For someone like Legume, tournaments and martial arts bouts were one of the few sources of income available - after all, in the eyes of this society, he was pretty much an undocumented alien, who suddenly popped into existence one day and doesn't show up in the records of any government. How could such a person try to find a job or anything in that field?

Not that Legume exactly minded this, however. The strength and skills he acquired during his service in the Federation Armed Forces were always his most valuable asset anyway, this was pretty much a natural evolution of that. And, hey, he was decisively above average in this brave new fantasy world, too? A radical change from the Galaxy of the future he still remembers, where he, though considered talented one way or another, was nothing extraordinary.

Here? He could finally not only receive praise from entire crowds, but try to make a real change in society, and for the better? How?.. Well, he'll get back to you on the specifics. For now, he has one more tournament to win. And for one more time, his travels brought him back to Space Vegas, one of the few places in this entire Galaxy which even slightly resembled his home. Apparently, besides Shroomy's Invitational, there were a couple more official martial arts events held on the planet, organized by the same organization and announced by the same mushroom man.

The preliminaries and elimination rounds were not much of a challenge. The finals, however... they always brought surprises. And something in Legume's mind anticipated a surprise today as well.

With his ten foot long greatsword hanging on his back, the Saiyan stepped into the ring right after his opponent, his appearance immediately met with mutters, cheers and squeals. In the short time he has been in this Galaxy, he has already managed to acquire himself a fanbase, huh?.. The opponent on the other side was very clearly a Majin - the bubbly appearance, the pink skin and the eyes all gave it away instantly. Shroomy introduced her as Majin Ala, too, clearing out all second thoughts on that.

As far as Legume could tell, Majins were almost completely nonexistent, but still a noticeable presence in the Galaxy of this time - which makes sense. After all, it hasn't been too long since Majin Buu's last appearance, right? That's when the Majin community of his era marks the beginning of their history, if he recalled correctly. The Majin community was... small, by Galactic standards, but still numbered in a few millions, and their reluctance to mix with other species and unique traditions all made them the odd duck of the multi-species community of the Galactic Federation. They were fairly integrated in the Galactic Core, where Legume had lived most of his life, but Majin representatives in the Congress of the Federation consistently reported on anti-Majin xenophobia in the less developed regions of the Galactic Rim.

Okay, enough with the politics of a country he's never coming back to.

Legume walked up to his soon-to-be opponent, cracking a smile and extending a hand to the Majin woman, then spoke:

"Please. Just no absorption."

The time when one of his Majin schoolmates absorbed him when he was eleven years old was probably the most disgusting three hours of his life.

With the formalities dealt with, Legume stepped back and ran back to his side of the ring, taking out his massive greatsword, Vanity, from its hilt, then, as soon as the gong roared to signal the beginning of the match, a second slam followed right after - Legume's weapon smacking the ground and releasing a powerful shockwave rolling across the battlefield, in sync with the Saiyan's golden-haired transformation.

Just Super Saiyan 1, however. He had no idea what this Ala was capable of and opted to not waste energy while trying to find out. Not that the cheering crowd could tell the difference.

Sometimes guess and gut feelings go a long way. Legume expected this final opponent to be a real treat - and look at that, they turned out to be a real treat after all. When Majin Ala powered up, with a deafening scream and a gigantic aura surging from her body, the Saiyan was forced to close his eyes and cover his ears at the display - and once the transformation was finalized, though no notable physical changes to Ala had occurred and Legume couldn't even sense all the bottomless power within her, he could tell that the power difference between them was crushing. Overwhelming.

Exciting.

Legume's brief smirk at Ala's showcase of power vanished, however, when the Majin woman suddenly thrusted her hand to the sky and released a powerful barrage of energy blasts, aiming to carpet bomb the entire battlefield. Yeah, no, he's not going to be dodging that kind of attack with Time Skip or any other measure, the only option was to cross his arms, let the attacks hit and take all of them head on.

Once the barrage concluded and the arena where they were fighting had been left a smouldering ruin, Legume raised his eyes and witnessed in shock that there was not one Ala before him, but two. Majin Ka and Majin Ala, as they introduced themselves. Right... Majin fission. They're able to spawn multiple copies of themselves all connected by the same consciousness, exactly what Ala was pulling on him right now. In his time, the Majins often used this ability to make their numbers larger than they actually are during protest actions and demonstrations, and keeping track of Majin citizens for voting and tax collection purposes, among others, was always a serious pain.

