Chapter 158: Savage Battle
Black Beauty's four wheels spun wildly, gripping the asphalt as the car shot forward like an arrow released from a bow!
From an aerial view, it resembled a black serpent slithering across the urban landscape.
Behind it, three Tumblers weren't about to give up the chase.
Their heavy armor plating, far from slowing them down, actually made them drive even more aggressively!
Occasionally, civilian cars unfortunate enough to be on the road were rammed aside and flipped over like toys!
While relentlessly pursuing, the Tumblers would also fire their autocannons, trying to disable the incredibly fast Black Beauty.
Unfortunately, Black Beauty's missile capacity was limited—otherwise, Jake could have easily annihilated all the armored vehicles behind him!
VROOOOM—!
With the roar of high-performance engines, several motorcycle gang members burst out from between the Tumblers, swinging heavy chains and accelerating even faster in pursuit!
Grappling hooks hung from the chains—they intended to throw them onto the black sedan ahead to slow it down or disable it entirely.
The riders had their long hair whipped around by the wind, and without their goggles, they wouldn't have been able to keep their eyes open at this speed.
The specially modified motorcycles were incredibly fast, though their stability looked questionable, giving the impression they might fall apart at any moment.
Just as they were swinging their chains, closing the distance to Black Beauty to throw them—
The sedan suddenly executed a perfect drift, spinning the vehicle around 180 degrees!
It maintained its high speed in reverse, but now the front of the car was facing backward toward the pursuers.
Before the bikers could react to this unexpected maneuver, Black Beauty's door cracked open slightly.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!
A compact machine gun mounted on the door opened fire!
Instantly, several bikers were cut down, falling from their motorcycles in sprays of blood!
The now-riderless motorcycles veered off the road wildly, tumbling and rolling a dozen times before coming to rest as mangled wreckage.
CRUNCH—
The Tumblers that followed showed absolutely no regard for the corpses or the destroyed motorcycles, rolling directly over them in continued pursuit of Jake.
The bodies and motorcycles were brutally crushed into unrecognizable masses of flesh and twisted metal.
The high-speed chase continued eastward from Wayne Tower, quickly reaching Gotham's industrial outskirts.
After an intense exchange of fire, Jake successfully destroyed another Tumbler along the way, but he wasn't unscathed either. Black Beauty was no longer beautiful—riddled with bullet holes and structural damage.
The rear window and trunk lid had been completely blown out.
Even if they won this battle, Black Beauty could never be driven again.
Near the abandoned industrial zone, the explosives Bane had planted throughout the city had already devastated large sections of Gotham, especially the open manufacturing districts.
Only a large faded orange sign reading "WAYNE MANUFACTURING" indicated what these ruins had once been used for.
Jake pushed the damaged vehicle forward, continuing the fight.
Suddenly, Black Beauty swerved sharply to avoid an incoming shot, skidding to a stop—and just twelve inches from the rear tires, a massive crater instantly appeared from an autocannon round!
That was too close!
However, the remaining three Tumblers had already caught up, forming a semicircle around his position!
The drivers could see Jake's predicament clearly. Although they feared his missile strikes, they knew he couldn't have many left—otherwise he would have eliminated them long ago instead of leading them on this chase through half the city.
Retreating meant certain death. Advancing also meant certain death.
The drivers of the three Tumblers grinned maliciously, slowly closing in on their prey. The most satisfying part of any hunt was watching the target panic and flee helplessly, unable to escape.
In the eyes of these three armored vehicle operators, Jake and Black Beauty were finished.
Just as one of them was about to demand Jake's surrender over the loudspeaker, Black Beauty moved!
The car shot forward like black lightning!
Its speed was terrifying, catching them momentarily off-guard.
But what difference would that make?
If Black Beauty rammed an armored Tumbler, it would barely leave a dent in the heavy plating.
Besides, they didn't believe Jake would do something so suicidal—it was like an egg trying to crack a boulder. The consequence would definitely be the complete destruction of his vehicle and his death.
So they were convinced this was Jake's desperate final gamble, and they weren't about to back down.
Black Beauty accelerated to maximum velocity, and when it was only about sixty feet away, a black figure suddenly dove out through the driver's side window!
It was Jake!
He was tumbling through the air, a large military-green rocket launcher slung over his left shoulder!
After rolling several times across the pavement, Jake came to a stop in a half-kneeling firing position, still carrying the launcher on his shoulder, aiming at Black Beauty—which continued racing forward at full speed even without a driver.
The launcher shuddered slightly as the trigger was pulled, and then a massive warhead launched from the tube, streaking directly toward Black Beauty...
Finally, the driverless Black Beauty crashed head-on into the center Tumbler of the three-vehicle formation!
The vintage car's entire frame disintegrated instantly on impact.
It was like a soda can being crushed flat in a hydraulic press!
Black Beauty's massive kinetic energy caused the middle Tumbler to stagger backward from the collision.
Just then, the rocket finally arrived, striking Black Beauty's wreckage with perfect precision!
The long-building explosion was finally unleashed!
BOOOOM!!
Black Beauty's chassis not only contained its own fuel tank but also the remaining ammunition from all its weapons systems.
The resulting explosion was even more powerful than a standard vehicle-mounted missile!
The three heavily armored Tumblers were completely overwhelmed the moment the car detonated—the power of the blast far exceeded their expectations!
An explosion that shouldn't have been able to penetrate their armored shells proved devastatingly powerful!
The fireball in the air transformed into the shape of a massive serpent, its jaws gaping wide to swallow the Tumblers whole!
The next moment, secondary explosions erupted from within the flames as ammunition cooked off, with metal fragments and vehicle parts flying in all directions.
Jake had finally eliminated all three vehicles, though it had taken considerable effort and sacrifice.
Casually discarding the empty rocket launcher from his shoulder, Jake vanished from his position in a flash, reappearing beside a parked BMW sedan...
Black Beauty had served its final purpose as an improvised bomb to help him eliminate the enemy, and now he needed new transportation.
After Jake finally made contact with Catwoman via radio and arrived at the designated coordinates, what awaited him was a battle that was almost finished.
Batman stood posed dramatically in the shattered window of a high-rise building downtown, the wind catching his cape and making it billow magnificently.
Meanwhile, Miranda Tate—revealed now as Talia al Ghul—hung from the window ledge below him, speaking calmly with a confident, almost smug expression on her face.
Was she boasting about outmaneuvering the legendary Batman? Or perhaps bragging about the success of her plan, finally fulfilling her father Ra's al Ghul's lifelong dream of destroying Gotham?
Either way, Batman had clearly seen through this woman's deception and true identity.
Though someone had been injured in the process... Jake's eyes focused intently on Batman's midsection, where blood was flowing freely—clearly Miranda's sneak attack with a hidden blade had succeeded before her exposure.
In another section of the plaza, Catwoman had already engaged Bane in direct combat, and after several brutal exchanges, she used a devastating knee strike to knock the masked, muscular terrorist to the ground!
Stepping out of the BMW, Jake even took a moment to press the key fob in his hand and lock the vehicle.
Two confirming beeps sounded as the car secured itself.
He then walked calmly up to the downed Bane, drew his sidearm, and gave the terrorist a quick, efficient execution with a single shot to the head.
"The nuclear bomb is about to detonate!"
Looking up, Jake met Batman's disapproving eyes. Bruce clearly didn't approve of Jake's willingness to kill, but this time he said nothing—because time was critically short and priorities had to be set.
"I can handle this..." Jake began.
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