Dragon Ball Z: The Beast Within - CH42

[Escarot POV]

Lately, I’ve been thinking about ki.

Not just using it. Not just blasting it, punching with it, using it to roast hornet wings.

But the why behind it. How it works.

Blame the bugs. Spending this much time here with no one to talk to but things that click and screech instead of speak does that to a guy. Makes you start talking to yourself. Thinking more than you should. Even started naming some of the hornets. One was Gary. Gary tried to sting me in the face. Gary died. Gary was cooked. Gary was delicious.

Anyway.

My point is; I’ve been chewing on the whole “latent potential” thing lately, after killing a bug that looked a lot like Guru.

Guru had mentioned something when he unlocked my hidden potential  back on Namek. His words stuck with me more than I realized at the time. He didn’t say he gave me more power. He said he was “allowing” me to reach into a part of my power I couldn’t.

Because if that’s true—if the power is already in there—then the problem’s not strength, it's accessibility.

Makes you think.

And I’ve had nothing but time to think. I mean, there’s only so many fire-ant stir-fries a guy can make before his brain starts wandering.

Anyway.

My technique, Surge, came from that line of thought, well, not really, but close enough. It’s basically a forced overclock of my own ki. I direct energy through my body more efficiently.

The upside? A decent power boost—about a 25% jump if I had to eyeball it.

The downside? I burn through my stamina about 25% faster. A negligible amount, which made the use of my technique viable for long fights.

Either way, that got me thinking: is Surge tapping into that “latent potential” Guru talked about?

Or is it something else?

What if ki works more like actual electricity than I thought? Circuits. Resistance. Load balancing. The more optimized your pathways, the more power you can output without overloading the system.

It would explain a lot.

If every being has some kind of natural limiter, and I’m bypassing that by making the flow more streamlined, then maybe Surge isn’t unlocking anything—it’s just cheating better.

But then, if that’s the case… what is latent potential?

Untrained pathways? Dormant reserves? Maybe it’s not about “power you didn’t know you had” but about “energy you weren’t built to use effectively just yet.”

Like trying to power a city with a triple AAA battery.

Which would mean that what Guru did was just open a pathway of new circuits.

This would explain why after a while, certain training methods just stopped working as they used to for some of the Z warriors in the show. You needed to improve the overall infrastructure, not just one thing to increase the energy output, which would explain why Goku was always stronger than Vegeta.

Goku’s training spectrum was much more broader than Vegeta’s.

Goku had gone through every training method there was, learned under many different masters, all while Vegeta just kept doing more of the same, over and over again, and while that had given him impressive results at first, it had limited his gains significantly in the long run.

I can’t remember Vegeta doing anything other than gravity training for all of Dragon Ball Z. I might be wrong about it, but that’s all he ever did.

Meanwhile, Goku went through every training method there was.

“I wonder if there’s a way to train energy flow the way we train muscle,” I muttered aloud. “Like stretching out the circuits, building endurance through sheer repetition.”

I wasn’t a scientist. I was a warrior. This felt like an important piece of the puzzle I didn’t even know I’ve been overlooking.

Hell, maybe this was why the higher-level techniques always seemed out of reach for most people. Not because they lacked power, but because they hadn’t built their body, mind and soul to it.

The same way a novice fighter throws sloppy punches no matter how strong they are, most warriors bleed energy every time they move.

I didn’t want to be one of those guys.

Surge had potential to become more than it already was. I knew that. If I could refine it, or maybe create variations depending on the situation, then I’d have something that could stand next to the big-name techniques of the same category; like the Kaio-ken.

I stood up, brushing the dirt off my pants.

“All right. No time like the present.”

I closed my eyes and focused inward. Let the world go quiet.

The bugs. The buzzing. The wind. All of it faded.

Ki wasn’t just power, it was motion. Circulation. Like blood, a current flowing through invisible paths in my body. Some flowed easy. Others met resistance. I could feel it, now that I was looking for it.

Okay.

Let’s experiment.

First, I flared a small amount of energy; just enough to light up my aura slightly. Then I focused on shifting the flow, concentrating it around my arms and legs, directing it with intent.

It felt like trying to bend water with my thoughts, sluggish, clumsy.

But then it clicked.

The flow tightened, wrapped around me softly yet firmly. “Not bad…” Nodding to myself, I dashed forward, testing my speed.

I stopped, skidding through the dirt.

A decent increase in speed for the amount of power used.

And no signs of possible fatigue building up.

Huh.

Interesting.

Next, I tried shifting the flow inward; compressing energy into my being instead of spreading it evenly.

The results were immediate. My strikes hit harder, with more weight. Not in terms of raw force, but in density. Less flash, more impact. Like throwing a punch with a big anvil strapped to my fist.

But it cost me.

A burning sensation flared in my fists after a minute or two. Too much pressure in one spot, it made my knuckles sore, so I released it with a grunt, letting the excess energy flow free.

Still... good data.

I could work with this. It would take some trial and error, but I could definitely work with this. 

Maybe even develop different stances depending on the energy configuration. Speed mode. Power mode. Defense mode. The idea sounded stupid in my head, but hey… I liked it.

I sat back down, panting slightly. Not from exhaustion; but from pure excitement. Real, tangible growth always gave me that tingly buzz. The bugs were fun and all. But this? This was something else. A step forward in a different way.

