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The night settled gently over Arthur's estate lanterns flickered along his garden's pathways, the air cool and quiet except for distant Gotham city sounds at night. After dinner, they moved here to the garden, a place Arthur rarely sat in but felt strangely right to be in tonight.
Leaves rustled under moonlight. His mother sat with a soft dignity on the cast-iron bench while George poured tea. Arthur leaned back on the stone railing, arms folded, eyes softening as he saw something most people would never see,
Shadow soldiers tending the flowers.
Like silent gardeners, spectral figures pruned roses with black shears, carried watering urns made of ink, one even chased off a raccoon with a hiss of violet flame. In the darker corners more waited, like wolves in tall grass.
Lady Blackwynd watched with quiet astonishment.
"…They look alive," she murmured. "Obedient, this is far beyond mere magic."
Arthur's lips curved faintly.
"Well because It's not magic, mother. It's something much much more than that. They're my security. My blades, shields and my walls, they are a big part of my life now."
She nodded slow, graceful as a queen.
"I'm already accustomed to Blade and Galatea, especially her, brilliant creature she is but this…" her eyes traced the legion of living night, "…this is alot to understand.."
Arthur inhaled slow, deep and stared at the sky. His pupils thinned, glowing violet like twin dying stars. His mother caught the shift immediately.
"Your mind is elsewhere," she spoke gently. "Even now, surrounded by peace."
Arthur forced a smile not the real kind.
"Just work. Something I need to handle."
His mother didn't believe him. A mother never does.
"Do you wish for me to leave then?"
He opened his mouth to say no, then
He froze.
Eyes sharpened, jaw tensed.
"How did..."
A streak of burning fire tore across the clouds. Not falling from the heavens.
Driving.
Laughing.
Coming straight for him.
A flaming bike, engines howling like hellhounds.
On it white skin, red eyes, wild hair trailing him.
LOBO.
And behind him Arthur's shadow lanterns being rag-dolled through the air like toys.
Lobo cackled across the sky
"HAHAHA! MAN! YA SHADOW-FREAK I BROUGHT THE PARTY TO YOU!"
Arthur blinked once.
"…Is he actually this suicidal?"
Lady Blackwynd rose to her feet, startled but poised.
George set his teacup down casually.
"…Master Arthur," George murmured, "that is not a bird."
His mother whispered, "What on earth.."
"Don't worry," Arthur said simply.
His Shadow Ring blazed bright, and a dome of black night burst outward swallowing the entire estate in a cathedral of shadow. The garden vanished inside it, protected under a barrier like a frozen eclipse.
Arthur didn't hesitate.
He summoned two.
The ground cracked.
Shadows spiraled upward like monoliths forming from ink and from them emerged Bellion, tall and regal with four wings of violet light, and Beru, chittering and twitching like a predator eager to taste battle.
Both knelt in one motion.
"My liege."
"What are your orders?"
Arthur did not raise his voice.
"Escort my mother and George to my base below. Guard them. No one lays a finger on them."
Bellion bowed deeply.
"At once."
He turned to Beru with smug authority.
"Come, ant."
Beru twitched with offended pride.
"I DO NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU, FOUR-WINGS!"
Arthur exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I will settle the Grand Marshal matter later. For now you both serve me. Carry out the task."
Beru stilled, then nodded bitterly and obeyed, guiding Arthur's mom and George toward the hidden entrance beneath a tree.
His mother paused at the threshold.
Looked at him, really looked.
"What is really happening, Arthur?"
He met her gaze. No lies. No excuses.
"Another Tuesday," he said lightly. "Another villain in need of discipline."
Her eyes softened with worry and pride.
"You've never been a good liar, son. But I trust you."
She stepped into the dark with the shadows. George followed, pausing just long enough to incline his head.
"I shall ensure everything below is in order. Do not drag this out, Master Arthur."
Arthur managed a small smile.
"I won't."
Then the ground shook Lobo was seconds away.
Arthur turned toward the flaming sky eyes glowing like a god of night preparing to kill a star.
The bounty hunter arrived. The sky split with fire and profanity.
Lobo hit Arthur's shadow-barrier like a meteor skipping off glass. The dome rang?a sound sharp enough to make the air tremble sparks of black and red hissing across the sky. The Czarnian reeled back on his space-bike, boots kicking the air like he wanted to fistfight gravity itself.
Then he threw his head back and laughed.
A roar loud enough to scare thunder.
"HEY NIGHT-PRINCESS! YA GONNA HIDE BEHIND A MAGICAL CONDOM OR YOU GONNA STEP OUT 'N BLEED LIKE THE REST OF US!?"
Arthur didn't blink.
His voice was calm. Almost bored.
"…Gladly."
The barrier dissolved like ink dissolving in water.
