Gone Native: Rulers (ch. 18) (Patreon)

I expected Superman to be the first to arrive now that I was back on Earth, but the sudden assault by Batman caught me by surprise. I heard a loud bang behind me, and by the time I looked over my shoulder, I saw a fist the size of my head racing towards my face. I reacted quickly, catching the blow with my forearms, but I was surprised by the power that I felt behind it. My feet dug into the ground, a long trench forming as I was forced back despite toughening the ground up in the hopes of gaining a foothold, in addition to flying against the momentum.

I met the gaze of the glowing red visor of the suit. Batman's presence didn't fill it. He was confined to the torso of the machine. Adjusting my counter, I flipped Batman's battle suit up, sending him flying overhead as I used his momentum against him. In response, large black wings sprouted from the suit's back, righting it as he threw down an axe kick that formed a crater the moment the blow landed. My ki rapidly spread out and reinforced the ground once again, making it far more durable.

As far as power suits went, the one Batman was in was one that I would have liked to have in the war.

I caught the falling axe kick with my forearms, feeling an ache in my muscles from the strain, before I grabbed hold of his ankle and slammed him into the ground with all my strength. A nuclear explosion might have caused less of an explosion of pure force, as the shockwave from the impact completely laid the mountains terrain we were in to waste. The mountains themselves trembled, shedding tons of rock and snow in massive avalanches.

Still, I didn't feel a diminishing presence within the suit. The metal warped a bit under my hand, but the fact that it was able to endure my grip at all betrayed just how durable it was. Very few things could do so at my level of strength. Nth metal? No, that couldn't be it -- if it was, then that punch and axe kick would have done more damage to me. Whatever it was made of, it was hyperdense, and it could take a beating.

A ki spear formed in my hand and I thrust it down into the red visor of the suit. A structural weakness by necessity, but even it was more durable than expected. My ki spear broke through the red crystal despite the resistance, skewering through the suit’s head just as I felt a kick to my ribs send me flying. My bones ached from the force of the blow as I slammed through a mountain. I righted myself a moment later, but lot the momentum continue to carry me for the time being, feeling Batman give chase with my ki sense.

As I flew through the air, I laid a trail of Destructo Disks. Three of them.

Catching myself with my flight, I was ready to meet Batman head-on. He blew through the mountain, intent on not giving me any space. I felt another presence rapidly approach, and one suddenly appear. The former was Wonder Woman, while the other was Cyborg, who immediately zeroed in on me hovering in the sky and lined up a shot with his arm cannon. Twisting, I threw Batman into the blast of what felt like some kind of plasma attack, the attack coating Batman's back. He ignored the attack, but I noticed that his armor began to swelter ever so slightly.

The heat that came off of the plasma was unreal. It couldn't be compared to what Scarabs sent at me during the War of Light. It was far stronger and hotter.

I didn't have time to ponder if it would manage to burn me or not if the attack had landed before Batman threw himself at me. We traded dozens of blows in a matter of seconds, and it was then that I realized why Batman had stood at the front with the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman. His form and fighting technique were impeccable. In sheer skill, he rivaled any Saiyan I had ever fought before.

However, I noticed a fatal weakness as I grabbed hold of one of the waiting Destructo Disk's. It flew forward, arcing through the sky before it slammed into Batman's back, lurching him forward as the hyperdense ki sawed through the outermost layer of his armor. It was slow going and the edge of my destructo disk was being ground away with each rotation. Yet Batman reacted exactly how I thought he would.

He shifted, his wing lashing out to bat away the Destructo Disk while he threw a jab and followed it up with a knee strike. I countered by dodging both attacks and planting my foot into his chest, knocking him back. There, I saw it.

Batman fought like a man who was inexperienced with flight. No, not even that. Inexperienced implied he was bad at it. He was just less good at it than he was hand-to-hand combat, yet it stood out because of just how excellent of a fighter he was. He also fought like a man who avoided blows where he could.

Batman fought like me. Someone who was used to fighting those vastly stronger than themselves and finding ways to win. Not through brute force, but through skill and technique.

Yet, because of it, he would lose.

Fresh ki spears flared to life in my hands and I launched them at Batman. One was directly aimed at the bat on his chest, while the other was aimed at his one of his shoulder pauldrons. Cyborg was behind him, parked on a mountain top, waiting for a clear shot at me.

Batman chose to take the blows, knowing how powerful the ki spears were. I could level the entire mountain range with just one of them.

Yet, when he realized that they weren't ki spears, it was too late.

Tightening a fist, I strengthened the power of the technique. It was one that I had created, but ultimately dismissed as being flawed. As a training tool.