Back to the fight.

In response to Ala and Ka both flaring up their powerful auras, rolling across the battlefield, Legume swung his greatsword forward, releasing a torrent of air forward to split the aura burst and leave himself unaffected. Immediately after, the two Majins charged forward, Ka sending her tail as a whip to which the Saiyan responded by suddenly leaping into the air and avoiding the appendage, just in time to witness a powerful pink beam of energy head straight towards him.

Legume's body acted on instinct. A crystalline bubble of time surrounded him as everything around him - both of the Majins, the incoming energy beam, the cheering crowds and Shroomy watching the duel - froze completely, and during the brief window of time which Time Skip lended to him, the Saiyan charged forward, speeding past the Vanishing Beam and sending his left fist forward towards Ala's neck before leaping back.

Stopping with a slide across the blasted arena, Legume took an easier breath, winding back his weapon and speaking:

"I should have brought earplugs to this fight."

The attack soon came, in the form of Legume swinging across the air and releasing a torrent of air towards his Majin opponent.

The Time Skip strike was more of a warning shot rather than a full force blow - not that it was going to be an effective technique against someone so malleable and rubbery as a Majin - but it made Ala pissed to no end regardless. Within moments, all hell ended up unleashed right before the Saiyan's face. First, the two Majins blew the torrent of air whipped up by Vanity straight back at Legume, forcing him to cross his arms and block the incoming returning strike before it tore him aside. Next, the two Majins suddenly dramatically grew in size, rising to be over fifty feet tall, and began spawning numerous child copies of themselves on the ground, all calling themselves Majin Zam and setting their sights on the Super Saiyan.

Within moments, Legume found himself no longer fighting just two Majins, but an entire army of them.

"Oh my nonexistant Gods."

Dozens of stretchy arm attacks immediately shot towards him in unison, one after the other to try to catch Legume off-guard and overpower his defensive instincts. The Saiyan used Time Skip wherever he could to avoid the slowest of the blows, but for most of time, he was forced to block or simply endure the incoming attacks.

Then, through the web of stretchy blows, the real hits came. Ala's tail whip was, once again, not all that difficult to dodge, while Ka's sweep kick presented a much more serious problem. Lacking any further options at dealing with the swift incoming attack, Legume activated his Time Skip, reappearing above the incoming attack and sending his elbow downward to smack the foot into the ground.

Just in time to witness an even more powerful Vanishing Beam heading straight his way. Alright, we've dealt with this once before. And this time, he's going to give more than a warning shot.

Activating his Time Skip, Legume suddenly charged forward, passing by the Vanishing Beam and making his way to Ala in the brief window of frozen time which the technique gave, then immediately released a series of powerful blows at the Majin's gigantic body before finally leaping back once the time of the technique ended.

Cocking back his greatsword yet again while flying away from the gigantic Majin woman, Legume swung it across the air once more to whip up an another torrent of air, dust, rubble and any of her minions which might have gotten picked up in the whirlwind.

...

How.

How did she just...

...dodge his Time Skip barrage?

No, he did not somehow forget to activate it, he remembered the moment when he tensed his muscles and released his aura in just a way to dip into the Time Skip technique. The crystalline time bubble surrounding him from all sides indicated just that, too. And Ala dodged all of his attacks.

That shouldn't be physically possible.

Legume was so baffled in the moments after his Time Skip barrage that he even forgot that he was in the middle of a battle, paying for the slip-up dearly when Ala's counter-barrage began. Dozens of Zams struck him one after the other from all sides, the Saiyan barely found the time to cross his arms, much less dodge, as he got slapped around from one place to another with unbelievable speed.

Legume did, however, regain his senses when the time came for the two giant Majins to step in to the fray - the loud, piercing scream coming from his back and ringing in the Saiyan's ears must have helped him to realize the predicament he was in - and began responding appropriately. Faced with Ka's gigantic downwards slam, Legume activated his Time Skip to get out of the way and send a counter-blow at the giant Majin's cheek in the brief window of time the technique gave him. His response to Ala's follow-up tail smack was much of the same - get out of the way of the frozen attack and send a counter-attack, even if what had happened mere seconds earlier indicated that it might just be a waste of energy.

