks are ineffective against the tough scales of the opponent, their power level no doubt far above his own. However... Trejar had a better teacher. He's able to use Old Man Abjis's 'Kasokudo ' technique, vastly increasing his speed at the cost of his stamina. Weaving between the enemy's attacks, Trejar slowly begins to wear them down... right until he gets blasted from behind.

Taking advantage of this distraction, the soldier in front of him slams both of their hands down on top of Trejar's skull, launching him into the hard stone.

Just before the soldier can finish him off, Trejar sees a tall, blurry figure appear behind them. It launches a single, lightning fast attack, and the soldier crumples to the ground. Before he can blink, the figure is gone, and the opponent who attacked him from behind is thrown backwards. He turns his head in numb shock.

'Is that... Master Abjis...? No, it's taller than he is... but who else could move so fast?' Trejar thinks numbly as he watches the figure dismantle the entire attacking army, its form moving far too quickly for him to get a good look at it.

Within seconds, the entirety of the attackers have been dealt with, and the figure finally slows down enough for Trejar to get a good look at them.

Their savior is tall, with no scales covering his body. Long black hair runs down their back, and the figure is clothed in armor that is in awful condition. As Trejar comes to the realization that this is the monster that's been terrorizing his people, he hears a voice speak from inside his head.

"Abjis sent me, he wants everyone back at home base. Abetox is making his move."