Chapter 44: Chapter 44 – Nam’s Mysterious Technique

 

…

A one-day break and a good night’s sleep weren’t enough to heal Tien’s injured hand. But at least he made it much better overnight.

 

He winced, as a throbbing pain hit his hand every time he tried flexing his fingers.

 

Master Shen hadn’t returned during the night. Tien was a little worried but tried to think positively about the next fight. Going into a fight both injured and worried wasn't a good idea. 

 

‘Master Shen has survived Demon King Piccolo’s Era, fighting many others over hundreds of years and outliving hundreds of martial masters. He has the lifeline of a zombie.’

 

"Ladies and gentlemen. The next fight is between Nam and Tien Shinhan!" The announcer’s loud words coming from the speakers woke Tien up. 

 

The crowd roared in excitement. They liked flashy battles, and his struggle against Krillin had been short but quite the sight. 

 

‘This time, I won’t make the same mistake as before.’ Tien thought while getting on stage, flexing the hand he had used to punch Krillin’s Kamehameha yesterday. 

 

The limb wasn’t in perfect condition by a long shot, but he could still use it to punch someone. Pain wasn't something he was unfamiliar with either. 

 

In the previous fight, if he had pursued Krillin, Tien, with his superior reach and strength, would have been able to crush him quickly. But due to losing sight of the main goal and worrying about Yamcha, Tien’s opponent, despite being weaker, had almost turned the tables on him.

 

"Begin!" The announcement came like pulling the trigger of a gun, and Tien felt his muscles tense, and he charged at Nam at breakneck speeds.

 

The closer Tien got to his opponent, there seemed an invisible weight, some kind of pressure was pushing down on him like someone was standing on his shoulders. 

 

Nam only had his hands in a prayer motion while whispering strange things. 

 

Looking up, he saw no one there. As he turned to look back at Nam, a golden light greeted Tien, and the next thing he felt was something smash into his body and sending it flying. 

 

He tried maneuvering himself in mid-air and attempted to use the flying technique to stop himself from falling out of the ring. It was useless. He pushed himself down with the flying technique until his feet could dig into the stage’s giant stone tiles. Even then, the push was so strong that Tien felt like his legs would snap.  

 

After he stopped himself, Tien breathed heavily and tried to formulate what he had been hit with. It wasn't a Ki beam but more like a wall. What was it exactly? He didn't know. But the attack had been so strong that blood dripped from the corner of Tien’s lip. He had taken some internal damage.

 

Nam still stood there in a prayer stance. Since the start of the fight, he hadn’t moved an inch and only kept staring at him. 

 

Tien charged again, and halfway to reaching Namm, golden light started manifesting. But Tien’s body split into three separate clones, and his power split in three too. 

 

Nam's eyes widened, and two simultaneous blasts of golden energy slammed onto Tien’s two clones from above in less than a second since their creation, destroying them. That had bought Tien the time he needed.

 

With his uninjured hand, Tien punched the man in the face. Blood spilled out of Nam’s mouth, and his body skidded backward and almost went out of the ring. The ground below his feet cracked.

 

'He should be about as strong as Krillin. But that strange technique of his is unpredictable. I can't see its angles, where it's coming from, or what pattern it has.' If Tien hadn't split his power in three, he was confident he would have been able to push him off. 

 

He hoped Yamcha copied the Multiple Body technique and used it in the fight against him because while the technique might look strong and make it seem like you could gang up on an enemy, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

Tien shot a simple Ki blast at Nam. Again, a golden wall appeared in front of Nam, three times the size of a normal human. Now that Tien had a better look, he saw something more than a golden light. "A hand?"  

 

As soon as he said that, Nam's eyes married, and Tien caught that small reaction. "Struck a nerve, didn't I?" 

 

"No. I'm just surprised someone other than Yamcha could see through this technique. Maybe it's that third eye of yours? Legends say that those with a third eye will have special divine powers." Nam inquired. It was troubling how unpanicked and infallible he was.

 

The smile on his opponent’s face unnerved Tien. There was something that face was hiding, and he didn't like it. Tien’s eyes narrowed, and he charged again, this time even faster than before. 

 

An attack came from a weird angle, and once he got a good look at it, he saw that it was a golden fist coming for him. 

 

Since the range of the attack was so wide and fast. He wouldn't be able to dodge normally, so he crouched down and punched at the ground, creating a hole in the ring, and he crawled in. 

 

The golden fist flew over his head, and then he got out and charged at Nam. ‘Once an attack has been cast, it seems like he can’t take it back. It was like swinging a metal bat that was too heavy. You can’t just half its power mid-swing.’

 

'Fist and palm. This is probably not the same hand that attacked, meaning he has under control some kind of giant golden arms made of Ki?' Tien analyzed. Right then and there understood that if he wanted to defeat Nam, he would have to use his personal techniques.

 

He dodged the incoming palm by jumping up and flying down toward his opponent at breakneck speeds. 

 

"Seems like there's no use hiding it anymore," Nam suddenly said, knowing his move had been seen through. The olive-skinned monk clapped his hands once, and a golden light shined behind Tien just as he was about to hit his opponent.

 

Tien's third eye moved, he looked behind, and what he saw shocked him. The lower body of a man, and the head of a wolf, looked like some kind of twisted take on a Buddhist statue.

 

The attacks that came next were too fast. Materializing the statue in reality seemed to have removed some of its limiters. 

 

Baam! Baam! Baam! Baam! Baam!

 

Dozens of hits rained down on Tien. He felt his body breaking, bones cracking, and muscles ripping. 

 

'No! I can't lose now!' But Tien refused to give up. 