The two gravity spheres caught Batman in between two powerful gravity wells. Years ago, I had only managed to increase them to a hundred times the standard gravity. Now… Batman was caught between two gravity wells that were a thousand times the planetary average. The suit held out valiantly, a testament to those that created it, but eventually the metal creaked and tore, contorting the suit around the two gravity wells. Tons of rubble lifted from the fallen mountains, creating an miniature asteroid field on the Earth's surface.

The trick to defeating Batman was the same one to defeat me.

An unknown technique, in a circumstance where we couldn't afford to be cautious.

I felt Batman's presence begin to weaken, and half of the suit tore itself apart before that same loud bang appeared again, and something snatched away the torso of the suit. I felt Batman get deposited hundreds of miles away through my ki sense, before Cyborg readied his shot.

I felt the heat on my face from the radiant radiation, before he even pulled the trigger to his arm cannon, and the moment he did, the asteroid field I had created became red hot, reduced to molten slag before the torrent of plasma even touched it. It was a weapon capable of melting through the entire planet. It felt like I had a sun racing right towards me.

I couldn't meet it head-on. Even if I overpowered it, the planet could be devastated from the blowback.

Instead, I darted low, feeling my suit catch on fire as the false Nth metal that was woven into the suit melted away. I blasted forward, intent on destroying the source.

Cyborg looked at me as I rounded on him, his arm outstretched as he continued to fire his blast that was slowly melting away at his foundation, his red eye meeting mine. A ki blade formed around my hand, the razor-sharp edge of it slamming into the edge of his arm -- the metal tore under the force instead of being cut in half, and no sooner than I cut off his metallic arm near the elbow, his stump began to shift.

"Booyah, baby!" Cyborg shouted, his robotic arm twisting, taking that same massive output of plasma and focusing it into a tight beam. He swung his arm out, lashing out at me from close range. He nearly took my arm off, but I dodged in time and the only thing he managed to slice was the mountain tops behind me. I tucked under the beam of plasma, and as it passed over, it felt like I narrowly avoided a small sun.

As I dodged, I raised a hand, ki condensing into my palm. Cyborg's human eye widened as the ki leaped from the palm of my hand, yet he was saved in the nick of time by a golden shield being tossed between us. The ki blast slammed into the shield, sending Cyborg flying, and giving him just enough time to dodge before the shield was reduced to slag. Not a second later, Wonder Woman slammed into me.

I blocked a punch with my forearm and I felt myself get knocked through a mountain before retaliating with a knee to the diaphragm. There was fire in her eyes as she accepted the blow in exchange for the time needed to wind back her fist and send me flying into the ground. The mountainous peaks gave way to a more tropical climate beneath us. I recovered instantly, flying back a few feet over the ground, but Wonder Woman proved to be relentless.

Her lasso swung out, but I diverted it with a ki spear, a smaller one forming in my hand as I narrowly dodged a punch to the face. Spinning the shorter spear in my hand, I slammed the tip into her flank, only to find that her armor protected her from the worst of it.

"You are a fool, King Tarble," Wonder Woman snarled at me as I let the ki spears fade. We flew over the countryside at high speeds, before Wonder Woman decided that she had ha enough and surged forward. I caught a blow with the palm of my hand before countering, slamming my elbow against her nose. I felt my elbow fracture, but it was worth the cost to give her a bloody nose.

"The fools are the ones that provoked me," I shot back leaning out of the way of a retalitory punch before I backhanded her with a fist, only to pay for the blow with a punch to my ribs. I felt one of them snap under the force. It was an injury, but a minor one at best.

Wonder Woman snarled as she punched me in the face, sending me flying through some kind of orchard. "It didn't have to be this way," she snapped at me as we clashed again.

"Tell that to the corpses of my soldiers," I snapped back, a knee slamming into her stomach, folding her ever so slightly over it, before I cupped a fist with my other hand and brought it down on the back of her neck.

Wonder Woman spat out blood as she recovered from the blow. She met my eyes and while the fire was still there, there was something else. "You are a fool, but you are a worthy king," Wonder Woman decided, our bout slowing down so we hovered above the countryside of some nation I couldn't identify immediately. She readied her lasso, giving me time to ready my ki spears.

"I suspect that is high praise coming from you. Though, I do hope you mean it instead of using compliments to buy time for Aquaman to arrive," I returned, sensing the hero's approach. Wonder Woman's eyes narrowed just as she dove towards me, intent on driving me towards the ground. I thrust my short spear at her, forcing her to dodge directly in the path of my long spear's slash. She brought up the lasso, pulling it into a taut line, and used it as a makeshift shield before she was sent flying into the ground. Spinning my long spear, I launched it at her like a missile -- the following explosion consuming the countryside.

