Dragon Ball Z: The Beast Within - CH31

[Escarot POV]

“You are going to regret every damn second of this shit!” I screamed, clenching my fists. “I will make sure of it!”

Why am I so angry?

I know this is annoying, hell, it’s extremely fucking annoying; but my reaction feels... disproportionate. Out of sync with the actual situation. I’ve taken worse hits than this, and never got this pissed off.

So why does this feel like I’m one blast away from setting the entire planet on fire out of pure spite?

"You are hilarious when angry," Okara said, wiping tears from her eyes.

I didn’t answer right away. Just exhaled slowly through my nose and clenched my jaw until my teeth felt like they might crack.

“Yeah,” I muttered finally, with barely restrained rage, “hilarious.”

It was taking an enormous amount of effort to push down the burning desire to detonate everything until my enemy was nothing but a pile of ashes.

Thankfully, I wasn’t angry enough to not see how pointless that would be.

As Okara had demonstrated, that wouldn’t solve the problem. It would just make a crater. A really big crater.

That said… I had no idea what to do.

No strategy. No plan. No angle to work.

I couldn’t sense the attacker. I couldn’t locate the blasts before they hit. I couldn’t even estimate how far they were being launched from; because the energy just appeared the second it made contact.

Which meant leaving wasn’t an option. And staying... wasn’t much better.

A dying planet without light, enough water, or a functioning ecosystem to feed our abnormal appetite was fine for short-term survival and training. Maybe a month or two if you wanted to rough it up. That’s the classic Saiyan way of things, suffer until you get stronger.

That ideal training scenario however goes to hell when you have to face an enemy that stays hidden like a damned mosquito with a personal vendetta against you.

I floated in place, eyes scanning the dead landscape below. Smoke still lingered from Okara’s last tantrum. No sound. No movement. Nothing.

“This is going to be har—” Another blast hit me.

This time, right on the side of the head.

My body jerked sideways, the energy of the explosion

wrapping around my face like a helmet made of fire. Pushing me back a few feet away.

That one… actually hurt.

I reached up to my temple, fingers brushing something warm and wet.

Blood.

It wasn’t pouring, just a small trickle, warm and sticky against my skin. But it was enough to piss me off even further, the power behind the attacks was increasing as fast as my patience was depleting. 

Okara stopped laughing.

Her expression shifted the second she saw the blood.

“You’re... bleeding?” Her voice had dropped all the humor. Now it was low, sharp, and furious. “That! Damn! Insect! Hiding instead of facing us like a warrior!”

I touched the side of my head again, feeling the wound. It was very superficial, it stung a bit, but it wasn’t anything to worry about, yet at least.

I turned to her. “Don’t worry. It barely nicked me.”

Okara was already powering up. Her aura flared around her, a distorted shimmer of white as her ki spiked out of frustration.

“Screw that,” she snarled. “And screw this stupid planet! Let’s show this bastard the true power of the Saiyan race!”

So, that’s her plan, to go Great Ape.

I can kind of see why she thinks that will solve our problem, she must think that if we become stronger, become bigger, we would be able to outlast whatever cockroach was playing sniper from the shadows.

She wasn’t entirely wrong. The Great Ape transformation would give us increased durability, a decent power boost, and better area coverage, but it would also be overkill…

I was far from showing my full power, being that the only reason the last attack had hurt me. Besides, if more power was the solution to this, I would’ve killed the one behind this long ago; so not only going Great Ape would do nothing for us, but it would needlessly drain our stamina for no good reason.

Not only that, but the transformation had its downsides, one of them being a bigger target to shoot at. It would make our enemy’s work easier, when all he has to do is aim at the giant, glowing, furry, roaring targets.

The only benefit transforming right now would give us, is that we would take no damage whatsoever, but that benefit is ultimately useless on the long run, when you consider the heavy stamina drain the Great Ape transformation has, that once we tire ourselves out, and return back to normal would make us extremely vulnerable.

And the last thing we needed right now, was that.

Unless…

I blinked.

I’m looking at this in the wrong way.

Her idea was stupid; from the tactical standpoint she has.

But from a different angle?

It was brilliant!

“Okara,” I said, a little too loud. “You’re a beautiful genius!”

She blinked. “What?”

I grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her into a quick, crushing hug.

Her entire body tensed like I’d just stabbed her. “Arghhh! Why are you hugging me?! Unhand me!”

