Faora's pupils constricted, and she snapped her head around to look toward the source of the sound.
Not far away stood a black-haired man, carrying a shattered RPG in his hand, which he casually tossed onto the ground.
Darian smacked his lips: "Standard equipment just isn't durable enough. I only stacked a few slightly stronger magic spells on it, and it shattered after just one shot. I'll have to specially forge a batch of firearms capable of bearing magic later."
"Father?"
Clark struggled to prop up his upper body from the pile of rubble, looking at him in disbelief: "How are you here?"
"As a police officer, I'm obviously here to fight crime."
Darian exuded righteousness as he said to Faora: "You alien bumpkin, your actions have violated numerous laws and regulations of Earth, including but not limited to kidnapping, destruction of public property, illegal entry, assault, and littering large trash. Surrender immediately and do not offer any futile resistance."
Clark: "..." Large trash, he doesn't mean me, does he?
"Alien bumpkin?"
Faora's gaze instantly dropped to freezing.
In her eyes, Kryptonian was an advanced civilization in the Universe, while Earth was nothing more than a backward Planet that couldn't even fly out of its own star system—at best, an uncivilized primitive tribe.
For Darian, this primitive, to turn around and mock them, the Kryptonians, was an insult of the highest order.
"You're courting death!"
Faora snorted coldly, ignoring Clark on the ground, and her figure suddenly vanished from where she stood.
"Father, watch out!"
Clark was shocked, immediately flying up and charging over, attempting to intercept Faora midway.
Although he had heard from Lois that Darian had impressive strength, he only thought of him as a human.
In front of a Kryptonian like Faora, even the peak of human physical condition was nothing more than a fragile sheet of paper.
But he was still a beat too slow.
Faora had already appeared in front of Darian, her right fist carrying a sonic boom as it struck straight toward his face.
There was no technique whatsoever in this punch.
Faora disdained using combat techniques against an Earthling native; she would just crush him with raw stats, no need for anything fancy.
Bang!! A loud noise exploded, air waves surged in all directions, and the rubble on the ground was sent scattering.
Under Faora's shocked gaze, a palm encased in a silver metal gauntlet firmly gripped her fist with five fingers.
This gauntlet was forged from the body of the Absorbing Man and was made of the same material as Captain America's shield, capable of absorbing most kinetic energy—perfect for dealing with stat-monsters like Kryptonians.
"This..." Clark looked incredulous.
He had just experienced Faora's strength, which was in no way inferior to his own; for Darian to catch it so casually...
Could it be that he wasn't the only alien on Earth?
Darian didn't know he was being mistaken for an alien by Clark; he slowly cracked a grin at Faora.
"Assaulting a police officer, that's another crime!"
As he spoke, his fingers gripping Faora's fist tightened suddenly, his waist and abdomen twisted to generate force, and he hurled Faora violently toward Nam-Ek, who had just stood up.
Throw! Darian activated his skill directly.
The moment she left his hand, an extra force was applied to her, causing her flight speed to skyrocket by several levels, leaving a blurry afterimage in the air.
Who said enemies couldn't be used as projectiles?
Nam-Ek had just climbed up from the ground when he saw a black shadow rushing toward him at high speed.
Out of combat instinct, he subconsciously reached out his right hand and swung hard, batting the unidentified object away.
Slap!!
An extremely crisp, loud noise, heard clearly by everyone present.
Nam-Ek's palm struck Faora's head squarely; her head was knocked to the side, her entire body shifted trajectory in mid-air, and she crashed headlong into a roadside restaurant, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke.
Darian called out, gloating: "Oh ho, you're done for. Women are very vengeful creatures. After that slap, she'll remember you for the rest of her life."
Nam-Ek: "..."
Only then did he realize who it was that he had slapped away just a moment ago.
One had to know, Faora was notorious on Kryptonian for hating men; she had once cruelly murdered dozens of males and, on occasion, wouldn't even spare her own kind if the mood struck her.
If not for General Zod constantly keeping Faora in check, the already dwindling Kryptonian population would likely have been reduced by more than half.
Thinking of his actions just now, Nam-Ek's back was instantly soaked in cold sweat.
In the dust, Faora walked out of the restaurant ruins.
The Kryptonian armor's defensive capabilities were indeed top-notch; Nam-Ek's slap hadn't caused any substantial damage, but she was covered in colorful sauces, with a few lettuce leaves hanging off her head, looking exceptionally disheveled.
Faora didn't say a word, just looked calmly at Nam-Ek.
That look was as if she were staring at a corpse that was already buried.
