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Chapter 396: Superman has Arrived
The main battlefield of the World Army.
To every soldier of the World Army, this battlefield and the enemies swarming before their eyes were nothing new. Everyone present had endured to this day through long-term combat against these alien monsters.
But being familiar was one thing. Adapting?
They might never be able to adapt to such an inferno.
Just ten minutes after the first gunshot, the battlefield had transformed into an inferno. Facing the World Army's main force was the vast army of Apokolips, led by two New Gods. The World Army was at a numerical disadvantage, but the collaboration between the military and civilian superpowered individuals was working hard to even the odds.
The military's heavy firepower was Atom Smasher. He could freely grow to tens of meters tall, his immense arm strength increasing with his size.
The main force among the civilian reinforcements who had rushed over was Doctor Fate.
The Guardian of Order, the most powerful mage. A golden cape fluttered behind him as the top-tier mage drifted unpredictably in mid-air, his palms weaving as magic arrays constantly shifted and changed. Blasts of colorful magic crisscrossed between the hordes of Parademons like energy cannons, occasionally accompanied by chains of golden light, brilliant lightning, and scorching magical flames.
"Ha, a mage among humans. Interesting."
One of the leading New Gods laughed and flew over. He crossed his palms, and a bizarre energy fluctuation surged forth like a purple-black tide, engulfing Doctor Fate. It turned out that even among the New Gods of Apokolips, there were individuals with abilities related to magic.
Doctor Fate remained silent, changing his hand gesture to conjure a magical shield to block the attack. But then he saw the purple-black tide transform into sharp blades, piercing in from all directions.
The two mages began a duel. Although a victor was not immediately apparent, with Doctor Fate pinned down, a gap instantly appeared in the defensive line he had been responsible for. A large number of Parademons seized the opportunity and launched an assault on the position.
"Someone support Fate!" the field commander yelled. "And the reinforcements... haven't the reinforcements arrived yet!?"
"On their way."
"Damn it."
The commander muttered while personally raising his gun and firing away. But against the sky-swarming Parademons, the few bullets he fired were but a drop in the bucket.
"Sir, a new flying object has been detected, approaching from the southwest at extremely high speed!" The reporting soldier's face turned pale. "From its characteristics, it should be... it should be Superman!"
The moment these words fell, everyone's heart sank.
It was over.
Once upon a time, Superman had been a synonym for Hope. Just hearing his name would instinctively put everyone at ease, because they all knew he was omnipotent, perhaps the only person on this planet you could confidently entrust everything to.
But times had changed, and the flame of Hope had long been extinguished. Now, hearing that name again, only Despair remained.
Superman was still just as omnipotent, but that very fact only made people feel a profound sense of powerlessness.
The dot on the radar rapidly closed in. The Commander took a deep breath.
"Gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you."
He vaguely understood that nothing could stop what was about to happen. At a speed far surpassing any technological construct on this planet, Superman would pierce through their command center like a cannonball transcending time and space. They would be finished before they even realized what had happened. There was no hope, no chance of a fluke.
But what happened a few seconds later exceeded everyone's expectations.
Superman did arrive.
However, he did not pierce through their command center. Instead, a terrifying afterimage was seen descending from the sky, dragging a pitch-black wake behind it. It landed with an explosive roar and an earth-shaking shockwave, setting off a blast of air that shot to the heavens.
However, it seemed to have been a face-first landing.
Everyone who witnessed this scene was stunned.
That's right, a face-first landing. The upper half of Superman's body was plunged into the ground, his feet pointing skyward, planted there like something out of a cartoon. The scene was somewhat comical and bizarrely amusing.
The World Army's side was completely baffled, wondering if this was some new landing maneuver Superman had learned on Apokolips. The forces of Apokolips were equally dumbfounded. A group of Parademons flapped their wings, flying around the head-planted Superman and exchanging confused glances, unable to figure out what kind of tactic this was. No one dared to go up and pull their leader's head out.
Then, they saw their leader's feet kick wildly at the sky a couple of times. He struggled to pull his hands free, propped them on the ground, and yanked his dirt-covered head out of the earth like a radish, shaking off the specks of mud.
Everyone held their breath.
But just as Black Superman steadied himself, before he could even make a move, a bolt of lightning shot out at a speed that surpassed everyone's reaction limit.
Across the entire battlefield, the only one who could clearly see the high-speed afterimage within that lightning was Black Superman, but even he could only "see" it. He gritted his teeth and barely raised his arms to block, but the punch from the afterimage suddenly changed direction mid-air, its path shifting to deliver a heavy uppercut to Superman's abdomen.
Struck heavily in the abdomen, Black Superman's mouth opened involuntarily as he vomited a mouthful of blood.
He roared in anger and swung a punch in counter-attack.
The Superman of Earth-2 was older than the one Orin Vale knew, with greater base abilities and combat experience. Now, enhanced by energy from Apokolips, his performance was naturally even more extraordinary.