After his counter attack to the tail whip, Legume landed on the ground with a long slide, taking a second to catch his breath and analyze what he has learned so far with a clearer mind. The only hypothesis he came up with so far was that Ala was simply so powerful and so fast that she was faster than stopped time. This, combined with the fact that her Majin powers gave so much manpower that the Saiyan basically had to face an entire army instead of a mere opponent, meant that this was definitely going to be a losing battle.

Oh.

Ala is not even finished.

A powerful pink beam was heading straight Legume's way and it was already too close for him to activate Time Skip in time and hope to get the hell out of dodge. Lacking any other options, the Saiyan cracked a smirk, clutched the handle of his greatsword more tightly and charged straight into the incoming energy beam, striking it with his weapon.

An enormous clash took place, outshining everything in the entire arena, but soon enough, pushing through the avalanche of pain heading his way, Legume's weapon cleaved through the Vanishing Beam, splitting it into two halves, each of which heading their separate ways. Not only that, but the Saiyan also suddenly spun his weapon around, deflecting one half of the Vanishing Beam to send it straight back at Ala.

That was...

...exhausting, but really exciting. And since he has a bit more time before the next pain train arrives, why not address what the Majin had spoken to him earlier, but he could not address in the heated moment?

"I'd be more surprised if you said I was inferior to Dain. Fought him as well. Beat him as well." Legume spoke, holding up his weapon in a crouching defensive stance. Wonder what technique that bounty hunter is going to bring the next time they inevitably fight, huh? "Before we move on to the finale, though... please, enlighten me, how in the world are you faster than time?"

Hurrah, at least the two Majins were not faster than time now. With several well-placed strikes, Legume cleaved away the alien's limbs and send both of her copies reeling back from the shock. If he had placed such injuries on anyone else, it would be... severely problematic, but the Saiyan had grown well accustomed to the Majins not only being able to stretch and copy their bodies any way they might want, but also regenerate any physical damage placed upon them.

And here the two of them go, employing a rather gross looking procedure to regenerate the lost limbs and land back on the ground, one on one side of Legume and the other on the other. At these levels of power, there were only two ways to defeat a Majin - dish out so much damage that their regeneration simply becomes overwhelmed and their stamina can no longer take it, or toss them into a place which is able to dish out that constant damage for you, say, a star. Neither one of the two was really feasible right now. Ala was significantly more powerful than the Super Saiyan right now, so the former was not an option, while the latter would result in death and that's not really what a tournament is about.

So...

I'm sure I'll find a solution somewhere on the way.

Thankfully, Ala responded well to Legume's offer to talk a few things out before they begin the next phase of the fight and started to talk, giving the Saiyan a minute of reprieve, which he used to catch his breath, rest his muscles a little bit and recover his reserves. After pointing out that Legume and Dain were not even comparable - despite Dain's greater transformations, Legume fought with considerably more skill and technique - Ala suddenly emphasized her interest in whether the Saiyan was holding back on her. Cracking a smirk, the Saiyan offered a reply:

"Would you be fine if I told you the answer was both yes and no? I could, indeed, push myself a lot farther than I do now, perhaps even up to your level - but you can already tell that it's not the way I fight. I'd rather not waste the energy in power level competitions which I could be using to take you down."

Besides, who is he to presume that this is Ala's maximum? It would be a terrifying thought, to witness a person with raw power such great that even his Super Saiyan 2 form pales in comparison to it, but it's far from impossible to imagine. After that brief exchange, the gigantic Majins blew Legume a kiss and, stating that they find him both challenging and handsome, chose to explain just how they were faster than his Time Skip.

Legume blinked and then shivered at the thought, lightly shaking his head.

Hard pass.

Then he took a second glance at the feminine Majin.

...Light pass. Depends on how drunk I am.

What Ala proceeded to explain was just as terrifying, however. The power difference between the two of them is so great that her Majin Magic is able to outright cancel the effects of his Time Skip. He stops time - she unstops it. That... is going to be problematic. And with that final thought, the fight restarted yet again, with Ala's usual overwhelming barrage of stretch attacks and minion rushes - Legume responded to the barrage the only way he had available, dodge everything which he had the chance to dodge and tank everything else, hoping that you don't rack up too much damage and don't get knocked out. As time passed, however, the latter became increasingly prominent - exhaustion at constant Time Skip spam was, once again, starting to set in, it was far from the most energy efficient technique.

