The Czarnian mercenary stood before Darkseid and his Furies barehanded. The walls around and the light of the crystals quaked with Lobo's laughter. Lobo was laughing with his whole chest, basking in the euphoria of approaching battle.
He was as tall as Barda, white-skinned, with a thick maw of black hair hanging over his shoulders. He wore a black leather biker vest. Metal chains all around his torso were reflecting the faint light of the yellow crystal veins that ran through the floor.
"Well now," Lobo said, cracking his fists and neck. "Time to whoop y'all asses."
Darkseid didn't reply. He was considering wherever to fight this battle himself or let the Furies do it. While Lobo was a great fighter, capable of many things, he was nowhere near Darkseid's level.
Maybe it was worth making Furies fight Lobo? Just so they would get battle experience.
Darkseid folded his arms behind his back, his aura of magic and power flaring up and taking command over the room. His shadow extended on the stone door behind him, stretching away under the light of the yellow crystals on the walls, an ominous reminder of his majesty.
"Attack," Darkseid said calmly.
Barda stepped forward without hesitation, lifting her giant mace to the same height as her, striking her opponent head-on.
Behind her, Aurelie stood still, taking in the appearance of Lobo, searching for weak points. Her two daggers spinning in circles, the air around them hissing with shadow magic they were enriched with.
The last Fury, Tina, planted her shield onto the stone floor, smashing the smooth plates into pieces. Her massive triangular shield stood like a fortress in the corridor, taking up most of the space in this tight place.
Their enemy grinned wider, showing his scarily white teeth.
"That's what I'm talking about," Lobo said, and charged.
He was faster than his muscled body suggested. The chains at his waist snapped with each of his motions, rattling like the tails of cobras.
The first strike was Barda's. Her mace impacted the side of the mercenary, slicing through some of the chains. A clang of broken metal was heard in the tight space of the corridor, and sparks flew in all directions. A sound of crushing bone followed; the metal head of the mace penetrated Lobo's skin, mashing the side of his hip and the bones inside.
Despite the wound, Lobo continued his charge unfazed, blood dripping off of him. Not finding room for maneuvering, he ran into Tina's shield full speed, pushing it with every bit of strength he had.
Tina dug her feet into the surface of the floor, pushing back. But with every passing moment, it became clear she was losing the battle of strength.
"Impossible! Tina is getting pushed back!" words escaped Aurelie's mouth as she was genuinely surprised.
Out of the three of them, Tina was the strongest one physically, being genetically built for battle by Granny Goodness. The fact that some mercenary was able to win her in a contest of strength was astonishing.
A series of snapping sounds now filled the room. The previously broken bones were taking back their dedicated place in the Czarnian anatomy. Blood on the ground hissed with an acidic sound, evaporating into nothingness, joining back with Lobo's body. In a matter of seconds, a wound that looked quite severe healed back as if it had never been there.
As the last Czarnian Lobo was the only being in the universe with their special racial physiology. With healing so powerful and intense that it allowed to regenerate from a single drop of blood.
Astounded and quite impressed with the opponent's power, Aurelie looked back at her master standing in the back. Darkseid's hands were behind his back, as he silently watched their battle with a stoic, unemotive face. It was as if he were judging the fight from the side.
Tat that moment the memories came to Aurelie's mind of the training she and Barda had together back on Apokolips. And the realization struck her, loud and clear: the Emperor was preparing them for battles like these. The ones where the opponent was much stronger, either physically or in skill. He was showing them the dread of encountering someone as powerful as himself on the battlefield.
After every training fight, the two Furies were sent to the med bay, to heal their wounds. Darkseid was a merciless teacher, but now she understood the method to the madness. Back then, she thought that he was just a bad teacher, but now, seeing how strong Lobo was, she understood.
There were people out there who were much stronger than they were. Being the strongest out of your peers, even the strongest in the army, the planet, or the galaxy, didn't mean that you can relax and grow lazy. There was always a bigger fish in the pond.
While Aurelie was left in her memories, Tina desperately hit back with her horns. But the opponent met her charge with a laugh, lowering his body and dodging her onslaught. In retaliation, Lobo swung his fist into Tina's shield; the force behind it was enough to send her back a few steps.
The sound of the strike rang out in the corridor, echoing from the walls like a hammer striking an anvil. Waves of air exploded outwards like a thunderclap. Then Lobo punched again. And again. Each strike was more powerful than the last.
With every impact Tina skidded backwards, her boots grinding sparks from the floor. She clutched her teeth, struggling to stand under the relentless flurry of strikes of the enemy.
"He hits like a dropship falling from an orbit." Tina's voice came through the noise of the battle, squeezing past her gnashing teeth; she was audibly strained.
"Hold on!" Barda cried out.
"Barda! Above!" Aurelie shouted from behind the three of them. She began her own charge, not bothering to confirm whether she was heard or not.
A flash of black light erupted from beneath Lobo's feet as Aurelie appeared from the side. She was barely small enough to fit between the wall and Tina's shield. In fact, she was the only combatant able to do that.
