Chapter 70: Young Bat vs Old Demon (1)


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    <blockquote>


    <em>"Everyone has a n until they get punched in the face."</em>


    <em>- Mike Tyson</em>


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    <(Omniscient POV)>


    "Finally! You are ready to embrace even death merely to have the chance to defeat me. Good. I will enjoy this brief with you fight even though the result will be the same, me taking everything from you... for the league." Ra''s Al Ghulpleted in a chill-inducing voice as he showed the ugliest and scariest smile he could muster, something that came quite naturally to him.


    Bruce on the other hand didn''t stretch the conversation any longer and just decided to focus on defeating him.


    Ra''s Al Ghul right now might seem almost invincible with his ability to predict the future but he didn''t even think for a single second that this ability came without its limitations. What he could deduce from the old assassin''s words and movements was that he couldn''t exactly see the future but that his mind had developed a certain characteristic from the... chemicalbination he had ingested, one that allowed him to use all the sensory inputs he received to simte them to know the most probable results of the events he witnessed and thus predict what was going to happen in the short immediate future.


    In a single word, he had one of the abilities of a discount version of the Sharingan which in the anime had a simr power. But the question was just how urate was this ability of his. Was this so urate that he could even predict the future as authentic as the Book of Destiny itself? Could it predict what was going to happen days ahead into the future if enough data was gathered? Did it have absolutely no adverse effects on his body or mind? Bruce didn''t have an answer to any of those questions.


    But..., that didn''t mean he was helpless. No, he not only had a way of getting all those answers for himself but also something that could enable him to directly counter Ra''s Al Ghul''s newly acquired future predicting ability itself.


    ''This will be the first time I''ll be doing drugs in both my lives. Truly, how far I have fallen. Well, anything to stay alive I guess.'' He thought to himself and took out a small transparent pill from a hidden pocket in his keikogi.


    "Bottoms up," Bruce muttered while slipping the experimental drug into his mouth, and quickly swallowing it.


    ''Let''s just hope this doesn''t end up like one of the few bad simtions that Cortana simted where my brain melted through my ears or where I became mentally handicapped after using this just once.'' He thought grimly as he subtly started a 12-hour countdown on his bracelet.


    <strong>***</strong>


    <(Bruce WaynePOV)>


    The NZT-48 pill I just swallowed was a modified version of the same drug that I had been working on for thest few years. The pill itself was almost the same as the original one with its effectssting for 12 hours after ingestion, causing some quite harmful side effects if not ingested regrly, although even if taken regrly, the user''s body and mind would still be deteriorating slowly.


    However, the reason why the project took so many years to develop and was still risky to use was actually the development of the vine that was needed to take the pill without developing or experiencing any side effects.


    I had already developed and taken my basic NZT vine which gave me immunity against all the side effects of NZT usage for about one year. However, I still wanted to research more on them because I was still not sure how effective the vine was against NZT in real life. That and some other concerns about my mind suddenly bingpletely apathetic were the reasons why I still hadn''t used NZT on myself yet. But, as a wise man once said, desperate times call for desperate measures.


    After consuming the pill, for the first few minutes, I didn''t feel anything. It was like nothing happened. There wasn''t any big shock or headache or anything even remotely resembling that I had just consumed a very dangerous experimental drug that could potentially change my brain. No, all I felt was a little weird chilling feeling on my skin for a couple of seconds while also, for a split second, it almost seemed that my reflection in the Lazarus pit just moved slightly and looked at me with a calm and confident smile.


    However, I had no time to delve into what I presumed to be my mind ying tricks on me due to its recently increased mental capability. Right now, I could literally FEEL my mind working much faster than what was normal to try and solve just how Ra''s Al Ghul''s new power worked as well as its limitations. I could feel my emotions, feelings, and sentiments being sidelined and shoved to the side to better use my mind''s processing power more efficiently without bothering about that pesky stuff. In just a few seconds of observation, I was able to determine everything I needed to know. The world seemed toy bare before me as my mind tried to deduce everything even before it happened.


    After I was convinced that I had deduced his secrets right and had a significant chance to defeat Ra''s Al Ghul with my current strength, I began to calmly walk towards him instead of charging at him again. With my cheat ability being influenced as well by this temporary upgrade of my mind, I could clearly notice his fingers twitching, his muscles tightening, and even how his blood was flowing inside his body in real-time.


