“Force field, activate!”
Seeing the sandstorm being broken through, Apocalypse immediately abandoned controlling the sand and activated his defensive force field.
The energy beams from five thousand Kamehamehas struck Apocalypse’s force field, causing it to tremble, something it had never done before.
However, in the end, the force field held and did not break.
But because the power of the five thousand Kamehamehas was too strong, even with the force field, Apocalypse was pushed far back in the air.
“Rasengan: Five Thousand Continuous Strikes!”
At that moment, Hawking’s clones flew up, each holding a basketball-sized Rasengan, relentlessly smashing them onto Apocalypse’s force field.
The basketball-sized Rasengans, with their powerful spiral penetration, couldn’t break Apocalypse’s force field but could make him spin and fly uncontrollably in the air.
To the onlookers, it appeared as if Apocalypse was a ball being knocked around by Hawking’s clones.
Hawking knew this tactic couldn’t break Apocalypse’s force field; he was merely trying to buy time.
From the recent battle, he had observed some weaknesses in Apocalypse.
Although Apocalypse possessed thousands of mutant abilities, only a few, like self-healing, immortality, strength, and speed, were passive abilities. Most required active use.
Abilities such as his force field, super reflexes, sand control, psychic invasion, and the enhancement of other mutants were all active.
In most cases, he couldn’t use multiple abilities simultaneously.
Like now, while maintaining his high-defense force field, he couldn’t continue attacking with sand control.
So Hawking used his clones’ Rasengan to continuously attack Apocalypse, forcing him to maintain his force field and buy time.
“It seems your clones can’t last forever. Let’s see how long you can hold out!”
Apocalypse, being knocked around, was furious but soon noticed that Hawking’s clones were disappearing after attacking, their numbers dwindling.
Even if he didn’t use a wormhole to escape, simply maintaining his force field would eventually exhaust all the clones.
“Not long, just until the moon rises!”
Hawking muttered to himself.
The Shadow Clone Jutsu, initially developed by the Second Hokage for espionage and information relay, wasn’t intended for combat.
Shadow Clones evenly split the user’s chakra.
While this provided more tactical options, it significantly reduced combat endurance.
Especially since Shadow Clones were fragile and could be destroyed easily, losing a large portion of chakra instantly.
Thus, most ninjas rarely used many Shadow Clones in battle, typically just one or two at critical moments.
Even Kisame, known as the Tailed Beast without a tail, wouldn’t create thousands of clones in a fight.
Only Naruto, with his Uzumaki lineage and the Nine-Tails’ chakra, habitually used large numbers of clones in combat, but even he rarely created his limit of three thousand clones.
A single large-scale attack could wipe them all out, and splitting chakra into three thousand parts left each clone with very little chakra.
Hawking faced a similar situation. Though he created five thousand clones, each had very little chakra, magic, or ki.
After casting one demanding spell like the Killing Curse, performing a Kamehameha, or using a Rasengan, they would disappear from energy depletion, even without being attacked.
Thus, after more than half an hour of continuous fighting, all of Hawking’s clones disappeared, leaving only the original Hawking.
Apocalypse retracted his force field.
“I can sense you have little energy left and pose no real threat. I admire you. If you pledge allegiance to me, I can overlook your previous actions. When I rule the Earth again, your position will be second only to me and Magneto.”
“Apocalypse really has a magnanimous side.”
Hawking was surprised by the offer.
He hadn’t expected that after making Apocalypse look so foolish, Apocalypse would still want to recruit him for his talents.
It made sense; someone who ruled humanity five thousand years ago wouldn’t rely solely on brute force.
In the movie, Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen were willing to sacrifice their lives for him, showing a level of loyalty that wasn’t earned through power alone.
“Sonorus.”
Secretly casting a voice amplification charm, Hawking floated opposite Apocalypse and firmly refused:
“Even if I die here today, I will never accept your offer!
Agreeing to you would grant me immense wealth, endless power, and the ability to do as I please.
But that’s not what I want. I want to use my abilities to help those in need, punish the wicked, protect the weak, and uphold justice.
I cannot coexist with evil!”
Hawking’s amplified voice echoed across Cairo, reaching the live broadcast cameras below.
Viewers, who had been watching Hawking’s clones vanish and Apocalypse confronting Hawking, now understood that Apocalypse had tried to recruit the powerful Flash as his subordinate.
The noble Flash, however, decisively refused to stand with evil, even at the cost of his life. This brought tears to the eyes of many viewers.
“Since you are so ungrateful, you will die!”
Furious at Hawking’s firm refusal, Apocalypse’s body rapidly expanded, becoming a giant over ten meters tall, and he slapped towards Hawking.
Changing body density and enlarging his physical form was another of his acquired abilities.
His passive abilities like self-healing, super strength, and super speed greatly enhanced his close combat power.
“Loading Goku template!”
Hawking immediately loaded the Goku template after the Harry Potter template expired, instantly rejuvenating his depleted energy.
Shadow Clones had only divided his energy, but with his bloodline, he could quickly recover.
Become a Patron read up to 30 chapter ahead public release ^_^
Please join Discord Server so we can talk ^_^