“I knew it!” I said, grinning now. “Buried under all that rage and violence there is a functioning brain cell, and today it decided to show up!”

She shoved me away, face red. “Let go of me, you freak!”

The Great Ape brought more than size, durability, and raw power to the table.

And I felt like an idiot for not realizing that earlier.

Everyone focuses on the obvious with the form, the size, the destruction, the power boost. Typical Saiyan thinking.

But there’s more to the Great Ape than that.

Heightened senses.

The transformation wasn’t just about becoming a giant fur demon with an insatiable thirst for destruction. It was about connecting to ancient physiology; to the beast within us.

Sight. Sound. Smell.

Especially smell.

We Saiyans have a naturally sharp sense of scent. Not quite a bloodhound, but definitely above anything human. And when you transformed?

It multiplied. Exponentially.

If I couldn’t see the bastard, or sense him... then I would sniff him out!

I grinned to myself. Let’s see how clever he feels when he can’t hide his sweat.

I turned toward Okara. “Close your eyes.”

She blinked. “Why?”

“I’m taking your idea, well, part of it.”

Her tail flicked once in excitement. “Hell yeah! I wanna go too.”

“No,” I said flatly. “You haven’t mastered control. You’d go berserk. I’m not about to deal with that while I’m trying to find our mystery attacker.”

Okara groaned and crossed her arms. “Fineeee. But you better teach me how to control the transformation after this.”

“Sure,” I smiled at her.

She turned around, covering her eyes with the back of her hand. “Just do it already, I’m not peeking.”

I rolled my eyes, floated a bit higher, and raised my hand toward the sky. I hadn’t created a Power Ball since namek, which all things considered hadn’t been all that long ago.

The ball formed quickly; a small, radiant sphere pulsing white and blue with a glow that cut through the darkness around like a flashlight through a cave.

Grinning, I launched it upward, watching it rise and expand as it mixed with the atmosphere. Even this dying planet had just enough of one left to hold the light.

The moment the Power Ball stabilized in the sky, mixing with the atmosphere around, I felt it.

That pull. 

A tug behind my eyes. A weight in my chest. My skin started to tingle, the base of my spine itching as the genetic switch flipped, as my heart started beating within my chest like a drum.

The process wasn’t pleasant. It never was.

Bones cracked. Muscles twisted. My chest expanded with unimaginable pressure. My tail lashed uncontrollably behind me as I began to grow. My vision blurred for a split second, then sharpened a dozenfold.

My hearing spiked; I could hear Okara’s heart beating behind me.

But most importantly... the smell hit.

Everything.

The air was suddenly full of it; sulfur from the cracked soil, the distant stench of decomposing vegetation buried under rocks, the faint ozone burn of energy residue clinging to Okara’s armor.

And something else.

Sweat.

I grinned, fangs stretching past my muzzle.

“Oh yeah,” I rumbled in a deeper tone, my voice now a reverberating growl. “There you are, you little bastard. Get ready to be squished like a dog toy!”

Okara turned her head, still keeping her eyes mostly shut. “You found him?!”

“Hell yeah,” I said, nostrils flaring. “I can smell the bastard.”

Her tail twitched. “Wait, seriously?”

I pointed a massive, clawed finger toward the southeast. “That way. Maybe twenty miles…. thirty tops.”

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?! Go rip him apart!”

“YES!!” I tore through the sky, the landscape below blurring into streaks of black and dead terrain. The moment I locked onto that scent, my whole body moved on instinct. My ki flared behind me creating shockwaves that cracked the earth beneath me as I flew.

I could smell it.

Not just the sweat anymore; there was something else now. Panic. Fear. Whoever it was knew I was coming, and they were trying to run.

Too late.

Unfortunately for him I was... wait, them?

There’s…. Another scent. 

It hit me harder the closer I got; foul, musty, like moldy food and burned rubber had a baby and let it rot under a sunlamp. The scent of something that should be dead, but wasn’t.

Rotten. But alive.

Didn’t take long before I caught up.

They were moving through the canyons, maybe hoping the terrain would cover them. It didn’t. I landed like a meteor just in front of them, kicking up a massive shockwave that flattened the surrounding rock.

And what I saw made me do a double-take.

There he was. The so-called evil king. Eyes glassy and blank, body bulging with muscles and stiff. It wasn’t him that made me stop dead in my tracks though.

It was the one behind him.

