"You don't have to do this, old man. Since you know you can't win, you can always simply give up." I offered as I stepped onto the stage opposite Master Roshi, still in his Jackie Chun disguise.
"You're right. I don't stand a chance against a monster like you… But I'm a martial artist. We don't run from good fights!" I grinned. Just as expected from the strongest human alive, bar none.
As Roshi took his shirt off, tossed it aside, and bulked up notably, I suppressed my own Super Saiyan Primal ki to match his. It was decently difficult, but that made my SSJP bloodlust flare up even more. I was even more excited for this match than I was the one with Tater. I didn't mind not being able to use my full strength, if it meant a fight as enjoyable as this one looked like it was going to be.
As soon as the fight began, I charged in with a simple, straightforward punch, as fast as Roshi's power level would allow my body to move. Naturally, Roshi batted it aside with almost no force, a decision that I used to my own advantage in order to speed up my next attempt to hit him, an elbow from the side that was actually just a feint, which I hoped he'd react to, leaving an opening down lower for me to sneak a punch in.
Instead, I was forced to change my punch's trajectory to block Roshi's counterattack.Recovering quickly, though, I attempted to grab his shoulder and pull it in to bring him off guard, only to be forced to shift out of the way of Roshi's fist, which nearly clipped my gut.
When I turned around to hit him again, in response to the attempted gut punch, I found myself pulled into a shoulder throw that sent me flying through the air.
Twisting my body midair, I landed lightly on my feet… in front of Roshi.
He'd turned around, and was rushing in with a lightning-fast offensive designed to take advantage of the fact that my feet had only just touched the ground.
Even with how my mind was used to much faster movements than this, I found my body barely able to keep up, and I was quickly forced backwards once, then twice.
Before long, I found my feet half-hanging off of the side of the stage. I was in danger of falling out of bounds, and Roshi wasn't even in a rush, so I couldn't wait for him to overextend and make a mistake trying to force me out or off guard.
Totally unpredictable. The guy was just… better than me. Way better than me. If I wasn't so much stronger than him that this speed literally felt like we were standing still, I'd have been defeated in an instant.
But with the time to think my actions through, I stood a chance.
Bending my leg as if to jump, I did a modified cartwheel to the left instead, before rolling forward, back into the center of the arena. Landing on one knee, I swept my foot around, spinning to instantly face back toward Roshi before he could take advantage of my looking another way.
Pausing, as the announcer shouted in the background, we both took deep breaths, reading each other's intent in a quiet stalemate that only lasted about a minute.
Our next flurry of exchanges started with Roshi rushing me, only for me to spring skyward with a perfect crescent arc, the heel of my foot getting within millimeters of the old man's chest as it sliced through the air, not that Roshi was fazed at all. We exchanged blows five separate times while I was still in the air, before I landed and immediately broke into another offensive.
"GA-UH!" My arm felt like it was being ripped out of its socket, as Roshi grabbed it and yanked, turning a feint into an overextension that had me surprised and off balance just long enough for the old man to land one blow on my upper chest, and another direct jab to my throat, blasting me backwards with the force of a truck.
I landed with enough force to crack the stage, clutching my throat in pain as I revised my estimates of my chances at beating Roshi using the same power level as him.
Inwardly, I dropped them from a tentative 10% to a tentative 5%. He had a great read of my style, while I still couldn't predict a thing that Roshi would do. In skill, he had me soundly beat, and it was incredible to feel.
I proceeded to rush in twice more. The first time, he tried to redirect my fist with his bicep, only to find that my punch was a trap, and I had him in a grappling lock.
Which he utilized to throw me over his shoulder, planting my face directly into the concrete of the stage floor.
The second time, I was even trickier. Fists flew several times in quick succession, before I tried to throw a feint and use it to force an opening in his form when he inevitably caught it, like he had so far.
And I was right. His muscles began to flow, taking advantage of an opening that my feint had caused that I hadn't even realized was there. He was about to slam his fist right into my side-
When I spat in his face and spun around, trying to whip the old man in his ancient face with my tail.
Roshi responded instantaneously, by catching the tail with his fist and shoving me backward.