Marvel: A New God's Reign

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"Sometimes you need a little wishful thinking to keep living.

- Misato Katsuragi, (Neon Genesis Evangelion)"

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<(Omniscient POV)> 

According to the traditions that the Kree Dominion Duel followed, the battle between two participating contestants didn't need any particular mandatory greeting to be said at the start, and in this case, the battle apparently started the moment the two faced each other in the "arena".

Korath noticing the slight uneasy expression on Susan's face, instantly knew that she didn't have any prior experience in fighting a dual like this. So, being an experienced and ruthless punisher of the Krees, he was determined to make the most of it. Even before Susan could realize that the battle had already started, Korath without any sort of warning charged toward her in order to try and use the element of surprise to his advantage.

The Kree warrior used a gauntlet he was wearing on his left hand to fire a barrage of energy blasts at Susan with each one seemingly powerful enough to blast through concrete. In response, Susan quickly raised her hand, and an invisible force-field blocked the attacks, only slightly shimmering with each impact.

After that, Susan immediately turned invisible and tried to sneak up behind Korath before sending a huge forcefield toward him. As the forcefield slammed into the guy like an over-speeding truck, knocking him back several feet and causing his armor to crack, Korath snarled and activated the cybernetic enhancements he had equipped all over his body, vastly increasing his speed and strength. With the help of an optic implant installed in his helmet, he was even able to somewhat track Susan's movements by the distortion in the air.

He slowly withdrew a pair of batons from his armor that was crackling with electricity, and lunged forward at an incredible speed, landing a blow that directly hit the force field Susan had erected for her protection. Her barrier instantly shattered with a single swing of his electrified batons in an explosion of energy. Under the force of the attack, Susan was thrown back but quickly recovered mid-air, conjuring an invisible platform under her feet to prevent a hard landing. She then retaliated by creating a massive, razor-sharp force field shaped like a cone in front of her and hurled it toward Korath. 

The invisible cone-shaped projectile sliced through the air with a deadly whizz, threatening to pierce Korath in his stomach. However, displaying an incredible feat of speed and reflex, the Kree was barely able to dodge it although his shoulder was still grazed by the projectile, resulting in part of his armor hissing and sparking. Korath felt the stinging pain in his shoulder, but he just gritted his teeth and leaped in the air, using his enhanced agility to quickly close the distance between them. Once he reached close enough to Susan, he unleashed a flurry of punches, each one augmented by his gauntlets but Susan was deftly able to block them with rapidly forming forcefields.

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"It seems that she is subconsciously holding herself back," Atem murmured with a frown on his face as he looked at Susan struggling to defend herself from Korath's relentless strikes.

The Kree punisher had already recognized that Susan was a long-distance fighter and was thus doing his best to fight her in a close-ranged battle to avoid giving her a chance to use her full capabilities. He wasn't even giving her enough time to focus her attention on a stronger attack, forcing Susan to be on the defense more than the offense. 

"Maybe you should tell her to just end the battle by forming a forcefield inside Korath's head or brain. That would be the most effective victory for her, Master. Should I send her a telepathic message to do that?" Zoya proposed. 

"... No, let her battle it out on her own. I don't intend to let her die anyway, so even if she were on the verge of losing, I would just... have to cheat to help her win. But this battle experience would be extremely valuable for her. Also, I don't believe that Sue would lose. She might be reluctant to treat Korath like the other Chitauri that she killed earlier but that doesn't mean that she would just allow herself to be defeated. Even if she is reluctant to use her more... "brutal" and ruthless powers, she still has some aces in her sleeve." Atem concluded before again fixing his gaze on the battle happening on the hull of Ronan's floating spaceship.

***

Irritated by Korath's relentless attacks, Susan swiftly conjured an invisible force bubble around him, trying to crush him within the spherical barrier as she had with numerous Citauri soldiers before the dual. However, Korath, sensing the imminent threat, quickly redirected a significant amount of his energy into his gauntlet and the baton in his grasp, unleashing a powerful strike accompanied by an energy surge. The resulting explosion obliterated the force bubble and sent ripples of shockwaves through the water encircling the ship. 

The impact of the shockwave made Susan lose her balance resulting in her being thrown backward and nearly tumbling into the ocean. However, she was able to quickly regain her footing, conjuring a forcefield to stave off the fall. She then telekinetically launched fragments of the ship's hull, shattered by the earlier shockwave, at Korath by encasing them in small spherical forcefields that she controlled. The Kree warrior, meanwhile, deftly deflected the incoming projectiles with his batons before advancing toward Susan, intent on a direct strike. 