No one was killed. Perhaps it was lucky positioning, but I didn't believe in luck. The fight stole a great deal of my attention, but I could still feel nearly every ki signature on the planet. And Earth's population was dwindling. The fight had hardly escalated to extinction-level blows, so I had to assume that it was something that the Justice League was doing.

Most notably, I didn't feel Superman's presence. Meaning he was likely the first and last line of defense against my fleets that were gathering. That was… both good and bad.

At the moment, the Justice League was divided. I disabled a fraction of their team, but they still had a number of powerhouses. Fighting them all at once, I would lose. It wouldn't be for a lack of trying to win, it was just simple fact. You could only fight so many people that were as strong or stronger than you at once before you got overwhelmed.

Aquaman launched himself up from the ocean -- he was moving fast, but compared to the others, he was lacking in speed. I turned to face him, noting the trident that was poised to skewer me through the chest. A ki spear formed in my hand again that I used to block the thrust, catching the trident on one of its spokes before twisting it as I lashed out with a foot that caught him in the stomach.

He shot down like a speeding bullet, tearing through the ground like a meteor. Ah. Aquaman couldn't fly, I realized as I gave chase, putting some distance between us and Wonder Woman. Cyborg was a threat, and as I appeared before Aquaman, who had his trident ready to fight again, the robotic man appeared with another audible bang. Instead of sending a blast of plasma at me, I heard the whistle of projectiles as Aquaman and I clashed. The Atlantean king was strong. I would give him that much.

None of the Justice League could be called weak. Even those that I had already defeated. In the Wrath State, Aquaman would have been a challenge for me, but he fought like a man that was used to fighting those weaker than he was, when I was more than twice as powerful.

I pivoted, dodging a thrust of his trident, before I smacked Aquaman's legs out from underneath him, intent on using him as a shield from the missiles that Cyborg shot at me. They were small, no longer than a few inches, and with their shape, they appeared to be darts. A dozen of them raced towards me as Aquaman used his trident to control his landing and stay in the fight by digging it into the ground. Ki swirled in my hands as the darts split up, curving around Aquaman.

Ki sprung from my hands, a dozen small blasts that collided with the darts Cyborg shot at me. Each released a concussive blast, but otherwise, my ki blasts broke through them with little issue as the blasts continued on towards Cyborg. A distraction while I grabbed hold of one of the Destructo Disks that I had left behind. It lurched forward, slicing through the mountain that had collapsed over the top of it, obscuring it from view as it raced towards Cyborg from the back.

Aquaman threw himself at me -- his trident darting out in a blur, and when one of its razor sharp barbs at the tip grazed me, it sliced through my skin with ease. My eyes narrowed as Aquaman offered me a smirk, his blows raining down with renewed vigor now that he had seen that he could make me bleed. A second ki spear formed in my hands, a smaller one that I used to return the wound with one of my own as I used the larger one to divert his trident to the side.

The tip of the spear found purchase in his side, his armor holding up well, but not well enough to prevent me from skewering him. Yet, just as I was about to thrust completely through him, Wonder Woman appeared again, her sword slamming down into the shaft of my spear, breaking the hyperdense ki against my will before she followed it up with a high kick that nearly took my head off, and it might have if I hadn't dodged underneath it.

This was the situation that I had hoped to avoid, I thought to myself as Aquaman ripped the other half of the ki spear out of his bleeding side while Wonder Woman touched down near him. Off in the distance, Cyborg took up a position to give long-range support. They were all ready to fight based on the determined looks on their faces.

Wonder Woman was by far the larger threat. She was stronger than me, though I held the edge in skill and technique. I would be hard-pressed to defeat her one-on-one. With Aquaman and Cyborg buzzing around and interfering, the odds were against me.

However, I did notice something. "Where is the rest of the Justice League? Am I not worthy of your full attention?" I asked them, feeling Martian Manhunter and Shazam were on the planet, but they were elsewhere. Did it have anything to do with the diminishing population of humans?

Wonder Woman met my gaze resolutely as she and Aquaman began to move to flank me, each coming from a different side. I didn't really expect an answer, but I received one anyway. "You are not the only threat the Justice League faces. There are villains that seek to use your presence as an opportunity for their own ends," Wonder Woman answered.

She should not have told me that. But she did anyway. I couldn't see what she had to gain by giving me the information that the Justice League was divided -- after all, the enemy of my enemy might not be my friend, but they were a convenient distraction. Unless she was looking for a specific reaction?