When the two giant Majins stepped in after their minions, Legume turned around, swiping across the air with his weapon to blow away the last remaining Mystic Attacks which still targeted him, then exclaimed:

"If you want to un-pause time, you first need to know when it's being paused!"

That was the guess, really.

The barrage of punches and kicks soon came. The trick was... that activating Time Skip requires a very specific muscular twitch and aura burst, which can be replicated without actually activating the technique. As such, Legume sped across the gap between the two giant Majins, dodging incoming blows wherever he could - every time whenever the opportunity to deal a counter-attack came up, be it with a punch or kick closing in or the giant's body showing a gap in its defenses, the Saiyan would randomly pick between Time-Skipping and cleaving through the limb during the pause, or suddenly lunging forward and slashing across the attack with his heavy weapon without the need of a skip. Despite that, in both of those times, he'd make the usual muscle-tense and aura burst.

Hopefully, Ala would get thrown off by the change in tactics - the point was to try to make her double-guess on whether the action she is seeing is a Time Skip or an average attack, whether she needs to "un-pause" time, and thus give Legume the time window needed to actually deal damage.

The clash between two giant Majins and a Saiyan flying in between them continued for some time, until suddenly, Legume saw a hand shoved straight at himself and a massive blast of energy come out from the palm.

Oh.

Kaboom.

A massive glassed trail rolled across the battlefield, up until the barrier separating the ring from the spectators, taking a cone-like form - in its center, however, a small, extremely sharp path of completely untouched floor tiles could be seem.

And at its tip stood a golden-haired Saiyan, his massive weapon standing on its tip in front of him, having served as a hasty shield during the beam strike and wide enough to have covered him from injury almost entirely.

Legume let out a snicker, lowering his weapon and staring at Ala with his piercing blue eyes, then raised his free left hand and twitched his fingers inwards, sending a taunt to the Majin to try again, and harder this time.

In retrospect, perhaps it was highly optimistic to imagine that a counter which Legume had thought up on the fly for Ala's abilities would not get countered just as swiftly by the Majin herself. Through none other than a psychic connection, too - which made the Saiyan's random decisions on whether to skip or not to skip completely meaningless, as Ala was able to read all the information she needed and react accordingly.

Which, with that in mind, makes Legume's decision to further taunt Ala all the more baffling. He was already losing the fact, and decidedly so, so why try to hasten his defeat like that? Well...

Isn't getting an opponent ten times stronger than you so invested in defeating you that they rage, scream and charge at you kind of a victory anyway? In a twisted way, perhaps. It was certainly an achievement.

"Well, if you're reading my thoughts... all I have to do is just not think."

Or sever the telepathic connection. Legume's psychic abilities were fairly... basic, however. He did not know if he would even be able to sever the connection in time for the battle picking up again. Plus, this was just a lot funnier.

Acting on instinct, the Saiyan leapt straight into the fray, crossing his arms at the immediate onslaught of Mystic Attacks and Vanishing Beams, deflecting the few beams to the ground with his weapon whenever he could, then began zipping across the battlefield, getting out of the way of the barrages upon barrages of stretching kicks from the giant Majins heading his way - employing his Time Skip whenever his instincts deemed it appropriate, but generally only relying on his natural speed to avoid getting hit.

Until finally, Ala appeared right before him, revealing a... far from an attractive mouth cavity. Thankfully, Legume did not get to stare into it for long, as the Majin promptly released a powerful mouth blast straight at the Super Saiyan.

It was a question of milliseconds. A crystalline bubble of frozen time once again formed around the engulfed Saiyan, everything around him frozen in place. He already did not have much time before the Time Skip technique fades away, and he has to worry about Ala undoing the time pause as well. Cloaked in a thick layer of aura to protect himself from the negative, immobilizing effects of the energy beam, Legume suddenly emerged from the vast Ill Flash - and promptly, before the Time Skip faded, sent his heavy greatsword straight towards the Majin's eye.

The technique faded away shortly after, but Legume remained on the offensive, flying back to gain some distance from the Majin giant and swinging across the air to send a yet another torrent of air at his opponent.