"You... want me to fight you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I want you to try." He replied.
Did he just--
Great....
Not only does he want me to fight him, but he's hitting me with that damned cliché of a comeback too?
"Gimme a second." I told him, holding up one finger before turning around and crouching down to the floor.
"Oh no, take your time." Cooler says as he looks on with a small bit of confusion, probably thinking that I was trying to think up a strategy on how to beat him.
Meanwhile, that couldn't be further from what I was thinking of.
I secretly summon the bag of infinite Senzu Beans and discreetly toss three of them in my mouth. To hell with trying to win, I'm going to lose! And not just once either. I'm getting at least three Zenkais out of this fight.
I place the bag back inside the ring before standing back up and turning to face him.
I get in my stance, looking him dead in the eyes as I pointed my finger at him, "You better not hold back."
"Wouldn't dream of it." He replied with a smirk.
Yeah right...
If you actually went all out, I would be nothing but a stain that one of cronies would have to wipe off of your wall...
Still though, I at least need him to take this at least semi-seriously.
We stare at each other for a fair bit of time, not moving a single muscle. He smirks at me and I narrow my gaze at him.
I see his hand twitch and I immediately start firing off Ki blasts. Cooler dodges them all, jumping into the air and flying around the blasts with ease. He seems to catch onto something when he suddenly stops and sees that I'm not hitting him even while he was standing still.
"Are you even trying to hit me?" He asked.
I stop firing and smirk at him, "No."
His eyebrows furrow in confusion before his eyes suddenly widened in realization. Looking around him, he saw that there were multiple spheres of energy floating beside him.
"Huh... clever..." He muttered softly before all of the spheres turned from a pale yellow to a dangerous looking dark purple.
I swipe my arms in his direction and the spheres instantly closed in on him, exploding at point blank range. Knowing that it wasn't going to do much to someone of Cooler's caliber, I start charging a Kamehameha Wave before I realize my mistake and quickly dissolve the beam.
I can't blast a Kamehameha Wave in here. The beam will instantly go through the hull and destroy the ship. Even if Cooler holds it back, which he would have no problem doing, the beam would just split into even smaller beams upon making contact and go around him.
"Seems as though you aren't as intellectually stunted as the other members of your race." Cooler said from within the cloud of smoke above.
The smokescreen dissipates and Cooler's visage reappears, not a singular scratch on him. He floats down to the floor and takes a few steps towards me.
"If you had fired that beam, you would have killed yourself and everyone else on board." He said.
"But not you?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
Of course it wouldn't have killed him. His race can survive in a vacuum. Course, I can't just say that without him telling me that information first.
"No. Arcosians like myself can survive in the vacuum of space." He said.
"Arcosians?" I asked.
Since when were they called Arcosians?
"My race." He replied. "Why? What's so confusing about that to you?"
"I always thought that members of your race were called Frost Demons." I told him.
"We're called by many names. One planet even called us, "Frieza Race"." He said, his face morphing to that of disdain, "But Arcosian is the official name."
"Huh...." I said with an interested tone.
"But this isn't what we should be focusing on at the moment." He said, hunching over and looking at me with a hardened stare, "I suppose it's my turn now?"
I didn't even get to reply before I was suddenly blown back into the training room wall. The reinforced metal wall dented upon the collision; but didn't break. I fall to the floor on my hands and knees, clutching my chest as I struggle to breathe. I push through and breathe on a sudden inhale, taking multiple deep breaths.
He fucking knocked the wind out of me...
"Oh, you're still conscious?" He asked as he walked towards me.
I grit my teeth and slowly stand up, clutching my side when I suddenly feel a very sharp sensation of pain.
"Fuck..."
"Hmm, seems that I broke one of your ribs." He commented with that demented smirk every single Frost De-- Arcosian seemed to have, "Are you sure that you wish to continue?"
"No." I said as I returned his smirk, a red aura outlining my body.
This match is impossible.
I know all too well how powerful Cooler is. He is stronger than Full Power Frieza in both his fourth and fifth forms. This is a battle I'm not meant to win.
But why is it that I don't I feel afraid?
If anything I feel... excited...
My energy erupts and the room suddenly shifts to red, causing Cooler's brow raise curiously as he looks around. He's probably seen this already, but it's his first time seeing this in person.
