"Whether he can even talk is still a question!"
Diana squeezed the words out from between her teeth, swung the Lasso of Truth, and planned to snare him, force some intel out of him, then kill him.
The opponent's Self-healing Ability was insanely strong. The arm that had been chopped off earlier suddenly flew up, reattached to the stump, and it was like it had never been severed at all.
Ever since Mackenzie joined the team, Diana had been in a foul mood. Maybe it was because of the last conflict, or maybe it was because of the Demon's utterly bottomless methods.
And of course Deathstroke and the Queen of Pain were laughing and chatting like they were on the same wavelength; that put some real anger in the Amazon Queen's heart.
"Sss… Diana, I still remember the taste of your Soul. You saying that really hurts my feelings."
Demon Batman let out a snake-like hiss. Maybe his teeth were letting air leak, because his English sounded like it came with a lot of drool.
"He talked. He talked with a voice like he's got shit packed in his mouth!" Su Ming, like he'd just discovered a New Continent, went off on a trash-talking spree while swinging another sword at the wings on the enemy's back.
But the trash talk didn't distract the Demon Bat at all. It was like he had eyes on the back of his head; one upper limb twisted around at a grotesque angle, and the Weapon in his hand caught Su Ming's attack, bursting out a loud bang.
You had to know how strong Su Ming's strength was with the Symbiote boosting him, yet this Demon only staggered for a moment. He quickly regained his footing and even used the momentum to parry the other three Weapons as well.
"Oh, not bad, huh? You're a bit stronger than Mad Laugh. Why are you running with him?"
Su Ming stuck firmly to his "mouth-cannon" tactics—hands never stopping, mouth never shutting. The Shield had already been reshaped into another curved blade, and he started hacking at the monster's back like he was mincing meat.
Diana had zero desire to interact with some Otherworld Madman Bat. The fact that the Merciless Iron Fists had a thing with that world's Wonder Woman was already enough to make her uncomfortable.
Now this one sounded like he had similar experiences; she didn't want to hear it.
Seeing Diana had no interest in talking, the Demon Bat just happened to be short one conversation partner: "You're Deathstroke. Mm, the Deathstroke from another world. I've heard about you from that always-smiling buddy."
"Mm, let me guess—he probably told you about the time I chopped his head off, right?" Su Ming clapped his Dual Blades together, turning them into a Thrusting Sword and switching to a different attack pattern.
A straight thrust is a move that's pretty hard to defend, as long as you're fast enough.
But the demonic transformation had clearly cranked this Batman's strength and Speed way up. This move posed no threat to him; he could still reply normally.
"He did. But you were never his favorite. You were just a stumbling block on his road to victory."
A grotesque smile twisted across the Demon's face, the kind of thing you only see in Nightmares.
Su Ming flashed Arthur a hand signal; he'd already figured out this Batman's plan. Even though the guy's steps were taking him further from Arthur, with those wings he could explode with terrifying Speed.
If Arthur really let his guard down, then Sea King's position would obviously become the breakthrough point.
Arthur's tactical grasp still had issues. When he saw Deathstroke's movement, he actually froze for a second, like he was trying to figure out what it meant.
And that opening was exactly what the Demon seized. The four Bat Blades in his hands spun like an electric fan, carving a gap between the group; then his wings snapped once, and he launched himself straight at Arthur in a brutal charge.
Diana and Su Ming did manage to slash him twice on the way, taking off a lot of flesh and blood, but this Demon with Speed on par with a Speedster was still too fast and strong. He actually rammed Arthur flying.
The big guy, built like an oversized ear of corn, slammed into the ceiling and then blasted straight through the earth.
Demon Batman spread his wings and shot up through the hole Arthur had made. Su Ming and the others, of course, followed. Turned out this hidden, fully sealed tomb was actually beneath Knight Stadium; nobody had known that before.
It was a baseball field of decent size. Back in the day, Bane had once put on a Nuclear Bomb show for the Gotham City residents right here.
"Haha, bye-bye." The Demon in the sky let out a weird laugh and thumped his own chest. "Remember me—I'm the Gotham Nightmare!"
Su Ming rubbed his chin. Finally, mystery solved. Getting a codename out of him had been way too much work.
Once he knew the name, he knew who this was, which meant he could just plug in the preset plan.
"Don't be in such a rush. Take a look at who this is."
Su Ming shouted up at the sky, and Gotham Nightmare instinctively turned his head.
He saw Deathstroke casually grab Thomas, who had just crawled out of the hole behind him, yank him over, and rip off his cowl.
And then, the Demon froze. He never in a million years expected to see that face here.
Why? Wasn't his own father long dead? What kind of Magic was this?
Su Ming only needed that split second of shock. This smug, self-proclaimed clever Batman was done.
Giving Arthur a wink instead of a verbal order—of course, with Sea King's Thinking Ability he'd blank out for a moment; that was part of Su Ming's plan.
If you don't give the Demon an opening, how do you lure him into the trap?
Sure enough, Gotham Nightmare didn't think twice before launching his escape plan, choosing Arthur as his breakthrough point and clawing his way up from underground.
Whether it's a normal graveyard or a hidden tomb under a stadium like this, there's about a seventy percent chance the ground above is out in the wilds.
You never hear about graveyards being built in the city center, especially not in a place as expensive per square meter as Gotham. And the wilderness means no skyscrapers, no cover, no civilians to worry about.
"Inverted Man, Fireball infinite barrage—blast him into the sun for me!"
The opponent had extremely strong Self-healing Ability, and usually the way to counter Self-healing is with Flames or acid.
Given that the opponent was a Demon, his Flame resistance was very high, so if they used Fireballs in that cramped underground space, the explosions would've hurt their own side instead.
That was why Su Ming needed to force this bastard up to the surface, into an open area.
Even if he resisted Flame damage, the impact from a constant stream of Magic hits was something he couldn't stand, and the scattered Flames would mess up his vision too.
So Su Ming wasn't expecting the Fireballs to deal much damage; like he said, just getting the guy into the sun was enough.
Countless Magic Arrays popped into existence in an instant, packed tight around the Gotham Nightmare. Each Magic Array was like a bunker's machine-gun port, spitting out strings of Fireballs that turned into countless red lines, pushing the Demon from all angles, rolling him higher and higher into the sky.
Explosions boomed non-stop, like muffled thunder echoing through the stadium, while Gotham Nightmare was still staring at Thomas, even stretching out an arm like he wanted to grab Old Batman.
"No!!!"
He tried to rely on his wings to break free, but he didn't weigh enough; under the omnidirectional, continuous impact of the Fireballs, he was like a leaf in the wind. His vision was a full three-sixty of firelight, and he quickly got dizzy and disoriented.
Inverted Man was, after all, Multiverse Level. How could that white-skinned freak possibly let a Single-Cosmic Level Demon escape?
Since the Agent said to send him for Solar Cremation, then into the sun he goes.
"Crackle-crackle…"
From the perspective of the people below, Gotham Nightmare looked like he had firecrackers tied to his ass, shooting upward in a trail of explosions and noise, and very soon he vanished without a trace.
"I've never seen such a noisy Rocket launch before." Oliver took the arrow off his bowstring and slid it back into his Quiver.
"What was with you jerking your head at me just now?" Arthur crawled up from the grass in the distance, wiped the mud off his face, and stared at Deathstroke in utter confusion.
Su Ming looked at the faint point of light in the sky. "Let's talk somewhere else. There are two left."