"Bang"

Outside the city of Nandarbat, on the cliffs of the cold and dangerous snow-capped mountains, a crisp clash of weapons sounded in the vast snow.

The long sword in Damien's hand slashed through the arc, trying to break Merlin's defense, but at the moment when the blade fell, Merlin was once again blocked with a very short hidden blade.

His wrist flicked outward, and just as the result of a dozen previous attacks, Damian's attack was destroyed again, and the whole person took several steps back.

Merlin only defended and did not attack, and with only one hand of his left arm, he perfectly blocked Damian's onslaught again and again.

There was no doubt about it, and it made Damian feel frustrated.

Because the magic circulating in his body was sealed, Damien now felt a little weak, and the child's breathing became a little heavier.

But fortunately, the attack in these few minutes made him feel the cold body warm up, but he would not be affected by the surrounding environment for the time being. But this is not a good thing in the snowy mountains, the increase in body temperature means the consumption of heat, in this cold climate, if Damian can't break Merlin's defenses before his physical strength is exhausted, then it will be followed by rapid hypothermia.

There was no doubt that it would have endangered his life.

"Do you feel like you're going to lose? Child. ”

Merlin shook his left hand, and the Hidden Blade pulled out a whistling wind in the air, and he said sarcastically:

"Your grandfather didn't tell you that in this case, if you think you're going to lose, you're really going to lose."

"Ahh

Merlin's talent for taunting is simply outstanding, and this sentence made Damien's thinking that had just calmed down become fierce again. The kid stepped forward by mistake, clenching his fist with his right hand and dragging the long sword in his left hand, his figure was extremely fast at this moment, and the whistling fist smashed into Merlin's arm, while the long sword in the other hand swung from the bottom up to Merlin's waist from the other direction.

It's a very good strategy.

Whether Merlin had to block the punch or the blade, it would make his one-handed defense vulnerable.

Damien himself knew that there was no way to defeat Merlin by relying on him.

But he also knew that in this completely unfair battle, as long as he broke Merlin's defenses, or forced him to make offensive moves, he would win!

"Pixie ghost."

Merlin laughed, and in the face of an attack coming from both directions almost simultaneously, he raised his left arm, ignoring Damian's fist, and once again blocked the long sword that the kid had chopped.

When the Hidden Blade and the blade collided, Merlin's wrist shook strangely, and a force of shock was transmitted along the long sword to Damian's wrist, and then the child's body, so that when he attacked with both hands at the same time, the balance of his body that was difficult to maintain was completely destroyed.

"Smack"

Moments before his fist touched Merlin's body, Damien, who had lost his balance, fell headlong into the icy snow.

"Ha, you lost."

Merlin crouched down and looked at Damian, who had risen from the snow, and said with a smile:

"Do you want to keep playing? It's actually quite interesting to watch you fall again and again. ”

"Ahh

Damien screamed and stabbed his sword into Merlin's head, but this time, Merlin fought back.

His right hand flung up and struck Dimian's sword-wielding wrist, and with a slight squeeze of his left hand, he pinched the edge of the decorative sword, and in a flick, the sword was thrown under the cliff not far away.

Losing his weapon, Damian didn't stop there, instead, he screamed and continued to pounce on Merlin, clenching his fists and slamming them into Merlin's abdomen like a mad tiger.

As he hit, he let out a heart-rending howl.

It's not like a fight anymore, it's just a simple vent.

Under the deliberate guidance of Merlin, Damian, who was already very tired, finally couldn't hide the pain and confusion in his heart, and at the moment when the wall of indifference that was built collapsed, he was like a child who couldn't control his emotions, and he was rarely out of control.

"Ahhhh

He was like a boxer, frantically slapping Merlin in the waist and abdomen, which was the highest point his size could touch.

Merlin, on the other hand, straightened up and allowed Damien to "beat" him with his fists.

Uh, this purely physical attack was pointless to Merlin who could be atomized, and he didn't even feel a trace of pain.

