In the next instant, an almost imperceptible flash of lightning shot directly into the crowd.
"Begin!"
As soon as they were released from the Speed Force, Su Ming imdiately leaped forward, tackling one of the Strigidae Priests and rolling out of the crowd with them, while Barry ran in a rapid circle around the remaining priests.
Unlike before, when he carried people while running, this ti he used the Speed Force to manipulate the surrounding air, creating a whirlwind in the middle of the gathering. The strong wind extinguished the surrounding torches, plunging the entire cavern into darkness.
Whenever one of the priests tried to break through the encirclent or cast a spell, Barry would appear behind them and shove them, interrupting their actions.
anwhile, Su Ming pinned the Strigidae Priest to the ground, giving them no ti to react, and began punching them in the face repeatedly. From his previous battle with the cat-shaped priest, he had learned a few things, and now he intended to try a different strategy.
Su Ming's mories ca from China. There were things Slade didn't know, but he did, like the theory of ridians and so traditional Chinese dical concepts.
Although he was still unsure of who he truly was, it didn't affect his use of this knowledge. He could recall various TV health programs Su Ming had watched, selling magnetic acupressure shoes, acupressure pillows, spinal acupressure devices, and even a certain herbal redy for erectile dysfunction...
While he couldn't use the phone numbers to order any of these products, all this scattered knowledge ford a fairly complete, simplified theory.
The human body has 108 crucial acupoints, of which 72 are generally non-lethal when struck, while the remaining 36 are deadly acupoints, also known as "death points."
Death points are further classified into four categories: soft, numbing, fainting, and lethal, each containing nine points. There's even a traditional Chinese mnemonic describing their effects, which now served as his action guide:
"Striking Baihui must cause collapse, Shenting won't return from the underworld, hitting Zhangn leads nine out of ten to death, striking Taiyang and Yan surely sends one to the King of Hell, broken spine without nding brings swift death."
Since the enemy now was a humanoid creature, there was no harm in trying.
mory flashed through his mind like lightning. His fists, wrapped in prothium gloves, targeted the deadly points on the priest's body, focusing on the Baihui point at the top of the head, the Zhangn point at the back of the skull, and the Taiyang points at the temples on both sides.
If you want to achieve lethal results with bare hands in a short ti, strength and technique are indispensable.
"All roads lead to darkness! All beings shall return to Barbatos—"
The Strigidae Priest, pinned down, tried to shout their slogan, but Su Ming cut them off with a punch to the jaw, forcing the words back down their throat. He then followed up with continuous strikes to the temples.
"Return to who? Die!"
Su Ming could feel his knuckles sinking into the priest's skull. Both temples were sunken in. For good asure, he also delivered several heavy blows to the Baihui point at the top of the head.
The priest's skull completely shattered, and red and white matter covered Su Ming's hands. The mask fell away, revealing a mummified face beneath the skin, shriveled like dried wood.
A monster. Its nose was too pointed, like a bird's beak, and its eyes occupied one-third of its face. No one would believe this thing was human, but at least its weaknesses were still the sa. Blood poured from all its orifices, and it was completely dead.
Su Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the flood of resurfacing mories and bloodlust, and called out to Barry, "Send another one."
Barry glanced at the bloody corpse on the ground and shuddered. It was incredibly gory, but at least it was a monster, which made him feel a bit better.
"All roads—"
"All what? Die!"
The priest Barry threw over was also about to shout, but Su Ming jumped up, grabbed the priest mid-air, and wrapped his legs around their neck, slamming them into the ground. The stone floor wouldn't hurt these creatures; they were immune to such impacts. But Su Ming's boots were made of prothium, and they crushed the priest's jaw.
The tongue flopped out from under the mask, and Su Ming's eyes lit up. He grabbed it and yanked, tearing out the bloody organ so the priest couldn't speak.
Then he bent down and delivered a few more punches to send the priest on their way. He couldn't give them a chance to chant spells.
