Looking at Victor embedded in the dirt, Heisenberg pulled him up and flung him far away.
"When facing an opponent whose close-combat ability far surpasses yours, don't fight him in melee — use every ranged tool you have to tie me down!"
As his words fell, Heisenberg gave a cold smirk, and his entire aura erupted outward.
An invisible force field spread around him, causing the scattered soil nearby to float up unbidden.
Off to the side, Victor landed next to Diana. He glanced at her and drew a deep breath.
"Teacher is a terrifying enemy!"
"Of course. I never want to actually fight this guy for real in my whole life. But the more he terrifies us, the more we have to overcome that shadow! Heisenberg may not be a match for Darkseid, yet the enemies we'll face in the future are destined to be far more horrifying and insane than what stands before us now!"
"I understand. Only now do I grasp what fate is about to befall the Earth. If an enemy like Teacher came charging at us, we'd have absolutely no power to resist right now!"
Having said that, Cyborg steadied his mind and focused intently on communicating with his own body. He spread his arms, and the countless micro-engines across his frame fine-tuned themselves, lifting him into the air.
"No one knows how much time Darkseid will leave us, so from this moment on, I'll seize every minute and every second to improve. Even if I can't change the future's course, at the very least I'll make my voice heard!"
With that, Cyborg raised both hands, aiming his palms at Heisenberg in the distance. His two arms trembled incessantly, and seething energy clusters rapidly coalesced over them.
"Teacher, watch out for my energy blast!"
"Heh, bring it on!"
Heisenberg bared his teeth in a grin and extended his right hand.
The earth trembled imperceptibly. Far away, Cyborg felt his entire body jolt as the force field tried to yank him to the ground.
Seeing this, Cyborg gritted his teeth. From his back, two pairs of energy-charged emitters suddenly unfurled, and together with both hands, six dazzling beams of light stabbed fiercely toward Heisenberg.
Heisenberg raised his left arm. The invisible force field instantly materialized, layer upon layer piling up in front of him, rendering Cyborg's energy torrents futile.
At the same time, Cyborg himself was kneaded straight into the earth by that terrifying force field!
Yes, you read that right!
Just like kneading dough — Cyborg was the bits of flour floating on the dough, or more like the filling tucked inside a dumpling.
After he had completely disappeared, the ground smoothed itself over, leaving not a trace that anyone had ever crashed into it.
Diana had no time to worry about Cyborg. She plucked the tiara from her forehead with her right hand and hurled the crescent-shaped circlet straight at Heisenberg.
Heisenberg casually caught the tiara in his hand, and Diana used that split second to leap high into the air.
As she vaulted toward Heisenberg, she raised both arms, poised to crash her two gauntlets together.
But just as Diana's Bracelets of Submission were about to collide, Heisenberg merely sneered.
"Hold!"
He barked the word, and the overwhelming force field seized control of Diana directly, making it impossible for her to bring her hands together!
"I don't know when you people picked up this habit — the more powerful the attack, the more you insist on striking a blatantly obvious wind-up posture!"
Heisenberg critiqued her while slashing his hand violently downward. The force field controlling Diana slammed her straight into the ground.
BOOM!!!
A violent shockwave rippled outward again. Diana rolled her eyes in frustration. Before she could scramble to her feet, Heisenberg continued speaking to her.
"Don't let your past victories cloud your combat judgment. Don't let your attack movements have any telegraphing or charging stances!"
With that, Heisenberg flung the tiara viciously toward Diana. It streaked directly at her eye.
"Damn it!!"
Diana didn't even have time to get up. She directly raised her right hand to shield her face — she had to block the tiara aimed at her eye.
But the moment she assumed her defensive posture, the tiara in front of her abruptly jumped. As if it had traversed a fold in space, her tiara vanished from in front of her blocking arm, only to leap out from behind her arm — right in front of her eyeball!
In the next instant, Diana squeezed her eyes shut in alarm, but the tiara merely stopped before her eyelid without advancing further. It even gave her eyelid a light tap.
Then, Diana helplessly opened her eyes and rolled them. Without any surprises, she was about to hear…
"You're dead!"
Heisenberg used the force field to place the tiara back onto Diana's forehead. Then he continued his critique.
"Darkseid's most effective attack is the Omega Beams. That's a method of attack far beyond your imagination, with no fixed trajectory whatsoever. They'll appear before you from any direction, regardless of whether there's an obstacle in front of you. So when facing him, place your first defensive point as close to your own body as possible! Just like right now — pressing your Bracelets directly against your eye would have been stronger than reaching out to strike some pose!"
"Okay. Continue!!!"
Diana spat lightly and slapped her hands together. Shield and sword were once again in her grip.
"What exactly are these Omega Beams? Is there any substance that can block them?"
"Omega Beams. They look a lot like heat vision. But I have to admit, the Omega Effect possesses a destructive power I can't match. Most importantly, remember this — his beams can bend!"
"Bend?!!"
Diana froze, and opposite her, Heisenberg gave a slight smile.
"Let me give you a demonstration!!!"
As he spoke, Heisenberg's eyes suddenly blazed white-hot. Surging heat vision burst forth, racing all the way to Diana. Just as the beams were about to collide with Diana, they eerily swerved in a wide arc, bypassed her shield in an instant, and smashed straight into her breastplate.