He looked down at the howling Damian, a precocious child who had received too much knowledge and teaching that he should not have been exposed to since he was a child, and he had learned early on to hide his true emotions, Lars. Al. Gul regarded Damien as his true successor, and his ardent hope put Damien under heavy pressure from an early age.

This is a child without a childhood...

Faced with the death of a loved one, he didn't even know how to deal with the sudden grief.

And without the guide who has been teaching him, he is at a loss for the future, which also makes him accumulate too much pressure in his heart.

He needs to get out of the way.

Just like now.

"Whew, whew"

In the cold snowy mountains, there were no onlookers except Merlin, and in such a quiet atmosphere, Damien did not continue to disguise his calmness, he was panting, but still waving his fists, like a hard-trained boxer.

"All right, kid."

Merlin held out his hand and placed it on Damien's shoulder, but was shaken away by the sensitive child.

He stared at Merlin viciously, his eyes were red, tears rolling in his eyes, but he was stubbornly unwilling to show his weakness.

"Don't touch me!"

Damian screamed like a hedgehog.

But Merlin ignored the child's fierce resistance, he reached out and firmly and stubbornly took the struggling Damien into his arms, just as he comforted Eric who could not sleep because of the thunderstorm in the night.

He patted Damian on the back, and he whispered:

"It's okay, it's okay, kid, it's all over."

"Don't touch me!"

"You let go of me!"

"Merlin, I command you, let go!"

Damien kept struggling in Merlin's arms, but the strength of the struggle became weaker and weaker, in the cold snowy mountains, he felt the temperature of Merlin's body, which was not warm, and in the instinctive push of his body, the tired Damien finally quieted down.

On his face, the tears that had been accumulating finally couldn't be suppressed, and they flowed out so wildly.

"He's gone... Woo, he's gone. ”

Like all sad and sad children, in the midst of tears, the young master Damian said inarticulately:

"I wasn't prepared at all, and he rescued him."

"He said let me protect my mother, let me protect myself, and he told me not to think about him and move forward bravely."

"I can't do it, woo."

"I couldn't do it, I didn't know what to do, no one taught me, no one told me how to deal with it. Isn't he never going to lose? Why? Why did he fail ... Why was he defeated? Woo, that's not true, it's not..."

Merlin listened to Damien's disorganized cry, the content was not important, what was important was the emotion that flowed out.

As Merlin guessed, when the ninja master died suddenly, he was completely unprepared, and Damien, who faced the departure of his loved ones, fell into a dazed and helpless situation at this moment.

As he said, from childhood to adulthood, the ninja master will arrange everything for him, all he has to do is train, train, and train again. Do everything in your power to train yourself into the most dangerous weapon.

And in Lars. Al. The moment Gul died, Damien suddenly found that he seemed to be able to do nothing but fight.

He has strength far beyond his peers, but he is still not immune to this instinctive human mood swing.

A person who he thought would never leave him disappeared so suddenly, which inevitably made a child like him feel difficult to adapt, and the collapse of the invincible idol also made Damien at a loss.

"It's okay, kid."

Merlin rhythmically patted Damian on the back, and whispered to Damian:

"When a loved one passes away, we can feel pain, discomfort and grief. We can accept our cowardice and sadness, and we can tell ourselves that no one will always win, and that's all right. ”

"No one is going to force you to continue to be a warrior in this situation... You can cry, you can miss him, you can resent him for suddenly leaving you, but child, whether he is a good person, a bad person, a hero, or a villain, believe me, he loves you. ”

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief, he stretched out his hand and put it on Damien's shoulder, his body straightened, and looked at Damien, who was constantly sobbing in front of him, and his face was like a little flower cat, and he said:

"I also believe that you are not destined to disappoint him... Your grandfather told me that you would be the rising legend of tomorrow. Now I believe it... As long as you can go on firmly and find your own heroic path, then you will definitely become a legend of tomorrow. ”

"Just like your grandfather... To be remembered, of course, don't learn from the bad side of his character, I mean, he has a lot of good qualities, like never lying, like firmness, like calmness and big-picture thinking, and so on. ”

Merlin took out the black Hidden Blade left by the ninja master from his pocket, and in this cold snowflake falling and inaccessible place, he fixed the Hidden Blade little by little to Damian's left arm.

