8 Doomsdays Death

My breath was short. My ribs were broken and air was struggling to enter inside without causing me even more pain. Yet slowly, my ribs began to fix themselves as I bathed within the yellow sun that shone down upon me. As soon as they did, I took in a deep breath, eyes opening up as I shot into a seated position, one hand resting against the ground to prop me up.

Feeling the heat upon my skin, my rapid breathing calmed, and I leaned back just taking the moment to bathe within its light. It was difficult to describe the feeling of what I was experiencing, to describe the feeling of my cells being enriched. Of muscles tightening and bursting with power. Of bones growing stronger and thicker. To compare the feeling of bathing in yellow sun radiation to being injected with it is impossible because the latter did not even come close. The latter felt tainted, dirty almost whereas this, it felt pure and so much richer.

"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"

But this moment was interrupted by the sound of Doomsday roaring, a common action that was beginning to wear off, the fear it once installed diminishing. Eyes opening once more, I looked around to see the ships nearby, a few already broken by the shower of debris my body had created upon bursting from the mountain. I couldn't lose anymore otherwise I wouldn't have any ability to get off this planet with the equipment necessary.

Though thinking about it, Doomsday had already destroyed the yellow sun machine which meant that maybe I didn't need a ship after all. However, I didn't know how to fly and floating through space without the ability to change my course isn't something I fancied doing.

Which meant I had to learn to fly first, which further meant avoiding Doomsday long enough in order to do so.

It was at that moment that a shockwave sounded from within the mountain before another explosion burst from the side of the mountain. And from the smoke a large figure, Doomsday himself landed upon the ground, shaking it violently, Reacting quickly in response, I turned around, tensing my legs and leapt through the air. A second boom sounded out as Doomsday no doubt gave chase.

Two, three, four times I landed, knees bending to absorb the impact before I burst off once more, leaping through the sky before descending to the ground once more. Each time as I felt through the air I attempted to push myself just that little further, yet nothing was there. And as I drew closer to the edge of the area in which the suns ray had broken through the cloud of smoke surrounding the planet, I turned to the left.

By the sound of Doomsday's body smashing into the ground growing closer, I knew that my powers were still not as great as its. The beast had been getting closer and closer with every jump and I knew that the time in which I would be forced to engage Doomsday once again was growing closer. It was why the desperation I felt and the need to fly grew stronger.

As I landed, a shadow covered me and I quickly dived to the side, body rolling across the ground as I turned to see Doomsday land just where I had once been. Smoke filled my vision but as I narrowed my eyes, I pierced through to see Doomsday turning to me and leaping out.

There was no time for me to get away and so despite having wanted to avoid this at all costs, rose my hands and prepared to fight against the creature. I had already learned from my previous engagement with Doomsday that it had little in the way of skill, only wildly swing its arms and legs around purely on instinct. With my superior skill, I had been able to avoid many crushing blows, albeit barely until I got a little overconfident.

My powers were undeveloped, enough so that I still couldn't access heat vision or flight. I had no choice but to engage and at the moment that Doomsday drew closer, fist drawn back and ready to land what I had no doubt would be a killing blow, I closed my eyes, just for a moment. Breathing became even and my eyes opened slowly.

Then, I leaned to one side hand braced against Doomsday's forearm, its fist passing mere inches by my head. Stepping into Doomsday's guard, I clenched my fist and swung it around, slamming it directly into Doomsday's abdomen. A noticeable displacement of air and shockwave rang out, ground cratering beneath us. Yet Doomsday only stumbled back slightly before going to swing at me once more.

Yet again, I smacked the blow to one side, manoeuvring around and driving another powerful blow into Doomsdays side. This was why I was known as a master of Torquasm, both Vo and Rao. Torquasm Vo was the act of reaching a hyper calm and alter the state of mind, allowing one to analyse the situation without fear or panic clouding one's mind, something I had mistakenly forgotten to use when first engaging Doomsday. Torquasm Rao on the other hand was one of the heightened instincts and allowing one complete control of their bodily functions.

Individually they would make an individual incredibly dangerous in certain situations. Torquasm Rao was the most well-known and popularly used martial arts in the Kryptonian military. Whereas Torquasm Vo was seen more as a Religious undertaking, unknowing that its true purpose was to resist and combat telepaths, an enemy that Krypton had not engaged in many millennia.

However, when combined together, that was when the true danger of both revealed itself. You see, individually they were strong, but they had weaknesses that could be exploited. It was only when combining the two, did one become a true master of Torquasm and therefore, what was considered, a perfect martial artist.

And for some time, we engaged in a back and forth like this. Doomsday would strike, I would dodge by a hair's breadth and strike. Yet it was obvious that this was only becoming more and more difficult with every strike. Just as I was getting stronger and faster so was Doomsday, only that while his speed was slow to grow, his strength was improving massively. I had never been able to contend with him in strength, but that disparity between us was only getting greater.

Every blow packed enough force that the wind rocked me on my feet and while I was certainly the faster of the two fighters, it didn't mean much when even just parrying a blow nearly knocked me off my feet. And it was only a matter of time till I eventually wasn't able to get my feet underneath steady enough to dodge the next strike.