Although his punch was a hasty counter-attack, his form was not sloppy in the least. The single punch was both offensive and defensive, seeking only to force Orin Vale back without pressing the attack, leaving open several possibilities for different variations. If Orin Vale recklessly pursued, he could immediately counter-attack with several different contingency plans.
"Did he take advanced classes with Batman?" Orin Vale chuckled lightly.
The Superman and Batman of Earth-2 had known each other since childhood and were friends who grew up together; their close relationship was incomparable to their prime world counterparts. It wasn't strange that Superman had learned a fighting technique or two from Batman.
However…
Orin Vale threw a feint, posturing as if to press the attack, pulling back his right fist as if preparing a follow-up attack to strike his opponent's face. That Black Superman indeed fell for it, turning his left fist into a palm to block the vital point on his face.
But he didn't expect that Orin Vale's heavy follow-up punch was just a feint; the real killing move was the knee strike hidden within the fake-out. The lightning-wreathed knee slammed into Black Superman's abdomen with unstoppable momentum, striking the very same spot the previous punch had hit.
His abdomen suffering another heavy blow, Black Superman couldn't help but grunt in pain once more. He staggered back, vomiting another mouthful of black blood.
Succeeding so easily in a single exchange, Orin Vale's advantage in strength and speed stats was certainly important, but the technical suppression was not to be ignored.
The essence of combat, on a grand scale, came down to a single word: "deception." Offensive moves were a mix of feint and reality, truth and falsehood. A feint contained a hint of the real, and a real move contained a hint of a feint; only then was it difficult to see through.
The move he had just used was one that Ultraman Mebius, as a model student of the Land of Light, had also used against the space monster Fuglar in the Mebius TV series, achieving a surprisingly good effect.
Just as Orin Vale expected, this Black Superman, compared to his prime world counterpart, might have learned some fighting patterns, some decent-looking boxing techniques, but it was nothing more than rote memorization. There was still a gap compared to those DC Comics combat masters who had thoroughly integrated all kinds of techniques.
At the very least, just now, if it were Batman with Superman's stats, he would very likely have seen through it and been able to adapt on the spot from the original rigid moves.
Onlookers, of course, couldn't perceive the tactical game of technique. Even an expert would be unable to see clearly during a super-speed duel of this anti-physical level between the two combatants.
They only saw the red and silver afterimage flash past, the two figures crossing in a flurry, followed by a continuous series of thunderous impacts. In the next second, Superman was beaten to a pulp.
Watching Superman, who at first tried to stand and resist, only to simply curl up into a ball and cover his head to take the beating just half a second later, the entire battlefield was left in utter confusion.
Uh, this…
(end of chapter)
The main battlefield of the World Army.
To every soldier of the World Army, this battlefield and the enemies swarming before their eyes were nothing new. Everyone present had endured to this day through long-term combat against these alien monsters.
But being familiar was one thing. Adapting?
They might never be able to adapt to such an inferno.
Just ten minutes after the first gunshot, the battlefield had transformed into an inferno. Facing the World Army's main force was the vast army of Apokolips, led by two New Gods. The World Army was at a numerical disadvantage, but the collaboration between the military and civilian superpowered individuals was working hard to even the odds.
The military's heavy firepower was Atom Smasher. He could freely grow to tens of meters tall, his immense arm strength increasing with his size.
The main force among the civilian reinforcements who had rushed over was Doctor Fate.
The Guardian of Order, the most powerful mage. A golden cape fluttered behind him as the top-tier mage drifted unpredictably in mid-air, his palms weaving as magic arrays constantly shifted and changed. Blasts of colorful magic crisscrossed between the hordes of Parademons like energy cannons, occasionally accompanied by chains of golden light, brilliant lightning, and scorching magical flames.
"Ha, a mage among humans. Interesting."
One of the leading New Gods laughed and flew over. He crossed his palms, and a bizarre energy fluctuation surged forth like a purple-black tide, engulfing Doctor Fate. It turned out that even among the New Gods of Apokolips, there were individuals with abilities related to magic.
Doctor Fate remained silent, changing his hand gesture to conjure a magical shield to block the attack. But then he saw the purple-black tide transform into sharp blades, piercing in from all directions.
The two mages began a duel. Although a victor was not immediately apparent, with Doctor Fate pinned down, a gap instantly appeared in the defensive line he had been responsible for. A large number of Parademons seized the opportunity and launched an assault on the position.
"Someone support Fate!" the field commander yelled. "And the reinforcements... haven't the reinforcements arrived yet!?"
"On their way."
"Damn it."
The commander muttered while personally raising his gun and firing away. But against the sky-swarming Parademons, the few bullets he fired were but a drop in the bucket.
"Sir, a new flying object has been detected, approaching from the southwest at extremely high speed!" The reporting soldier's face turned pale. "From its characteristics, it should be... it should be Superman!"
The moment these words fell, everyone's heart sank.
It was over.
Once upon a time, Superman had been a synonym for Hope. Just hearing his name would instinctively put everyone at ease, because they all knew he was omnipotent, perhaps the only person on this planet you could confidently entrust everything to.