At the moment when the last clasp was fastened, Damien followed Merlin's example, and with a slight movement of the middle finger of his left hand, with a bright sound of machine springs, a sharp blade popped out of the cuff.

"He left you his master logo."

Merlin said to Damien, who had his head bowed:

"This represents what he expects from you, and you are his real hope compared to your mother. But Damien, this is the expectation of the ninja master, but not the shackles of your life..."

"It's okay if you don't want to inherit it all, I mean... You still have a long life to go, don't be in such a hurry to make decisions. ”

Merlin said to Damien:

"Why don't you go to other parts of the world and see how other children are going through their lives? Go see your father... Although he does not know that you exist, I am sure that he will pour out his unreserved love to you just like your grandfather. ”

"Of course, with what I know about Bruce, there may be some run-in period between the two of you."

"That..."

Damian withdrew his Hidden Blade, he wiped the tears from his face, and he looked at Merlin:

"Will you go with me? Will mom go too? ”

"Hmm."

Merlin nodded, he took out a tweed cloak, and draped it over Damien, and he and the boy stood on the edge of the snow-capped cliffs, looking out over the snowy city of Nandarbat, which had only one silhouette, and he whispered:

"I'll go to Gotham with you..."

"After all, there's still some unresolved business waiting for me."

————————————————————

While Merlin patiently enlightened Young Master Damien, in another hidden place, there was something closely related to him going on.

It's a pretty bad thing.

"Your Excellency Daniel, the results of the analysis of the actual combat of the 'Dragon' serum have come out."

In the brightly lit laboratory, a researcher handed a document to a tall, thin middle-aged man dressed in a modest manner, with a pair of black, round-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, and short gray-white hair on the top of his head.

The middle-aged man with a strong researcher temperament took the document and flipped through a few pages, his expression became a little playful.

After a while, he said:

"The performance of the 'Dragon' serum was in line with our expectations, but it seemed to be a little worse than what we imagined to be a truly mature super soldier. Some of its data doesn't look so stable. ”

"This is as it should be, Lord Daniel"

The researcher with the black skeletal octopus badge on his arm quickly replied:

"After all, what we get is just the initial research results. We haven't even figured out how the biofusion of the 'Dragon' serum works. ”

"And the amount of dragon blood in our hands is not large, which is not enough to support our continued research, but judging from the performance of the current test subject 'Knell', the potential of 'Dragon' serum is extremely great, and once we enter the in-depth research, we will be able to fully explore its potential in a short period of time."

"Hmm..."

The middle-aged man known as Lord Daniel put down the paper in his hand, he reached out and pushed the round-rimmed glasses that looked like a product of the previous era, and after thinking for a few seconds, he said:

"Then keep researching. I'll give you enough research funding and a separate research room. Give you a research cycle... 24 months, that's enough, right? ”

"That's enough."

The researchers, who were still worried just now, were completely relieved at this moment.

In the research system of Hydra, Lord Daniel can be said to be a big man who holds the lifeblood of these researchers, and after getting the approval of Lord Daniel, the "Dragon" serum program that has just completed the first phase of the trial will finally not encounter the risk of premature death.

"Well, there's one more thing, Lord Daniel."

The researcher hesitated, but finally told the immediate boss about the trouble at hand.

Under the somewhat impatient gaze of Lord Daniel, the researcher quickly explained what had happened.

"The recovered 'Knell' subject woke up a few hours ago, and he asked us to inject him with a higher concentration of 'Dragon' serum, but..."

"Then inject him!"

Daniel waved his hand indifferently, and he said in a calm tone:

"Think of this as data collection for a two-stage biological experiment. As for the mercenary who has an abnormal brain... He's our friend, isn't he? ”

"How can we, cruelly refuse a friend's request?"