Tsssss!!!
The low-intensity heat vision that Heisenberg had deliberately dialed down sizzled relentlessly against Diana's chest armor, its trajectory weaving now an S, now a B, drawing a deep frown from her.
"So these are the beams that can bend. Why can't Kal-El do this?"
"Because he never thought to. If he wanted to, he could!"
Heisenberg nodded crisply, then withdrew his heat vision.
With a light movement, his entire body shot high into the sky. In the next instant, the spot where he had been standing was viciously impaled by dozens of mechanical claws. The claws clawed frantically at the position Heisenberg had just occupied.
"Approaching from underground isn't the best tactic, but I have to admit, with teammates providing crowd-control support, success becomes possible. Most importantly, though, you need to be more subtle, Victor!"
Heisenberg spoke softly from midair. His words made Victor, who had just burst from the ground, nod.
"Yes, Tea— ?!!"
BOOM!!!
Heisenberg descended from the sky, driving Victor straight back into the ground with a single stomp.
"Never answer your opponent's questions in the middle of a fight!!!"
Heisenberg roared, bending down to scoop up the dazed Victor and casually seizing him by the throat.
"You're dead!"
BOOM!!!
Victor was once again hurled to a spot not far from Diana.
Watching Victor climb up from the dirt, then looking at Diana's unwilling expression, and finally surveying the surrounding spectators who had long since been struck dumb,
Heisenberg spread his hands and spoke softly.
"Arthur, Mera, and Clark over there on the beach watching us. All of you, come at me together!!!"
"Alright!!!"
Arthur pounded his chest and leaped from the spectator seats straight into the arena. Mera, with a wave of her right hand, summoned currents of water that lifted her and carried her into the arena.
Meanwhile, on the shore, Clark looked toward the distant arena shaking with constant booms and quietly said to the Lois beside him, "Wait here for a moment. Great-Grandfather is teaching them how to fight, and it seems I, too, have reason to learn."
With that, Clark shot into the sky and arrived inside the arena in a blink. He floated there above Diana and the others, warily eyeing Heisenberg across from him.
"Great-Grandfather, shall we begin?"
"Heh, bring it on!"
Heisenberg laughed with excitement, then rocketed into the air, casually grabbed the leaping Arthur and tossed him aside, and then collided fiercely with Clark.
BOOM!!!
A violent shockwave expanded outward, the sheer vibration alone making it difficult for Diana and the others to even stay on their feet.
Heisenberg's fist hammered out and was barely blocked by Clark using his forearm. And immediately after, punch after punch rained down! In the face of Heisenberg's terrifying fists, Clark had absolutely no chance to counterattack. After two thousand consecutive punches forced Clark to the very edge of the arena, Heisenberg bellowed at him.
"Every Kryptonian who's ever basked in the sun is nearly impossible to kill in an instant. Therefore, resilience is our strongest and most important weapon! We possess a practically heaven-sent defensive power, and we possess the pure, brute strength that every other race can only dream of. Like I once told you, offense is always the most necessary and most crucial form of attack for a Kryptonian! Attack relentlessly, attack ceaselessly — every enemy must be forced to make a choice under our assault. Either trade blow for blow and fight us in the purest war of attrition! Or choose to defend, and let themselves gradually sink into a passive quagmire! There should be no word for 'retreat' in a Kryptonian's life. All we must ever do is attack!"
BOOM!
Punch after punch, Clark's constant blocks were at last exploited by Heisenberg. After a heavy blow, Heisenberg viciously reached out and seized the little finger on Clark's left hand.
CRACK!!!
A breaking sound accompanied by a shockwave boomed out. Clark's pinky was snapped clean off by Heisenberg's brute force!
Pain instantly overwhelmed Clark. Having rarely ever experienced such agony, he lost his defensive stance in the blink of an eye. Seizing the opening, Heisenberg brought together the index and middle fingers of his right hand into a sword-finger strike and jabbed viciously at Clark's eye.
THUD!!!
With a muffled thud, Clark stumbled back more than a dozen paces in panic, his right hand clutching his throbbing, agonized eyeball!
But did Heisenberg let him rest like that?
Not a chance. At that moment, Heisenberg kicked away Diana, who was charging in with her shield, then used his force field to divert the surging tide Mera had sent crashing toward him!
He ignored the energy beams Cyborg was blasting onto his body, grabbed Clark's head with both hands, and held it in a death grip.
Thud!
He stomped Clark's intact right hand to the ground, his knee pressing down on Clark's chest.
"You don't lack strength, Clark. The bloodline of Krypton has given you an invincible foundation. But the greater that gift, the greater your flaw. A Kryptonian's constitution and the sun mean you've rarely tasted the flavor of pain! So when you meet someone stronger than you, your unfamiliarity with pain will quickly put you at a severe disadvantage. True, you have willpower, and your will contains infinite potential. But for someone who fears pain and has never truly felt it, your enemies also have countless ways to deal with you!"
Heisenberg's two thumbs pressed down hard on Clark's eyelids. The pressure drew an unimaginable howl of agony from Clark.
And Heisenberg merely sneered coldly:
"Unlike them, who need to improve themselves, what you need is to adapt to pain, feel pain, and raise your pain tolerance — thereby mending your final weak point! As for now, what disappoints me… is that you're dead!!!"
/-\
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