"I see," I responded, and that was the cue. Wonder Woman and Aquaman both threw themselves at me as I pulled on the Destructo Disk, unnoticed even now. Cyborg prepared a shot as I dodged a blow from Wonder Woman and I counterattacked a thrust from Aquaman. Cyborg seemed to have some kind of sensor for ki, because he was able to look back before the spiraling disk slammed into his back. The metal of his body was tough, but not so tough that it could withstand the attack unscathed.

He screamed in pain as the metal part of his torso was sheared in half -- did he have internal organs within? It didn't feel like it. Or did he have pain receptors in his metallic body? Because that seemed to be an oversight. Regardless, his scream caught his allies’ attention for the briefest moment, and that moment I seized.

I slammed a ki spear into Aquaman's foot before following it up with a high knee to his chin. As his head snapped back, I pulled back my smaller ki spear and I slashed its edge into his wrist, the one that held his trident. His body was durable. More so than I expected, but not enough to negate the blow. My ki spear cut through his wrist, making the trident fall along with his hand still clutched around it. Aquaman cursed as he flew back, slamming through a rolling hill with explosive force. Wonder Woman was on top of me a nanosecond later, her sword darting out like a snake, but I caught the edge of the trident in the crook of my foot before kicking it up to my hands to use to block the blow.

Wonder Woman snarled as the ground buckled underneath the force of our clash. "That belongs to the King of Atlantis," she snapped at me, going for another blow. I felt the impact deep in my bones and they seemed to rattle inside of me. I was sent flying back, slamming through a building -- a villa in a place that I vaguely recognized and think was called Italy.

Then she was upon me, giving me no time to recover. I formed a short spear in my free hand, instantly getting used to the weight of the trident. I felt the static of magic against my palm -- the trident was clearly magical, but whether it offered any benefits or not was lost on me as my runes prevented it from finding purchased.

My new trident clashed against her sword, the ringing of steel filled the air as the villa was leveled in the clash of blows. "There is no king of Atlantis," I replied, much to her annoyance. I stood my ground, trading blows at a breakneck pace with her. Our weapons moved in barely visible blurs, trading a hundred blows in a handful of seconds. Even dual-wielding, Wonder Woman's defense was near impenetrable and her offense was powerful enough that I was barely keeping up.

Gritting my teeth, I dug deep, fighting against the aches I felt in my muscles. It felt like there was magma flowing through my veins. Yet, I forced myself to go blow to blow with Wonder Woman even as it became increasingly clear that I couldn't beat her in a contest of arms.

No. Not even that, I noticed as I caught a foot to the stomach, sending me flying away. I stuck close to the ground, controlling my flight as best I could but unable to prevent myself from slamming through a few buildings and a forest worth of trees before I came to a stop, and no sooner than I did, I was forced to block a thrust from her sword. I lashed out with the short spear only to have it brushed away with her metal bracers, and in return, I narrowly avoided a sword swipe that nearly took off my head.

I blocked the edge of her sword with my trident, thrusting out with my short spear, only to abandon the attempt when her sword snaked out and lunged for me after. Then she said what we both suspected. "You are getting weaker, King Tarble."

She was right about that. I hadn't mastered the Super Saiyan transformation. I could feel its awesome power slowly draining me of my strength and endurance. It wasn't a transformation that I could sustain forever. Not yet.

This absolutely could not become a contest of endurance. I wouldn't survive it. Meaning that I had to defeat the Justice League even faster than I had already planned.

"Then you should be able to defeat me," I returned, making her eyes narrow at the taunt. It was obvious bait, but I needed to defeat her before Aquaman rejoined the fight. He would be weaker without his hand and Trident, ] but both of them at once would tire me out too much. More than I could afford. After all, beating most of the Justice League wouldn't mean much if I couldn't defeat all of them.

From that point of view, putting Superman in charge of protecting Earth from space was their best move, and it was their greatest weakness. I was certain that so long as Superman was in space, none of my fleets could make it past whatever line he drew. Not without paying a cost. However, if he was out in space, then he wasn't here to defeat me. Meaning I had until he came back to defeat his colleagues while maintaining enough strength to defeat him.

"We underestimated you, King Tarble. We perceived your empire as the greatest threat that you posed. That is not a mistake we shall make again," Wonder Woman said, not so much taking the bait but determined to put me down. She was taking me seriously, holding nothing back. However, whether she took the bait or not, it had the same effect. Wonder Woman lunged forward, the tip of her sword racing towards my heart -- she was willing to kill me if necessary.

