Inside the arena packed with 100,000 spectators—and under the live broadcast footage streaming across the planet—most of the Sakar stars were glued to the action. Their reigning champion, the Two-Headed Man, raised his fists in fury and charged straight toward Superman.
To the Sakar citizens, who knew nothing about this newcomer, Superman looked like a weakling compared to their champion. In their eyes, this skinny, unimposing man stood no chance against the hulking Two-Headed Man.
Even though this universe doesn't strictly follow the rule of "bigger means stronger," it's still generally true that larger beings are often more powerful.
With nearly double the size difference between them, no one believed Superman had a chance.
The comparison was like Thor vs. Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok—but here, the gap in power was even wider than the gap in size.
Boom!
The Two-Headed Man charged like a locomotive. The ground of the arena shattered beneath his thundering steps, leaving behind cracked pits in his wake. A huge gust of wind followed, and with a fist the size of a boulder, he struck downward toward Superman's head.
The attack was brutal and overwhelming.
But Superman didn't flinch.
He stood perfectly still, watching the champion approach—then smirked.
Boom!
In the next instant, Superman casually raised his own fist and met the incoming blow head-on.
Whoosh!
In front of countless stunned eyes, the Two-Headed Man's charge didn't just stop—it reversed. His body was launched backward at incredible speed, crashing into the wall at the edge of the arena with an earth-shaking impact. The wall exploded into rubble, and cracks snaked outward beneath the first-row seats.
"What…?"
"No way!"
"Who is that guy?!"
The audience sat in shock.
They didn't know who Superman was—but they knew the Two-Headed Man. One of Sakar's top five fighters, he was strong enough to single-handedly tear apart an armed interstellar warship.
Yet he'd been blown away like a rag doll by this mysterious man.
"Damn it!"
The Two-Headed Man groaned as he slid down the wall and collapsed to the floor. Rage boiled inside him. He had never been so humiliated—never defeated so completely.
"You bastard!"
He cursed wildly, bloodshot eyes burning, muscles bulging as he powered up to his maximum strength and charged again.
But this time, Superman didn't wait.
"Hmph."
With a cold snort, two scarlet beams of energy burst from his eyes—heat vision.
Whoosh!
The twin blasts pierced the Two-Headed Man's heads in an instant. His skull was vaporized, leaving behind nothing but scorched flesh and a ruined body.
He crumpled, dead before he hit the ground.
The arena fell silent.
Everyone held their breath.
Then the cheering erupted.
No one cared that the Two-Headed Man had died.
Sakar worships strength. He was strong once, yes—but now he was just a corpse. And the people of sakar don't worship corpses.
Their admiration shifted instantly to the new champion—the man who had defeated their best with casual ease.
Superman.
Even the arena host didn't know who this man was—but that didn't matter now.
"Let us congratulate this mysterious warrior! He has defeated the champion of Saka—the Two-Headed Man—and is now the new champion of the arena!"
The host's voice echoed as the crowd roared in approval.
Arena – VIP Room
In the VIP suite overlooking the arena, grandmaster and the Four Obsidian Generals watched the unfolding events with varying expressions.
Grandmaster was visibly annoyed. The Two-Headed Man had been one of his most lucrative fighters—an asset meant to bring in money. Now, he was dead, without ever reaching his full potential.
"Very good."
Among the Obsidian Generals, Black Dwarf spoke up. His eyes gleamed as he looked down at Superman in the arena, his body surging with energy.
"He's more suitable than the Two-Headed Man..."
"What?" Grandmaster turned, startled.
"I said," Black Dwarf repeated, "he's more suitable than the Two-Headed Man—to be my subordinate."
"Don't forget who he is," Ebony Maw reminded sharply.
"The master doesn't care about such minor details," Black Dwarf replied. "If we can bring him under control, it'll be a huge advantage. It's been a long time since the Thanos Army recruited any truly valuable talent."
"Do as you please," Ebony Maw muttered, frowning. He knew he couldn't stop Black Dwarf. Among the four generals, he held the highest status, but the others didn't exactly treat him like a leader.
Boom!
Without another word, Black Dwarf stood, shattered the glass wall of the VIP suite with a single punch, and leapt out.
Whoosh!