But Susan this time was ready. She quickly created a dome of force around herself, and the moment Korath's fist collided with it, she rapidly expanded the dome outwards with an explosive force, sending Korath flying away into the ocean. 

As Korath struggled to regain his balance in the ocean's water, his armor damaged and sparking, he knew he could not withstand another attack like that. So, in one final desperate move, he channeled all his remaining strength into one of his batons and threw it, aiming directly at Susan's head which Korath considered a weak point due to how Susan had been doing her best to block all attacks there from the start. 

Seeing the baton flying towards her with a thin layer of plasma reinforcing its edges, Susan narrowed her eyes as she focused, creating the strongest force field she could possibly muster. The blast hit her shield with a deafening roar as electricity spread out like a spiderweb from the baton, but the force field held on without even a single crack. With a fierce cry, Susan pushed the barrier away in another direction, thus deflecting the baton along with it as well.

She then glared at Korath who was already being swarmed by small alligator-like creatures in the water. She looked determined to finish the battle with her own hands and so, with a wave of her arms, she materialized a forcefield around the Kree warrior's head, cutting off his air supply before pushing him deeper into the water among the swarm of the marine carnivorous creatures.

It only took a couple of minutes before Korath stopped moving altogether. However, the reason for his death wasn't due to the shortage of air as some people would have guessed but more due to the fact that most of his body had already been eaten alive by the monstrous creatures that inhabited the ocean.

"bleeaagh huuurgh pant pant gyaaak" Susan immediately began to puke into the water after killing Korath although the reason for why she was suddenly throwing up remained unknown to most. Atem who had been observing her from afar hoped that it was more due to her disgust at how Korath died rather than the fact that she might be feeling distraught with how she just killed him with her own hands.

"Susan Storm, champion of Atem, the Holy Emperor, you have won the first round of the dominion honor dual. Congratulations!" Zoya declared after a few minutes of silence since Ronan was still silent, shocked after witnessing his strongest subordinate dying at the hands of a no-name female warrior so easily.

"A pitiful weakling!" Gamora, who had been watching the dual with great interest, remarked with an unhappy expression on her face before laying her eyes directly on Susan. "He was so weak that even an inexperienced woman was able to kill him. He deserves death. Anyway, I will be the one to fight in the next..."

"I, the great Ronan the Accuser, Warlord of the Krees will face you in battle next." Ronan quickly declared in a booming voice, silencing Gamora with just a glance.

The warlord knew that losing two of the three battles would result in him automatically losing the dual. He wouldn't even have to wait for the third battle to happen. Korath had already lost the first battle and there was a decent chance that Gamora would be losing the second as well since Brunhilde had already proved her superiority over the daughter of Thanos in terms of raw physical capabilities.

Thus, Ronan could not afford to send Gamora in the second battle. He had proposed this three vs three contest in the first place to eliminate the two exceptionally strong subordinates of the opposite side along with their leader in one fell swoop, but he had clearly failed, so he needed to cut his losses and make sure to win the next round. He knew that if he could just kill the leader, then killing the subordinates wouldn't be that hard especially if he was the one fighting all the battles. After all, Ronan believed from the bottom of his heart that there was nobody here who could beat him while he still had his universal weapon in his hands.

Hence, Ronan confidently twirled the huge war hammer in his hands while redirecting his attention to Atem's face, waiting for him to take the bait. "Fight me, a ruler against another ruler." He taunted. 

"Are you sure? Because believe me, the battle won't go as you are imagining inside that blue head of yours." Atem warned with a playful smile.

"Are you afraid of facing me in battle, false god? Or are you simply afraid of being turned into pulp like I have done with so many Xandarians and Skrulls before you?" Ronan mocked.

"... Fine, you want to fight me, right? Sure then. I gave you an opportunity to back out, but you didn't. I am pretty sure that makes me a whole lot honorable and would get me some extra popularity points" Atem shrugged while advancing towards the makeshift arena on the somewhat destroyed hulk of the ship before patting Susan's back to calm her down and nodding at her to let her know that she did well. 

'Now, I should probably end this quickly instead of playing around with him. Oh, that reminds me, I still haven't tested out my null abilities in a real battle.'

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