Marvel: The Sole Player

Bane, one of Batman’s most famous arch-nemeses.

In the echelon of Gotham’s supervillains, his status is second only to Batman’s number one fanatic fan, the Joker.

The reason he achieved such a high position is largely due to a classic scene in DC Comics history that has been etched into the annals of time.

That is the battle where Bane and Batman co-starred, resulting in the "broken back" injury.

In the comics, when Bane first arrived in Gotham, he displayed astonishing strategic prowess. With just a few scattered clues, he deduced that Batman was Bruce Wayne and immediately set about planning a conspiracy against him.

First, he led his subordinates to break into Arkham Asylum, releasing a bunch of supervillains like the Joker, Two-Face, and the Scarecrow, forcing Batman to run around for days catching these escaped supervillains all over the city.

Meanwhile, Bane himself hid in the shadows, monitoring Batman’s every move throughout the entire process.

By the time Batman finally finished cleaning up the mess and returned to Wayne Manor with a cold and an exhausted body, he found that Bane had been waiting for him at home for a long time.

At that time, Batman’s mind and body were on the verge of collapse, so he was naturally no match for Bane. The entire battle was a one-sided crush, with Bane ruthlessly grinding him into the ground.

But Bane didn’t choose to kill Batman; instead, he chose a more cruel method. He broke Batman’s spine, forcing him into a wheelchair to cosplay as Professor X from next door, thereby torturing him physically and mentally.

Those days could be said to be one of the darkest moments in Batman’s life.

Bane also gained fame directly from this battle, being dubbed "Gotham’s Chief Massage and Bone-Setting Master" by the underworld.

And the series of events happening tonight are quite similar to this plot development.

The only difference is that the real Batman didn’t make it to the final boss stage; instead, he was taken down halfway by a passing spider-man suit.

The Batman currently standing before Bane is not Bruce Wayne, but the imposter Darian.

"Batman, I’ve finally been waiting for your arrival."

Bane clenched his fists, his knuckles making a crisp cracking sound. He looked down at Darian from a height, his tone full of playfulness.

"Does this scene look familiar? It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember; your spine will remember for you."

Hearing this, Darian knew that in this timeline, the "broken back" incident had already taken place.

Before he could finish speaking, Bane lunged forward like a collapsing mountain. His massive fist tore through the air, heading straight for Darian’s face with a dull boom.

Darian dodged to the side, the fist whistling past his ear and smashing heavily into the load-bearing pillar behind him.

Boom!!

The entire pillar exploded on impact, gravel flying everywhere, and exposed rebar twisted out from the cross-section.

Bane had undergone hellish training in prison since childhood, so his physique was already far beyond that of a normal person. Later, he participated in a secret experiment where he was injected with a venom codenamed GL11, becoming the only test subject to walk out of the lab alive.

Of course, this "Venom" wasn’t that "Venom"—it wasn’t some symbiote, but a type of super steroid.

After the injection, Bane’s physical constitution would be pushed to an exaggerated level. His pure strength alone reached the level of several tons. Even in Gotham City, where monsters gathered, he could walk tall.

However, this venom is highly addictive. It must be replenished every 12 hours; otherwise, one would suffer from hellish withdrawal reactions.

The tubes connecting the back of Bane’s head to his torso were the devices used for the continuous infusion of the venom.

"You dodge quickly."

Having missed his strike, Bane wasn’t disappointed. Instead, he said cruelly, "After fighting all night, your stamina should be nearly depleted, right? How much longer can you hold out now?"

Darian held his fists in front of him: "I can do this all day."

Unfortunately, Bane doesn’t read Marvel comics and completely missed the meme.

He only thought Darian was putting on a brave face and nodded approvingly: "As expected of Batman, your willpower is indeed strong. I hope you can hold out a bit longer; if you fall too quickly, I’ll be very disappointed."

With that, Bane charged forward again.

His seemingly heavy frame moved with extraordinary agility. In the blink of an eye, he crossed several meters to reach Darian, twisting his waist and swinging his arm in a right hook.

But to Bane’s surprise, Darian didn’t dodge this time. Instead, he raised his left arm, taking a blocking stance.

"You’re courting death!"

A thought of disdain flashed through Bane’s mind.

Ordinarily, even if this punch hit Batman at his peak, it would be enough to seriously injure him and knock him down.

Not to mention that the opponent had just gone through a whole night of high-intensity combat. In his view, the Batman before him was at the end of his rope and could fall at any moment. Actively blocking his attack wasn’t brave; it was suicidal.

He didn’t hold back his strength. His fist, wrapped in powerful wind pressure, slammed hard into Darian’s raised forearm.