He dropped nearly a hundred meters, landing in the center of the arena with a thunderous impact.
Superman looked up, his eyes calm and expressionless, watching as the massive warrior descended like a meteor.
BOOM!
The ground shook violently on impact, forming a deep, circular crater. Embedded beside Black Dwarf was a massive battle axe, lodged firmly in the ground.
"Who is that?"
"That's a guest of Lord grandmaster ! Why is he here?"
"Is he going to fight too?"
The audience buzzed with excitement and confusion, all eyes fixed on the arena.
"Superman, I didn't expect to find you here."
Black Dwarf yanked his axe from the ground, grinning as he addressed his opponent.
"Name's Black Dwarf, of the Thanos Army."
"I know," Superman said with a nod. "I came for you."
"Oh?"
Black Dwarf was caught off guard.
Up in the VIP suite, the others had also heard their exchange. Surprise flickered across their faces. Ebony Maw's eyes narrowed as realization slowly dawned.
Superman hadn't shown up by accident.
He was here for them.
Ebony Maw's gaze darkened as he processed the implications—Superman's sudden appearance wasn't coincidence. It was a targeted move.
And then—boom!
The battle erupted without warning.
Zzzzzzzzt!
Black Dwarf dragged his massive axe across the arena floor, sparks flying in his wake. Then, with a roar, he raised it high and swung it down toward Superman with brutal force.
But Superman didn't move. He didn't dodge. He didn't even blink.
He simply clenched his fist and tapped the ground lightly with his foot.
BOOM!
The explosion of sound rang out like thunder as debris shot into the air. But no one cared about the noise—everyone's attention was locked on the center of the arena.
Superman had punched the massive axe—and shattered it.
The axe's handle twisted grotesquely like a broken coil. But that wasn't the most shocking thing.
Black Dwarf, one of the Four Generals of the Thanos Army, had been sent flying.
Most of his chest had caved in from the blow. Bloodied and broken, he crashed into the far wall of the arena nearly a hundred meters away.
Slumped against the stone, he stared at Superman in disbelief.
He hadn't expected this.
He wasn't fighting the Two-Headed Man anymore.
The Two-Headed Man was roughly equivalent to a weaker version of the Hulk. And the Hulk—at least the movie version—had already fallen behind the times by the point Thanos arrived. He was no match for Black Dwarf.
Only a few people in the Marvel Universe managed to keep up with the times.
Iron Man. Thor.
As for Captain America, it was thanks to his unique qualities that he could hold his own in battle. And in the final fight, the hammer that Thor had once been reluctant to reclaim—Mjolnir—allowed Cap to barely stay on the cutting edge.
Aside from those three, only Doctor Strange, Wanda the Scarlet Witch, and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) could be considered true powerhouses in the later stages of the MCU.
Everyone else? Mixed-tier fighters.
And Hulk was no exception.
Superman understood this perfectly.
But for him, it was normal to defeat anyone with a single punch.
After all, Superman's defining trait is just that—he doesn't bother dodging. If he can't finish the fight with one punch, then chances are a second one won't do it either.
(Kryptonite not included, of course.)
Unfortunately for anyone trying to stop him, this isn't the DC Universe.
There's no kryptonite here.
In this universe—Marvel's universe—Superman, or rather Anton as Superman, was the most extraordinary being alive. Even if Thanos himself stood before him, he would feel no fear. Let alone a few of Thanos' underlings.
The only reason he hadn't gone after Thanos directly was because it would've been… troublesome.
Not impossible.
Not scary.
Just inconvenient.
Thanos had built up a vast and loyal force over the years. Even if Superman could end Thanos with a snap of his fingers, dismantling the entire army was another matter. It wasn't something that could be done in a single day—or even a single month.
Even killing takes time. The enemy won't just sit around and wait to be defeated.
So, while defeating Thanos might be easy, the process wouldn't be. It would take patience.
And besides, Thanos would come to him eventually.
In the meantime, there was no harm in collecting a little interest.
Superman glanced down at the Black Dwarf, lying unconscious and broken on the ground, then slowly looked up toward the VIP suite.
His expression remained calm as his gaze swept across the others—Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive, the remaining three of the Four Obsidian Generals.
That was where Black Dwarf had jumped from.
Whoosh.