And Lobo came through.
He didn't slow down, he didn't steer.
He aimed his cosmic hog straight into Arthur's home.
The crash was carnage, pillars split like bread, tile shattered, the peaceful koi pond exploded into glittering shards, steam and debris rising.
Arthur stared silently at the crater.
At the flaming wreckage.
At the fact that one section precisely one, was now rubble.
"…He hit the bath."
His eye twitched.
"That was a good bath."
Rubble shifted. Brick became motion. Smoke became silhouette.
And then.
Lobo walked out.
Dragging a chain as tall as a lamppost, grin wide enough to cut someone. His jacket was smoldering, his hair charred at the ends, one eyebrow missing entirely.
He didn't mind.
"Well I'll be dipped in radioactive yak piss," he whistled, strolling across the garden like he owned it. "Ain't every day ya see a shadow-man in a tailored jacket. Shame really. You look like the kinda bastard I could share a keg with. That's why I didn't gut ya back on Neon-Planet-Six. One of my favorite spots great drinks, terrible bathrooms. You fit in nice."
Arthur floated a foot off the ground, aura thickening into something that made the roses wilt.
"Before I kill you," he said with cold politeness, "tell me who put the bounty on my head."
Lobo shrugged, rolling his neck until bones cracked like fireworks.
"Can't say. Ain't been paid yet.. and contract says keep my yap shut. But I'll give ya a freebie."
He leaned forward, eyes gleaming red.
"He ain't pretty. Face like someone sandpapered a corpse. Real charmer."
Arthur blinked once.
"That narrows it down."
Lobo's grin sharpened.
"Good enough fer me."
He launched soil erupting beneath his boots, chain whipping the air like a star-forged serpent. The Czarnian was a bullet. A tank. A wrecking ball.
Arthur rose slow not dodging, not flinching his aura flaring into a storm of violet and black.
The shadow-ring pulsed like a second heart.
Lobo saw it, eyes going wide with manic appreciation.
"Ooooh, spooky glow HELL YEAH, I LIKE YOU ALREADY!"
Arthur's voice dropped to something ancient.
"You chose a terrible night to come for me."
The chain snapped forward again like a guillotine.
Arthur didn't dodge.
He caught it.
With one hand.
Metal screeched, sparks bursting like furious suns between his fingers but he held it, unmoving, as if Lobo had just handed him a leash.
Lobo blinked.
Then grinned wider.
"Well butter my ass and call me a biscuit.. YOU GOT GRIP, SUNSHINE!"
Arthur didn't respond.
He simply pulled.
Lobo flew toward him like a thrown weapon, boots dragging trenches in the dirt until he lost ground entirely. Arthur rose into the air calm, effortless, almost bored while the Czarnian swung below like an angry, screaming anchor.
"What.. HEY-HEY.. SLOW YOUR JETS, SHADOW-BOY!"
Arthur flew higher.
Faster.
The wind howled. The night blurred. Gotham shrank beneath them into glitter, into mist, into nothing. And Lobo unbreakable, unkillable, perpetually pissed off was flailing like a cat in a bathtub.
"You got wings under that coat or somethin'!? Why we goin' UP!? The fight's down THERE! Gravity's my pal YOU LET ME HIT YOU, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROU—"
They broke the cloudline.
Cold wrapped around them like claws. The ocean glittered far below black, endless, waiting.
Arthur didn't warn him.
He just dove.
Lobo's scream cut across the sky.
"NO NO NO DON'T YOU DARE, NOT THE WATER—"
SPLASH.
It wasn't a splash.
It was a detonation, the ocean erupting upward like a bomb. Tidal waves rolled away for miles, seabirds scattered shrieking.
Arthur hovered above the impact point, watching the ocean churn like a boiling cauldron.
Underwater, something flashed.
Then a very angry Czarnian erupted from the depths like an exploding landmine.
He was coughing seawater, hair plastered to his face.
"WH...PTFH...WHY'D YA DUNK ME LIKE A DONUT IN HELL-COFFEE!?"
He wiped his eyes, furious.
"I HATE GETTIN' WET! THAT SHIT GETS IN MY LEATHER! MY HAIR SMELLS LIKE OCEAN! I'M GONNA KILL YA TWICE FOR THAT!"
Arthur waited, expression unreadable.
Inside his mind, one cold thought circled like a predator
'How do you kill something that cannot die?'
He could shatter him. Decapitate him. Burn him. Crush him.
Lobo would still eventually return.
Arthur floated lower, eyes glowing at the currently swimming Lobo.
"Trying to kill you might be pointless," he admitted calmly.
Lobo cracked a grin that could maim someone.
"GOOD. FUN'S ONLY FUN IF IT LASTS."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want