While the members of the Justice League were touring Earth of the Sixth Dimension, enjoying all the wonderful things that came with a harmonious society, somewhere beneath Gotham City, Su Ming was once again sent flying by the Laughing Bat.
"Damn, even the tactic of getting in close to wreck his joints got seen through..."
The Laughing Bat's ability to use Divine Speed was already known intel, so Su Ming had stood his ground, planning to bait him with an opening.
But the Laughing Bat never walks the usual path. Normally, the best approach would be a straight charge from the front, yet he dashed toward another wall instead, ran along it to loop around half the arena, and attacked Su Ming from behind.
The Smoke Bombs Su Ming had secretly planted while hanging upside down from the ceiling earlier didn't do a thing, and he got knocked flying again, unsurprisingly.
He crashed out another big crater.
No time to catch his breath; he immediately rolled along the ground to dodge the Heat Sight that followed, feeling a bit sentimental inside.
A set of Super Armor paired with a tactician and Martial Arts Master like this Laughing Bat is honestly kind of disgusting.
Batman has a lot of sets of Battle Armor; there's even a whole floor in the Bat Cave dedicated to storing them. If you used MK numbers, they could probably be labeled from 1 all the way up into the 50s.
From the relatively simple Rascal Gang Armor, Insider Armor, Bat Riot Control Armor, to more specialized sets like the Anti-Mud Armor, Anti-Superman Armor, Luthor Prototype Armor, and then the Fenrir Armor of the Anti-League, all the way up to the Hell Bat Armor meant to counter Cosmic Level threats.
He has a ton of options; it's just that under normal circumstances, Batman doesn't wear them.
It's definitely not because he wants to save on fuel or electricity. He just doesn't need them—if he can beat an enemy bare-handed with a bit of brainpower, why bother wearing Battle Armor?
But the Laughing Bat obviously doesn't play by the rules and went straight for the strongest set.
And right now, aside from Divine Speed, Heat Sight, Super Power, and extremely high physical and Magic Resistance, this Laughing Bat's Armor clearly still has abilities that haven't shown up yet.
Just the Divine Speed alone is already a pain in the ass.
Normally, Speedsters are better at dealing with Speedsters—just race, and whoever falls behind is very likely to be directly Devoured by the Death God of Divine Speed.
Non-Speedsters who want to take on someone that fast generally have to rely on math or dirty tricks, or else use Magic.
But the Laughing Bat's armor had undergone full metal reinforcement. Whether it's plating or Enchantment, its Magic Resistance is off the charts.
Direct offensive Magic is off the table now, so that only leaves buffing himself with Support Magic, or changing the terrain to balance the scales.
"Inverted Man, Greasy Technique, tenfold volley."
Teleporting out of the pit, Su Ming flew through the air, dodging the Laughing Bat's attacks while once again trading with the Inverted Man, converting the Magic Power stored with him into some spells that don't exist in the DC World.
Greasy Technique is pretty popular in the Dungeons and Dragons world; along with Spider Web Technique and Five-Colored Spray, it's widely used by Mages over there.
The basic principle is simple: suddenly conjure a patch of black oil under the enemy's feet and make them slip.
Among Divine Speed users, aside from Bai Woli who has some special tricks, everyone else needs friction to activate the Divine Speed.
Behind Su Ming, a ring of small Magic Arrays appeared, like transparent saucers radiating a faint violet glow. They flickered once, and then large amounts of black, viscous liquid sprayed into every corner of the room with a series of wet popping sounds.
With this oil down, the Laughing Bat's Divine Speed is basically shot. Even if the battlefield changes, Su Ming can just repeat the same trick.
The Hell Bat is a set of Power Armor, and all Power Armor has one thing in common: whether for balance or mounting thrusters, the soles are made from hard metal.
Wearing iron-soled boots on a floor covered in oil? Someone clearly didn't fall enough as a kid.
After finishing that, Su Ming finally had time to check his injuries from just now. His bones were fine, but some of his nerves and tendons seemed to have snapped; half his body was responding noticeably slower.
"Tsk tsk, as expected of Deathstroke." The Laughing Bat's Armor also lifted off the ground, effectively giving up on using Divine Speed. "Using oil to eliminate friction, luring me into burning the oil with fire, then stalling for time so we both roast in the flames. After that, let me guess—you're planning to rapidly cool things down, using sudden heat and cold to induce metal fatigue or fractures. As long as the Armor has even a single gap, you can make your move, right?"
Under the Mask, Su Ming frowned slightly. He had indeed considered something along those lines.
The Hell Bat Armor was forged inside the sun, and then quenched in Earth's Deep Sea. It's not that Su Ming looks down on Earth's oceans, but compared to the sun, isn't that quenching step a bit... underwhelming?
By combining quenching and tempering, you can greatly alter crucial values like a metal's stiffness, toughness, and fatigue strength.
