"Clink."
A sharp metallic sound abruptly rang out in the bedroom.
The Talon froze. For the first time, horror appeared in his dead-fish eyes.
The short blade would go no farther.
Veins bulged along his arm, but the razor-sharp electrum blade seemed to have plunged into a steel ingot. It would not budge.
At the end of the blade lay the answer.
Two fingers. Two black fingers with a metallic sheen gripped the blade.
"My Observation Haki locked onto you a kilometer away, little bird." A hoarse voice, thick with the irritation of being woken up, sounded beside the Talon's ear.
Yang Ming opened his eyes. His gold-rimmed glasses caught a cold glint from the lightning outside. Without even turning his head, he glanced at the assassin hanging upside down above his bed and let out an enormous yawn.
"Climbing through windows in the middle of the night instead of using the door." Yang Ming's voice was ice-cold. "Has Gotham's room service gotten this wild? Not even a hello!"
The eyes beneath the Talon's mask narrowed.
Without a moment's hesitation, he abandoned the blade with his right hand and flicked his left wrist.
"Whoosh!" A steel cable shot from his sleeve toward Yang Ming's neck. At the same time, he pressed his right hand against his chest, detonating the miniature flash stun grenade on his costume.
"Bzzzz-!"
Blinding white light and piercing noise exploded through the bedroom. An ordinary person would have lost both sight and hearing completely.
But the Talon had miscalculated one thing.
The person lying in that bed was a monster.
Amid the glare, before the Talon could tighten the cable, something slammed into him.
Yang Ming did not even get out of bed. Power surged through his waist, and pitch-black armament Haki coated his right leg.