Before Superman could halt his momentum, Diana extended both hands, grabbed his red cape, and used her full strength. Feet, knees, legs, waist, and arms all exerted force simultaneously. She spun rapidly several times on the ground before releasing her grip, hurling Superman viciously into a mountainside.
"BOOM!" The tremendous impact caused half the mountain to collapse directly. Rocks flew everywhere, and intense tremors transmitted through the ground. Even Thea and Lois, several miles away, felt the obvious shaking.
"Will Clark be alright?" Lois asked nervously.
Thea had super-vision and was watching intently. Only now did she realize that Lois, craning her neck, actually couldn't see anything!
Using magical power to control the earth beneath her feet to fly into midair, she also cast a far-sight spell on Lois. After thinking it over—with those two about to shake heaven and earth—she'd need to ensure Lois's safety.
For an ordinary human to observe this level of battle, without sufficient methods, protecting her would be genuinely difficult.
Thea used her ring to construct a small house. The two sat inside watching the fight outside. Thea was quite proud of her construct—even Superman's full-force strike couldn't break it. Withstanding battle aftershocks would be more than sufficient.
This level of rough treatment didn't even count as a warm-up. Only Lois showed a panicked expression, though seeing Thea's calm face, her tension gradually subsided.
Superman didn't linger in the mountain rubble long. He directly punched through the surrounding rocks, flew up, and fired heat vision at Diana from a distance.
With several miles between them, the heat vision wasn't fast enough to catch her off guard. Diana sidestepped two paces. The heat vision struck the ground, instantly vaporizing the hard black soil. But Superman didn't stop the energy output—his head turned slightly, sweeping horizontally to the side. Diana immediately realized her mistake. His head movement was much smaller than her evasion action.
Her feet pushed hard, shield held in her left hand, she charged forward at full speed against the heat vision, trying to close the distance between them.
The heat vision hitting her shield made hissing sounds. Though this was high-energy radiation converted from solar energy within Superman's body, it still fell somewhat short against Diana's divine power shield.
Diana didn't just stubbornly endure it. During her charge, she occasionally made feints, switching between straight and diagonal lines, angling her shield, trying to use small techniques to distract Superman's attention.
Realizing Diana wanted close combat, this suited Superman perfectly. He stopped the heat vision, gripped with both hands, grabbed a several-ton boulder beneath him, and hurled it at Diana.
Such a large boulder—even ignoring the force behind it—carried tremendous kinetic energy and imposing momentum. Its massive size and high speed sealed off Diana's left and right evasion paths.
Retreat? Her unbending personality meant Diana never considered retreating, especially not in battle.
Even knowing it was disadvantageous, she still chose to meet the challenge head-on. Her feet pushed hard against the ground, launching herself into the air like an arrow.
The boulder struck the ground. Its tremendous kinetic energy produced a magnificent shockwave. The already crater-riddled planet gained another massive pit.
But no one cared about the planet anymore. Superman seized the opportunity tightly, pushing his speed to maximum. With sonic booms roaring, he closed on Diana.
Her weakness in aerial combat caused Diana slight hesitation. She could only raise her shield to block Superman's thunderous strike.
Invisible waves radiated outward in all directions from the two at their center. Though their collision point was high above ground, the tremor aftershocks still created an irregular crater on the surface below.
Watching this scene, Thea nodded quietly. She knew Diana inside and out naturally. Superman's strength didn't exceed her expectations by much. If future enemies were all this level, though she might not necessarily win, at least it wouldn't be too dangerous.
However, she also remembered Superman telling Luthor in the original timeline that he'd never used his full strength in combat. Years of Earth life—rationality, moral codes, laws, various miscellaneous constraints—had caused him to voluntarily bind himself in shackles. His true strength was difficult to judge.
Diana's situation was similar. Her Guardian Bracelets provided powerful defense while simultaneously restraining her own power. If Diana unsealed her Guardian Bracelets, her true strength would increase a hundredfold. By Thea's estimation, Diana at that point could slaughter gods like it was nothing.
These were two warriors fighting in shackles—Superman's were self-imposed moral concepts, Diana's were fear of her own bloodline and divine power. Neither wanted to breach their bottom line. Though this fight was fierce, it wasn't fatal. This was also why Thea didn't object.
"I am an Amazon warrior! I am the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta!" Diana shouted loudly. Gradually falling into a disadvantage under Superman's fierce assault, she began deliberately raising her own momentum.
Announcing "I am the grandson of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so" was a very classical combat style. Many legendary heroes had this habit in battle.
If the enemy also respected tradition, they'd remember the family tree their opponent recited. When defeating them, they could show off by stepping on their enemy saying, "So-and-so's grandson, so-and-so's son has been defeated by me!"
In a sense, this was the classical literary version of bragging about your parents.
Superman could read all of Earth's medical texts in five minutes—he was no muscle-headed warrior. His knowledge level was quite high. He certainly knew this custom. But as an alien, announcing his biological father and grandfather's names in battle was genuinely embarrassing.
His silent response still caused his storm-like offensive to weaken slightly.
Diana seized the opportunity, discarded her shield, and attacked Superman single-handedly with the Godkiller sword.
Having lost her initial advantage, Superman's battle instincts remained terrifyingly sharp. However, battle instincts couldn't be relied upon constantly—they involved significant randomness. They couldn't compare to solid, reliable martial technique.
After meeting Diana's frontal punch, Superman didn't notice her feint and took a sword slash to the shoulder, creating a shallow bloody groove.
Both paused with mutual understanding.
Without kryptonite, and not in a weakened state, this was Superman's first time being injured in combat. It made him realize "Man of Steel" was just a figure of speech. Nothing was absolute. Nothing was truly unbreakable.
"Impressive. You're a powerful warrior." Energy circulated slightly within Superman's body. The wound healed instantly, with only torn clothing reminding him a wound had existed there.
"Come on!" Seeing he was fine, Diana felt no fear—only excitement. Finally, someone who wasn't afraid of her attacks.
Superman's thoughts were similar, though the gravity in his eyes deepened further.