As soon as I dodged one, my left foot swung round, spinning as a result of being caught in the wind produced by Doomsday's strike. With my back now exposed, the backhand strike threw me off my feet and for miles I slammed into the ground, bouncing and rolling till I eventually came to a stop.

For a moment I lay there, shaking my head to clear my blurry vision, but it didn't disappear. Then I felt a burning heat behind my eyes, the cloudy vision becoming red and with grit teeth, I tried to stave off what was coming instinctively.

Yet I couldn't.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" I roared out, eyes opening, and two beams of red-hot energy flew out, piercing through the air and slamming into Doomsday's figure which had descended towards me. Strangely enough, I could now see everything clearly and I watched as Doomsday was knocked out of the sky, thrown back as a result of the heat vision striking into its chest.

However, I had no control and so, the energy fizzled out, my vision becoming blurry once more as I blinked my eyes rapidly in order to see once more. Doomsday itself got to its feet, deep burns marring its chest as it growled in my direction. Then to my shock, its own eyes darkened, veins of glowing red energy spreading out from around its eye socket. Then two blasts of their own struck out, wider and far darker in colour than my own that dug up the ground and rushed towards me.

I dove to one side, managing to avoid being cut in half by the heat vision, though was instead clipped in the side which again, threw me across the landscape. Yet as I rolled, I managed to keep a calm head despite the pain, placing both hands on the ground, I pushed off, flipping through the air and landing on my feet, digging two trenches into the ground as I came to a halt.

Taking a moment to study my surroundings I noticed that I was completely out of the range of where the sun was peeking through the clouds. And standing between me and where I needed to be, was Doomsday.

So, with great trepidation, I rushed forwards, trusting and relying upon my speed to gain the upper hand and hopefully I could win. If I could just land a killing blow now, then I could throw Doomsday away and take all the time I needed to collect anything of worth from Bertron's laboratory.

Doomsday noticed my charge and turned, energy beams bursting from its eyes once more and I came to a stop, legs spreading and bending slightly and with a shout, willed my own heat vision to lance out. The beams of energy struck one another, and they pushed against them but I was being pushed back. Not only were Doomsday's beams more powerful and swallowing up my own but my body was also being pushed back.

With grit teeth, I pushed out as much power as I could into my eyes, my feet digging into the ground as I was pushed back. And with a shout reached deep within myself and forced as much power as I could into the beams of energy.

I couldn't put into words what happened.

But all the pent-up power within me exploded outwards in a wave of energy that burned the surroundings to a crisp, the clouds above the planet dispersing and Doomsday simultaneously being burnt to a crisp and its ashes being carried into space.

There was a silence that followed, broken only by the sound of my knees colliding with the ground, hands bracing me up. I could feel it, the exhaustion within my body and despite my best efforts to stay awake, it proved too difficult and at that moment, I collapsed to the ground unconscious.

-X- Line Break -X-

Flying through the air at great speeds, a green blur approached the edges of Kryptonian Space. It was a Xudarian clad in the uniform of the prestigious and powerful Green Lantern Corps. An intergalactic police force that oversaw the protection of sentient life.

This Xudarian went by the name of Tomar-Re, the Green Lantern assigned to sector 2813. The only inhabited planet within that sector being the Kryptonians, the various planets around it made barren by the peoples rapid and unorganised harvesting of their resources. In recent years, the Kryptonians had suffered greatly, the constant war with the Vrangs had led to them expending more and more resources.

They had abandoned their outposts on the edges of Kryptonian space and eventually consolidated their entire population upon their homeworld of Krypton. A world that had been ravaged by a number of incidents.

First the war between the clones race of Kryptonians that had once existed purely as slaves. Followed soon by an unknown creatures attack upon the homeworld causing mass destruction. The constant war with the Vrangs did not help and this was all followed soon by the disappearance of Kandor, stolen by an alien ship that had been reported doing similar things throughout the universe.

Krypton had been suffering and the Green Lanterns had tried their best to help. But General Zod had been correct that launching an attack on the Vrang homeworld and ending this war for good would have enabled Krypton to find new ways in which to survive. However, the Council of Five had refused and not even Tomar-Re or Guardians by the request of General Zod had been able to convince them otherwise.

Instead, a compromise had been made, a scientist and head of the House of El, Jor-El had suggested the use of Stellarium. The rare compound would have absorbed some of the tectonic forces produced by the destabilisation of Kryptons core, thus temporarily staving off its meltdown and therefore, saving the Kryptonians.

And as Jor-El had hoped, would force the Council of Five to recognise the dire situation they were in and be forced to make the difficult decisions they had avoided. That was where Tomar-Re came in, he was to collect and bring the Stellarium to Krypton.

But on his journey here, a rare and powerful solar flare rushed across the area and blinded him. This sudden solar flare made him drop the Stellarium he held and while he managed to collect some of it and continue to Krypton, it was too late.

Something he realised as he came to a stop, floating in the air as he looked upon the debris that once formed the planet of Krypton. He had failed, the Kryptonians were gone and with it, he had done what no Green Lantern wanted to be a part of, his Sectors destruction.