Bruce was slightly stunned by the sudden costume change, but then he laughed. Of course—the guy's superpower was super speed, so changing into a combat suit was easy for him.
The name was pretty fitting too. The Flash—fast as lightning. It suited him perfectly.
"Maybe I can help you with this," Bruce offered. After all, they were going to work together anyway, so helping out now made sense.
Barry didn't refuse Bruce's offer. He didn't mind having backup to deal with the enemy. The faster they handled metahuman criminals, the less damage Central City would suffer.
The Batfighter soared into the sky while Barry became a streak of lightning racing between the city blocks, rushing toward the destination.
"What a lightning kid," Bruce muttered, watching the rapid electrical current on the ground below. The Batfighter chased the lightning trail all the way.
Soon, both of them arrived at the target location. It was a very spacious area, and the houses here looked like they'd been abandoned for a long time—no one had lived there in years.
"Is this the place?" Bruce's voice came from behind Barry. Barry had arrived earlier and already checked the surroundings, but he hadn't found any trace of a metahuman.
"This is what Cisco told me, but I've looked everywhere. There's no one here except us," Barry explained.
After hearing Barry's explanation, Bruce nodded slightly. But something felt off—he could sense a malicious gaze watching them from somewhere in the area.
This was something he'd learned passively through many years of fighting. He had a very keen sense for detecting hostile gazes, especially ones with malicious intent.
"Are you sure you've searched everywhere?" Bruce asked carefully.
"I'm sure. I'm very fast—it's easy for me to search an area like this completely," Barry said with confidence.
Looking at Barry's confident expression, Bruce thought for a moment. Perhaps the hostile presence was hidden somewhere Barry couldn't see, even with his speed.
"Let me try something," Bruce said.
Powerful energy suddenly emerged from his ring. In an instant, his arm was dyed white, faintly glowing with strong fluctuations of power.
BOOM~
He punched the ground hard, and a visible white shockwave spread from his hand, rippling rapidly outward in all directions.
Hisssss~
A sharp hissing sound came from a dark corner in response to the attack wave formed by heavenly power, immediately drawing both their attention.
"There it is!" they both said, staring at the corner where the sound came from.
A black humanoid creature walked out from the shadows. However, when they saw the thing's face clearly, both their expressions changed drastically.
The figure looked mostly human, but it had six eyes glowing with a malicious color. Two mouthparts like insect mandibles protruded from its mouth, and there was a T-shaped horn on its forehead that looked like a rhinoceros beetle's.
"Is this a bug? Or a person?" Barry was shocked by the scene in front of him. A person that looked so much like an insect, with a big horn similar to a beetle on its head—it was horrifying.
"No... No, he's..." Bruce had a bad feeling in his gut. This bug-man gave him a familiar sensation, similar to the energy he'd felt when Constantine performed exorcisms.
"He's been parasitized by a demon!" Bruce shouted.
Two bat-shaped throwing darts wrapped in heavenly power flew from his hands, shooting toward the creature like bullets.
Zzzzzzt...
A familiar sizzling sound came as the creature's outer skin quickly fell away, revealing a hard shell underneath.
What kind of creature is this? Bruce was surprised that his batarangs had failed to do real damage.
Setting aside the physical force of the batarangs themselves, the heavenly power attached to them alone should be enough to make demons retreat in pain. But right now, his batarangs were just stuck in that shell, not causing any effective damage at all.
If it weren't for the sizzling sound that layer of skin made when it contacted the batarangs, he would've thought this wasn't a demon at all—just some kind of bug person.
Compared to Bruce's surprise, Barry was obviously scared. He'd only had superpowers for a short time, and although the opponents he'd faced were different, at least they were still in the category of humans—metahumans with powers, but still fundamentally people.
But the monster in front of him was different. It had literally shed its human skin, revealing its true monstrous appearance underneath.
"Is this really a demon?" Barry asked nervously.
"I'm not completely sure, but based on its reaction to heavenly power, it qualifies as a demon," Bruce said grimly.
Bruce felt serious about the monster in front of them. He'd never seen a creature like this before, and he needed to be very careful.