Superman's gaze shifted again, this time locking directly onto grandmaster .
And in that moment, everyone understood.
Superman hadn't come to sakar by chance.
He was here for them.
"Damn it!"
Grandmaster began to panic.
He had no desire to get involved in a grudge match with Thanos and his people.
"Three of you," grandmaster suddenly said. "I'll give you the room. But I want no part in this. Understand?"
Though sakar couldn't compare to Thanos' forces in sheer strength, the old saying still applied: even a powerful dragon shouldn't fight the local snake on its own turf.
But Superman wasn't just any dragon—he was something far more dangerous.
There was no point in picking a fight.
"Of course," Ebony Maw replied calmly.
The moment he finished speaking, grandmaster 's body suddenly jerked upward, as if caught in the grip of an invisible giant hand. He was yanked through the air and flung out of the private suite—just like Black Dwarf had been.
Only this time, grandmaster had no choice in the matter.
BOOM!
He slammed into the ground below. Bones shattered on impact, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
As he lay groaning in pain, the spectators stared down in disbelief. Their excited cheers faded into stunned silence, replaced by a growing sense of confusion and dread.
What just happened?
Grandmaster —the ruler of Saka—had been thrown out like trash?
Clearly, this wasn't a fall. He'd been thrown.
"Oh?"
Superman, watching from the center of the arena, saw the entire scene unfold.
Then, with a slow, measured step, he approached grandmaster .
Under the shocked stares of the crowd, Superman delivered a casual kick—sending the battered ruler flying like a ragdoll.
BOOM!
Grandmaster 's body hit the ground like a sandbag, landing right next to the broken, unconscious Black Dwarf.
Both lay there, wrecked and humiliated.
Although his physique surpassed that of ordinary people, it still wasn't as powerful as his comic book counterpart.
Even so, the fact that he was still alive after suffering so many successive blows was a testament to his strength.
"You've been fighting for a while—have you even started?"
He sneered.
"Since I can't find anyone to help, I may as well rely on my own strength. It's pointless to just beat up my own people."
Huh!
There was a low hum.
A wave of pressure, vast and heavy like a tidal surge, swept over the arena. Instantly, the crowd fell silent. No one dared to speak, fearing they might provoke the being behind that terrifying aura.
Clearly, that person was Superman's true opponent.
"The Tyrant..."
Someone murmured.
Though they were sakar citizens, as members of the interstellar community, they were no strangers to the infamous name of the great demon king—Thanos.
"The Black Order..."
Another voice whispered, gasping as the pieces began to click into place—remembering what Black Dwarf had said earlier.
Who in the galaxy had the courage to fight against Thanos?
That single question echoed in everyone's minds, and amid the rising tension and fear, a strange anticipation for the battle ahead began to stir.
Whoosh!
The next moment, three figures descended from the sky—Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive.
Superman eyed the three of them. Among them, the pressure he felt from Ebony Maw was noticeably stronger than the other two.
After all, Ebony Maw was a mage.
And Superman—he had practically zero magic resistance. If not for his insanely long health bar, he wouldn't be the one landing one-hit kills... he'd be the one getting killed.
Whoosh!
While Superman weighed his options, Carol—the blonde woman who had been silently observing from the auditorium entrance—knew it was time to make her entrance.
She launched forward like a golden meteor, descending swiftly into the arena.
Their eyes met, and instantly they understood their targets.
"The skinny, tall, and creepy old alien? Looks like I could drop him with a single punch," Carol said casually. "I'll take him."
"He's all yours," Superman replied, calm as ever. "The other two are mine."
"No problem."
Carol had no idea about Superman's weak resistance to magic. She didn't know the internal calculations behind his decision-making. Sure, based on what Gamora had revealed, Ebony Maw was supposed to be the strongest of the three.
But regardless of how powerful Ebony Maw was, Carol didn't believe he could handle two members of the Black Order by himself. She didn't feel she was at any disadvantage.
"All sorted already?"
Ebony Maw scoffed.
He raised his hand slightly—and the broken stones scattered around the arena began to levitate. Dark energy surged over their surfaces, crackling with ominous power.
"If that's how you've decided to divide the fight... then let's not waste time."
Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive exchanged glances.
And in unison, they responded—
"As you wish!"