Shaking off the blood on his hand, he took a deep breath, calming the bloodlust. He knew there was no way to expect Barry to kill, but these creatures weren't human. What difference was there between this and fighting aliens or demons?
No wonder that even with the Speed Force, Barry could only play support in the Justice League. The main damage dealers were still Diana and Superman. It was fine not to kill in minor skirmishes, but when it ca to battles of life and death, if you didn't kill your enemy, you were only making things harder for yourself.
That's why Superman was often sidelined. In almost every major event, he'd be taken out first by the enemy.
If it were Reverse-Flash or any of the other speedster villains here, Su Ming wouldn't even have to lift a finger. They'd just run fast enough to cause a Speed Force storm and wipe out all these priests.
No helping it; this was the price of working with the Flash. It was already a miracle he managed to convince Barry to operate in a more Justice League-style manner. At least Barry wasn't stopping him from killing those who needed to die.
On Earth-11, beggars couldn't be choosers. They'd have to make do for now.
"Send another one over!"
As Su Ming and Barry dealt with the priests, Bryce left the battlefield, circling around to the back of the black well the priests were facing. There, she found a very crude altar and began searching for Bat-tal.
There were so strange books here, possibly containing records of spells or similar things, and so miscellaneous items, mostly animal parts or organs.
There was no Bat-tal. This place looked like the Stone Age, without even a trace of tal. But as she observed the surroundings, she noticed sothing unusual above her.
It was an owl specin, lifelike with feathers and claws intact, suspended from the cave ceiling by a rope, as if it were soaring through the air.
Bryce squinted. The rope was palm fiber, not hemp.
But if this were a regular specin, even after drying and posing, no owl specin would weigh more than three kilograms, because birds have very light bones.
Would you need palm fiber to hang sothing weighing three kilograms? Before the advent of steel, dockworkers used palm fiber to hoist cargo. It's made from palm tree bark, and slaves used it to drag thousands of tons of stone blocks on rollers to build the pyramids.
She reached to her belt, pulled out a Batarang, and flung it at the rope. The sharp bat-shaped blade cut through the fiber.
The owl didn't soar but instead fell like a rock, hitting the ground with a thud. The dried owl shattered, revealing a piece of ore.
It hadn't been slted, remaining in its original form. It was jagged, with a crystalline structure, and as Su Ming had described, copper-colored with a faint red glow.
This was Bat-tal. Even in the lair of the Strigidae Priests, there was only this fist-sized chunk. Legend had it that it was also called the Bone of Set, a traditional high-level magical material with powerful properties, a treasure passed down through the Bat tribe, stolen by the bird tribe.
Unlike other tals, Bat-tal didn't grant healing abilities or forge unbreakable weapons and armor. But it served as a magical conduit, amplifying the spells of priests and mages, and could be used to communicate with the Dark Multiverse, gazing directly at the lurking horrors within the endless dark.
"Found it." She lifted the heavy ore. It wasn't large, but it was dense, weighing nearly 40 kilograms despite being only the size of a fist.
"Toss it to ." Su Ming motioned for her to throw it over.
The ore traced a red arc through the air and landed securely in Su Ming's hands.
Now that he had it, things were much better. He wouldn't need as many punches. As long as Barry pushed a priest over, Su Ming would smash their temple or head with the ore, its sharp crystalline edges covered in all sorts of red and white viscous fluids.
It was like a gorilla smashing nuts with a stone, except using too much force.
The imnse strength of a cyborg ensured its lethality. This ore, with its jagged edges, was much more effective than he had imagined.
The priests didn't give up without resistance. They cast spells and struggled, but their weapons and claws couldn't penetrate Su Ming's armor. Their magic shields or similar defenses couldn't withstand the 'tal' attacks.
The number of trapped Strigidae Priests dwindled, and the bodies piled up on Su Ming's side, forming a small mountain. Bryce turned away, inspecting other tunnels without saying a word.
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