HISD Chapter 98 Doomsday vs. Martian Manhunter
Mars.
The skies burned, the ground trembled.
At the site of the gladiator arena, a single bone-spiked monster had thrown over a hundred elite hunters into chaos, the battlefield looking more like the end of civilization itself.
"Stop!"
As another hunter's body was flung aside like broken clay, J'onn J'onzz—the Martian Manhunter—could no longer restrain himself. With a roar, he dove into the fray, his fist crashing into the monster at the eye of the storm.
Boom!
The air buckled, shockwaves tearing outward.
The creature fell from the sky, dropping ten meters before halting in midair. Suspended above the abyss of the battlefield, the bone-spiked monster lifted its head. Its eyes blazed with red fire, its bone-plated face expressionless—save for the slow, sinister grin spreading across its lips.
No anger. No hatred. Only raw, primal exhilaration.
In that instant, J'onn felt as if an abyss older than time itself had turned its gaze upon him. Terror clawed at his mind.
The fear wasn't his alone—the terror of the surrounding Martians flooded the psychic field, creating a shared atmosphere of despair.
It wasn't that the hunters were weak. It was that this monster was far too powerful, its stamina and energy seemingly without end.
This couldn't go on.
J'onn immediately reached out telepathically, linking with the dozens of hunters who still stood. His voice rang steady and commanding through their minds:
"From here on, I'll lead. Together, we can drive this invader back!"
"Yes, your command!"
"Martian Manhunter, we'll follow you!"
"Together, then!"
Resolve flickered back to life. Fear gave way to courage.
Boom!
The monster surged upward on storm-wrapped wings and threw a punch.
J'onn met it head-on, his green right leg blazing as it swung down to clash with the bone-spiked fist.
Fist met foot, the monster's strike larger and heavier. The collision twisted the air itself.
A force several times stronger than J'onn's own crushed down on him. Pain lanced through his leg. He softened his form to bleed off the impact, but was still hurled backward, tumbling through the sky before steadying himself.
Compared to the hunters who had been swatted away like flies earlier, it was an impressive defense.
"As expected… here, he is the strongest."
Yi Meng—the Ancient Doomsday—had only just warmed up. Pleasure coursed through him as he launched forward again, toward the Martian Manhunter.
For the first time since Krypton, he felt he might truly indulge himself. To fight. To destroy. Not out of rage, but in pure, deliberate control.
He was Doomsday, born for battle.
And no matter how rational he tried to be, he could never live like a man hiding in the shadows. Doomsday was Doomsday—without fear, without restraint.
Yi Meng knew this truth.
The more he embraced it, the easier it was to control. His rationality lasted longer, his grip on the monster's power steadier.
It was not unlike Bruce Banner and the Hulk—struggle, rejection, acceptance… until both sides became one.
Was this good or bad? Yi Meng didn't know. He only knew he craved the fight.
…
Though J'onn had braced himself, the power still shocked him—this creature's strength exceeded his by severalfold.
As the monster surged toward him again, J'onn crossed his arms in defense while simultaneously directing every hunter telepathically.
The moment he was struck and flung back once more, hundreds of red beams lanced out from the hunters surrounding the field.
Heat vision.
The crisscrossing rays formed a searing net that swallowed the monster in the center.
Yi Meng didn't dodge. He endured it, his black-clad body glowing as energy converted within him. Sparks sizzled from his bones.
Then—
An icy gale swept in from all sides, chilling the overheated body in an instant. Frost encased the monster, until a colossal block of ice hung in midair.
"Did we… succeed?"
J'onn steadied himself, staring at the frozen figure. The hunters hovered, panting, watching the ice sculpture hang motionless.
But even through the frost, energy pulsed from within.
Crack.
The ice didn't crack—it exploded, shattered to mist. A storm of destructive lightning erupted outward as Yi Meng roared, the overflowing energy bursting from his eyes and mouth.
Zzzhhhhh!
On that day—
Every Martian raised their gaze to the sky and saw it: three blazing beams fused into one pillar, piercing through the heavens. The red light tore open the atmosphere itself, a warning of Mars' possible extinction.
Far away, Marianne and little K'em watched from their triangular home, the image burning into their minds forever.
…
The battlefield lay in ruins.
Another storm of ball lightning had widened the abyss below the arena. Dozens of hunters lay sprawled, their forms collapsing, unable to rise again.
They shifted their bodies, liquefied, hardened, regenerated—but none of it mattered.
Against a being that was a living energy converter, with invulnerable defense, self-healing, and seemingly infinite stamina—
There was no hope of victory.
Once again, fear and despair clawed at the hunters' hearts.
"If brute force and energy won't work, then… strike with the mind! All of you, unleash your telepathic force together!"
J'onn would not give up. He rose from the crater, commanding through the psychic link.
Their greatest power was not strength, nor heat vision, nor regeneration.
It was the mind.
In unison, dozens of psychic blasts ignored armor and flesh alike, driving straight into the monster's brain.
Hum.
Yi Meng's massive body froze midair.
Then he fell like a stone, plummeting into the abyss below.
[Please give powerstones if you're enjoying the story.
500 stones = 1 extra chapter
patreon com/GuessMyName33 for up to 40 chapters ahead
If you like this novel, check out my other novels in my profile!]