Chapter 96 – Mirror Match

"Finished?" Ajax asked flatly as Jeice ended the call.

Jeice tilted his head slightly, studying Ajax with curiosity. "What's your name, mate?"

"Ajax."

Jeice acknowledged the response with a nod. "You didn't even take a crack at me while I was yappin', and you even took the time to straighten out what we're s'posed to do. What's with the cooperation?" His tone was inquisitive since he was genuinely interested in the unusual behavior.

"Are you asking why I prefer not to see my friends' sexual organs be forcibly ripped off?" Ajax's expression remained flat as he replied dryly.

The statement was delivered with such deadpan seriousness that it threw Jeice off balance. He shook his head, letting out an amused snort at Ajax's bluntness. "Fair enough," he conceded.

Jeice crossed his arms and sized Ajax up with a thoughtful look.

"Oi," he started, his voice taking on a more thoughtful edge. "I've been keepin' an eye on ya. You've got a knack for energy control and a no-nonsense attitude. How 'bout joining the Ginyu Force? Reckon you'd fit right in with us. We could use someone with your skills, and we do need a no-nonsense type to round us off ever since Bonyu bailed on us while back."

"No." Ajax's reply was immediate and resolute, leaving no room for negotiation. The Frieza Force held no appeal for him for obvious reasons, and those weird-ass poses alone were reason enough to stay FAR away.

Jeice wasn't deterred by the first refusal, though.

"C'mon, give it another thought. I reckon you're more than up to the job—hell, you're bloody brilliant. You've got strength, brains, and the guts to back it up. Cap would be stoked to have ya," he said, his tone growing more earnest. "Think about it. You could be more than just another fighter; you could be part of somethin' bigger, somethin'… legendary."

"No. Ya'll are freaking weird."

"…"

Jeice sighed, clearly disappointed but not entirely surprised.

"Yeah, the captain's a bit of a geek for that Sentai stuff, which is why we've gotta do those ridiculous poses, but the retirement perks are bloody top-notch beyond all that," he said with a hint of resignation. He paused, glancing upward and tilting his head in thought as if considering how best to continue.

"I'd even think about bailing on the Ginyu Force for ya," Jeice said after a moment, his tone growing dead serious. "We could kick off a new crew, just the two of us if you're that... adverse to the captain's antics. No silly poses, no Sentai rubbish—just a team focused on gettin' the job done. You'd have a say in everything, mate. Picture it—no one to answer to but ourselves and Lord Frieza. We could carve out our own place in the galaxy."

Jeice watched Ajax intently. "This is a rare shot, Ajax. Not everyone gets the chance to write their own rules."

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks," Ajax replied. "I hate to break it to you, but those retirement benefits you're banking on might not last long. There's a strong chance Frieza won't be leaving this planet alive."

Jeice's eyebrows shot up, nearly disappearing into his hairline. For a moment, he was stunned into silence, struggling to process what Ajax had just said. In this era, few dared to oppose Lord Frieza, let alone openly declare their intention to take him down. Jeice couldn't even recall the last time someone had attempted to assassinate Lord Frieza; it was so rare that such attempts had almost become myths.

Shaking his head, Jeice finally found his voice.

"Shame. Us bein' mutants of a similar nature, we've probably got more in common than I do with my people as a whole. We could've learned so much from each other," he mused with genuine regret. "But I suppose that's just the way things go, eh? Different paths, different choices."

There was a sense of finality in his words, as if he knew that this conversation marked the end of any potential alliance between them.

The two warriors locked eyes once more, but the atmosphere had completely changed. Gone was the casual, almost friendly vibe. Now, only hostility remained.

The air buzzed with the promise of violence.

Jeice struck first. With a swift wave of his hand, five glowing orbs of energy materialized behind him, forming an arc like a menacing halo. The orbs immediately shot forward, streaking through the sky like meteors on a collision course with Ajax.

But Jeice wasn't done yet. As the energy blasts sped toward Ajax, he launched a second, more abstract assault. His energy surged forward like a tidal wave, aiming to overwhelm Ajax's presence and assert control over the environment. Their energies collided with a massive burst of sparks.

Ajax remained calm even as Jeice's energy blasts approached. With a series of subtle movements, he deftly sidestepped the initial few attacks, his body shifting just enough to let the searing energy fly past him. Then, as the final blast neared, he made no attempts to avoid it. Instead, he extended his hand and caught the orb of destructive energy squarely in his palm.

The energy erupted in a blinding flash, engulfing Ajax in a cloud of flames. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath. But such an attack could not possibly defeat Ajax. With a swift, controlled burst of his Ki, he dispersed the fiery explosion, emerging completely unscathed.

As he had anticipated, the attack had barely inflicted any damage. That being said, Ajax knew that Jeice hadn't used his full strength—this was merely a prelude, a test before the real battle began.

Across the battlefield, Jeice's eyebrow arched in mild disappointment, but he quickly refocused. The time for testing the waters was over. It's time to see just how far Ajax's confidence could carry him against the full might of a Ginyu Force elite.

Jeice promptly changed his tactics. He raised his hands again and waved them like a master conductor orchestrating a symphony, causing various points in the air around him to swell with energy. At these points, red ripples formed, resembling the disturbed surface of water after a stone had been thrown.

Jeice brought his hands down, and no fewer than fifty additional ripples appeared all around. In the center of these ripples, energy blasts quickly materialized, hovering behind him like some vast and complicated constellation.

The attack looked eerily similar to a signature move of a certain iconic golden Archer.

Jeice looked at the stunned Ajax in the eyes.

