Retreat

Dick's martial arts skills aside, his tenacity is worth praising. Despite everything, Thea couldn't help but admire his toughness as she watched him return to the crowd with a battered face, a torn combat suit, and blood seeping from his wounds, yet standing firm without calling for backup.

"My communicator was damaged. Thank goodness you guys finally gave me a hand," Dick said, and as soon as he spoke, Thea knew she had misjudged his expression. But considering the prowess of the two Talons he was up against, she didn't make fun of him and instead ordered him to retreat to the rear team, seemingly to hold the line but actually to let him rest for a while.

"Be careful, Thea. There are multiple heat signatures in the side rooms, and there's a slight increase in radiation index," Felicity exclaimed loudly through Thea's earpiece.

It wasn't surprising that the enemy had set up an ambush, but how did the radiation index come into play? As she pondered this, the large iron door on the right side of the gym was suddenly kicked open, and several tall, muscular men charged out.

Their exact number was unclear, but as the lead man yanked the massive door down, more people streamed out.

It seemed that these were the enhanced individuals that Commissioner Gordon had mentioned. Though their strength couldn't compare to Bane's, who used tons as a unit of measurement, they were still formidable.

Most of the people rushing out were dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, but their facial expressions were anything but ordinary. Some had blood flowing from the corners of their eyes, some had bulging veins on their faces and necks, and several had some unknown protrusions on their foreheads.

These people's strange appearances couldn't have occurred naturally, leading to only one conclusion: they were the characteristic biologically enhanced subjects of Arkham's experiments. It was surprising how quickly the masterminds behind the scenes had produced so many successful products in just three days.

To confirm her suspicions, Thea nocked an arrow and aimed it at the towering figure with horns resembling a rhinoceros running at the forefront.

The arrow pierced the man's chest, but the blood that flowed out wasn't the usual red color. Instead, it had a strange purple hue. The man took two steps back, roared, and pulled out the arrow before continuing to charge in Thea's direction.

Impressive! Thea could tell that the man was definitely injured, and as long as he could still bleed, it meant he could be killed. She drew her bowstring and continuously shot five arrows at the charging rhinoceros-like man without stopping.

The charging rhinoceros-like man was hit in the left eye by the fourth arrow and pierced through the throat by the fifth arrow. He fell to the ground, clutching his wounds, and couldn't get up again.

That settled it. Thea shrugged. These guys may look intimidating, but their actual abilities were just enhanced strength, speed, and endurance. They, like the Azrael before them, also needed something else enhanced: their brains! Seeing how they didn't even know how to dodge arrows, this guy might be even worse than Azrael.

But just because she dealt with them easily didn't mean these enhanced individuals were weak.

Despite the efforts of the officers, who skillfully coordinated to focus fire on three of the enhanced humans, more enemies were rushing out from the side door continuously.

"Commissioner Gordon, order a retreat. I'll buy you some time," Thea said as she took out a special entangling arrow from her quiver, aimed at the previous location of the iron door, and shot it out like lightning. After observing the effect, unsure of the extent of these people's strength, she fired another one just to be safe.

The densely woven spider silk-like material instantly covered the entire wall on the side. Inside, the mindless, enhanced individuals couldn't figure out what this white stuff in front of them was. They continued to push and shove, trying to force their way out, but they underestimated the strong resilience of the spider silk. The leading few were instantly stuck to the web's stickiness, and the people behind them used them as leverage points, pushing hard to get out.

Thea wasn't entirely confident in her double-layer, entangling arrow. In theory, they worked against regular people, but who knew if they'd be effective against enhanced individuals?

She signaled the team, urging them to retreat. "Fall back quickly!"

Lady Firefly, Miss Bridgit Pike, also came to Thea's side, but her gaze seemed to be fixed on the spider web not far away as if contemplating what would happen if it were set on fire. There was a hint of eagerness in her eyes to try it out.

"You cover the rear. I'll protect you," Thea whispered to Lady Firefly while also instructing her teammates through the earpiece. "If you see fire, throw smoke bombs over there. Based on my experiments, Batman's smoke bombs react strangely when exposed to open flames. Today's a good day to test their effectiveness."

Lady Firefly didn't wait for her instructions. She noticed that the nearby people were almost evacuated. She opened the nozzle of her flamethrower and unleashed her fire on the other side, where the Arkham forces were.

Her flames were different from everyday flames; they were more like a mixture of chemicals and oil, already burning vigorously in the air. After passing through the pressurized nozzle, they jetted onto the heads of the gang members opposite.

Impressive ability, Thea thought. She made a mental note to record this in her little black book. The best way to deal with Lady Firefly was to shoot her fuel tank from a distance. Close combat was too risky. Perhaps coating her clothes with fire-resistant material would work. Thea wondered about the temperature of Lady Firefly's flames; she'd have to test it sometime.

When Barbara and the others saw the fire, they also threw out a few smoke bombs to cover the retreat of the main force.

When Thea smelled a sour odor in the air, she knew that some strange chemical reaction had occurred between the fire and the smoke. She grabbed Lady Firefly, who was still enthusiastically setting things on fire, and said, "Let's retreat too."

But before the two of them could take a few steps, a bone-chilling coldness swept over from the opposite side. The temperature in the room visibly dropped rapidly.

"Mr. Freeze!" Thea and Lady Firefly simultaneously noticed the newcomer. They both slowly retreated, with Thea pulling out a specially made titanium alloy arrowhead coated with tungsten carbide and diamond-like carbon (DLC). This coating, originally designed by Queen Industries for high-speed cutting tools, enhanced the arrow's armor-piercing properties. As she was bad at naming things, she simply called it "Armor-Piercing Arrow."

Lady Firefly also focused on the environment on the opposite side and intermittently released bursts of flames from her flamethrower to hinder the enemy's advance.

"Let's retreat quickly." Selina and Barbara came to Thea's side. The four of them relied on Lady Firefly's continuous stream of fire and slowly retreated from the asylum.