The white-haired woman's rain of projectiles displayed an extremely high level of energy control. It gave those fragments terrifying destructive power. Every fragment possessed impact force comparable to Heat Vision.
With a shake of her hand, Vera took out Mjolnir from her inventory.
This war hammer, clearly obtained from the Female Thor, swung forward. The hammer instantly shattered into hundreds of fragments.
Electric arcs burst across the fragments. Lightning connected fragment to fragment, forming a three-dimensional electrical network.
It met the huge cloud of shattered stone launched by the Apokoliptian warrior's staff. The stone fragments and hammer pieces, the energy coating and electrical currents, continuously collided, creating clusters of small energy storms.
Each of these energy storms was only the size of a fist, but enough to erase super alloys.
Vera charged straight through them, smashing the storms apart.
Then the countless hammer fragments reassembled, reforming Mjolnir.
Vera swung the hammer. More than a hundred bolts of lightning tore through the air and poured into it.
Drawing upon the thunder, Vera smashed the hammer toward the white-haired woman.
The latter had no intention of taking Vera's attack head-on. She pushed off the ground with both feet and glided to the side like a skater, her movements smooth and light.
Vera's hammer struck empty air. Amid the flashing lightning, she changed direction, rushed out of the electrical glow, and lunged at the white-haired woman.
The metal staff in the woman's hand lifted slightly and flicked out.
The staff happened to catch Vera's right leg.
The green-skinned Vera's expression changed. She was immediately tripped and rolled away, smashing through several massive rocks before bouncing into the air and coming to a stop.
Hanging upside down in midair, she spun once, adjusted her posture, and looked at the white-haired woman.
"Prediction?"
Just now, when the staff had been lifted, that position had been completely empty.
But afterward, Vera charged over and ran directly into it, tripping herself.
If luck was ruled out, there was only one explanation.
The white-haired woman had predicted her movement and tripped her with perfect timing.
Vera narrowed her eyes.
It was the first time she had met an opponent against whom her strength felt so difficult to use.
She landed on the ground and charged again, refusing to believe it.
Lightning exploded from Mjolnir as it smashed toward the white-haired woman's head.
The woman swung her staff. Energy flowed along its surface, and with a clever application of force, she guided Mjolnir to the side.
Then, using the staff to support herself, she suddenly kicked upward with her left leg, striking Vera's wrist.
Amid a sharp whistle of wind, strands of light appeared on Vera's wrist. They sank in like a web on the verge of tearing apart.
But in the end, despite the woman's highly concentrated kick, she still failed to break Vera's bio-force field.
Vera shouted. Energy erupted from her body, and terrifying power filled the hammer. She swept it sideways and struck the white-haired woman's staff.
Clang!
The white-haired woman was sent flying.
Vera glanced at her wrist. The strands of light that formed the bio-force field there faded away.
She tightened her grip on the hammer and prepared to launch a second round of attacks.
Her bio-force field did not possess super regeneration.
Once damaged, it could only recover naturally over time.
The white-haired woman's raw strength could not reach Vera's level, but she made up for that weakness through technique.
Her ability to focus force made her attacks capable of threatening the bio-force field.
If the bio-force field were destroyed, Vera would only be able to rely on her Steel Body.
That was far inferior to the bio-force field and came with quite a few weaknesses.
The battle staff touched the ground.
The white-haired woman used a force-dispersing technique, channeling the impact through the staff into the earth. The ground exploded apart, and she came to a stop.
Then she said to Steppenwolf in a deep voice, "This isn't a fair duel."
"Let's attack together."
Steppenwolf could also tell that the white-haired woman was not confident she could completely defeat Vera.
The odds were probably six-four or even seven-three.
Moreover, Steppenwolf knew that the green-skinned woman still had not revealed all her methods.
He nodded immediately.
Two streams of hot breath burst from his nostrils. Energy rumbled inside his chest, and bright blue light appeared in his eyes.
Looking at the two Apokoliptian elites, Vera muttered, "I might not lose in a one-against-two."
"But why should I be someone else's hired muscle?"
She suddenly raised her head and shouted toward a certain spot in the night sky. A huge voice burst from her chest and echoed across the night like thunder.
"How long are you planning to keep watching?"
"Get down here and help."
"After we clean up these pieces of trash, we'll fight again and settle who's stronger."
"Otherwise, even if it means failing the mission, I'll join forces with them and go to Themyscira to take the Mother Box from you."
The white-haired woman and Steppenwolf looked at each other.
They had no idea who she was talking to.
At that moment, a deep red point of light suddenly appeared in the night sky.
At first, Steppenwolf thought it was the light of a star, or perhaps a light on an airplane.
But very quickly, that red point became impossible to ignore.
At the same time, a terrifying presence erupted like a volcano.
Steppenwolf roared, "It's him! That guy called the Conqueror!"
He was right.
That bright "star" in the sky was Alex.
Vera's words had been directed at him.
Alex was not surprised that Vera had discovered him.
He had not gone out of his way to hide.
If Vera had failed to notice him, that would have been strange.
So after hearing Vera's "threat," Alex smiled and steadily increased the output of his Divine Power.
50%, 80%, 100%, 120%, 200%!
When the output reached 200%, his size and physique looked almost no different from when it was at 100%.
But the dark red glow that had previously flowed around him now became blood-red flames that continuously surged upward.
This was the "red star" Steppenwolf had seen.
Within those boiling blood-red flames, Alex glanced at Diana, "I'll give you a signal."
Diana nodded.
Then Alex suddenly vanished from the air.
When he appeared again, he was already behind Steppenwolf.
Teleportation!
He had long since marked Steppenwolf's mental coordinates.
The instant he arrived behind him, he sent an invisible storm toward those coordinates.
Mind Storm!
Immediately, Steppenwolf was overcome with unease for no reason, as though something terrible was about to happen.
His attention scattered, and he could no longer focus.
Seizing that instant, Alex raised his arm and clenched his fist. Light flashed from the Hercules Bracers.
Then that fist slammed into Steppenwolf's back.
Steppenwolf let out a roar that shook the heavens.
The spiked armor on his chest suddenly bulged outward.
Then a huge cloud of blood mist, flesh, organ fragments, bones, and armor pieces erupted into the air all at once.
The blue light in the Apokolips frontline commander's eyes quickly dimmed.
Then disappeared.
Divine Power Output: 200%!
Hercules Bracers, tenfold strength enhancement.
Power Concentration!
With all three combined, Alex killed Steppenwolf with a single punch.