Chapter 796: Chapter 753: A Generation’s Grandmaster
Seeing the other person effortlessly dodge her attack with an air of nonchalance, and that completely humorless face, Barbara knew she’d been played.
At that moment, the files on a nearby desk caught fire, the flames gradually spreading, the blaze illuminating both of them in full.
"Who the hell are you?" Barbara clenched her little fists and took up a fighting stance.
Su Ming took the opening posture of Tai Chi, winked at her, and said, "Bruce must have told you I exist, otherwise how could you have arranged a new life for me, right?"
"You’re not Joker. Who exactly are you?" Barbara shifted her steps, circling slightly, trying to find an opening.
But the other’s presence was like a mountain, standing solidly in front of her, with no flaw to be found.
"You Bat Clan types get all tense whenever you see someone laughing. Thanks to that, I was able to fish you out. You’ve got that genius brain with photographic memory, but the side effect is you remember things a bit too clearly yourself."
Su Ming hooked four fingers at her, signaling Barbara to come at him instead of wasting time circling endlessly.
Her eyes flashed; she suddenly stepped in with two quick strides and snapped a kick up, the long hair on her shoulder tracing an arc, her leg whipping up with a whooshing gust.
Barbara’s Martial Arts style is a bit different from the rest of the Bat Clan. Her teacher was Richard Long, that Blue Man who used to be one of DC’s top Martial Arts Grandmasters.
Richard’s Sensei was Master Da You, and Master Da You’s other disciple was Lady Siva. It’s just that Siva later went on to study other Martial Arts, including the Assassin Alliance’s assassination techniques, and became a Grandmaster in her own right.
Richard was just a bit short of that. Instead of refining his Martial Arts, he went off to be a Superhero, roaming the world taking on students, and of course ended up dying at the hands of one of them.
A disciple killing their Sensei to make a name—that’s the standard Villain origin story. He went and took a whole bunch of students of unknown background; that was basically asking to shorten his own lifespan.
Back when Barbara was still Oracle in a wheelchair, she’d sought him out for instruction. But a paraplegic can’t learn much Martial Arts; Richard only taught her how to throw batarangs and a set of close-quarters Fighting Techniques that were convenient to use while seated.
After the N52 Rebirth, Barbara did stand up again, but her Fighting Techniques had become Dragon-style fist learned from Richard, very similar to karate.
Plus, even in boots, she’s only 170cm tall, and as a woman she doesn’t have that much raw strength, so her offensive methods heavily rely on her legs and batarangs.
Legs are always longer than arms, stronger than arms too. Lots of female fighters are good at and fond of using their long legs to attack.
Of course, the Amazonians like Diana are an exception. When an army is chopping people up, who needs Martial Arts? As long as you swing fast enough and hard enough...
Knowing Barbara’s background inside-out, how could he possibly have failed to prepare before fighting her?
The timing of that kick, the angle of power, even its trajectory had already formed a mental image in Su Ming’s head; he’d run through it several times in advance.
His hands naturally caught Barbara’s ankle, using a move like Lanque Tail to jam her joint, then pulled hard backward using the Sweeping Rune Technique.
Tai Chi is all about using force against itself. Barbara had rushed in too hard, giving Su Ming the perfect opening; with that brutal yank, she was caught off guard and went straight into a full split.
No matter how flexible she was, that sudden forced split still made the lower half of her face outside the Mask flush unnaturally red.
She probably had a little person in her head clutching their crotch and jumping around: "It hurts like hell! It hurts like hell!" But she was a Bat; she forced the pain down with pure Willpower.
She suddenly pushed off the floor with both hands, executing a sweep very similar to a pommel-horse move in gymnastics, her long leg wrapped in blue leather pants scything toward Su Ming’s ankle.
But Su Ming had already anticipated this the moment she went into the split, and had leisurely stepped outside her attack range.
Barbara hadn’t expected to land a hit anyway; she was just using it to get up. Once on her feet, she pressed her thighs together a little as if they still felt uncomfortable.
Even so, her face remained expressionless as she said coldly, "You’re a Martial Arts Grandmaster. I don’t know any Grandmaster this young."
Su Ming smiled, rubbed his chin, kicked some trash aside on the floor, and shifted into an Aikido opening stance.
"Maybe the two eyes made you forget who I am. How about this?"
As he spoke, he closed his right eye.
"Deathstroke!" Barbara swayed slightly, but still forced herself not to step back. "You’re that Otherworldly Deathstroke!"
"I told you, the moment you showed up, it meant you’d already lost."
Su Ming sighed. As expected, the Main World’s Bat Clan had dealt with that old man Deathstroke so much they’d overlooked him, the stronger one. Then again, maybe it was just because his beard had been magically shaved off?
Barbara now realized she was in real trouble. If it were Joker, she could still try to beat him down and gain the upper hand. But the one in front of her was Deathstroke, and when Deathstroke is prepared, he has the power to wipe out the Justice League.
She’d stupidly walked right into his trap.
"What do you want?" Barbara started circling again, though her legs seemed a bit unsteady, her steps a little awkward.
Su Ming ignored her circling as if he didn’t see it at all. "However you turned the world into this, turn it back."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about." Barbara’s eyes shifted slightly.
