This old man had remarkable composure; Thea had to admit.
Refocusing her vision, the Flash and Eddie Thawne were now trading blows. Honestly, their hand-to-hand skills were pathetic in front of Thea, this contemporary martial arts master. Better than ordinary people, but only marginally.
The Flash relied more on high-speed overwhelming of enemies, while Officer Thawne's moves were even less impressive.
In less than two exchanges, Thawne was lifted one-handed by Barry. Iris in the distance was terrified—she had no idea why the Flash she admired harbored such deep hatred for her boyfriend.
She tried using words to stop the Flash, but her persuasion level was insufficient. The more she cared about Officer Thawne, the fiercer the Flash's rage burned. What had originally been just a plan to teach him a lesson was now completely abandoned. He was going to snap Thawne's neck.
Thea didn't care about the Reverse-Flash's life or death, but if the Flash killed someone—killed Iris's boyfriend no less—he'd be completely darkened, never to return. Would the future Justice League recruit the Reverse-Flash as a founding member?
She immediately acted. From over ten kilometers away, she sent a psychic blade that sliced Barry's wrist. The Flash flinched in pain, and Officer Thawne naturally fell to the ground.
Just as Thea intervened to save him and the Reverse-Flash was about to throw caution to the wind to save his ancestor, Green Arrow finally arrived.
The web arrow Thea had used before proved effective once more. This enhanced web had higher adhesion and greater density. Even the Flash was directly ensnared, unable to break free momentarily.
"Run!" Oliver didn't know what had gotten into Barry, but he had to save Iris and Officer Thawne.
The couple found tonight baffling but still retained their survival instincts. They helped each other up and fled into the distance.
Oliver launched into another persuasive speech, but Barry had already been heavily stimulated by the news of Iris moving out to cohabit. Now influenced by external forces, with multiple factors combining, what little rationality he had went out the window.
He began vibrating frantically, directly shattering the remarkably adhesive webbing. A pair of blood-red eyes fixed on Green Arrow.
If the previous Green Arrow had faced a rationality-lost darkened Flash, things would be genuinely dicey.
However, having received over six months of training from Ra's al Ghul, plus his sister providing a whole arsenal of equipment, he didn't think he'd lose.
He lightly pressed a switch on his bow. With continuous clicking sounds, armor light as cicada wings with an amazing texture began arming from his wrists up his arms, then torso, head, and thighs.
The armor's raw material was still from Thea and Diana's capture of Cheetah—the body of the Cheetah God, which Thea had crafted into speed-type armor with her advanced mechanical processing abilities.
Oliver had painted the originally silver-white shell green and white. The armor was powered by Queen Consolidated's latest new-energy reactor. Theoretically, the maximum speed could exceed two thousand kilometers per hour, and the reactor could support the wearer running at top speed for one hour.
The internal skeleton was constructed from the Cheetah God's body, with the exterior covered in titanium alloy and joints made of reinforced fiberglass.
To accommodate Oliver, this semi-illiterate, the operating interface was nearly fool-proof simplified: flight system, status system, navigation system, weapons system, and an auto-pilot module specifically to prevent him from getting knocked out—the "go home system"—all integrated together.
Oliver's weapon was naturally still the bow and arrow, but he'd long since upgraded. Diana, loving the house and all that came with it, had scrounged quite a bit of divine metal from Olympus and used modern craftsmanship to forge him a longbow. It couldn't quite be called a divine weapon, but Thea felt it qualified as a pseudo-divine weapon.
When fully drawn, arrows could fly faster than sound. However, without divine power or magical power, drawing the bow initially required consuming Oliver's life force.
That changed with the armor's advent. Thea modified the power supply—now the pseudo-divine longbow consumed the armor's energy.
The Flash hesitated briefly. Green Arrow had already finished suiting up. His combat experience far exceeded the rookie Flash's. He immediately drew and fired an arrow at Barry's calf.
Having slightly underestimated Green Arrow's speed, by the time the Flash tried to dodge, it was too late. With a "thunk," the arrow pierced a clean hole through his calf.
Blood gushed out. The Flash yanked out the arrow. The wound's cells rapidly healed under the Speed Force's influence. Barry glared viciously at Oliver, rage having completely occupied his rationality. Good friend, good brother—all thrown aside. He just wanted to kill.
A rapidly running figure trailing yellow lightning, Barry charged furiously at Oliver.
Oliver's normal speed was faster than ordinary people but incomparable to speedsters. With the powered armor, things were vastly different. Remote AI took over partial functions, allowing him to focus on the enemy. Limited by physical fitness, neural reflexes, and other conditions, the armor's maximum speed couldn't be fully utilized. Going all out, Oliver could only maintain 900 kilometers per hour.
"Darkening multiplies strength fivefold; redemption weakens threefold"—this saying was absolutely true. The Flash, who'd already exceeded the speed of sound in normal condition, had now jumped to an even higher level.
In pure speed, Green Arrow was mercilessly crushed. However, the battle-hardened veteran wasn't flustered, trading blows with the Flash back and forth. Calling it trading blows was being polite—to outsiders, it looked more like one-sided pummeling.
The armor's energy reserves continuously dropped. Oliver had roughly figured out the Flash's patterns. His technique was no technique at all—relying on his speed, he'd spot an opening and rush in with wild haymakers. When his opponent reacted, he'd run away and look for another chance.
Oliver tried twice to create distance but was caught both times and beaten savagely. He had no choice but to play a trump card. His wrist flicked, and smoke bombs installed in the armor fired three in succession. Not knowing what these were, the Flash didn't catch them, giving Oliver an opportunity.
Thick, impenetrable white fog blanketed half the street. Oliver activated the armor's optical camouflage and disappeared like an invisible man into the dense fog.
"You think you can hide like that?" The Flash searched everywhere without finding Oliver's trail. He showed a cruel smile and began running rapidly in place.
The air churned by his speed gradually dispersed even the black-tech smoke bombs from Batman, despite their quality.
Oliver remained calm. He knew Barry's recovery was amazing and that his abilities were all in his legs. He mainly aimed at the legs—with injured legs, no matter how capable Barry was, he couldn't run.
"Twang, twang"—he rapidly drew and nocked arrows. The bowstring produced a crisp humming like bees. Because his movements were so fast, the sounds traveling through air connected into a continuous stream with a unique rhythm.