Mandarin's eyes widened as the dust and fire settled because Selina wasn't there. At first, he thought her body had turned to ashes, but then a blast of plasma beam came from behind him, burning his back and sending him flying into the jungle.
Selina's voice sounded in his head, "You are going to need something more than that to kill me."
"HOW?!" He roared as his body healed and he stood up. "How are you still alive? I'm sure my hellfire touched you. There's no way you should be alive!"
"Yeah, it was dangerous," Selina said, her eyes narrowing as she studied the crater where she had stood moments earlier. The residual energy signature from Mandarin's attack was intense—off the charts, even for someone like her. "But you're a bit too slow."
Without giving him a chance to react, she raised her arm, activating her suit's arm-mounted launcher. A flurry of mini-missiles burst from her gauntlet, streaking toward Mandarin with fiery trails. The missiles curved mid-flight, locking onto his heat signature and slamming into him one after another in a series of deafening explosions.
Mandarin staggered back, the hellfire around him flaring to absorb the damage. He roared, his voice echoing through the jungle. "You think toys will stop me?"
Selina smirked, her Kryptonian-enhanced senses locking onto his every move. "Toys? Sweetheart, these are party favors." She vanished in a blur of speed, appearing behind him in an instant. Her fists connected with his back, sending him hurtling into a massive tree that splintered on impact.
Mandarin twisted mid-air, flames licking at his wounds as they healed almost instantly. "You're fast," he growled, summoning a torrent of hellfire in both hands. "But I have the power of the damned at my side!"
He hurled the hellfire toward her, a wave of searing, supernatural flames that scorched everything in its path. Selina's eyes glowed red as she unleashed her heat vision, the twin beams meeting the hellfire head-on. The collision created a blinding explosion of light and heat, the shockwave leveling the surrounding area.
'It's getting dangerous. I hope this armor survives till Bruce arrives. This freak is healing from everything.'
Selina flew through the chaos at the ground level and her movements a blur as she closed the distance between them. She launched into the air, her fists glowing with kinetic energy from her suit. She slammed into Mandarin with the force of a speeding train, driving him into the ground with enough impact to create a crater.
"Still think you're winning?" she quipped, hovering above him as he struggled to rise.
[Ziing! Zing!] She blasted him with her heat vision over and over again for two minutes. But Mandarin's body was already healing rapidly.
"You can't kill me!" he roared, flames surging around him as he launched himself toward her. His fists glowed with hellfire as he swung, but Selina moved like a phantom, dodging each blow with ease. She countered with a burst of ice breath, freezing his arm mid-swing. With a quick follow-up strike, she shattered the frozen limb, sending shards of flesh and bone scattering.
Mandarin howled in rage, the hellfire within him reigniting to restore his arm. "You're just prolonging the inevitable!"
Selina zipped around him, her speed making it impossible for him to track her movements. She fired a concentrated blast of heat vision at his torso, burning through his fiery defenses and searing his flesh. Mandarin stumbled, his body struggling to recover from the relentless assault.
"You talk too much," Selina said, appearing behind him once again. She grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground. With her super strength strength, she hurled him into the air, following close behind. As he tried to stabilize himself mid-flight, she delivered a hard kick to his chest, sending him hurtling back toward the ground like a meteor.
Booom!
The impact created a massive shockwave, uprooting trees and scattering debris. Selina hovered above the crater, her eyes glowing as she prepared to finish the fight. Mandarin, battered but still alive, clawed his way out of the rubble, his hellfire flickering weakly.
"You're like a cockroach, you know that?" Selina said, landing gracefully on the edge of the crater. She checked her HUD and noticed that the nanites were reaching their limits. The damage from the hellfire was too much. Her suit was functioning at 60% right now. "But this ends now."
Mandarin growled, summoning the last remnants of his strength. "You think you've won? My master will—"
Before he could finish, Selina moved faster than the eye could follow.
She zipped forward, her movements so fast that the world around her seemed frozen. To her, Mandarin was a statue—a fiery one—but a statue nonetheless. Her punches landed like lightning strikes, each blow shattering bone and tearing through muscle before his body could even start to heal.
Her fists moved in a blur, hitting his ribs, chest, and head repeatedly. The sound of cracking bones echoed through the clearing, almost drowned out by the hum of her failing suit. Mandarin's hellfire scorched the nanites with every strike, reducing her suit's functionality bit by bit.
"Let's see how fast you really heal," she muttered, her voice sharp with determination.
Kicks and jabs followed her punches, her hits calculated to inflict maximum damage. She spun mid-air, delivering a devastating roundhouse kick that snapped his spine, only to slam her fist into his chest right after. The hellfire clinging to him flared, trying to push her back, but she powered through, gritting her teeth as her HUD flashed warnings.
Suit integrity: 50%.
"Better hold on, suit," she whispered, throwing another punch that cracked Mandarin's jaw.
And then, it happened.
Mandarin's body couldn't keep up with the relentless assault. One final blow to his chest caused his entire form to implode, the force sending a fiery shockwave across the area. Selina shielded herself, her nanites forming a protective shell, though they were sizzling against the heat.
When the firestorm cleared, Mandarin's remains were already starting to reform. His muscles twisting, skin knitting together. But then, Selina noticed something glowing faintly amidst the chaos.
A crystal.
It pulsed with a sinister red light, embedded deep within his partially reformed chest.
"Found your little secret," she said, narrowing her eyes. Without hesitation, she dove toward him, her hand shooting forward. Her fingers wrapped around the crystal, the heat from it burning into her palm even through her enhanced durability.
Mandarin's eyes snapped open, wide with panic. "NO! Don't—"
Too late.
Selina yanked the crystal out, and the moment she did, Mandarin's body froze mid-heal. The hellfire around him sputtered out, leaving only silence. His face twisted in shock before his form crumbled into ash, disintegrating into the jungle floor. She stared at the crystal in her hand. It was warm, pulsating with energy—dark, dangerous energy.
"This must be how you kept coming back," she muttered, as she used the nanites containment box to hold the cube. Her HUD flashed more warnings about her suit's dwindling power, but she ignored them.
"Bruce," she said into her comms, her voice steady but exhausted. But the sun was still up, so her body automatically absorbed the energy regaining her strength and stamina. "Mandarin's officially toast, but you're not gonna believe what I found. Looks like someone's been handing out cheat codes. Take a look." She held it before her HUD.
"A crystal?" Bruce said.
He and Morgan flew down at the location and Bruce looked at the crystal. He recognized the energy signature of the crystal. It was similar to the energy signature of those Samjokgu that he killed back then while saving Ami. But although the energy was similar, this crystal was far dense and dangerous.
Selina took out the ring and gave it to Bruce, "Here you go."
He nodded and put it on his finger. 'This girl is still sleeping, huh.' He looked at the crystal and narrowed his eyes, "Mephesto is definitely the one behind this. But who else is backing him? He can't directly interfere with our world, so he must be using someone else to mess things up. The question is, who?"
Morgan frowned as she felt something familiar. She walked over to the scorched ground and touched a heap of rocks and soil. It was the place where the altar was. Her Infinity energy began to react. She closed her eyes and focused, trying to track the energy signature. "Hey, Dad." She stood up and turned toward Bruce. "Why am I sensing Doctor Strange's life force from these rocks?"
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