Earth's Counterattack

Countless lasers chased after Galacta. Even without looking back, she could clearly sense the position and trajectory of every beam, such was the power of the cosmic energy.

She accelerated, maneuvering with all her strength through the air to evade them. Beams streaked past her one after another. Two rays she had dodged simultaneously collided head-on where she had been seconds earlier, exploding into a dazzling fireball.

Galacta continued accelerating, her form becoming an afterimage as she weaved through the crisscrossing cosmic rays that filled the sky. Fireballs detonated one after another in midair, their brilliant flashes consuming the entire sky.

Her afterimage repeatedly burst through the curtain of light, perfectly dodging or neutralizing most of the impacts. But when another beam came chasing after her, she finally had nowhere to evade. Galacta shot out from the flames of two exploding rays, her body pausing for an instant as she saw another beam pierce through the fire curtain straight at her.

The Exterminator had long predicted her trajectory. He had hidden an extremely discreet third beam between the other two, only slightly slower than them. Galacta's attention had been completely drawn by the first two lasers, while the third struck at precisely the moment they detonated against each other, its energy fluctuations wholly concealed by the explosion.

With no time to dodge, the tyrannical beam rapidly closed in, reflected in Galacta's eyes. Then, with a thunderous boom, it exploded like lightning and transformed into an enormous fireball in midair.

The Exterminator hovered over eight thousand meters below, calmly looking up at the explosion in the sky.

But only moments later, he realized he had not hit her.

Just as he had used the explosion of decoy beams to conceal his real attack, Galacta had turned his own attack against him