Raditz was gasping for air, his back was against a cave wall, his hands pressed tightly against his abdomen.

Though it didn't help much as a big hole was punched through him, making him paralyzed below the waist, it at least helped stop the pain just a little.

" Piccolo packs a mean punch, if I wasn't a Saiyan, I would be toast. "

Gasped Raditz as he whispered with some effort, the new soul inhabiting Raditz had taken over him a while ago, his dead body to be precise.

This was shortly after Raditz got punched through by piccolo, Goku and Gohan's combined might.

Even if piccolo's energy beam didn't hit his heart or lungs, it did blow a hole straight through him. Raditz had died shortly after because of the shockwave stopping his heart.

' Uff, no matter, Saiyan's had worse and they survived, Vegeta survived a similar injury on namek for quite some time without healing, Goku had worse before and survived just fine. '

Thought Raditz, thankfully, his soul taking over had restarted this body's heart, his lungs were mostly fine too, his wounds were burnt close because of the high energy wave.

So he wasn't bleeding out at least, he was safe for a while here, thankfully the Z warriors had left his body alone and gave him a simple burial.

Crawling out of the pit and cleaning out the dirt stuck in his gaping wound had been a chore.

" I need food, without healing magic or senzu bean, this is quickest way for a Saiyan, Goku was completely destroyed in his fight against piccolo, he was just fine after he ate. It's worth a shot. "

Whispered Raditz, it hurt to speak, but he did it anyway, he had to keep his focus, he couldn't feel anything below his chest, the dark cave was dusty and dry.

Any lesser man in his situation would have given up by now, but Raditz didn't, be it this body's inherent Saiyan pride, or the new soul's own willpower.

He decided to go outside and find food, it was nighttime, unless he made a lot of noise, nobody should find or sense him, they weren't specifically looking for him either, original Raditz was not felt either until he had approached Goku.

" I can't walk, I need to fly, thankfully I have for plenty of ki, a power level of 1300 before I got roasted. "

Said Raditz as his body slowly floated up, he had his left hand pressed against his abdomen, with his right dangling aimlessly on the side his figure slowly floated away.

He was floating upright as he couldn't go flat anymore, he had all of Raditz's memories, he could use a basic flight technique like this in his sleep.

' I need to find some kind of giant beast, more meat I eat, the sooner I get the required nutrients to fix myself. '

Thought Raditz as he floated to a nearby forest, and then kept floating up until he reached a good position above the trees.

He pressed his right hand on the device attached to his ear and started to scan the forest, his spare scouter was beeping continuously and soon found a power level of 8.

* Beep *

* Beep *

* Beep *

" 8? "

Thought Raditz, that couldn't be a human, so it could only be a prehistoric beast, knowing the jungle around these parts it was the biggest possibility.

The old Raditz had taken a passing look before choosing this place for battle and that helped him make a decision quicker.

" It's a herbivore dinosour, six times as big a me, okay, this should be fine. "

Whispered Raditz, as he floated up slowly and raised his finger, he didn't want to fire a ki blast as that would make a lot of noise, and he wasn't interested in doing that while being paralyzed.

So he decided to try and fire a thin beam type attack, it wasn't something hard, Piccolo had one, Freeza had one, Tien had one, Tao pai pai had one, master Shin had one and he could go on.

But the main point was, just firing his energy in a beam wasn't that difficult for him as a Saiyan, it was the additional effects behind him that was the hard part.

" But I don't need anything extra at all. This is just fine for a power level 8. "

Said Raditz and his energy gathered on his pointer finger.

* Pssst *

A silent attack and a successful assassination, Raditz would have preferred to take his hunt elsewhere, but he didn't have the luxury to.

He could barely move with his ki pushing for him, carrying a body six times his size was not something he could even attempt right now.

Thankfully the beast was alone, so he didn't have to look out for a group, his scouter made sure nobody was around the area, understanding that he quickly landed.

" Let's get this done. I don't have fire but I have Ki, a tame amount should be enough to at least barbecue it. "

Said Raditz, his body was now giving signals to eat, even if his stomach was blow off from the top, he couldn't even eat food the usual way, his food pipe was no more.

Raditz twisted his neck, got himself pumped up and started cleaning his hunt with his bare hands.

Blasting away anything that could attract predators he kept what he could eat, and used a weak continuous energy attack to cook his food.

* Ssssssh *

After a hour long session, an aroma started lingering, during which Raditz was leaning against a tree as he cooked from afar.

This also made him more familiar with energy usage, even if he had all the memories from first person, it was always good to experiment more.

Seeing that his food was almost done, Raditz floated to it and started to tear apart the tender meat.

* Chew *

He took his time and chewed it thoroughly, then spat out the food in his hands.

Because he simply couldn't eat the normal way, he had to resort to using the bird technique, but more brutal.

Taking the food, he stretched his hand to his stomach hole and found the burnt up and closed part of his stomach opening.

" Here goes nothing, aah that stings. "

Said Raditz as he tore open his cauterized wound and did the job his food pipe was supposed to do.

He paused for a while, and carefully felt his stomach, it was indeed doing it's work just fine, he could feel it, at least the remaining portion of it, spring to action.

And he knew this because he was a Saiyan, his stomach had the ability to digest very quickly, Saiyan's could eat a mountain of food and not have a raised tummy, this was how.

" Huff, okay, I might just survive, no, I will definitely make it, no doubt about it. "

Laughed Raditz as he finally relaxed, he was pretty tensed for quite a while now, having a big old hole punched through his body wasn't fun.

If this didn't work, he would have to resort to using his Oozaru form and try to rob korin tower, he wasn't sure if he could even do that, considering his paralyzed state.

" Okay, let's eat, as long as I don't die, I should survive, Saiyan's are too tenacious for me to die now, this is how we get a zenkai boost after all. "

Near death state wasn't something fun but Saiyan's lived with it as a part of their lives, a near death state includes everything from a hole in your chest to having the majority of your organs vaporized.

But even from states like that including any and all near death states, Saiyan's can get a power boost, as long as they somehow manage to survive, they will eventually heal and come back stronger than ever.

This was what truly gave them their universal nickname of a warrior race, the ability to adapt to the environment, a Saiyan wouldn't stop until they were dead, and Raditz, he was now very much alive, and didn't plan to go down anytime soon.

" Okay, I need to create a shelter for myself, the cave I stayed in is too close to the battlefield, a bad choice should someone come to check. "

Raditz had by now made some preliminary plans for his eventual comeback, he only needed time and safety, and he had a pretty good idea on how to give himself maximum amount of both.