Two daggers sank deep into the tendons of Lobo's knees. He roared, spinning to strike her, but his legs buckled for a heartbeat.
"Bastitch!" Lobo cried out in pain.
Then, a figure came from above. Barda jumped over Tina, using wide back of their tank as a steppingstone, swinging her mace in a wide, brutal arc.
She went for the head. The resulting blow smashed Lobo's face, reducing it twofold; parts of his brain and skull flew all around the corridor. It painted the brown stone walls into a crimson cocktail of gore, snot, and brain matter.
For a moment, it seemed like the battle was over. But then Lobo's wet, bubbling laugh came again. He was gurgling on his own blood and snot. His throat was contorting with laughter, spraying blood around like a sprinkler.
"Nice," he said through the blood inside his throat. His face and head began morphing back into their shape, healing at a rapid speed.
"You hit harder than my grandma. Shame she's dead." Lobo flexed his neck as if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. "Nasty piece of work she was, but I have fixed that problem with my own hands."
"Again," Aurelie had cried out, not waiting for the opponent to continue his story before striking at the opponent again.
Lobo met her daggers with his bare hands, somehow blocking them from hitting him. However, to the dismay of the Czarnian mercenary, the following strikes of Barda and Tina had reached their target.
Their weapons clashed with his skin again and again, blood spilling out from each impact.
Lobo staggered back, overwhelmed with the multitude of blows against him. But the regeneration persisted. His very being refused to die, no matter how much blood, bone, or other matter he would lose. Bones would grow anew, muscle would restitch itself, and blood would be generated again.
"BASTARDS," He roared out with primal Fury.
Not listening to his outburst, Barda brought the mace down in an overhead strike, cratering the floor and leveling Lobo with it, reducing his body to pile of meat and bones on the ground.
Lobo laughed, half growl, half cough, escaping the remnants of his throat. He yanked himself off the floor using the wall as support, as his sharp nails piercing the stone surface of the wall next to him. One of his chains wrapped around Aurelie's ankles, sending her flying down. He pulled, dragging her to the floor.
"I'm not done!"
But another Fury was prepared to strike back again, Tina snapped the chain in half with a strike of her shield. She then repeatedly slammed her shield into the body of the Czarnian mercenary.
Each impact shattered bone and bent his body in unnatural angles. Lobo's flailing hands grabbed her wrist, twisting hard. Metal of her armor groaned, succumbing to the force of his grip. She kicked him in the chest and broke free of his grab.
Aurelie stood up again, daggers flashing in the light. She slashed across his chest, splitting it open from abdomen to neck. The skin healed before the blood could hit the floor, but every cut made Lobo's body work harder, burning its energy faster.
Lobo swung back in a backhand strike that sent Aurelie flying into a wall. The impact shook the dust from the ceiling. The crampy corridor was not large enough to contain the messy fight that was happening.
Tina brought her shield down like a guillotine, slicing through his shoulder and severing one arm entirely.
The limb hit the ground with a wet slap. Before they could react, the severed arm began to writhe—and another Lobo crawled out of it, fully formed within seconds, shaking blood off his hands.
"Disgusting," Barda spat on one of the open wounds on the Lobo's body. "He regenerates everything".
"Means we gotta destroy everything," Tina said grimly.
Tina raised her shield and smashed down on Lobo's body for what felt like a hundredth time, cutting him cleanly in half from shoulder to hip. The chamber filled with the sound of sizzling flesh as two halves of the body tried to mend together.
"Enough," Darkseid said, finally stopping this never-ending mess.
The Furies stepped back, breathing hard from the butchering their opponent.
He raised his hand palm first. Darkseid clenched his fist and the slim corridor darkened with his dark magic. The surrounding darkness swirled in the air, forming a purple orb of energy. Floating through space it devoured Lobo's writhing body until there was nothing visible except for the purple veil of magic.
Slowly, the orb shrank in size. Each change in size was accompanied by sickening sounds of flesh and bones torn apart. The air was filled with the smell of blood and waste.
Eventually, the orb reached the size of a snowball before dropping effortlessly in the stretched-out palm of Darkseid. The energy coating of it crystallized into dark purple stone-like material, encasing what was previously a hulk of a man that was now reduced to a dense piece of minced meat and bone.
Darkseid looked around the room. Ruins of stone and gore met his eyes glowing with dark crimson light. Two angular beams of energy escaped Darkseid's eyes, the Omega Beams. They began igniting any remnant of blood and flesh of Lobo that could be found in the corridor, incinerating it on the atomic level.
"Stay still," he commanded his Furies.
Fortunately for them, they listened to him as the Omega Beams washed over them, destroying any traces of enemy left on their armor and weapons before dissipating into nothingness.
The Furies stood in silence. Only rugged breathing betrayed their tiredness.
Tina swallowed hard; the sound of flesh and bone being reduced to minced meat stuck in her memory, replaying on and on.
Aurelie was pale; her concern was not with the opponent but with her team. Fortunately, none of them suffered injuries.
Barda was checking off her armor for any damage; there were still battles that lay ahead of them in this cursed place.