“I should probably experiment all of this with the beetles,” I muttered, smirking to myself. Those bugs were sturdy as hell, giant tanks made for testing shit like this, they could take a whole lot of punishment like it was nothing.

—--------------------------------------------------------------

[Whis POV]

My, my.

Okara was making fabulous progress.

It’s not often I use the word fabulous to describe a Saiyan doing push-ups while shouting threats into the air, I actually never thought I would be doing or saying that, but here we are.

It had been a month and a half since she became my little project, and I must say, her power had gone up so quickly it was borderline marvelous. The kind of power up that would make their overly stupid caste system scientists pull their hair out and say things like “That’s not how power scaling works!”

Ah, but I do so enjoy breaking those invisible rules.

“HAHA, YES!” she shouted just now, planting a foot into a heavy training dummy I had designed specifically to teach her how not to shout her attacks five seconds before throwing them. “Next time I see Escarot, I’m gonna beat him senseless!”

Adorable.

Violent. But adorable.

You see, Okara’s progress had been stunted for years—not by lack of effort, but by her stubborn commitment to brute force over thought. She was all fists, no foresight. Which made her entertaining in the same way a meteor is entertaining; destructive, sudden, and extremely difficult to redirect.

Escarot had been the opposite, lately. A little too introspective. A little too… tactical.

Which is why I sent him into that lovely little world crawling with oversized bugs and zero intelligent life.

And to my absolute delight, the results were… well.

Far more impressive than I expected.

I had hoped the environment would remind him of the joy of fighting, of throwing himself into chaos without constantly trying to out-think his enemies. What I hadn’t accounted for was him doing both. Fighting recklessly and designing new combat strategies in between meals made of roasted spider legs that he had no right of making them look so delicious.

Now that was surprising.

He had finally reached that wonderful point between instinct and calculation. Between warrior and tactician. Between… well, between fun and functionality.

That however meant Okara needed to catch up. Fast.

My original plan had been simple: bring her up to Escarot’s current level while he plateaued in bug land, then release them both for a dramatic, beautifully choreographed high budget fight. Something with explosions, shouting, perhaps a mutual flashback or two.

But unfortunately, or rather fortunately for Escarot, he did not plateau. Not at all.

Oh no.

He thrived.

The little rascal.

I had to shift my plans.

So, poor Okara had been forced to endure a rigorous acceleration of her training. Twice the drills, twice the simulations, thrice the lectures on proper footwork; which she ignored every now and then, of course, but repetition is key for these kinds of warriors.

“Is that all you got?!” she barked at an automated training dummy, landing a punch, and dodging the follow-up counter attack.

“Marvelous form,” I said, sipping tea from a porcelain cup I had conjured while floating upside-down above the arena. “You only broadcast that last strike with your shoulder instead of your entire torso. Progress!”

“I’ll broadcast my boot into Escarot’s face soon enough!,” she replied.

I smiled. “Charming.”

Escarot and Okara reminded me of the two halves of something every living creature had in some measure. Instinct and intellect. Fire and stone. The wildness of battle versus the discipline to grow from it.

Two very incomplete warriors.

But together?

Oh, together they had the makings of something truly entertaining.

And dangerous.

Maybe dangerous enough to entertain a certain lazy God I know of.

“Sir Whis,” a small maintenance golem I had created buzzed up beside me. “Chamber temperatures are exceeding optimal thresholds. Recommend reducing training intensity by twelve percent.”

“Denied,” I replied, smiling as I watched Okara leap into the air and suplex a simulated sabertooth tiger. “Let it run hot. I find pressure helps her think.”

Or at least sweat.

She crashed into the ground with a roar and a laugh, covered in dirt, blood and bruises, and grinning like a lunatic. The very picture of Saiyan joy.

I floated down beside her.

“You’ve come far, Okara,” I said. “A month ago, you wouldn’t have lasted five minutes against that last opponent.”

She huffed, spitting blood onto the dirt. “Five minutes? I would've been dead in two.”

“Exactly,” I said cheerfully.

She stared up at me. “When do I fight him?”

Him. Escarot.

Ah yes, the reunion she was waiting for. The “I’ll finally prove I’m not the sidekick but your rival, so notice me” moment. Mortal rivalry was such a fascinating little engine of progress.

“Soon,” I said, “but not yet.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re stalling.”

“Of course I am,” I replied. “He’s still a little too far ahead. Another week or two, let’s make that three. And by then, you’ll be ready.”

“You talk like you planned this.”

There weren’t many things an Angel could do for entertainment without getting a punishment of some kind, this was one of them. Training mortals always brought interesting results.

“What’s the rush?” I replied, turning away with a twirl of my staff, “You wouldn’t want to face him too soon, just to get the same old result, would you? Besides, you still need more time, Escarot’s had quite the head start, and his power has increased even more this past month...”

“Then let’s do this!”

I smiled at her, already too busy calculating the odds of her beating Escarot when they next met if I didn’t push her harder.

Surprisingly low.

Only 21.3%.

That wouldn’t do.

Lord Beerus wanted an entertaining fight, and a one sided match would most definitely bore him, so I had to do something about it, if we wanted to have a decent show to enjoy with Escarot’s cooking.

…

…..

If I put her through a borderline cruel training regime, I could bump her odds up significantly, while making sure Escarot doesn’t outgrow her growth at the same time.

This will be delightful.