The power of the ring exploded more violently. In the blink of an eye, Bruce—who'd been dressed in black—transformed into a figure glowing white like a white bat. A rapier radiating white light appeared in his hand.
This was his real fighting form. As the first combat stance he'd mastered from Marcus's teachings, he had strong control over the rapier fighting style.
However, in Gotham, all his opponents couldn't even handle him fighting bare-handed, let alone when he held a weapon. This was the first time in a while he'd needed to use his full power.
"Flash, this will be your first battle against a demon. Be very careful," Bruce warned.
As soon as he finished speaking, Bruce rushed directly toward the beetle demon. The rapier drew a bright arc in the air and stabbed fiercely at the creature.
Barry was surprised seeing Bruce's fighting state. Batman was supposed to be the Dark Knight of Gotham, acting in shadows and delivering fatal blows from the darkness.
But now, the black bat had turned into a white bat radiating light. And wasn't this power way too strong?
SWISH~
The sharp rapier pierced through the beetle demon's carapace in an instant. Black and green sticky liquid flowed out from the damaged shell, and the beetle demon made a high-pitched hissing sound of pain.
HISSSSS!!!
With that hissing cry, the beetle demon suddenly exerted force and disappeared in an instant, moving with incredible speed.
"Look out!" Barry shouted. His speedster vision had caught something Bruce couldn't see.
Lightning erupted all over his body as he grabbed Bruce and pulled him away from their position at super speed.
BOOOOOM!!!
The moment they left, an explosion of force erupted at their original position. The ground was directly smashed apart, cratering deeply.
When the two of them stopped moving, they clearly saw that the demon had punched the exact spot where they'd just been standing. A huge area had been caved in by that single punch.
"Holy crap, this guy's strength is terrifying!" Barry said, his heart still racing as he looked at the sunken crater with fear. If he hadn't been fast enough, Bruce would've been turned into a meat pancake by the beetle demon.
But Bruce had a grim expression on his face. The beetle demon in front of them was an extremely tough opponent.
Its shell provided incredibly strong defense—he'd already used the energy rapier that Marcus gave him, and it had barely broken through the thing's armor.
Its speed was amazing too. Bruce could only see the creature's afterimage and couldn't react in time at all.
And finally, its strength was extremely powerful. He'd never seen strength like that single punch except from Kryptonians like Superman.
The beetle demon slowly stood up and looked at the two of them, which exposed the wound Bruce had inflicted.
"Wait... its wound is healing!" Both Bruce and Barry were shocked by what they saw.
The injury Bruce had caused was rapidly closing up, the damaged carapace regenerating before their eyes.
This demon was already very difficult to deal with. Now, knowing it had high-speed healing abilities meant that if they couldn't kill it instantly, they were going to be in serious trouble.
"So it really is a new, powerful type of demon," Bruce muttered. "Everything Constantine said was true."
This was the second time he'd encountered these enhanced demons. Once in Star City with the bull-headed demon, and now here with this beetle demon.
Each of them had extremely strong combat abilities. The bull-headed demon's body could resist machine gun attacks. He couldn't accurately estimate this beetle demon's defensive capabilities, but they definitely wouldn't be much worse than the bull demon's.
He needed more help. The Flash standing next to him was the most suitable person.
Bruce pulled out a small controller and operated it a few times. Then he took out a ring from his belt pouch and handed it to Barry.
"Take this. Make your choice and master the power. As for this guy, I can hold him off for a while!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the energy sword suddenly made a buzzing sound, and the space around it began to fluctuate.
He had to buy enough time for Barry. Only that way could they kill this beetle demon.
BANG~
A sharp harpoon with barbed hooks shot out from the fighter plane. Carrying dense electrical current, it slammed fiercely into the beetle demon's body.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...
The power of the electrified harpoon wasn't small. The beetle demon took the attack head-on, causing it to stagger backward repeatedly. But it only made the creature retreat—the sharp harpoon couldn't even pierce through the beetle demon's shell. Only the electric current made its body tremble slightly.
BANG~
Another charged harpoon shot out. Bruce didn't intend to defeat the creature with these harpoons at all. He just hoped to use them to restrict its movements.