Boom!

A dull impact sound exploded, and the airwave kicked up the dust around their feet.

However, Bane’s expression instantly froze.

He saw Darian steadily catch his fist with the outside of his forearm. His body didn’t budge an inch, as if what had just struck him wasn’t a multi-ton heavy punch, but a piece of scrap paper being thrown at him.

"What!?"

Bane’s eyes widened, and the face under the mask was filled with disbelief.

His attack was actually caught so easily?

But before he could think further, he saw Darian clenching his fist and punching back.

Bane immediately followed suit, quickly raising his left arm to block, also wanting to nonchalantly deflect the punch.

But the moment Darian’s fist landed on Bane’s forearm, the expression under Bane’s mask changed drastically.

At this moment, he only felt a tyrannical and unreasonable force penetrating through. He could even clearly hear his forearm bones letting out a groan of being overwhelmed. Even his superhuman physique couldn’t resist it, and his defense instantly crumbled.

"Wha—"

Boom!!

Before he could finish his sentence, Bane’s nearly three-hundred-pound body was sent flying through the air. He crashed through several walls along the way and finally slammed heavily into the load-bearing wall at the edge of the building.

A huge crater cracked into the wall, with dense cracks spreading in all directions as dust fell.

Amidst the smoke, Bane dug himself out of the wall, his brain completely dazed.

Who am I? Where is this? What just happened?

You should know, he had fought Batman for so many years, and it was always him unilaterally crushing the other with strength, while Batman could only deal with him using strategy and equipment.

A scene like just now, where he was instead punched flying by Batman, was a first for him.

"How could this happen?"

Bane couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

Although his intelligence was not inferior to Bruce Wayne’s, the venom had a fatal side effect: it would affect the user’s IQ.

Simply put, it was trading intelligence for strength.

So Bane wasn’t as sharp as the Joker and hadn’t realized until now that the Batman in front of him had already been replaced.

Darian naturally wouldn’t proactively explain. He said cheerfully, "Don’t think you’re the only one using technology. I’ve been working out lately, and now I possess the Power of Nine Dragons. My dosage is far beyond yours."

Although Bane’s brain wasn’t working very well right now, he wasn’t stupid enough to believe Darian’s nonsense.

He believed that Darian must have used some kind of temporary enhancement drug, just like his venom, which could push physical performance far beyond normal levels in a short time, which was why he could punch him away.

Once this deduction surfaced, Bane immediately felt more confident.

The more powerful the enhancement drug, the greater the side effects must be, and the shorter the duration.

Even if Batman was on drugs, he definitely wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.

As long as he stalled the rhythm and ran out the clock, once the drug wore off, the opponent would turn back into that ordinary Batman who could be taken down with one punch.

Bane snorted coldly: "You think you can turn the tables with just these little tricks?"

He had always been a steady player and decisively raised his hand to press the venom controller on his chest.

The next moment, even more dark green liquid flooded into the tubes attached to his body.

As more venom was injected into his body, his muscles instantly swelled by a size, and his already tall frame grew a few more centimeters. The Philosophy Vest he was wearing turned into a belly top.

"Now my dosage is higher than yours!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Bane charged forward like an out-of-control bull.

This time his speed was more than a notch faster than before, and the concrete floor beneath him was stomped into two shallow pits.

In just a few breaths, Bane rushed in front of Darian and swung his fist again.

Darian didn’t retreat and met the punch directly with his own fist.

Boom!!

The two fists collided, and an airwave erupted between them, sweeping through the surroundings.

Darian and Bane didn’t stop, continuing to punch each other.

The dull thuds of fists colliding rang out one after another, echoing wildly through the empty floors. The concrete floor beneath their feet had already cracked into a spiderweb, and the entire floor was trembling slightly.

At this moment, Bane’s heart was filled with turbulent waves.

He had never encountered such an opponent in his life—someone who could actually compete with him in pure strength even after he had injected more venom.

What was even more exaggerated was that after only trading a dozen or so punches, his finger bones began to feel numb, and the webbing between his thumb and index finger was shaken open.

Looking back at Darian opposite him, he didn’t look strained at all. Not only did he take all the punches, but he also looked relaxed, and even his breathing hadn’t faltered.

"Damn it, what brand of hormones did this Batman take!?"

Bane frowned deeply, suddenly having a very bad feeling.

Why did he feel like the opponent was getting more and more powerful as they fought, not at all like someone on drugs?

Could it be that this is Batman’s true strength, and he had been intentionally playing with him before?

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Bane immediately denied this terrifying thought.

He grit his teeth and increased the venom output power again, his muscles swelling once more, growing even larger.

