Ch. 56: Overwhelmed

"Do whatever you want with me, but I'm still not going to give you a Dragon Ball." Moori refused to surrender. Frieza appreciated stubbornness. He congratulated the elder on his resolve, but it was clearly futile. 

"We'll see how noble you are when your children are at stake."

Elder Moori was horrified. "Please, no!" Frieza raised a finger slowly. "Please! I'll tell you anything!" Frieza's underlings just laughed. 

"Rrgh...Rrgh." Gohan was really struggling to contain his power by this point. Luckily for us, just as Dodoria picked up the power that he was failing to contain, he was interrupted by the timely arrival of a handful of Namekian warriors.

"Aah, finally!" Moori exclaimed, relieved as the warriors landed.

"Impressive landing. Too bad you're late." Frieza taunted the Namekians, directing their attention to the bodies on the ground.

"Who are you and what have you done to the elders!?" One of the Namekians asked, horrified. 

Frieza introduced himself as an 'aspiring dragon ball hunter.' Apparently, the Namekians had heard talk about Frieza's entrance. They were angry about the harm that Frieza'd done to their people.

"Dodoria." Frieza asked his underling to check their power levels. Checking them with his scouter, Dodoria laughed.

"Watch out. They're packing some serious heat, their power levels are at one thousand each! We better run away!" Dodoria joked.

Moori instantly realized what those scouters could do. They could track people and gauge their energy output. They had known exactly where they were all along.

"They're clearly just suppressing their power levels." Krillin whispered, surprised that the people with the scouters didn't see that. 

"Those scouters. They're relying on them too much. Vegeta and Nappa didn't understand it at first either." Piccolo whispered back.

After that, the battle between the Namekians and Frieza's henchmen began. At first, the Namekians with their superior techniques and powers were able to easily wipe out Frieza's forces, but that quickly changed. Dodoria's second check to his scouter showed the Namekian's power levels at three thousand each.

Krillin, Gohan, and the two young Namekian boys near Elder Moori were all ecstatic, watching the Namekians overwhelm the Frieza force so easily, but Piccolo, Moori, and I simply watched with grating teeth. Dodoria and Zarbon were in a different league from the others, and Frieza was nigh invincible by comparison. We knew how this would probably turn out.

Moori watched the battlefield. 'Only three devices remaining. I need to destroy them.'

He ordered the two children to move away from him before he did anything. He didn't want them caught up in the crossfire. 

Finally, Frieza ordered Dodoria to make a move. "Dodoria. It's time."

"Do you want me to just kill one as an example?" Dodoria asked.

"Kill them all." Frieza ordered coldly. But before Dodoria could begin to carry out his orders, an energy beam hit him in the face, destroying his scouter. Surprised and angry, he made eye contact with the Namekian responsible. "I've had worse insect bites, you know." He told the elder smugly. But he wasn't smug for long.

Moori jumped high into the air, ignoring the protests from the three adult Namekians, and aimed carefully. Both of his next shots hit their targets, destroying all of Frieza's remaining scouters.

"Hahahahaha!" Moori laughed in triumph.

"The scouters!" Zarbon realized, "I should have known."

"Crafty old man." Piccolo muttered, a smirk on his face.

"W-wait... why is he destroying the scouters?" Gohan asked, confused.

"Without the scouters... Frieza and his men can't sense energy or locate people. You've gotta admire the old dog. He's risking everything to protect his people!"

"Even if they find this dragon ball, they won't have an easy time finding the next one without their scouters." I added.

"You think you're smart? Destroying the scouters won't save you! I'll kill all of you!" Dodoria was enraged. He screamed at the elder floating above him. "And I'll start with you!"

"Get out!" One of the warriors shouted, but Moori was just an old man at the end of the day. He wasn't any match for Dodoria in strength or speed.

"Ready to die!?" Dodoria flew into the air, to our horror. None of us were fast enough to stop it, we could just tell... If I used Silver, I'd be able to, but that wasn't something that I was willing to do.

"Dodoria!" Frieza shouted. Within punching distance of the elder, Dodoria stopped like a trained dog at his master's order. "The three young warriors first!"

Dodoria hesitated for a single moment. "Aargh!" He muttered, dropping to the ground in front of the three Namekian warriors. I could feel Piccolo tense up beside me, but he didn't move a muscle.

"Alright. A little appetizer, then?" Dodoria laughed evilly. "Which of you weaklings wants to die first?"

"Don't be absurd! There's three of us and only one of you!" One of the warriors said valiantly. Deep down, they all knew that they didn't stand a chance against Dodoria, though.

"Don't think numbers will give you safety." Dodoria sneered, "I can take on twelve of you."

After that, the fat pink alien made his move. He punched a hole right through the chest of the first warrior, before opening his mouth "DAAH!" A beam of energy came right out of his mouth, vaporizing a second warrior on the spot. The final warrior tried to fight back, up close, then he shot the most powerful energy blast that he was capable of right at Dodoria, but it didn't even faze the pink alien. With an evil smirk, he headbutted the third Namekian warrior right into the ground. The village's strongest warriors were thus cut down without much of any ability to resist.

"Heh heh... Now do you understand? You cannot defeat us. NOW GIVE ME THE DRAGON BALL!" Frieza shouted at Moori, the only adult Namekian left standing in the entire village.

Defeated, Moori dropped to the ground. 

"Good. You've made the right decision. And, since you owe us for destroying our shouters, I think this is a fair trade, don't you agree?" Frieza chided.

"You wretch." Moori grumbled, "You leave me no choice. Just promise that you'll leave us in peace!"

Frieza clearly had no intentions of doing so. I could see it in his eyes, but what he said was entirely opposite. "Oh, and don't worry. I'll keep an eye on the children until you get back."