But times had changed, and the flame of Hope had long been extinguished. Now, hearing that name again, only Despair remained.
Superman was still just as omnipotent, but that very fact only made people feel a profound sense of powerlessness.
The dot on the radar rapidly closed in. The Commander took a deep breath.
"Gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you."
He vaguely understood that nothing could stop what was about to happen. At a speed far surpassing any technological construct on this planet, Superman would pierce through their command center like a cannonball transcending time and space. They would be finished before they even realized what had happened. There was no hope, no chance of a fluke.
But what happened a few seconds later exceeded everyone's expectations.
Superman did arrive.
However, he did not pierce through their command center. Instead, a terrifying afterimage was seen descending from the sky, dragging a pitch-black wake behind it. It landed with an explosive roar and an earth-shaking shockwave, setting off a blast of air that shot to the heavens.
However, it seemed to have been a face-first landing.
Everyone who witnessed this scene was stunned.
That's right, a face-first landing. The upper half of Superman's body was plunged into the ground, his feet pointing skyward, planted there like something out of a cartoon. The scene was somewhat comical and bizarrely amusing.
The World Army's side was completely baffled, wondering if this was some new landing maneuver Superman had learned on Apokolips. The forces of Apokolips were equally dumbfounded. A group of Parademons flapped their wings, flying around the head-planted Superman and exchanging confused glances, unable to figure out what kind of tactic this was. No one dared to go up and pull their leader's head out.
Then, they saw their leader's feet kick wildly at the sky a couple of times. He struggled to pull his hands free, propped them on the ground, and yanked his dirt-covered head out of the earth like a radish, shaking off the specks of mud.
Everyone held their breath.
But just as Black Superman steadied himself, before he could even make a move, a bolt of lightning shot out at a speed that surpassed everyone's reaction limit.
Across the entire battlefield, the only one who could clearly see the high-speed afterimage within that lightning was Black Superman, but even he could only "see" it. He gritted his teeth and barely raised his arms to block, but the punch from the afterimage suddenly changed direction mid-air, its path shifting to deliver a heavy uppercut to Superman's abdomen.
Struck heavily in the abdomen, Black Superman's mouth opened involuntarily as he vomited a mouthful of blood.
He roared in anger and swung a punch in counter-attack.
The Superman of Earth-2 was older than the one Orin Vale knew, with greater base abilities and combat experience. Now, enhanced by energy from Apokolips, his performance was naturally even more extraordinary.
Although his punch was a hasty counter-attack, his form was not sloppy in the least. The single punch was both offensive and defensive, seeking only to force Orin Vale back without pressing the attack, leaving open several possibilities for different variations. If Orin Vale recklessly pursued, he could immediately counter-attack with several different contingency plans.
"Did he take advanced classes with Batman?" Orin Vale chuckled lightly.
The Superman and Batman of Earth-2 had known each other since childhood and were friends who grew up together; their close relationship was incomparable to their prime world counterparts. It wasn't strange that Superman had learned a fighting technique or two from Batman.
However…
Orin Vale threw a feint, posturing as if to press the attack, pulling back his right fist as if preparing a follow-up attack to strike his opponent's face. That Black Superman indeed fell for it, turning his left fist into a palm to block the vital point on his face.
But he didn't expect that Orin Vale's heavy follow-up punch was just a feint; the real killing move was the knee strike hidden within the fake-out. The lightning-wreathed knee slammed into Black Superman's abdomen with unstoppable momentum, striking the very same spot the previous punch had hit.
His abdomen suffering another heavy blow, Black Superman couldn't help but grunt in pain once more. He staggered back, vomiting another mouthful of black blood.
Succeeding so easily in a single exchange, Orin Vale's advantage in strength and speed stats was certainly important, but the technical suppression was not to be ignored.
The essence of combat, on a grand scale, came down to a single word: "deception." Offensive moves were a mix of feint and reality, truth and falsehood. A feint contained a hint of the real, and a real move contained a hint of a feint; only then was it difficult to see through.
The move he had just used was one that Ultraman Mebius, as a model student of the Land of Light, had also used against the space monster Fuglar in the Mebius TV series, achieving a surprisingly good effect.
Just as Orin Vale expected, this Black Superman, compared to his prime world counterpart, might have learned some fighting patterns, some decent-looking boxing techniques, but it was nothing more than rote memorization. There was still a gap compared to those DC Comics combat masters who had thoroughly integrated all kinds of techniques.
At the very least, just now, if it were Batman with Superman's stats, he would very likely have seen through it and been able to adapt on the spot from the original rigid moves.
Onlookers, of course, couldn't perceive the tactical game of technique. Even an expert would be unable to see clearly during a super-speed duel of this anti-physical level between the two combatants.
They only saw the red and silver afterimage flash past, the two figures crossing in a flurry, followed by a continuous series of thunderous impacts. In the next second, Superman was beaten to a pulp.
Watching Superman, who at first tried to stand and resist, only to simply curl up into a ball and cover his head to take the beating just half a second later, the entire battlefield was left in utter confusion.
Uh, this…
(end of chapter)