"Kaioken..." I muttered.
He turns his head back towards me with a strange look before asking, "Kaio-what?"
I charge at him immediately and strike him right in the jaw with a massive uppercut. He tilts his head back down, looking right into my eyes, completely unfazed by my fist currently connecting with his face.
"Are you quite done?" He asks.
My eyes widen a bit at this before I smirked at him with a strange sort of glee.
"You fucking monster..." I muttered before he backhands me right back into the wall.
---
"You are a very peculiar child, you know that?" Cooler asked as he stood over my beaten and bloodied form, looking down at me with intrigue.
"Is... that... supposed... to be a... compliment...?" I asked, struggling to even think through the pain, let alone talk through.
My jaw feels broken, my arms feel broken, my legs feel-- Pretty much all of me feels fucking broken!
He's too strong.
Stronger than anything I've faced.
I knew that. I knew that for a damn certainty. But to actually be beaten down so easily was something entirely different than to what I had thought.
It was humbling, but at the same time, completely and utterly infuriating...
And to think that he wasn't even going all out...
No, forget about him going all out, he wasn't even showing a quarter of his true strength, the fucking monster...
"Seems that I was right about you." He said.
"Right... about... what...?" I asked.
He crouched down and made me look him right in his eyes, "You have the ability to grow stronger after being beaten."
I would've been surprised at his statement if I didn't previously think that he already knew. It was unlikely, highly unlikely, but Cooler was always smarter than Frieza. He's smarter than people give him credit for.
People think that Cooler doesn't have as much potential as Frieza, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have any potential himself. Myself, I honestly think he's a lot more of a monster than Frieza ever was.
In Heroes, this bastard managed to achieve his Golden Form just by Fuu mentioning that Frieza had it. He didn't even need a damn demonstration either. He just said, "If my brother can do it, so can I" and did it.
Sure, Heroes may not be canon, but neither is Cooler, and yet he's still here somehow.
"Yeah, so...?" I replied, not bothering to deny it, as there wouldn't have been any point.
"No denial? Well I suppose that's good. After all, there wouldn't be a point to it" He smirks and lays my head back down on the floor, "So how does it work? Do you have to just be beaten?"
"Don't know..." I lied, "I've only ever lost once... and it was to you..."
Is it weird that I take pride in that fact?
Sure, a lot more dangerous threats were coming later on that are much more powerful than Cooler, but the fact that it took him of all people to take me down, whilst I was still only five years old, was something that I strangely find a bit of pride in.
Took the Emperor of the Universe to beat me at five, next time, it'll take the God of Destruction.
"I see..." He mutters, stroking his chin in thought, "Then I suppose we'll just have to explore that particular trait of yours more thoroughly, now won't we?"
"You... You want me... to grow stronger...?" I asked, a little shocked by his response.
He turns to me with a raised eyebrow, "Is that so surprising? Seems that you still don't fully trust me. No matter. That'll change." He crouches down and picks my head up again before adding, "You see, I've hit a... block in my training. And your ability to grow so much in such a short span is currently very useful.
"So... what? A little... quid pro quo?" I asked.
"I'm sorry, a what?" He asked back.
Ah, so French is a space language but apparently Latin isn't? This universe is so fucking confusing...
"Old Saiyan proverb... It means something for something..." I both explained and lied to him.
"A Saiyan proverb? It's actually quite profound." He muttered, placing his had on his chin, as if he's genuinely astonished at the fact that Saiyans could be intellectual, "But yes, something for something. You get stronger, I get stronger. Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?"
"Seems that way..." I replied, seeing no reason to decline.
"Just wait and see, Zyleth." He said with a vaguely deranged tone, smiling ear to ear like a madman, "You and I are going to push each other to heights greater than either of us have ever thought possible."
His eyes glowed a devilish crimson red and I can't help but wonder what he was planning inside that head of his...
---
Current Power Levels:
Cooler (Base/Fourth Form) - [140,000,000]
Cooler (Final/Fifth Form) - [470,000,000]
Zyleth (Pre-Zenkai) - [2,320,000]
Zyleth (Post-Zenkai) - [31,552,000]
[Word Count: 1,766.]