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A familiar arena.
Clark followed the familiar figure of the female warrior to the training ground. "It hasn't been that long, but I feel like everything here is so familiar," he said.
"That's probably because your Kryptonian brain is more powerful than an ordinary person's," she replied with a smile. "It took me almost half a year of constant training to feel at home here.
"She walked to a weapon rack, stood opposite Clark, and skillfully picked up a scarred shield. It was the same shield Clark had used during his training. After he left Paradise Island to join the heroes, she had kept it.
This time, she didn't throw the shield to him immediately. "So what? Now that you have powerful superpowers, do you still plan to use this shield?" she asked.
Clark smiled and held out his hand. She understood immediately, tossing the shield, which he caught easily. "This is a trial for an Amazon warrior, so it must be fought with an Amazon warrior's methods," he said. "Right now, I'm not a Kryptonian, but a warrior accepting a trial from my master."
A brighter smile spread across the warrior's face. Clark's words showed that he saw himself as a part of Paradise Island, an Amazon warrior at heart.
He had access to all the powers of a Kryptonian—super breath, heat vision, a biological force field, flight—but using them would have meant abandoning all his previous training.
It would have been a subtle betrayal of her teachings. While the warrior would have respected his choice, as the Amazons respected strength, it would have left a bitter taste.
This new Clark was different from the boy who once told her he didn't want to hurt her. He had grown to respect her pride as an Amazon warrior, picking up an Amazon weapon to fight her as an equal. This was a true sign of respect. He had learned to care about the hearts of others, not just offer simple concern.
"So..." she said.
"The battle begins!" she declared, launching an attack the moment the words left her mouth. She rushed forward at her fastest speed, her sword ready.
Clark, true to his word, didn't use his force field to fly. Relying only on his Kryptonian physical strength, he raised his shield to meet her attack. He had memorized her attack patterns, just as he had mastered the basics of space travel in a week.
During his training, he had learned almost all of her combat skills. The shield firmly blocked her strike. His recent experiences as a hero had made him stronger, and there was no longer a physical gap between them.
When her attack was blocked, she raised her leg for a sweeping kick, but Clark jumped up, evading it, and threw the shield like a boomerang directly at her face. He used his full strength, for only a full-power attack could show the greatest respect to an Amazon warrior.
"Good fight!" she exclaimed.
Clark's reaction surprised her. The boy she had once effortlessly defeated was now a qualified fighter, sharpened by his training on Paradise Island and his recent battles as a hero. But she would not be defeated so easily. She swung her sword, knocking the shield away, and rushed toward the newly-landed Clark.
There was still some distance between them, but Clark made a kicking motion. This confused her; a mistake in distance control wasn't something Clark would make. But reality soon provided the answer.
The moment he kicked, the shield that had been knocked away by her sword flew back like a boomerang, appearing right in front of his ear. From the moment he received the shield, Clark had used his super brain to calculate its trajectory, giving it a specific rotation and accounting for the angle of her strike so it would fly back to him.
Bang!
Clark kicked the shield with all his strength. With this new momentum, the shield struck the warrior, who failed to react in time, and sent her flying. The scarred shield drew an arc in the air and was caught by Clark.
The same trick that Captain America from another world had mastered only after being injected with super-serum was now mastered by an 8-year-old Clark. He didn't know this, of course.
He knew his world was a comic world to this one, but the comics were so different from his reality that he only used them as a reference. He had never read the so-called "Marvel" comics.
"You, kid, have mastered a pretty good fighting method," the female warrior said, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth. The pain in her chest only made her more excited. He had managed to fight with only a shield. "But the battle won't end just like that. Are you ready to fight all day?"
Clark smiled faintly, once again taking a fighting stance with his shield. "Anytime!"
The two charged at each other again, their bond strengthening with every exchange. The female warrior, now prepared, wouldn't fall for Clark's shield trick again, and the battle became a competition of endurance.
Clark would get scratched, but his Kryptonian healing ability would mend the wounds almost instantly. The warrior also took hits but endured through her strong will and Amazon physical prowess.
Unconsciously, more and more Amazon warriors were drawn to the arena. When they saw the boy using their fighting style, they felt a sense of pride and accepted him into their hearts. The battle continued from day into night.
The loss of sunlight didn't weaken Clark, and they continued fighting until the sun rose again. The warrior had always hoped Clark would surpass her, but now that he had, she found she was unwilling to lose.
The onlookers, the Amazons, had no impact on them. Instead, an unexpected person arrived: Wonder Woman. She had returned to Paradise Island from the Fortress of Solitude, and as she entered the arena, she saw Clark fighting with Amazonian skills and smiled with satisfaction.