Star City.
The city that Green Arrow once protected with his life is now being consumed by flames and screams.
The twisted skyscrapers resembled dying giants, from which black, shapeless nightmare monsters poured forth.
On the rooftop of the tallest, still standing building, four fully armed figures stood like gargoyles overlooking Hell.
"Ha." A flippant chuckle broke the silence. "Another group of heroes, dreaming of saving everyone. I've seen too many; most of them just end up dying."
The speaker was Thaddeus Ross Wilson, daughter of the Deathstroke.
She chewed her bubble gum casually, her eyes showing indifference towards the burning city beneath her feet.
Standing beside her, Emiko Quinn, clad in a red battle suit, didn't even fully turn her head. Her voice was flat and indifferent, like the surface of ice in winter. "Talking about the ending is meaningless."
Thaddeus Ross raised an eyebrow.
Emiko continued, her gaze still fixed on the raging monster horde in the distance. "If you want to survive, prepare your tactics. Lamenting won't change the monsters outside. If you want to stay and fight, take a weapon. If you don't want to fight, the door's over there; no one's stopping you."
"Snap."
Thaddeus Ross popped a pink bubble, the sound soft but full of provocation. "I'm not worried about myself," she said lazily, tapping lightly on the hilt of her katana. "At the very least, I'm sure I'll outlive you."
Emiko finally turned around, her eyes, so similar to Oliver Quinn's, narrowed, like Falcon poised to pounce.
Her hand traced the quiver on her back, her fingertips running over the cold fletching of the arrows. "Do you want to test your skills against me?"
"I don't care." Thaddeus Ross nonchalantly drew his katana a few inches, the Blade flashing a cold light in the firelight, before sheathing it.
She raised her hand again, her thumb clicking as she released the safety of the pistol at her waist. "If you want to visit Hell early."
"Alright!" Speedy Mia, gripped her compound bow and stepped between the two. "There's no need for a standoff now! We need to figure out how to rescue the survivors!"
"Relax, guys," Arsenal Roy Harper, who had been leaning against the wall, finally spoke lazily.
He was fully equipped: a heavy bulletproof vest, two pistols at his waist, several grenades jingling, a fully automatic assault rifle in his hand, two submachine guns slung across his back, and a military dagger strapped to his thigh—he was armed to the teeth.
He tidied up his gear and said nonchalantly, "We don't need to fight those seven evil Batman, they're just a bunch of nightmare monsters. Besides, if we can't beat them, we still have Doctor Fate, right?"
Emiko gave him a cold glance and said nothing.
She had always scoffed at such blind optimism. She turned around, nocked a specially made arrow with a grappling hook, and aimed it at the roof of a slightly shorter building in the distance.
"Call out--"
The arrow, trailing a long rope, precisely embedded itself in the concrete edge of the target building.
Emiko glanced at her teammates behind her, said nothing, grabbed the rope, and using the height difference, her figure slid down quickly like a red bird.
Mia and Roy followed closely behind.
Thaddeus Ross pursed his lips and was the last to catch up, not forgetting to pull out another piece of bubble gum from his pocket and pop it into his mouth while gliding.
The four of them had just landed on the roof of the building and hadn't even had time to get their footing when the surrounding air began to distort.
Black, viscous substance seeped from the ground, from the corners of the walls, and from the ventilation ducts, quickly coalescing into bizarre nightmare monsters that surrounded them.
"They're so enthusiastic," Arsenal remarked jokingly, but his hands moved with astonishing speed.
"Da da da da da!"
The assault rifle spat out a ferocious tongue of fire, and spent cartridges rained down at his feet.
The monsters at the forefront were instantly blasted into black fragments.
At the same time, two arrows flashed past.
Mia's electric arrow paralyzed one monster, while Emiko's explosive arrow blasted another into pieces.
Thaddeus Ross's presence was the most lethal.
Like a gray whirlwind, she fired pistol repeatedly in her left hand, accurately blasting the monsters' "heads" apart, while her right hand wielded a katana, creating streaks of silver light. With each swing, a monster was cleaved in two at the waist, the cuts as smooth as a mirror.
The battle began suddenly and ended just as quickly.
In less than a minute, the monsters on the rooftop were completely wiped out.
"Go!" Emiko in a low voice. Before the fragments could reassemble, she kicked open the iron door leading downstairs and rushed in first.
They descended the dusty and blood-stained fire escape, their distress signal originating from the twelfth floor.
When they rushed to the corridor on the twelfth floor, everyone stopped in their tracks.
At the end of the corridor stood a figure.
He wore black and yellow tactical armor, his figure identical to that of Deathstroke Slade Wilson, but the armor was covered only in a writhing, bottomless darkness.
One of his eyes was a dark, empty hole, while the other gleamed with an ominous, malevolent red light.
He's different from those mindless nightmare monsters.
He stood there quietly, like a master hunter waiting for his prey to take the bait.
The relaxed and carefree expression on Arsenal Roy's face vanished instantly. He gripped his rifle tightly, his face more serious than ever before.
"This is a bit tricky, guys," he said in a low voice.
The oppressive aura emanating from this guy far surpassed the combined oppressive power of all the monsters from before.
This is not merely power, but a pure, evil intention that revels in Carnage.
However, as soon as Roy finished speaking, Thaddeus Ross, who was beside him, let out a suppressed, excited chuckle.
She stared intently at the Nightmare Deathstroke, her eyes burning with a mad flame—a flame mixed with hatred, excitement, and some kind of twisted desire.
"Leave it to me." Thaddeus Ross's voice was hoarse. She licked her lips like a Beast spotting its nemesis. "I'll cut off his head!"
Before she could finish speaking, she had already shot off like an arrow!
There were no tactics, no coordination, only the most primal killing intent.
The war between father and daughter, at this moment, broke out in the most bizarre and bloody way.
Two figures, one swift as lightning, the other standing still as a mountain, collided with a loud crash at the end of the dimly lit corridor.