Chapter 115: Care for a Taste?
Orin Vale was becoming increasingly glad that he had paid close attention in his combat classes in the Land of Light.
This was another point of commonality between the DC Universe and the Ultraman universe; this principle even held true for the Marvel Universe next door.
For metahumans in the early stages of these worlds' power systems, combat techniques were of paramount importance. Sufficient skill and rich experience could often help lower-level practitioners defeat monsters far above their level.
But as one climbed the combat power tree, these things seemed to become irrelevant. At this stage, powerful superpowers seemed far more important than melee abilities. Flashy conceptual abilities like matter rewriting, molecular reorganization, and reality rewriting were the way to go.
However, as the combat power system continued to expand to even higher levels, a sense of a return to simplicity emerged among some of the strongest individuals. For example, when multiverse-level deities like Darkseid faced opponents on their own level and all their conceptual methods were nullified, melee combat once again became the mainstream way to decide the victor.
Even the one and only appearance of 'Thought Robot Superman'—a version of Superman fans often use for power scaling—involved a final battle against Mandrakk, the ultimate demon who destroyed the multiverse. The decisive battle between two great gods who could destroy thousands of universes with a single gesture still couldn't escape from brutal, fist-to-flesh combat.
It had the air of "all royal blood must end by the sword." And at times like these, the value of the combat curriculum from the Land of Light's education system immediately became apparent.
Just like now.
Perhaps because he was overly confident in his own divine power, Apollo wasn't particularly proficient in combat skills. Although he might have trained, in his fights against Diana in the comics, he often relied on suppressing her with divine power; his technique was actually inferior to Wonder Woman's.
This was where Orin Vale's tactical advantage came into play.
Orin Vale's descending forearm strike easily neutralized the sun god's whip kick. He followed with a slap to interrupt Apollo's follow-up kick, then switched hands and drove a fierce hand-blade strike into the joint of the leg, whose momentum was spent, leaving it unable to retract.
The strike to the joint dealt multiplied damage. Apollo let out a muffled grunt and retreated half a step. But before he could steady himself, a heavy punch glowing with golden radiance had already struck him in the chest.
It was like a muffled hammer blow, stifling the breath in his chest. Before he could react, a series of punches and palm strikes rained down like a torrential storm.
The barrage of impacts on Apollo's chest was as dense as a string of pearls. Each strike was accompanied by a golden ripple of light energy, as if countless radiant lotuses were blooming and exploding on his chest. The string of strikes forced Apollo to retreat again and again. His mouth fell open, and golden flames spewed out like blood.
The last person who tried to bombard Orin Vale with stellar energy now had their warship sitting in his subspace as a war trophy. After Apollo's blast of solar radiation, Orin Vale immediately felt his strength become abundant again. He poured energy into every punch as if it were free, which was why each strike came with its own special effects.
Apollo's mind was groggy, his limbs as heavy as if they were filled with lead. The sun god swayed, struggling to raise his arms to counterattack out of instinct. But Orin Vale caught his wrist, turned his body, and used his shoulder and hips to execute a standard, Original Ultraman-style shoulder throw. The sun god's huge body was instantly flung over his shoulder and slammed brutally onto the ground. The entire hall shook, and dust rained down.
Before he had any chance to react, Orin Vale spun around again, grabbed Apollo by the arm, and hoisted him up once more.
A second consecutive shoulder throw!
After three throws in a row, Apollo was like a lump of mud, being tossed over his shoulder and slammed down again and again, leaving the god completely dazed and disoriented.
Hephaestus, standing to the side, was now silent and speechless.
Logically speaking, among their Twelve Chief Gods, the sun god wasn't the strongest, but he was definitely one of the more capable combat gods. Yet in the hands of this strange alien visitor, he was like a glowing, tattered rag.
Of course, Orin Vale knew that the Olympian gods' strength was not to be underestimated. It was just that Apollo, as the sun god, was at a type disadvantage, completely countered by Orin Vale's own powers. On top of that, ever since Orin Vale had smashed Old Bu in Metropolis, his own stats panel had been leveling up as fast as a race car. Plus, his opponent was likely a bit arrogant and had underestimated him, which was why it looked like he was beating up his son.
Of course, for the onlookers who didn't know the truth, the shocking scene of the sun god being thrashed was definitely stunning enough.
Moreover, this Original Ultraman-style combination of shoulder throws, while seemingly ordinary, was actually a master-class technique. One had to know that in actual combat, the Original Ultraman often liked to forgo using a light ray and instead just throw a monster to death with this move.
As the third consecutive throw slammed down, it was unclear whether it was because he realized he was trapped in some kind of infinite combo he couldn't break out of, or because he was enraged by the humiliation.
The sun god exploded.
This was not an exaggeration. As Apollo hit the ground, he let out a roar. The golden radiance around him surged, and his entire body seemed to ignite!
The moment he saw this, Orin Vale's DNA stirred, and he instinctively flinched.
That posture was familiar! It was the same look sported by the Land of Light's number one terrorist and humanoid walking bomb: Ultraman Taro (Prince). He adopted it whenever a fight turned against him.
Self-detonation!
Without a second thought, Orin Vale grabbed Apollo's arm and lifted him again. At this point, less than half of the energy the sun god had infused into him had been used, and he felt boundless strength.
Circulating his light energy and pouring the power into his arms, he lifted the sun god and forcefully hurled him upward!
The mountain was blasted straight through. The burning Apollo, trailing blazing flames, shot into the sky under the terrifying divine power, like a rocket being launched.
BOOM!!!
A violent explosion, like a supernova detonating high in the sky. A brilliant heatwave erupted in the air, causing the surrounding mountains to collapse as rocks tumbled down.
But for some reason, looking at that brilliant ball of fire, Orin Vale could faintly sense a meaning similar to "I'll be back!".
The mountain where Hephaestus was located seemed to have a magic barrier and was unharmed, though the launch had torn another large hole in the roof.
A scan with his Ultra Vision revealed that Apollo had vanished from mid-air. Orin Vale's body was enveloped in light energy, disintegrating into light particles and transforming into a ball of photons that returned to his armor.
"Is he dead?" he asked, turning to Diana.
"Gods don't die so easily," she said.
Orin Vale nodded. He had pretty much guessed as much, because the God of War, Ares, was described the same way in the comics. Ares was a classic Wonder Woman villain, a persistent nuisance who popped up from time to time to cause trouble. He had been beheaded, impaled, and even blasted to bits, but he would always come back to life the next time. Diana's explanation for this was that as long as war itself did not disappear, Ares would not die.
Of course, this didn't mean these gods were truly immortal and indestructible. The fall of a god was not without precedent; it was just rather difficult to kill them.
"Where were we? Oh, right."
Orin Vale turned to Hephaestus and said with a serious expression.
"I'm very sorry for damaging your home."
"No, no, it's fine. Like I said, I've been wanting to redecorate for a while now." Hephaestus smiled and waved his hand magnanimously.
He seemed much more polite than when they had first entered.
"And sorry for killing your pet."
"Pah, it's nothing."
The god of fire waved his hand dismissively, looking incredibly magnanimous.
"To be honest, I've been unhappy with it for a long time. It screeches all night and keeps me from sleeping. If you hadn't done it, I was planning to kill it myself... Oh, right, are you guys hungry? Why don't I just chop up this fish and we can all have a taste?"
Orin Vale: "..."
Who was it just now who said it was as irreplaceable as his own child?
(end of chapter)