The Hell Bat Armor's quenching process isn't exactly flawed, it's just comparatively weaker than its other aspects.
So naturally, the tactic is to target the weak point. If the Laughing Bat hadn't planned on using fire, Su Ming had also been thinking of baiting him with Spider Web Technique.
With Magic to help raise or lower the temperature, you can get it to whatever degree you want, and Su Ming also had ways to protect himself; whether it would work or not, he had to try to find out.
But the flames had to be lit by the other side; if he started the fire himself, the intention would be too obvious, yet even so, the Laughing Bat still guessed his follow-up plan.
The other side simply flew up and exposed Deathstroke's plan, which meant it was no longer viable.
Fortunately, the other side also gave up using Divine Speed, at least dragging both sides' Speed back onto the same level.
The Laughing Bat didn't have all of Barry's various self-imposed restraints; when he used Divine Speed, he didn't care whether he'd rewind time or affect the outside world—he really just ran as fast as he could.
The Magic Floating Cloak could reach that kind of Speed, but the underground structures here, as well as Gotham City overhead, couldn't handle being tormented like that.
So now neither side was using Speed; you could say they'd returned to a relatively fair playing field.
Su Ming rolled his neck, twirled the Giant Sword a few times in his hand: "Cut the crap. Let's move on to round two."
"Sigh, you people are actually pretty pathetic, working so hard for something fake, like you're building your own Dream."
The Laughing Bat's Armor began to Transform, growing more angular and sharp; his hands gradually became razor claws, and silver light flared at his fingertips:
"If you could open your eyes and take a look at reality, maybe you'd understand me? But you probably won't get that chance."
"Heh, what you think you're seeing as reality might just be what someone wants you to see." Su Ming also had Strangulation alter the form of his Armor, making it thinner and more flexible: "Once you start pondering what's real and what's illusion, you're basically falling into a logical loop about Dimensions and time. The simplest explanation is: everything I see is reality."
Vibranium was probably not going to block X Metal; one was a Cosmic Meteorite, the other was Creation Metal—there was still an objective gap between them.
Rather than turning himself into a turtle shell and falling into the Laughing Bat's trap, he might as well abandon the Armor altogether and just rely on his bones and Self-healing Ability to tangle with the opponent.
Su Ming simply refused to believe the Laughing Bat's Hell Bat Armor had no side effects at all; this was a set of Armor that burned Life Force.
"Lying to me is pointless; you were never an idealist. After I kill you, I'll find a way to read the memories in your brain—might be quite helpful to my research, no? Hehehe..."
The two of them flung trash talk at each other, trying to shake the other's mind, but it clearly had no effect; in the end, they still had to let combat speak for itself.
The clash of metal against metal echoed through the Darkness once more.
................
"This place has changed a lot. In my memory, Gotham was never this..." Batman couldn't find the right word for a moment.
"Bright?" a voice came from behind him.
The two of them were standing on a high watchtower, an observation deck floating in the air. Even though it didn't have the Wayne Group logo hanging on it, he knew the concept had to come from the same lineage.
Just like the relationship between the young Batman behind him and himself now.
"Yes. The city is clean and orderly, completely different from how I remember it." Batman looked down; the material under his feet was transparent, and looking down at the city from here was like standing on the clouds.
The new Batman nodded: "Yeah, this is pretty much what you wanted it to become. We never forgot."
Bruce merely gave a noncommittal nod; an emotion flickered in his eyes, but he hid it well, as always.
"You became Batman, so I'm guessing I died; aside from Hawk Woman, Ron, and Superman, everyone in the Justice League in your past is dead."
The Batman behind him wiped his Mask back; the pointed-eared cowl was pushed to the back of his head, revealing the face of Dick Grayson—once known as Nightwing.
"It was your sacrifice that bought all this. We..."
"No need to say it. At least for now, it looks like it was worth it. My question is: where did Gotham's Villains go?"
Dick raised his arm and tapped the terminal beneath his forearm; the Flight platform they were standing on began to move rapidly, carrying them to the familiar river delta.
Only now it was no longer those gloomy walls and buildings, no longer fully armed guards and deranged patients. The former Arkham Sanatorium had become what is now the Alfred Sanatorium.
"They've all been cured, and Gotham no longer has any soil for crime to grow in. Arkham gradually fell into disuse. A few years ago Alfred's health took a turn for the worse, but he refused any bodily modifications using technology or Magic, and passed away peacefully with all of us by his side."
Dick spoke with a trace of nostalgia, lowering the Flight platform at the same time. He walked down openly, greeting the passing crowds, and led Bruce to sit at a table under the shade of a tree, ordering two coffees from the server.
"So to commemorate him, we rebuilt Arkham, turning it into a garden-style sanatorium open free to all Gotham citizens. Now, this is a true sanatorium."