"Meteor Storm."

At the command, the blasts shot forward as one.

'I want that!' was Ajax's first reaction at the sight of the Gate of Babylon-esque attack. But that moment of admiration was quickly replaced by a more urgent: 'OH SHIT!'

The blasts moved with terrifying speed, converging on Ajax like a swarm of guided missiles. Ajax's instincts took over. He sprang into action, twisting through the air with fluid, acrobatic grace. He narrowly dodged the first wave, each blast streaking past him with naught but inches to spare.

As Ajax skillfully evaded the initial barrage, he noticed something unsettling. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the energy blasts he had dodged were not dissipating or losing momentum. Instead, they were curving back to home in on him.

'Oh, but of course!' Ajax thought sarcastically. 'Homing blasts! Why wouldn't they be homing?'

In that split second, Ajax made a snap decision. He knew he couldn't keep dodging indefinitely; the blasts were too numerous and too well-controlled. It was only a matter of time before one—or all of them—would catch him off guard. He needed a new strategy.

Ajax's energy flared up around him like a protective shield as he curled up mid-air, drawing his arms and legs tightly against his body to brace for impact.

The first blast exploded on contact with a thunderous boom, but Ajax stood firm, his body absorbing the majority of the impact. Then the second blast hit, followed by the third, and then the fourth, each one slamming into him endlessly.

Even as the sky lit up with countless explosions, an invisible war unfolded between the two. Their energies collided, pushed, and pulled in an intricate dance, each fighter striving to dominate the space between them. This was a battle of wills—a clash of energy taking place in the unseen currents of air around them. Invisible as it may be, it was still a struggle as crucial to the outcome of the battle as any attack.

But Jeice had always been quick to capitalize on an opportunity. With Ajax distracted by the onslaught of energy blasts exploding around him, Jeice saw his opening to tip the scales. He concentrated his energy and thrust it forward with a decisive mental command. His power roared across the battlefield, clashing with and pressing forcefully against Ajax's energy.

The maneuver was highly effective.

Jeice's energy easily engulfed a significant portion of the space that had previously been under Ajax's control.

However, the satisfaction of his success was short-lived. As Jeice reinforced his control over the new area conquered, he noticed something alarming. Ajax's energy, which had been stable, suddenly surged to levels far exceeding what Jeice had anticipated.

His scouter beeped frenetically, struggling to keep up with the rapid surge in power. The screen flashed a five-digit number, but Jeice only had a chance to register the first digit—an eight—before he had to redirect his attention back to the fight.

Ajax had burst out of the chaos of fire and smoke from the heart of the explosion. Despite having withstood the full force of Jeice's attacks, Ajax appeared only minimally scorched, his defenses seemingly intact.

Ajax directed his energy outward, shaping it into a streamlined, tube-like trajectory in front of him. By forcibly reducing air resistance to almost zero, he created a sleek corridor that allowed him to move at stunning speeds. The air itself seemed to part for him, offering no resistance as he shot across the battlefield like a missile, abandoning his previously controlled area and diving headlong into Jeice's territory without a second thought.

The abruptness of Ajax's maneuver caught Jeice completely off guard, but his defensive energy gates still reacted immediately. Beams of energy shot down to target Ajax, but Ajax's manipulation of the air made him far faster than Jeice had anticipated.

Now, Jeice had expected Ajax to be fast, but not Burter-levels of fast.

As a result, Meteor Storm's beams ended up chasing a phantom. They pursued Ajax's afterimage, futilely striking at the spots where he had just been rather than where he would be. The sky was illuminated with missed attacks as Ajax tore through Jeice's domain with sheer momentum.

With Ajax closing in at an alarming speed, Jeice's instincts screamed for him to retreat. He quickly launched himself backward, attempting to create space between them. But just as he began to retreat, a sudden jolt stopped him dead in his tracks. His eyes widened in disbelief, and within an instant, he understood what had happened.

Ajax had outmaneuvered him in the most unexpected of ways.

Instead of trying to contest for control of the entire battlefield, Ajax had focused all his energy on a thin, narrow strip of air right around him. This concentrated energy acted like a vise, pinning Jeice in place, if only for the briefest of moments. But in the world of high-speed combat, that moment was all that was needed.

Ingenious! Jeice thought, but there was no time to dwell on it further, as Ajax was already within a foot of him, fist drawn back.

Jeice barely managed to cross his arms defensively in a last-ditch effort to shield himself.

Ajax's full-force, momentum-driven strike landed a heartbeat later.

The Pinpoint Impact struck Jeice's crossed arms with a thunderous boom. The sheer power of the blow generated shockwaves powerful enough to disrupt the trajectory of everything around them. The energy beams trailing Ajax were thrown off course by the shockwave, careening wildly in all directions.

Jeice's arms immediately buckled under the tremendous strain, and he was driven downward with crushing force. The ground beneath him buckled and exploded outward, sending a massive plume of dust and debris shooting into the sky. The effect was similar to a MOAB exploding just below the ocean surface but with dirt erupting dramatically instead of water.

In the wake of the Pinpoint Impact, the energy ripples—those intricately controlled gates fired homing beams—stopped and began to dissipate as Jeice's control over them wavered. Ajax hovered above, breathing heavily as he took a moment to evaluate whether the battle had ended.

After all, even a half-assed one of these had taken Nappa down in a single hit.

To test his theory, Ajax fired a medium-sized blast toward the center of the impact zone. The blast approached the dust cloud, but Ajax's hopes were dashed. Instead of exploding, the energy attack curved away on its own and landed somewhere in the distance.

Damn it. It wasn't over!