Nam-Ek felt his scalp tingle, feeling like he could write his will in advance.
Maybe he should just harden his heart after going back, perform a physical cutting surgery on himself, and just be sisters with Faora.
If he couldn't keep his little brother, at least he could keep his life.
Darian withdrew his gaze from the spectacle and whispered to Clark: "We'll each take one. That big dummy is mine. I have a principle: I don't hit women, so I'll leave the other one to you."
He saw that Faora was more than a notch stronger than Nam-Ek, so he decisively dumped this tough nut on Clark.
Clark wanted to say something but hesitated. Actually, he really wanted to say that he didn't hit women either.
Besides, when you were using her as a projectile a moment ago, why didn't I see you mention any principles?
But Darian didn't give him a chance to refuse at all; he kicked off the ground and charged straight toward Nam-Ek.
Clark took a deep breath and turned to charge toward Faora.
Seeing Darian charging at him, Nam-Ek immediately composed himself and strode forward to meet Darian, kicking two shallow pits into the asphalt road surface.
The distance between the two shrank to zero in the blink of an eye. The next instant, both threw punches simultaneously.
Boom—!! Both fists collided in mid-air, and a shockwave exploded from the point of Impact, spreading in all directions.
Both were nailed to the spot, neither retreating even half a step.
Relying on the material of the gauntlet, Darian absorbed a large amount of kinetic energy and didn't suffer much Impact.
Nam-Ek, on the other hand, easily withstood the blow by relying on his Kryptonian armor and his own physique.
The armor he wore, which condensed the crystallization of Kryptonian technology, was indeed powerful, but what was truly terrifying was the innate physical quality of the Kryptonians.
The gravity on Kryptonian was far beyond that of Earth by an unknown number of times; the muscle density and bone strength that evolved in that environment were a dimension-reduction strike when placed on Earth.
It was just like the classic setup in some sci-fi movies: when an Earthling protagonist arrives on a Planet with gravity only a fraction of Earth's, they can casually snap steel bars with their bare hands, leap over ten-story buildings with a light jump, and directly become a Superman-like existence.
Even though Darian's strength attribute had already broken a hundred, in terms of pure strength, it was hard to gain an advantage against a Kryptonian.
"That's why I hate stat-monsters; there's no skill involved at all." Darian looked disdainful, completely forgetting all the victims who had been crushed by his own stats.
A blinding white light suddenly surged from his fist, and several magic spells instantly drilled into Nam-Ek's body. Weakness, Slow, Poison, Hemorrhage, Stun...
A series of debuffs took effect simultaneously; Nam-Ek's pupils dilated on the spot, and he fell into a brief daze.
Compared to their powerful physical resistance, the magical resistance of Kryptonians was much lower.
Darian seized this opening, his right fist began to charge up, and the white light on the surface of the gauntlet kept climbing, becoming almost blindingly bright.
The moment the light reached its peak, he threw the punch. Charge · Exploding Fist!!
Bang!! Accompanied by a loud noise, Nam-Ek was sent flying backward like a cannonball, trailing a straight trajectory of air waves in the air, flying over a hundred meters away, and slamming heavily into an oil tanker train on the tracks.
Rumble—!! The explosion instantly swallowed Nam-Ek's figure, flames shot into the sky, and thick smoke rolled.
However, according to the classic "no damage if there's smoke" law, this kind of scene usually meant it wasn't over yet.
Sure enough, a locomotive suddenly flew out of the smoke, tracing a perfect parabola in the air, trailing a whistling sound as it smashed toward Darian.
Darian leaped up, nimbly dodging the incoming locomotive.
The locomotive rolled crazily on the ground, crushing through rubble and asphalt, and crashed straight toward Faora, who was currently entangled with Clark.
Faora glanced out of the corner of her eye, hurriedly raised her hand to block the locomotive, and then cast a sideways look at Nam-Ek as he walked out of the flames.
Faora: (°—°)
Nam-Ek: (— —) It's over, they couldn't even be sisters anymore.
"It's all your fault!" Nam-Ek converted the fear in his gut into rage, pinning it all on Darian.
He kicked off the ground violently, like an astronaut on the moon, took a few big jumps on the ground, then leaped high into the air, crossing dozens of meters before descending from the sky, hands clasped together, smashing toward Darian.
Darian immediately raised his hands to block, the kinetic energy being completely absorbed by the gauntlets like a sponge soaking up water.
Nam-Ek didn't stop; after landing, his fists bombarded crazily at a speed invisible to the naked eye, a dense flurry of punches enveloping Darian like a rainstorm.
