Raditz stared at the fluctuating numbers on his scouter as it tracked Hulk's rising power level.
Curiosity slowly gave way to greed.
If he could learn the secret behind this monster's endless growth, then maybe Vegeta and Nappa would finally stop looking down on him.
A roar thundered across the battlefield.
Thing ripped an overturned cargo truck off the street and hurled it at Raditz.
"Pathetic."
Raditz sneered and casually fired a glowing energy blast with one hand.
BOOM.
The truck disintegrated instantly.
The explosion swallowed Thing as well, blasting him clear out of sight.
After S.W.O.R.D. updated its threat classifications for Dragon-level monsters, combat protocols against Demon-level threats and above had changed drastically.
Throwing masses of superheroes into battle no longer worked.
Most heroes simply weren't durable enough.
During the previous Dragon-level incident involving King Piccolo, the shockwaves from his battle with Drex Valen alone had killed two superheroes and critically injured more than a dozen others.
Raditz had now been classified at the sa disaster level.
But unlike before, only the current "Big Three" were authorized for direct engagent.
Everyone else?
Survive if you can.
Even A-Class heroes were limited to support roles on the battlefield's outer edges.
The truth was, Thing had actually beco much stronger through training over the past few years.
The problem was that the enemies arriving on Earth kept evolving into nightmares.
Compared to monsters like Raditz, even massively improved heroes looked helpless.
Nearby, Tony Stark received fresh nanotech components from Veronica.
The damaged armor rapidly rebuilt itself while Tony simultaneously began assembling a massive energy cannon directly over his right arm.
The design had been inspired by Drex Valen's endless collection of exotic energy weapons, along with Tony's own refinents to laser-cutting technology.
Nanotech, directed-energy systems, adaptive combat architecture...
Everything had been integrated into a single absurdly advanced suit.
This armor ant everything to Tony.
For the first ti in his life, he had finally escaped the awkward middle ground where he was neither truly weak nor genuinely top-tier.
Now he could stand on the sa battlefield as cosmic monsters.
Even the Bleeding Edge armor looked primitive compared to this nanotech platform.
The only reason Tony still appeared outmatched was simple:
His enemies kept getting worse.
Against almost anyone else, the current Iron Man could have ended the fight instantly.
Tony fired first.
The energy cannon erupted with blinding force.
Raditz answered with his own blast.
The attacks collided head-on.
Raditz's attack won imdiately.
Instead of locking into so impossible beam struggle, the stronger energy simply crushed through the weaker one and detonated into a catastrophic explosion.
Watching remotely, Drex felt oddly relieved.
At least physics hadn't fully given up yet.
The explosion ripped through half of New York.
Entire blocks vanished beneath expanding shockwaves. More than a dozen streets were devastated by the blast radius alone.
Fortunately, evacuation procedures had already cleared the area.
Then Hulk attacked again.
The enraged giant lunged directly at Raditz, throwing a devastating punch.
Raditz raised one arm casually.
Hulk's fist crashed into him hard enough to pulverize tanks, yet Raditz barely moved.
Then, at point-blank range, the Saiyan fired an energy wave straight through Hulk's torso.
The blast punched through flesh and muscle alike.
Hulk staggered backward and dropped to one knee.
"HUUUULK!"
Thing roared from the ruins.
Then suddenly, Raditz's expression changed.
Sothing exploded inside his body.
The attack caught him completely off guard.
Invisible force fields detonated internally beneath his skin, tearing into him from within.
Invisible Woman had used her powers with surgical precision.
If Raditz's ki reinforcent hadn't been powerful enough to protect his organs, the attack might have crippled him instantly.
Raditz imdiately sensed her energy signature.
Fury twisted across his face.
He fired an energy blast toward her without hesitation.
Human Torch grabbed Susan and rocketed away just before the blast obliterated the street behind them.
Heroes at their level could only provide support now.
Direct combat ant death.
"You little rats!"
Raditz clutched his chest, still shaken by how close that attack had co to seriously injuring him.
Then rage exploded out of him.
Dozens of energy blasts rained across the battlefield.
Inside S.W.O.R.D. headquarters, Nick Fury stared grimly at the monitors.
"Does this bastard have infinite energy?"
Scientists nearby had already completed preliminary analysis.
Each one of Raditz's energy blasts carried destructive power comparable to a thermobaric bomb.
He wasn't just a warrior.
He was a mobile weapons platform.
Compared to King Piccolo, Raditz's attacks were faster, stronger, and significantly more lethal.
Threat assessnt had already escalated accordingly.
More troubling, however, was the implication behind Raditz's words.
The strongest warrior race in the universe.
If Raditz represented even an average Saiyan, then Earth was hopelessly outmatched.
And if he was elite?
That possibility was sohow even worse.
The only reason global leadership hadn't collapsed into outright despair yet was because one man still hadn't entered the battlefield.
Drex Valen.
Earth's strongest superhero.
Humanity's final card.
If even Drex failed...
Then maybe it really was ti to abandon Earth and start looking for sowhere else to live.
Back in Manhattan, the battle was turning ugly.
The so-called Big Three were being overwheld.
Even with A-Class heroes interfering from the edges of combat and creating occasional openings, Raditz still dominated almost effortlessly.
Thing was already down.
His massive body lay motionless inside a crater, unconscious.
Cracks spread across his stone skin from head to toe. Raditz's relentless attacks had shattered him apart despite Susan shielding him with invisible force barriers whenever possible.
Tony wasn't doing much better.
Most of his nanotech reserves had already been exhausted.
While fighting desperately, he also continuously recorded combat data and sent increasingly irritated ergency ssages to Drex Valen.
anwhile, Hulk kept fighting.
Only Hulk.
Raditz gradually realized sothing horrifying.
The green monster's power just kept climbing.
"HRAAAAGH!"
Hulk roared and slamd another punch into Raditz's arm.
This ti, Raditz failed to hold his ground cleanly.
The impact forced him backward.
Hulk instantly capitalized.
One punch.
Then another.
Then a brutal barrage.
Raditz grit his teeth and blocked at blinding speed as Hulk hamred him relentlessly.
The creature's power level had skyrocketed from just over five hundred to well beyond nine hundred.
It was approaching Raditz himself.
Worse still, nothing worked permanently.
Raditz had blown holes through Hulk's body.
He had blasted him apart repeatedly.
None of it mattered.
The monster refused to die.
And every second of combat only made him stronger.
For the first ti since arriving on Earth, Raditz felt genuine unease.
"Damn freak..."
He thrust both hands forward and began gathering an enormous concentration of ki.
The surrounding air distorted violently.
Hulk charged anyway.
No hesitation.
No fear.
His regeneration and escalating rage made him functionally unstoppable.
Raditz roared.
The energy wave exploded from his palms like a miniature apocalypse.
The beam swallowed Hulk completely.
Everything in its path ceased to exist.
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