A short, hunched alien. Wrinkled green skin, twisted like he’d been microwaved in his sleep. Wearing a blue robe, yellow pants, a purple buckle, and a black cap marked with the Demon Clan’s mark: that damn M.

He was here?!

“Babidi?!” I barked.

The little bastard’s eyes widened, and then immediately narrowed.

“How dare you!” he snapped, voice shrill like a mosquito in heat. “You worm! I am the great Bebidi! The rightful heir to the great wizard Bibidi! Don’t you dare compare me to that traitor of Babidi!”

Bebidi?

Babidi… had a brother?

The green rat puffed his chest like he was royalty. “Babidi killed the rest of us after Father died! Took all the magic meant for the family and left us to rot! But I alone survived! I endured! And now, I’ll have my revenge!”

Bididi had more than one… more than two kids?

He threw his arms up. “With you under my control, I’ll kill Babidi myself! Take all the magic from him, and then I’ll bring back my father’s creation Majin Buu and finish his work, by killing the gods who dared to spit on his legacy!”

Is this canon? Did I miss an episode or a movie of some kind?

This was getting more ridiculous by the second.

As I tried to get my head around the fact Babidi has a whole family tree of magical sociopaths, my head suddenly spiked with pain.

“Agrhh!” I growled, clutching my skull.

It felt like someone had jammed a screwdriver between my eyes and started turning. Pressure mounted behind my forehead. It wasn’t just pain—it was pressure. Something was clawing at my thoughts.

“Yes! Yes!” Bebidi squealed, voice laced with glee. “Don’t fight it! Surrender your will and mine to me, and I’ll make you stronger! All that rage in you, let me control it!”

I looked up at him through the haze. My vision was swimming, I could feel my heart pounding in my ears as I bared my fangs at him.

Yet… despite the pain, and the clear suggestions he was making within my mind.

I wasn't compelled to kneel. I didn’t feel the pull to obey.

Was I just that stubborn? Was my will that strong? Or was he just that weak?

Either way, I didn’t care.

Still clutching my pounding skull, I reached out with my other hand and grabbed him.

Bebidi let out a panicked squeal as my giant fingers wrapped around him. I didn’t even squeeze hard, just enough to rattle his ribs a little.

The pain in my head stopped instantly.

“Aaarrghhh! L-let go of me!” he shrieked, kicking his stubby legs.

I lifted him to eye level. “Ah, that’s better.”

His face contorted in pain, struggling to speak. “H-how?! There’s evil inside you! I can feel it! I—I even lowered your mental barriers by using my magic! You should’ve been mine!”

So that’s why I’ve been this pissed off the whole time.

No wonder I got so angry, so fast.

God, I hate magic.

“Master Bebidi!” the king snapped back to life, charging at me like the loyal mutt he was.

My tail whipped around once, swatting him.

He exploded on impact, painting the ground in red.

“No! NO! If I had more of Father’s power… if that traitor hadn’t stolen it all…” Bebidi wheezed, barely able to get words out under the pressure of my grip. “I… I w-would have… won!”

“Yeah?” I said flatly. “Good to know.”

He struggled again.

I didn’t give him the chance for another speech.

I tightened my grip, more and more until.

POP.

The little bastard burst like a grape in my hand. Purple blood sprayed out between my fingers, his body turning into a sticky mess of flesh.

I exhaled through my nose. My head still buzzed a little, like the echo of static after a broken signal.

But the pressure was gone. The influence was gone.

He was gone.

I looked down at the mess in my palm. “Well that’s disgusting.”

I grunted and shook it off. Bits of flesh, blood, and other things flew off with it. Disgusting.

But then something strange happened.

The light shifted.

Subtle, at first. A slight change in tone over the horizon. Then, gradually, the black haze above began to... thin.

I looked up.

The cursed veil that had blanketed this planet was finally breaking. Allowing the suns to bathe the entire place in light once more.

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Author Note: I’m back to daily updates again. Mom is officially out of treatment, and my schedule is back to normal, so starting today, expect one chapter a day.

DBZ Lore Note: In the manga and anime, Babidi is said to be the son of Bibidi. However, In an interview with Akira Toriyama, it was instead said that Babidi is a doppelganger of Bibidi; whenever Bibidi needed assistance, he would split into multiple people and split his magical power between them to handle different tasks. Babidi was one such doppelganger, and when Bibidi was killed, Babidi remained and inherited all of his original self's power.