Darian activated Dead Eye, maxing out his dynamic vision, and blocked continuously, relying on the properties of the gauntlets.
But Nam-Ek was, after all, a combatant from Kryptonian; from the moment he was born, combat genes were etched into his body.
His combat instincts were extremely sharp; after a few rounds of fighting, he saw the oddity of that pair of gauntlets and immediately shifted the focus of his attacks to other parts of Darian's body.
In this business, being able to fight is just the foundation; using your brain is the key, otherwise you'll be a Kryptonian loser for the rest of your life. Don't you agree, Clark?
Nam-Ek's speed when exploding with full power was ridiculously fast; even though Darian's Dead Eye captured the attack trajectory, his body couldn't keep up with the reaction.
Nam-Ek suddenly reached out his hands, grabbed Darian's gauntlets, and forcibly restrained Darian with brute force.
The gauntlets could absorb kinetic energy, but not static strength.
"Not good!" Darian realized his trick had been seen through and was about to make a tactical retreat.
Nam-Ek's movements were faster; he lifted his foot and kicked. Bang! Bang! Bang!
Darian was kicked flying, crashing through several buildings, and finally slamming heavily into a truck, only then barely coming to a stop.
The cargo box was dented deeply, and the alarm wailed loudly.
Nam-Ek didn't give Darian a chance to catch his breath, following in hot pursuit, stepping onto the roof of the truck and looking down from above at Darian, who was lying in the dented cargo box.
"The Earthling's little tricks end here."
Nam-Ek reached out his hand, preparing to drag Darian out of the scrap metal and deliver the final blow.
However, his fingers had only reached halfway when his movements suddenly froze.
At this moment, he felt a wave of weakness surging from deep within his body, as if he had taken off over a dozen times in one night; that feeling of invincible power was fading away bit by bit.
Nam-Ek's expression changed drastically: "This feeling..."
"Just like returning to your hometown, right?" Darian finished the second half of the sentence for him and slowly opened his right hand.
A stone lay in the palm of his hand, emitting a faint green glow.
[Item: Kryptonite (Kryptonian's fatal weakness, a must-have item for Batman)]
Kryptonite, the strongest weapon against Kryptonians.
Darian had originally wanted to keep it hidden, to use it to ambush General Zod, that behind-the-scenes boss.
But the strength of the Kryptonians was truly beyond expectations; even if he changed into the God-King suit, it would be hard to contend with them, unless he used the ultron armor directly, but that might not guarantee he wouldn't let them escape.
General Zod had brought quite a few Kryptonians to Earth, and each one of them was a Superman-level existence on Earth.
And on Earth's side, the only one who could go head-to-head was Clark.
As for that Bat-boy currently holed up in Gotham, he didn't even know what a Kryptonian was yet.
If he were left to fight these Kryptonians, he'd probably be beaten into a Bat-pancake; after all, that bunch of Kryptonians didn't have any moral bottom line like Clark, holding back against enemies.
Therefore, he should reduce the Kryptonians' strength as much as possible now, ideally leaving only General Zod, so they could return to Darian's favorite part: righteous gang-beating.
"This... what is this thing?" Nam-Ek didn't recognize Kryptonite, but he could feel an extremely familiar sensation, just like the environment of Kryptonian.
When they used to live on Kryptonian, it was just like humans living on Earth—they were all ordinary flesh and blood, bodies that would get injured and bleed when attacked by firearms and weapons, not like now where they could take a missile to the face and remain unscathed.
Nam-Ek gasped for air, his figure swaying, as if he would collapse at any moment.
Darian looked at the weakened Nam-Ek and said cheerfully: "This is a specialty from your hometown. Do you feel the warmth of home?"
"You..." Nam-Ek gritted his teeth, stumbling unsteadily, as if he were about to fall.
Suddenly, he steadied himself and threw a heavy punch toward Darian's face; where was that look of being too weak to stand from just a moment ago?
He was a native Kryptonian born and raised on Kryptonian; to him, the suppression of Kryptonite was merely the loss of the strengthening buff he had received upon arriving on Earth, reverting to his factory settings, so naturally, he wouldn't feel any discomfort.
That wobbly appearance just now was purely acting, just waiting for Darian to let his guard down to launch a sneak attack.
Bang!! However, his fist was easily caught by Darian with one hand.
Nam-Ek's expression instantly froze.
Darian stood up, slowly pressed Nam-Ek's fist down, and revealed a kind smile on his face.
"Tell me, do you Kryptonians bleed?"
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