 

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Seeing that Nam had decided to materialize the statue behind him and how he hadn't used other techniques before. Tien hypothesized that it must take a lot of concentration to keep up something like that. That's why Nam hadn't attacked him with other techniques simultaneously, as he had attacked him with the statue. This was all just Tien’s assumption, and if he were wrong, a beating of a lifetime was waiting for him. 

 

Though Nam was weaker than him, Tien couldn't help but be impressed by his technique. 

 

Yamcha's words stood true, a technique that couldn't be learned or taught. Nam was the only one in the world who could use it because no one else but Nam could have the crazy mindset required to manifest God. 

"It truly is a magnificent work of art," Tien said, knowing that he had already lost the tournament due to Nam. Still, he had one last trump card to play, and he flared up his Ki. 

 

‘Solar Flare!’

 

A bright light shined on the stadium and made Nam close his eyes. Tien gathered Ki to his finger, and as golden fists rained down on him, he shot a Dondon Beam at Nam. 

 

The Dondon Ray was going to push Nam out of the ring. In a real battle, this would have been a draw, but here, it would be a victory for Tien. 

 

"Well, it seems like I lost," Nam stated calmly. Shocking Tien by canceling the move, the golden statue didn't hit him.  Nam then stopped his prayer, and gathered Ki in his hands. 

 

The Dondon Ray had stronger piercing power than the Kamehameha, so Nam was still pushed off the ring. But by the smile on Nam's face, Tien wasn't 100% sure if his opponent could have really stopped the Dondon Ray from pushing him out or not.

 

"What an amazing fight, ladies and gentlemen! Tien Shinhan is the winner!" The announcer stated, drawing a loud cheer from the crowd, congratulating both fighters. 

 

Tien was more confused than happy. His fights, not counting the preliminaries, had been won in such ways that made him unsatisfied. If Nam had continued his attack, Tien was sure the injuries would have added up, and he wouldn't have been able to participate any longer, so Nam, out of kindness, had stopped the attack.

 

"Next fight will be Son Goku against Yamcha!" 

 

The crowd boomed even louder at that. Seemed like there was some exciting build-up from the last tournament. Even Tien, in his confused state, paid attention as he walked out of the ring.

 

"Are you okay?" Chiaotzu flew to his side.

 

"Yeah, just confused," Tien went and sat down on the corner, leaning against the wall. The cold structure touching his spine made it comforting. 

 

"Have you ever seen a technique like that guy's, Nam's?" His friend floated and sat next to him.

 

"No, that ability is built on something close to mindless devotion. Believing in something so hard that his Ki and inner energies formed an entity. That statue could technically be considered a God," Tien shook his head, chuckling at the madness of it all. “It’s not as good of a technique as it looks or sounds. Because the mindset to use that and have that kind of devotion, it’s like creating God with your belief in them. The technique will always be just as strong as the belief.”

He glanced toward Nam, who had a peaceful look on his face. Tien wasn't tricked by his outward appearance. 

 

The way he saw it, Nam probably was the craziest amongst them all here. For a technique like that to work, you had to be just the same crazy as him. Devoted and thankful for that one thing. 

 

That's why Tien called the technique Nam used unlearnable and unteachable to others. What made a man have such blind devotion? Tien didn't know, and didn't have time to think about it as Goku and Yamcha started fighting.

 

"Master Roshi," Yamcha suddenly turned to look at the arena, his eyes were no longer on Goku, but he still stopped his opponent’s punch. "You asked me why I feel more relaxed, right?"

 

Suddenly a strange tension settled on the whole arena. 

 

Tien felt a chill down his spine, and his hands started shaking uncontrollably. What was this? Once again, the weight on his shoulder appeared again, but unlike when he was fighting against Nam, instead of the weight of a man standing on his shoulders, it felt like he was carrying a mountain. 

 

With his third eye, he could somewhat tell how strong an opponent was. But even if he couldn't, even a blind fool would sense what came next. 

 

"Well, the answer is that I'm no longer as afraid as I used to be," Yamcha said with a smile. 

 

BOOOM!

 

Tien couldn't call what happened next an explosion, but it might as well have been one. The air around Yamcha seemed to twist, and debris rose around him. 

 

How could someone be so strong? 

 

Ki burst out of Yamcha and formed a white flaming coat all around him. In the next second, he disappeared, faster than sound and faster than anything Tien had ever seen. Even light seemed slower by comparison. 

 

It felt like they all skipped a second of a video, as the next thing everyone saw was Goku being held by his teal. Doing so seemed to weaken the monkey-tailed kid. 

 

"Tonight is a full moon, and we don't want any accidents. Also, learn to train your tail next time. A weakness like this isn't good for a fighter," Yamcha said while pulling out the tail and shooting a soft Ki ball at Goku's midsection.

 

The kid gathered Ki and tried to stop the blast Yamcha had thrown as if throwing a ball at a kid. But that ball pushed Goku outside of the arena, slammed him to the wall, and then the Ki sizzled out. 

 

The crowd was quiet like they didn't know what to feel about the fight, and every martial artist worth anything could sense what Yamcha had shown them. It was like an unspoken message.

 

‘I am the strongest.’ Yamcha didn’t need to say those words, but no one could deny them. 

 

Even the usually talkative announcer seemed speechless. The gap between the two fighters had been insurmountable. It was like Yamcha handling a toddler instead of a strong martial artist that stood at the apex of power. 

 

But before anyone could say anything, a shadow covered the whole stadium. Tien immediately looked up and saw the clouds parting. 

 

'Am I dreaming?' Tien wondered. 

******
A/N: Sorry for the late update, I was editing 4 chapters so I could post them all at once.

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