Ch. 125: Gohan's Boundless Rage! The Battle's Third Stage!

As the rip-current carried me back to the point where Frieza's blast had hit, I could feel Frieza's energy charging up for another blast down at me. This would be the finisher, but I couldn't die here.

As I began to contemplate releasing another one of my seals, I felt something change. The water around me began to seemingly explode with life as Gohan's strength began growing once again. It jumped to equal Frieza's, then it kept growing. And kept growing. Even Frieza could feel it, pushing the very air away from his body. In response, Frieza's energy subconsciously changed. While not afraid, Frieza was on guard for the first time during this fight.

Poking my head above the water to catch my breath for the first time since Frieza had thrown me into the water, I was shocked at what I saw.

Gohan's power was creating an energy field around him strong enough to push even Frieza away, as energy crackled around him in the form of lightning. Golden lightning. For just an instant, the hair on his head shifted golden, but I suspect that everyone else around me saw it as a simple trick of the light, but I knew better. Gohan was on the verge of turning Super Saiyan.

"DIE FRIEZA!!!" He shouted as his energy peaked, before it all plummeted down on Frieza's head.

...

'I'm almost healed, but will I even be needed there? I really wanna fight that guy!' Goku thought from inside his healing tank. It'd been impossible for him to ignore the energy from the battle even if he'd tried. Frieza's ship had been hit with multiple earthquakes, and now the area outside of his tank was totally underwater from the flood, though the water level was beginning to recede. 

Unbeknownst to Goku, the Core Girls were keeping a careful eye on his healing process, and were going to speed it up or slow it down depending on when they believed he'd be needed.

...

"Nappa...! Where are you going...!?" Vegeta wheezed from his spot on Nappa's back. He'd have been struggling to free himself from the bigger Saiyan's grip, but he'd been so injured by Frieza's gatling-tail attack that he couldn't even do that.

"I'm taking you to the Namekian village. They should be able to treat you there." Nappa informed him. Vegeta clicked his tongue, but even doing that caused him significant pain. 

"Fine..." Vegeta muttered, understanding the extent of his injuries.

...

"Ugh." Frieza panted. The boy's beam had felt... different... to Frieza, so he had dodged it at the last moment, but the sheer energy of it had still left the tyrant breathless. 'That... might have killed me.' He realized with a shudder. 'That boy... Could have killed me?! ME, THE EMPEROR OF THE UNIVERSE!? HOW DARE A SAIYAN BE THIS STRONG!?' With that attack, this fight had just stopped being a game to Frieza. The boy was a real threat. If he was allowed to get any stronger...

"I'M SICK OF THIS! You think you can kill me? The strongest being in the universe? Is that a joke?" Frieza said to Gohan, looking at the boy in a new light. All of the energy surrounding Gohan was now gone, but Frieza wasn't fooled. He knew that the boy's power could return at any time. It was time to finish them all off.

With a whip of his tail, Frieza sent Gohan flying. 

"GOHAN, ABOVE YOU!" Piccolo shouted, seeing the tyrant just suddenly appear in the path of Gohan's fall. What followed was the most painful game of catch that Gohan had ever played, except this time, there was only one catcher and he was the ball. Finally, once Frieza had tired of kicking the young half-Saiyan around, he kicked Gohan into the air with a hard blow to the chest, causing Gohan to cough up blood as he flew into the stratosphere.

"DIE BRAT! And take the whole damn planet with you!!!" Frieza shouted, appearing even higher up than Gohan was, pointing both of his hands down towards the planet. The tyrant created a huge energy ball above Gohan's head before chucking it to the ground, cackling in anticipation of the upcoming fireworks.

"GOHAN!" Piccolo shouted, flying up towards the two fighters, nothing on his mind but saving his young ward. Fortunately for Piccolo, he wasn't the only one planning on protecting Gohan. 

"OOOHHHHHH HAAAAAAA!!!!" I screamed, letting all of the energy I'd stolen from Frieza during this entire fight go in a single Supreme Wave that blasted past Gohan and collided with the energy ball above. 

This Supreme Wave wasn't just made up of what I'd managed to collect during Frieza's Gatling Tail barrage, but also the energy that Frieza had given off in the moment that he'd kicked me into the sea, as well as some of what he and Gohan had given off when he'd panicked dodging Gohan's last blast. In other words, it was enough energy to contend with Frieza's final form. The energy ball made by his third form didn't stand a chance against it, popping like a normal bubble the moment that it touched it. I could see Frieza manage to dodge it before it could actually hit his body, both that wasn't a big problem. I'd never expected it to damage the Frost Demon anyway. I'd just needed to destroy that energy ball before it hit Gohan and continued until it'd destroyed the entire planet. 

As for damaging Frieza...

"Alright, Frieza! I'm done sitting on the sidelines! You're fighting me now!" Raditz shouted, floating between Frieza and Gohan, his arms outstretched.

I was going to leave it to him.

He'd been planning on catching the ball himself to save Gohan, but my blast had managed to save his energy, because I knew he'd need it for what came next.

...

Piccolo grabbed the falling Gohan out of the air and began dropping back down to the planet's surface, feeling rather useless. With the power that Frieza had just shown, Piccolo didn't stand a chance against him, and he knew it. Krillin was even worse off, and Gohan in his arms had clearly exhausted all of his energy, just like Hanna had, but to an even worse degree.

"Come on, Raditz. You're the only hope we have left..." Piccolo couldn't help but mutter as the battle of titans began.