After receiving the combat suits, Bruce and Selina's fighting capabilities had improved dramatically.
Before, they could easily handle most ordinary criminals. Now, when facing those beast-man assassins, they no longer needed to dodge and evade as they had in the past. They could even use the enhanced strength provided by the battle suits to defeat these creatures.
However, they hadn't immediately gone on the offensive. Marcus kept them at Wayne Manor and subjected them to special training.
Although the battle suits granted them impressive power, they also created problems with controlling that power. After donning the suits, they struggled to manage their newfound strength. Sometimes they applied too little force to pick up small objects, while at other times they used too much, accidentally destroying things around the manor.
Because of this, Alfred had been exhausted lately, constantly dealing with the damage caused by Bruce and Selina. Despite being just teenagers, with their battle suits, they could easily shatter marble sculptures with their bare hands—no tools required.
This gave everyone a deeper appreciation for just how powerful the battle suits were.
After all, they hadn't destroyed those sculptures intentionally—they'd just applied slightly too much pressure. Yet even that small excess of force was enough to completely shatter the hard marble statues.
Alfred found the situation both painful and gratifying. While dealing with the damaged statues kept him extremely busy, he was thrilled by the strength Bruce and Selina now possessed.
If Bruce had owned this battle suit earlier, he would never have been forced out of Wayne Manor by those killers or been made to struggle for survival in Gotham's dark corners.
But things had worked out well—Marcus had returned, and they'd all received his gifts, including these battle suits that granted them tremendous strength.
"You two don't need to be so careful," Marcus said, lounging on a rocking chair in the sun while Bruce and Selina stood nearby, carefully trying to remove eggs from a basket. "Only when you fully accept your power can you truly master it with ease."
The two students ignored their teacher's advice. They'd believed him before and casually grabbed eggs from the basket, only to crush them instantly.
The consequence? They had to eat all the crushed eggs—"to avoid waste," Marcus had claimed. Only they knew how difficult that meal had been, with nearly every bite containing bits of shell they'd failed to pick out.
This time they weren't taking their teacher's word for it. They touched the eggs in the basket with extreme caution, afraid that even the slightest pressure would make them explode.
But no matter how careful they were, the eggs inevitably cracked.
Crack!
A faint sound signaled another eggshell breaking. Bruce's face froze, and he slowly withdrew his egg-coated hand from the basket.
"Ha! I told you to accept your strength, Bruce. Looks like fried eggs with shells are on your menu again today."
Seeing Bruce's egg-covered hands, Marcus laughed from his rocking chair.
His students were still too inexperienced. If they remained constantly worried about breaking things, they would never master the power of their battle suits.
Hearing Marcus's teasing, Selina couldn't help but laugh—until another cracking sound came from her basket, abruptly ending her amusement.
Her egg had been crushed too.
"You two!" Marcus sighed, shaking his head.
A vortex appeared in his hand, drawing the fallen leaves from around the garden toward him. In moments, they formed a solid ball, spinning rapidly between his palms.
"Mastering your strength isn't about brute force—though of course, with absolute power, you can exert good control even through brute force alone. Remember what I taught you about combat postures: skills are the extension of strength. To use combat skills effectively, you must wield your strength as naturally as you move your own limbs."
As he spoke, Marcus tossed the ball of leaves toward his students. Like the eggs in the basket, the leaf ball appeared solid, but if they applied too much strength, it would explode and scatter.
"Use your strength to keep this leaf ball intact."
Seeing the leaf ball flying toward them, Bruce instinctively reached for it.
After hearing Marcus's instructions, however, he hesitated and pulled back his hand. He didn't trust himself to keep the leaf ball together.
But Selina acted decisively, lunging toward the leaf ball. She knew that, like Bruce, she probably couldn't keep it intact—the moment she touched it, the compressed leaves would likely scatter instantly.
Still, she went for it anyway. She had never been afraid of challenges, and besides, they'd already ordered eggs for breakfast—what more did they have to lose?
The moment she touched the leaf ball, it exploded as expected, showering both Selina and Bruce in a rain of countless leaves.
"Remember what I said: if you want to master your power, you must fully accept it first."
With Marcus's reminder echoing in their ears, Bruce and Selina emerged from the pile of leaves, each holding a single fallen leaf in their hands.
Perhaps they could start with simpler exercises. Once they could pick up a leaf without crushing it, they would be closer to success.
They began collecting leaves from the ground. At first, they crushed large leaves to pieces, but this didn't discourage them. They persisted, focusing intently on controlling the strength provided by their battle suits.
Initially, leaf juice squeezed from crushed foliage coated their hands with green stains. Gradually, however, they discovered they could control their power a little better.
Though they still struggled with precise control, they clearly felt their grasp improving.
They were no longer completely unable to regulate their strength as before. Now they could control it to some degree.
"It seems you're finally understanding," Marcus observed.
Before knowing the limits of their strength, they had no concept of how powerful they had become, which greatly affected their ability to judge appropriate force.
Without understanding their limits, they easily made incorrect assessments, applying either too much strength or too little.
But now they were fully engaging with their power, developing a genuine understanding of its capabilities.
Once they knew the limits of their strength, they could grasp control more quickly.
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