If he were to have a blood test now, they would probably only find a small amount of blood in the steroids.

For an ordinary person, under such intense injections, they would have long since become a tragedy and returned to the Steroid Planet.

But Bane had a special constitution. His body could withstand more venom, but the price was that his head became pointed, and his intelligence would decrease accordingly.

"Roar!!"

Bane let out an ear-splitting roar.

His strength surged again. Every punch he threw carried a piercing sound of breaking air. Wherever the wind from his punches swept, the gravel on the ground was blown rolling in all directions.

Seeing this, Darian was very confused: "How exactly did Batman engage in close-quarters combat with this thing before without being killed?"

Although Bane’s intelligence had significantly decreased, his combat instincts carved into his bones remained.

Without needing to think, his body automatically performed the most effective attacking moves. Every punch aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the human body, with tricky angles and fierce power.

But Darian was not afraid at all and directly swung his fist to meet him.

With a base strength attribute of over a hundred, plus the boost from skills and various equipment, he could even fight the normal Hulk without a problem, let alone Bane.

Another heavy punch came. Darian spotted the timing, tapped his foot lightly, dodged the punch with a side step, and simultaneously leaped up. He tucked his elbow and smashed it down from above, landing it hard on Bane’s big face.

Muay Thai warning!

Accompanied by the clear sound of a nasal bone fracturing, Bane’s large head snapped back. His whole body, carrying terrifying force, crashed through the floor and fell all the way down.

The load-bearing structure was like paper before his massive body. He smashed through countless floors in succession and finally slammed heavily onto the reinforced concrete floor of the bottom level, kicking up a large cloud of grayish-white dust.

Darian spread his cape and landed lightly.

There was a movement in the pile of debris opposite him. Bane pushed aside the gravel pressing on him and struggled to climb up from the ground.

The mask on his face was even more broken, his nasal cavity was full of blood, and his eyes were heavily bloodshot, staring fixedly at Darian.

"Impossible!"

Bane squeezed these words out from between his teeth.

Considering himself Batman’s lifelong rival, he would never admit that he couldn’t beat Batman even while on drugs.

Rage swallowed his rationality. He raised his hand and slammed it hard on the venom controller on his chest, pushing the output power directly to the highest setting.

The dark green liquid in the tubes surged wildly, being poured into his body as if driven by a high-pressure pump.

His muscle groups swelled with blood one after another, making the tooth-aching sound of fascia being pulled. His trapezius muscles were particularly exaggerated; after bulging, they almost stacked up to the roots of his ears, making it feel like he might accidentally squeeze his head like a pimple.

An abnormal dark green tint appeared on the surface of his skin, his veins bulged, and his breathing became heavy and rapid. His chest heaved violently, making a sound like a broken bellows. He looked like a small mountain of flesh.

Darian looked at Bane in this form and raised an eyebrow: "Hulk, is that you?"

"Roar!!"

Bane roared madly, having lost all reason.

The next moment, he appeared in front of Darian, moving as fast as teleportation.

He no longer used any techniques, simply relying on instinct to madly swing his fists. Every strike was enough to punch through steel.

The surrounding walls, pillars, and concrete floor—anywhere his fists touched—were instantly blown to smithereens. Under this storm of attacks, the entire floor was turning into a ruin at a speed visible to the naked eye, with dust and debris flying everywhere.

"By the way, could this building also belong to Wayne Enterprises?"

Facing Bane in such a state, Darian even had time for idle thoughts.

He activated Dead Eye, taking in Bane’s attack trajectories perfectly, blocking while counterattacking.

Although Bane’s body had been pushed to the limit by the maximum dose of venom, it was still not enough in the face of Darian’s strength.

Darian’s fists hammered into his ribs and abdomen again and again, each hit producing a dull thud, accompanied by blood foam containing bits of shredded flesh spraying from Bane’s mouth.

Bane was beaten back repeatedly, but the drugs prevented him from feeling pain.

He suddenly stopped, bent down to grab a nearby broken load-bearing pillar, hugged it with both hands, and swung it down at Darian.

That pillar, a mix of rebar and concrete, weighed at least half a ton, but in his hands, it was like a toothpick.

The pillar tore through the air, making a dull whistling sound.

Darian kicked out, meeting the incoming pillar head-on.

boom!!

The pillar exploded under his foot, and the gravel and concrete powder burst into a cloud of smoke, completely blocking his vision.

At that moment, using the gravel as cover, Bane suddenly lunged forward.

He opened his arms and tightly hugged Darian’s body. His massive arm strength instantly tightened, locking Darian’s arms, and then he lifted him high into the air.

"You’re finished, Batman!"

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