I rather liked that about her. It also made her predictable.

I lunged forward to meet her thrust, my trident lunged forward as well. If she sensed the trap that I laid, then she realized it too late. I made no effort to block the thrust that skewered my heart, punching through my back -- she had a remarkable sword. I barely felt a sting in my chest.

The same couldn't be said for her as I thrust my trident into her stomach, catching her below the ribs, and sinking the thrust as deep as the spikes on the trident could go. My turquoise eyes met her dark blue -- there was surprise in her gaze, but it didn't stop her from yanking her sword out. She grabbed hold of the trident, intent on keeping it buried inside of her, denying me a weapon and to prevent herself from bleeding out as she prepared another thrust, only to be flipped upside down as I slammed her into the ground.

She grunted loudly, a trail of blood dripping from her mouth. "Do you not have a heart?" She questioned, strangely, curious at her defeat. I had delivered a deadly wound in exchange for a fatal one. Or, so she had perceived. Now she wanted to know the mistake that she had made.

"No. Not anymore," I answered, forming a medicine ball to heal the injury to my heart and lung. To me, the only vital organ that remained was my brain. All the others could be healed if I survived the fight. I saw Wonder Woman look at my chest, at the blood on my skin, and the scars that I had from previous battles. At some point my armor and the undersuit covering my upper body had been shredded.

The wound healed over, leaving behind a thin white line where she had stabbed me. I think Wonder Woman might have smiled a fraction, but it was quickly wiped away when I yanked up out my trident. The barbs on the tips caused more damage on their way out, making her grimace as I pulled my weapon free. Blood splashed up, soaking her armor and her hands as she instinctively sought to stem the bleeding.

I eyed her for a moment before turning around, something that she found disagreeable. "Will you not finish me?" I heard her ask me as Wonder Woman shuffled, using her sword as a prop and push herself to her feet, ignoring the rivers of blood that escaped her grievous injury.

"I told you, I would try not to kill any of you if I could avoid it," I said, looking back at her over my shoulder. "Can I avoid it?" I asked her, feeling her weaken with each drop of blood spilt. Wonder Woman narrowed her eyes as she settled in a stance, her expression resolute and determined.

"No. You cannot," Wonder Woman responded, ready to continue.

I turned back around to face her, "A shame. Truly," I responded, my tone just as determined. A short ki spear formed in my free hand again, the tension between us swelling by the second, growing thicker and more taunt until the tension snapped in a flurry of movement.

She was more injured than she was letting on. I felt the difference immediately. She wasn't like me. She wasn't someone that had learned to ignore fatal wounds by experience to continue fighting at full capacity. With how powerful she was, I was sure that she often didn't feel pain, much less the agony of having her vitals skewered. Yet, all the same, she made a valiant attempt. Her sword moved in a blur, attacking and countering with grace and deadly precision. Both of us were slowly losing our strength as the fight dragged on, but despite starting at a much higher plateau, the power behind her blows was fading much faster than mine.

I lashed out with a foot, catching her in her wound, and sending her flying back. She grimaced as she blocked another blow as I gave chase, the slightest of trembles in her sword arm betraying her strain. "I thought you would fight with more honor," Wonder Woman remarked.

I guess she meant the cheap trick and targeting of her injuries.

"I would prefer to fight you fairly," I told her over the sound of our weapons clashing. That was the truth. "But honor has no place on the battlefield. It costs lives to maintain, and it's not worth a single one."

To that, Wonder Woman bared the barest hint of a smile, revealing white teeth that were stained red. "I see you much clearer now, King Tarble." Her blade lunged out, targeting my neck, but she left herself wide open. I batted the edge of her blade to the side with my short spear before the trident in my hand spun sharply a second before I plunged the spikes into her exposed thigh. She grunted, accepting the wound, and lashed out with a fist.

I avoided the blow as I kicked at her foot, changing the position of her wounded leg so the spikes would do more damage. Yanking the trident out, Wonder Woman let out a pained shout, yet she still made a lunge at me.

However, the fight had been decided. I kicked out, the back of my foot catching her in the temple. I held nothing back when delivering the powerful blow, snapping her head to the side with enough force that her tiara went flying away. Wonder Woman dropped, falling into a heap as blood seeped out of her wounds.

I had defeated her, but I found no satisfaction in the victory. I didn't beat her with technique and skill. I beat her with a stolen weapon and let blood loss sap her strength. The battle had been decided by tactics. Just like all the ones in the war had and it satisfied me about as much.

This time, when I turned away from Wonder Woman, she did not rise.