This time, Bruce Wayne, under the Batman mask, showed a rare expression of concern.
If even his heavy artillery couldn't handle this, the military would step in, and those guys would only use more powerful firepower to deal with this monster.
Fuel-air bombs, tactical nukes—Gotham City might be done for.
"Hey! Need a hand?" A playful voice came through Batman's comm channel.
"Hey, Tony, you done on your end?" Atreus's voice followed in the communication.
"Of course! There's nothing Iron Man can't handle." Tony was always that flamboyant.
But to Bruce Wayne, that sounded a bit grating. "My missile couldn't deal with him. That was 300 pounds of TNT equivalent high-energy explosives. Got a Plan B?"
"I could try a laser cutter, but I can only use it once."
Atreus didn't know how far along Tony was in developing Iron Man tech, but judging from appearances, this seemed to be the Mark 4 suit. By all accounts, it wasn't supposed to be particularly strong.
Since Tony mentioned the laser, it meant there was still a shot.
Atreus chimed in, "It's hard for me to coordinate with your heavy firepower. How about you blast away, and I'll see if I can suppress his movements?"
"Sounds good."
"OK!"
For the first time, the scientific geniuses of DC and Marvel worked together, instantly filling the scene with a dazzling display of light.
Batman's Batwing cannons worked in tandem with Iron Man's repulsor beams, relentlessly plowing through the debris surrounding Bane.
Although Bane couldn't effectively counterattack, neither could the duo take him down.
Just then, the portal that had been quiet for a moment started stirring again.
The skeletal portal glowed with a menacing greenish hue, and even the blood in the pool began to change into a sickening dark green.
Suddenly, gaping voids appeared around the portal. Any debris, whether concrete or steel, that came into contact with the glowing light was instantly melted, devoured, and vanished without a trace.
As eerie mist poured out from the portal, both Iron Man and Batman's monitors captured the image of a figure appearing.
Yes!
Half a person!
It seemed to be a woman, with a tangled mess of seaweed-like black hair and a crescent-shaped headpiece. She wore a strapless top, and her exposed skin was an unsettling grayish-white, etched with evil-looking runes.
But her body abruptly ended at her abdomen.
Because this female zombie was only half a body.
As she crawled out of the portal, her rotting intestines and a large section of her spine trailed behind her.
Seeing her face as she lifted her head, Atreus screamed, "Everyone, be careful! That's *the Enchantress*!"
Enchantress?
What Enchantress?
Her eerie green eyes locked onto Bruce Wayne piloting the Batwing.
Before Batman could react, her decayed form dissolved into a wisp of green smoke.
In the next second, she reappeared inside the Batwing cockpit.
"Wha…" This version of Batman hadn't faced many supernatural foes. Fighting countless thugs and gang leaders like the Joker had left him ill-prepared for an undead sorceress suddenly attacking him at close range.
In this dire situation, Batman instinctively made a move even he didn't expect.
**Thud!**
It was an uncharacteristic knee strike.
As a youth, Bruce Wayne had traveled to the snowy mountains to learn martial arts from the League of Assassins, whose leader was the enigmatic Ra's al Ghul.
While knee strikes were part of the assassin's combat techniques, they were rarely used.
And the follow-up claw strike made Bruce seriously doubt if he was still himself.
Regardless, with this rapid counterattack, Batman scratched the Enchantress's face, leaving shallow claw marks on her stiff expression.
That was the end of the counter.
The next moment, Batman opened the cockpit, and the first thing to be thrown out was the Enchantress. Infuriated, she let out a high-pitched screech, and a series of cursed lightning bolts shot from her body.
Unable to dodge in time, the Batwing sparked and lost control. Before it could crash, it exploded into a fiery ball.
Yet somehow, Batman was completely fine.
In midair, he performed a series of nearly ten flips and, without even needing his gliding cape, landed gracefully on all fours without a scratch.
The only problem…
Catwoman, Katana, and Huntress shouted in unison, "Why does Batman look so much like Bronze Tiger?"
Someone was definitely keeping quiet.
In the heat of the moment, Atreus had transferred several high-level skills to Batman through a system feature called "Soul Skill Sharing" and even boosted a few of them to Level 3. Among those skills was "Savage Combat" from Bronze Tiger—useless to Atreus, but perfect for Bruce.
Oddly enough, Batman had even used "Berserker Rage" to survive the Enchantress's energy blast.
After the fight, Batman still had no idea how he made it through.
And, of course, Tony Stark couldn't resist whistling. "Wow, Bats, you always fight this wild?"
While Stark joked, he wasn't slacking. As a humanoid mech, Iron Man couldn't carry much heavy weaponry. Though his small missiles couldn't do much to Bane, that didn't mean they wouldn't work on the Enchantress. A flurry of missiles zipped toward her, barely missing their mark.
"Hah!"
With a wave of her hand, the Enchantress unleashed a burst of lightning that exploded all of Iron Man's missiles in midair.
What Tony didn't expect was that what he couldn't finish, Batman could.
While the Enchantress was distracted by Iron Man's missiles, Batman dodged a bolt of lightning and performed a graceful mid-air twist, weaving through the bursts of electricity. Finally, he delivered a fierce kick to her face.
Watching the Enchantress scream as she was sent flying, even Batman was stunned.
"Is this… me?"
His agility had increased dramatically, making him feel as light as a feather.
His wind elemental resistance had also improved, allowing him to partially ignore the residual lightning.
He had no clue that this was all his adopted son's doing.
Meanwhile, Atreus, feeling the sting of his own wind resistance skill degrading, grumbled quietly, "Dad, you've been buffed. Now go! I mean, finish her off!"
(End of the Chapter)