After all, the beetle demon's speed was too fast. Without super speed himself, he couldn't match it.
This time, the harpoon's positioning was more precise. The weapon passed through both sides of the beetle demon's arms, pinning them to the ground. Combined with the fierce electrical current flowing through the harpoons, the creature couldn't move.
Seeing this, Bruce raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised by his own success. But he didn't rush in to attack immediately.
The fighter plane still had plenty of weapons. He could use them to continuously wear down the beetle demon from a distance.
He operated the controller a few more times, and the fighter extended its machine guns, aiming at the beetle demon below.
As a new harpoon fired, the machine gun began spitting flames.
DADADADADA...
The already broken ground was completely shattered under the bombardment of machine gun fire, and the beetle demon was covered by the dust cloud raised by the attack.
Hissss~
As expected, a hissing sound came from within the dust. But Bruce's expression didn't change at all.
He'd expected this result. If the beetle demon had been destroyed by machine gun fire, he would've been genuinely surprised. These demons were far tougher than that.
Glancing at Barry, who was receiving the impact of power from the ring and beginning his transformation, Bruce made a flourish with his sword and looked at the beetle demon hidden in the dust, ready for battle.
"This weapon has been in my hands for so long, and it seems like I've mostly used it against demons," Bruce muttered. "Today, I have to face demons again..."
With a sigh, Bruce swung the energy rapier toward the dust cloud. Pure white sword energy flew out from the blade.
The sword energy split the dust cloud in two and struck the beetle demon directly. This sword energy, composed entirely of heavenly power, was a major threat to demons.
Even the beetle demon's solid shell was almost shattered. A deep scar now marked the creature's carapace.
"Can't even break through with that?" Bruce frowned.
That was an attack he'd launched with the energy rapier, infused with a large amount of heavenly power. It was one of his strongest attacks, but it still couldn't break through the shell completely.
This was hard for Bruce to accept, but at least now he understood the defense limits of the creature's carapace. His weapon was strong enough to kill it—but only if he could land a clean hit and sever its head.
BANG BANG BANG...
The beetle demon, having endured that blow, became enraged. It exerted all its strength and gradually broke free from the harpoons pinning it down.
This was also within Bruce's expectations, which was why he'd chosen to attack with sword energy from a distance. The creature's strength was too great—he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be caught if he attacked up close, which could result in serious injury or death.
As the harpoons were torn free, the beetle demon's body finally regained its freedom. But its slightly trembling body showed that the electrical current's impact was still affecting it significantly.
"So electricity is effective," Bruce murmured, noting the creature's weakness.
But the beetle demon suddenly pushed off with both legs, shattering the ground instantly, and rushed toward Bruce with tremendous force and speed.
It wanted to tear this annoying white bat into pieces and eat him bite by bite.
Facing the beetle demon's attack, Bruce was already prepared. He fully activated the energy rapier, releasing extremely violent spatial fluctuations.
Heavenly power and spatial distortions combined completely, turning the space in front of him into a barrier.
BOOM~
The beetle demon punched at empty air, as if hitting an invisible wall blocking its path.
"Whew, blocked it," Bruce breathed with relief. Then his sword technique shifted. "Now let me return the favor!"
CRACK CRACK CRACK...
Suddenly there was a sound of shattering around them. As Bruce swung his sword hard, several fractured spatial cracks appeared in front of the beetle demon.
Its arms were completely severed by the destructive force of the spatial rifts, falling to the ground.
But Bruce didn't relax because of this successful attack. He could clearly see that the beetle demon's severed arms were rapidly regenerating. The wounds that had been flowing with sticky black-green liquid quickly grew new limbs.
The insect's regenerative ability was terrifyingly fast, forcing Bruce to remain extremely cautious.
The beetle demon, its arms having grown back completely, looked at Bruce and hissed. Then it disappeared again in a burst of speed.
Bruce prepared himself fully for another attack. But suddenly, the scene in front of him changed—Barry had pulled him away at super speed again.
The sound of ground being shattered came from where Bruce had just been standing.