    "It seems that you have grown confident again. Fine, it seems that I have to show you just how truly *sh*... AAAAHHHH" Ra''s Al Ghul could notplete his words as a single sword strike from the All-des was able to sh all of the fingers in his left hand, resulting in him dropping his sword from that hand.


    He had tried to block my attack but his prediction ability which predicted where and how exactly I wouldnd the attack was wrong. He had predicted that I was going for his left leg but the truth was that I was only making it seem like that by faking all my body movements even the tiniest ones, when in truth, I was going for his left hand''s fingers.


    "H-How?" He asked bewildered, not at all bothered by the stream of blood gushing out from his missing fingers as he acted as nonchnt and unbothered as possible. Anyone other than him and he would have already been driven crazy by the immense blood loss.


    "You are not the only one who can have an upgrade. Did you think you could one-up me by ingesting some chemical cocktail of magical elements? Oh no my dear foolish father-inw, I now know exactly how your new abilities work as well as how to counter them. Not only that, I can even tell from the minute necrosis that is beginning to set on different parts of your skin as well as the bulging of your veins why you never ingested that chemical mixture together before this. It was because you knew that your body wasn''t strong enough for it and that it would begin to break down rapidly after you do it." I concluded calmly.


    "... It seems that you have grown smarter somehow as well. As expected from my chosen sessor." The Demon''s Head smiled, even though he was bleeding crazily from his fingers.


    "This is only the beginning," I uttered as I started raining down attacks on him. Faking my attacks to confuse him mostly worked to deter his prediction abilities as I was slowly able to bestow damage on him while piercing through his perfect defense. Of course, Ra''s Al Ghul''s centuries of experience made this strategy that much harder but he didn''t seem invincible or unbeatable to me any longer. In fact, even when he resorted to going on the offensive, I was easily able to use my own ''prediction'' abilities to anticipate his attacks and defend myself.


    ''A sh to Ra''s Al Ghul''s shoulder to make him bleed even more, block a blow from his Soulbreaker on my chest, then a cut on his legs while dodging a kick from him in an attempt to create some distance between us'' I was able to think out the entire sequence of the fight even before it started.


    "Why am I not able to hit you anymore? What sorcery is this?" Ra''s Al Ghulined as he realized that he wasn''t able to get the same advantage that he was initially getting. He with his enormous experience and skills was good enough to dodge a lot of my blows especially those that could deal fatal damage but on the other hand, he wasn''t able to hit me as well, at least not the same way he wanted. He had lost his edge against me.


    Both of us had turnedpletely serious in this fight and were currently giving our all without using any more petty cheap tricks. As we fought using our des, sparks flew everywhere while we both did our best to end the opponent as quickly and efficiently as possible. Currently, we were almost in a stalemate but that was quickly changing as I got more and more of an advantage in our fight as I continuously did physical damage to him every few moves.


    Sometimes, it was a shallow cut on his arm or his thigh, and sometimes, it was a mere nick on his cheeks but Ra''s Al Ghul was definitely steadily losing his ground in his duel against me.


    Or at least that was what would have been if he wasn''t healing so quickly as well. Despite his body seemingly breaking down slowly from the inside, he was still physically going strong on the outside as his skin and flesh healed from the imposed damages at an astonishing rate. Even though the wounds directly caused by the All-des were harder to heal, they still at least managed to heal enough to stop their own bleeding.


    "STOP. This is a waste of time. This is getting nowhere." Ra''s Al Ghul yelled in frustration as he backed away a little from me. He seemed tired, his body probably nearing its extreme limit.


    "And what do we propose we do? Have a stone-paper-scissors battle to death?" I quipped with a small smirk. I knew that at this rate I had the upper hand and he was merely panicking because of that. I had no thoughts of letting him leave this monastery alive today.


    "If I die like this, you get nothing except an opportunity to take over the League. But my techniques, my skills, my knowledge, everything that I have umted for all these centuries will disappear with me? So how will that truly benefit you? Instead, I have another solution. Why don''t we end this in a way that can benefit whoever wins between us? A way where the one who dies will definitely stay dead forever while the victor will get all the spoils." Ra''s Al Ghul proposed while panting slowly, trying his best not to let me know about him having already reached the limits of his body.


    "What do you say, Bruce Wayne? All or nothing. How about it? Are you all in?" The Demon''s Head questioned as his right hand clenched his sword tighter while his left hand was able to do the same thing as well, even with missing fingers.


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